“No, but it certainly can’t hurt.” Griffin squeezed my shoulders. “And, it gives us the benefit of getting to touch you more. We seem to like that. Very unusual for vampires.”
There was always going to be a part of me that was something Griffin wanted to study. It should bother me more, but like most of our strange situation, the more time that passed, the less it bothered me. I might be good with just being a food bank altogether in a week. Hell, I wasn’t complaining about it at the moment, considering how good it made me feel, and not just the sex. I liked that it was me making them feel better.
That was a realization that should rock me, but it looked like I was unrockable at the moment. “So you’re buttering me up?”
“We need you to drive an hour to meet another human and get a book from him. I would go myself, but he won’t meet with vampires. He’s hiding from them, so he only does business during the day.”
Well, that’s unexpected.“You need a book from him?”
“That’s right, and I can’t get it from him at night. Well,” Griffin sighed, “Icould. I mean I could rob him. I could go in there and take it from him. We have a vampire hacker. He’s very good. I could ask him to find this guy’s home, and I could go take what I wanted from him, but I’m trying to consider your feelings about my behavior. Am I wrong in assuming you wouldn’t like it if I found him, drained him, and took his books?”
I blinked. “Griffin, I think there has to be a middle ground, but you’re correct, I wouldn’t appreciate that behavior at all. No, I’ll go get the book.” In fact, I would keep him away from any human beings until we sorted out all the steps he could have taken before he drained this book man to steal his stuff. As human as they could seem, parts of them were probably never going to change.
If for no other reason than to save everyone around us from being sucked dry of their blood, I needed to remember that.
“I think we can assume this man is afraid of vampires.” Tanner shifted slightly on the couch, squeezing the top of my foot. “He has all the vampire books, but he doesn’t deal with vampires? There’s gotta be a story there. He’s not hiding, but he’s careful. Griffin said his name was Justin, and you were his girlfriend, Maci, in case you needed to show identification.”
This is getting stranger and stranger. “Why Justin?” It didn’t really matter but I was curious enough to ask. “I don’t know, actually. The name came to me, and I went with it. Anyway, I’ve made up this whole story about how we need the book because I’m being harassed by a vampire, and that you need to come get the book.”
This must be some kind of book. “Why do you want that book?”
Maybe I should have started with that question? That would have made more sense, but then again, when did I ever make sense these days?
“It’s a complete version of one of the ones the elders have edited. I don’t know why this guy has it, but he spoke about it on a public forum for people who believe in vampires a while back. The hacker we use doesn’t bother to monitor it, because it’s mostly filled with crazies who are looking for vampires in a romantic sense.”
Tanner laughed, interrupting Griffin. “They just need to speak to Maci. She could tell them how fucked up a romance with vampires can be.”
Romance?I really hadn’t thought of our situation as romantic, but the idea made me smile. “Does that make you my boyfriends? Never mind. No, don’t answer that. Too much for right now. Go on. Okay, he doesn’t monitor the vampire erotic roleplaying chat, but you do.”
“Well, I scanned it. I stopped when I saw the title of the book because it’s a real title. I don’t even know that this dude knows what he has, except he knows that he hassomething, and enough real history to make him scared, so we need to grab that book and see if it has the missing pages. The easiest option would be for you to do it, if you’re comfortable. I see no danger in you meeting with him, as it’s a daytime thing, so there won’t likely be any vampires there. I mean, unless for some reason he’s hanging out with the elders.”
“Unlikely, since he’s alive,” I pointed out then I nodded. “Sure, I’ll do it. I’m studying tomorrow for my GED, but I can fit in a drive to meet him, too. That’s not a problem.”
Tanner took my hand in his before he squeezed our linked fingers. “I’ll be your boyfriend. I wanted to be in both my human life and now.”
That was sweet. “If only there was any part of my life that could have a boyfriend.”
“Better to have lovers.” Griffin lowered his voice. “Granted, I am benefiting from that arrangement.”
The door flew open and the other two vampires strode inside carrying dilapidated wooden chairs. Caesar grinned at me when he spoke. “We were on our way to buy them when we saw these sitting outside someone’s house. Seemed better to break old ones people were throwing out than to waste new ones.”
“Out here.” Ace went back outside before he threw the chair against the porch floor with such a force it shattered in two. Griffin had done the same when he saved me. It was amazing they were that strong. I could throw that chair around, and I wouldn’t be able to break it. I was pretty sure they couldn’t have done it as humans as easily, either.
It’s a good thing the neighbors never seem to notice what we’re doing.
If they did, at least they hadn’t been able to get in touch with us about it yet.
With a piece of wood in hand, Ace struck the ground again, splintering it until it looked like a pretty ugly stake. I supposed it would work.
He stared at it for a second. “This will work for tonight, but tomorrow we’ll make some better ones you can carry on your person. They won’t even set off metal detectors.”
“Good call.” Tanner nodded.
I blinked.They have to be kidding. “Where exactly am I supposed to keep this stake on my person? I mean I could put it in a purse, but…”
Caesar shook his head. “No, that’ll be too hard to get to, so we’ll tape it to you.”
We are absolutely not.