CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

“ T ell me then,” Sage said, as she stared into the depths of Ari’s eyes.

“I don’t know how,” Ari said. “This is new to me. Feeling this way. You are... special.”

Sage scanned his face, looking for answers. What was he trying to tell her? Aside from being a vampire.

Apparently.

Ari smiled and wiped the hair from her face. “You want more information, Sage, not confessions of amore . Tell me what you want to know.”

Amore? Didn’t that mean love? Her eyes widened. There was no way Ari loved her. They’d known each other less than a week.

Focus Sage. He’s just told you he’s a goddamn vampire.

“Fangs,” she spat out. “Wait, aren’t you meant to be super-strong?”

He grinned. “You don’t think I’m strong?”

She chewed her lip.

“Okay, I’ll save the jokes for another day,” Ari said, slipping out from under her and standing up. “You ready?”

She nodded and tucked her legs underneath her, then grabbed a cushion.

He stared at the cushion. “Armor?”

“Yes. I feel safer.”

“Good to know. I’ll get my males some cushions.” He smirked.

“Your gym guys?”

“About that... actually, let’s focus on one thing at a time,” Ari said. “Fangs or strength. Which one first?”

Part of her was hoping this was all a really bad joke, or she’d wake up. Sage knew it wasn’t. “Strength.”

Ari looked around the living room.

“Stand up,” he said. “Everything else has girly ornaments on and I don’t want to break anything.”

Sage jumped off the sofa, keeping the cushion hugged to her chest. Ari walked to the end and, with zero effort, lifted it up, so it was standing on one end. She stared at him, unconvinced he’d done anything supernatural.

He shifted his hands for a better grip, then lifted it into the air.

Jesus Christ.

“I mean, steroids could do that,” she said, blinking, looking for a rational explanation.

Ari replaced the sofa and sent her a look which resembled pity. Then he walked over and guided her to sit down next to him. They faced each other.

Shit.

“Wait.”

“No, Sage. It’s time,” Ari said. His lips spread open and long enamel fangs slipped from his gums down past his teeth.

She began to tremble again. Her brain wasn’t sure what to make of it. She could see the physical difference between a human mouth and his. It wasn’t done by a medical procedure; she was pretty sure of that. There were clear veins and blood pumping through both the gums and teeth. They were alive and looked like little weapons.

“Don’t touch,” Ari said, his voice altered by the change in his mouth. “They can hurt you.”

She nodded repeatedly.

“I’ve never felt them.”

“Yes, you have. Once,” he said. “It was an error on my part.”

Sage remembered the sharp bite to her skin when they were in bed playing and joking about vampires.

“Do you drink human blood?”

Ari nodded. “To survive. We don’t kill humans, and we have lived peacefully with your race on earth for over fifteen hundred years.”

Sage blanched. “How? How is that possible?”

Ari smiled. “Now that is something I hope to tell you one day, mia stellina . And you will be the only living being who knows the entire truth.”

Sage frowned in confusion.

“There is a lot I’d like to tell you, but one thing at a time. For now, we have a more urgent matter to discuss.”

“More urgent than learning vampires exist, and the man I have been sleeping with is one of them?”

Ari nodded. “Yes. The two are connected.”

“Oh, God. How?”

How much worse could this get? The look on Ari’s face was grim. Even though he occasionally joked around with her, for the most part, he was a powerful and dominant personality. More prone to seriousness. But this look was dark.

“BioZen has one of my vampires. They have been experimenting on him for months,” Ari said.

Sage’s eyes widened.

“Yes, he’s a volunteer,” she replied, her heart thumping.

“No, Sage, he’s not.”