Free The Elemental Mysteries: Complete Series by Elizabeth Hunter Page B

Causeway.”  
    “ What are you? ” she asked in a stronger voice, her hands clenched into fists at her sides.  
    He fell silent, his eyes left hers as he stared down at the blue fire in his hand.   “What do you think I am?” he asked in low voice.   “Think.”  
    “I don’t remember any particular myths about pyrokinetic book dealers!”
    He flicked his fingers and the flaming orb spun to the top of the compartment where it hung and twisted, still illuminating the small space.   Giovanni pulled his long legs toward his body and rested his arms on his knees, his long graceful fingers loosely knit together in front of him.  
    “Forget the fire for a moment,” he said in what she thought of as his “professor voice.”   She normally found it annoying but, at that moment, it was oddly comforting.   “There are other myths.   Other stories.   What do you think I am? ”
    She remembered the first night they had met, and his inhuman speed that beat her elevator to the lobby.  
    “You—you’re fast.”  
    He nodded.   “I’m very fast.   And very strong.”  
    She thought back to his pale face glowing on Dia de los Muertos.  
    “Your skin…it’s pale.   Really pale.   And I’ve never seen you during the day.”  
    “And you never will,” he murmured in the pulsing blue light.  
    Her breathing picked up as a growing suspicion began to take shape.   Her voice wavered a little as she continued, “I’ve never seen you eat or drink…anything.”  
    Her heart pounded when he looked at her through the dark hair that had fallen into his eyes.   “I can eat, a little, but I don’t need food to survive.”  
    “Because,” she swallowed, “you drink…I mean, you’re a…”  
    Giovanni slowly parted his lips and the tip of his tongue peeked out as he ran it slowly along his top teeth, two of which were now noticeably elongated into very sharp, white fangs.  
    “You’re a vampire,” she whispered.  
    He nodded slowly, and they sat across from each other in the small compartment, both seeming to gauge the other’s reaction.  
    “You’re afraid,” he said.  
    “Yeah, well…duh.”  
    He smiled a little at her exclamation, and it revealed his long canines even more clearly.  
    She leaned forward and rested her forehead on her hands.   “I’m dreaming.   Or crazy.   I’m probably crazy, right?”  
    “You know you’re not.”  
    She looked up and barked out a sharp laugh.   “Oh, you really have no idea.”   She stared at him, then back to the blue orb hovering above them.   Then she looked down at the scuffed messenger bag he always carried, and the dark hair he brushed out of his face as he stared at her with inscrutable eyes.  
    “Are you going to kill me?”
    His eyebrows furrowed together, and he almost looked offended.   “No, of course not.”  
    “Why ‘of course not’?   How do I know?   Don’t you drink human blood?”
    “Not unless you’re offering, but I’m really not all that hungry.   And I wouldn’t kill you if I did.   I’m not young and I don’t have to drink much.”  
    “Well, that’s…comforting.”    
    “It should be.”
    She eyed his chest for a moment, and then her eyes darted to the wooden bar that ran around the elevator.   She heard him snicker.
    “On the off chance you were able to break that railing, and make a stake, and drive it into my chest—which is harder than it looks, trust me—it wouldn’t do anything more than give me a rather nasty chest wound and ruin one of my favorite shirts.   Relax, I have no interest in hurting you.”
    Her eyes met his and she could feel the blush coloring her face.   She suddenly felt embarrassed that she’d thought about killing him when she’d been in his company for weeks and he’d never so much as said a rude word.
    “What if I don’t believe you?   What if I run screaming to the security guard when we get out of here and tell him you’re a