Chapter 23 Like Buffy, Less Slayer, More Slay
Icould bury myself in the backyard over my embarrassment.
In the heat of the moment, I really wasn’t thinking about how many eyes were watching.
It was like I was under the same spell as everyone else, oblivious to the fact that we were putting on a show.
The music had a hold on me reminiscent of the club, the difference being that I’m only stripping when I’m dancing, not having an orgasm.
Now that the feeling has faded, I can’t help but feel a little awkward.
“My, aren’t you a sumptuous little thing.” Tannis pulls me toward the center of the room, spinning me around for a better look. When they stop, I force my feet into place to keep myself steady.
“Uh, thank you.”
“I’m sorry, precious. Did I embarrass you?” Tannis frowns.
Gray coughs, and we both look over. He’s sitting again, one leg crossed over the other, and he’s wearing the most smug expression I’ve ever seen. Damn him, too, because it suits him.
“Maybe,” he starts, “we refrain from announcing to the world where my hands were on her body.”
Tannis places both hands on their hips and curls their upper lip. They look ruefully at their cousin. “Then maybe you shouldn’t grope beautiful young women in a crowd full of horny vampires. That does draw attention, you know.”
“Sound advice, cousin.” Gray shrugs. “Next time, I’ll find a darker corner.”
“See that you do,” Tannis hums this agreement, and all the while I’m melting over the insinuation. It doesn’t help my case that he spares a subtle wink in my direction.
Next time? A dark corner? The fact that there will even be a next time is thrilling enough that my stomach is swimming with butterflies fluttering in violent anticipation.
I so badly wanted to feel him earlier, too.
Any moment later, and our chivalrous guide would have been witness to something much more intimate than what he encountered.
I would take any dark corner of this house to have his cock trapped between my thighs again.
“Now”—Tannis claps their hands together—“I have questions, and since you pulled me away from a saucy little Spaniard I have waiting in my chambers, you’ll answer them.”
“Can they be quick?” Gray says with growing seriousness. “We’re here for a reason.”
Tannis levels their gaze. “You mean this wasn’t a wellness check?”
“No,” he says flatly, then with a more serious tone, “Dante is here.”
Beside me, the other vampire freezes, and their expression changes with their features.
The soft, human facade they both wear so well starts to slip, and in the cracks I can see them for what they are.
Beneath that otherworldly beauty, there is a predator lying in wait.
I’ve noticed that vampires let the mask slip a little when they’re angry or hungry, and I’ve seen that on Gray.
Even in a certain light, I swear I can sometimes see past the impossible beauty and glimpse the creature hiding beneath.
I’ve gotten pretty decent at reading the room and the people in it.
Everyone wears a mask, whether they know it or not.
“Dante is here,” Gray repeats himself, but then adds, “He found Millie the other night and fed on her. I have no doubt he was issuing some kind of warning.”
Tannis glazes over their previous anger with an air of nonchalance, as if this is nothing more than a minor annoyance. “I swear, your spurned exes of lovers past will be the true death of me.”
The look on Gray’s face tells me that he’s heard this before.
Tannis abandons me for a chaise and spreads out. I take that as my cue to sit, too, and return to the couch where Gray is waiting. When he offers his hand, I take it. He pulls me down gently to the soft cushion, encasing me close to his side with one hand planted firmly on my hip.
“Gone a hundred years, and here you are, dragging me back into your messy relations.” Tannis sounds exasperated.
Gray scoffs. “Admit it, you’ve missed the drama.”
“Too true. Your timing is impeccable.” Tannis’s cheek twitches before a smile floods their face. “So, what is it you want from me?”
“I want you to teach Millie how to fight,” Gray says, his voice even.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” I shout, cutting Gray off mid-sentence. “What?”
Gray tilts his head back and gazes down at me. “Didn’t you say the other night at the diner you wanted to learn how to fight?”
“Yeah, I meant a self-defense class at the local rec club or something,” I pause, thinking back to what I said to him at the diner. At least he took me seriously. “Not one-on-one training with another vampire!”
“You’re a natural,” Gray says with a knowing smile. “You fended off a man twice your height.”
“That was dumb luck,” I argue.
“But you did do it,” he says, as if that will convince me.
I guess I could admire his confidence in me, but I mean it.
Fending off my attacker from the church was dumb luck.
I acted on instinct. Vampires are so much faster and stronger than me.
Hell, I could feel it in the way Dante held back.
His best was still pretty brutal, but at least he didn’t use his strength to rip me apart.
I shiver at the thought. It would be easy for him, too. I’d never see it coming.
“Okay, say I do this…” I surge to my feet and pace the floor between the couch and the fireplace. “I commit to the training montage, I learn how to fight off a vampire, and then what? I carry an arsenal of stakes, holy water, and silver with me?”
“Maybe not the holy water.” Tannis snickers humorously.
I shoot them a hard look, red eyes trailing me. They flatten their lips and avert their gaze.
“You know,” I begin, straightening in an attempt to compose myself, “just the other day one of the girls grabbed my bag and emptied it all out just so she could find the lip gloss I was wearing that night. And before that? Another girl did the same thing for a fucking tampon.”
To his credit, Gray looks both confused and alarmed. At least I have his attention.
“What I’m trying to say is, having an arsenal of wooden stakes wouldn’t really go over very well.
” I can already hear the questions they’d ask me if someone happened to go through my bag again for a tampon.
Not to mention the heat I’d catch from Dax.
Not exactly sure how to navigate that conversation yet, but I definitely don’t want it to happen for that reason.
“First of all, no stakes.” Gray shifts to sit on the edge of the couch; his focus on me. “What better way to learn than to find it at the source?”
My mouth hangs open, but no words come out.
He’s taking what I said to heart and following through.
I told him I wanted to fight, or learn how to just in case, but really I just wanted to avoid that sense of helplessness I felt at Dante’s hands.
My luck will run out eventually, and when it does, I don’t want to be a weak, sobbing mess.
“You’d have an easier time if you just enthralled her,” Tannis says boredly from the chaise.
Both Gray and I snap our attention to them.
“Do what?” I ask.
“Out of the question,” says Gray.
Tannis ignores their cousin and addresses me. “Enthrall you, Millie. It’s a blood bond between a vampire and a human. You would, for all intents and purposes, dip into the wealth of his immortality and claim some of it for yourself.”
“Tannis, stop,” Gray warns.
“You would be tied to him,” Tannis goes on, still ignoring Gray, “but you would have his strength, his senses, all of it. You would be everything but a vampire.”
Everything but a vampire, my mind repeats.
I’ll admit, the thought of being on the same level as Gray or Dante is attractive in its own right.
Who wouldn’t want all the benefits of vampirism without the undead part?
I could walk in the sun, for example, and carry all of my groceries in one trip.
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t already considering it as an option.
Gray snarls so loudly it tears through the air in the room.
It’s the only warning Tannis has before they’re attacked.
With lightning speed, Gray tackles Tannis from the chaise to the floor.
They flip around the room, slamming into the walls and other furniture, fighting each other.
My eyes can’t keep up with them, they move so fast. Clearly Gray doesn’t like the idea of enthralling me, despite it having some credibility.
If I had his strength, I would be way better off in both cases if I did learn how to fight a vampire from Tannis.
It isn’t hard to see why Gray would want to come here first before teaching me anything himself. What little of their fight I can see, proves just how outmatched Gray is versus his cousin. If Tannis is the strongest of the two of them, I shudder to think about Dante.
“Enough!” Tannis snarls as they slam Gray against the wall beside the fireplace with one solid arm. “It was merely an idea.”
“Probably the worst one you’ve ever had.
” Gray’s expression is severe, and he looks more pissed off than I’ve ever seen before.
The craziest part, though? I can see the sharpened point of his ears and the way the whites of his eyes have become black pools.
The effect it has on his red pupils is like two blood moons, side by side, sparkling in the night sky.
That’s been happening a lot, I think.
“Don’t be so arrogant. Just think it over.” Tannis drops their arm and backs up a few steps. “In the meantime, I’ll teach her a few simple things to help her in a pinch.”
“There’s nothing to think about.” Gray sneers.
I clear my throat loud enough to draw their attention to me. With a wave, I say, “Hey, still here. Do I get a say in all of this?”
Gray stiffens, but Tannis grins. “Well, cousin, does she?”
My vampire runs a hand through his disheveled hair and groans. “There’s nothing more to say.”