Page 75 of Ryder’s Storm

“Can I go with him?” Lizzy asked.

“For now.”

As the three left the medical center, Maya looked at Scarlet. “Scarlet, I know all this is a shock for you, but give Ryder a chance to explain everything to you. Please.”

Scarlet still stood rigid like a steel pipe, worried that if she moved and took a deep breath, she would burst out crying.

“And Ryder,” Maya added, “Scarlet’s DNA test was positive. She has the gene.”

“What?” Scarlet’s gaze bounced between Maya and Ryder. “What gene?”

“Let’s go to the lounge, and I’ll tell you everything,” Ryder promised.

He locked eyes with her, and she couldn’t tear her gaze from him. Something in them told her that he wasn’t going to hurt her. Was it because he’d saved her before? Not just from the crazed vampire but also from Derek? And the days and nights she’d spent with him… not a single time had he tried to bite her or hurt her in any way, even though she’d been at his mercy, alone with him, without anyone who would have come to her aid. Yet he’d never laid a finger on her. He’d put her pleasure before his, and she’d felt safe in his arms.

“All right, I’ll go to the lounge with you. And you’ll tell me the truth, the entire truth.”

Ryder slowly nodded. “No more secrets.”

“And you’ll let me go?”

“If after I tell you everything you decide you want nothing more to do with me, I’ll let you go.”

She took a few seconds, before she agreed, “All right, you have thirty minutes.”

In the elevator they took up to the first floor, Ryder gave her space. She was glad for it, because she had no idea how she would react if he tried to touch her. Would she recoil from him?

On the first floor, Ryder swiped his access card at a door with the sign V Lounge on it. She could guess what the V stood for. Simultaneously she realized that Waiting Room H, where she’d been made to wait the night before, had to mean that it was a waiting room for humans, hence the H.

She didn’t really know what she’d expected in a vampire lounge, certainly not the soft music, the warm lights, and the comfortable seating areas that reminded her of a VIP lounge in a fancy hotel or the First-Class lounge at an airport. There wasn’t a coffin in sight, there were no heavy velvet curtains—there were no windows either—but rather tasteful prints and paintings decorating the walls. Fresh flower arrangements sat on coffee tables, and in one corner, there was even a fireplace.

Ryder ushered her toward the middle of the room, which had a bar at its center. An older man stood behind the pristine counter and polished glasses. When he saw them approach, he sat down his dish towel.

“Ryder, what may I get you?” He pointed to the taps behind the bar. “AB positive, fresh in.”

Scarlet stared at the labels on the taps and felt her pulse quicken.

“Not today, Michael. Why don’t you take a little break?”

Michael hesitated for a brief second, then nodded. “Thanks for reminding me. If you’ll excuse me.”

While he came out from behind the bar and disappeared through a door at the other end of the lounge, Scarlet realized that the taps weren’t for beer or other drinks, but for blood. She’d seen the AB+ label before: on the bottles in Ryder’s refrigerator.

“What I saw wasn’t tomato juice, was it?”

“No, it wasn’t.” He pointed to a seating area. “Shall we sit?”

“You first.”

Ryder raised an eyebrow, but didn’t protest and sat down in an armchair opposite a sectional sofa. Scarlet sat down on the sofa, a large coffee table between them.

“There’s so much I have to tell you,” Ryder started, his voice calm and collected. “I don’t really know where to start.”

How often had he had to tell the girls he slept with what he really was? He probably had lots of practice in this.

She mustered all her courage to make him think she was strong so he wouldn’t see her as prey. “Then let me ask you: how long have you been a vampire, because that’s what you are, aren’t you?”

“Technically, I’m a hybrid, because I was born a vampire. My parents were turned when they were both in their thirties.”