Page 71 of Thirsty
Gray grumbled at him and resumed his search. The commotion had drawn Rachel and Isolde out of their rooms, and they hovered at the edge of the kitchen, watching Gray warily. “Any what?” Charlie asked.
“Wolfsbane,” Lorenzo explained. “It’s—wolves heal too quickly to become intoxicated, so they make special alcohol infused with wolfsbane so they can...” He trailed off as Gray seemed to exhaust his search, sliding against the wall to sit on the floor in an ungainly heap. “Not heal,” he finished.
“What kind of self-respecting werewolf doesn’t have any wolfsbane?” Gray asked plaintively.
“I’m a vampire.”
“Right. Right. Oh!” Gray said, perking up—he’d spotted the cabinet in the dining room, which held at least a few bottles of wine visible through the glass doors. He jumped up and pushed past Rachel and Isolde to reach it, shoving Isolde into Rachel’s arms in the process.
Rachel jerked and shoved her away just as quickly, making Isolde frown. “What’s your problem?”
Rachel stood there awkwardly for a moment, just as Lorenzo caught a strong, unfurling scent of decay. Then he noticed the bruises all over Rachel’s skin, growing and spreading until she was a putrid, deep soft red all over. The color darkened to purple, then black, and then she liquified into a puddle of blood, just as there was a thump and rattle inside Rachel’s room, presumably from her rematerializing.
In the corner of his eye, Lorenzo saw that Charlie was white and shaking, his eyes wide. He clapped him on the shoulder and gave him what he hoped was a reassuring hand gesture. Isolde, though, just looked annoyed, seething down at the blood smear Rachel had left before stomping off, muttering, “That issoimmature.”
“I,” Charlie whimpered. “I don’t...”
“It’s okay,” Lorenzo said, pulling him into a hug and rubbing his shoulders until he stopped shaking.
Gray, who had finished going through the cabinet, cried, “Gin? Ugh,” in a miserable tone, and collapsed onto the floor again. Charlie and Lorenzo both went to sit next to him.
“Gray,” Lorenzo said. “When did they...”
He closed his eyes. “Few days after the wedding.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?”
“I was at home, drinking all my wolfsbane,” he explained,with a hollow sort of cheeriness. “Then I ran out, and I can’t go to a single wolf bar because I’m...” He thunked his head back against the wall behind him. His voice was starting to sound thick. “I’m a lone wolf now.”
Lorenzo stood up. “Gray,” he said, “I am truly sorry to hear of your misfortune.”
Gray sighed. “Thank you, friend.”
“I have no wolfsbane, for which I apologize,” he said graciously, offering Gray a hand to help him up. “Let’s go to a bar.”
Gray sniffed. “They’re all owned by one of the big packs. Any bar that has wolfsbane, anyway.”
“There has to be an unaffiliated supe bar somewhere that has it,” Charlie said with completely unearned confidence. Lorenzo glared at him doubtfully as Charlie got out his phone once again.
This time Charlie’s research proved fruitful, as he discovered a casino forty minutes out of town that he claimed had what Gray was looking for. The neon and fluorescent lighting, and the sense that one could get lost in the slots and never emerge, were chilling. And while the resort didn’t appear to be supernaturally owned or affiliated, one of the small bars on the basement level did, in fact, have wolfsbane.
They kept pace with Gray for a while, but split off on their own once he got sufficiently hammered and started ranting at the bartender about men’s tailoring. They played a few electronic betting games, lost some money, and then found themselves wandering the shopping area, which had many suspiciously overpriced luxury stores that Charlie thought must be a front for something.
The only store Charlie was interested in was a cavernous, touristy place that exclusively sold tacky and completely useless knickknacks. Charlie delighted in examining each one, shoving several into a basket that Lorenzo was carrying, and informing him which pieces would look good in his apartment and where.
Despite the fact that he was evidently having a fantastic time, Lorenzo still felt compelled to apologize. “Sorry this derailed our evening in.”
“It wasn’t an evening in,” Charlie said, looking at a refrigerator magnet of the pope. “I was going to pick something. But this is fun.”
“Mm,” Lorenzo said, pulling the magnet out of Charlie’s hands so he could kiss him.
“Gray’s lucky. You’re a good friend,” Charlie said when they broke apart, smiling and winding his arms around Lorenzo’s shoulders.
“You’re a good—”boyfriend, he almost said, and nearly physically flinched as he grasped to redirect the sentence. “Friend of a friend,” he managed. “For coming with us.”
For a brief moment there was a blip of something that looked like panic in Charlie’s eyes, as if he’d noticed Lorenzo’s near miss, but it was gone in a second, and then he smiled. Lorenzo kissed him again, trying to push past the knot of embarrassment and anxiety in his gut, trying not to think about the way they were still dancing around each other, keeping their distance, not risking anything.
Charlie made a small, hurt noise in the back of his throat when Lorenzo deepened the kiss, and he shivered from head to toe.Fuck not risking anything.
