Page 64 of Hot Blooded

“Before I started my current company, I had a different one where I did installations for various home technologies—including security systems. I discovered the turned children when one of the predators hired me to set up a security system for a sealed chamber in his basement. I could hear them crying through the walls.”

“Oh my god.” She clutched his arm. As much as he hated upsetting her, he was glad she turned to him for comfort, instead of turning away in disgust. “What happened to the children?” she asked faintly.

“They’re housed in a Council-owned facility with others like them. There’s always been stories of thralls who managed to throw off their enthrallment and revert to their mortal state, though we have no evidence of such a thing happening. In any case, there’s hope that someday our researchers will have a breakthrough that allows us to revert them back to a mortal state or possibly manipulate the regenerative properties in our venom in a way that will allow them to reach physical and cognitive maturity.”

Tessa took that in, leaning into him as they walked. He put his arm around her shoulders, both giving and taking comfort.

Amos could feel the impending sunrise when they finally made it to Tessa’s house. He kissed her gently, both of them content to keep it soft and sweet.

“Thank you,” he said when he drew back.

“For what?”

“For being brave and facing the Council. For putting up with the ancient lunatics. If you give me a list, I’ll have words with the ones who were offensive.”

Tessa gave him a wry look. “No, I will not be doing that.”

“Just words,” Amos promised.

“No. A tricky man could finagle ‘having words’ into ‘ripping out tongues.’”

“They’ll grow back.”

She laughed. “No, Amos!”

“Bleeding heart,” he grumbled, accepting a playful kiss from her. Holding her face, looking down into her big brown eyes, he said, “Thank you for what you said to the Council. About me.”

She leaned into him, gripping the lapels of his jacket. “I meant it.”

Amos stared at her, almost trembling with the urge to claim her. His fangs throbbed with the need to do so. His fingers curled into white-knuckled fists. Swallowing hard, he forced himself to draw back from her.

“I should go. Sunrise is close. Sleep—” The wind shifted subtly, bringing with it a familiar scent. The same thrall Amos had been tracking and failing to apprehend for days now. Amos seized Tessa and surged to her front door. He couldn’t open it, not without an invitation. “Get inside,” he growled. “Now.”

Tessa hurried to obey, slipping inside and pulling the door shut. The deadbolt slid into place as she called, “Be safe!”

He was gone before he could answer her, chasing after the rogue thrall. Despite the thrall’s inferior speed, the cursed creature was unexpectedly slippery. He darted down narrow alleys at the last second, faking Amos out, scampering up drainpipes and leaping from rooftop to rooftop. Amos had finally cornered him behind an auto parts store all the way out in Austin when the harsh burn of sunrise sizzled against his back.

He and the thrall both hissed. The light became blinding at the precise second that the sun crested the horizon. Limited to just scent and hearing, made clumsy by the drag of his daysleep, Amos made a cursory attempt at grabbing the thrall. One hand closed on filthy fabric, but the thrall managed to jerk free, cloth tearing. He scrambled away past some dumpsters, where the overwhelming scent of gasoline, oil, and other chemicals masked his scent entirely.

Thwarted, blinded, and burning alive, Amos raced home. When he reached his door, he collapsed inside gratefully, swinging it shut, and hurrying for the stairs. He didn’t want a repeat of the last time he’d stayed out too late. At the very least, he’d like to collapse on the floor of his light-proofed bedroom instead of the hallway where a full day of indirect light would strip his skin like acid.

He made it over the threshold of his bedroom, kicking the door shut with sleep-addled gracelessness. He collapsed onto his bed, still fully dressed.

His last thought as the oblivion of daysleep slipped over him was that the thrall wasn’t fixated on him. If he was, he wouldn’t keep running from Amos. Instead, he continued to linger near Tessa’s house.

The thrall had fixated on her.

Chapter 18

Tessa stepped outside when she saw Amos through the sidelight, waiting to escort her to his place where they could spend time together before she had to work. When she stepped onto the porch, something crunched under her foot. She pulled back and found a dirty, weathered packet of candy smushed against the top step, squished chocolates oozing out where her foot had landed.

Who kept leaving trash on the doorstep? Was this some kind of new prank? Was it happening to the neighbors? Annoyed, she kicked the candy to the ground and trotted down the steps to greet Amos.

He seemed distracted, gazing suspiciously at the gaps between neighboring houses, head tilted as if he were listening to something only he could hear. When Tessa reached him, he broke his hyper-alert stance long enough to pull her in for a kiss.

“Have any strangers knocked on your door lately?”

Tessa frowned. “I don’t think so.”

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