“He’s one of the vampires. He’s ... for lack of a better word, he’s my boyfriend.”
Ellis gawked at me, although he managed to keep his eyes on the road while he did so. I made a mental note to practice that, since my driving lesson hadn’t covered the art of safety-conscious gawking. “You didn’t!”
“I sure did,” I said with no little amount of smugness.
“You hooked up already? Did you meet him on the plane or something?”
“Nope. Saw him for the first time ...” I counted back. “About a week ago. But he was unconscious that time. I saw him again soon after, and that’s when I realized that he was a vampire, and I was his Beloved, and just as soon as he’s willing to admit that, he’ll fall in love with me, and we’ll live happily ever after.”
“There’s nowhere for me to stop,” he answered. “Do me a favor and feel your forehead. If you are feverish, you may want to lie down in the back with your furry friend. You didn’t tell me how he came to join our party, but that can wait until we find out what recreational drugs you’ve imbibed.”
“None, and I don’t have a fever, nor am I insane, which I know will be the next thing you suggest. Merrick is a vampire, a bona fide vampire, and he’s mine, although he doesn’t quite want to admit that yet.”
The look Ellis slid my way spoke volumes. “Sweetness, far be it from me to suggest that you’re having some sort of PTSD thing going on after your time in the bizarro cult, but do you know if there is a mental health facility in Nice?”
I gave him a succinct version of the events of the last five days, leaving out the intimate details.
By the time we hit the French border, Ellis was fully briefed. “Lordisa, girl! Your life has suddenly gone all Hollywood. We should write this down and sell it to HBO. If only it was real! The cosplay alone for the vampire culture—but no, let’s not think of that until we sell the rights to your life story.”
“Well, I think it’s been an interesting few days, but obviously, I’m biased. Oh, good, that sign says Nice isn’t too far. We’ll be there by lunchtime.”
He cast a shrewd look my way. “Is your supposed fangy boy toy the one we’re going to meet?”
“Not so much meet as find,” I said, wrinkling my nose a little. “And there’s nothing supposed about him, as you’ll see. But yes, that’s the idea. I think you’ll like him. He’s a bit ... intense ... when you first meet him, but I think all the vamps are that way. C. J. Dante almost had me trembling—he was so ... rawr!”
“Rawr?”
“Yeah. Scary as heckbeans. I could totally see him enslaving people just like it was nothing, except I think he’s probably too nice for that. And Allie, his wife, wouldn’t let him. She’s very nice, although she has mismatched eyes. Merrick is scary, too, but in a different way. He’s more like the feeling you get when you turn into a dark alley in the middle of the night, and it looks empty, but you just know something is lurking down at the end.”
“Hoo. Sounds fascinating.”
“Did I mention he’s taken?” I asked. “As in, mine?”
“Subtle,” he drawled, flashing a smile.
“Just reminding you.”
“So what are you going to do about your father’s bad cousin? And just what is this organization he runs?”
“I don’t know, exactly. We’re not even sure he is Victor.” I worried my lower lip for a few minutes while I turned my mind to that subject. “I gather they are targeting the Dark Ones, and doing something horrible to them like killing them off. Kind of modern-day vampire hunters, only the vampires are the good guys, and this Revelation group is definitely the opposite. But why they’re doing it other than they don’t like vamps, I don’t know. I also don’t know how I’m going to help Merrick find Cousin Carlo. Merrick says he’s going to find a supernatural bounty hunter to look for him, but I feel like I should be able to do more than a stranger can. I mean, he’s Papa’s cousin.”
“You’d think, but we both know how family is, especially your daddy’s side.”
I grimaced. “They don’t seem to be overly blessed with sanity traits.”
“True that. Now, tell me about this so-called vampire you’ve fallen for.”
“I haven’t fallen for him,” I was quick to point out. “It’s all biological. C. J. Dante makes it quite clear that each Dark One’s Beloved is uniquely perfect for him. It’s something to do with genes, but I’m not sure what, because talk of genetics was tantamount to heresy at the compound.”
“Darling, you forget that I know you. You have the softest heart of anyone I’ve ever met. You’ve fallen in love three times in the last month, alone.”
“That was with actors,” I said, waving away that idea. “And two of them were Hemsworths, which means I’m excused. Also, seeing movies is still new and exciting, so seeing half-naked men on giant screens is a bit overwhelming.”
“They’re filming a new James Bond,” he said simply.
“And I’ll be in the theater every day of the movie’s run,” I said, fanning myself a little. “So long as they have scenes where he takes off his shirt.”
“You see? You’re a hair-trigger romantic. You fall in love at the drop of a hat, and that’s with fictional people. I can only imagine the state of your emotions now that you have your fingers on a real man.”
