All Just Glass - Amelia Atwater-Rhodes [49]
Nikolas saved her from needing to respond to Christine by reaching between them to pluck the picture from the table. He frowned at it before he told the human girl, “There’s nothing wrong with donating, but don’t let Heather convince you there aren’t any dangers, either. You’re safe because you wear my marks, but that doesn’t mean all of my kind are always … kind.” He stared at the photograph, a dark but thoughtful expression on his face.
“Who is she?” Kristopher asked.
“You were with Nissa when Jerome started bringing her to our circuit,” Nikolas answered. He glanced at Sarah and then explained, “Jerome is an ally, but not someone I would call a friend. He likes to play with his prey, manipulating their emotions and making them completely dependent on him. Heather can be pretty … needy,” he said, obviously trying to be gentle for Christine’s sake, “but part of that is having been bonded to Kaleo for centuries. This girl was probably one of the worst addicts I have ever seen, and she was still completely human.”
“Did you ever—” Sarah broke off, realizing she didn’t want to know.
“I never fed on her,” Nikolas answered. “And I haven’t seen her in decades, so Jerome either tired of her or she gave her throat to the wrong person. Or both.” He looked at the photo again and then put it into his pocket. “I’m going to catch up with Heather and return this.”
He disappeared.
Nikolas’s description had obviously unsettled Christine a bit, but she shrugged at his disappearance and said, “Heather made it pretty clear that we’re the lucky ones. Kaleo—” She choked out the word and swallowed before continuing. “She says he treats her well, and protects her. I know not everyone has it so easy.” She looked directly at Sarah as she said, “Heather agrees that you’ll be one of the good ones. You risked yourself to save her. It made an impression.”
Sarah had the sense to control her first response and try to swallow the compliment. It was nice that someone thought she would be a good person even as a vampire, but she wasn’t sure Heather’s judgment was exactly sound.
“Unfortunately, many of our kind don’t make much of an effort to take care of the bonds other than their own,” Kristopher said when Sarah struggled to think of a reply. “I have a feeling you’ll never be that type. It’s something you and Nissa have in common.”
The memory that flashed through his mind—and Sarah’s—in that moment was of Nissa’s horrified reaction the first time she killed. The human she had fed on had abused his hosts’ hospitality at a bash in Kaleo’s circuit. Specifically, he had insulted Nissa, with Kaleo, Nikolas and Kristopher looking on. He never would have survived the night, but that didn’t change Nissa’s reaction when she realized she had taken too much.
Kristopher ripped his mind away from the memory—or tried. He couldn’t turn away from the memory of Nissa refusing to feed for weeks, or of Nikolas’s expression when Kristopher told him he was leaving for a while.
Kristopher stepped back, averting his gaze from Sarah’s.
Oblivious to the images running through both of their minds, Christine announced, “I’m going to head to bed. My body can’t seem to decide if it wants to be nocturnal or not lately.”
They both watched her walk away, and they both wanted to call her back to act as a buffer between them. There were too many dark thoughts on Kristopher’s mind that he couldn’t stop and couldn’t hide.
If he had just stepped in at that party and stopped Nissa, she never would have punished herself that way. No one in the room had paused to consider how Nissa would react to taking a human life, least of all him. He didn’t want to make the same mistake with Sarah. But what would be the mistake? She had been a Vida; she had been a killer most of her life. Who was he to judge?
Is that really how he sees me? Sarah wondered.
Suddenly, Kristopher’s thoughts focused, as he made what he felt to be a significant decision.
Enough of this, he thought. There are