Page 41 of Vampire Lee

Lee smiled and held his gaze. It was hard to break away, but he did.

“A garden center. I can take you, and we can see if there are any plants or equipment you want. Devin can come too.”

“Come where?” Devin sauntered back into the kitchen.

“A garden center. Check out some plants.”

“Oh, I’ve been looking online and thought maybe we should buy some tomato starters since I think we’re a little late, but maybe we could go somewhere…” He grimaced. “I’m not going without Mars.”

“No problem. We can bring everyone.”

“Cool. We can talk about it at dinner.” He grabbed a sheet and put it into the oven, looking excited, but Dillon had a hard time breathing. Leave the house? Go outside the walls surrounding the garden.

“Hey.” Lee spoke into his ear from behind. “Breathe. We don’t have to go.”

Devin busied himself with the oven, but Dillon suspected it was to give them some privacy. He nodded, not sure if he meant they’d go or not.

Lee squeezed his shoulder again before moving away, but before he could sit on one of the chairs, his phone rang. He looked at it with a frown. “I had better take this. It’s work.” He got up and stepped over the different trays with seedlings and out onto the patio.

Dillon put the knife down. “I think I’ll go to my room.”

Devin grimaced but nodded. “Good job today.”

Dillon didn’t have the energy to reply, so he left the kitchen without a word.

* * * *

When Lee came back in after having talked to Conan who worked at the bar tonight, Dillon was gone. “Did he leave?”

“Yeah.” Devin pulled the pizzas from the oven and put in another sheet.

“Smells good.”

Devin smiled at him. “Put some plates on the table, and you can dig in.”

He hadn’t more than finished the sentence before Mars and Rei walked into the kitchen, freshly showered. Mars went over to Devin and gave him a kiss while Rei grabbed a chair and sat.

Once everything was on the table, Hanna came to join them, and as everyone was eating, Lee told them about Jala’s questions.

“It’s weird.” Hanna reached for another slice of pizza.

“What is?”

“We’ve been hanging around The Rambling Rogue for years, perhaps not as much as many others, but whenever we go out for a drink, it’s where we go.”

Lee nodded. He considered them regulars even though they weren’t in as often as someone like Eli. Had he found his friend? He hadn’t been in today, not while Lee had been there, at least.

“She could’ve checked into us if she was curious, so why the interest if she hasn’t cared up until now?”

Lee shrugged. If his mouth hadn’t been filled with pizza, he might have said something, but he didn’t know what, so he kept chewing.

Hanna dropped the slice she’d been holding on the plate. “I have a bad feeling.”

“Bad how?” Rei watched her in a way that would’ve made Lee shiver, but she didn’t outwardly react.

“As if this is the calm before the storm. We only have little nuggets, no real information, and I have this feeling it’s all gonna explode any second. I almost believed it would now, since it’s the weekend. Don’t they host these kinds of events on the weekends?”

Lee nodded, then shrugged. “It all depends. They could just as well do it on a Tuesday night.”

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