Well This Sucks - CoraLee June Page 0,65
out of my best friend, I developed a full-blown woman crush. It’s a good thing I was the one with the superpowers and not Ryan; otherwise, I think he would have incinerated me with his eyes by now.
After Ryan had the chance to calm his nerves and see that Claire wasn’t a big bad who was going to drink his blood for breakfast, I made the formal introductions and ordered a round of mimosas for the table. I secretly asked our waiter to make Ryan’s a double.
Ryan began to relax after his second mimosa and looked like he was having fun. He was asking Claire all kinds of questions about her life, vampire culture, and wanting to know which TV shows were the most vampirically accurate.
“Hey, Claire?” I asked, interrupting Ryan’s question about whether vampires have to be invited into a place before entering. “Diego was saying something about a vampire’s license last night, when can I get that?”
“Well, you can take the test whenever you would like. Fledglings usually wait until they have completed initiation and then spent some time outside the compound with their mentors. And no, we don’t have to be invited in,” she directed the last part to Ryan.
“So I could take it today?” I asked, hopefully.
“Yes, you could. But you should know that it’s not a pass/fail system. When you take the test, you are evaluated. The evaluations will give you either freedoms or restrictions based on how you perform.”
“Sounds easy enough,” I replied with a shrug. I bet it had things like don’t kill anyone and avoid garlic. I didn’t want to be too cocky, but I felt like I had a pretty good handle on all of this vampire stuff. I mean, I haven’t sucked anyone dry, unless you count what I did to Diego last night, but even that proves I’ve got this vamp thing down. “What sort of freedoms and restrictions are we looking at?”
“It puts a perimeter around where you can go. Lower ranking vampires that don’t pass can’t attend events with large crowds or enter a hospital. They can’t leave the city; some can’t leave the compound. Those that exceed expectations can travel internationally. People tend to get hungry on those long flights. We also make sure you aren’t a psychopath that will try to create a cult or anything like that,” Claire explained with a wave of her hand. “You wouldn’t believe how many religious cult leaders are actually vampires. It’s ridiculous.”
I swallowed. Looks like it wasn’t only Kool-Aid that people were sipping.
Too soon for that joke? Probably.
“Fascinating,” Ryan murmured.
“Isn’t it? We’ve modernized our membership policies over the years. Immortality and superhuman abilities are significantly easier to manage when you have a firm system in place. I created a lot of the policies used today. Before, it felt like a free for all, and the king spent most his days chasing down and killing rogue vampires. It’s easier to live a peaceful existence when everyone knows what to expect.”
“This is exactly why girls and gays should rule the world,” Ryan said with a heartfelt sigh.
Claire giggled. “Ryan, would you mind helping Drew out with her vampire test? It is somewhat of a BYOH situation.”
“BYOH?” I asked.
“Bring your own human. Ryan is a perfect candidate.”
Ryan’s eyes bugged out of his head. “Perfect candidate? What exactly is Drew going to be doing to me?”
“Oh, don’t worry, darling, you won’t remember a thing.”
I was in the line from hell. It wrapped around the corner, so I couldn’t even see how many people were in front of me. I had finally made it to the part of the line inside the building, but I hadn’t moved an inch for thirteen minutes. Seriously, how many freaking vampires were there who needed to take this test today? Did vampires have to renew their license? How often could I test? What if I failed?
I didn’t even have my phone to keep me entertained. I was trying to mentally connect the dots using the moles on a bald man’s head a few spots in front of me when the line finally started to move again. We shuffled forward enough that I could peek around the corner, and I let out an exasperated groan. This line branched off into several other lines. I couldn’t quite tell where they went, but I couldn’t even see any type of counter or employee. Just lines of bored and frustrated vamps.
They took Ryan once we got here. They said it would