Page 46 of Firedrake Betrayal
Shep sighs.
“I wasn’t saying they should,” Patten adds. “Just that they could have targeted him instead of stealing his blood.”
“It sounds like they’re playing some kind of sick game,” I suggest.
“Perhaps,” Isaiah concedes.
“So what do we do?” I ask.
“Easy, we keep our eyes wide open for any sign they try again and then we kill them,” Patten says viciously.
“They are Amelie’s family,” Isaiah says, visibly reluctant.
“What they are is a threat,” Patten grumbles.
Shep nods. “Patten is right. If they want to talk, we’ll talk. But if they attack…”
We all fall silent.
As if facing down Atticus and his guards wasn’t enough. Now we have to worry about a family of vampire hunters who want to kill Isaiah.
I study Isaiah some more, then I move around the kitchen island. “Well, until we figure out what to do with Atticus and convince the people hunting you that it wasn’t your fault, you can feed on me.”
Everyone is suddenly speaking at once. The consensus amounts to:
“Not a good idea.” Patten’s voice is the loudest as he grips me by my hips and nudges me back around the kitchen island.
“Why not? He needs to feed, and he’s fed on me before. I trust him to stop.”
“You,” Patten nudges me back again when I move around him, “are pregnant, andyouhave a crazy collector after you. And also, because he can feed on me.”
We all look at Patten.
“You?” Shep asks.
“Well, it can’t be you, can it?” Patten says to Shep. “You need to claw the dragon’s face off if he has any notions about grabbing Jade again.”
“I’m not a dragon,” Dominik says mildly.
“But youdodeserve a clawing.” Patten looks at Isaiah. “And you need to feed. You’re pale. Sit still long enough and someone will try to bury you.”
“You trust me to stop?” Isaiah’s voice is quiet and strangely hesitant.
In Chicago, I’d had the sense he’d been born rich, never been told no, and expected everyone around him to know it too.
Patten claps him on the back so hard it nearly tips him off his stool. I hide my smile when Isaiah glares at him. “I do. And I trust Shep to smack you on the head if it comes to it. Come on. Couch is better than a stool for a wobbly vamp.”
And he grips Isaiah’s arm and strides over to the couch as Isaiah is complaining he is the source of that wobbliness.
The rest of us slowly drift over.
“I don’t know. This doesn’t seem like a good idea.” Isaiah hesitates beside the couch, still uncharacteristically wary.
Who would have thought a vampire would be so reluctant to feed?
“It’s the best idea.” Patten thumps heavily onto the couch, dragging Isaiah beside him. “You can feed, I’ll rest up, maybe have a bit of steak, and then we find this insane collector, end him, and go home. Not the dragon, though. He can piss off.”
None of it is that straightforward.
