"Go ahead, Detra," Laini said.
Detra looked me dead in the eyes. "Did you and Dorian go on a 'date'?"
My mouth opened, but nothing came out. I had no ready-made answer for that. I wasn’t even sure if I knew the answer myself. Technically, no, but maybe if he and I weren’t in the middle of a dangerous, thankless job to save an entire species and improve the world for humanity, maybe I would want to do something like that?
Laini shook her head, a little uncomfortable. "Sike," she muttered with gentle irritation. "He watched them yesterday. You don't have to explain anything, Lyra."
I held back a nervous laughter, still trying to find an answer.
"Of course they didn't," came a coarse voice from behind the curtain in the corner, causing me to jump. Halla pulled back the curtain and limped toward us.
"Vampires and humans don't do that, Detra," she grumbled. She lowered herself into a chair and settled her eyes on me, stewing.
"Why not?" Carwin asked.
"We don't need to talk about this anymore,” Laini intercepted, her voice careful and firm. “Let's go back to the game. Halla, can you think of something for the kids to ask you about?" Distracted for now, the children hopped over to Halla and began asking her questions.
"Nice redirection," I whispered jokingly to Laini. My nerves had jolted with Halla’s commentary, and I immediately wanted to ease the tension—and my own anxiety—with humor.
She gave me a gentle smile and folded her hands in her lap. Her face was delicate, diamond-shaped, and opalescent. Her large eyes contained hints of violet—and sadness.
"So, humans and vampires have never been friends before? Ever?" I asked under my breath as the children peppered Halla with questions. I hoped I wasn’t making Laini uncomfortable, but she looked calm and comfortable. Honestly, my curiosity had plagued me for so long that it felt good to finally ask my questions.
"Not that I know of," Laini said softly, her tone genuine. "It never happened, back in the day. You know, predator and prey. Sorry."
"I get it," I said, and I did, though it reminded me of my uncle and the pain he experienced with his leg injury. I struggled to set that aside. "But I'm surprised that humans and vampires never just… talked. I mean, vampires don't feed on all people, so good-natured people could've met vampires and gotten along with them, right? Whether the person realized they were a vampire… or not?"
"Vampire and human relationships are not supposed to happen, let alone last, if that's what you're actually trying to ask," Halla said loudly, clearly having overheard our low conversation. The children went quiet. Halla’s glare made my skin crawl.
I returned her angry gaze. I wanted to be respectful, but the woman’s prejudice was toxic, and every part of me wanted to fight it.
"Our kinds can't and shouldn't mix," she continued bitterly, her furrowing brow adding more wrinkles to her forehead. The shadows moved under her face differently than they did on Dorian’s, though I couldn’t have said how. Slower, maybe. "We're not even supposed to be here now. It's all so abnormal. It's not the natural way of things. Wrong." Her glassy, steely gray eyes cut me on the last word. I hated admitting it to myself, but this woman unnerved me. I’d never experienced such unadulterated spite before I’d met her.
The children crawled onto the bed and huddled against Laini, like spooked ducklings. She wrapped a strong arm over each of them, scowling at Halla.
I stared at the old vampire, imagining her screaming at kids from her front porch. After the trial period’s continued success, she still harbored so much hate? If Kane could come around to working with humans, why couldn't she?
I took a breath and kept my eyes steady on the old woman. “We have no idea what the future holds. And my hope is that the outcome of the trial period will help you feel differently,” I said, keeping my words calm and earnest. She scoffed in return. I wasn’t surprised.
I’d said my piece. My gut told me it was time to go.
I told the children I'd leave them to enjoy the rest of their game. Laini squeezed my hand before I left, her eyes apologetic, and I smiled at her and the children. Detra waved goodbye, but Carwin had frozen like a fawn. He watched me go with large, sad eyes. Halla said nothing, but I felt her eyes burning into me until I disappeared around the doorframe.
Flustered, I kicked at the floor, mumbling to myself as I puttered down the hallway.
What had I been thinking? Did I actually believe this thing I felt for Dorian would go somewhere? It felt so real now, a compelling part of my everyday life, but where could it ever go? Imagining myself and Dorian on a date felt completely absurd. What would we even do together if we weren’t hunting down criminals, sparring to prepare for some up-and-coming conflict, or planning a mission?
Maybe Halla was right. Maybe this collaboration between our two species was a weird once-in-the-universe thing doomed to fail from the start. The vampires would return to the Immortal Plane eventually—that was the whole point of Dorian’s plan. And he’d said I couldn’t go there. It wasn't like we could see each other after that.
What if these six weeks were the only time we would ever have together?
Trapped in my circling thoughts, I sat on a cafeteria bench, back where I’d started.
Chapter Thirty-Two
I sat alone, thoughts of Dorian and what my life would be like after this mission ended swirling in my mind, until the kitchen staff started cleaning. Then, to get out of their way, I headed to the side-door to walk aimlessly around the yard.
To my surprise, Captain Bryce was in the yard with a group of Bureau guards. I caught him climbing onto a stepladder, stringing up a line of lights.
"What's going on?" I asked his back.
He jerked in surprise. "Ah, blast." He turned to one of his assistants. "We've been found out."
I couldn’t help but smirk at his reaction, putting the pieces together. "Is this your surprise, Captain?"
"Very smart, you are,” he said. He climbed down the ladder.
"Something special we're celebrating?"
"Well," he said, brushing off his hands on his pants. "I figured I’m due to stop being a slave driver for a moment and let you all relax. Let your hair down, as they say. We have a lot of accomplishments to celebrate, and since everyone is getting along so well, I figured this called for… a mixer."
"Great idea," I told him. I wasn’t particularly in the mood for a party, but maybe it would distract me from my swirling thoughts for a while. Besides, I knew a lot of other people in the facility were dying for some fun. My brother and Gina loved parties.
"That, and I'll get my butt chewed if morale dips too low. You're all so high maintenance." Bryce waved a hand as if to dismiss all of the prima donnas at the facility.
I laughed halfheartedly "Need some help?" I hated being bored and also wanted to distract myself from Halla’s nastiness, so this was the perfect scenario. Decorating always cheered me up—my favorite part about every holiday was spending hours with my family making our apartment look perfect.
"Sure, pick up where I left off," he said briskly, gesturing to the ladder. "I need to go and convince the kitchen to make party food."
Together, the guards and I strung up three more sets of multicolored lights. We dug through the facility to find speakers and a stereo, and set them up in the corner of the yard. Then, while some of the guards lined the perimeter of the yard with benches and chairs, the rest hauled a table out for a buffet line.
I surveyed the yard when we were done. To be honest, it still looked like a dry and desolate yard in the middle of the desert. Nothing could’ve changed it into a club. But the lights would look nice once the sun set, a good match for the desert’s array of stars, and something about how makeshift it all was made it look heartfelt.
Once things settled into place, I went inside to wash my hands. As I left the bathroom, a crew of soldiers and vampires flooded the main hallway. The prospect of company sent a relieved wave through my body.
"How was the mission?" I asked the first person I saw.
Gina answered me. "Not a single hitch," she said, her eyes bright. "Twenty more bills on the 'bye-bye list.'" That was a relief.
Rhome and Kreya walked past and welcomed me back.
"How are you feeling?" Kreya asked, pulling down her loose auburn bun.
"I’m doing just fine," I replied, touched by her concern.
"We're glad you're all right. You weren't injured at all?" Rhome inquired, eyeing my Band-Aids.
"Just sore," I said, smiling. Their kindness was always appreciated.
Thoth gave me his usual gentlemanly, sincere nod, and I reciprocated. Bravi playfully bickered with Rayne about who’d performed better that day. Before the group could part ways into their separate quarters, I clapped my hands to get their attention.
"Everyone," I announced, "please get changed and relaxed and meet us in the yard. Captain Bryce has something special planned for us this evening."
A few people made "oohs" jokingly. I could tell they were tired, but their spirits were still high. This team felt so much different—warmer—than our human-only team had been only four weeks earlier.
Clemmins patted my shoulder as he walked by.
"Good job on your mission," he whispered, one of the few things he’d ever said to me individually. I took that as a good sign.
We gathered in the yard as Bryce set up the music. The sound of parade horns blared from the speakers; then an old-timey, scratchy recording of a trilling Scottish man played: "I love a lassie, a bonnie, bonnie lassie; she's as pure as a lily in the dell…" Bryce started bobbing his head to the music.
I’d always known my captain to be proud of his heritage, but this was a totally new level. Laughter pushed so hard at my throat, I thought I would choke on it. For the first time ever, I witnessed Bryce being a full-fledged dork.
Some of the soldiers groaned loudly. I thought that rather bold, considering who they were responding to.
"What?" he shouted at them, genuinely confused. "Have you no appreciation for good music?"
"Captain, we may want to get a little more contemporary," I said gently. It was so hard to keep a straight face.
He rolled his eyes and handed off the phone plugged into the stereo system.
"Suit yourselves,” he muttered. “Hooligans."
I helped Clemmins and Finley carry platters of snacks from the cafeteria. Gina followed us with stacks of paper plates and plastic silverware. Human partygoers shook their shoulders to the music in the yard. Sarah made Grayson snort with her sad attempt at a moonwalk. Lily bravely opened a political discussion with Roxy, and Roxy’s tone made her face fall in regret.
I scanned the crowd, the voices of my friends and acquaintances from the facility murmuring amongst the music in the calm desert evening. The sun touched the horizon, the sky filling with amber. Where were my guys?
For the most part, the ten or so vampires in attendance sat in a row of chairs to the side of the dance floor. Sike stared with amusement at the humans dancing—but tapped his foot to the music—and Bravi snorted. Some of the others looked genuinely transfixed by the soldiers’ dance moves.
Little worries gnawed my brain, but a part of me hoped to steal a chance to talk to Dorian—the part that wasn’t inundated with uncertainty after Halla’s dressing-down. I wanted to see that he was okay with my own eyes, and I felt like I needed to say something to him, but I had no idea what.
After standing at the buffet line for a while, taking out my impatience with Dorian’s absence on a carrot, I intercepted Captain Bryce as he strolled past me.
"Captain, any update on when my team is getting back?" I asked, trying not to sound obsessive.
"Relax, Lieutenant. Your beau will be here soon," he said, winking at me for the second time that day. "Speak of the devil."
I turned and saw my team members enter the yard. But the relief of knowing that they’d returned unharmed was drowned by another fluttering sensation flooding my chest. Unhurried but focused, Dorian moved through the crowd, never taking his eyes from mine. He made short work of the gap between us, weaving through other soldiers until he stood before me.
He left only six inches between us, searching my face for clues. I smiled, to give him one. My first impulse was to reach for him, but I didn’t know what I’d do after that. What if, back in the facility with everyone watching, he responded poorly? My finger twitched as I held my hand back from touching his. This was the pull that I’d first felt in the yard with him, before Detra found us… the pull from a magnet inside my body that knew no other being but Dorian. Professional Lyra would’ve been irked by it, but I’d set her aside for that day.
"Sorry we're late!" Zach announced, like a cold bucket of water. He buzzed past me to the buffet table, knocking my shoulder with a brown paper grocery bag. "We brought drinks." I turned from Dorian to my brother, grateful for a distraction from trying to figure the situation out.
Zach and Kane set their bags on the table and emptied the contents. Zach's bag held glass bottles of colorful mocktails and two liters of soda. Soldiers rushed over, hooting and hollering. We weren’t allowed to drink alcohol on the job, but we could get excited about drinks that were fancier than water and Gatorade. It was the little things when you were trapped in a drab old facility all the time.
It felt wonderful finally having my three guys back with me. The events of our trip to Ohio bonded us with an invisible warmth. I hugged Zach's side, and he asked how I was feeling. Kane greeted me with “Glad to see you’re still alive,” which I thought was pretty warm, coming from him.
"What are you drinking?" Zach asked me, reaching over the arms of Colin and Grayson.
"One of those," I replied, pointing to a bright red bottle. I had no idea what it was, but if we were having a party, I wanted the flashiest beverage allowed. Zach opened one for me and one for himself, and then we clicked the tips of our bottles together, both smiling goofily at the silly ritual.
I turned back to Dorian, who held a plastic cup I hadn’t noticed before. In fact, I realized that all the nearby vampires now carried cups filled to the brim with red wine.
"Vampires are allowed to drink alcohol during the trial period?" I asked jokingly.
"No," Dorian said, smirking. “That’s against regulations.”
I glanced around again. The shadows on the vampires’ faces rippled wildly as they chugged, the tips curling darker than they had in ages.
I looked down into Dorian's cup and confirmed that the liquid was too viscous, too opaque, for wine. My eyes widened in disbelief. It can’t be.
Kane observed my expression and stepped in.
"Jim got us a little thank-you gift," he said quietly, eyes twinkling, which made his expression the merriest I’d seen him wear to date. "Compliments of some inmates' date with the executioner on Death Row."
"Cheers." Dorian tapped his cup against Kane's, then met my eyes over the rim as he took a long drink. I stared at him, partially because my heartbeat couldn’t help but quicken at the look he fixed me with, and partially still in surprise. When I’d been thinking about feeding the vampires, I hadn’t been thinking this way.
"Cheers, K-dog! To a successful mission." Zach bounced over and clapped Kane on the back. Kane scrunched his nose, but his eyes remained amused.
"It's about time we had a drink together." Zach didn’t seem too bothered by what the vampires sipped from their cups.
I looked around, taking in this new information.
The sitting vampires mostly seemed focused on drinking, and Harlowe winced after swallowing her beverage. Sike had long finished his cup and leaned back lazily in his chair. Thoth wiped a sprinkle of blood from his silver beard, his eyes also closed in a grimace. Rhome poured two smaller cups of blood and disappeared inside to give them to his children.
I eventually settled on feeling happily horrified about their little snack. If our vampire team had to drink blood, at least it was from convicted criminal
s who had been through the justice system. It dawned on me that regardless of my instinctual repulsion, this was completely in line with what we aimed to do with vampires and criminals in the future.
Dorian nudged me and pointed. The redbill flock had crept closer to the facility through the desert brush, their eyes curious, reflecting the shimmering strings of lights. They looked like they wanted to be part of the human-vampire flock—or they were confused by it. It was almost cute… and quite a change from them trying to bite us in half.
The music changed as Roxy and Bravi took possession of the stereo. An old techno beat pounded through the speakers, climbing in volume, and every soldier got up to dance. Dorian and I remained standing by the food table, holding our drinks, watching our friends jump up and down and shout the lyrics to each other. Soldiers worked hard, and when we cut loose, it was go big or go home—especially because we so rarely got to enjoy moments like this. The seated vampires seemed even more amused by this human display since they’d eaten, and even old man Thoth was giggling to himself now. I had a soft spot for older folks, and now I could add older vampire folks to that list.
A major oldie followed the techno, slow and crooning. I'd heard my parents listen to it, usually at their wedding anniversary parties.
Just as the song began, Rhome returned from family quarters. At the sound of the music, he perked up and took his partner by her hand. Kreya shook her head, embarrassed, but he whispered something in her ear that made her crack a smile. Sometimes those two deeply reminded me of my parents, and though I’d just spoken with them, I felt a touch of homesickness. Moving gracefully as always, the vampire couple found a quiet corner of the dance floor and swayed side to side, their eyes traveling each other's faces. I caught Bryce gazing at them, his eyes almost misty.
I felt Dorian watching me, and my chest fluttered. In the back of my mind, Halla’s words still echoed, and as much as I hated to admit it, the worry had changed how I interacted with Dorian. I couldn’t shake myself out of it.
It frustrated me that the cranky old woman had gotten under my skin, but the logical part of my brain had to consider whether there could be any validity to her words. I hadn’t known how to sort out my feelings before; now, Halla had reminded me of another set of complications. Confusion clamped my mouth shut. Dorian’s eyes were still on me, but I couldn't return his gaze.
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