Page 28

Finn

.,

I think I’ve upset Kai.

Scratch that—I’ve definitely upset Kai.

Which feels really fucking awful because the night at his place after the gardens was the best night of my life.

And now things are off between us.

I knew it was a risk when I left like I did, but when I woke up there was a message from my boss asking if I wanted to come in early to cover a shift. I needed the money, so I said yes without really taking into account having to get back to my place, get cleaned up and then into work on time.

In my defence, I agreed before I had my first blood of the morning. Less in my defence, I was still riding high on the thrill of drinking from Kai. Which is probably how I managed to wake up before him.

Since sneaking out like I did—or more accurately, respectfully leaving him to sleep—he’s been different.

He still sends me his good evening and good morning texts.

But there hasn’t been a single selfie in the past four days.

Before we hooked up, I was averaging two a day.

And when I send him Crumbles threads I think he’ll find funny or interesting, I’m only getting short ‘lol’ replies back .

Maybe it has nothing to do with sneaking out and everything to do with sleeping over in the first place.

I mean, we’ve been out a couple of times and made out at his work, but it’s not like he’s proposed mateship or anything.

Or maybe I’m bugging him by not getting the hint after we hooked up? Maybe he’s done with me already?

It’s all so confusing, I don’t know where I stand with all this casual dating or friends hooking up or whatever in the name of the Gods this insanity is. And I am too chicken to ask in case it all blows up in my face.

I can’t even ask anyone else about it, because while I’m sure Bedeer and everyone would love to weigh in on my screwing around with one of the HVBs, I’m not really up for their particular brand of thirsty honesty.

So I’m back at Bloody Temptations, to see if I’m just reading into things.

Unfortunately for me, the place is packed tonight. I’m not going to be able to snag my usual place at the bar, so I find a high table and take a seat, waving to Rolli standing guard by the door to the back rooms.

He gives me a big smile and wave, so obviously I haven’t done anything too terrible. I had almost convinced myself that Wendy—the human working the door tonight—was going to tell me I was banned.

“Boo!” Belinda cackles when I jump. I was watching Kai too closely. “Seriously, it’s a good thing you’re here. He’s been in a mood the past few days. Won’t say what’s wrong, not even to Nikolo.”

At first I don’t believe her, but then I look past the front he’s put on for work, and I can see there is definitely something dimmer about his sparkle tonight.

Shit.

“Uh, yeah. I’ll go up and see him when I can get up there.” I stammer out the excuse .

It’s a plausible one at least. As much as I usually loiter around the bar, I do try to get out of the way when they get busy. Especially because I’ve noticed the cost of my drinks has severely decreased in line with the increase in my friendship with Kai.

“Ugh, I know right? It’s like the frost thaws and we get overrun. It’s bad enough the nights are getting shorter, but the work gets harder too!” Belinda groans and cuffs me on the shoulder. “I’ll bring you a drink when I can—on the house so long as you can get a real smile out of Kai.”

Usually that would be a safe bet, but tonight I’m not feeling so sure of myself.

The first rush fades and the bar clears enough to be able to take a seat on one of the stools lining the long bar.

“Hey.” For a horrifying moment I think Kai is going to blank me entirely under the guise of intently cleaning the bar, but then he looks up. Belinda is right, there is definitely less spark in Kai’s eyes.

“How’s it going?” I ask when he just keeps on looking at me.

There is a smile, but I still haven’t won Belinda’s challenge. It barely lifts his cheeks.

“Fine, just been busy, you know?” The smile is more of a tight line now.

“I’m sorry. For leaving. That was such a dick move.

I’m a dick. I had a text from my boss offering me an extra couple of hours and I agreed before I realised how quickly it meant having to leave.

I’m not used to the shortening nights yet.

” The words tumble out of me, one after the other, in a chaotic rush.

Kai finally stops passive aggressively cleaning and looks at me, really looks at me, the ghost of a real smile teasing the corners of his lips.

“So yeah, long story short, I fucked up, I’m a dick, and I’m sorry.

But I had a good time. Great time even. ”

That last bit is the winner, apparently. Kai chuckles and throws the towel on the bench. It's the first night of the weekend, but he and Nikolo aren’t in their crazy outfits tonight, even if the cut off black tee and black denim short-shorts are more flamboyant than their weekday work clothes.

When he crosses his arms, like he is right now, his shirt rides up even more, showing off more of his delectable abs.

Man, I hope I haven’t completely blown it with him, because I need another chance to taste the lines of those muscles. Maybe sink my fangs into some of the perfect skin there. Trace the lines of his scar with my tongue.

Fuck. I’m staring. And probably drooling. I try to covertly check the corner of my mouth with my hand, but Kai definitely notices.

“I had a good time too, Finn,” he says softly, his eyes locking on mine for a moment of eye contact so intense it should come with its own censorship warning.

I lick my lips, and he watches the movement, biting his lower lip in response. The noise of the club fades to static until someone bumps my stool. I physically shake myself, cursing the horny mush he has once again reduced my brain to.

“I, uh, have when everyone’s free to go to Hearts Gate. Are you and Nikolo still keen on going?” Considering I don’t actually breathe, my voice is pretty freaking breathless.

Kai smiles and bites his lip, nodding to the human up the bar waving him down.

“Couldn’t stop me if you tried. I’ll be right back and we’ll figure it out.” The human calls out again, slightly more impatiently. That’s despite completely blanking Lifo who attempts to serve her. “And maybe we can lock in something else, yeah? Just us two? ”

My belly swoops, heat flooding my limbs with the look in his eye. “Yeah, definitely. Absolutely, we can do that for sure. Looking forward to it.”

When my mouth finally stops moving I slap my palm to my face and groan. It doesn’t cover the sound of Kai’s laugh as he goes to serve the customers, but at least when I open my eyes, Belinda has delivered me a fresh blood-apple martini.

Catching her eye, I raise the glass in salute to her where she’s working hard. Happy to get to sit back and being-watch—and wait for Kai—I savour my victory drink.

Kai does make it back, and by some kind of miracle, we discover that every one of us is available in two weekends. Even better, we have a couple of nights in between where we have more than just an hour or two in between our shifts to catch up.

He makes sure I put everything in my phone calendar—like I have so much going on there is a legitimate risk of me double booking or something—and then he has to get back to it, leaving me to nurse my blood while I watch everyone in the bar.

I think Kai is right—there is something going on with Lifo and Belinda. She’s not as obvious as he is, but whenever she passes him behind the bar—which is a lot—she always maintains way more body contact than she does with anyone else. Kai’s too busy to stop and gossip, so I send him a message.

I probably shouldn’t be hanging around like this; it’s not like Kai is going to have enough time to think, let alone stand around and chat with me. But on top of wanting to make sure everything is actually okay between us, I got bad news today and I’m not quite ready to head home and face it again.

I got a job rejection letter today. I applied for it months ago, when I was still sporadically applying for jobs after I started at ORA. It wasn’t anything special, just a generic administrative role at a medical facility in the city.

Considering how long it’s been since I applied, it’s not like I had any hope about the position or anything. I knew I’d been rejected, but getting the “Thanks, but no thanks” letter after all this time dredged up all those horrible feelings that had made me quit searching in the first place.

It doesn’t matter why I actually got rejected, I will always wonder if it’s because I’m a vamp now.

And maybe it’s just the job market here in Osneau.

Maybe my resume sucks. But I’ve never had this much trouble getting a job before.

I had multiple offers before I accepted my last position.

It feels suspicious that now I can’t even get myself an interview.

I mean, they have no way of actually knowing for certain that I am, but having to declare my hours of availability as “between sunrise and sunset with some wiggle room for travel” is kind of a flashing neon sign.

The memory of the email, and the way my stomach clenched painfully as I read it, leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, ruining the last of my drink.

Forcing the feelings back down where they belong, I go back to my being-watching. Who knows, there may be some Crumbles worthy drama happening amongst the crowd, and I’m missing it.

But it doesn’t matter what interesting or beautiful beings show up to the bar—and trust me, there are a lot—my attention is always drawn back to Kai. He has the most incredible forearm muscles. One of my favourite things is to watch them flex as he does his tricks with the bottles.