Page 110 of By the Pint

Still, I said nothing. I hadn’t figured out whether I should be honest or try to concoct a desperate fabrication in the next few milliseconds.

“Uh … I …” I began, and both Good Cop and Bad Cop leaned forward in their armchairs. “Well, I—”

“It was an accident!” Killian blurted, and everyone’s attention ping-ponged to him. Including mine.

“Go on,” said Good Cop, in a tone that suggested Killian wouldn’t be in trouble for telling the truth. But the belying look on Bad Cop’s face told me not to fall for it.

“It … I …” Killian glanced at me, an unfamiliar expression knotting his brows together. Fuck, this was it. I might as well hold my wrists out and wait for the cuffs. “It’s entirely my fault,” he said, and then he spat into my mind,Don’t you dare contradict me.

The hacker stirred, then dropped back into his eased position just as quickly. Killian looked away from me, obviously sensing my desperate attempts to make further eye-contact so I could give him myWhat the fuck are you doing?expression.

“It was all just a terrible accident,” Killian said, ignoring me. “I … we were lovers. Casey and me. One time I got so caught up in the moment I grazed his skin with my teeth.”

“Ah, we’ve all been there,” Good Cop said consolingly. “Haven’t we, Vlad?”

Bad Cop made a non-committal, “Hmm.” Then he added, “Let’s say we believe you, that a few grazes on a human’s skin will produce enough blood. Tell us then, how does a human end up consuming your blood?”

“It was a quilting accident?” Killian said, as though asking a question.

I rolled my eyes and gave an affected shrug.

“Yeah, a fluke quilting accident,” he said again, although still not projecting a whole lot of conviction.

What are you doing?I asked, weighing up the risk of alerting the hacker and deciding this was more important.

Atonement,was all Killian said back.

You’re taking the fall for me? Who knows what the sentence is? Fifty, sixty years? I don’t think it’d be termin—

Atonement,he repeated, this time with an air of finality.

And I got it. And as much as I didn’t want Killian to take the blame for my crime, I felt … okay with letting him. I’d done the same for him. Without hesitation, because he was my friend. My best friend. My only friend.

His sentence would be half the length of mine, or less, and in a modern gaol. And Killian was a different person now. He’d grown. He’d be able to cope there.

I nodded once to show him I’d accepted his decision. His face momentarily cracked into a smile.

“Yes, I pricked my finger on a knitting—”

Sewing,I corrected.

“Sewing needle, and a little droplet of blood came to the surface, and—”

“It just happened to fall into his mouth?” Bad Cop said. One of his eyebrows lifted into his hairline.

“Well, no. He licked it off. I swear he didn’t think about what he was doing. It was instinct. Like, see a drop of blood, lick it off. You know?”

“And how do you know what he was thinking?” Bad Cop asked. “He probably did it on purpose—”

Good Cop held up his hand. “It was only a few drops. Is that enough?” He directed his question at Nina. “Can a few drops of each other’s blood be enough to turn a person?”

Nina uncrossed her legs and recrossed them the opposite way. “It’s rare,” she said eventually. “I’ve never seen it happen. But I have heard about it. And …” She pushed a strand of black hair off of her face. “I’m told that a vampire who’s turned on only a few drops of blood will be an … imperiosus. The most powerful type of vampire known.”

Killian gasped. That was the type of vampire our sire, Ronald the Skewerer had been. “That doesn’t mean Casey’ll be evil, though, right? Like when he’s conscious? He won’t be a bad guy, will he?”

“It’s unlikely,” Nina said with an unconvincing shrug. “But so little is known about them. We’ll have to monitor Mr Freckleman extra closely. Nothing is certain about that particular type of vampire except their extraordinary strength and speed—”

“If that’s the case, seems more likely he would have known what he was doing. Worth the risk huh?” Bad Cop said. “Given the chance to be a regular vampire, or a super villain, I know which I’d choose.”

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