Page 27 of Drink Up, Darling
“Time to crack out the good stuff!” It almost didn’t sound like the man at all. Godwin’s heart racing too fast for a healthy pace. He was trembling. Eyes forced wide.
‘Dariel.’
‘I know. I don’t…’
“Dariel, your glass?” Godwin turned to him, and if he were not already dead, Dariel would have collapsed with fear.
He stayed silent, eyes fixed to the bottle.
‘It’s human.’
‘I know. I…’
It was a bottle of human blood.
‘He knows.’
Chapter Eight
When Dariel celebrated what would have been his body’s fiftieth birthday, he got drunk alone. He went out onto the midnight streets of London and ended up in a bar where he quickly realised, with the last remaining sobriety he had, he was very much not welcome there. He was used to people staring at him, and would often use his ability of manipulation to soften the blow of the stares—making people turn away. On this particular occasion, however, he was too drunk to remember he could even do that. So instead, he stared back. The next thing he remembered, he was in a gutter with a broken nose, an aching jaw, and a bloodied shirt.
Human blood.
That was the last time he let himself out in publicthatdrunk. It was too much of a risk. Especially since not long after this event, he signed with his first agent. He was always extremely careful, always cleaned up after himself, both physically and mentally. How could he have been so careless?
Dariel could only think the worst—he’d revealed himself to this person and scared them off, meaning somewhere out there, there was a man who would have woken up and believed he’dseen a monster. Dariel could only pray his assailant was also too drunk to believe his eyes. And pray he did.
Godwin’s face dropped, though he was still shaking and gripping on tight to the open bottle.
Dariel clenched his fists and his gums ached, teeth threatening to lengthen; hyperaware Athens was in the same boat.
‘We should make him forget.’
‘I want to hear him out.’
‘This is dangerous. Vampires don’t get caught.’
‘Is that what we are?’
‘You don’t think so?’
‘I’ve never said it out loud.’
‘Well, we’re vampires, and he’s not, and he’s trying to feed us human blood.’
‘It’s two against one.’
‘We can’t be known.’
‘We already are.’
Godwin looked mortified, as though he had been able to hear what the pair were saying to each other, despite not a single word being muttered. “Oh, gents. I’m sorry. Did I pick the wrong blood type?” He sounded genuinely sincere.
‘I don’t think he’s going to harm us. We should see what he has to say.’
‘Famous last words.’
Neither of them moved as Godwin dropped his shoulders and stepped over to place the bottle on the candle-lit table. He closed his eyes and sighed. “I apologise. I didn’t know how best to go about this.”
