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“I don’t give a fuck about what Miles thinks.”
“Well, I do,” I retort. “I’m me and you’re… you. We couldn’t be more different.”
Jaylen’s eyes darken. “That’s where you’re wrong, little angel. We’re more alike than you think. I’m not going to stop, I hope you know that.”
I sigh. I want to fight back, to tell him that he’s dreaming if he thinks we can work out, but I don’t. The exhaustion racing through my veins after the day I’ve had drains all the fight from my body. Instead, I decided to change the subject because, at this point, it’s the only thing I have the energy for.
“So,” I say slowly, licking my lips. “How did you become… this? Were you like this when we were kids?”
He stares at me for a moment as if deciding whether to drop the previous topic or not. When he sees I’m making no move to acknowledge what he said, he sighs and runs a hand down the side of his face.
“Yes and no. My parents were both vampires, so I was born with the gene.”
I raise a brow at him. “They were? Woah. I didn’t know that. So, when did you find out what you really are?”
“When I was twelve, I saw a kid on the soccer team get hit in the face with the ball because he wasn’t paying attention. At that moment, as his nose gushed with blood, all I could think about was drinking it like it was water. I told my parents that night when I got home about what happened and they filled me in on everything.”
“Was that when your parents told you that you’re a vampire?”
Jaylen nods, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “They told me as much as I could handle. The rest I learned as I got older.”
“Which was?” I ask, hoping he’ll continue to tell me more.
His eyes meet mine. “We continue to age as any human would, but very slowly. We go through the transition phase at eighteen, but it isn’t until we reach the age of forty-five that the aging slows down and that’s our appearance for the rest of our long lives. I look my age now but when everyone around me reaches middle age and I still look like I’m in my 20s, that’s when I’ll have a problem.”
I eye his face carefully, taking in his sharp features and smooth skin. So, vampires age at the same rate as humans, years-wise, but it’s their appearance that ages slowly, keeping them youthful for longer. That’s an interesting concept. It’s certainly much different from every vampire movie or TV show I’ve watched.
“How old will you be when you reach forty-five in vampire years?”
Jaylen shrugs. “It could take a hundred years or more. I’m not sure. My parents were still youthful in appearance when they died, and I don’t even know how old they were in human years. I never got the chance to ask.”
I want to ask more about his parents because I know they died when he was eighteen from a car accident but knowing what I do about him and his family, I can’t help but wonder if there is more to the story. Knowing that vampires can only be killed a certain way—at least, that’s what I’ve read in books and Jaylen has mentioned in passing—I wonder if maybe the car accident story was a cover for something more sinister.
“This is all so fascinating,” I say slowly, my tongue darting out to lick my bottom lip. “Thank you for sharing.”
“Now it’s time for you to share why you ran away earlier,” Jaylen counters, folding his arms over his chest.
I sigh and shake my head. “We can’t keep doing this, Jaylen. We have to stop.”
I sound like a fucking broken-down record.
He takes a step forward. “I’ve told you already that I’m not going to.”
“But you need to.” My eyes meet his, and I can see the determination behind them, stronger than ever. “Because this has to stop.”
I move to walk past him, but he grabs my wrist, holding me in place. He turns his head slightly to meet my eyes, his breathing slow and controlled. My heart lodges into my throat at how menacing he looks. “You may want this to stop, little angel, but there is no way in hell I’m ever going to. Over my fucking dead body.”
And with that, he is gone, disappearing into the night. My breathing is heavy and my wrist is cold where his fingers grazed against my skin.
His words sound like a promise Jaylen plans on keeping, and it has me both nervous and excited.
17
Jaylen
The hunger deep within my core pulses, begging to be satiated, and relieved. It’s a pulsing that vibrates through my entire body, almost bursting at the seams. It’s a sensation I’m familiar with, which means I know what needs to be done tonight.
“Is it just me, or are you fucking starving too?” Ethan says from beside me, his feet kicked up on the coffee table, a gaming controller in his hand. His eyes are focused on the TV as he plays some sort of race car game. Maybe Formula 1? I don’t know. I’m not into that shit, but he, Miles, and Preston are. “Do you have any of your stash left?”
