Page 59 of Accidental Vampire

I swallowed hard at the energy in the room, angry and domineering. And then it was gone. Shaw just turned it off. He grazed me with his eyes like he was checking for damage.

“Lachlan is…” he paused to choose better words. “Lachlan isn’t dead.” His delivery was soft, but there was frustration behind it. At me? At Lachlan?

I nodded before slipping out of the room, feeling foolish. I’m going to have to rearrange my world view if overdosing was no big whoop.

I stopped at the doorway to our shared room. Lachlan was standing, shirtless, looking rough around the edges, but… I blinked to force my thoughts in the right direction. He just overdosed. He was not well. I should not be thinking about things to do with his naked skin. Aurora handed him something on the way to the bathroom, her hand lingering around his waist.

He uncapped the tiny bottle Aurora had given him, and dabbed it on the back of his hand, brought it to his nose, and snorted it.

“Are you fucking serious?”

Aurora popped her head out of the bathroom at the sound of my voice. They both stared at me like I had two heads.

“Is that cocaine? Are you taking more drugs?” I flung an accusing finger at Aurora. “Did you just give him more drugs?”

Aurora shifted her eyes from me, to Lachlan and back again. “How else are you supposed to pick yourself up from a crash?” She looked at me like I was as dumb as rocks.

Lachlan blinked down at the drugs, like it never occurred to him that this was fucked up.

Aurora walked over to Lachlan, took the vial from him and sprinkled more white powder on the back of his hand. She was proving a point, that she knew what was best for Lachlan and I didn’t.

“You have a seriously twisted relationship and it’s not good for either one of you.” I wagged a finger between them.

I couldn’t stand here and watch him take more drugs. I left with my arms clamped around my stomach. I walked past the Rec Room and Richard droning on about the economic impacts of the decline of the samurai class. There was no where else to go. I wasn’t allowed to leave this floor. For my safety. I sank down next to the forbidden door at the end of the hall and hugged my knees.

THIRTY-SEVEN

TIFFANY

I shook out my hands as I paced about. I thought I’d mope in the hallway for a while, but there were too many emotions zinging through me. All this tension had no place to go and just coiled in my fists. I couldn’t even knit. I kept snapping the yarn into confetti. Why? Because I’m a freaking vampire. An undead, ghoulish monster of the night who is refusing to drink blood and was pissed off because she can’t knit. And my vampire daddy is just sitting there, reading trashy vampire novels like he just didn’t overdose and stop breathing a couple hours ago. And he’s just sitting there with his minion with benefits who apparently revived him with cocaine and probably blowjobs. How is this real? How is this my life?

I was buzzing like a live wire and exhausted at the same time. I fought that maddening sleep. It wasn’t sleep, not actual sleep. I just fell down cold, right where I was standing, and was out. It was the weirdest feeling. I hated it, and it gave me the worst FOMO possible. One second, you’re participating in the universe, the next, nothing exists. At least there were no dreams.

Everyone keeps telling me it gets better and that I’m burning through energy reserves. If I drank more regularly, it wouldn’t be such an issue. But I couldn’t. I just couldn’t stare at that bag of blood and make myself do it. I had to get all out of control first. Like that was somehow better because I wasn’t making the choice.

I looked at the two of them on the couch. Sitting there like this was all normal. Lachlan had a battered paperback splayed open in his big hands, turning the pages faster than I thought possible. Grad school taught me how to read at a blistering pace, but this was otherworldly. I tilted my head to read the spine.Dark Lover. never heard of it. I got out of my YA paranormal phase a long time ago. The Snacks had quite the collection of popular vampire fiction.

Aurora was playing on her phone. God, I missed my phone. No one knew where it was. Same with Lachlan’s. So we had to resort to books for entertainment.

I wondered if I was permanently damaging my circadian rhythms with this going unconscious routine. Was that even thing I had to worry about? Long-term sleep deprivation came with some serious health risks for humans, mortals, whatever. I still didn’t know exactly how long it had been since… what happened, happened. Fuck. I could even think the words - “since I became a vampire.” There was no daylight to mark the time, or even a regular sleep schedule. I was going to press Lachlan to let me reach out to Monique again. She must be dying. I was surprised my face didn’t show up on the news yet as a missing person. I would throw a tantrum if I had to. I’d hold my breath until I turned blue.

Aurora sat up and put both feet on the floor, the quick movement startling me.

“Shit. Nadine sent me a text.” Lachlan didn’t even acknowledge her announcement. “She says she can’t reach Omar or you. Things are gettingtenseshe said.”

Still nothing but page turning from Lachlan.

Aurora slid into Lachlan’s lap to captivate his attention, obviously. She gave me a saucy wink over her shoulder. No, not “saucy” that was just plain bitchy. I rolled my eyes and went back to pacing. I wasn’t jealous. I was not at all jealous. All Lachlan did was switch his book from one hand to the other, like a nymphomaniac wasn’t wiggling in his lap. Whatever, their weird dynamic was none of my business. I turned to pace in the other direction so I wouldn’t have to see them.

“You have to stop playing house, Lachlan.”

I snorted at that. Vampires had some fucked up notions of domestic bliss ifthiswas playing house. Lachlan stretched both arms up over his head to turn the page rather than trying to reach around the body occupying his lap. He ignored Aurora. I would not feel bad at the little bit of satisfaction that creeped into me over that.

“If Nadine is asking me, people are asking her.” She tried nuzzling into his neck to get a reaction. He didn’t stop her, just turned another page. He didn’t welcome her touch, but he didn’t dissuade her, either. She was always draped all over him, he wore her overt sexuality like a cardigan, plain, ordinary, every day, nothing special, but comforting nonetheless. He had better never act that way when I touched… I pounded the heel of my hand into my forehead.

“For fuck’s sakes, Lachlan. We knew people would start asking questions. And we knew you were going to have to answer some of them. When she killed Omar…”

“I’m sorry, what now?” I whirled on them so fast I had to take a step to regain my balance.

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