Page 74 of Eternal Craving

A creak outside the kitchen door gave away the person who’d been listening there.

Alicia sprang to her feet. “Ricardo, what are you doing up?”

A wave of anxiety overwhelmed me at the thought he’d overheard our entire conversation.

He ran to Alicia and nestled into her bosom, and she carried him out, back to his room.

I reached for my glass and then thought better of it. Staring at the wine, I yearned for its taste.

Or something like it, something forbidden.

Miranda stood up from the table. “Ricardo’s unruly like his father.”

Unable to lower my gaze, I stared at her pale neck, at the pulsing of her perfect veins.

Miranda gave me a knowing smile. “After everything you’ve been through?” She sat down on my lap, her bosom lingering close to eye level. “I know what you are. Go on, have a sip.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Yes, you do,” she whispered, her intense gaze meeting mine.

My shirt collar was stifling me. I loosened the top button.

She nuzzled closer. “You even smell different.”

The promise of those blue veins beckoned me to taste that alluring, delicate stream.

“I think you’re confused.” I gave her a thin smile.

“You were impaled. It was a mortal strike.”

“I’m here, aren’t I?”

“Felipe left you in the courtyard to bleed out. I was there.”

“You’re wrong.”

She slid her finger into my mouth and rested the tip on an incisor.

I pushed her hand away. “What you saw, or what you thought you saw?—”

“I wanted to stop him,” she said. “I couldn’t believe Felipe’s cruelty.”

“That makes two of us.”

“Had I done anything, he’d have killed me. Forgive me.”

“I’m sorry that you had to see Salvador’s murder. And my torture.”

“I saw your murder, too.”

“No one comes back from death.”

I read Miranda’s mind and swore to extract every thought from now on, to reach into the very core of every human interaction, shake off this guilty feeling of trespassing. Self-preservation took precedence. Miranda may have watched my attack, but she’d not witnessed my rebirth.

“I need some fresh air.” I tried to gently ease her off my lap.

She wrapped her arms around my neck. “I couldn’t do anything to save you,” she said, tears in her voice. “I was so afraid.”