Page 26 of Love Bleeds

"Would you approach a vampire if he looked like your friend?"

A vampire who looked like Damian. I didn't even want to picture it. Everything in my mind rebelled at the thought. "Vampires don't look like Damian. Why would you even..." My words trailed off, but Talon didn't supply any of his own to fill the silence. Why wasn't he saying anything? He just sat there, scanning me with his gaze as if trying to gauge if I was about to malfunction and explode.

Honestly, I kind of felt like malfunctioning, only that there was nothing wrong with me, no error withmycode, but a glitch somewhere in the software that was running the universe if vampires who looked like Damian existed.

Things like that couldn't exist. They just couldn't.

"You would approach him," Talon reached his own conclusion, his tone calm, as if his words hadn't just altered the state of my reality.

"It doesn't matter if I would approach him because you're wrong," I insisted.

"Aldrich said--"

"I don't care what Aldrich said," I cut in. At any other point, I might have been ashamed at how much like a five-year-old I sounded, but not then. And exactly like a five-year-old, I stormed out of the room.

The sound of the kitchen door slamming shut behind me woke the baby, who immediately cried out in dismay.

Served Talon right.

* * *

I needed to get rid of my babysitter.

Of course, my family didn't use that word, but there was no other reason why Jared would be moving into the empty room next to mine. He didn't bring enough boxes to stay permanently, but the bags he carried into the house indicated that he planned to be staying for a while. He suggested spending the day together while Talon and Collin ran some errands in town or whatever. I shot him a blank look, because honestly.... when had the two of us last hung out together?

"I don't really feel like doing anything," I said, sipping at my coffee. I sat on the couch. In the hand that wasn't holding the coffee, I had a thin paperback that I pretended to be reading. Something about astrophysics. Something with a title complicated enough that my siblings wouldn't bother feigning interest and asking me about it. "You don't have to babysit me. Don't you have work?"

"I'm off for the next two days."

I gave him a sideways glance, wondering if he’d told his boss that he needed to take time off for a family matter. Wondering if, right now, Jared was looking at me the same way he looked at the troubled teens he dealt with at work.

"I’m not babysitting you,” he said.

"What did Collin tell you?" I asked, already trying to think of ways to slip his notice.

"That you might be in danger if you went out by yourself."

At least he wasn't trying to dance around that subject. I had to give it to Jared. He was nothing if not honest. "So you are babysitting me."

The couch dipped slightly as Jared sat next to me. "Look at me, little brother."

I set the book down and met his gaze.

"You're not a baby and you don't need babysitting," he said, "but I'll be damned if I let you wander around by yourself while you got vampires on your trail."

I swallowed, letting my gaze drop to the floor. I didn't have vampires on my trail. Everyone was going insane. Aldrich had seen someone who looked at lot like Damian, but who wasn't Damian. Because if Damian had been turned into a vampire...

If he'd been turned because of me...

My chest constricted at the thought, squeezing too painfully for me to finish it.

I couldn't let myself think of Damian as a vampire. He wasn't like Talon or Aldrich or any of the other blood-hungry monsters out there, roaming the city by night.

That wasn't who he was at all.

But I needed to see for myself that Aldrich had been wrong, that whatever vampire was lurking around our old house wasn't my best friend.

And if it was...