Page 11 of Soren

Gabe resisted the sudden and irrational urge to tell the other doctor to fuck right off. “This is Soren. Friend of Danny’s.” It was immensely satisfying watching the smile on Soren’s face slip at being designated the little brother’s friend. “Soren, this is Dr. Monroe.”

“Charmed.” Soren gave Dr. Monroe a thorough once-over, practically batting his blond lashes, and Gabe bit back his irritation at the slow perusal. His coworker was a manwhore, and Soren was a compulsive flirt. It would make perfect sense for the two to get it on, and Gabe definitely didn’t care enough about either of them to be bothered by it.

He focused his gaze elsewhere, pointedly ignoring their small talk. He just didn’t like it when his two worlds mixed was all. It had nothing to do with Soren’s almost ethereal beauty, or the way Gabe’s blood boiled when he pictured the slimy ICU doctor pawing at the vampire’s delicate frame.

Oh, for fuck’s sake.

Gabe needed to get out of there.

“I’ll go get changed out of my scrubs,” he broke in gruffly, turning away without waiting for a response. It wasn’t his business who Soren flirted with, but Gabe didn’t have to stand by and watch it happen.

Today just wasn’t a good day.

Gabe was badging into the employee locker room before he even noticed Soren had followed him. He gave the vampire a stern look over his shoulder. “You’re not allowed in here.”

Soren’s only reply was a blank stare, as if arbitrary human rules like staff-only locker rooms were so foreign a concept they didn’t even merit a reaction.

Gabe opened his mouth, closed it again, then settled on, “Just don’t look.” He made his way over to his locker, allowing the blond vampire to slip in through the door behind him.

He didn’t really care if Soren tagged along. Gabe didn’t have to get fully nude to change out of his scrubs. Besides, Gabe didn’t have anything to be ashamed of. He worked out religiously—the best way he’d found to deal with persistent anxiety—and watched what he ate.

He didn’t suffer from a lack of offers to share his bed; that was for sure.

Not that Gabe had been taking anyone up on those offers lately.

Frequent hookups used to be the next best thing to relieve his stress and clear his mind, but ever since his attack, he hadn’t felt inclined.

Gabe tugged at his scrub top with clumsy fingers. His complacence with Soren’s presence had nothing to do with feeling pleased the vampire had walked away from Dr. Monroe, choosing to follow Gabe instead.

Nothing at all.

Soren was unnervingly quiet while Gabe changed. It was enough of a switch from the brat’s usual chattiness that Gabe found himself glancing over at the mirrors after pulling his scrub top off, looking past his own head of loose brown curls to Soren’s face in the reflection. The vampire was gazing at Gabe’s bare torso with open appreciation in his eyes.

The little monster even licked his lips.

Fuck.Gabe didn’t want to think about what that look did to him. Soren wasnotan option for him. The fucker was odd, unhinged, and—most importantly—not evenhuman.

It didn’t matter if he was beautiful.

It’s a false beauty, Gabe reminded himself.The allure of a predator. Designed to lure in unsuspecting prey.

“Told you not to look,” Gabe grumbled, trying to ignore the way his dick plumped up at the sight of Soren licking those pink lips.

“I never agreed to anything,” Soren replied brightly, not averting his gaze for a second.

Of course he didn’t. As far as Gabe could tell, Soren lived to be contrary.

Gabe rushed through getting dressed, not wanting to linger in the locker room with any of the strange feelings the petite vampire aroused in him. He clearly needed to get laid, if having someone watch him get changed was having this effect on him.

Soren slipped on a pair of sunglasses as they headed out the hospital doors to Gabe’s car. The way Danny had explained it, sunlight wasn’t technically detrimental to vampires, but the brightnessdidirritate their eyes, especially if their inner demon was out and about.

There were a lot of misconceptions out there Danny had been slowly educating Gabe on. Vampires didn’t need an invite to enter a home. They didn’t need to kill to feed. They could eat human food if they wanted; it just didn’t nourish them. And their fangs stayed hidden, except for the times their inner demon—that was what Roman and Danny called the vampire side of themselves—took over.

Gabe had only seen Soren with his demon out once. The morning Gabe had been attacked by Lucien. Soren must have been following the other vampire, because he’d appeared out of nowhere and rescued Gabe, calming him down with his vampire compulsion.

Gabe had subsequently been too freaked out by finding out about the existence of vampires to ever thank Soren properly, a fact that he occasionally felt a twinge of guilt about.

But, even if it had been for a good reason, Soren had used his powers to mess with Gabe—had affected his mind, his perceptions, his emotions.

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