Page 54 of Even Vampires Bleed
He might not even be around anymore.
Their interests can align only for so long.
“Explain,” Elis says when he finally finds me in Christina’s office.
“Only if you tell me what we’re getting from this live collection,” I retort with a bit of bite.
Who said I was going to explain so easily?
“You don’t want to know,” Elis answers, and my eyes must be talking for me because he relents and gives my answer.
“I’m getting a fish.”
“A fish?”
I must look dumb while asking my question because Elis sits right next to me and laughs.
“There’s plenty of fish on Earth,” I say. “Well, in any of its water bodies, so why do you need that fish so much? There must be a reason. Because it’s the reason why you’ve been staying with the humans, am I right? Yeah, I’m right. So, whythatfish?”
I take a heavy breath.
Did I say I was getting better at not doing long speeches? Scratch that. I’m still awful.
“Are you just a bat?” Elis asks. It takes a second for my mind to compute what he just told me.
Michaël had a living fish-shifter in a tank like it’s a pet.
That fish-shifter is probably still stuck in that tank.
A mermaid—or a merman—as humans would call them.
There is a mermaid—or a merman, again not making assumptions—stuck in a freaking tank under Versailles’s castle.
Oh God, I hate that man.
If Angie hadn’t already killed him, I’d want to kill him again—over and over.
I have no idea how Elis knows about that fish-shifter or why he’s wanted to save them for so long, but I finally get why he’s so grumpy.
Because you don’t put up with bullshit for someone you don’t care about.
This fish is someone Elis cares about, and all I want to do is hug him.
Oh well, I’m doing it.
Elis is surprised when my arms squish him against me, and he awkwardly taps my shoulder with the palm of his hand but doesn’t push me away.
“I don’t think I needed that,” he tells me when I release him. “Now tell me what that bird shifter ever did to you for you to act like an ass.”
This isn’t even a question.
It’s a demand, and one I comply with.
Why?
Because I said I would. But more than anything else, because it feels liberating to finally tell someone how hard it’s been for me and because I need an ally for the week to come.
“So, do we hate the host or the body?” Elis finally says when I’m done recounting everything, and I can’t help laughing.
