logan cocked her head. "so, i take it stefan is your dad?"

trinity's lips thinned in a sheepish smile. "yes. sorry. his real name is lord stefan nelek. i've been calling him dad for so long i forget about it sometimes."

logan dropped her cigarette into the makeshift ashtray and listened to the hiss it made as it hit the water. the sound rather summed up how she felt at the moment. she hadn't even done anything to this stefan vampire and he was already punishing her. "forgive me if i don't return the caring sentiment. i don't exactly feel all warm and fuzzy about the vampire i have to get clean just to meet, especially since he happens to be the same one who decides if live or die."

trinity sighed, long and loud. "i don't really expect you to. just keep this in mind, if he was so bad do you think i'd call him dad? or that kerestyan would call him father? that should really tell you all you need to know."

logan stood and narrowed her eyes on trinity. she'd called someone dad once too, but in the end, he'd been anything but. "i don't care what you call him. you're not in my shoes right now, and i'm not in yours. after talking to you, i understand a little better why i can't go back to my old life. for you, as a vampire, it's all about your survival. i can respect that, but i don't have to like the situation your need for survival has put me in."

"i understand. i don't expect you to like what's happening. i didn't like being plucked out of my bed one night six thousand years ago and being turned into a vampire, either. like i said, none of us nelek kids got a choice when it came to immortality. but each of us makes the best of it, and to this day i don't regret it."

logan straightened as trinity stared into her eyes the way kerestyan had when they'd first met in the alley. "why are you looking at me like that?"

she smiled in an eerie way that sent a chill straight down logan's spine. "the key to getting through withdrawal, and i know because i've been there, is finding the brightest part of your life and holding onto it with everything you have. no matter how much your body hurts, no matter how close you think you are to dying, keep a hold of it and don't let go."

logan blinked at her. she needed to stare at her to come up with that? "could you be any more ambiguous?

"believe it or not, yes." she smiled again, which she seemed to do a lot, and then extended her hand, which logan accepted. "it was nice to finally meet you. and though i don't think you need it, good luck. it'll be nice to have another girl in the family."

logan returned the smile. "thanks for the whole servio explanation, i appreciate it." she arched a brow when trinity released her hand then took a few steps back as a cold breeze wafted across the room. "are you going to disappear, too?"

trinity's smile turned into a lopsided grin, very reminiscent of odin. "yes, all the nelek kids can. oh, and don't forget to thank kerestyan for the steak. i did come all the way from chicago to drop them off." she winked. "ordering dinner from seven hundred miles away just to make a girl happy...he must really like you."

"i don't think that's why..."

trinity disappeared in a burst of wind.

bitch. logan inhaled a deep breath and blew a sigh. it would've been a lot easier to go back to the kitchen and face kerestyan had trinity kept that last sentence to herself. she liked him, she really did, and he was definitely nice to look at - but she didn't have any illusions about what was happening between them.

she shook her head as she opened the door and stepped into the hallway. truthfully, they were both a threat to the other's survival. he lived his life by blending in with humans, and she lived hers' by staying as far away from them as possible.

chapter 7

kerestyan looked up from his steaming goblet of blood as logan walked back into the kitchen. her green eyes appeared more distant than usual, but he hadn't heard any screaming, which meant whatever words trinity had chosen went over far better than the previous discussion about her addiction.

he picked up the shot glass he'd placed next to the bottle of vodka she'd requested and tapped it against the table. "you look like you could use a drink."

she gifted him a faint smile before she curled herself into the chair across from him. "thank you for the steak."

he mirrored her gesture. "trinity told you?"

she nodded as she twisted the cap from the bottle. "yeah, she said you had it specially delivered from chicago."

"well, someone once told me chicago had the best steaks. and i said to myself, because i often talk to myself, that you should have the best steak i could procure. so i called and had them flown in."

her smile grew a bit. "oh, really?" she filled the shot glass to the brim. "i heard you sent trinity on a windy mission spanning 700 miles. give or take a few."

he watched as she tipped her head back and swallowed the clear liquid, admiring the graceful, enticing column of her throat. remembering what it felt like to run his tongue there, how much he'd enjoyed pulling her body against his.

how much he enjoyed her.

"trinity gave away all my secrets, didn't she?"

logan blew out a breath and scrunched up her face. "she might have spilled a few of yours, but she did a pretty good job of sticking to her own. don't worry, she didn't tell me about the teddy bear you sleep with."

he arched a brow. "but i don't sleep with a teddy bear. i've never even owned one, and i don't sleep but for a few hours once every six to seven months."

her lips finally widened enough to show her white teeth. "i was just checking." she poured herself another shot, but her perfect smile faded as she stared down at the glass, twisting it between her fingers. "so tell me about lord stefan nelek. tell me what you think i need to know to make it through this."

kerestyan took a sip of his chosen drink then set the blackened goblet back on the table. "he's very hard to explain. i've heard him described as an angel twisted with a nightmare, as a tyrant whose mailed fist hides a velvet glove. but in the same breath, i've watched him be called a monster, a creature, a relic who should have met the sun long, long ago. yet i...i call him father."

"do you love him?" she asked in a quiet voice.

he relaxed in his chair. "that's an extremely difficult question to answer. love changes when you become a vampire. it takes on a different texture, a richer but far more complicated hue and taste. i respect him. i obey him. i would follow him into battle and die to protect him and what he represents to me. if, to you, that means i love him, then i would say yes, i love my father."

"do you fear him?"

"no. i believe fear blooms when you either can't, or choose not to understand something. and while i may not understand each and every way his ancient mind functions, i understand him enough to know why it is he does the things he does, and why he lives the way he chooses."

she still didn't raise her head. "what do i have to do to stop him from killing me?" her soft voice wavered at the end of the question.

kerestyan fisted his hands. he hated hearing the fear in her voice, hated feeling it radiate from her body, but despised the thick scent of it even more.

he closed his eyes when, for the second time in her presence, the beast inside him unfurled deep in his stomach. the first time he'd felt it shift, it'd done so from the pure desire ebbing in his blood. from the burning need he'd felt to touch her, to taste her skin mixed with the small, crescent shaped smear of blood just above her lips.

but now it uncoiled in anger, and its focus was no other direction than inward.

logan may have been a threat to his better sensibilities, but she was not a danger to the vampire population as a whole.

had he left her in the alley where he'd found her, she wouldn't be terrified now. had he not allowed curiosity to cloud his judgment, she'd be in whatever building she called home for the night, continuing to keep the immortal secret she'd stumbled upon. she wouldn't be sitting across from him now with tears swimming in her beautiful eyes, staring through a glass setting atop a table built long before any human had thought to believe in a single entity called god.

"kerestyan? if you have any advice, i'd really like to hear it." the desperate note in her voice tore at his insides.

"answer the questions he asks you as honestly as possible, logan. no matter how much you don't think he'll like the answer, or how much you don't like your own answer. if you lie, he'll know you are before the words ever pass your lips. that's all you can do. i wish there was more, i truly do. but due to your human state, honesty is all you have to offer him."

she finished her shot and sat up straight. "okay. then that's what i'll do."

he studied her as she spun the cap on the bottle then unfolded her legs from underneath her; watched closely while she carefully pushed the chair in and began walking back towards the hallway to her room.