by Sotia Lazu
I scrunched my face in mock concentration, then widened my eyes. “I know! Must have been about the same time I found out you’d been lying to me for years, and our entire relationship was a sham. Yup, that was the exact moment.”
His eyes were a stormy midnight blue that usually meant anger or extreme pain. Yes, the man came with preinstalled mood-rings on his face.
I wasn’t being fair. His maker had appointed him my sponsor. She wanted me to fall for him, and it hadn’t taken long for that to happen. But at the time, Constantine didn’t know Ádísa had ordered my turning. And contrary to her wishes, he’d really loved me in return. Just weeks ago, he insisted he still did.
Liza walked up behind Constantine, and laid both hands on his shoulders. Until that moment, I’d only thought of her as Head Concubine. I’d assumed all they shared was sex and blood. Apparently, I’d been at least partially wrong there.
How well she knew him astounded me. Even though Constantine’s posture didn’t change, Liza noticed the subtle increase of tension in his body, just like I did. Thing was, I couldn’t tell if Constantine’s discomfort was out of guilt over the lies he’d told me in the past—for which he’d atoned by killing his own maker—or because he really knew more about Willoughby than he let on.
I didn’t want it to be the latter. Not when he’d been regaining my trust. My stomach clenched at the possibility. Instead of asking him, I said, “Fine, be mysterious. But while we’re here, can you remind Alex we’re not supposed to keep in touch with our families?” Might as well get one problem out of the way.
The tiny lines of tension around Constantine’s eyes smoothed out, and his jaw relaxed. Was it me, or did my ex seem relieved by my change of subject?
Before Constantine could speak, Alex piped in. “I want Cherry and me to meet each other’s folks. I know it’s not something vampires do, but I’m still alive as far as my mother knows, and I don’t see how Cherry’s family would be anything but ecstatic to see her again. She was never declared dead, just missing, so she can tell them she was off finding herself or something.”
I didn’t expect the matter-of-fact way he’d presented his case to do him any good. What he was asking went against council policy. No way would Constantine condone it.
Constantine smiled, his irises now faded to their normal light blue. “We have been doing things our own way for a while now.” He shrugged, apparently oblivious to how my mouth gaped at his response. “I don’t see why you shouldn’t do as you please, as long as you’re careful. I will, however, be joining you when you visit Cherry’s parents. As a precautionary measure, in case things go awry. I’ll have to make some arrangements first, but we should be able to leave by the end of the week.”
It was obvious from Alex’s eager expression that he’d go along with anything to get the go-ahead for his silly fantasy. I didn’t exactly view things the same way. It was weird how readily Constantine had agreed.
“Precautionary measure?” I asked. “You plan to mind-wipe them, if our little reunion is threatening to the vampire community?” Meaning if my parents somehow realized I was undead, freaked out, and threatened to tell the world about our existence.
The look he gave me was full of scorn. “No.” The word sounded like it was mentally accompanied by several non-flattering adjectives. “What I had in mind was that you’ll have a member of the council with you, in case another vampire realizes what you’re up to. My presence will make your visit legitimate.” I could swear I heard him finish his sentence in my head with, “You idiot.”
“Oh.” Because, what else could I say? He only had our best interest at heart, and I really should stop being so suspicious of him. If he said it was all right, it probably was. “Okay then, I guess.”
Constantine grinned. “Besides, a road trip with just the three of us? Think how much fun it will be.”
Yeah, he was hiding something, all right. All this cheer wasn’t normal. “What’s in it for you?” I asked.
“Just the pleasure of your company.” His mocking tone and arched eyebrow didn’t exactly vouch for his sincerity.
“And what else? Why come with? If you plan on hurting my parents—”
He slammed one hand on the table, making all of us jump. Outbursts were no more like him than cheeriness was. “I’m not planning on hurting anyone, you stubborn woman. I’m coming with, because you’ll need me there.”
I had no response for that.
Liza’s face fell. “Can’t I come with you?” Her big green eyes shone with unshed tears. She was really going to cry, because Constantine would be away for a few days? Or because he’d be with me?
But I had a boyfriend…who was glaring daggers Constantine’s way. Oh-kay.
Constantine tugged at Liza, until she rounded the chair and faced him. “You know Carrie and Sally need you,” he said, his tone grave. “I need you to stay behind and take care of our girls.”
She preened at his show of trust, and I felt bad for her. I’d been there, ready to do anything for his approval. I hoped it ended better for her.
****
For all his outstanding qualities in and out of bed, Alex wasn’t above snarking.
“So I ask nicely, but all it takes for you to agree is Constantine’s permission. Good to know,” he said with fake cheer, as soon as our bedroom door was closed behind us.
“Thought you got what you wanted.” I turned my back to him, kicked off my slippers, and went to the closet in search of my sneakers. I’d promised Sheena I’d catch a late movie with her, and I’d rather focus on that than what Alex was saying.
“No. Constantine got me what I wanted. And you said nothing when he said you’d want him there.”
“He said I’d need him there, and he’s right. He knows our laws better than me, and he can protect us from the rest of the council. You were the one who thought talking to him about it was a good idea.”
He shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans, and rolled his head from side to side. “Yeah…I’m just being an ass. I’ll call my mother and tell her we’ll go by tomorrow evening. She can’t wait to meet the girl I’m constantly talking about.”
Oh, goodie! With or without Constantine’s approval, the idea still held no appeal. “Isn’t it too late for you to call her? Maybe you should do it in the morning, and give her a couple days’ notice.”
“Notice for what? She’ll just be making dinner.”
My right sneaker was in front of me, but I couldn’t see the left one. I crouched down and started rummaging through the shoes that littered the floor of my closet. “I don’t know. Notice. Where is the stupid thing? Sheena will kill me if I’m late.”
Sheena wouldn’t say anything, even if I stood her up. She still felt guilty for being the one to introduce me to Willoughby, even though she didn’t know what he was at the time.
Alex walked up behind me, bent down, and closed his hand around the second of my shoes, as if by magic. “My mother’s always ready for guests,” he said, holding it out to me.
I grabbed it, and squeezed my foot inside without bothering to undo and redo the laces. “Call her in the morning.” By then, I might have found an excuse to avoid that get-together. With a quick peck to his lips, I rushed to the door. “We’ll talk when I’m back. We’re meeting the guy from the blood bank after the movie, so I’ll bring some blood home. Maybe you can try it?” He still refused to drink human blood, saying vampire blood kept him sated for a longer period of time.
I believed he saw drinking human blood as the last step to no longer being human.
Fast as lightning, Alex pinned me to the door, his body hard against my back, his arms framing my shoulders. “I only want your blood,” he whispered harshly, his face in my hair. His erection digging in my back was the least of my concerns.
“Okay, the mood swings? Not doing it for me. You go from mellow to seeing red in no time. Is something bothering you? If you want to talk about it, I can call Sheena and cancel.” I prayed he said ye
s and finally talked to me about how he really felt about being a vampire. He’d told me how powerless he’d felt when Willoughby drained him—how he hated the fear, and the nightmares that followed—but not a word about what he’d become.
He pumped his hips against me. “It’s bothering me that you’re not naked.”
Trying to fuck issues away was my thing. Alex usually insisted it solved nothing. Seeing him resort to the same cheap trick raised a wave of anger inside me.
Let go,” I said. “I have a show to catch.”
He stepped back, and when I turned, his arms were up. Whether in surrender or resignation I couldn’t say. Something clenched in my gut. His lack of a heartbeat wasn’t the only thing different after his turning. I wanted to believe the rest of the changes I saw in him would smoothen out, as he got used to his new reality.
I pulled him down by his shirt and whispered, “Be good.” Then I touched my lips to his once more, and went to find my friend and ex-manager.
Chapter Three
The movie was nothing noteworthy, but mind-numbing and jolly was exactly what I needed for my head to clear. By the time the ending titles rolled, I’d decided to let things unfold as they would. I’d meet Alex’s mother and bring him to my childhood home. My lifespan would be too long for me to worry about every little thing.
My stomach clenched at the thought of facing my parents, but I put on a huge smile. “You up for ice cream? I’m buying!” Actually, Constantine was. Since he’d achieved council member status for something we’d both done, he was giving me half of the stipend that came with the position.
Sheena arched an eyebrow, her dark eyes glinting. “How very generous of you.”
Pretending not to notice the sarcasm in her voice, I smacked her ass. “You want lobster, you got to gimme some sugar.”
She kept a straight face, but I could see a grin tilting the corner of her lips. “Tempting though it may be, I’ll have to refuse. Ice cream will do.”
By now, we’d reached the ice cream stand. “One of those.” Sheena pointed at the largest cups available. “I’d like two scoops of caramel, and one each mocha and vanilla.”
“I want a cone, straight up chocolate, please,” I said.
The teen behind the counter asked if we wanted any toppings. I refused, but Sheena hid her ice cream under thick layers of whipped cream, and added a cherry on top. How the woman remained slim was beyond me.
“You’re a cheap date.” I indicated her cup with a tilt of my head.
She shook her head, glossy black curls bouncing. “And you’re using cheesy lines that send the feminist movement decades back. How you got not one, but two gorgeous vampires to fall for you is beyond me.”
“They’re old fashioned. I just smiled and nodded a lot.”
“I see. Now it all makes sense. Hey!” She batted my hand away when I tried to pinch the maraschino that crowned her humongous dessert. “So, you and Alex are meeting the in-laws, huh?”
“Don’t wanna talk about it.” To stress how much I didn’t want to, I stuffed my face with more ice cream.
“Wanna talk about how your new and old beau are disconcertingly civil with each other?” So she’d noticed too. If I were still human, those two would give me heartburn.
“Would such a discussion entail hypotheses of a future threesome with said beaus?”
She took her time cleaning drops of vanilla from her hand with her tongue. “I doubt it.”
“Then no.”
“Okay, you choose the subject.”
I gave it a moment of consideration. It had been a long while since Sheena and I had last had a girls’ night out. Hell, it had been even longer since we’d been friends.
She’d shown up at the bakery I worked for when I first moved to LA, and offered me a job. She helped me lose weight, managed my career, and soon became my only friend.
She’d also been the one to hand me and the three vampettes now living with us to Willoughby and his associates. She’d been afraid for her life, and her remorse was genuine. Since she’d moved into Constantine’s mansion, she’d been doing her best to help the fledglings. I’d finally accepted her apologies, and we were rebuilding our friendship from scratch. That night in the city was supposed to help us bond over silliness—and possibly alcohol.
I didn’t want to be a party pooper and ruin the fun mood, but I had nobody else to talk to. “I’m worried about Alex,” I finally said. “He insists everything is fine, but won’t touch human blood.”
“Isn’t that just a dietary choice?”
I shook my head. “It’s more than that. It’s like he resents having to feed off humans—which is totally rational, only he has to get over it at some point. I’m not saying he should go killer-sucker. I just wish he’d seem more at peace with his new nature. Being with him is like riding a roller coaster.”
“Are we talking about the crazy vampire sex?” She stuffed a spoonful of caramel in her mouth, but not before I saw her smirk.
I glared. “I’m serious. Lately he seems ready to snap at the smallest thing, and I believe it’s because he can’t accept himself.”
Her gaze softened. Lost its teasing edge. “And you feel guilty.”
“And I feel guilty.” I forced that new nature on him. He never had a chance to refuse it. Not having consented to my own turning, I hated that I hadn’t given him a choice.
“My poor idiot.” Sheena held her ice cream away from her body with one hand, and pulled me into an awkward hug with her free arm. “You saved his life.” I started to protest, and she shushed me. “So he’s brooding a bit. Beats being dead. If he can’t deal with his current existence, there are always exit strategies.”
I pulled away. “I’m not killing him!”
“I’m not saying you should. I’m saying he’s a grown man who knows his options. If he doesn’t feel like being the evil dead, he can take a nap on a park bench right before sunrise. That he hasn’t so far means he’s dealing. It’ll just take a while until he’s fully there. Now let’s go see Blood Guy and get home. I need to pee.”
“You have such a way with words.”
“It’s a burden, but I carry it with elegance.”
“Obviously. But maybe you should sit somewhere and wait for me? Somewhere with a ladies’ room, so you don’t have a little accident? The meeting place is more than a couple of blocks from here.”
She shook her head. “Better idea—you fly me home, I make Margaritas and wait for you?”
“Only if you’re sure you won’t pee on me.”
“Oh, shut up. I’m a lady!”
Laughing, we walked into an alleyway, and I did my vamp-lift-off thing. It’s really nothing more than willing your body to rise above the ground, but it only works if you believe you can win a fight against gravity, and not all of us are open-minded enough to manage it.
Sheena made a run for the bathroom as soon as we landed at home, and I took off again for my meeting.
****
Blood Guy, known to his friends as Frank, was a blood bank employee and my first success story in compelling. He was the first person I’d ever managed to use my vampire gaze on without turning him into a complete puppet or making him think I was crazy. In his mind, I worked for a hazardous materials disposal unit. I called, and we met behind the bank, where he handed over bags of blood that needed to be destroyed for whatever reason.
I’d only been using him sporadically in the years since Constantine had taught me how to feed from live donors without endangering them. With four fledglings to keep fed and happy, however, I’d recently added Frank’s number to speed dial.
“You’re late.” He checked his watch, as if to make sure he had it right.
“I know. I’m sorry. You know how it is.”
He nodded, even though he had no clue how it was, or what it meant. He always nodded, because we always had the same dialog. I hadn’t compelled him to greet me that way every time he saw me; I guess creating a pattern in our transactions
reassured the rational part of his brain.
“You park close by?” he asked. “Bag is heavy.” That too was part of our usual rapport.
“Round the corner.” I took hold of the dark blue duffel he carried. “Thanks.”
“Sure you don’t need me to help with that?”
“Nope. Got it. Thanks again.”
“See you next month.”
I gave him a little wave, and waited until he was back inside the building. As soon as I was certain I was completely out of his field of vision, I kicked at the ground and was airborne.
I entered the mansion from the basement, and stowed the blood in the freezer Constantine had installed in the en-suite I shared with Alex. That floor housed our room, the gym, and the huge-ass bedroom and white-marble bathroom Constantine shared with the three fledglings, while the upper floors of the mansion boasted two living rooms, four and a half bathrooms, a kitchen, and a parlor—let alone Wesley’s apartment. When I asked Constantine how come he didn’t want a more livable basement apartment for the daytime, he said we weren’t supposed to live during the day. Bleak, huh?
I pulled my red hair back in a ponytail, secured my annoying fringe to the side with a bobby pin, and rushed upstairs. The whirring of the Margarita maker acted as a homing beacon, leading me to the kitchen.
“I’m home,” I said as I entered the room. “Bring on the booze!”
“Thought you wouldn’t be back till later.” Alex leaned against the stove, arms crossed over his chest.
“Oh, hi! Yeah, didn’t Sheena tell you? We decided to do the alcohol-binge part of the night here.” I approached and rose on my tiptoes to plant a kiss on his lips. He didn’t return the greeting. “Is something wrong?” I looked around. “Where’s Sheena?”
“Needed to get something. Asked Wesley to drive her. She’ll be back soon.”
I took a step back. He looked tense, and there was some sort of menacing wave coming off him. His eyes seemed cloudy, like he wasn’t really seeing me. I wanted to touch him but refrained. I’d never before felt unsettled in his presence. Now it was as if he’d raised some sort of force field around him.