Page 2 of The Death God
He fucking hated Thanatos.
“Next time one of them is about to bleed out, we’ll feed them your blood.” He nudged Zidane’s shoulder, but he wouldn’t feel it. “Do you think it’s different because they’re seers?”
He didn’t think so. The mate bond acted the same whether you mated a human, a shifter, or another vampire. Vampire-vampire bonds were a little different since they couldn’t feed from each other, so there was no natural way to strengthen the bond. Though he suspected they bit each other now and then to keep the bond strong. Or not. A bond was a bond, and he feared he’d gag if he had to drink dead blood.
As soon as the hold of the partial bond let go of him, he’d go into the closest town and hook up with the first stranger he encountered. Or maybe not the first. He had some standards. But a nameless, faceless one-night stand was what he needed to free himself of this weird hold Thanatos had on him.
“I’m gonna go and get drunk in the kitchen now. I’d invite you to join me, but I don’t think you’re fit for company.” He leaned over Zidane and closed his eyelids. He was kind like that; didn’t let his prisoner’s eyes dry out.
* * * *
Thanatos Sage looked at the instruction video from the beginning. Again. He’d followed it step by step, but his sourdough starter didn’t bubble.
It had been two months since Rufus and Gregory had saved him from the house of horrors, and his new life was so much better than his previous one.
When he’d lived in the underground facility, the warden had sold his services, and his services included both his skill to foresee someone’s death and his body.
He never wanted to go back.
The warden was dead. Jaki had shot him, but since there hadn’t been any news about a group of people being found anywhere, he suspected someone else was running the show now. It was a lucrative business, and all the guards and other staff knew it.
Thanatos had lived most of his life in the blue wing. It was called the blue wing because everyone who lived there wore blue scrubs. Each small room with its crisp white walls housed two unhappy psychics. He’d shared a room with Prophecy since the day his father sold him to the warden.
Not now. Now he had his own room, and he loved it. He closed and locked his door behind him every night. He’d gotten extra locks. Rufus had looked at him as if he were insane when he’d asked for door latches, but he’d provided. Thanatos now had three sliding latches and two door chains. It made him sleep better. Or maybe not, since he didn’t sleep, but it made him calmer.
He tapped on the glass jar, hoping to see a bubble in the dough, but nothing.
Jaki and Rufus were his new favorite people. He’d lived next door to Jaki in the house of horrors, but they had never spoken other than a grunted hi from time to time. He’d heard him through the walls though. Not words, but he could pick out the tone of his voice as he and Minerva had talked.
His and Prophecy’s room had always been silent. It was as if there had been an invisible barrier in the middle of the room preventing sounds from filtering through.
Prophecy never asked how he was, what he was thinking, or if they should go to the canteen together. He’d envied Jaki and Minerva. The only ones he ever spoke to were his clients and he didn’t want to talk to them.
He shuddered and shook the glass jar. Still nothing. He watched the instruction video again, poured out most of the sourdough starter and fed it again. He moved the rubber band on the jar to where the surface of the dough started and placed it on top of the refrigerator.
When steps approached, he pressed himself against the kitchen counter and held his breath. Praying whoever was walking in this direction would turn around.
Gregory appeared in the doorway, scowled, and muttered something Thanatos couldn’t make out.
Gregory wasn’t as big as Rufus, who was a tall, broad-shouldered vampire with flaming red hair and a scarred face, but he was still taller than Thanatos. Thanatos was the smallest of the men currently living in the castle. It didn’t matter, but when Gregory glared at him, he shrank into himself more.
Pathetic. He was almost certain Gregory wouldn’t touch him. Almost. But a lifetime of experience had him keeping his distance.
Gregory drank from a bottle, the liquid see-through. Thanatos didn’t know enough about alcohol to be able to guess what it was from looking at the bottle, but he was sure it was liquor.
He didn’t know if a vampire could be an alcoholic. Since they healed almost everything, addiction seemed far-fetched, but he was no expert.
“Gonna stand there for long?”
Thanatos shook his head. As soon as Gregory moved away from the doorway, he planned on running, but moving now would mean stepping closer to him. His heart was beating hard in his chest, and his breath came in stutters.
Gregory narrowed his eyes, then grunted and walked further into the kitchen. Thanatos sucked in air and held it. As soon as there was a wide enough gap between Gregory and the kitchen counter, he rushed for the doorway. Had Gregory wanted to grab him, he could have. Vampires could move faster than the human eye could catch when they wanted to.
He rounded the corner of the doorway and panted as he hurried down the corridor toward his room. Once there, he closed the door and engaged all the locks.
This was better than the house of horrors. Much better. He had his own room, his own bathroom, he could pick clothes, and he was allowed to be in the kitchen and try to cook as many things as he wished, but it didn’t make his hands stop shaking or his heart wanting to break out of his ribcage.
What if the guards had killed the remaining seers in the house of horrors? He believed there had been twelve on the blue wing, but there was a pink wing and a green wing too. How many seers had lived there, he didn’t know, but no one would kill forty-ish people, would they?
