Page 69 of How to Bare Your Neck and Save a Wreck
Frederick Maul
I see your car is out front and the lights are on. If you don’t open the fucking door soon, I will.
Shane paled, glancing between the bend that turned the living room into the entry space, and back. “I can hide.”
“He’ll smell you.” Andres licked his lips. “I hadn’t bitten you yet when he found us in the alley, but your blood scent is in the air now—will be for minutes yet.”
Shane breathed in, then out. “This is fine. I’m supposed to be here.”
“Yes, restrained to my bed.”
“Do you—”
“No, I don’t ownchains.” Andres could feel the panic rising in the back of his mind, a slow, monstrous creep that was surely building toward whatever disastrous nonsense his body had decided was now the proper reaction to anyone making the first move to touch him. Now it wanted to join him for this too. Goddammit.
He startled as the doorbell rang again, every nerve in his body seemingly shouting for attention at the same time. Banging followed, and the vibration of his phone.
“Fuck, he’s calling.”
Shane slipped off the barstool, snatching up a towel to clean his shoulder as he spoke. “You’re letting me wander the house. I’m well trained, okay?” He said it with such calm certainty that it almost sounded reasonable.
Somehow, it was enough to snap Andres back into form. “Right. Good, yes.” He nodded, and began tousling his own hair, unbuttoning his top two shirt buttons. “Just in case he comes in, put on that piece on the mannequin and take off as much as you can under it.” The transformed gala cloak was loose, lengthened and layered by lace, and he’d subconsciously fit it to Shane’s basic proportions in the first place. It would fit. “If he comes in, act like I was just…”
“Ravishing me?” Shane suggested, a quirk to his lips despite the situation.
It steadied Andres. He layered his voice with a growl, letting it pull him into character—the character Maul knew, stronger and more aggressive and far less compassionate than the vampire underneath. “How much of you is mine?”
“All of me,” Shane replied immediately.
The door rattled like it was about to cave in.
Andres ran for it. He untucked his silky rosé-colored shirt from his high-waisted black pants, fiddling with the belt area as he opened the door. “Goddammit, Maul—”
Maul barreled into him.
The shove caught Andres so off guard that his body took a moment to respond, but as the full force of his panic caught him, he reacted much as he had with Shane, lashing out with his vampiric strength like it was his last chance to defend himself. This time, at least, it might have even been true.
Maul crashed into the door frame with a yelp that was half snarl.
Andres growled right back despite the tightness of his chest and the tunneling of his vision, forcing himself to bare his teeth and stare Maul down. “What the hell?”
The other vampire scowled, fangs out. “You were at that fucking blood bank, talking to the fucking owner.”
“Talking to him about Vitalis-Barron, you fool,” Andres snapped. “Doing the job you fucking gave me!”
Maul’s eyes narrowed. “What does he know about them?”
“Heworkedthere for years before turning. He’s one of the best resources I’ve found!”
Maul still looked skeptical. “That better mean you finally have something useful.” He paused, his attention shifting. He sniffed. “That’s the human I sold you.”
“Yeah.” Andres wiped his mouth with his hand. A smear of blood came off his chin. He scowled. “You have really great timing, you know that?”
Maul snorted, and he seemed almost back to his usual mundane assholery when something clearly clicked in his head. “You were with someone at Jose’s,” he accused. “Ithoughtyou were keeping himcontained.”
“In a manner. He’s useful. And I spent my savings on him, so I might as well get my money’s worth.”
As Andres spoke, Maul maneuvered past him, continuing into the living room like he owned the place. Which, technically, he did. It was all Andres could do to keep up with him, slowed firstby the lingering panic still threatening to take him over, then by the sight that met him.
