Page 20 of How a Vampire Falls

“It’s not that,” Ryker said, lounging in the mesh chair with his ankle resting on his knee, looking like a model again. “It’s only…There are one or two things I’ve worked on that aren’t public knowledge for security reasons.”

“National security.”

“Yeah. It isn’t you. Tai doesn’t know details about them either.”

Tai. The best friend he referred to so frequently, the two men must talk on at least a weekly basis. “Tell me about him, Ryker. How y’all met and why you get along so well.”

“Hmm,” he said, and his eyes gained an earnestness she hadn’t seen in him before. “Tai Kristiansen. The guy is something else. Owns every room he steps into, knows ten times more people than I ever will and knows how to get crap done. But the thing is, he also watches out for people. For their welfare.”

“So it’s a meeting of the minds between you two.”

“What do you mean?”

“How you’re describing him…I would guess a lot of that describes you too.”

“Me?” Ryker shook his head. “I mean, getting crap done, yeah. I’m pretty unbeatable at that.” He gave the low, husky laugh she found so appealing. “But Tai’s next level, Leslie. The world is lucky he didn’t set out to be a con man, not that he ever would. He’s Director of Fundraising for a health research organization, and I’ve seen their books before Tai and after Tai. They hired him during a financial downturn, and the guy not only kept their doors open; he got them to a level of thriving they didn’t know was possible.”

“What type of health research?” she said.

“Genetic disorders, some of which are super rare and get hardly any research funding. Tai makes a real difference.”

“And it’s not only a job to him. He actually cares about the people helped by his work.”

Ryker nodded, the silver chips in his eyes glittering with his eagerness to praise his friend. “He comes across when you firstmeet him as super-efficient and super-detached, but that last one’s a front. He’s a total softie underneath.”

“Would he be mad you’re outing his soft side?”

“Probably.”

She laughed. “How long have you known each other?”

“About five years… No, six now.”

“Don’t tell me: you met at a blood bar.”

Sudden caution flickered behind Ryker’s eyes. “Nope.”

Interesting. His eyes had lost some of their blue, dulled toward gray as if… But how could her question threaten him? Or maybe it was a vicarious sense of threat. She tried again, too curious now not to. “If he’s the networking genius you say he is, surely he does all the vampire social things.”

“Most of them, yeah.”

“But not blood bars.”

Ryker tilted his head and studied her a moment. The crinkle formed between his eyes again, and this time the puzzle running through his mind seemed to be how much he could say. Belatedly, Leslie got it.

“He’s the odor-sensitive friend you were talking about yesterday.”

Ryker nodded once, a clipped motion.

And if Tai also avoided recreational slaking… “Are there actually vampires that struggle with control? That’s not a human legend or something?”

“Um, no, not a human legend. It’s very rare, maybe one of us in a thousand. But it’s real.”

“And Tai is one in a thousand.”

Ryker pushed a hand through his hair, and the ruined perfection only looked more stylish. “Hedefinitelywould not want me outing that.”

“You didn’t. I guessed.”

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