Adrian shifted his body to face Alice. After two hours of conversation, he felt comfortable enough with his control to look at her. He stared at her with his dark, midnight blue eyes and cleared his throat.
"Can I ask a personal question?"
"Did I choose this life?" Alice asked the question for him as soon as she saw him asking it. "I really can't answer that because I'm not sure. I don't remember any of my life before I was turned. All I remember is darkness. This life is all I know but I can't imagine many people willingly choosing this."
Adrian shifted in his chair again so he didn't have to look into those sad eyes as she tried to force a memory of her human life to show itself. For a reason he did not understand, he felt filled with pity for her.
"How about you?" Alice's small, sing-song voice interrupted his thoughts. "Did you choose this life?"
"No, it just happens to be in my blood." Adrian smiled as she winced at the sound of the last word he spoke. "The first male born in my family for centuries now has carried the gene that turns you into a slayer. My father, my grandfather, his father before him, and his before that."
"So, you've been killing all of your life?" Adrian could now hear the pity in her voice, it caused him to chuckle.
"No, since I turned seventeen. That's when the power shows itself. On my seventeenth birthday, my senses sharpened. I became quicker and unnaturally skilled in combat. And I was given this coin" he said flipping the ancient piece over in his hand. He pressed it against Alice's arm to show her the warmth that escaped from it. He laughed silently at her bewildered expression. "It heats up when a vampire is near. And well, you're pretty close right now, so…" Adrian laughed again.
"And you enjoy this? You enjoy killing my kind?"
"No, but I do enjoy seeing the look on their face when I tell them they are about to die." He grinned mischievously at her.