He grabbed my arm, stopping me when I would have turned toward my bedroom. “You make me wish I was human again, so I could understand you. This is all very new. Tanner only recently arrived, and his arrival threw you for a loop. We found balance with each other—Caesar, you and me. We all have to adjust to the newness of having him with us again. Don’t go to bed yet. Stay out here and talk to me about things other than what’s making you upset tonight. Let’s leave that. Just for now. Tell me about your job tomorrow. Tell me about your GED. Tell me about what you think about the creek. Something.”
For someone who only moderately cared about me because I’d be dead very soon in his lifespan, he certainly did want me to sit down and talk. I wiped at my eyes. “We can talk.”
“Good.” He walked to the couch and patted the seat next to him. I sat a distance away from him, giving us both some space. For my part, I really needed some right then.
“How did your reading go?”
He shook his head. “I want to hear about your waking hours, about your daytimes that I can’t be part of. I know you’ve gotten a job. What is it?”
“You know that big super store on the edge of town? It’s where I’ve gotten most of what I bought in the time since we’ve been here. I’m going to work there. I guess I’ll be helping out wherever they need me. My GED test is in a week. Hopefully I’ll pass the first time, and then I’ll figure out the next steps. Nothing really exciting, I guess. Just getting started.”
He tilted his head. “That was a lot you got done very fast.”
“How did it work for you? You rose. You were locked in that building where they brought people in for you to feed from. Presumably, they all died. I don’t want to know about that part, but at some point, did it change? Like, all of a sudden Rowan was capable of decision-making, and they assigned you tasks to get done?”
He strung our fingers together. “Your skin is so soft. I’m not sure how to answer your question. Rowan was just always in charge. From the moment he woke up, they treated him like he was the boss. We were just assigned to do things. They never checked to see if we had some kind of knowledge of the dead vampires in our minds. They just sent us out like we knew what we were doing, and it seemed very much like we did.”
That was interesting. Why had they risked so much if they weren’t going to even see if it worked? Maybe they were just so sure of themselves, they believed it had without even checking? It was just bizarre.
“I’m going to bed.” It really was getting late. “I hope the other two make it back before dawn. Where will they go, if they don’t?”
“They’ll make it back. One thing about vampire battles is they always have a set time limit. Unless you’re ancient, you can’t be awake during the day, so they always finish at least one or two hours before sunlight. That way, everyone can retreat to safety before they go again. Even the Betrayer seems to honor those rules.”
I yawned. “Who did he betray, just out of curiosity? Does anyone know?”
“I don’t actually, but since you mentioned it, I’ll make it one of those things I learn about shortly. I’m making great headway. There’s lots of history I didn’t know. It seems like we used to have more culture, more choices. We lived among humans forever and didn’t make them venom dependent, so they were our unwilling yet stuck companions.”
Despite my bad mood, I grinned at his funny description. “How are all of them? All of those people who picked up and moved because you guys did? Have they all just resettled their lives here?”
He shrugged. “Honestly, I have no idea.”
“Caesar has no idea about the servants; you have no idea about the humans around you. Becoming a vampire has made you both snobs, Griffin.”
He leaned back, stroking a finger down my cheek. “Snobbery is a human concept we don’t give a shit about, but I can try to do better if for no other reason than it would make you happy, and I know there are lots of ways I’ll never make you happy. I’ll find out about the servants and the people, how’s that?”
“Better.” I got to my feet. “We can be friends. We can sleep together. Every so often, I’m going to be really mad about life and get pissed off about the whole situation, at least until I’m old enough to not give a shit about anything anymore.”
Griffin was quiet, and I wondered if he wasn’t going to answer me. Finally, he said, “It’s early days for you to know how you’re going to feel about anything. Give it a week before you start making proclamations.”
Snobbery might be a concept that vampires didn’t care about, but assholery translated just fine, that much I knew for sure. He was fully aware of how shitty what he’d just said sounded.
“Thanks for giving me the timeline for when I get to feel things. I’ll be sure to make note of the proper moment I get to forecast my feelings. One question, though. Is it mansplaining if it’s a vampire doing it? Should I call it vampire-splaining? Or maybe we’ll just chalk it all up to you being generally condescending?”
He rose. “I don’t know how this will work any better than you do. I found no record of it ever happening before, so I can’t explain it, which is driving me nuts. We’ll know more when we know it, end of story.”
Except I was pretty sure it was the beginning of a story for me, and I wasn’t at all sure I would like the ending.
Ten
Iwoke up when the bed dipped, as Tanner climbed in next to me. I considered telling him to go elsewhere. The four hours I slept did nothing for my bad mood, but my tired brain quashed the idea. I didn’t have the wherewithal to handle the conversation right then, and I’d be over it by the time I opened my eyes in the morning and then it would be a thing that I’d kicked him out when I saw him after his rising.
“How was your battle?”
“We won.” His grin surprised me. For a vampire, he seemed almost giddy. “Well, the battle, not the war. I led everyone further away from here. It was great.”
Was there ever a more bizarre moment than this?“I’m glad it was great.” Were battlesgreat? Wasn’t that the opposite of what battles inherently meant? Did I even know what was and wasn’t anymore?No, I absolutely don’t. “And you managed not to talk?”
“I didn’t say a word. Caesar was amused, but no one else was the least bit the wiser.” He rolled over until he was on top of me, then stared at my face. “I should feel badly for waking you, but I don’t. I have an hour until the sun comes up. I wanted to see you. I didn’t make myself clear earlier, and I want to do so now.”