As Victoria began to explain why she was unlike the other humans he had fed on before, Vail reached into his coat pocket with his free hand to retrieve a handkerchief. Even though he was safe in the summer house right now, he still had to walk back to his own home at some point. He was going to have to clean the blood off his face if he didn’t want to draw attention to himself. It was impossible to say if the Saint was still out looking for him, but he wasn’t going to take any chances.

Dragging the soft fabric across his jaw, he listened quietly as the Lady described her condition to him. The unusual case intrigued him. He supposed he could understand why she was so alluring to him now. The riches of human blood were what drew his kind to prey upon them. If she had an excess flowing through her veins, she would be a prime target for any vampire who caught a whiff of her enticing essence. He was just lucky enough to have found her first.

[i]Well, second,[/i] he corrected as his thoughts wandered back to Lord Spencer. The Wynter had been after her for far longer, but he had been rewarded first—and would continue to be as long as their pact stood. However, after hearing more about her childhood, he was admittedly surprised she had been so willing to accommodate him in the first place. It sounded like she didn’t have the most pleasant memories of his kind. He marveled that she would still bargain with him after being attacked at a child. She really was different than any other Lady he’d met before, brave and confident.

“I haven’t,” Vail confessed when Victoria asked if he’d never come across anyone like her before. “If it’s truly as rare as you say, then that doesn’t surprise me though. I only hunt at night. If others with your condition sleep are also affected by fatigue, I’d hazard a guess that they’re all in bed when I’m prowling.” Finished cleaning the blood from his chin, he stuffed the handkerchief back into his pocket and leaned away from her as she sat up. It looked like their short time together was coming to an end for now.

“Oh, I’m sure I will,” he smiled, his eyes sweeping over her lustfully when she told him to enjoy it while he could. Feeding on a beautiful woman with the most delicious blood he’d tasted in his life; what wasn’t there to love? As long as she was around, he was going to get as much out of their encounters as he could. “Every third night,” he added, having decided how often he would seek her out. It seemed like a fair enough compromise to him. Though he would have been delighted to taste her blood daily, he didn’t want to ask so much of her that she would come to dread his visits. As peculiar as it was, she had seemed to enjoy his preying. He wanted her to continue finding it pleasurable, since her sensual sounds and movements made the experience more thrilling for him too.

“We can continue to meet here as well,” Vail dictated, attempting to meet her gaze in the darkness, though he was unsure if she could see him clearly. “Every three days at midnight. Those are my terms.” He paused, thinking once again about the dilemma that was his half of the agreement. He had vowed to help her get rid of Spencer, but he had yet to ponder the first step in how he would do so.

The boxes of silver the Lady had been carrying came to mind.

“Also,” he spoke again before she could stand up, studying her curiously. “You said the gun you purchased was for Lord Spencer. Did you already have a plan in mind about how you want to get rid of him?”