Page 7 of Love Lives

"Are you going to be cryptic again?"

"Not cryptic." Puck leaned back in his chair and turned one of the rings on his left hand while looking into the fire. "It's not that surprising that you fell under a dhampir's charm, really. It's never been hard to attract your interest."

"Never been hard to attractyourinterest either," Aldrich shot back. "And I haven't fallen under anyone's charm. I want to fuck him. It's hard to fuck dead people. I know some people get off on that, but it's not something I'm into."

"No need to be crude." Puck turned to look at him. "You know how dhampir magic works, don't you? How they make people fall in love with them? You've seen it happen to your partner."

"What are you trying to say?" Aldrich asked. He already knew, of course, but it was all bullshit. Aldrich had never been in love with anyone, and he wasn't going to start now.

It just wasn’t his style.

"I'm telling you to be careful," Puck said. "Though I see now it may already be too late." He shook his head as if this was very tragic indeed. "I can help you with a little teleportation, but you know spells like that require energy crystals. How do you suppose you're going to repay me for those? Prices keep going up."

"Helping the dhampirs is in your best interests too," Aldrich reminded Puck. "They're already suspicious of you. How suspicious do you think they're gonna be if I tell them you couldn't be assed to help?"

Puck made a dismayed sound. "I'm not refusing to help."

"You might want to get Jared to like you. Pretty sure he's pregnant."

"Is he now?" Puck rubbed his chin in a thoughtful manner. For a long moment, he said nothing, then, "Very well. Let me just prepare everything, then we can help your paramour."

"He's not my--"

"Whatever you say," Puck waved him off as he rose from his chair and left the room.

"Just hurry up, okay?" Aldrich called after him. Sure, that wasn't going to make him look less insane to the witch, but at this point, he didn't care.

So what if Puck thought he was falling for the mortal? Sure the witch was right about most things most of the time. But notalways. Not about everything.

Not about this.

Chapter Four

The lightin my room was too damn bright. I closed my eyes against it, turned my head to the side, groaned.

Someone called my name. A voice I hadn't heard in a while. Jared? I forced my eyes open again. What was my brother doing here?

Wait, where was here?

I looked around myself. I was still at the hospital. Right. I'd been burned. The vampires...

Where was Aldrich?

Behind Jared? I tried to peek around my brother, but moving my head was not a good idea. I gasped at the flash of pain that stabbed through my skull.

"It's okay," Jared said, although I wasn't sure what he was talking about. "Just drink now."

Drink what? Jared wasn't offering me a glass, he was offering me his wrist, which made no sense. Until I noticed that his wrist was bleeding.

Wait, he wanted me to drink his blood?

The sound of steps interrupted my thoughts and Aldrich entered my field of vision. cIt's okay," he echoed my brother's earlier words. "Blood is good for you."

I glanced at my brother's wrist again. In some weird way, Aldrich's words made sense. I didn't want to believe that I needed to drink Jared's blood--the thought was repulsive--and yet... when Aldrich told me that it would help me, I believed him.

"C'mon," the vampire said. "I promise you'll like it."

I wanted to nod, but didn't dare. What if it hurt again?