Vail frowned when Victoria laughed at him. She was quite cocky with a barrier between them, but there was nothing he could do about it as long as she refused to put down the silver she carried in her arms. It seemed there would be no convincing her to be swayed by his wishes as long as she was certain he couldn’t touch her. He cursed inwardly, frustrated to have come this far only to be thwarted by a few containers of metal. It would have been defeating to return to the Hygrace manor without feeding after all the work he’d put in to find her again. He wasn’t going to give up just yet.

As she thrusted the boxes in his direction, he quickly distanced himself from her with a grimace, put off by the stench of the silver they contained. “Very funny,” he muttered with a roll of his eyes. She really was bold when she had the upper hand. He hadn’t expected it to be this difficult to wear her down. Still, he continued to trail after her, ignoring her when she told him to go home. If he had been pursuing any other woman, he might have lost interest by now, but the thought of tasting [i]her[/i] blood again made him stubborn.

“On any other night, perhaps,” Vail admitted when Victoria told him he should go after a whore instead. “But that’s not why I came out tonight.” He supposed there was no longer any point in hiding his intentions when she had already figured him out. His eyes followed her movements predatorily as he fell in step beside her again. Despite the tough act she was putting on, he could see that she appeared to be straining under the weight of the boxes she was carrying. All he needed to do was outlast her strength.

“I’ll make it quick for you,” he went on, keeping up with her easily even when she hastened her pace. “I’m sure you know already that I don’t need much… Just a taste.” He swept his tongue over his fangs. “You don’t have anything to be afraid of.”