working her way back. If she feeds from him again, he’s not going to walk out of here. Doesn’t anybody pay attention to these things? Aren’t there rules for overfeeding? There should be, but somehow, I’m not surprised that there aren’t.
“Okay, that’s it.” Connor pulls me to a stop in the middle of the dance floor. I crane my neck to keep looking toward Nathan, but he touches my face, pulling my gaze to him. “What’s wrong?”
I blink at him a few times, but my mind is blank. I don’t know what to say, or how to play off my obvious distress and distraction. Would he even care that a male tribute is in danger? Would he get jealous?
No, Connor isn’t the person to talk to about this. It’s not that I don’t think he would care, since he’s one of the most empathetic people I’ve ever met. But he’s too new and too nice. No one will listen to him. He doesn’t have enough power in the vampire hierarchy yet.
“I need a second,” I tell him. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” he murmurs, but his brow is furrowed with worry. I kiss his cheek and leave him on the dance floor.
He doesn’t follow me, but I can feel his eyes on me. I’m breaking a whole lot of psycho-social rules right now, and I know it, but I can’t just sit here and do nothing. I scan the great hall, chewing on my bottom lip as my heart races.
Rome isn’t hard to find. As usual, he’s standing to one side of the large room, watching vampires go about their business with stern eyes.
Blood tributes aren’t really supposed to approach vampires uninvited. I’ve seen girls get slapped, scolded, and snubbed for doing just that. The snubbing was the worst, from a social hierarchy perspective. Girls who were snubbed didn’t get chosen again, by anybody, for days at least.
But this is Rome. From everything I’ve seen, he’s not exactly a stickler for those kinds of rules.
He sees me coming and focuses on me, eyes and body attuning to me. He’s studying my face and opening his tense posture, his body language an invitation, so I keep walking toward him, praying that I’m right and that he won’t shoot me down for approaching him uninvited.
“Can we speak privately?” I ask quietly as I come within earshot.
He nods and offers me his elbow. It’s a more natural movement for him than it is for Connor, which makes me wonder, briefly, just how old Rome is. I don’t bother asking though. It’s not what’s important right now.
As soon as we’re out in the corridor, I let go of his arm and turn to face him. “Did you mean it when you told me I should come to you if there are any vampires being abusive?”
He tenses, his eyes flashing with murderous intent. “Who hurt you?”
I shake my head. “Not me. It’s a couple of others. Nathan—that tall, skinny tribute with the prison tattoos down his left side—is being drunk from too often. Althea and Maureen are draining him dry fighting over him. He’s not going to last another day if they don’t back off. And Jessica… you’ve met her, right?”
“I have.”
“She’s James’s favorite, and he’s not being careful with her. When he’s done with her, he leaves her to bleed until she can find someone else to put her back together. If he chooses her to bond with, he’ll kill her.”
Rome’s expression is closed-off, unreadable. He’s not the most expressive vampire in the world to begin with, but there’s some kind of tension behind his eyes that I can’t figure out. I need him to hear me, but I don’t know what to say that I haven’t already said. Does he need to be convinced that they’re worth it?
I open my mouth to speak, but he speaks first.
“Why do you care so much about the others?” he asks, his voice tight.
I didn’t expect that question, and can’t quite mitigate my reaction. “What? Because… because they’re people! They’re my fellow tributes. Fellow humans. I’d do the same for any of them.”
Even Winona, although it pains me a little to admit it to myself.
Rome’s expression softens. I’m not sure how he was expecting me to answer that question, but his response to the answer I gave surprises me.
He cups my face in his hand, running a thumb over my lip. His warm eyes linger on my mouth for a moment, just long enough to make me suck in