Page 11 of Tell Me Why
Hunter nodded, putting back his drink in one and then standing and coming around to kiss Tina’s neck in what might have been a minor display of possession.
“Six what?” Tina asked Tell as Hunter turned to leave.
Somethinghad just happened, but she felt like she was very much lacking in the key details of what it was.
“Watch him,” Tell said, his eyes on his own drink. “All the way to the door.”
Tina twisted in her seat, watching Hunter as he wove through the free-standing tables, men and women shifting, some of them just behaving like animate creatures and others as though they were moreawareof Hunter’s passage, but the door opened and closed, letting in the yellow light from the streetlights outside for just a moment, and then he was gone.
Tina turned in her seat again.
“What did youthinkwas going to happen?” she asked.
“Six,” he said. “I think that we can hold our own if we need to, but don’t want to have to. Stay close, behind my left elbow. If you have to shoot, aim for right above the bridge of the nose. Don’t let them disarm you.”
She was about to say something about how it was hard toshootwithout a gun, when one appeared in her lap.
“Finish your drink,” he said. “It’s important that you drink it.”
She didn’t know whatthatmeant, but she did as he asked, taking a moment to appreciate the treatment of the blood - not pre-alcohol, but some other dietary content before the aged liquor had been added to it - then finishing it in much the way Hunter had. She was a lightweight by vampire standards, but not like she’d been as a human. Tell got money out - the drinks were expensive, but not completely out of scale for what they would have cost at one of the high-end bars Tina had been to, so far - and left it on the table, shifting to indicate that Tina ought to stand.
She tried to pick the six special people that they were supposed to be watching, but she couldn’t find anyone doinganything that really stood out in the dark and the smoke and the noise.
She took her spot at Tell’s left elbow the way he’d indicated, following his posture, the sense of careless awareness he had as he walked through. He wasn’t peering at people or daring them to dosomething, but the way that he moved suggested that his focus wasn’tnarrowon the door ahead.
Tina imagined herself a bodyguard, there to keep Tell safe, there to watch his back, and she tried to move like it.
There were women vampires who worked as real bodyguards. They were tough, alert, sharp, and very calm right up to a point of massive reaction.
Tina tried to feel that sense ofreactionwithin herself, because that’s what yousensedin them, when you were around them and they were working.
Maybe it worked and maybe it didn’t, but she tried.
They hit the door and Tell held it for her, gracefully taking the gun back and sliding it out of sight as they went on down the street toward where he’d parked.
“Whatwasthat?” she asked, and he shook his head.
“It was a lot of posturing and a lot of secrecy layered over top of each other, and I won’t discuss it until we’re at least four miles away.”
“Are we in danger?” Tina asked.
“That would qualify as discussing it,” he said with humor. “But, no. Outside of the building, the rules generally go back to what they are, anywhere.”
“Which is… no rules…” Tina said slowly, and he laughed gently again.
“You’re learning.”
She shook her head, looking back at the club.
“Do I need to stay behind you, still?” she asked, and he shook his head.
“I just needed to know exactly where you were and how to body-block if someone tried something,” he said. “You aren’t my inferior.”
She stepped up to walk next to him again, watching the way his eyes were watching the windows and the shadows.
“You don’t like it, here,” she said, and he shrugged.
“It’s a useful tool,” he said. “I know why we’re here. But it’s notfun. Again, I will not discuss it any further.”
