Tanner nodded. “She can’t be expected to do that.”
Apparently vampire killing class is going to be a group activity. “There might not be a chair around the next time I need to defend myself against a vampire. I could just bump into one on the street.”
Ace rocked back on his feet. “Okay. We need to make her stakes, and we need her to carry them at all times. The actual staking is something we can teach her to do, but humans have been driving them through our hearts forever. It shouldn’t be impossibly hard.”
“The humans who do it are usually huge men.” Caesar sighed. “That’s why they end up as legends. In books. They’re not usually tiny human girls. Buffy, aside.”
I do love that show.I used to watch it on reruns. “She was supposed to have special powers. The Slayer thing, but I’m just a human girl, so I think we can state definitively that I don’t have her ability.”
“You’re notjusta human girl.” Ace cupped my cheek. “You’reourhuman girl. I’m going to break that chair. We’ll make some stakes out of it.”
I grabbed his arm. “Not that chair.”
I could never have predicted I’d have that reaction, but I didn’t want him to break the chair. “It goes with the set. See? They all match. This is… stupid, I know. Only I love everything here. Every single piece of furniture. Please don’t break it, even if we need to make a stake. I’m being…”
Caesar moved to me, crossing the room faster than I could track. I so rarely saw them use their vampire powers, but there it was, on display. “It’s okay. You don’t want him to break the chair, so he won’t break it. This is your home. We bought it for you. Everything in it is yours. We will buy some things tonight to break. Ace and I will go do it now. Come on.”
Tanner took my hand. “You can burn us, too. It’s doubly effective. First stake and then you burn, just like it sounds, and just like Griffin did. That’s the way to handle it. And, on that subject, if Griffin and Caesar got to buy you a house, I would like to buy you something.”
“If you come up with something, let me know. I’m already compromising on the phone. Perhaps I have no morals left at all. No self-respect. I’ll just be your paramour and only be interested in what you could all buy me.”
His smile was slow. “I’d love to be able to pamper you all the days of your life. Don’t knock it until you try it. Why do we need rules, especially when it comes to gifts? We make our own, right? You could be our version of a paramour—one where you’re more likely to tell me to fuck off than to let me order you around. Think about it.”
“I don’t think at this point we need labels.” Griffin shrugged. “We’re working. We’ll leave it at that. I’m texting Caesar to get you a lighter, too. One of those little torch ones. Anyway, if we’re not going to break furniture, let’s go ahead and watch a movie.” He pointed at the television. “We never have a chance to just sit and watch a movie.”
He was right.
It turned out the two vampires who stayed with me couldn’t have more different tastes in movies. Griffin wanted to watch something dark and spooky, while Tanner preferred watching things blow up. I yawned as we settled on a comedy that I was sure none of us really wanted to see. I didn’t really care one way or the other what we chose; I just liked being in between the two of them with nothing dire going down.
Griffin ran a hand through my hair. “Everyone goes running and I get to stay here. They don’t know how foolish they are to always be bounding about. The best stuff is just getting to be here with you.”
Tanner smiled. “I may have to reconsider things.”
“Nope, don’t. I get to be here with her alone. That’s the key.” He stared at the screen. “You deciding to not go running around to fight defeats the purpose.”
“Then I suppose you shouldn’t have brought it up.”
I rolled my eyes. “Maybe I’ll start working nights.”
“No,” they both said at the same time, suddenly in unison.
That was what I’d wanted. “Then I think you should stop arguing like petulant children. The only person here entitled to still act like a petulant child is me. I’m the only one here still human and maybe allowed to be.” I grinned. “I’m only eighteen. I can still have tantrums and act ridiculously, right?”
Griffin took my hand in his and kissed it. “My memories of humanity fade quickly, but if I remember correctly, I’m pretty sure you were born an adult, at least in your soul. I think they gave you no choice, Right?”
He was absolutely on point with that. I’d never gotten to be any kind of wild teen and I never would. Maybe if I lived to be fifty, I’d have some kind of mid-life crisis and do it then.Wouldn’t that be ridiculous but somehow apropos at the same time?
Old when I was young, young when I’m older? I grinned at the image. Maybe I’d get my first tattoo. That brought up a memory and I pulled my legs under me. “How do you like your ink? The tattoos you got before you changed?”
Tanner shrugged. “I never think about it. I know it was meant to be a sort of fuck you from that me to this me. I can appreciate the effort.”
Griffin played with the end of my hair. “I don’t care about it one way or another. Here, stretch out. You can’t be comfortable like that.”
They were being too nice. Yes, things had changed between us a bit, but these were still vampires. “What’s going on?”
Tanner leaned back, taking my legs and placing them on his lap. “Griffin has something he needs to tell you.”
“Something that I need to have my legs in your lap to hear?”