Page 71 of Blood and Bonbons

“Why not feed on the pawn shop guy?” Vena asked. “You’d at least know what the coin is worth then, right?”

Cross shook his head. “I only feed from the willing.”

I filed that interesting bit of information away as Vena crossed her arms.

“Well, there are no volunteers here.” She looked at me. “Where are we supposed to find a willing victim?”

“I can find my own source,” Cross said irritably. “I simply need assistance understanding the social differences for now.”

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s take this conversation to the car. We don’t have a lot of time before the shop opens. We’ll figure out something on the way.”

We locked up the house and went to the car. Cross sat in front, and Vena took the seat directly behind him. I knew she’d taken a defensive position because she didn’t trust Cross. I didn’t fault her logic. He’d proven that he struggled with control when he was hungry. But he’d also been showing us the less predatorial side of himself. The almost human side. She seemed comfortable enough with that side that she pulled out the book and began paging through it.

“I think you were on the right track with the bar,” I said to Cross as I drove. “But late at night is a bad idea. That’s usually when everyone’s already drunk.”

“Ah. I see. Are bars open at this hour?”

“Not usually. We could try a grocery store.”

“Wait for a bar to open,” Vena muttered. “‘Excuse me, my good sir. Would you be willing to part with a pint?’”

“Not funny, Vena,” I said, glancing at Cross. His eyes were growing dark again.

“We’ll try the grocery store. It’s full of sober people browsing for food, like a market.” I wasn’t sure how he would feed off someone at the store, but that was a problem we’d deal with when we got there.

I executed a U-turn and pulled into a smaller store near the pawn shop. Vena got out of the car with me. While I knew she was joining us to spectate, I was still glad for her company. I had no idea how a vampire went about asking someone for a willing donation.

“Since we don’t want to cramp your style, we’ll pretend to shop and stay out of your way,” Vena said, hooking her arm through mine.

She veered us to the frozen foods, and we watched Cross wander the store from there. He struck up a conversation with a young stocker a minute later. The stocker nodded then started walking away.

Cross followed, and they both disappeared into the back.

“Didn’t think Cross was into men,” Vena said softly.

“How did he get someone to agree just like that?” I asked.

“Especially in that suit,” Vena added.

We waited a few minutes while I gazed longingly at a tub of ice cream with caramel cups in it.

Vena pulled out her phone and read a message. “It’s the person asking about the ring again.”

“What did they say?”

“Just asking about a trade. They’re a little more insistent this time, but still no details about the information.”

Vena flashed the screen at me. And she was right. It sounded like the person was desperate to get the ring.

“Do you really think they have information on Miles? Or is this bait so they can get the ring and leave us with nothing but a pissed-off vampire?”

“I don’t know. But we need to follow this lead.”

“How? After what he did to get it back, there’s no way Cross is going to hand over the ring. You saw what he did to our lock when he was angry.”

“We take it from him again, give it to the person to get the info on Miles, and let Cross track the ring again. Simple.”

“It’s not simple, and you know it.”

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