Asil’s First Date Unappreciated Gifts #5
“Right now, you are in danger,” Meg said.
Asil started to work his way over to them. Pleased as he was that Kelly, at last, appreciated Asil properly, Asil still needed Kelly not to run “screaming into the night” and to stick around for another half hour—at least.
“Really, really at risk of death,” Meg continued in a furious whisper. “No one screws with him, because Asil is crazy. Uncle Tag told me to tell you to be very polite and to keep your eyes lowered—and whatever you do, excuse yourself as quickly as possible.”
Kelly laughed, glanced up, and saw Asil. The boy stopped laughing but continued to look amused. Asil contemplated being offended.
Kelly saw the expression on Asil’s face and his amused smile deepened. He put his free arm around Meg and turned her so she could see Asil.
“You have to admit it’s funny,” Kelly said to both of them. “A werewolf was set up on a date with a girl pretending to be a vampire—who was actually a guy pretending to be a vampire. And both of us were set up—by different people.”
“Coincidence, indeed.” Asil was happier when both of them started at his silkily voiced observation and Kelly’s wide grin disappeared. He directed his question to Meg. “Are you sure that your Uncle Tag didn’t have anything to do with this? Interesting that he knows us both, don’t you think?”
“It wasn’t Uncle Tag,” she squeaked. She looked at Asil, then jerked her gaze to the floor.
“Not him. I told him a friend of mine had been set up on a vampire dating site without his knowledge. He’d heard that someone had set you up, too.
He told me he was suspicious because—how many people in Montana would sign up on a vampire dating site?
” She took a deep breath, then raised her eyes.
“Kelly doesn’t deserve to get hurt over something that’s not his fault.
” Her eyes left his again before she finished, but her chin was still up.
“I’m fine,” said Kelly. “He’s not going to hurt me.”
“Yes,” agreed Asil. “I never blame the messenger. The perpetrators on my side of the fence were misguided, but not malicious. I accept that Tag was not one of them—he is more inclined to use an axe than a keyboard. When I find out who they are, I will serve them with justice. Probably no bodies will be strewn about. Especially since I am enjoying myself.”
“Kelly is gay, and Uncle Tag says you aren’t.
” She said it really fast to get it all out.
Unwilling to leave her friend at the mercy of someone her uncle warned her about without checking to make sure he was really safe.
He had no doubt, since she was related to Tag, that if she thought Asil would hurt her friend, she’d throw herself into the fray.
He liked her. A lot. He had always liked Tag, too.
“We have already established that I prefer women and he prefers men,” Asil assured her.
“But I have no problem dancing with a man, because my reputation is such that pretty young women such as yourself and also big, scary men like your uncle tremble in fear of me. Dancing with a man is unlikely to change that—and I like dancing.”
She frowned.
“He’s funny,” said Kelly. “You have to watch for it, but he’s pretty funny underneath the Castilian manners and straight face.”
Asil took pity on her. “Your friend is safe with me.”
She took in a deep breath that threatened to release parts of her that the Elizabethan dress put under a lot of pressure. “Really safe?”
“Safer than anyone else here,” said Asil, showing her his teeth. He might like her, but he didn’t like her questioning his word.
“Okay,” said Meg. She let out a breath in a huff of air. “Good.”
A fanfare sounded through the speakers to draw their attention to a stage that had been erected against one wall.
“Well, that was embarrassing,” muttered Kelly as he tugged Asil toward the stage—and away from Meg—by tucking a hand unselfconsciously in the crook of his arm. “I’m sorry about my friend.”
Asil realized that his wolf had decided he liked the boy, because he allowed them to be led without objection. He felt the constant tension of control relax a fraction.
“Nothing to be sorry for,” he murmured. “Who a man’s friends are says a lot about him. She knew who and what I was—and still tried to save you from me. She is brave and loyal. No one needs to apologize for such a friend.”
Beside him, Kelly straightened a little. “She did throw herself in front of the bus, didn’t she? Even if the bus was already stopped.”
“I am not a bus,” murmured Asil as someone stepped up to a microphone and delivered some canned welcome speech. “A chariot. A Porsche. But not a bus.”
“See,” said Kelly to no one Asil could discern. “He’s funny.”
The speaker nattered on for a few minutes more before announcing the opening dance.
They had never danced together before, and it was obvious that many of the couples on the floor had practiced together and danced a preset choreography.
But Kelly did indeed know how to dance, and they soon progressed beyond the simpler steps into some more daring, complex…
even melodramatic moves. There were a few stumbles here and there—it was very obvious that Kelly was used to leading, no matter what he’d said.
But when the music ended and they froze for that last dramatic moment, chest to chest, face to face—Asil realized he was really having fun. More fun than he’d had in a very, very long time.
As they stepped away from each other, exchanging grins, Asil wondered: When had he forgotten how much fun dancing was? How much fun flirting was? Even if, perhaps especially because, both people knew it was not going further than that?
In order to properly repay the people or person (he was not ruling out someone using the royal “we” to obfuscate their identity), Asil was beginning to believe he might have to buy a gift instead of dealing out vengeance.
Though he had no intention of letting his benefactors know it until the whole thing was over.
Let them fear his wrath for a while longer.
“Hey, Kelly, is this the date?” A young man (Asil had not seen anyone who looked to be over twenty-five) came up to them, swaggering a little. He was the type to impress people under thirty—big, athletic, handsome. “It worked out? Awesome. You owe me one.”
“This is Trace,” said Kelly.
Trace looked over his shoulder at the entrance, missing Asil’s initial reaction to the introduction. That was probably for the best.
“Latecomers,” Trace said with disapproval. “And they’re ours. Everyone was supposed to be here to help with the opening. Next time I’ll tell them the party starts an hour before the doors open.”
He stepped around Kelly and headed for the front door. Asil glanced at the incoming party, then put his back to them.
“It seems, unusually, I was wrong.”
“About what?” asked Kelly.
“Do you know the very young-looking man in the tuxedo who just came in?” he asked Kelly.
The boy frowned. “Yeah. That’s Bruce. He’s a cousin, or something like that, of Shawna’s—one of the other members of our group.
He’s a freshman, I think, and he’s been coming to the LARPs since school started this fall.
He’s not a good player, mostly he just sits around and watches us.
I expect that he’ll find his own group of friends and quit coming. Why?”
Bruce wasn’t the name Asil knew him by. For the first time, Asil wondered if he had stepped into a trap when he’d come on this date.
“LARP?” asked Asil, more to give himself a chance to think than because he was interested.
“Sorry. It stands for ‘live-action role-playing.’ L-A-R-P. Do you know Bruce? What’s wrong?”
“Come with me,” said Asil. Leaving his enemy still standing bothered him, but he could hardly kill the vampire in public view. That wouldn’t work on several levels.
Walking through the dancing crowd was like swimming upstream, but Asil was a good swimmer. People parted for them as he led Kelly to an alcove furnished with a bench and a large plant that looked real but smelled of plastic.
“Forgive me,” Asil said, pulling Kelly close and burying his nose in the young man’s neck.
Kelly struggled, mostly from surprise, Asil thought, much good it did him. Faintly, very faintly, he caught the scent of vampire.
He pulled back and held on until he was sure Kelly had his balance. Kelly jerked free and straightened his clothes. In a fine temper he said, “What the hell? Consent is required, man. And you didn’t ask and I didn’t say yes.”
Asil reminded his wolf forcefully that Kelly had a right to be mad. He loosened his neck and heard the vertebrae pop. “Bruce is a vampire.”
“I could have told you that,” Kelly snapped. “That’s right, I did.” His mouth opened, doubtless to deliver some more scathing commentary—but he shut it. “No way. No way in hell. Vampires aren’t real.”
“Shh,” advised Asil. “They are real, I assure you. And they have very good hearing. What one is doing here, I cannot tell you. Is there any chance Bruce was involved in the prank that led to our date?”
Kelly stared at him, but when he spoke again it was in a hushed whisper. “I don’t know. I wouldn’t think so. Trace and his girlfriend apparently thought it was a good idea one day while they were drunk.”
“They exchanged emails with people pretending to be me for two weeks,” Asil said dryly. “Were they drunk the whole time?”
“Them? Who knows, it’s possible.” Kelly shrugged distractedly. “What do you mean vampires are real? Everyone knows they aren’t real.”
“Vampires,” Asil said, speaking slowly, “are real. They usually live in seethes—sort of family groups—and feed on human prey, who die very slowly as they gradually turn into mindless slaves. You’ve been bitten—don’t fuss. Only once or you’d smell more like one of them. You’ll be safe enough.”