“Yes, that I am. Good. Sorry, I don’t mean to offend you, but I suppose we are still learning about each other. No, I don’t think of you in that way. It surprises me that the others do. Did you find anything?” I go to stand next to him and lean down to peer over his shoulder. He looks at me now for the first time and his eyes are directly in line with my barely covered breasts. He clears his throat and I become aware that I am still wearing the lacy negligee from earlier, albeit adjusted to fit my Liv form. I don’t bother with covering up now as I am not embarrassed and it’s not like he hasn’t already seen me naked before. A few times.
“Cade?” I question him and he brings his eyes up from breasts to my eyes.
“Yes, Liv?”
I arch my eyebrow at him, and he shrugs. “I have eyes.”
“Indeed. I asked you if you found anything.”
“Not much to go on, I’ll admit. There are beings called Dream Weavers that can manipulate dreams, but they are low level, in comparison to you at least, so I think you would be immune, having seen firsthand how magick doesn’t affect you. I will keep looking.”
“Can I help?” I offer.
“Not unless you have anything more to add?”
I shake my head. “Nope. Sorry.”
I sit and he carries on, tapping away, making notes here and there. After a few minutes, I say, “Speaking of magick, what is it exactly that your blood is supposed to do to Vampires?”
He looks up, startled by the question. “Forthright, aren’t you?”
“No point being any other way.”
“True. Well, it incapacitates. Paralyzes.”
“Oh. Is that how you got James to sit still long enough for you to…” I make a slicing motion across my throat and he chuckles.
“Maybe,” he says and goes back to his work.
“So, you killed your first Vampire at sixteen? How long did you train for?”
He sighs. “Really? We are going to have this conversation?”
“Yes.”
“Fine. We train formally from the age of ten, but we are taught at our father’s feet long before then.”
“That’s young,” I say, mildly shocked. “Are all Hunters men?”
“No, the first born.”
“Oh. You have brothers and sisters?”
“No. Do you?” he asks with a slight smile.
“Haha, very funny. How did you kill your first?”
“Oh, now that is quite personal, don’t you think?”
I shrug. “I want to know about you. I think this qualifies as need-to-know.”
“Well, I was lucky that they assigned me a female. It might have turned out differently had it been a male,” he says and turns back to the laptop.
“Oh no. You don’t get to end there. Why is it lucky it was a woman? Gender has no meaning when it comes to Vampire strength and skill.”
“I know. However, I am fairly certain that I wouldn’t have been able to seduce a male Vampire into bed with me.”
“What?” My voice is a high-pitched squeak and he just laughs at me. “So, you seduced her into your bed, and she bit you and then you, what?”