Page 42 of Absolution
“Bed is off limits,” I told Luca. “There are babies in my room.”
Luca nodded and joined me in the kitchen as I put away the groceries. Hopefully Sei hadn’t moved anything around since the last time I’d been here so I wouldn’t freak him out if I put something away wrong.
“Heard about the babies. It was huge news on TV. Even with all the vampire crap going on. They are like baby celebrities or something. Only Sei pretty much went into hiding the second they came home,” Luca said. “No one has seen even a glimpse of them. That’s why security is so heavy outside of the building. Lots of paparazzi hanging around. If this is how bad it is for his kids, I can only imagine what your friend Seiran grew up with.”
Prince of the Dominion, I had once teased Seiran. And while the witch hated it, it was more than a little true. Tanaka Rou had created an empire of power despite her parents cutting her off for bearing a male child. She had made it clear several times that her power would go to Seiran. I wasn’t sure if she meant the inheritance ceremony or just her wealth and title. Seiran did not need any more power. I wasn’t sure he was in control of what he currently had.
“Gabe left. Sei needed him and he just left. Like he couldn’t handle the babies crying,” I told Luca.
“Some people can’t. That’s why they don’t have kids. Gabe’s pretty old. I’d be surprised if he never had any, but not wanting them now makes sense. He’s sort of set in his ways. My dad is the same. I was raised mostly by nannies. The Hallmark shit with dads reading to you and kissing you good night, that’s not my life.”
“Mine either and my dad wasn’t a vampire.”
“So am I forgiven?” Luca asked suddenly.
“Not completely. And I don’t want to talk about Galloway or whatever you do for him.” I paused and looked at the hot guy who said he wanted to be mine. “Are you fucking him?”
“Pretty sure Galloway’s asexual. He has groupies galore throwing themselves at him and he’s not interested in any of them. Uses them as blood whores, that’s all, but he has a menagerie of them.”
“So he’s not drinking from you either?”
“Nope. I’m your blood whore.”
I felt my face heat. “Heard that part?”
Luca shrugged. “It’s pretty close to the truth. Mostcibosare blood whores. They don’t have regular jobs. They use the excuse of recovering from the blood loss not to work all day. For humans, that’s pretty much spot on, they don’t regenerate blood cells as fast. A vampire would need a dozen humancibosto survive. I’m not human, and I have a job.”
“You work for your dad,” I said.
“Yep. Mostly just as a liaison. I schedule meetings, gather research, work up documents and get them approved by lawyers or finance people or whatever. It’s a boring job I could do in my sleep, but I make good money. Max says it teaches me leadership skills. Mostly I think it just keeps me out of his way.”
I opened the fridge to put stuff away and just stared at the QuickLife. What if it was like booze? Could it addict you and then make you nuts? Maybe that was why Gabe had come unglued. I began pulling bottles out, opening them and dumping them down the sink.
“Do you know what’s in it?” I asked Luca after he joined me at the sink to run the water and empty the bottles. I’d smelled it and tasted it before, but couldn’t say there was anything that made me think it was addictive. The stuff was awful. Like watered down Gatorade, the sugar-free kind that tried really hard to be real despite the fluorescent-colored additives.
“I’m not a scientist and Galloway doesn’t believe in them, so I have no idea. Did someone alter the formula or has it always been funny? Maybe the real issue is that it’s not like blood at all. So vampires drink it, thinking it helps with the thirst, but only makes it worse? How would we tell?”
“Have you talked to Max?”
“Max has always thought the synthetic blood was a sham. And he’s wrapped in a big sports sale thing, so I’ve barely heard from him. Max always puts Max first. Power and money are his focus. I think that’s why he’s never had a real Focus.”
“It’s weird that you call your dad Max.”
“He’s never really been dad. Haven’t seen him in a while anyway. He was more interested in seeing you when he got here than me.” His words weren’t bitter, just matter of fact.
I looked Luca over for the first time since I’d woken up. Really looked him over. He looked tired, and a little thinner. He also said he’d recently lost when before he’d made it sound like he always won. “When was the last time you ate?” I asked.
“I had pasta at Bucca’s. Surprised you can’t still smell the garlic on me.” He patted his stomach.
“I mean blood.”
His face shut down and he turned away to grab another stack of bottles.
“So your dad’s been absent, Galloway is a bastard, and I’ve been mostly dead for a few months. Am I the last one you got to snack on? You have to feed on a vampire, right?” I took the bottle he was holding and stared at him until he looked at me.
He nodded. “That went sort of bad. So maybe we shouldn’t repeat it.”
“Because you went nuts.”