blood before, haven’t you.” It was not a question and Jason closed his eyes, tilted his head back to rest on the crimson-splattered walls.
“I have.”
I swallowed my dry throat. “Why did you drink from her, then? There are hundreds of humans up there, dancing, half drunk, all of them more than willing, more than ready to split their vein open for you. Why her?”
My voice got higher at the last syllable and I realized I was angry. More than angry. Confused. Upset. Unsure. I unclenched my fists slowly and let out a slow breath, trying to keep the anger from swelling to uncontrollable proportions.
His eyes opened, his dark unfathomable eyes and for once, he met my gaze.
“She tasted better.”
The bottom dropped out of my stomach and I felt the almost uncontrollable urge to laugh. “You know this is quite…unorthodox.”
“I know.”
I shook my head. “Enough. We have to leave. If anyone finds out it was you…”
He swallowed, hands trembling as though he had palsy. It took him several tries to lever himself to his feet and I fought the initial urge to help him. He wouldn’t have appreciated it. “What about Reiko?”
I didn’t even want to think about what she would say or do once she found out about Jason’s…interesting tastes. “We’ll have to leave her. She has Marcus with her. We can’t afford to go up there. Too many eyes.”
“And that blond vampire you were with?”
Ryder…I bit the corner of my lip. Indeed, he was a complication, a complication I prayed would not grow to a problem. “I don’t know. We’ll have to see. Let’s go.”
With a minimal amount of help, Jason and I managed to make it to out of the dance floor, mostly staying to the shadows. I couldn’t stop fidgeting when I retrieve my sword from the coat check girl and when the cold, crisp air hit us, his hands hidden into his coat, I was finally able to relax my shoulders and arms.
There were a line of taxis waiting across the street and by the time, we walked through the front door of his townhome, having locked it securely behind me, I felt my pulse slow down to a somewhat normal rate. “Go take a shower.”
Without answering, he went up the flight of stairs, where I hoped he would take a shower and get the last remnants of blood off his clothes and body.
The sofa, large and plush with a covering of velvet, never looked so inviting and I sat to wait for Reiko. Jason would most likely be completely incapacitated for the rest of the night, judging from the deep furrows bracketing his lips.
I did not have long to wait.
The door unlocked and opened, the sound of high heels clicking on the hardwood floors and Reiko stared at me from the doorway, hands on her almost nonexistent hips.
“Jason.” Her face seemed paler.
It was not a question.
I pointed at the ceiling, where I had heard the shower stop a little less than ten minutes ago. “I think he’s resting. Where’s Marcus?”
She waved a hand, as if to say just how little he rated on her importance scale. “I heard what happened.”
I had no idea what sort of expression to give her. “I see.”
“The girl will heal,” she said, voice still in that harsh, discordant tone. “Did she attack him?”
I watched her intently. “She invited him to her room.”
A toe began to tap on the floor. “And?”
What more was there to say? “He bit her.”
Her eyes fluttered close and I wondered if she was going to faint. “Did she provoke him?”
“No. According to him, she kissed him.”
She leaned against the doorway, shoulders slumped down like a marionette laid to rest. “Do you know what they call a vampire that hunts his own?”
“I never heard of one,” I said honestly.
“That’s because we hunt them down,” she whispered, eyes distant and wide. “The moment we learn of one’s existence, we find them. We tear them from limb to limb. And then we burn the remains. It’s the only way to get rid of them in a reliable fashion.”
“No stake through the heart?” My rather clumsy attempt at humor got me nothing but a blank look.
“No. It failed to work with several of…them.”
Vampires that preyed on other vampires. A strange idea, and yet, not one that was entirely unfeasible. “What creates them?”
“Well, if we knew that, we wouldn’t make them, now would we?” she snapped and then sighed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snipped at you like that. You got