Page 6 of Thirsty
She left for the kitchen. Lorenzo smiled and nodded graciously at her friends. “Hello.”
They all offered limp greetings in return, some barely more than grunts. Then their eyes collectively slid away from him, as if he had simply vanished from their line of sight, and resumed their conversation. He felt like a wart on their gathering, something unsightly and best ignored.
He tried not to judge her friends too harshly. Olivia was young, and so were her compatriots. Sometimes they behaved with the thoughtlessness of youth, and that was understandable, if irritating.
Charles was definitely the worst one, though. He laughed loudly at a joke one of the others made, his obvious enjoyment of the party only underscoring how ill at ease Lorenzo felt by contrast. Charlie never came across as thoughtless or juvenile, like the others; in fact, he was remarkably self-possessed for someone his age. There was a sharpness to his gaze, a cocky broadness to his smile. He clearly thought hehad the whole world figured out. When he ignored Lorenzo, it felt deliberate.
Still, he was determined to win Olivia’s friends over—Charles included—so he waited for a pause in their conversation and then jumped in. “Thank you for inviting me into your home,” he said. “It is lovely.”
The humans stared at him, looking taken aback for some reason. “Uh,” one of them said at length. “Thank you?”
“I would love to host a gathering such as this,” Lorenzo said, and then trailed off as he realized what a fool he was being. He’d wanted to show off, but instead he’d bragged himself into a corner: he couldn’t invite any of these people into his home, even though it was far more spacious and luxurious than this place, which was barely a step up from a dorm room. He smiled nervously as he tried to think of a way to end his sentence other thanbut I cannot, because then you might notice that I am a vampire.
As he stalled, Olivia’s friends stared at him blankly. Except for Charlie, who cocked an arrogant eyebrow.
“But...my roommates,” Lorenzo finished lamely. “They prefer...quiet.”
“Got it,” one of the humans said. An awkward silence fell.
Uncharacteristically, Charlie asked Lorenzo a follow-up question. “I didn’t know you had roommates,” he said.
There was something insulting in his tone, although Lorenzo couldn’t pin down what it was. There was a weight to Charlie’s focus that went beyond his simple good looks and teasing amber eyes—every time Charlie looked at him, he felt pinned in place. “Yes, I do,” he said cautiously.
“Cool,” Charlie said. “Hey, uh, what do you do again?”
“Um,” Lorenzo said. He needed a better answer to this question. “You know...this and that. The, uh...gig economy.”
The humans blinked at him, and Charlie frowned. One of the others said, “You’re not a student?”
“No,” Lorenzo said, to uncomfortable stares from the group. This was going downhill swifter than he had anticipated.
“You’re older, right?” Charlie pressed.
Lorenzo grasped for an answer. “I...well...technically, I am twenty-four.”
Charlie’s eyes narrowed. “What does that mean? Like, you’re about to turn twenty-five?”
Lorenzo paused. “Yes.”
The humans stared at him again, and he cursed internally. He was trying to brainstorm the best way to restart the conversation when Charlie leaned casually toward one of the others and muttered, “Oh my god,whereis Olivia.”
A human probably wouldn’t have been able to hear him over the music, so Lorenzo kept his smile firmly in place. But he could feel his fangs biting into his lower lip.
Thankfully, Olivia reappeared just then with their drinks. He thanked her when she handed him a beer, and she beamed in response, reaching up on her toes to give him a kiss on the cheek, leaving a smudge of her lip gloss behind. Lorenzo sighed happily, the kiss sending warmth all through him.
He could put up with Olivia’s horrible friends, so long as she was by his side.
Present Day
Lorenzo paced by his front door, wearing a hole in the foyer carpet.
A hundred years ago, he probably would have been waiting here to kill Charlie. That would have been the only reason he’dinvite Charles to his home—to eat him in a civilized fashion. But Lorenzo had lost his taste for killing long ago.
And he had no desire to taste Charlie.
Charlie was a jerk. He was catty and cruel, and he’d made Lorenzo feel like an idiot every time they’d crossed paths five years ago. He’d never wasted a chance to make him feel out of place and unworthy of Olivia. And in the end, he had destroyed their relationship by counseling her against him.
At least now Lorenzo would have his revenge. Yes, he’d told Charlie he would help him out with his thesis, that he would educate him about the world of the supernatural in exchange for Charlie’s help running errands. But that was all a ruse. In reality, he had decided that he would use the situation to get close to Charlie and figure out how best to wreak havoc on him for poisoning his relationship with Olivia. Charlie would never see it coming.
