Free The Hollow by Nicole R. Taylor Page B

she said calmly. "Understand that I am much stronger than you'll ever hope to be. Fighting is futile."
    "Who are you?"
    His question didn't really surprise her. "Lady Arrow is but a name. A shell."
    "You're a vampire…" he began, trying to understand.
    "Yes."
    "You say it like it is so simple. Yes," he mimicked her voice. "Were any of the things you told me true?"
    "Everything I told you was true," she said. "Just not in the correct context. My family is dead, yes. I wanted adventure, yes. I had no reason to lie to you."
    "Did you make me…" He gestured to his eyes. Vampires could make humans do their bidding if they wished, something that she found absolutely vile.
    "No, but I see you've taken a lot of amusement with it."
    He snarled at her, his eyes misting back in the corners. He was quite unstable wasn't he?
    "What happened to you, Tristan? How did you come to be here?"
    "There was another Crusade," he spat. "I was compelled to go. I was honor bound. They called me a hero." He leant back into the chair, a look of disgust on his face. "They said I was the reason they could sack the city. If it wasn't for me, then I wouldn't have had to go down there."
    "You remember?" she asked.
    "I remember…" he stopped for a moment, a far away look in his dark eyes. "I remember blood."
    "Where did this happen?"
    "The Crusades went on," he said. "Twelve oh four. I met my end in the sewers of Constantinople. Do you think what I am compares to that of the rats that made me? The rats who were once men living in shit and piss feeding on the unwary? I am civilized, Lady Arrow. I live in a castle. My Lord of a father would be proud of what his son has accomplished. Knights Templar with an Austrian castle."
    Aya looked around at the ruin and laughed. "This pile of rubble? This is not a true dwelling Ser Tristan. No one had to invite you in here."
    "Enough." He slammed his fists against the arms of the chair, splintering the wood. "You take away my blood and now you insult me?"
    "You insult yourself. This is not the Tristan I know."
    "What were we crusading for Lady Arrow? How different am I from what I was?"
    "You were different, Tristan. You fought, we all did, but you didn't take it further. You didn't rape or plunder. You didn't relish in death."
    "Stop it," he roared, hands in his wild hair. "My blade still sunk into the flesh of children just as my fangs do. The only difference is that now... I like it. I need it."
    "There's another way."
    "There is no other way." He was on his feet and across the room in a blink of an eye, hands around her throat, black eyes digging into hers. "What does your blood taste like, Lady Arrow?"
    He crushed her to the stone floor and she let him sink his fangs into her neck, she let him pull the blood from his veins. If he tasted her, then he would understand what she was. But, only a drop. She kicked him off as she felt his fangs pierce her skin and landed on his back with a grunt, but didn't move to get up.
    "You taste like infinity."
    He'd never said anything more appropriate in his life. She was infinity.
    "Tell me the rest, Tristan," she held her hand out to him, hauling his weary frame from the floor.
    Leaning against the mantle, he looked into the fire, wiping her blood from his lips with the back of his hand. "After the city was sacked, I went into the aqueducts searching for survivors. It was there I was set upon by devils in the darkness. Vampires," he laughed. "Animals. No longer human. I fought, but you already know how that ends. They fed on me until I was almost at the point of death."
    "They wanted to change you?" she asked, trying to mask her horror.
    "No. Another group of Templar came and scared them away. The took me to the healers, but it was too late and I died during the night, I suppose. But, I woke in the morning and who was around to know? Who was I to understand? When they brought me food and water, it was something else I was hungry for. I killed the servant and…" he choked on his