Page 50 of Love Bites
"I don't think you can get pregnant again if you're already pregnant."
"I didn't think I could get pregnant the first time either. I'm not taking any more chances."
"Fair point," Talon admitted.
"Besides, who knows what else could come out of your dick. Like some vampire diseases or whatever. I've had enough surprises."
"There aren't any—" Talon started, then stopped himself. There was no point arguing over this. If Collin needed condoms to feel comfortable, he'd get condoms.
He only hoped that he even remembered how to use one.
* * *
To Talon's relief, they were given an easy job that night. No killing, just observing. Normally, he hated these jobs. They were boring as hell. Now he was happy that he didn't need to focus too much. Their target had vanished into a small coffee shop on Park Street and for the time being, there was nothing for them to do but wait for the guy to emerge again.
"Why are we watching this poor sod?" Aldrich asked, sitting beside him on the roof of a building overlooking the front door of the coffee shop. His legs dangled over the edge of the building and half of his attention was taken up by his smart phone, which cast a dim glow on his face as he looked at it.
Sometimes Talon wondered if his brother ever listened to their sire at all because they'd been given the job details less than ten minutes ago and he'd already forgotten. "You rely on me too much, you know that?"
Aldrich shrugged. "So what? We're always together anyway."
"We might not always be."
Briefly, Aldrich lifted his gaze from his beloved device. "What, you're planning to ditch me? After twenty years? That's cold, man."
Talon touched the scar on his cheek. "I'd defect this second if I could. Don't pretend you wouldn't." It wasn't that Talon held no affection whatsoever for his long-time partner-in-crime, but there was something to be said for freedom.
"Of course I wouldn't," Aldrich said in mock-offense. "The blood of the coven—"
"is thicker than the water of the womb," Talon finished for him and they both scoffed.
"I'm not sure what I would even do," Aldrich admitted, his eyes on the cafe across the street but his thoughts obviously elsewhere.
"You would find plenty of things to do. You could go see the pyramids." Talon remembered his partner talking about this before, all the places he wanted to visit.What good is immortality,he used to complain,when you have to spend it stuck in the same damn town for eternity?
Talon sympathized, even though he didn't share his friend's desire to travel. He had other concerns that made him want to leave the coven now.
"Why are we even talking about this?" Aldrich asked. "Zenon's never gonna let either of us go. You're bumming me out."
Talon hesitated. How much could he tell Aldrich?
The truth was, he was going to need help if he wanted to pull this off. His friend wasn't the wisest vampire in the coven, but he was the only one Talon trusted even a little bit. They'd been working as a team for so long that there wasn't anything Aldrich could do at this point that would come as a surprise to Talon, and Talon couldn't picture the other vampire betraying him. At least not willingly.
Besides, Aldrich had already seen Collin. If Talon didn't share any details, his partner might jump to his own—often catastrophic—conclusions. Honestly Talon didn't know how someone could live for as long as Aldrich had and still be so young.
"You remember the human from the club?" he asked.
"The one you took home? Of course I do. Never seen you do that before."
"How do you know I took him home?" Talon asked, although he already knew the answer. Aldrich was too damn curious for his own good. No wonder his spirit animal was a cat.
"Might have followed you for a little bit." Aldrich grinned. "Can't blame me. I was bored that night."
"I didn't know your entertainment was my responsibility."
"You abandoned me at the club! Didn't even say goodbye! Of course I was gonna check what's going on."
"Never mind that now." Talon didn't truly care that Aldrich had followed them. He'd suspected it might happen, but he didn't feel threatened by Aldrich in any case.
