Page 13

Kai

“Your friend was in last night.” Nikolo grunts through his stretch.

He’s on the floor in the middle of our living room, legs spread wide in the middle splits. In only his tiny briefs, it’s a lot to see of my best friend first thing in the evening.

“Which friend is that?”

It’s a dumb question, we both know who he’s talking about.

I throw myself on the couch, taking a sip of my evening blood, savouring the taste of fae blood as it explodes on my taste buds and clears the sleep-fog from my senses.

I splurged on the good shit this week when I did the shopping.

That pre-mating party ended up tipping a lot better than they usually do and Nikolo and I made out like bandits.

Even Lifo pulled in good cash that night.

Nikolo looks at me with mild disgust when I make vaguely inappropriate sounds of pleasure with my next sip.

Still in his split, he leans forward, walking his hands out until his chest is almost touching the ground.

Once he’s there he hums loudly in place of the breath usually taken in stretches and rolls his body back up.

“You know who I’m talking about,” he says eventually, folding his body into another position with a bent knee, foot planted on the other side of his leg.

He follows the flow of the movement, twisting his body around to flash me the small ponytail he’s tucked his curls into, giving me a peek at the thin braid usually hidden by the mass of his hair.

It’s a new thing he’s started doing in the past few months. Something from his former life, he says. Though he’s never really explained what that means. Nikolo doesn’t really like talking about his life before he was turned. I don’t even think I’ve ever even seen him speak to his parents.

Nikolo was turned before me. He had been a vampire for two and a bit years before we met back when I was still just a hot badger shifter working at Bloody Temptations on the weekends to supplement my fledgling modelling career.

I was only working there for six months before things went sideways.

I was attacked outside the club by a pack of drunk wolves.

They’d been absolutely feral that night.

I was basically dead from my injuries, and only survived because Maddy found me just in time.

I had just enough life in me to give my consent for her to turn me.

There was no way I was going to make it to the hospital, so the ambulance officers signed as witnesses to my paperwork.

That was three years ago now.

I was lucky. Really lucky. The wolves that got me were already up for a string of charges, so mine were added to a very long list. So not only did they get caught, charged and sentenced, but I’ve had the whole Bloody Temptations crew to support me through my transition and the whole process.

Usually vamps only have their maker for the first year after changing–during that time they are legally responsible for you.

Like, if you go off the deep end and go mad with power after your change, and go round hurting beings and humans, your maker is just as responsible as you are.

After that, you’re on your own. Maddy knows she’s stuck with me forever, though.

It’s why I’ve been the way I’ve been with Finn.

Okay, the first night I started talking to him because he’s cute as fuck and I couldn’t resist. I was disappointed when he hadn’t sought me out before the night ended, and I’d been too busy to go find him.

Later, though, when he came into the bar on his own, I sensed the loneliness in him, I guess, if I’m being deep about it.

I’m not saying he’s not into me. And that I’m not eager to get a taste of the sweet and somewhat skittish vamp.

But I really do think he’s genuine when he says that he’s looking for connection to his new community.

It can be hard out there, with everyone looking at you like you’re gonna jump them, or infect them or whatever.

It’s nice to be able to just not deal with that shit.

“How do you even know that? You weren’t even on.”

Because the weekends are the busiest nights of the week, our days off are usually midweek.

Generally we get one weekend off a month, and this is it.

We spent it grocery shopping and cleaning the apartment.

And last night we watched a movie and Nikki sewed costumes, before we went to bed early.

Riveting shit. If only our legions of fans online knew how we actually spent our free time.

“Belinda messaged me. And Erod. And Maddy.” He twists into another pose. “Actually, Maddy called. But that was about rosters for the week. I’ve put yours on the fridge.”

“Thanks.” I take another sip of my blood. But it’s nowhere near as pleasant now. It’s cooled off too much. And there is a queasy feeling in my guts that the guys at work are talking shit about Finn. I really don’t like that.

“I hope you guys aren’t being dicks about him. ”

“Your new biggest fan you mean?” Nikolo can’t see the face I’m pulling with the way he’s bent over. I consider throwing a cushion at him to get the point across anyway.

“That. That right there. Don’t.”

Hearing the vehemence in my tone, he drops out of the back bend he’s in—thankfully relieving me of the sight of the turquoise bulge of his crotch. Sitting now, legs crossed, he frowns at me, stretching out his arms.

He doesn’t actually have to go through the rigorous stretching that he does almost daily.

The body we’re turned with is our baseline for our life as a vamp.

It only changes if we get sick or with extreme modifications.

We don’t really age like normal beings, either.

Our bodies are in a type of stasis. Eventually, time takes its toll, but it’s not the same as if we’d continued living.

It’s more that your body just wears out.

Nikki and I, though? We’ve both been blessed by the Gods to be turned while we were at our physical peaks. Well, I was nearly dead with half the bits that are meant to be inside me out on the pavement, but between the doctors and the change, that all worked itself out.

“Sorry.” Groaning, I put my cup carefully on the coffee table, remembering to use a coaster.

The table’s new and we’re trying to keep it nice.

We’re slowly going through and replacing all of our cheap starter furniture.

“Just… I don’t want you guys making him feel like shit.

He’s not like the others. He’s… I don’t think he has any vamp connections.

I think he’s on his own. And he’s like, really fresh. Too freshly turned to be on his own.”

“So what, you’re tutoring him? His naughty vamp professor?”

This time I actually throw the cushion at him, smacking him right in his dumb face. His shocked gasp of outrage fills my cold, dead heart with glee .

“What the fuck?!” He’s laughing now, launching the cushion back at me. He’s always had a shit throw, though, so I manage to bat it out of the air. “Seriously, though, are you mentoring him or something?”

I let out an exaggerated noise akin to a sigh, my chest heaving with the reflex. “Why does it have to be a thing? He comes in, he hangs out, we shoot the shit.”

“Well, for starters, we’ve both dealt with too many crazies for everyone to just be chill about it. I mean, Lifo is a toe rag and even he’s had a stalker or two.”

I grunt, not willing to give Nikolo’s excellent point any more than that.

“And then there is the fact that you two are obviously into each other. It’s like watching two school kids flirt. I gotta say, it’s nice to see you humbled, my man.”

“Gee, thanks.” I pick up the cushion and throw it in the air. “I don’t know what to tell you. Do I think he’s hot? Sure. Would I go there? Absolutely. But like…”

“Sometimes it’s nice to flirt?” Nikolo cuts in when I fail to find the end of my sentence.

“Yes. That.” Dropping the cushion, I click my fingers and point at him. “I don’t know where this is going, or what it is. He’s a guy that comes to the bar and we talk about dumb shit.”

Like whatever stories he’s been reading on the Crumbles app. He was embarrassed at first but now he’s super into it. We both are. He gets crazy animated when he’s filling me in on the latest updates. Who knew beings posted all this wild personal shit online for just anybody to read?

“You said that you don’t think he has any vamp friends?” Nikolo stands, throwing on the long hoodie he discarded at some point during his stretching .

“Yeeeah…” I draw the word out hesitantly, not sure where Nikolo is going with this.

He picks up my mug and makes his way towards the kitchen.

“You should take him to Hearts Gate.”

I twist to face him over the back of the couch. He’s leaning in the door frame of the small kitchen. He seems serious, which is insane because Hearts Gate makes Bloody Temptations look like child's play. Because it is. Apart from both being vampire venues, there is no comparison between the two.

Where Bloody Temptations allows beings to play on walking on the wild side with vampires, Hearts Gate is the wild side with vamps.

It’s a safe space for vamps, not beings.

Not that anything too insane goes on there—they always stay on the right side of the law—but Finn didn’t even know not to buy the cheap blood mixed with human that can make us sick if we have it too often.

“I’m not sure if Finn’s ready to be exposed to that much… vampireness.”

Nikolo cocks his head, his tongue poking into his cheek. “Whatever, it was just a thought. Invite him along next time we go. Or don’t. This is your extracurricular, not mine.”

On that note he dumps my mug in the sink and struts to the bathroom for a shower. Leaving me to sit and stew about what, if anything, I’m going to do about Finn.

***

Three days later and I’m back working the midweek after work shift. I’m in the storage room, collecting fresh bottles to restock the fridges under the bar when Maddy saunters in .