“See?” Elias drawled, sitting back in his chair, something in his eyes going dark. “I can tell if you were healthy right now, you’d be trying to stake me. No poker face.”
It was unacceptable, how much she wished she’d pursued his gruff statement—you know I’m aware—instead of falling down the rabbit hole of hate. Like mother, like daughter. “I will work on this poker face and have it mastered by tomorrow evening. Just watch me.”
He picked up the shuffled deck again and dealt them each two cards. “Who are you playing against?”
“I’ll find out when I get there. It will be a fun surprise.”
His upper lip curled, obviously displeased with her answer. “How are you going to explain the fact that you’re bruised and hobbling?”
“I don’t know. But I was thinking of renting one of those motorized carts and really leaning into it.” She checked her cards—a nine and ten of hearts. Keeping her features schooled, she laid down her cards carefully, making a note to do it the same way every single time, and tossed a few pennies into the pot. “Raise.”
No physical reaction. “Call.”
He took three cards off the top of the deck, spreading them on the surface of the box. Two of them were hearts, giving her a flush draw. Every card in the flop was a low number, so unless he had a high pair in his hand, she might be on track to the best hand.
She got a fifth heart on the turn, felt his gaze hit her hard, but stayed perfectly still.
“Anyway,” she said conversationally, checking her turn. “I think I will be back in fighting shape by tomorrow night. Look how much progress I’ve made already. Walking and breathing and sitting up like a big girl.”
“It’s a shame my heart isn’t beating,” he muttered, examining his cards one more time. “A drop of my blood might heal you completely.”
“What?” Her spine straightened. “I thought that was only a myth.”
“Might, I said.” He checked his turn, then laid down the river card. An ace. “I’m not sure if it would work with a full human, but Jonas’s blood saved Ginny’s life when she was being Silenced. I watched it happen. She would have died without it.”
A dagger stuck in her throat. “I didn’t know,” she breathed, wishing for a phone so she could text her friend, even just one of their GIF battles. “Like you said, your heart isn’t beating, so there’s not much point in speculating.”
“Right.” He leveled her with a long look, transferring it back down to the card game. “Only my mate will make it beat. Until then…”
Jealousy went off inside her like a hydrogen bomb and she barely resisted kicking the table again, this time hard enough to send it across the room. Vampires and their mates. The holy grail that could jumpstart a dead heart. Wow. What a cool party trick. So what?
Her stupid fingers were shaking and she couldn’t stop grinding her back teeth.
Only when a vampire drank from another could he determine if they were mated. Because they couldn’t very well go around sampling every vampire they came into contact with—and it was against the rules to drink from a human—it often took decades or even centuries to find their mates. Which tended to leave a lot of the male vamps grumpy-sauce since they couldn’t have a full sexual release until they were inside their one and only.
This information hadn’t been passed on during her training.
Oh no. She’d heard it from Tucker, though in much saltier terms.
And it was as hard to acknowledge now as it was then.
What if he ended up with a human mate, like Jonas? Would he Silence her? Take her blood in exchange for the venom he stored in his fangs, so they could be together eternally like a bunch of stupid jerks?
“Remember your poker face, Roks,” Elias said quietly.
Garnering every ounce of her self-possession, she studied the five cards on the board, eschewing the vision of another woman approaching Elias and being found so irresistible, so essential to him, she made his heart start pumping again. Hot moisture crowded behind her eyes, but she blinked it away. Focus. You have to get good at this.
And she couldn’t have Elias anyway.
Didn’t want him.
Concentrate.
He’d stayed in on the flop, but checked the turn. Chasing something. Maybe that ace that showed up on the river. Whatever he had, it couldn’t beat her flush. But she’d checked the turn, when she’d gotten that fifth heart, so he might not suspect she had one.
Meaning he would call her bet.
Roksana cleared her throat, but still sounded like a rusted boat rudder when she spoke. “I’m all in.”
Elias reared back a little and surveyed the board. “Really.” She said nothing, keeping her eyes downcast, even though her skin prickled when he started to study her. “Call.”