“Yes,” I replied curtly, because I wanted to get to the point. “But it will go away soon.”
When I had manipulated the girl’s memories earlier, it had been different than usual. It had felt like I was fighting a certain resistance. And then her look, which had been different from the others. Instead of horror and emptiness, it had been curiosity. As if she had enjoyed it before I had taken away the rest of her memories of the conversation. Almost as if she had enjoyed every bit of it. There had been a strange gleam in her eyes. A glow I neither knew nor could place. And then that smell...
I remembered a few other of my prey bodies that I had slept with before. Their eyes had been empty. No gleam, no curiosity, nothing. And they had never smelled like a goddamn feast.
“That’s what happens when you don’t use your powers often enough.”
Miles patted me on the shoulder, laughing.
I looked at him in annoyance, even though he was right.
“Unlike you, I don’t use them to bang random girls and plant false images of me in their minds,” I countered unenthusiastically.
“You just erase their memory afterward. How boring...” Miles waved off, and I raised my brows.
“When was the last time you drank from them?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
Miles’s expression darkened. I had hit his sore spot. Point for me.
“Hey, focus now,” David murmured. “These topics have no place at Vanderwood.”
“Don’t get jealous. After all, you can pretend to be a witch if you ever get in trouble.”
David raised both brows in response to Miles’ words. Normally, he always reacted pissed off in regards to such teasing. Even though he was very much in control of his emotions. The way it should be and not the way it was with Miles.
We’d probably teased David too much about the telekinesis thing, so that perhaps he no longer cared.
“At least I don’t treat women the shameless way you do.”
That had more than sunk in. And as expected, Miles jumped at David’s argument.
“Not everyone knows how to live life to the fullest.”
At that, he looked at me as if he were making some kind of reference. I knew what he was getting at.
“Don’t confuse recklessness and unbridled sexual drives with fun,” David returned. “Bastien taught you – and by that, I mean both of you – that you don’t play with your prey or take advantage of your superiority over it.”
This time, he looked at me.
“Bastien wouldn’t be Bastien if he could take a joke,” Miles laughed.
There was mockery in his amusement. I don’t know if it was directed at Bastien, the rules, or the whole Ruisangor ruling system, but one thing was clear. He handled it differently than we did.
“Can we please stop wasting our time on this subject?” Miles finally murmured.
“It’s in our nature, though,” I replied dryly. He couldn’t run away from it forever.
“Maybe it is, but we’re not like the wolves or the...” Miles stopped mid-sentence. I knew exactly what he had been trying to say.
“What are you trying to say?”
I took a step toward him, and his expression darkened.
“Adrian, Miles...” David began impatiently, but I had really gotten into it for the first time in a while. I took another step.
“Are you saying I’m one of them? One of those out-of-control monsters?”
They were like us. Genetically speaking. Other than that, we had nothing in common. If we killed people like they did, we would automatically be one of them. But mere drinking was harmless. When was he going to accept that?
If he knew the whole truth, he would never speak a word to me again.
“Yes, damn it, I’m saying you’re acting like someone from the Tenebris Order!”
His eyes turned a threatening red and I would have loved to do like that rude mutt in the bar, but I reminded myself to be reasonable. We ruled our emotions, not them us.
“Miles, enough is enough...” David began again.
“The Order of Tenebris is doing exactly the same thing you are!” Miles looked at me angrily. “And we have a way of not living like those lawless bastards, and yet you’re still doing it.” He banged on the table, and a loud crack sounded. “I’m sure Nicolaj encouraged you to do it – or he did!”
I felt the anger boiling over. “I do it because I can control myself!”
I had gone too far. At least for Miles, who sped toward me and pinned me against the wall. His eyes glowed menacingly.
“Miles! That’s enough! That wasn’t our plan,” I admonished placatingly, pushing Miles backwards and walking with my hands in my pockets to the window through which the sun was still shining. But I stood so that it reached just to my covered chest level.
“No one here is a member of the Order of Tenebris. You should hear yourself talk. It’s unbearable!” I added annoyed, knowing that there were far worse things than being a part of the Order.
Miles didn’t say anything more, and I knew he was struggling with his emotions right now. As usual. And gradually I was getting fed up with it.
