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I can’t help the eyeroll. “Not my name. I also don’t have any money. You know that.”

“I’m not interested in your coin.” He moves beside me, pushing my hair over my shoulder. It’s almost intimate, the motion. Soft. “You have something far richer flowing through your veins that I will gladly take as payment.” Rhenn brings his mouth to my neck and every muscle in my body tightens. He’s going to bite me. I freeze, not even able to breathe.

Please don’t.

His teeth scrape against me, forcing my eyes shut.

“Oh my gosh,” the girl chirps. “I have a great idea. Why don’t I show her around?” Her words are rushed, forcing a lightness into her tone that almost masks the bitterness.

No part of me wants to go anywhere with her. In this moment, though, I’d do anything she asks because the parasite pulls away. His warm fingers leave my skin, and his haunting grays fall to her.

“She already has plans today, don’t you, Vix?” I don’t have a chance to answer before he’s talking again. “Why don’t you come back tonight?”

Her eyes, not quite as dark blue as her hair, widen, glancing between us. “You…want to be alone with her?”

My back tenses at the idea of that. While I may not be a fan of Pointy Ears, I’d much rather be in a room with the two of them than with him alone.

He glides his fingers through her hair, letting his hand come to a stop on the side of her cheek. The gesture is sweet, nothing like the image I hold of him in my mind.

She stares up at him, not like she’s afraid, but with a longing I’ve never felt. I am a stranger to any real affection. That doesn’t mean I can’t recognize it.

“Come back tonight,” he tells her. Her focus drifts to me one final time before she nods, finding her way to the front door without further argument. The moment it closes, I feel surrounded, like the walls are forcing themselves to shrink around me.

Maybe that’s my cue to leave too.

My stomach growls before I take the first step.

“You’re hungry?” I shake my head, but my insides betray me, rumbling even louder. He lets out a shallow breath, nodding toward an open doorway. “Kitchen’s in there.”

“I really should be going.” I move slowly in reverse. “I need to figure out how to get home.”

“Eat.” His tone is hard, demanding, leaving no room for argument. Whatever soft spot he held while talking to the other girl is gone.

Rhenn observes me while we sit at the table, an unnerving intensity to his gaze, like he’s dissecting my every movement, judging me silently.

An aching discomfort fills the space between us, and I sit up straighter, needing him to back off. “Can I help you with something?”

He doesn’t respond. He also doesn’t remove his focus.

I pick at the fruit he had given me from the counter, some kind of berry, far sweeter than any I’d ever had from the store. Maybe it’s just because I’m starving, but it’s the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten. So ripe and juicy. “You know, it isn’t nice to stare. In fact, it’s kind of creepy,” I manage through a mouthful.

“That so?” he asks, reaching across the table and stealing the last red fruit from my hand.

“And taking a hungry girl’s food? Bad manners. What would your parents think?” I half mock, when really, all I want is for him to give it back.

“I don’t know. They’re not around to ask.”

“Why? You drive them off?”

“They’re dead.”

“Oh.” I look down at my hands on the table. “Both of my parents are dead too. At least, I assume they are. My dad died fighting fires before I was born, and my mom just sort of disappeared.”

There’s not even a pause before he responds. “I don’t want to hear about your problems, Vixen.”

My face flushes and my eyes shoot back to his. “Stop calling me that. It isn’t my name.”

“No. I think it suits you better.”