Aeliana looked at me like a deer caught in the headlights, her face a mix of surprise and something else fear?
No, I don't think she was afraid of me, but she was definitely startled. It was almost cute how easy it was to rattle her, and that thought made me smile in a way that felt too genuine, too honest for someone like me.
But I couldn't afford to be honest. Not now. Not with her.
I'd been doing a lot of thinking lately. A lot of questioning my own motives, my own desires. It was getting harder and harder to tell where my need for her blood ended and where… something else began.
Damn it, this was supposed to be simple. Just another job, just another person I needed to get close to in order to survive. But Aeliana? She was different. She was light and warmth and everything I'd forgotten existed in the world.
