Sacrifice (Book 2)

Chapter 4 - What The Hell Am I?

Madison looked at Cole and frowned. She didn't know how to interpret the question. The pheromones coming off him were a mix of anxiety, anger, and a heady dose of arousal. She went with the latter. "Horny?"

Cole's face hardened. Just like that it was déjà vu. They were back in Paris and he was interrogating her the morning after he'd let her bite him. Cole leaned in, lowered his voice to a whisper and repeated the question, "Do I look like I'm laughing? What the hell am I?"

Madison's eyebrows drew down defensively. She honestly had no idea what he was asking. Leaning back in her chair, she puzzled her face and looked him in the eye. "I don't understand the question. Are you asking--what are you to me? Like, what is our relationship status? Or, we talking in the grand scale of the universe kind of thing? I can't answer you if I don't know what you're asking."

Four teenage boys sitting next to them started laughing and throwing wadded up napkins at one another. Cole glanced at them, put the phone down on the table, and looked around the café at the other patrons as if he were assessing whether he should continue. After pausing another moment he leaned in again. "I mean--what did you turn me into?"

Madison's mouth dropped open. "Are you asking me if you're a vampire?" It wasn't as if she hadn't wondered the same thing before. After all, she had given him her blood and he had died. But the moment she sat down at the table she knew he was mortal. "Don't you think you would know?" And then she realized there must be a reason he was asking. "Why?"

Cole shook his head, stared her deliberately in the eyes and wouldn't answer. A paper ball whizzed between the two of them. He looked at the boys, who promptly apologized, but continued to hurl objects back and forth. Cole couldn't take it any longer. He wanted answers and he wasn't going to get them sitting in a crowded café. "We need to go somewhere we can be alone and talk."

Madison nodded and began to pull on her coat. "Let me get those," he said. He smiled to himself when he picked up the two coffee cups to dispose of them. One was empty and the other full. Returning to the table, he put on his overcoat. He reached for Madison's hand. "My hotel is only a few blocks from here. We should go there."

Holding his warm palm in hers, she said, "Okay."

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Madison headed to the leather sofa in the sitting area next to the bed, her arms wrapped around her. Her blood was warming up to Cole and she was thankful to have the layers of clothing and black jacket as a barrier between them.

They hadn't spoken since they left the cafe and her mind was going crazy imagining why he had asked such a question. She waited while he hung up his coat and came into the room to sit down next to her. With a knee bent on the sofa she turned to face him. "Why did you ask me that question."

"Because I haven't been the same since that day in the warehouse." She waited for him to continue. "I'm not sure I'm human anymore."

Madison gave him a little smile. "You're definitely human, and not immortal, or vampire if that's what you mean. Your heart beats. Your body gives off heat. You can walk outside in the sun. I watched you drink your coffee. And vamps don't have pheromones."

"And yet...." he paused a moment, "I'm not the same."

"Okay...do you plan on telling me how you're different? You're killing me here."

"I was hoping you would tell me." He took a deep breath. "I went to the doctor a year ago, one I'd never seen before, for a routine physical. When the lab work and test results came back, imagine my surprise when I learned my spleen was in working order--especially because I didn't have one anymore. I was in a serious car accident when I was a kid and it ruptured. It was beyond repair. Doctors removed it so I wouldn't bleed out. But now it seems it's grown back."