Page 75 of Blood Owed (Blood Mafia 1)
“I’ll reread chapter four tomorrow, same time?”
I start to agree, then realize what he’s doing. He’s trying to establish a pattern, so we could become friends. Yeah, that worked out great for Beatrice.
“Maybe,” I say, not completely writing him off. “Evelyn wanted to go shopping, so I may be busy.”
Hmm is his response.
I sit on the couch for a moment longer. “Can you leave now? I need to get ready for bed.”
The white noise of the speaker clicks off and I glare at the ceiling. He didn’t say goodbye.
“Gah, why the fuck do you care?” I shake my head and head to the bathroom to get ready for bed.
One session of reading to me and Mateo has already started to weasel his way inside my head. I blame my stupidity on my dad, he used to read to me before bed every night until I started high school. Then I’d been an asshole and asked him to stop. Now that I’m older, I miss listening to him tell stories. Mateo reading to me strummed that heart string a little too strongly. I can’t be like Beatrice, I have to be smarter.
Beatrice isn’t real.
I scowl at my reflection. “I know that, but it doesn’t mean I can’t learn from her mistakes.”
The speaker crackles and I throw my toothpaste at the mirror, reacting to the sudden intrusion.
“Why are you talking to yourself?”
“I thought you left,” I say around a mouth full of toothpaste. Leaning down and turning the faucet on, I spit and rinse.
“I forgot to say good night.”
Resting my hands on the cool counter, I stare at myself in the mirror, silently reminding myself not to be like Beatrice.
“Good night, Demetria.”
“Good night,” I whisper back.
Beatrice was an idiot.
The next morningI eat breakfast and wait for Colt to show up for our training session. Despite wanting to strangle him, I enjoyed the workout and look forward to getting my ass handed to me again.
When he doesn’t show up, I decide to go to the gym by myself. It’s probably stupid, but I’m hoping Mateo’s protection will be enough to keep the vampires away while I work through some of my aggression.
The gym is fairly empty, my sneakers scuff against the floor as I walk to the treadmills. A few of the vampires give me curious looks, but they stay away. I ramp up the speed, sprinting the first mile in seven minutes then slowing it down and running for another two. A female vampire hops on the treadmill next to me, setting the speed faster than I could even fathom keeping up with. It doesn’t escape my notice she isn’t panting when she finally slows down to match my pace, already having run four miles in the time it took me to run my third.
Turning my glare from her lit up stat screen, I jam my finger into the down arrow, slowing the track so I can cool down and move on. The woman does the same, shooting a smile at me.
“Hey,” she says.
I glance over. “Hi.” I don’t smile, making it apparent I don’t want to chat with her.
She doesn’t take the hint. “I’m Alissa.”
Placing my hands behind my head and doing my best not to pant hard, I take a few breaths to recover from what I considered a hard session of cardio. Alissa put my time to shame.
She’s a vampire, Demi. You can’t compare her work to yours.
Oh now my mind wants to be rational?
I hear the vampire laugh. “You do have a name, right?”
“Demi,” I say with a tight-lipped smile.
