Page 20 of Bloody Temptations

“So what, you’re tutoring him? His naughty vamp professor?”

This time I actually throw the cushion at him, smacking him right in his dumb face. His shocked gasp of outrage fills my cold, dead heart with glee.

“What the fuck?!” He’s laughing now, launching the cushion back at me. He’s always had a shit throw, though, so I manage to bat it out of the air. “Seriously, though, are you mentoring him or something?”

I let out an exaggerated noise akin to a sigh, my chest heaving with the reflex. “Why does it have to be a thing? He comes in, he hangs out, we shoot the shit.”

“Well, for starters, we’ve both dealt with too many crazies for everyone to just be chill about it. I mean, Lifo is a toe rag and even he’s had a stalker or two.”

I grunt, not willing to give Nikolo’s excellent point any more than that.

“And then there is the fact that you two are obviously into each other. It’s like watching two school kids flirt. I gotta say, it’s nice to see you humbled, my man.”

“Gee, thanks.” I pick up the cushion and throw it in the air. “I don’t know what to tell you. Do I think he’s hot? Sure. Would I go there? Absolutely. But like…”

“Sometimes it’s nice to flirt?” Nikolo cuts in when I fail to find the end of my sentence.

“Yes. That.” Dropping the cushion, I click my fingers and point at him. “I don’t know where this is going, or what it is. He’s a guy that comes to the bar and we talk about dumb shit.”

Like whatever stories he’s been reading on theCrumblesapp. He was embarrassed at first but now he’s super into it. We both are. He gets crazy animated when he’s filling me in on the latest updates. Who knew beings posted all this wild personal shit online for just anybody to read?

“You said that you don’t think he has any vamp friends?” Nikolo stands, throwing on the long hoodie he discarded at some point during his stretching.

“Yeeeah…” I draw the word out hesitantly, not sure where Nikolo is going with this.

He picks up my mug and makes his way towards the kitchen.

“You should take him to Hearts Gate.”

I twist to face him over the back of the couch. He’s leaning in the door frame of the small kitchen. He seems serious, which is insane because Hearts Gate makes Bloody Temptations look like child's play. Because it is. Apart from both being vampire venues, there is no comparison between the two.

Where Bloody Temptations allows beings to play on walking on the wild side with vampires, Hearts Gate is the wild side with vamps. It’s a safe space for vamps, not beings. Not that anything too insane goes on there—they always stay on the right side of the law—but Finn didn’t even know not to buy the cheap blood mixed with human that can make us sick if we have it too often.

“I’m not sure if Finn’s ready to be exposed to that much… vampireness.”

Nikolo cocks his head, his tongue poking into his cheek. “Whatever, it was just a thought. Invite him along next time we go. Or don’t. This is your extracurricular, not mine.”

On that note he dumps my mug in the sink and struts to the bathroom for a shower. Leaving me to sit and stew about what, if anything, I’m going to do about Finn.

***

Three days later and I’m back working the midweek after work shift. I’m in the storage room, collecting fresh bottles to restock the fridges under the bar when Maddy saunters in.

My maker is old—not that you could ever tell by looking at her. One night, after too much wine last year, she admitted she was one hundred and eighty two.

Only beings are able to be turned. Humans and witches never survive the transformation. Generally speaking, witches—who really are just souped-up humans—have the shortest life span out of all beings. Magical beings tend to live longer, depending on their type. Vampires live the longest out of them all. The oldest recorded vamp was three hundred and sixty seven. Though they were turned at a time when records were sketchy at best.

Suffice to say, we live a long ass time.

Scientists, doctors, philosophers and other big brained types are always studying to figure out the magic behind how we work and why we lose all our magic and powers or whatever when we change, but they haven’t figured it out yet. Not that I really care. It’s one of those ‘it is what it is’ things.

That’s the other thing about vampires, other beings and humans think we’re stone cold, heartless beasts because most of us ‘move on’ from our old lives so easily. I don’t know, maybe it’s true. Sure, sometimes I miss my old badger other half, but mostly it just feels like something that happened in another life, one step removed from me.

But not every new vamp feels that way. There are specialised support groups for vamps that struggle with the transition. Some can’t deal with it, especially if they turned under less than healthy circumstances.

I wonder how Finn is coping with the loss of the being he was before. Does he miss it? Does he even know about those groups? Selfishly, I haven’t shared the idea with him. There is not an insignificant part of my ego that enjoys being his safe space in the vampire world.

Maddy was a floriatae before she turned—a being that usually resides in the forests of sacred sites. Their magic is inherently tied to nature. She looks nothing like a forest being anymore, with a fondness for black leather, spiked heels and her waist length brown hair scraped back into a high ponytail, she looks terrifying.

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