“And where will you go, Switcharoo?”
“I don’t know yet. Maybe I’ll join a pack or start up a university for Breed. We don’t have our own schools. Most of the kids either get shoved into human schools or we’re taught at home. Good teachers with a broad knowledge base aren’t easy to find. If you limit what a kid learns, you limit what they’ll become. I’ve seen it too often with packs. The kids learn a trade from someone in the family, and that’s what they grow up to do. Some of those kids are damn smart and could have easily been a doctor or scientist. Who says Relics have to be the only counselors and medical specialists out there?”
“I can see you doing something like that.”
One arm resting on the counter, he turned on his stool to face me. “Where’s Christian?”
“For a minute there, I thought we might have a real conversation.”
He shrugged. “Usually I cut through the bullshit, but I didn’t want to upset you right off the bat. We just got here, and I like hanging out with you. We haven’t had a chance to sit down and shoot the breeze since before the battle. Everyone’s been busy.”
Facing forward, I looked across my shoulder at him. “The second you think there’s trouble in paradise, you swoop in.”
“It’s not like that. I just wondered why the love of your life flew the coop.”
“He’s only been gone for two days. I like my alone time too. I know it’s hard to believe, but I don’t have to know where he is at all times. I trust him.”
Switch lifted his bottle. “You don’t even know where he is? Don’t you think it’s a little suspicious he wouldn’t tell you that much?”
“I’ve taken off to see Crush without telling anyone.”
“For two days?” Switch glanced around the empty room. “If you were gone for two days without telling him, he’d lose his fucking mind thinking something had happened to you.”
“And how do you know?”
“Because that’s what you do when you love someone. Maybe I’m a little curious as to why you haven’t lost your shit.”
I wasn’t certain how to answer. I loved Christian with every fiber of my being. We had a mutual understanding that we were each entitled to our private time. Christian would never cheat on me—of that I was certain. And he knew how to take care of himself, so I never worried that his absence meant he was in danger. I often went to hang out with my dad without telling him. He never asked because our trust went both ways. Why were people suddenly placing rules all over our relationship that fit withintheirnorms but not ours?
“Switch, next time just ask me if I’ve seen Christian. And only ask if you genuinely want to know, not because you’re trying to stir up trouble and pry into my personal life.”
He held up his hands. “I’m not prying. I just want to be sure you’re okay.”
I reached for a bowl of peppermints on the bar and ate one. “I’m not gonna defend the way I choose to love and be loved. I know you’re looking out for me because we go way back, but you’re walking on thin ice when you start judging me.”
“I wasn’t judging you.”
I slid off my stool. “It felt like judgment. Look, I don’t hold grudges or anything. I know you’re coming from a good place, but my life isn’t an open book.”
“Fine. I’ll just close the pages and read something else.” He rested his elbows on the counter behind him. “Why did Viktor pick a taqueria instead of a bar? We could have at least had a few dart boards or pool tables.”
I played with my heart pendant. “This was Wyatt’s pick. You’re lucky we didn’t end up in an arcade or strip club. I bet most of the Breed bars are busy today, snow or not. A bar’s no place for Hunter.”
“True.”
We walked toward the private room and then lingered by the archway at the entrance, both of us looking at the television.
A reporter in a pink hat stood outside a building, snow pelting her in the face. “Police have no information regarding the whereabouts of the body. Troy, back to you.”
“Sounds fishy.” Switch reached through the opening in the archway and laid down his leather jacket across a bench seat against the corner wall.
“What’s that all about? I don’t watch much TV.”
“Second body in two days. When a body goes missing from a morgue, you know what that means.”
“Breed,” I said, remembering my first days as an immortal. “Do you think it was a newly made Vampire?”
He gave me a peculiar look. “What makes you say that?”
