Page 23 of Ouch! My Vampire Doms Don't Sparkle
“You can’t be our amant because we killed our last one.”His voice is emotionless and carries finality.
He’s telling her about Elisabeth.Why the fuck is he telling her anything?Does he want to terrify the girl?
I step into the room, leaning heavily against the wall.Weakened, and with come on my pants and my shirt in tatters, I hardly make the dignified entrance I’d prefer.
“Xander!”Autumn exclaims, sitting forward.“Are you okay?Come sit down.You should rest.”
The sweet little mouse is coddling me, right after Will has admitted to her that we’re killers.Right after I drank her blood and humped her like a lust-addled adolescent.
“Thank you for your blood,” I say, closing my eyes and breathing deeply, trying to keep my fangs in check.The very memory of sinking into her throat has me eager to do it again.
“You’re, um, welcome,” Autumn says.“What happened to you, anyway?”
Keeping my voice as dispassionate as possible, I say, “A couple of vampires attacked me when I was walking down a side street off of Caro.They dragged me into an alley.”
“Why?”she asks.
“They wanted to hurt me,” I say.“It was a punishment.”
Will frowns.“For what?”
“They had a message.”I stare directly at him.He should know; this is partly his fault.
“Well, what did they say?”Will asks, looking perplexed.
“They said Gaius knows we’re avoiding him.He requests our presence, and he doesn’t want to wait.”
Will
As pissed as I am at Xander, I know what he wasn’t saying last night about Gaius.What he left unsaid.Truth is, I fucked up.If we’d simply gone to Gaius without a summons, Xander wouldn’t have been attacked.
Autumn wouldn’t have needed to give him her blood.
He wouldn’t have called heramant.
My fuck-up is the reason why, several hours later, we’re getting ready to go to Gaius’s current quarters.
Autumn frowns as I dress myself in a suit.“Why do you have to dress up?”
“It’s Gaius,” I say with a shrug.“He likes ceremony, formal shit.Thinks it’s a sign of respect.”
“Well, you look good,” she says with an exaggerated leer.
I can’t smile.Can’t enjoy the levity.I finish dressing, make my way to the sitting room to wait for Xander.Autumn follows me.I want to take her in my arms.Too dangerous.Her scent would cling.Gaius would suspect.
Xander soon enters the sitting room, dressed similarly to me.“Ready?”he asks.
I nod.Turning to Autumn, I say, “We’ll be back as soon as possible, okay, little love?”
I keep my tone light.Unworried.I don’t want to frighten her.It’s likely that everything will be fine, and Gaius is, as I had formerly told Xander, reformed.
His attack on Xander suggests otherwise, unfortunately.
“Can I check my email while you’re gone?”Autumn asks.“It won’t, like, make it so anyone can track me, will it?”
“No one can trace you here,” Xander says.“We have several safeguards in place, in the building, in our tech, and on your phone.Don’t make calls on it to anyone from your old life, though.”
She nods.We leave her on the couch, her phone in hand.
