Page 8 of The Awakening
It’s only a five-minute walk before I’m stepping into the bar. It takes a moment for my eyes to adjust from the bright sunlight outside. I hear a chorus of greetings.
“Hey, Jun!”
“Welcome back, Junichi.”
I lift my chin in acknowledgment and smile. The bar is vampire owned. Our aristocracy in Western Japan is pretty tightly knit—but growing. Our realm leaders have gained a lot of attention the past couple months, so now, every vampire and their mother wants to live here.
Asao is waving me down, and I’m surprised to see Nino sitting beside him. No Haruka. Figures. Getting him out of the house the past few weeks has been like trying to coax a cat out of a tree. Usually I can tempt him with a good restaurant recommendation, but lately even that’s not working.
I weave my way through the bar—through the noise of happy chitchat and laughter, glasses and plates clinking, enka music playing low in the background. The air is warm with the scent of grilled veggies and meat, and it makes my mouth water.
“Hey, Jun.” Nino smiles warmly as I sit beside him in the booth. Asao is across from us. “We’re celebrating.”
“What, pray tell?” I ask, grabbing the half-empty pitcher of beer and a glass.
Asao grins. He’s more than a hundred years older than me, but he’s still square and handsome with salt-and-pepper features. He’s obviously had a good life. “Haruka went out today. On his own,” he says, grabbing his beer.
“Really? How the hell did you manage that?”
“We had an appointment with Doctor Davies yesterday to talk about surrogacy options,” Nino says. “While we were there, I asked him about things we could do to cope with all this new attention. He and I talked about it more last night, and he agreed to try. We found a fairly safe activity to get him started.”
I lift my beer in a toast. “This is excellent news.” They lift theirs as well, and we tap glasses. After Nino takes a sip, he sighs.
“I don’t want people to think he’s a snob, you know? If he keeps hiding and ignoring everyone, the tide could turn. They pulled a new group of vampires out of Socotra. The detective is pressuring us to take on more refugees, and she keeps blabbing to the news about our involvement. Haruka hates all this attention.”
Haruka could easily be a pompous jerk given his ancient family roots, looks and upper-crust breeding. I wouldn’t even blame him if he were. It’s almost expected. The quality of his nature makes him a beacon for other ranked vampires, and his bloodline is clean and very old, which means he probably tastes like heaven. I can’t imagine what life was like for him being unbonded. He told me he hid himself in England for a decade, and I immediately understood why.
“Speaking of Doctor Davies…” Asao is smirking at me. I frown, rolling my eyes and pulling my beer to my lips because I know what’s coming. “How was your date?” he asks.
I take a long sip before setting the glass back down on the table. “Shit.”
“Really?” Nino raises his brows. “Why? Doctor Davies seems nice.”
I nod, diplomatic. “Yes, the doctor is very nice to his patients, which is excellent for the hospital. I have no complaints.”
Outside of the hospital, he’s a prejudiced jackass. A beautiful jackass that smells delicious. Well, fuck him and his good smells. Since when is it a crime to have dinner with someone you find attractive? What’s so terrible about wanting to eventually make love? Now I can’t ever have sex with him, because if I do, I’ll just prove him right.
“He definitely has something funny going on,” Nino says. “Both Haru and I took inventory yesterday. He’s human, but… I don’t know.”
Asao lifts his chin toward me. “You should bite him. See what he tastes like so we’ll know for sure.”
I roll my shoulders. “Nope. That’s not happening.” As a ranked vampire, feeding from humans isn’t fun. They taste like dirt, and if you do it too much, it can permanently ruin your bloodline. A few years ago, in the throes of passion, I fed from one of my human lovers in Paris. An exquisite young opera singer whose family had originally immigrated to France from Kenya. Lisette Noelle Moreau. I couldn’t go out into the sun at all afterward because my skin burned. I had to canceltwo days’worth of appointments and sit around her loft like a fucking squatter. Not worth it.
“Haru says it feels like there’s a wall inside Doctor Jae,” Nino says. “Like something is blocked. But he doesn’t register as a low-level vamp either. It’s confusing.”
“Well, he’ll need to find someone else to deal with his blockage.” I raise my eyebrow and lean forward to drive the point home. “Because it ain’t me.”
Asao sits back and folds his arms. He’s examining me in that paternal way that makes me uncharacteristically self-conscious. “The doctor didn’t fall at Casanova’s feet, so you’re upset?”
“No,” I say, then realize it makes me sound like I’m pouting. “It just wasn’t a good match.”
“Why?” Asao pushes. “You chased him for three weeks.What happened?”
“Technically,twoweeks, since he said yes on the third week. And I didn’t ‘chase’ him. I was returning his books… slowly.”
Nino snorts at this, which doesn’t help my case. I ignore him. “Anyway, he made it perfectly clear that he’s not interested in me or what I have to offer.” I open my palms in a curt gesture, like I’m a prosecutor and I’ve laid out all the obvious evidence. Or like I’m a magician. Voilà.
Asao laughs and shakes his head. “Casanova is a control freak. If someone isn’t following the perfect little script he’s laid out for them, he cancels the entire production.”
