Page 53 of Blood Stone

If ‘Adrian’ was his alias, the chances were good Roman was vampire.

“Does she know what he is?” she asked Garrett.

He had been on the verge of standing up, she realized.

He hesitated. “No, probably not. Roman didn’t tell any of his wives.”

Winter felt her mouth opening all by itself and a cold lump forming in her chest. “He married humans andnever told them?”

“It was the way of it, Winter,” Sebastian said softly. “Secrecy was how we survived.”

She shook her head. “I’m sorry I thought badly of you, Garrett. Perhaps you had it right in the first place. No relationships with humans at all is far better than duping them.” She could feel her mouth turning down in disgust.

Sebastian gripped her thigh. Hard. “This is not the time or the place for such a discussion. Garrett, Kate just emerged and she’s heading outside.” He shifted his chin sideways, indicating over Garrett’s shoulder.

Garrett turned, making it casual. Winter looked to her left. Kate was just disappearing through the swing doors that let onto the euphemistically-named beer garden – a fenced-off piece of dried out dirt decorated with a few plastic barbecue tables and faded umbrellas.

“And Roman isn’t by her side,” Garrett added. “A nice change.” He stood up and looked at Sebastian. “Give me fifteen minutes with her, hmm?”

Sebastian glanced at Roman. “Sure.” He seemed confident that he could keep Roman at bay for at least fifteen minutes, if not longer, which sounded odd, coming from the man hunched up on his bench like he might get picked on by the local tough boys at any second.

Winter held her smile back. “You big strong geek, you,” she murmured.

“I slaughter them inAssassin’s Creed,” he replied with a superior tone, as Garrett strolled casually away.

Winter wrinkled her brow. “Is that some sort of game?”

He looked highly offended. “It’s only the best game around, like, ever.”

She bit her lip. “It’s a real game, isn’t it?”

He managed to look even more offended. “Ofcourseit’s a real game! Look—” He launched into a long explanation of the game’s storyline, which included a history of assassins, the middle ages, then tottered off into the realms of fantasy. Winter got lost in minutes and began to nod in all the right places, mentally asleep. Sebastian actually played this stuff? When did he fit it in? He had to sleep these days, just as she did, although not for as long as she did.

He was sipping beer as he spoke and half-way through a sentence, he flung his arms wide. Presumably to explain some dimension or the, like, total awesomeness of some feature of the game.

His cup was still in his hand and the beer – most of a cup’s worth – doused Roman/Adrian as he passed by the table, which sat on the edge of the major corridor through the room.

Sebastian bounced to his feet, stumbling, to stand in front of him as he paused, looking down at the beer dripping down his jeans and onto his shoes, holding his hands out from his sides, disbelief painting itself on his face.

“Jeez, man, I’m so s-sorry. I forgot I was holding my beer. Jeez, this is embarrassing.”

Roman lifted his head and glared at him. “You forgot?” he repeated, his tone dry. Winter didn’t blame him. She wouldn’t have believed Sebastian either.

Roman glanced at her and his eyes narrowed as he looked back at Sebastian. “You’re the computer jerk,” he said, plucking his sodden tee-shirt away from his chest.

“Ah, yeah. I guess that’s me.” Sebastian scratched at his hair and gave a bashful grin.

Roman nodded. “You’re working for Garrett, then.”

“Guilty. Say, man, can I get you some clean clothes or something?” Sebastian waved his hand at Roman’s jeans. Most of one hip had taken the bulk of the beer, and his tee-shirt had soaked up the rest.

“Well, we’ve established you’re guilty about one thing,” Roman replied. “If I hadn’t been watching you as I walked past the table and known your head never moved to sight me, I’d swear you were guilty of dumping this on me, too.” He scowled. “So if you’ll just let me by, we’ll call it even.”

“Hey, I can’t let you go without apologizing properly, man!”

Roman’s scowl darkened. “Get out of my way or I’ll move you out of the way myself.” He paused and smiled. “You’ll really wish you’d moved under you own steam, believe me.”

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