Page 16 of Bullets and Blood
“I work at a winery.Do you want it or not?”
Lance took a swig and handed it back.“Is this what you do?Get high and drink and surf?”
“Got a better idea about how I should be spending my evenings?Beats the hell out of hunting down some bastard and slotting one between his eyebrows.”
“But you did it twenty-eight times.”
“Twenty-one.The others were garotte, and you missed three.”
“They were unconfirmed so not on your bio.”
“Now, when you call home, you can confirm them.”Nix took another swig, the alcohol blooming in his stomach.
“You didn’t want to do it.”
“I thought we weren’t going to talk about our families.Thirteen days to be something more than them.More than what they wanted for us.”He offered Lance the bottle.“More what we want for ourselves.Thirteen days to live the rest of my life.”
Lance had a drink.His throat moved as he swallowed.He shuddered as though it were some cheap vintage, not a well-aged shiraz, and handed the wine back.“And then what?”
“I’ll think of something.Lead you on a chase around the world.”He flopped back into the soft, fine sand.He might be able to take a few cases of expensive wine, sell them, and get a passport with a new name.He’d leave a message for Zinnia, and they could meet in Prague.Or Rome.Or fucking Ibiza—he didn’t care.
Lance leaned over him.“Do you not want to bite me?”
Nix reached up and ran his fingers through Lance’s hair.“I do.Very much.”He pushed up onto his elbow and kissed him.His lips were warm and tasted like dope.Lance had finished the joint.“I just don’t know why you want it so bad.”
“Might be my only chance?You said two weeks?—”
“Thirteen days.”
“Fine.Thirteen days to do whatever we want.”
“Whatever we want.”He trailed his fingers along Lance’s jaw.“You aren’t scared I’ll take too much.Solve my problem and have a decent feed in one pleasant evening?”
“Am I a problem to solve?”Lance moved over him, his knee dropping between Nix’s thighs.
“Yes.A very pretty one, but you have upset my tiny little life.”
“Where you sit on the beach and drink and smoke alone?
He wasn’t alone now.Lance was very, very close.“I didn’t say it was perfect, but it’s more than I’ve had for the previous five months.”
“What would your new life look like if I wasn’t here and no one was coming?”
Nix laughed.“You don’t get to know in case you use that against me in the future.What does yours look like if you don’t get turned?”
Lance looked away.“I don’t know.”
“I can tell you.More of the same.Honestly, mine would’ve been more of the same, too.The broken peace talks derailed everything.”
“Then why shoot first?”
“I didn’t shoot.”That intel was wrong.Deliberately?“I wasn’t even there, but Zinnia was.”And he trusted her even if he didn’t trust anyone else.She was only a few years older than him, and they’d been close.As kids, they’d played and schemed and made plans for when she ran the business.The winery had been part of that.She was the only one he’d told that he didn’t want to be blooded.He’d managed to go out with his friends and have a party before it happened.He’d missed a week of school because of the change.He’d gone back even though no one in his family had expected him to.He’d been angry with them, and they’d let him rage, using that anger to make his first kill before the month was out.
He shoved Lance onto his back and pinned him in the sand.“That’s better.”
Lance struggled to get free, twisting his hand and trying every trick.But he lacked the brute strength of a vampire.Nix could crush the fine bones in Lance’s wrist.He didn’t.
“Shh, I thought you wanted this.”He leaned in and sniffed Lance’s neck.He couldn’t stop his fangs from flicking down, and that wasn’t the only part of him that sprung forward, ready for action.His dick pulsed with need.
