Page 72 of Heathens

“Does that work? Drinking from another vampire?”

“It’s not as nutritionally dense as human blood, there are obviously far fewer of us, and of course, it’s frowned upon, but yeah, it works.”

Dominic studies me in between bites. I wonder what he’s thinking. Actually, I’m pretty sure I know what he’s thinking, because I’m thinking about it too. It’s about time we both found a distraction.

“So, what, are you in the habit of inviting humans over for dinner?”

He laughs and shakes his head.

“No, you would be the first in a long, long time.”

A rush of electricity shoots up my spine.

“Then why me?”

“Because I want to get to know you.”

A buzzer goes off in the back of my brain. I’ve been doing my job long enough to tell when someone’s lying to my face. Vampires are experts in manipulation and charm, but when you work with them long enough you start to see cracks in the mask. It helps that I’ve always been good at sniffing out bullshit.

I lean forward.

“Tell me the truth, Dominic.”

“I am telling the truth,” he laughs.

“Bullshit.”

There’s a tiny nervous glint in his eyes, behind all the niceties and the newfound warmth. After I’ve stared him down for long enough, he pushes his chair away from the table and stands. I do the same as he moves past me toward the living room.

“Stay there,” he insists.

I ignore him completely, following him to the living room.

Dominic takes a key out of his pocket and slides it into a drawer next to the sofa. I stand a few feet away, craning my neck to see him pull out a piece of paper and turn it over in his hands. His brows knit together and he seems nervous suddenly as he reaches to rub the back of his neck.

“You said you studied blood and experimental medicine, right?”

“That’s right.”

He rubs his stubble with one hand, almost as though he’s trying to force the words out of his mouth as he walks toward me, closing the gap between us.

“I, uh… I need…”

I chuckle, and he visibly bristles at the sound. I step backward, but don’t break eye contact.

“It really kills you to ask me for something, doesn’t it?” I tease. “Should I make you get on your knees again?”

He’s not taking the bait. There’s something swirling in his eyes that I can’t grasp onto, like trying to catch smoke with my bare hands. Dominic’s gaze extends past me, landing on something in the distance as he slowly hands me the folded up piece of paper. He’s afraid.

“Theo and I have been looking for someone who can make this. I have supplies – uh, downstairs in a lab.”

“Supplies for what?” I ask, flipping the paper open.

Scrawled on the page are several formulas and the basic chemical composition for some kind of compound that uses hemoglobin as a base.Butthe molecular composition required isn’t human.It’s vampire blood, or at least it’s structured like vampire blood.

Synthetic, that’s my specialty.

Or it would be, if I ever got my research off the ground.

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