don’t know about you, but basement apartments in abandoned buildings don’t sound like a lot of fun to me.”
“Sounds pretty awful,” I agree. “But way more suited to their personalities. James’s, anyway. I don’t think I’ve met Chris.”
“Good,” he says firmly. “I hope you never do.”
“So why do they live here now?”
He shrugs. “I don’t know the specifics, but I guess there’s some kind of Buffy wannabe running around up there causing trouble. They claim they only came down here because they felt they deserved better, but I’m pretty sure they’re just scared.”
Don’t smile, don’t smile.
I focus on the “Buffy wannabe” statement and let it annoy me enough to keep from grinning like an idiot. Apparently, I had James on the run once, and dammit, I’ll do it again.
Connor smiles down at me, his eyes warm and soft, and moves his arm so that my hand slides into his. He kisses my wrist, then lets our hands swing between us. It’s cozy, comfortable… and exactly what I don’t need right now.
Shit. It’s going to hurt to leave him.
I shove the knowledge away, wishing I could make it untrue just by ignoring it. If I get melancholy right now, he’ll know something’s up, and he won’t stop pestering me until he finds out what it is. Because he cares.
Dammit, Connor, act like a vampire for once, would you?
His pocket buzzes when we reach the main staircase. I wonder if the stairs go up to the building above too, or if they just reach into higher underground levels? I’m about to ask him, but he’s frowning at his phone.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
He sighs, taps out a text, and slides the phone back into his pocket. “One of the older vampires was trying to enter data onto a spreadsheet I’ve been keeping for some of our accounting stuff, and he managed to mess up what was already there. At least he thinks he messed it up. He probably just hit ‘show formulas’ or something, but I have to go fix it regardless.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Older, like—?”
He grins. “Older like rotary phones are newfangled technology and why in heaven’s name don’t we keep proper pens around here anymore, haven’t you any idea how wasteful these ‘point balls’ are?”
He scowls like an old man, making his voice gruff and grumpy until he can’t hold in his laughter any longer.
I laugh along with him, and he pulls me close, holding me securely against his chest. I bury my face in his shirt and wrap my arms around his waist, relishing the warmth of him all around me. I breathe him in, memorizing the way he feels and sounds, memorizing the way I feel when I’m with him. I’ll need these memories to keep me sane after I leave.
On the other hand, maybe holding on to these feelings is what will eventually drive me crazy—or get me killed. Because I’m not going to stop hunting vampires, and I can’t afford to show restraint on the street. Knowing that some of the monsters I kill might laugh like music and smell like warm rain in their home element will leave me with a guilt that whiskey won’t be able to touch.
He pulls away from me and kisses my forehead, then my nose, then my mouth. He lingers there a while until his phone buzzes again. Then he pulls away, eyes full of regret, and brushes his fingers over my face.
“Ah, parting is such sweet sorrow,” he sighs.
I grin. “I didn’t think you were a Shakespeare kind of guy.”
His brow furrows. “Shakespeare? I thought that was Willy Wonka!”
I can’t tell if he’s serious or not, but he’s gone before I stop laughing. I watch his cocky little strut as he disappears back the way we came from. For an instant, I consider following him, just because I know that he’s going to have to punch the code in to get upstairs, but I reject the idea as soon as it occurs to me. He’s too aware of my presence. Accepting momentary defeat, I head back to my room. Once I’m sure that Connor has moved on, I sneak out again and spend the rest of the day hanging out near the corridor where the elevator sits, but I don’t have any luck.
At dinner, every bite of food seems to go down my throat like a lump of cement, and I even go as far as veering out of the way instead of heading straight back to my room