Of course, she couldn’t remain his wife. That was a ridiculous idea.
“We should probably go to the chapel and see what we can find out about having the marriage annulled,” he said, making certain to keep any emotion out of his voice.
She didn’t answer for a moment, then straightened, still pale but her eyes glittered even more, this time with what he thought was determination.
“I agree.” She didn’t wait for him as she started down the uneven sidewalk, weaving through a group of raucous partygoers.
Yeah, this was definitely not a woman who wanted to be married a moment longer than she had to be.
Katie knew it was silly, but she’d actually been hurt when Cort suggested an annulment. It was, of course, the most sensible course of action, but still, it did somehow feel like rejection.
You are being so silly.
How could she even be rejected by this man? She had to have some sort of relationship beyond casual friendship to be rejected.
And again, she told herself, it wasn’t like she didn’t have enough to worry about what with being a fanged, night dwelling blood drinker and all.
At the thought of blood, her stomach rumbled. She was hungry, but she knew she wouldn’t likely want anything she would have normally eaten.
“I’m a vegetarian.”
Cort’s pace slowed as he shot her a surprised glance.
“Really?”
“Well, I do eat fish, but no red meat or poultry or pork in nearly ten years.”
Cort didn’t say anything for a moment. “Well, you still won’t eat any of those things.”
Katie hadn’t expected that, and she couldn’t help from laughing. “But I will live on blood, right?”
She kept her voice low, just in case someone was in hearing range.
“Yes, we do live on blood.”
“Human blood?” she whispered.
He gave her a regretful look. “Yes.”
“So pop culture has that one right,” she said.
He nodded. “There are some who live on human life force, draining energy rather than blood, which might have been more appealing to you. But unfortunately you are a straight-up, run-of-the-mill vampire. And you drink blood.”
“Run-of-the-mill vampire,” she repeated with a cough of humorless laughter. There was nothing run-of-the-mill to her about this situation.
“Well, like you said, the vampires of pop culture. We can’t go out into the sun—I hope you weren’t a sun worshipper.”
She shook her head. She really wasn’t. She just freckled. Still, it was hard to imagine never seeing the sun again.
“You can eat,” Cort continued, “but it will make you sick. Some vampires do though, just to keep up normal appearances. And we can drink alcohol—as last night would prove.”
“So I will just run around biting people?”
God, that idea was awful, mainly because she didn’t find it awful at all. Just yesterday a hot dog would have made her gag, now she was salivating over the idea of sinking her teeth into human flesh. So much for all those years of ethical eating. And the worst part was, if the tingle rippling her body was an indication, she found the idea . . . thrilling. Hummus certainly never got her so excited, that was for sure.
“Some vampires feed directly from humans,” Cort said. “But the band guys and I usually drink bagged blood.”
“Bagged blood? Like donated blood?”
Cort nodded. “It’s a bit like frozen dinners. Not as good as a home-cooked meal, but definitely easier and more convenient. And definitely less complicated.”
“Less complicated?”
“Biting humans can be quite problematic. We can take too much blood, which is dangerous. The human can become addicted to the ecstasy of the vampire’s bite, which can lead to weird stalker situations. We can accidentally cross a human over—like what happened to you. It’s just safer to go prepackaged.”
Katie nodded, trying to take everything in. “Shouldn’t I be . . . hungrier? I mean, as a new vampire? In movies, it always seems like newly crossed over vampires are ravenous.”
Cort nodded. “Yes, that’s another movie portrayal that’s totally true. As soon as the crossing over is complete, the new vampire is starving. So I suspect you fed last night and are still satiated. Otherwise we’d know. You’d be toothy and frantic.”
Now there was an image.
She stopped walking, realizing exactly what he’d just said. “Do you think I hurt someone?”
Cort stopped, too, turning toward her. He reached for her hands, holding them in his much larger ones. “To be honest, I’m not really sure. Let’s face it, we have no idea about anything we did last night. But I’d like to think if I was with you, I wouldn’t have let you do that.”
Given that he was totally right, that they didn’t have any idea what had happened last night, his reassurance shouldn’t have made her feel better. But it did.
Or maybe it was his hands, surprisingly warm with strong, long fingers and broad palms, yet so gently cupping hers. She looked down at their joined fingers. Their gold bands glinted in the streetlights.
What would it be like to be married to a man like this for real?
No, not a man, a vampire. And what was the point of even thinking that way? They were about to find out about an annulment. This was not the time to be getting dreamy. Not the time at all.
“We should probably get to the chapel,” she said, slowly pulling her hands away from his.
“Right,” he agreed, seeming to snap out of his own thoughts. Was he thinking about their crazy marriage, too? Or had he noticed her moony expression and was wondering what the heck was wrong with her?
“Going to the chapel, and I’m going to get married,” the parrot crooned in its eerie falsetto as they started walking again.
Not this time, Katie thought. Not this time. And she was damned silly for feeling sad about that fact.
* * *
“THIS IS IT,” Cort said, stopping in front of a brick building with a white awning over the door.
“I never would have known this was a wedding chapel. Have you been here before?” she asked, looking from the building to Cort.
“Aside from possibly last night, you mean?” He offered her a sheepish smile.
“Yeah,” she said. She returned his smile with one of her own, although he could see it didn’t quite reach her deep blue eyes.
“I actually have. To be a witness for Drake.”
“Drake is married?” Katie had never noticed Drake with one particular woman. In fact, most of the time, he seemed to have a new flavor of the week . . . or even day.