Page 22 of Thirsty
On paper, the DMV’s rules about how to renew your license were indeed very strict, just as Lorenzo had suggested. But DMV employees were human, and it hadn’t taken long for Charlie to strike up a conversation with a lovely older gentleman there who’d agreed to trim some of the red tape in exchange for three times the usual processing fee. Plus an extra hundred bucks, because if you weren’t going to go all-in on the bribe, what was the point?
That license was all but his. He just needed one thing.
Eventually that one thing walked into the bar, spotted him, and scowled. “How are you—whyare you here?” Lorenzo demanded.
Despite the aggression, he still took the seat next to Charlie, and Charlie banked a smile. “Maggie told me you like this place.”
“Ugh,” Lorenzo said. Charlie did feel kind of bad about basically stalking Lorenzo, but he needed it for the column. Sure, Maggie and Rachel were happy enough to talk to him, but by far the most frequent questions he got in his inbox were about vampires. And last night with Lorenzo had helped, but he needed more—alotmore—and he wasn’t afraid to dog Lorenzo to get it.
Besides, he’d all but invited this with his wholeyou will never succeedbit. He looked great sitting at the bar, even if he was trying to exude a threatening, grumpy air. It couldn’t be true that all vampires were this attractive—that had to bea myth—but Christ, his hair, the rugged line of his jaw, those full lips. There was something about the set of his features and the shadow on his jaw that made Charlie want to touch him, to tilt Lorenzo’s face toward his until he could stare into those big brown eyes at close range.
There was something vampiric about his eyes too, though not in the way he’d seen in movies—those marble-like eyes that were beautiful like abstract glass. No, Lorenzo’s eyes were almost human, sunken and deep and bloodshot; except that there was something molten about them, tectonic, like Charlie would start to slip and fray if he stared into them too long.
Charlie realized hewasstaring at Lorenzo, and cleared his throat. “So, this is a supe bar, right?”
“A what?”
“Y’know. A bar for supernatural creatures.”
“It’s a normal human bar.”
The bartender put something brown and expensive-looking in front of Lorenzo without being asked, and then said, “Did you say this is a human bar? I’ll slap you right across the face.”
Charlie grinned. “I knew it. This is a supe bar, right?”
The bartender stared at him. “You have money?”
“Yes,” Charlie said. The bartender stared some more, so he fished a twenty out of his wallet and put it on the table.
“Welcome human,” the man said, palming the cash. “What do you want?”
Charlie ordered a beer. After the guy left, he leaned closer to Lorenzo and asked quietly, “So, uh—what’s he?”
“What are you doing here?” Lorenzo asked him.
“Oh right,” he said. “I need a picture of you, for your license.”
Lorenzo glanced at him sidelong, making a dismissive noise. “You are bluffing.”
“And I need to see the old one,” he added. “I need your license number.”
“I don’t believe you.”
Charlie waited a moment. When Lorenzo didn’t budge, he said, “Okay, but if you don’t give me what I need, I’ll interpret that as you defaulting on our deal, and—” He paused dramatically. “—your vampire honor will be lost.”
Lorenzo said nothing.
“Your...Sardinian honor?” Charlie tried.
Lorenzo said nothing, but his eye twitched.
“Your pirate honor.”
Lorenzo hissed at him, then pulled his wallet out of his pocket and threw his license at Charlie. It was definitely old, the paper inside yellowed and the plastic edges cracking. And—
“Oh my god,” Charlie breathed. “This isamazing.”
It was Lorenzo all right, looking just about as ’70s deep-fried as could be. His hair was huge and poufed around his face, there were someverysharp collar points on either side of his neck, and he was giving the camera a huge, delighted, open-mouthed smile.
