“Possibly,” I said. The bartender appeared and I ordered a drink. As the man glided away, moving smoothly, I turned back to her. “I would like to hear what happened. You know, when you’re ready.”
“I’m afraid that’s not a story I’m going to want to tell,” she said.
“They caught you,” I whispered. “Aren’t you upset?”
She didn’t look upset. I thought that if a vampire caught me, I would be horrified. I would feel like I’d failed. If a vampire caught me, a hunter, then it would mean that I was prey, and I never, ever wanted to feel weak. I’d hated being the fattest kid in school as a child. I’d hated running slowly and having people laugh at me. When I was older, I worked my ass off to lose the weight and to get strong so that nobody would ever laugh at me again. Raven knew all of that. She knew exactly why being strong was so important to me.
Why wasn’t she more sad?
“You’ve known me a long time, Kim,” she said.
“Forever.”
“And you know that hunting was my life forever.”
“I thought it still was.”
She shook her head. She reached for her drink and held it tightly.
“When I turned, I wasn’t as sad as I thought I should have been. Isn’t that strange? It was actually kind of a relief,” she said. “I’ve been running and fighting for so long. The thing that was chasing me finally caught up with me. It’s stupid,” she said, “but I actually feel more at peace now than I ever have before.”
She raised her drink to her lips.
“I thought vampires couldn’t drink,” I whispered.
“That’s a myth,” she said.
“You believed it.”
“I believed a lot of things.”
“Can you get drunk?”
She looked at me.
“You have a lot of questions,” she said. “And there are vampires who would be more than happy to answer them for you.”
“For a price,” I pointed out.
She nodded.
“Aren’t you worried I’m going to bite you, Kimmy?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“You know I can kick your ass,” I said. “You being a vampire doesn’t change that.”
“Doesn’t it?” She laughed, shaking her head. Then she turned, faster than I could have possibly imagined, and she pressed her hand on my throat. I closed my eyes as she squeezed harder and harder. Soon I couldn’t breathe, and I opened my eyes again. Raven was watching me curiously. I wasn’t going to fight her, though.
Not Raven.
“Fight,” she whispered.
She was holding my throat too tightly. I couldn’t say anything. I couldn’t open my mouth. I couldn’t whisper anything.
Raven loosened the grip on my throat and brought her lips to mine, kissing me deeply, and then she pulled away.