Page 92 of Blood Match
“That’s not true. He barely looked at me…aside from when he was calling me a child.”
Gran sniffs. “A man does not look at a child the way he looked at you. Besides, I never said he was looking at you. I said he was focused on you.”
“What’s the difference?” I huff, remembering the disdain in his expression whenever he turned my way.
“The difference is that he didn’t want anyone to know.”
I frown. “Know what?”
“That he cares, dear.” Gran takes the cups from my hands, sets them on the counter and then turns back to me. “There’s a lot more going on here than a couple of conversations and an arrangement to exchange blood for magic. That man cares about you, and he is afraid it will put you at risk.”
“Nonsense, he doesn’t care about me.” Aside from being his next meal. “But why on earth would I be at risk?”
“You tell me, Rowan. What did you notice in that meeting tonight?”
I take a deep breath, letting my defensiveness fade. Gran’s right – I need to think about this objectively. I close my eyes for a moment, recalling the tense atmosphere of the meeting.
“You’re right,” I admit, opening my eyes to meet Gran’s gaze. “Being around Darick…it’s changed how I see vampires. They’re so different from us.”
Gran nods encouragingly, and I continue, “They’re guarded, always holding something back. It’s like every word is carefully chosen, every gesture calculated. I could feel the undercurrents of tension, especially between Darick and that other vampire… Lucien, I think his name was?”
“Go on,” Gran prompts softly.
“The High Elder, Arabella, she seemed genuine. I got the impression she truly wants peace. But the others…” I trail off, thinking. “It’s hard to read them. They reveal so little.”
I pause, remembering the cold, calculating gaze of that one vampire in particular. “Lucien, though. There’s something about him that makes me uncomfortable. The way he watched everyone, especially Darick. It felt…cunning and calculated. Like he was waiting for someone to slip up.”
Gran’s eyebrows raise slightly. “That’s quite an observation. What makes you say that?”
“It’s hard to explain,” I admit. “Just a feeling. The way he’d smile when someone else was speaking, like he knew something they didn’t. And the tension between him and Darick was very obvious. I think there’s more going on there than just clan rivalry.”
Gran nods slowly. “Precisely what I’d been thinking,” she says. “Although I’d been less aware of this Lucien you mention. Now that I think about it, there was something unsettling about him.”
She turns and leans back against the counter, staring off into space for a moment before looking back at me. “Don’t think I’m letting you off the hook, though.”
I roll my eyes. “There’s nothing going on with Darick,” I lie.
Gran gives a light laugh. “Rowan, give me some credit. I was young once, too. And I was standing at the door long enough to get a fair idea of what was happening in here.”
“Gran!” I blurt.
Earth, swallow me now.
“Don’t be coy. You’re a woman. You have needs. And I’ll admit, he’s…intriguing.”
“How could you say that, Gran? He’s a vampire!”
“You’re right, of course. Relations are strained between our kinds. But they weren’t always that way. And they don’t always have to be. Tonight’s meeting could be the start of a change that could be good for us all.”
“You mean a change that would stop us from having to live in secret? Hide who we are?” I say drily.
“That would be nice.” Gran smiles. “Although I’ll admit, I rather like my privacy. If witches were more exposed, our lives would be so much more complicated.”
“They’re pretty complicated right now,” I grumble.
“What’s complicated?” a small voice intrudes. Poppy bounces off the window ledge and lands next to me. I leap several inches off the floor.
“Edgy much?” She wrinkles her nose and then looks around. “Where’s Nosferatu?”