“No, thank you. I quite like being human.”
“I think you would quite like being a Vampire,” I tease him.
“If I said now, okay, Liv, turn me. You would just do it. Easy as that?” he asks, changing tactic.
“No, not easy as that. It isn’t something you just do. You must be completely sure because there is no going back. And I wouldn’t do it. I would have to find someone else to do it.”
“Why not you? You are the only one who can bite me,” he says, now interested enough to pursue this conversation.
“I am not sure what my elevated status would bring with a siring. And I can just picture CK’s face if I told him I would have yet another bond to ‘nurture’ as he calls it.”
He laughs long and hard at that. “Oh, Christ. So can
I, now that you mention it!”
I laugh with him, enjoying his company. I say, “I am intrigued though…can Hunters be turned? You know, since your blood incapacitates?”
“Yes,” he says. “There have been a few who have gone to the dark side. As you well know, a Vampire doesn’t have to drain to sire.”
“Good to know,” I say with a tilt to my head and he shakes his at me. “And yes, that is true. Jess aside, I myself was fatally wounded when CK turned me.”
“Well, Queen Liv. I fancy that option even less than you sucking me dry.”
“What if I gave you another option?” I say, suddenly serious.
“What do you mean?”
“What if you could live a longer life, not age, but not be a Vampire?”
“How would you propose to do that?”
“I have a theory, but it needs testing,” I admit.
“You want me to be a guinea pig?”
“Only if you want to. Haven’t you already noticed a difference in your behavior after the blood oath you swore to me?” I ask.
“What do you mean?” he asks confused.
“I mean you may have started out with this job because you said you know how to pick a side, but don’t you feel differently now?”
He stares at me for the longest time and doesn’t look all that happy as he says, “Yes, I suppose I do.”
“I…I am not used to having humans around me, working for me so closely. I get too attached; it will sadden me when you…you know…” I admit then cautiously.
“Oh, bless you,” he says. “You will miss me when I am dead. I am flattered,” he jokes, but I am not joking.
“Cade,” I say. “I am being serious. Just think about it. Please? Thirty-odd years is a lot for you. It’s nothing to me and it will go by quickly. Even then you will have to stop working before that time is up.”
“You are being completely serious now, aren’t you? You want me to stick around,” he says.
“I do.”
“Hm. Well, it isn’t ever something I have thought about, but the answer is still no, thank you. It’s unnatural and therefore falls into the category of Supernatural.”
“We’ll see. And I prefer Paranormal.”
“It just annoys you, doesn’t it? That I don’t want to be like you.”