“Good.”

“She didn’t dump him because she was afraid he might hurt me. She dumped him because she was jealous. She accused me of intentionally trying to steal him away from her.”

Roland paused in his washing and stared down at her in apparent disbelief.

Sarah shrugged. “My mother is one of those women who refuses to grow up. When Jason and I were in high school, she wore my clothes, tried to act like a teenager, embarrassed the hell out of Jason if he brought a girl home, and hit on all of my dates. Not that there were many. I avoided dating completely once I realized she was going to try to seduce every boy who showed an interest in me.”

He grunted. “I’ve met a few of those over the centuries.”

“And as if that weren’t bad enough,” Sarah continued, “the woman couldn’t hold down a job for more than a year at a stretch. We were always short on money. And once Jason and I started working as teenagers, she decided mooching off of us was a lot easier than supporting us. She basically made our lives miserable. I couldn’t get out fast enough and moved away to college as soon as I graduated high school.”

“I don’t blame you. What about your brother?”

She sighed. “My brother became an alcoholic and beats his wife, who refuses to leave him. I cut ties with all of them a long time ago.”

Silently, he handed her a glass.

She gave him a guarded look. “Aren’t you going to tell me I’m a horrible person for turning my back on them?”

“No, I don’t buy into that you have to love them because you’re related to them tripe. Life is short. At least for you humans. Too short to waste on people who treat you badly and do nothing but make you miserable.”

The tension in her eased. “There don’t seem to be very many people out there who agree with that.”

“More than you might think.” He handed her another glass, his shoulder rubbing hers. Or rather his arm. She was about a foot shorter than him. “Besides, I know how much families can suck.”

She eyed him curiously. “Lousy parents?”

“Lousy brother,” he corrected, passing her the last glass, and grimly met her inquiring gaze. “My brother is the one who arranged for me to be captured by the vampire who transformed me.”

Shock ripped through Sarah as she stared up at him. She had assumed Roland had been the random victim of some vampire lost to madness and bloodlust, not gift-wrapped and handed over to one by a family member.

“How could he do that to you?” she whispered, appalled.

“Very easily, as it turned out. I trusted him implicitly.”

What a terrible betrayal. Marcus had told her Roland had been royally screwed over three times. This had to have been one of them.

“Did you ever find out why he did it?”

“I was the heir. He was the younger son. When my father died, I inherited the title, the lands, and all the wealth. I had everything Edward wanted.”

“But that’s how it was back then. I mean, it couldn’t have come as any surprise to him. And there were other ways he could have gained lands and money.”

“None so expedient as getting rid of me, however. I wasn’t the first heir to become the victim of a younger brother’s envy.” He shook his head. “He was good, I’ll give him that. Not once did he reveal his resentment in any way. He wasn’t distant or angry or bitter. He was a good friend to me. My closest friend. I trusted him more than any other and would probably have slain any man who questioned his honor.”

Wiping her wet hand on her jeans, Sarah touched his arm. “Some people are superlative actors, never showing those around them their true thoughts.”

“Edward could’ve won an Oscar. Even after I was captured, I thought him innocent. He was there when it happened. We were on our way to court when the vampire’s human minions attacked. I knew Edward couldn’t fight worth a damn, so I sent him fleeing into the forest while I cut down as many as I could. I was so glad he got away safely.”

Though he spoke softly, there was a wealth of anger and hurt in his words. His brother’s deceit had profoundly scarred him.

“It wasn’t until I escaped that I learned the truth.”

Sarah frowned. “If he wanted you dead, why did he have the vampire transform you?”

“He didn’t. He assumed the vampire would kill me and leave my corpse for the wolves. And the vampire would have, I’m sure, had I not been one of the gifted ones.”

“I don’t understand. Did that make the vampire change his mind?”

“No.” Roland handed her the last fork to rinse. “There are two ways humans and gifted ones can be transformed. The first, and most merciful, is for the vampire to drain them almost to the point of death, then infuse them with his blood until they are replenished. In this way, the virus invades the body in such numbers that the change is swift.”

When Sarah finished rinsing the fork and placed it in the drainer with the rest of the dinner dishes, the two of them took turns washing the soap off their hands and drying them on a clean hand towel.

“What’s the other way?”

“To feed from the human repeatedly. When a vampire or immortal drinks from a human, the human is exposed to the virus in trace amounts. Unless the human’s immune system has already been compromised—by HIV, for example—a single bite isn’t a problem. The immune system can fight it off in small quantities, but it takes a hit while doing so. Now, because this virus is so different, the body can’t produce memory B cells for it the way it can for the flu or the measles and—”

“What are memory B cells?”

“Memory B cells enable the immune system to easily recognize and swiftly defeat a virus the next time one is exposed to it. So if the human is bitten and the vampiric virus attacks again, without those memory B cells, the immune system doesn’t remember it, must start from scratch to fight it off again, and is weakened more. With repeated feedings, eventually the immune system is crippled enough that the virus destroys it completely and takes its place.”

“Does it … does the change hurt?”

“The first method isn’t that bad. I’ve heard it’s a bit like having the flu and is over in two or three days’ time. The second method, however, makes the human very ill. Dangerously high fevers. Delirium. Severe muscle and stomach cramps. Vomiting. Convulsions. The pain becomes so unbearable it makes one pray for death and, depending on how often the vampire drinks from you, can last anywhere from a few weeks to months.”

The expression on his face when he mentioned praying for death was so haunted. Sarah feared he was speaking from experience, not merely reciting symptoms he had observed in others. “Is that how it happened to you?”

Turning to face her, he leaned one hip against the counter. “Yes. After my capture, I was taken to an isolated castle that looked as if it had leapt from the pages of a gothic novel and was manacled to a wall in the dungeon. There were six others there, both men and women. Every night the vampire came down and fed from us. A different victim for each day of the week. We were his own personal blood bank, given just enough food and stagnant water to keep us alive.”

She couldn’t bear to think of him that way. Chained to a wall, suffering such torturous pain. “Did the others turn?”

“We all did in time. Because of the conditions in which we were kept, the madness that usually seeps into vampires slowly struck my cell mates almost immediately. When it did, the vampire killed them and replaced them with new victims. But I was a gifted one. My body didn’t react the same way theirs did. I didn’t become vampire. I became immortal, though I admit there were days I wished I could seek refuge in madness.”

“How long did it take?” she asked. How long had he suffered?

“Six months, give or take a week. Had he fed from me daily, it would have happened sooner. But my immune system had a week to recover between feedings and, because of my gifts, I healed swifter and more fully than the others.”

Six months.

“The rest continued to weaken after their transformation. They couldn’t seem to stomach food and had no blood to nourish them. I could still eat and naively thought that meant I could yet be saved. My senses sharpened. My body cramped, needing blood, but the other symptoms faded away. My strength returned, increasing until I was able to yank the chains that bound me straight out of the wall.”

“Did you kill the vampire?”

Slowly, he nodded. “I killed the vampire and his minions, set free those victims who were salvageable, put the others out of their misery, then razed the castle and went home, where I was ultimately forced to face the truth of my brother’s perfidy.”

Sarah didn’t know how he had survived it.

Well, she knew how he had survived it physically. The more advanced DNA he couldn’t explain. But how had he survived it mentally? Emotionally? He must have been clinging by a thread.

And then to find out his brother had engineered it all …

Curling her hand around his strong biceps, Sarah rose onto her toes and kissed his freshly shaven cheek.

Chapter 9

Roland’s pulse increased as warmth unfurled in his chest like a cat awakening from a nap. Sarah returned her heels to the floor and gazed up at him with tenderness softening her hazel eyes.

“Why did you do that?” he asked, reaching up to touch the tingling skin her lips had brushed.

She smiled. “I wanted to. And you looked like you might need it.”

Had he? The old anger had risen up to choke him as it always did when he thought of Edward. Yet it had dissolved the instant she kissed him, her delectable scent sweeping over him, intoxicating him.

He had needed it. Needed that and so much more. He needed her. He needed …

Slowly lowering his head, Roland claimed her lips in an excruciatingly gentle exploration.

Her breath caught. Eyelids drifting closed, she parted her lips and invited him within.