Page 48 of Surface Scratch
Caleb brushed his fingertips over the other bite mark on his neck from that awful night in the alley. The texture was different, like the skin had been torn away, as opposed to the clean mark on his shoulder from the previous night, which was clearly a bite mark. He supposed the level of control Marcus had over himself had a lot to do with why they felt so different.
When he caught a glimpse of himself in the bathroom mirror before joining Marcus in the shower, he was startled by how haggard he looked, but that was mostly from the amount of blood that was still stuck to him. That feeling quickly faded, replaced by a buzzing awe from his experience as he showered with Marcus. It surprised him how innocently intimate the experience was when Marcus gently helped him wash the blood off his back and massaged his scalp after insisting Caleb use his shampoo.
Was being with Marcus always going to be like that? Bloody nights with no inhibitions?
After their shower, he combed his fingers through his damp hair, pushing it back from his face so he could stare into his own eyes in the mirror unobstructed. They were brighter. Happier. Almost normal. Even ignoring the marks on his skin, he looked different in a way he couldn’t quite put a name to. Maybe it was the stupid smile on his face that he couldn’t get rid of no matter how hard he tried?
It is really weird to be this happy after being used like a chew toy. But even that thought brought the excited pressure back to him. Caleb stepped away from the dresser, rubbing his hands roughly over his cheeks to convince the blood to come back up to his face.
“You ready to go?”
Caleb spun around as Ophelia’s voice startled him. She stood less than a foot away from him, her outfit changed and brassy hair back down, looking like it was bursting out of her scalp. She still held the mixing bowl of cereal to her chest, crunching loudly on something that had marshmallows in it.
“How did you get in here?” he asked as he snatched up a T-shirt that was too big for his small frame. He was almost certain Marcus had shut the door behind him when he left to go down to the office.
“It’s my house, I go where I want.” She shrugged. “And did you miss the part where I was raised by vampires? They taught me how to be quiet.” She shoved the throw pillows aside and sat down on the chest at the end of the bed, her bowl in her lap as she pulled her phone out of her bra. “Hurry up, I want to get this shit done sooner rather than later.”
Caleb pulled the shirt over his head. “Where are we going?”
“Hold on,” she said as she pressed the speaker button on her phone, filling the room with the sound of ringing. She rolled her head back and forth like she was stretching her neck, her fingers tapping impatiently on her knee.
“Hello?” The tired voice coming out of the phone had a thick accent that sounded familiar.
“Petrov? Why are you answering this number? Actually, it doesn’t matter. Go get Vinny.”
Vinny?Did she mean Vincent?
“He is busy playing with pet, and I am tired. Call later.”
“I don’t care, go break down the door if you have to.” She frowned when he didn’t respond. “I’ll give you one of those free drinks you like next time you come by the club.”
“Five.”
“Three.”
“You have deal, little lady,” he said. “Hold on.”
Caleb moved closer to her. “What are you doing?” he whispered.
She placed her hand over the bottom of the phone where the microphone was. “He’s really easy to bribe. There’s this drink he really likes that’s a pain in the ass to make. It’s like a blood-grenadine-vodka slushie,” she explained.
“That’s not what I meant.”
She waved her hand at him, motioning for him to step back as another voice asked who it was, sounding muffled like Petrov was holding his hand over the microphone in the same way.
“Detišteto,” Petrov’s voice came through the speaker sounding clearer.
“Not cool,golem glupav šupak,” she said into the speaker, a scowl on her face.
“Did you really just call him a ‘big, dumb asshole?’” Vincent’s eerily calm voice filled the room.
“He called me a brat.”
“That’s because you are one.” Vincent laughed. It was strange to hear the lightness in his voice. All of Caleb’s interactions had been so tense with the threat of violence of some kind. Until last night, he had never considered that there was anything more to the blond than a cruel sadistic streak. “Now, one: What on earth are you calling me for at this ungodly hour? And two: are you learning Macedonian just to fuck with Petrov?”
Caleb gave Ophelia a perplexed look. What was she doing?
“Don’t be silly, I would never learn an entire language just to fuck with Petrov,” she said, a smirk creeping across her face in a way that made Caleb deeply uncomfortable. Her voice was tinged with a false sweetness. “I can fuck with Luka that way too.”
