Her words twisted his heart. Her childhood had been ripped from her, her innocence taken away in an instant. He hadn't been there to protect her.
"It wasn't your job to protect me," she said. A frown creased her brow.
Drake shook his head. "You're wrong. You've always been mine to protect and you always will be."
"You can't be more than five or six years older than me. So what could you have done at the age of thirteen? How could you have stopped a vampire?" she challenged. He saw the flash of strength and defiance that had probably kept her alive all these years.
"I am much, much older than I look," Drake admitted.
He guessed that she must be deciding to ignore his comment because she moved right on to something else without addressing it. "You have an accent," she pointed out. "Wher
