Page 62 of The Vampire’s Temptation

Chapter 16

If she wanted to become a vampire, Alessandra would be shit out of luck. Because the look on Kenton’s face could only be described as horrified.

“I mean, if I wanted to become one. Which I don’t.”

He didn’t look convinced.

“I was just curious whether it could happen. Me being Cheld and all.”

Finally, it seemed to sink in. It was a ridiculous question, of course—something she did not fail to realize. This whole thing was preposterous. Utterly unbelievable. And yet . . . Alessandra had known it to be true before she saw his fangs. Though she could tell he was still holding something back from her, she was absolutely certain Kenton was a vampire.

“I don’t know,” he finally answered.

“How is that possible? For centuries we’ve supposedly lived side by side—”

“Even so, it’s never been attempted. That I know of.”

That made no sense.

“Why not?”

“There are not so many of your kind that it would be a forgone conclusion a Cheld would want such a thing. It is, after all, a curse.”

“To live forever?”

Didn’t seem like such a curse to her. But she could see there was little point in saying so. Instead, she reached out and grabbed his hand. “Come on.”

When he wound his fingers through hers, Alessandra led him beyond the platform to the train tracks.

“This railway was built along the river in 1917. There’s a pretty amazing view, with the town on one side and the mountains on the other. Stone Haven was a coal mining town once, and this used to be a gravity train used to haul coal.”

Realizing she was babbling on about history, something she tended to do when she got nervous, Alessandra stopped narrating as they walked down the tracks.

Until a fresh understanding of what his revelation meant stopped her short.

Holy shit.

“You lived through all of it.”

“Through what?”

“Everything. You lived through everything. Kenton, do you understand what this means?”

His lips twitched. “That I’ll be spending most of our time together answering questions from my curious history professor?”

Time together.

My professor.

She tried to tell herself it meant nothing, that a vampire who’d lived so long couldn’t possibly have anything but a passing interest in her, Cheld or not, and yet . . . she couldn’t help but smile a little as she began walking once more. Finally, they came upon it.

“There it is.”

The caboose. Alessandra ascended the stairs on the green and yellow car and looked out into the blackness.

Kenton stood beside her, tempting her to reach out and touch him.

“A lovely view.”