mostly depends on you. Mr. Royce gave me the okay to claim you. He also wanted me to tell you this is your last chance to choose someone yourself, if you’d prefer.” Reece didn’t seem to like that prospect, and rapidly spat out the last of it, sounding a little afraid himself. It contrasted oddly with that deep voice. “If you don’t, or if you resist, he’ll have John put together a schedule so you’re on the menu for everyone in the house every couple of days, and he’ll bar any claim for two months.”
Reece cleared his throat, rubbing the back of his neck. “I know the situation isn’t ideal, but anything has to be better than being passed around like that.”
The options were nightmarish. Going back to the house to become this guy’s donor wasn’t at all ideal, but Ashi didn’t want to be passed around like a bag of snacks. Escaping was now looking more and more unrealistic—hell, he hadn’t even gotten across the damn bridge.
Freaking island.
Then again, he had the chance to choose.
“I’ll go back,” Ashi said. “But I’m going to choose who I have to get bitten by.”
Reece nodded, torn between relief and disappointment. He would have liked a donor of his own, but wasn’t sadistic enough to force someone into it. “They have to agree by the end of the night, though. That’s part of the deal. You’ll have to tell them to tell Royce so he can rescind the order to make the schedule. I was told if you run again, the claim is invalid, and the rotation schedule becomes permanent.”
He gestured for Ashi to follow. When they got closer, he lifted his hand in an “all clear” wave to Angus, who slowly straightened to stand his full height, towering over the car. The highlander was mildly disappointed that the matter had been resolved without any bloodshed.
Ashi trudged behind Reece. He was surprised Angus hadn’t gone after him. He would have been impossible to beat.
He got into the back and slumped in the seat. He needed to find Jessica as soon as they got back. It was likely she knew everyone and could give him advice. He was going to listen to someone for once.
It didn’t take very long for them to get back, and it was Mouse on guard in the foyer when they came in. She didn’t bother looking up from the paperback she was thumbing through. Angus and Reece escorted Ashi inside, only watching to make sure he didn’t try to make another run for it before heading back to their own apartments.
He wasn’t their problem anymore.
Ashi immediately went to the room he shared with Christoph to shower. He felt like he had a coating of smog all over his body, which might not have been far from the truth. Christoph wasn’t in the room. As soon as he was dry and dressed, Ashi hobbled to Jessica’s apartment and knocked on the door.
* * *
Christoph was on a treadmill in the second floor gym. He wasn’t alone. There could have been a dozen more people in the room without crowding, but there were only a couple of guys lifting weights and a girl working her abs on a metal contraption that could’ve passed for a medieval torture device. All of them were human, and none of them seemed particularly interested in conversation, just working on keeping already toned bodies in shape.
Christoph’s loss of strength and endurance was disconcerting. He was used to running all day, five days of the week, with a few odd errands on Saturdays. Now he was pacing himself and going much slower, gasping for air. Weak. Human.
He closed his eyes as he ran and could almost imagine he was on a trail in the Angeles Crest mountains. He was strongly reminded why humans tended to become fat and slow. It was too hard to maintain this sort of thing without serious discipline.
* * *
While Christoph was running, Analie was frantically whisking.
It had started when one of the sous chefs had to get driven to the hospital for a minor burn treatment to their hand. This left a sauce that Analie didn’t know the name of unattended and Jacques had ordered her out of the protective bubble of her corner. His exact words were to “keep stirring the sauce or I will murder you with a flour sifter.”
Analie wasn’t sure how you could do someone in with a flour sifter, but she was certain that Jacques could pull