Page 30 of Tell Me Why
“All friends here,” the man said. “They’re all pros.”
Andromedus’s friends, a pair of vampire women with expensive taste in hair and clothes, had spent most of theevening in fountains’ laps, rather than in chairs of their own, and one of them stood, tossing her hair back and motioning.
“An exotic,” she said. “Go on.”
Exotictypically meantdruggedwith something recreational, and Tina found the practice… particularly indulgent. She put her fingers to her mouth to cover a tiny, fake yawn.
The vampire woman snorted at her, but sat back down again as Tell reappeared, bending over the back of Tina’s chair and turning his face in to speak to her privately.
It wasn’tactuallyprivate, and both of them knew it, but it held that social pretense.
“Shall we?” he asked.
“I’m ready,” Tina answered.
He wasn’t normally thisfamiliarwith her, and it felt strange, even as she’d been playing his girlfriend all night.
He straightened and offered her a hand up, then he shook hands with Andromedus and several of the fountains.
They’d gotten more phone numbers than the night before, and better ones if Tina was any judge of it.
The waitresses came and hopped in a circle around Tell, and he tipped them individually, then put his hand out for Tina’s hand and led her out the front door of the bar, looking back once.
“Why don’t you like Andromedus?” he asked.
“Because that’s not a real name,” Tina answered reflexively, then laughed. “Because I don’t think he’sanythinghe puts on about himself, and he could be anything from completely vapid to a complete traitor, anything but…interesting.”
“Fair enough,” Tell said with humor.
They got to the car and kept walking, and Tina looked back at the garage.
“We have another place to go?” she asked.
“Just an appointment,” Tell answered, rounding a corner.
There was a man leaning against a wall, there. One who straightened and approached when he saw them.
Tina recognized one of the fountains from earlier in the evening.
“Hi,” he said, his eyes on Tina.
She looked at Tell, who nodded.
“He suggested the place. The street here is quiet enough, and there aren’t any businesses or apartments that look down on it. You can feed here.”
“Hi,” Tina answered the young man. He took one step back toward the wall again, tipping his head to the side, and she took the invitation, stepping up to bite him.
He was almost too tall for it, and in a different mood, she might have bit his arm, instead, but she grabbed the place where his neck met his shoulder on the other side to pull herself up, and he held her there, her weight only just barely reaching her toes as she drank her fill.
He’d been drinking that night, but far enough back that the alcohol was almost gone from his blood.
Her appetite sated, she retracted her fangs and let herself back down. He let her go gracefully enough, and the young man took out his phone, checking his account.
“I’m paid,” he said easily. “You’ll call?”
Tell nodded.
“Friday night,” he said. “I’ll send out the address at dusk.”
