Chapter 25 #2
More like white as a vampire, I thought.
“Everything’s fine. And I want to introduce Eric.” Maybe. But I couldn’t very well tell her about all the complications that came with bringing him into my life. “But I want to tell them about him first. Then introduce him the next time or something like that.”
Maggie nodded thoughtfully. “You don’t want them to think you’re moving too fast. I get that. Hell, I’m the queen of moving too fast.”
I snorted. “What was your record of moving in with a boyfriend again?”
She threw one of the cleaning rags at me. “Shut up.” Then she rolled her eyes. “One date turned one-night stand turned relationship. I basically went home with him and never left. Well, I left… when I broke up with him six months later. It still sucks; it was a nice apartment.”
I cackled, throwing the rag back at her.
“Never change,” I told her. “Seriously. Never ever change.”
Maggie batted her lashes at me.
“I don’t plan to, honey.”
By the time ten p.m. rolled around, I was tired as fuck. Usually, I’d be in bed right now after working a ten-hour shift. Didn’t matter that it’d been the closing and not the opening shift. Those days could wipe me the fuck out.
Constant noise.
Constant chattering.
Complaining customers. No, we didn’t have all the pre-made sandwiches available ten minutes before closing.
No, we did not have peppermint-flavored syrup yet.
Yes, that was a crime against humankind. Yes, I specifically wanted to ruin their day by not controlling what the lazy owner of this place ordered.
But I wasn’t in bed.
I was standing in front of my building, waiting for Eric to arrive.
Wrapping my arms around my middle, I looked to the left. A white car got closer, but it drove by without slowing down.
Fuck.
Why did it have to be so cold?
And why did I think not bringing a jacket was a good idea?
It was freezing.
A dark SUV came to a stop at the curb right in front of me, and the back door opened.
“Where’s your coat?” Eric said as he climbed out of the car, his eyes roaming over my body. He took my hand and hissed lowly, then basically dragged me into the car. “You’re cold. You need to take better care of yourself.”
I smiled at the way he was fussing over me.
Was it overkill? Yeah. A bit of cold air wouldn’t kill me. But it was nice of him to care.
He grabbed his own coat—a woolen one that looked just like the one I’d cut up a couple of days ago—and used it like a blanket to cover my legs.
I got a short kiss before he scooched over and put on his seatbelt.
Damn. Car rides sucked.
I hadn’t seen Eric for three whole days.
Which was, like, way too long.
I’d fucking missed him. Missed his calm presence. Missed his smiles. His kisses. Even the way his eyes flashed a creepy red for the blink of an eye as he looked at me with so much heat I was sure my cheeks were turning the same shade of red his eyes held.
We stayed silent as the driver pulled away from the curb, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. I listened to the rock music the driver was playing, bobbing my leg to the catchy rhythm.
Eric placed his hand on my leg and gave it a soft squeeze.
“Nervous?” he asked, raising his brows.
I stopped, turning my head to him.
I wasn’t nervous, per se, was I?
Maybe a little bit. Who wouldn’t be nervous about returning to the place where they’d been drugged? Not that I was saying it was the bartender’s fault, but…
“A bit,” I admitted, because I apparently was.
Funny how Eric had known that before it’d even registered with me.
“It’ll be fine, I promise. Bennie will be waiting for us and—” He stopped, his eyes turning wide as he gripped his chest.
“Eric?” I asked.
His body was rigid, frozen in place for a moment.
“It’s Bennie,” he said, letting out a long breath as he started rubbing his chest. “Something’s happened. I need to…”
He frantically looked around for something.
The something was his coat in my lap. He pulled out his phone and immediately called his friend.
Now it was on me to place a hand on his leg, squeezing lightly in support of him.
He’d talked about a bond between them, but I hadn’t imagined it to be like this.
That he’d actually be able to feel if something was wrong with him.
I’d thought it was more a figure of speech. Like siblings sharing a bond.
Apparently not.
“Voicemail,” Eric growled, his eyes turning red again.
I gave his thigh a squeeze, subtly trying to get his attention.
Eric looked at me.
I nodded at him.
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and grabbed my hand. His was cold, which, as I’d learned from a phone call yesterday, was normal. Since vampires were technically dead, they didn’t really produce body heat the way humans did.
At the same time, they were also not poikilothermic—and no, they didn’t freeze and fall out of trees like iguanas in Florida did in freezing temperatures. And apparently it was rude to even ask that.
I thought it was a logical question.
However, apparently logical didn’t always apply to vampires.
“Call him again,” I said, nodding at him.
He clutched my hand like a vise, then raised his cell again.
“He’s okay,” he whispered, though the driver was utterly unaware of anything that was going on.
He was thoroughly distracted by the music blaring in his ears.
Because the rock music I’d been listening to?
Yeah, not coming from the car’s speakers, but from that guy’s earbuds.
“Something happened. Bennie was… shocked. And hurt. But he’s feeling better. ”
I didn’t know whether he was relaying what he’d felt or trying to calm himself or me, but just a few seconds later, his cell started ringing.
Eric didn’t even look at the phone before answering.
“What the fuck happened?” he asked, his hand squeezing mine to the point of pain.
I couldn’t hear what Bennie was saying, but I did hear Eric’s mhms, ahhs, and yeses. And I did see that the tension in his body never faded. It only seemed to grow, his jaw hardening, eyes turning abysmally cold.
Finally, he hung up and looked at me.
“The fledgling attacked Bennie,” he said, eyes blazing over for a second.
I checked the rearview mirror, but the driver wasn’t looking our way.
“He’ll meet us at CRAVE, just like we planned. I’m sorry, but I think our date just turned into something different. We’ll have to talk to Aries. If you’d rather stay out of it, I can get you an Uber home.”
“Eric.” I gave him a pointed look and caressed the back of his hand to get him to lighten his hold on me. “I’m not going to abandon you. We’re boyfriends. I’m gonna be there and support you and Bennie as best I can.”
Going home.
Pah.
As if I’d even consider that.
Even though his face was laced with worry, Eric managed a small but sincere smile.
“Thank you,” he said.
I waved my hand.
“Don’t worry, you’d do the same for me. In fact, you already did.”
He even let out a chuckle at that.
Entering the club was both more and less dramatic than I’d expected.
Eric led me past the string of people waiting in line and just nodded at the bouncer. Evidently, a nod was all it took, because he gave us a nod in return and let us enter.
“Aries is waiting in his office,” he said, which sounded mysterious to me but apparently completely normal to Eric because he didn’t even blink. Truth be told, I wasn’t even sure he was currently breathing. He was still so fucking tense, like a bow drawn to shoot an arrow.
We headed inside, passing the coatroom, walked straight through the crowd of people and past the bar, aiming for a door labeled Staff Only.
A bald, muscular guy in a black shirt stood in front of it, his massive arms crossed in front of his even more massive chest. He was wearing an earpiece, one of those chunky things with a spiral cord.
“Aries is expecting us,” Eric said as we approached. His steps never faltered, never slowed down at all. It was impressive.
It took me ages to even cross a bar, yet Eric was walking through a club as if he owned the place. And people moved out of his way, as if an invisible force was shoving them out of his path.
Was that a vampire thing?
The guy—security, probably?—stepped aside and let Eric open the door.
We were in some kind of hallway. To our right, a door led into what was obviously a staff room. I got a glimpse of an old couch and a table, but Eric was speed walking past, and since we were still holding hands, I had to hurry to keep up.
We went up a set of stairs, and within what seemed like the blink of an eye to me, we were standing in a huge office.
I stared open-mouthed at the opposite wall that was made entirely out of glass and granted a perfect view of the club.
You could see everything. The dance floor, the bar, even the entries and exits.
Eric gasped, abruptly letting go of my hand and hurrying toward a leather couch.
“Bennie. What the fuck! You said you were okay!”
“I am. Worrywart,” I heard Bennie say, and relaxed upon hearing his teasing tone. If he were badly hurt, his voice would sound different. Strained. Like Eric had when he’d burned himself to a crisp to get to me during the day.
“You don’t look like you’re okay,” Eric insisted, and I turned to see what he was going on about.
Ugh.
More bags of blood.
My stomach revolted for a moment, but I got it under control.
Bennie had been thirsty.
There were three bags lying on the floor next to him, and Bennie’s face was a mess.
Definitely a vampire.
Even someone with a blood kink probably wouldn’t have it smeared all around their mouth. Oh, and there were the glowing eyes.
And the fangs.
Yep.
Vampire.
I giggled, then slapped a hand in front of my mouth to keep the sound inside.
“Hey, Finn,” Bennie said, winking at me and giving me an extra bright grin as if he was trying to show off his fangs. “You remember what I said the last time we met? How Benny is one of my favorite characters in Supernatural? Now you know why.”
Eric groaned, but I just laughed.
Yeah, Bennie would be okay.