Forbidden Alliance: A Werewolf's Tale (Forbidden Alliance Trilogy) by Danae Ayusso Page B

“Explain...please?”
    “I am not supp osed to reveal the secrets of my people,” he said ominously with a mischievous smirk pulling at the corner s of his sexy lips.
    I leaned across the table, batted my lashes , and pouted my bottom lip out. I’ve never been good at flirting but I wanted to know everything about him.
    Tanis laughed, shaking his head at my antics, and pushed my pouting bottom lip back in with his finger so I snapped my teeth at it. He quickly pulled his hand back and laughed even harder. “You are a naughty little bird,” he said, then licked his lips—maybe I wasn’t as bad at flirting as I thought I was. He leaned across the table, closing the space between us, his eyes moving over my face many times. “It is called thrall, or compulsion, depending on where you are from or how old you are,” he explained. “Thrall gives the wielder the ability to put a suggestion into someone’s mind.”
    I’d only heard of stuff like that in books.
    I guess all of those hours of mindless reading weren’t in vain after all.
    “So you thralled the hostess into giving us a table?” I surmised.
    “In essence,” he said. “I suggested that m y name was on the top of the reservation list thus that is what she saw.”
    Damn, that’s impressive...and seriously messed up .
    “So it’s evil?” I blurted out.
    “No,” he said and laughed again. “I mean, I suppose it could be used for evil. Then again, everything can be used for evil if you think about it. Like you for instance , you are the embodiment of evil and yet you do not even realize it,” he informed me .
    My head tilted to the side. “What do you mean?” I asked the obvious.
    The mischievous smirk was back and his eyes worked over my face many times. “You have no idea just how very evil you are. You possess an innocence which my presence has never had the honor, nay , the privilege, of being blessed with before, and that is what makes you so very evil,” he amusingly informed me and his finger softly started brushing against the back of my hand.
    “Oh,” was all I could say , and even that I struggled to articulate... that vampire was one to talk! He was obviously the evil one between us . “Are you flirting with me?” I asked because I honestly couldn’t tell.
    The smirk became even more predominant on his face. “Me? Never,” he purred and I lost the battle and whimpered which caused him to chuckle. “Back to your initial question,” he said, reassuringly patting my hand in an almost parental manner. “Usually thrall is a means of causing mischief or a tool for protecting oneself from humans…it is easier to thrall them into thinking that they cut themselves shaving than having them try to explain fang marks on their wrists.”
    I snorted, rolling my eyes. “Nice,” I scoffed and he smiled; Tanis wasn’t nearly as funny as he thought he was.
    “Romeo uses thrall to get laid when needed,” he said. “Usually he does not need to, however, sometimes mothers and daughters need persuaded into …never mind,” he said and cringed, effectively wiping the smirk from of his face, making him appear as an average, embarrassed, run-of-the-mill teenage boy. “Do you know what you would care to order?” he mumbled, his cheeks flushed from embarrassment.
    “Ew,” I said, making a face. “That’s a mental picture I could have lived without.”
    “ My apologies ,” he said , and a small, sheepish smile pulled at the corner s of his mouth. “Remember, Miss Jay Dee, you make me blurt out what is in me head. What would tickle your fancy this evening ?” he asked, motioning towards the menu in front of me which I still hadn’t looked at.
    I rolled my eyes, opened the menu and promptly closed it.
    “No.”
    “ Yes ,” Tanis sang.
    “Why?”
    “ Miss Jay Dee, I asked you to dinner,” he said as if it were obvious, beca use let’s face it, it was really damn obvious. But what wasn’t obvious was the reason why.
    “ Mr.