Page 81 of Bite of Passage
“Maybe you should wait out here until I secure a room,” he suggested, wishing to shield her from the reality of how she’d be treated as a vampire.
“Why?”
“No one likes our kind.”
She took his hand in hers and squeezed.“I’ll go with you.Maybe they won’t know what I am.Having me with you might camouflage you.”
“They always know.”
Her small smile was everything.
“Try not to smell,” he advised.
They entered what, unfortunately, turned out to be a very populated tavern.Friday night.Stupid mistake to forget the day of the week.He should’ve kicked in the back door or waited in the barn.In some towns, like this one, the bars remained crowded until dawn.Then the humans slept all day, which worked for him.No one to bother him during his own day sleep.
One step inside the tavern and the nasal onslaught of sweat, piss, alcohol, and sloppy sex hit hard.Gemma’s face turned green.She stumbled against him with a hand to her mouth.
“Focus on me, not them.Don’t breathe through your nose,” he ordered.
“It’s awful.I never knew we stank this much.”
He whispered, “Focus on me.”
She leaned against him and buried her face in his armpit.“You smell like heaven.”She giggled.“Bet that’s the first time anyone said your pits smell good.”
Inside he laughed, but externally he remained sharp in order to read the room.This was an inebriated, dangerous crowd—bad-mannered, with a tendency to lash out at the unknown, and possessing marginal training in fighting techniques.
The loud din of laughter and drunken behavior stopped as they neared the bar.Tense, he continued forward, keeping Gemma in front of him.Sometimes in places like these one human broke from formation and attacked or drove others to follow.A fight might result in having nowhere to stay.And having nowhere to leave Gemma while he dealt with the witch or necromancer.Skarde wasn’t exactly sure what manner of evil creature he was expected to kill.With less than fifteen minutes until sunrise, they had no option but to stay here.
Instinct screamed he ditch this idea.This inn wasn’t safe.
He kept his left hand in his pocket, around the hilt of a knife, and his right around Gemma.
She whispered, “They’re tracking us like a pack of dogs about to attack.The hate is intense.”
He glanced down but didn’t reply.Predator-prey, sweetheart.You’ve become the predator.They fear us.
As they neared the bar’s counter, one broke rank.A hook-nosed, burly man who reeked of beer and horse liniment gathered spittle in his mouth.Once lobbed, it would hit Gemma.
Too fast for humans to see, Skarde grabbed a wooden tray off the counter, using it as a shield against the spittle on its way to them as he rolled Gemma into a dance-style dip.
The dull thwack of the spittle against the tray echoed in the eerie silence.
With a dramatic flourish, he tossed the tray which walloped the troublemaker in the head and knocked him out.Leaning into Gemma he proclaimed, “Darling, you are more beautiful than the sunset on the winter solstice.”And he kissed her.
As he pulled away she said, “You are a panther with an ass of steel.”
The inn’s owner, a skinny man with sallow skin and wrinkles from the stress of decades glared at them, unsurprised.He waved for them to follow him to a back room.Leaving silence behind them, they trailed into a storeroom.
Shelves of miscellaneous food, brew, and odds and ends stacked to the ceiling surrounded them.The innkeeper handed him a key.“The Hunters said you’d be coming.They said you’d be handling the problem over at the church.”He scanned Gemma.Arousal dilated his eyes.
Skarde had heard rumors about female vampires, but there were few of them, and even less often did one venture into human venues.Now he knew why.The only ones Skarde ever met had been possessed and insane, which meant they’d been unattractive.Apparently, a healthy female vampire could mesmerize humans by simply entering a room.
The uncouth innkeeper gaped at her and rubbed a hand over his crotch.“You’re pretty.”
Her face scrunched up.“Are you talking to me?”She glanced up at Skarde, confused.“Is he seriously propositioning me to screw him or suck him off right here while you watch?”
“Remember the allure you said I had?Apparently, for lady vampires it intensely effects men.”
