Sinjin chuckled and started for the staircase, so I followed him. “I am very pleased with this home, poppet. Thank you for your assistance.”
I couldn’t help but beam inside. When the real estate agent had taken me through this house, I’d somehow known it would be his favorite. I’d been able to picture Sinjin here—with the dark wood floors and the incredibly high ceilings, the openness of the floor plan and the views that overlooked the valley. Somehow it all just seemed to fit him.
“Thank you,” I said in a soft voice, reminding myself to keep from falling for Sinjin. I could feel … my attraction to him in my very core, but something told me it wasn’t a good idea. I mean, I was on the precipice of something huge here. It was a feeling that I had in the depths of my soul. Something was about to happen to me, something big. I assumed that Sinjin would be the person to hold my hand and guide me through that something. It just wasn’t smart to get attached to him, to have feelings for him. Especially given how old and powerful he was. Nope, it wasn’t a good idea at all.
Yet I also couldn’t help but feel I’d issued this warning to myself too late. Because the stupid truth of the whole situation was that I was falling for Sinjin—I could feel it by the way my heart sped up whenever he looked at me, how I longed to feel his skin against mine, and how, whenever I was apart from him, he occupied my thoughts.
“And this is my bedchamber,” Sinjin announced as he opened the double doors. I was confronted with the most enormous bed I’d ever seen.
I gulped hard. I couldn’t help it.
“Come in,” he said, walking to the far end of the room, looking around himself as if he were taking in the room for the first time. “What do you think of it?” He appeared proud.
I took a deep breath and followed him in, pausing once I reached the center, afraid to go too near the bed and equally afraid to get too close to Sinjin. I mean, we were in his bedroom …
I nervously looked around, taking in the stone fireplace that dominated the corner of the room, the many large-paned windows where the moonlight threw strange reflections against the pool in his backyard. My gaze drifted back to that enormous bed …
“Um, I really like it,” I said, feeling my cheeks coloring. God, I needed to focus on anything but that bed, but the carnal activities that could go on there … “Where do you sleep during the day?” I asked breathlessly.
“In the wine cellar below the house,” he answered and eyed me in such a way that I knew that he knew exactly what had been going on in my head.
But I refused to grant another second to the nervousness that was still consuming me. Instead, I focused on the wine cellar. While I was looking at real estate for him, I hadn’t realized how important it was for there to be a dark underground space—his decision to buy this property now made even more sense. It was the only one of the three that had a basement, a sanctuary from the marauding sunlight.
I nodded and felt my eyes return to the bed. I mean, it was hard not to focus on it considering how much its vastness dwarfed the rest of the space. I could now feel my blush spreading from my cheeks to the tips of my ears.
Sinjin chuckled. “I wonder what is going through that beautiful head of yours, poppet.” And he took a few steps toward me.
“Why?” I asked, probably too quickly, as I took a few steps back.
“Your heartbeat is escalating.”
Stop beating so hard, heart, I begged, wondering if there was any way I could calm myself down. But it seemed like the harder I tried, the more urgently my heart thumped … and the more Sinjin smiled.
“Are you nervous, love?” he asked.
“Yes,” I admitted, figuring I had no reason to lie to him. More important, he’d be able to tell a lie from the truth.
“And what is making you nervous?”
I swallowed hard. “You.”
He chuckled, but somehow the laugh never reached his eyes. No, those eyes were fixed on me—just as they’d been since we had entered his bedroom. They seemed predatory, hungry …
“And why is that?”
“Because you’re a vampire.”
He didn’t say anything for a while, but he crossed his arms against his chest, his eyes still trained on mine. “It is more than that.”
“I don’t know what you want from me,” I finally admitted, unable to hold his gaze. I dropped my focus to my shoes and felt the sudden urge to flee.
“You are a strong woman, poppet,” he began, and I glanced up at him, surprised. “You must never drop your eyes from your opponent.”
“Are you my opponent?”
He didn’t answer, just continued to stare at me. I held his gaze. The seconds snailed by, and I wanted to look away, but I didn’t. Nope, I knew better. This was a test—for what, I wasn’t sure, but it was a test all the same.
A huge smile suddenly broke across Sinjin’s face and I felt myself inhale deeply without being aware of it. I’d been holding my breath the entire time during our little stare-down.
“Very good, little poppet, very good.” He smiled again, his canines lengthening into fangs. My breath caught, and I backed up until I was pressed against the wall. “Do not be afraid,” Sinjin said, his eyes glowing white. “I will never hurt you.”
“But … your fangs,” I started as I eyed the door, judging the distance.
“You would never make it in time,” Sinjin said with a quick smile. “Rule number one, never run from a vampire.”
But the last thing I wanted to think about was running from him. I was still transfixed by his fangs and his eyes, which were now totally white. “Sinjin, why are your eyes white and why are your fangs so long?” Fear was pumping through me.
He took two steps closer to me. “I desire you.”
“I thought you said you would never think of me as … food.”
“Not that type of desire, poppet,” he said, closing the distance between us.
“W … What type then?”
“The type where a man desires a woman, desires to know her intimately.” He smiled. “I desire nothing more than to know you intimately, love.”
I gulped, knowing where this was headed, what he wanted, and what I wanted. My body was screaming for it, for him, and I only hoped he couldn’t read me. “I’m not good at this stuff, Sinjin,” I said and shook my head, suddenly more afraid than I’d been at the prospect that I was going to be his main course for the evening.
“That is your insecurity speaking, poppet. Silence it.”
“I can’t,” I started, but he shook his head, interrupting me.
“I know you.” He brought his finger to my chest and pointed at what I imagined was my heart. “I know who you are inside, and that is the Jolie I want.”
“How can you know me, Sinjin? It hasn’t even been a month yet,” I said, trying to make a point to myself as much as to him. It hasn’t even been a month yet! So how the hell could I feel like this, how could I be so into someone I haven’t even spent that much time with? “You’re talking like a crazy person.”
“I know you better than you can imagine,” he said, and that determined look was back in his eyes.
“But how could …” Then I remembered again my vision of Sinjin in that mansion, of me in the fairy costume. I felt a cold sweat break out across my forehead. Why did that vision keep rearing its head? Why wouldn’t it just die away? Because maybe there was a kernel of truth to it … Maybe there was more to this picture than met the eye? “Sinjin, where did we first meet?”
He stopped moving toward me, pulling back as shock pasted itself on his face. In a split second, the expression was gone and he was back to his calm and collected self. “Why do you ask?”
“Answer the question.”
He smiled a smooth, practiced grin. He’d had six hundred years to perfect his skills—if he wanted to keep the truth from me, he could do a damn good job of it.
“We met in your store, of course, silly poppet. What a strange question.”
I sighed, p
art of me relieved by his answer. The other part, however, couldn’t let go of the surprised look I saw in his eyes when I asked the question in the first place.
Half an hour later, our tour was over. Now it was time for Sinjin to explain just what the hell was going on—why vampires and warlocks were suddenly infiltrating my life and why both he and Rand seemed to believe I was a witch or, at the very least, something powerful. Now was the time for answers.
As I followed Sinjin into his living room, I couldn’t help but take in his perfect body—how long his legs were and how the softly flowing fabric of his pants did nothing to hide the sleek lines of his butt. His shoulders appeared even broader from behind. With his narrow waist, he had the physique of a swimmer.
“Please have a seat,” he said, turning to face me with a devilish smile. He motioned to the two empty couches as well as the two club chairs on either end of them. There wasn’t any shortage of seating options.
I offered him a quick and nervous smile, then sat in the middle of one of the couches. I felt the expensive leather embrace me as I sank into the down pillows. Just as I’d imagined, the enormity of Sinjin’s sofa dwarfed me and made me feel like a small child. My feet actually dangled off the edge. I was just missing a gigantic lollipop to complete the image of a five-year-old.
Sinjin chuckled to himself, shaking his head in apparent admiration. “You are such a delectable little package, my pet.”
The way he watched me caused a flurry of butterflies in my stomach. Again, I had to remind myself that he was a vampire and I was completely at his mercy, but somehow I still wasn’t frightened. For whatever reason, I truly believed in my heart of hearts that Sinjin would never hurt me.
He rested one arm on the fireplace mantel and scrutinized me as I bounced my feet nervously, my hands clasped in my lap.
“Are you hungry, little poppet?” he asked, his voice breaking the silence in the room.
I could feel my eyes growing wide at the mention of hunger. “No, and I hope you aren’t either.”
Sinjin dropped his head back and laughed heartily before focusing on me again. “Fear not, love.”
I took a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves and figure out how to best handle the situation. I could feel the seconds ticking by, the quiet of the room pounding in on me. I had so many questions swimming through my head, all straining for the opportunity to be first, that I didn’t even know where to begin.
“Your silence surprises me, love.”
I glanced up at him and nodded, surprised by my own silence. The entire time he’d dragged me on the tour of his home, I hadn’t been able to keep the questions at bay—and now my brain was suddenly silent. “I’m not sure what to ask first.”
The incredibly handsome, even sexier vampire nodded and smiled. “Perhaps you would like to inquire about my species?”
“Sure, that’s a good place to start.”
He moved away from the fireplace and approached one of the floor-to-ceiling windows, where the moon was wrestling with the clouds, fighting to bathe him in its beauty and make his already luminescent magnificence shine even brighter. He rested his long, refined fingers against the windowsill and drummed them back and forth, as if he were playing a piano.
I swallowed hard at the sudden thought of those fingers on me, touching me, playing me as expertly as any instrument. I shook my head, irritated with myself. It was like I suddenly turned into a cat in heat whenever Sinjin was anywhere near me. He made me lose sight of who I really was.
Or does he bring out the real you? I argued with myself. Maybe you’ve been suppressing this side of yourself for so long, you didn’t even know it was there. Maybe Sinjin’s just woken you up, allowed you to feel again?
Uncomfortable with the thoughts, I focused on the conversation. “Um, were you going to tell me about vampires?” I asked, standing and smiling nervously up at him. I wanted to touch him. I could feel the need radiating through my fingers, but I was suddenly afraid to. Not so much because he was a vampire, but because he was a man.
“Ah, yes, your nearness threw me off track,” he said, grabbing my hand. He held it to his face and, staring at me all the while, brought my palm to his lips and kissed it. I swallowed hard in response. “Your skin is delightfully soft,” he whispered, kissing my hand again, his eyes boring into mine.
“Sinjin …,” I started, trying to focus on the reason I’d come here tonight—getting my questions answered.
He smiled apologetically. “As I have already told you, poppet, I am six hundred years old,” he said, as if he was beginning a story.
I shook my head at the reminder, still unable to fathom exactly what that meant—living through so much history, experiencing such pain and happiness. “I still can’t believe you’re that old.”
“Believe it, love.” He smiled at me again, but this time his smile seemed sad somehow, pained. Or maybe I was just imagining it. “Because of my age, I have become one of the strongest vampires. I am referred to as a master vampire.”
I nodded to emphasize the fact that I was following his story, but feelings of intimidation began to bubble up inside of me. A master vampire?
“So what does that mean exactly?” I asked, now even more keenly aware of Sinjin’s power.
“The Underworld is made up of hierarchies, love,” he started before I cut him off.
“The Underworld?”
He nodded and smiled encouragingly, as if realizing it was going to take me a while to fully grasp all of this.
“The Underworld is a federation of all otherworldly creatures, my pet. We have our own government, and we abide by our own laws.”
I closed my eyes, trying to make sense of this. Logic and reason just had no place in this conversation—well, really, in my life as of late. And the sooner I accepted that, the sooner I could see the world as it really was. I opened my eyes again and focused on him. “So this Underworld has existed for …”
“Centuries,” he finished. “We have always lived among humans undetected, in the shadows.”
“And no one knows? How have you been able to keep yourselves hidden?”
He smiled at me boyishly, which seemed like such an oxymoron because Sinjin was anything but a boy. “It hasn’t always been easy, love, but suffice it to say for now that our community is a secret one. There have been breaches and betrayals throughout the years—hence the stories that humans create about our kind. Luckily for us, though, humans are a rather skeptical species, and they invariably talk themselves out of believing there could be … others, non-humans, sharing their world.”
“What sorts of creatures are we talking about?” I asked, almost afraid to get an answer.
Sinjin shrugged. “All sorts: vampires, werewolves, the fae, witches and warlocks … demons.”
“Speaking of warlocks,” I started, purposely ignoring the part about demons; I just wasn’t sure I could handle discussing them at the moment. I cleared my throat as my brain conjured an image of the only warlock who had ever played a role in my life. As thoughts of Rand entered my mind, I was suddenly consumed by feelings of warmth and adoration. I shook them off angrily and glanced up at Sinjin. His eyes had narrowed on me, like a falcon’s on a field mouse.
“Yes?” he asked impatiently.
“Um, I met someone who called himself a warlock.” I fumbled over the words, feeling unexpectedly nervous because of the heated expression on Sinjin’s face.
His eyes instantly turned icy white, and his hands fisted at his sides. His jaw was tight and I could see indentations on his lips suggesting that his fangs were present and accounted for. So I was right! Rand, the warlock, was no friend of Sinjin’s, which ultimately meant he was no friend of mine.
“When did this meeting occur? And where?” Sinjin asked in a matter-of-fact, deadly serious tone.
I took a deep breath, intimidated by the look in his eyes. “I don’t know, a few days ago at my store.”
“Did you get his name?”
I
nodded. “Rand.”
At the mention of Rand’s name, Sinjin bashed his fist into the windowsill. The entire wall shook. It was a wonder the glass didn’t break. I felt myself jump in shock as my heart started beating wildly. Why was Sinjin so upset by this? Who was Rand to him and what did this mean?
“How many meetings have you had with him?”
I shook my head, finding it difficult to concentrate. I just hadn’t been expecting Sinjin to react with such vehemence to the mere mention of the warlock. I could only wonder what had happened between the two of them. “Why are you so upset, Sinjin?”
“How many times have you seen him?” he repeated while his eyes burned with anger.
“I don’t know … Twice, I think,” I spat out. “The second time I forced him to leave.” A flashback of the last time I’d seen Rand came on with a vengeance. I looked up at Sinjin, my eyes going wide. “I … I touched him and something happened, Sinjin. There was like a bright burst of light and the next thing I knew, he was sailing through the air. I … I have no idea how it happened.”
Sinjin nodded as if it were no surprise at all, as if he weren’t in the least alarmed by my ability to defy the laws of gravity. “Did he hurt you?”
I shook my head and in a blink Sinjin was standing before me, holding both of my hands in his. I gasped, shocked by his speed. He smiled apologetically, as if he’d just realized that I wasn’t exactly used to his vampire quickness.
“He is a dangerous man, poppet. You must avoid him at all costs. Do you understand?”
I nodded, feeling like I could lose myself in the whiteness of Sinjin’s eyes, the beauty of his face, and the caress of his skin against mine. Then the image of Rand intruded on my thoughts. “Why is he dangerous?”
“He is a warlock, love, a conjurer of dark magic.” Sinjin took a deep breath, which I knew was all for show, and turned away from me. “He wants to possess your power, poppet. He wants to control you.”
I nodded, thinking about Rand’s visits, how emphatically sure he was that I was something other than what I thought, how he and Sinjin had that in common. “Yes, he insisted that I was a witch.”