Read Online BloodGifted by Tima Maria Lacoba - Free Book Online Page B

ago.’
    It rolled off his tongue so easily that I wondered whether I would ever get used to the concept of the world being inhabited by beings who were centuries, or even millennia, old.
    ‘How old are you?’
    ‘One hundred and twenty-three.’
    ‘Humph, so you’re a veritable youngster,’ I replied glibly.
    Alec’s eyes narrowed, he released my hand and shifted back in his seat. For some reason my comment hit a nerve. ‘Among my kind, yes, although I was twenty-nine at my transformation.’
    I was tempted to make some kind of patronising remark , but the forbidding expression on his face made me rethink it. Instead I asked, ‘How did it happen?
    ‘My predecessor transformed me. His name is Lucien Lebrettan and he was your grandfather’s guardian.’
    ‘W hy didn’t he stay on for my aunt? Or is there a time limit for guardians as well?’
    H e looked at me as if deciding something. ‘No, we can stay on indefinitely as long as the Ingenii accepts us. Luc had another reason for stepping down. But that’s another story and not for me to tell. When you meet him you can ask him.’
    ‘Luc?’ He pronounced it, Luke.
    ‘He prefers th at to Lucien.’ He reached down to touch the ring on my hand, outlining its shape before lightly stroking the length of my finger.
    It was such a simple action, yet the effect it had on me was astounding. It was almost erotic. Delicious warmth spread from my belly to my legs. He smiled and I had a dreadful feeling he knew. If he could smell fear, then… heat suffused my cheeks at the implication. I moved my hand out of his reach.
    ‘The rings,’ he said, ‘ enable the wearers to communicate telepathically. Comes in handy if one of us is in trouble and there’s no mobile phone at hand.’
    I blinked and refocussed. ‘H ear each other’s thoughts?’ That was spooky. ‘Like, right now?’
    ‘No, it usually happens only in extreme circumstances.’
    By that I guessed he meant danger and it didn’t exactly thrill me. Maybe it was the fact that I came from a fairly sheltered environment and my experience of anything remotely resembling danger only came at the post-Christmas sales when I was liable to be trampled to death by some maniacal bargain hunters.
    ‘I t never happened while Judith was Ingenii , and I see no reason why it should be any different with you,’ he said.
    Either my face was an open book, or he lied about the not-being-able-to-hear-each-other ’s-thoughts-till-we-were-in-danger bit. Most likely it was the former. Alec Munro didn’t seem the lying type to me and under the current circumstances it would have been pointless, especially as we were going to be together, so to speak, for the next fifty years. There was something about him that made me want to believe him, as well as a certain predatory charm that drew me like a magnet. Yet, at the same time, the sense that I was in the presence of something powerful and dangerous lurked at the edge of my consciousness and, rather than be afraid, I found it strangely exhilarating.
    I nee ded time to take it all in. ‘Can you give me a few minutes?’
    ‘Of course.’
    I took a deep breath, rose from my chair and walked to the alcove entrance. There were people about. Some sat in the pews in quiet contemplation, while in the background I could still hear the choir rehearsing. Behind me Alec waited. My earlier fantasy—seeing him with a stake through his heart—was now repugnant to me. I took another deep breath and came to a decision. My aunt trusted me to accept my scary family legacy and even though I wanted nothing to do with it, I felt I couldn’t let her down.
    A faint pulsing light filled the room.
    ‘The ring s,’ Alec murmured. I jumped for his voice came from directly behind me. How hadn’t I heard him move? ‘Look at your ring.’
    I did. The serpent’s eyes were pulsing and as I watched they gradually died down until once again they looked no more alive than any other piece of