Bruce wasn’t the name Asil knew him by. For the first time, Asil wondered if he had stepped into a trap when he’d come on this date.
“LARP?” asked Asil, more to give himself a chance to think than because he was interested.
“Sorry. It stands for ‘live-action role-playing.’ L-A-R-P. Do you know Bruce? What’s wrong?”
“Come with me,” said Asil. Leaving his enemy still standing bothered him, but he could hardly kill the vampire in public view. That wouldn’t work on several levels.
Walking through the dancing crowd was like swimming upstream, but Asil was a good swimmer. People parted for them as he led Kelly to an alcove furnished with a bench and a large plant that looked real but smelled of plastic.
“Forgive me,” Asil said, pulling Kelly close and burying his nose in the young man’s neck.
Kelly struggled, mostly from surprise, Asil thought, much good it did him. Faintly, very faintly, he caught the scent of vampire.
He pulled back and held on until he was sure Kelly had his balance. Kelly jerked free and straightened his clothes. In a fine temper he said, “Whatthe hell? Consent is required, man. And you didn’t ask and I didn’t say yes.”
Asil reminded his wolf forcefully that Kelly had a right to bemad. He loosened his neck and heard the vertebrae pop. “Bruce is a vampire.”
“I could have told you that,” Kelly snapped. “That’s right, I did.” His mouth opened, doubtless to deliver some more scathing commentary—but he shut it. “No way. No way in hell. Vampires aren’t real.”
“Shh,” advised Asil. “They are real, I assure you. And they have very good hearing. What one is doing here, I cannot tell you. Is there any chance Bruce was involved in the prank that led to our date?”
Kelly stared at him, but when he spoke again it was in a hushed whisper. “I don’t know. I wouldn’t think so. Trace and his girlfriend apparently thought it was a good idea one day while they were drunk.”
“They exchanged emails with people pretending to be me for two weeks,” Asil said dryly. “Were they drunk the whole time?”
“Them? Who knows, it’s possible.” Kelly shrugged distractedly. “What do you mean vampires are real? Everyone knows they aren’t real.”
“Vampires,” Asil said, speaking slowly, “are real. They usually live in seethes—sort of family groups—and feed on human prey, who die very slowly as they gradually turn into mindless slaves. You’ve been bitten—don’t fuss. Only once or you’d smell more like one of them. You’ll be safe enough.”
“How could I have been bitten?” Kelly asked, his eyes widening until the whites were visible all the way around, like a startled horse’s. “I don’t think I’ve exchanged two words with Bruce. How could I have been bitten by a vampire and not known?”
“It is better for you that you didn’t know,” Asil told him. “It means that the vampire hasn’t decided to make you his yet.” Probably the vampire was afraid to draw attention to himself.
Kelly started to say something more and Asil held up a hand. “Sorry, let me think a bit.”
It waspossiblethat the vampire had arranged the whole thing to lure Asil out without the pack at his back, so that he would be vulnerable. It sounded plausible until Asil looked deeper.
Bruce, whom Asil had once known as…Basil something. Basil Hennington. Basil Billingsley. Basil Featherington. Something that had made Asil think of chicken soup. At any rate, Asil had believed him to be gone from this world—he’d heard the vampire had offended Bonarata, who ruled the European vampires.
Basil…Bruce was indeed the kind of creature who might move into a city the size of Missoula and find a group of people he could turn into easy prey. He was a slinking creature and a loner, Bruce. But not intelligent enough to foresee what would happen when he was discovered by his victims or their families, because college students were not the kind of people who could disappear without notice. Asil’s earlier conviction that Missoula and the vampire ball would be without vampires had failed to take stupidity into account.
But after only a little reflection, he was now sure that the vampire’s presence was mere chance. It had been Asil’s people who had sought out Kelly for the date. And he was certain it was his pack—because no vampire could have imitated him so well in the emails. It took familiarity, and Asil had never been that close to any vampire.
And there was this: Alone Asil might be, but he was not vulnerable. No vampire would ever think so. Not even one as stupid as Bruce.
No. This vampire had no idea Asil was anywhere near.Brucejust found he had a nice meal ticket going with a bunch of children who thought it fun to pretend to be vampires.
Kelly had folded his arms around himself and was obviously bursting with questions. But he’d kept quiet.
“It will be all right,” Asil told him.
“Weirdest freaking date of my life,” muttered Kelly.
He was afraid. Asil’s wolf usually liked it when people were afraid, but this one was under his protection tonight. There was no need for the fear.
“We need to go outside and look for a dark space,” Asil told him.
“It’s eight p.m. in the winter on the outskirts of Missoula,” Kelly said. “There’s dark space everywhere.”
