Page 77 of Thorn Evermore

“Just for pleasure. Small amounts. What else do you want to know?”

“Do I still have to go to the bathroom?”

A hearty laugh rumbles from Thorn’s chest. “Not really. A bit at first as your body adjusts, and depending on how many mortal substances you take in.”

“Am I dead, Thorn?”

“Do you feel dead?”

His question bounces around my head. “I feel weird. I can’t feel my heart or hear my breathing, but I’m alive. I guess.”

“Yeah, that whole undead myth? It’s an exaggeration. We aren’t dead. Our hearts beat. It’s just that everything slowsdown. That’s why eating is difficult. Our digestive system isn’t efficient. I’ve vomited so many times it’s insane.”

“From eating?”

“Yep. Mortal food is delicious.”

I laugh. “Yeah. I’ll miss some of it.”

“A bite now and then won’t hurt.” He presses my hand to his chest. “Listen. It’s beating. Faster since I met you.”

I move in, pressing my ear to his chest and hearing the softthump,thumpof his heart. I lift my face to his and he blows a cool breath across my face.

“I breathe,” he says. “I taste, I come. I’m alive and so are you.”

“Neat.”

“Yes. It’s a strange place we inhabit, both numb and too sensitive at the same time. I’ve spent centuries chasing the high that a simple smile from you gives me.”

“Does that mean you don’t need adventure anymore?”

“No. It meansyou’rethe adventure. Making you happy is the journey.”

“Good, because I’ve lived my life in a box, and I’m out now. I want to experience everything with you.”

Thorn’s expression heats. “Mmm, I want that too. We should go home. I want to be naked with you.”

“Not home.” I smile, playing with his beard. “But I want to be naked with you too.”

“Naughty boy.” He lifts my arm, kissing and nibbling on my wrist. “I like it. Tell me where to take you.”

I scan the room, zeroing in on a roped off area with a curtain covering it. “What’s that over there?”

“Let’s go find out.”

We move across the club unnoticed. “No one is paying attention to us,” I muse.

“They can’t. We’re moving too quickly. To them we’re a shadow.”

“Whoa. This is so cool.”

“It is. I sometimes forget how incredible my existence is. You remind me.”

I beam at him as we slip behind the curtain. It’s a room with a few leather couches in it, a small round table, and not much else. The scent of something old and metallic hits me.

“Blood?” I ask.

“Old blood,” Thorn confirms. “Something happened in this room. Must be why they have it roped off.”