changing and you have to feed. What is it that you want to know, Ridley? Specifically?"
"Does it change your personality?"
"Not really. It just sort of...enhances it. Why?"
"Lars visited my mother today," I murmured, my heart heavy with worry, this time about my mother.
Before I could even blink, Bo was hauling me up from the chair, his hands gripping my upper arms tightly. "What? What happened?"
"Not so hard, Bo," I cautioned, prying his steely fingers loose. He relaxed his hold and rubbed my arms soothingly. "I don't know exactly, but she's acting like a...a...a sane person."
"In what way?" His eyes roamed my face.
"She was here when I got home, we cooked dinner together and then we actually ate together."
"So, what's the problem?"
In a perfect world, Bo would never have had to know that my mother has a serious drinking problem, but since we don't live in a perfect world, I knew I'd have to tell him eventually. I had just hoped I would be able to pick and choose the time a little better.
"My mom's an alcoholic. She's rarely ever here before 10:00 and, even then, she's always wasted. I can't remember the last time we ate dinner together when Dad was gone."
"Is it possible that she's just trying to straighten up, turn her life around?" Bo asked the question gently, stooping a little to look into my downcast eyes.
"It's not that, Bo. Trust me, she's acting really, really strange. And," I paused, swallowing the emotion that bubbled up in my throat. "I saw blood on her blouse. She had no idea where it came from and couldn't have cared less. That's not like her either."
Bo's brows drew together in another frown. "Where was the blood?"
"It was just one drop, right at her wrist."
"Did you see any marks? Bite marks, holes, scratches, a rash?"
"No, but the sleeves were long. I couldn't really see her wrist at all."
"What did she say Lars wanted?"
"She couldn't really tell me specifics. It's like she only remembered him, not what they talked about. She didn't even know why she came home in the first place."
Bo exhaled, the air hissing through his teeth in a way that made me apprehensive. He stepped back, rubbing the nape of his neck.
"What? What are you thinking?"
He hesitated briefly before he spoke. I wondered if he was considering not telling me.
"I haven't been this way for very long. What little I know, I've learned either from draining other vampires or from Lucius, but it sounds like he might be trying to establish a bond."
I wanted to ask about Lucius, who he was, but other questions were more pressing.
"A bond? What's that?"
"When a vampire feeds on a human, if he lets that human drink from him, apparently it bonds them together in such a way that he has some amount of mind control."
I smothered my gasp with my hand.
"Do you think that's what Lars did to my mother?"
"It's possible," he admitted, his unsettled expression anything but encouraging.
"So what does that mean? What now? What happens to Mom?"
Bo shrugged, a gesture he used frequently, but one that irritated me this time for some reason.
"Depends."
"On what?"
"What he wants with her."
"What could he possibly want with my mother?"
Bo paused, casting an inscrutable look in my direction.
"There's only one thing that I can think of."
"What's that?"
"You."
The blood drained from my head so quickly, I had to sit back down in the desk chair before I fell down.
"But what could he possibly want with me?" That just didn't sound right. I didn't know him, I posed no threat to him, I -
I stopped when I realized why he might want to get to me.
"Unless he wants to use me to get to something else, someone else." Bo said nothing to this, confirming my suspicion. "He wants me to get to you."
Bo's expression was full of guilt and regret. "That's what I'm afraid of," he confessed. He rubbed a weary hand over his face. "I should've stayed away." Obviously frustrated, he turned away from me.
I stood and crossed to him. I touched his shoulder, letting my hand rest there until he turned back to face me.
"No, you shouldn't have. Avoidance is never the answer. Yes, life is all about pain and trouble and frustration and anger, but