Page 197 of White Wolf

He was a good bartender. His tip jar filled up fast.

Alexei showed up just after ten.

Above the miasma of competing perfumes, body sprays, human musk, sweat, and alcohol, Sasha scented him the moment he walked in. All vampires smelled a little bloody, the dark flower crush of an open wound, raw and pulsing.

He also smelled cautious tonight, and when he appeared, slipping through the crowd to get to the bar, he looked meek and cowed, head bent down at a submissive angle.

“Hello,” he said, quietly, climbing onto a stool and folding his hands on the bar top. He looked up at Sasha through lashes that looked blue in the overhead neon bulbs.

“Hello.” Without asking, Sasha pulled down a tumbler and poured two neat fingers of vodka.

“Oh. Um.” Alexei fumbled for his wallet, and Sasha waved him away.

“On the house.”

“Thank you.” He sipped it slow and careful, like a child having his first taste, wincing a little. “Nikita hates me, I can tell.”

“No, he doesn’t,” Sasha said, and mostly believed it.

“You should have seen the way he looked at me when I came in. Hehatesme.”

“Hey, can I get two Bud Light longnecks?” a customer asked, and Sasha pulled them from the cooler.

“Don’t sayhate,” Sasha said, though he had no doubt Nikita’s death glare looked hateful in the extreme. He passed the beers along and turned back to Alexei. “He’s hated some people, yes, but not you.” How could he explain all the hurt and disappointment that lived in his friend, though? The way all his dreams had been crushed until he didn’t care about anyone or anything.

He sighed. “Nik is…complicated.” He made a face. How cliché.

Alexei breathed a soft laugh. “Yes. I figured that out.”

“He spent his whole human life devoted to your family, and then he meets you, and you’ve turned someone. You have to understand about Nik – he doesn’tlikebeing a vampire.” He dropped his voice on the last word, just loud enough for inhuman ears to catch.

Alexei sat up straighter, clearly surprised. “He doesn’t?”

“I think he doesn’t mind being alive,” Sasha amended. “But he doesn’t like the blood-drinking. The cravings. He…” He trailed off before he said too much.

“Wow,” Alexei said. “That’s so strange. I love it.”

“Really?” Sasha thought he shouldn’t be surprised, but somehow was. He realized that, keeping close company only with Nikita, he had no idea how the general vampire population felt about their abilities.

“Oh yes. I was sick as a human. I couldn’t play like a regular boy. Everyone tiptoed around me – what’s the American expression? They stepped on eggshells?”

“Walked on eggshells.”

“Yes, that. All of them did. Mama cried all the time, and prayed at my bedside. I nearly died at least once a year. All our palaces and riches, but no one could buy me a better body.” His gaze turned inward, heavy with remembered sadness. “Vampirism is a gift for me. I’ll always be grateful to Grisha for giving it to me.”

His gaze lifted to Sasha’s. “When did Grisha turn Nikita? I don’t ever remember seeing him at court.”

“Well…” Sasha started. Here came the awkward part.

“He was an officer, plainly. Was he Okhrana?”

“No…Cheka, actually.”

It took him a moment to place the word, but then Alexei’s eyes widened. “But that would mean…”

“It was after the empire collapsed, yes.”

Alexei looked like he’d seen a ghost – like ghosts could actuallyscarevampires.

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