Page 24 of Bottoms Up
“Same, but I want a steak. I know the plan was to camp tonight, but I want a massage, a steak, and some good whiskey.”
“Oh, you won’t need to twist my arm for that.” I pulled my phone from the pack, turned it on, and was pleased to see I had two bars. Unfortunately, it was just for voice and not data, so I powered it down and slid it back into the secure compartment in my pack. “We’ll use the Starlink to find reservations when we get back to the Land Cruiser.”
He pulled his phone out, called his assistant, told her where we were and what we were looking for, and returned his phone to his pack. “She’ll text me where to go once she has our reservations confirmed.”
“Show off.”
He chuckled. “Guilty as charged. So, sex with a vampire?”
“Wait, you haven’t…”
When he didn’t say anything, I said, “You don’t mix business and pleasure, and all the vampires you’ve met, I’m guessing are clients.”
“Yep.”
“I’m thinking it’s time to ditch that rule. It served you well while you were becoming the great Benjamin Clark, but most of the people you meet these days are probably clients — and likely women who are either your equal financially, or richer than you.”
“True. There’s a vampire in Alaska I think I could fall in love with, but she’s already in love with a dude who’s actually climbedEverest and fucking snowboarded down. Puts my adrenaline junkie ways to shame.”
I smiled. “Kendra’s cool, and I can see why she’d appeal to you, but yeah, she’s madly in love with Eric.”
“How have we been running in the same social circle and not known it?” he asked.
“Kendra used to live in Chattanooga, and she still comes to town for our Girls’ Night Out things. Plus, she and Kirsten are close friends. You probably just invest Kendra’s money for her, and I’m partying and getting drunk with her. Well, I get drunk. Vampires have a hard time doing that.”
“So,” he asks again. “Sex with a vampire?”
“Yeah. You have to do it. Seriously. I mean, make sure it’s one you trust, and even more, that you trust their Master Vampire, butfuck, Benji. I’m not sure I could ever enjoy sex with a mere human again.”
“That’s the danger, isn’t it? Maybe I’m best sticking to humans.”
And the question in my head I hadn’t had the nerve to bring up to Julian — not until I’d worked it out better in my own head, and Benji is great at helping me figure shit out.
“Would you want to be turned into a vampire, do you think?”
He didn’t answer right away. Just stared out at the distant peaks like he could see the centuries stretching out in front of us.
“Maybe. I’d mostly ruled it out before because it would’ve meant I lost you, but if we both did? How cool would that be? Siblings together for centuries.”
I let out a slow breath. “I’d probably have to retire from Mythic Beast first. It can take a decade or more before a new vampire is trustworthy around humans.” It’s possible we could make it work so I don’t have to retire, but that would be up to Will and the others.
“Right, and I’ll have to hand over control of the accounts I manage to someone else. It’d be bad for business to rip a rich fucker’s throat out during a quarterly review.” A sigh. “Best case scenario, I’d be able to manage accounts from behind the scenes within five years, from what I understand. Takes at least that long to find your sanity again, and even longer to handle the craving for blood around a tasty-smelling human.”
Right. Julian hadn’t been able to, and he’d been made a slave.
The weight of it sat low in my gut, but if we could choose our maker, we could have a better outcome.
“I’ve seriously considered it,” I told him. “Losing contact with you was one of the big sticking points, but if you go into it with me?” I traced the seam of the protein bar wrapper with a callused fingertip. “I think that means I’m leaning toward doing it, but there’s a whole lot of logistics to work out before I can decide for certain.”
“Same.” His voice was soft, barely carried on the breeze. “No longer having a use-by date. Living forever — or at least until we piss someone off badly enough they kill us.”
He lifted his water bottle to his mouth and took another long swig.
“The magic fixed Julian’s balls. If it gives me balls, I’ll be pissed.”
Benji got choked on his water, and I beat his back while he coughed, and then we laughed together and made our way down the trail, the way most sane people go up and down Looking Glass Rock.
But Benji and I have never been completely sane. We’d scaled the face of the rock for the adventure of it, and perhaps we’d do the same by joining the supernatural world for real.
