“What’s wrong?”she asked.
“Did you know your dad knows about vampires? And he knows Dennis bound me!Andthat I’m a vampire. Dennis didn’t even seem surprised. I think he already knew your dad knows.”
“I’m right here.”
“Shh, we’re talking.”I reached back to‘shh’Dennis’ face.
“What the fuck?”Ari turned to Sean as he approached.“Sean, did you know about this? My dad knows she’s a vampire.”She thrust an arm in my direction. Dennis’ expression was impassive, but Sean looked guilty.“You knew?”
“That means you did, too,” Isaid,rounding on Dennis. Now it was obvious.“You guys have a lot of explaining to do.”
Dennisshrugged while Sean rubbed the back of his neck.
“Tell us what’s going on right now,”Ari demanded.Dennislooked her and she shrank back.“Please,”she added meekly.
“Stop it.”I pushed his shoulder.
“Stop what?”He was still watching Ari, who was getting more uncomfortable.
“We have to start work,”Sean said.
“Fine. But I’m not talking to you.” I grudgingly followed him into the back room, staying silent the whole way.
“How am I supposed to train you if you won’t talk to me?”he asked. I crossed my arms, sat on the couch, and glared.“Are you really giving me the silent treatment?”
I kept my glare up for a few seconds before sighing and dropping my arms. “No. But that doesn’t mean I’m not annoyed you guys are keeping shit from us.”
“Fair enough. Maybe your uncle will explain.”
“He did say he’ll explain later. And he told Dennis to come back. Which means you should come over too. He’ll wanna meet you since you’re bound to Ari.”
“I can do that.” Sean clocked in and waited for me to do the same before we headed out to the wells.“We’ll work side by side so I can oversee. You can take either of those.” Hepointed to the far end. I walked to one without a word.“Are you still annoyed at me?”
“Yes,”I snapped. But then I looked at his face and my demeanor softened.“Okay, fine. I can’t stay mad at you, so whatever. Consider yourself lucky.”
“Cool.”He smiled in relief and started setting up our wells.
“Let me do it. I wanna practice.”I squished past him to take over.
He let me set things up without a single correction. We served customers while Nate worked the other end of the bar, directly in front of Dennis and Ari. A couple hours of helping customers passed before something caught my ear from the oppositeend of the bar. Some asshole was giving Ari a hard time. He’d just asked why she was in here while she’s human.He was going on about it and ranting over her responses.
“Do you hear this?”I asked Sean.“What the fuck does that guy think he’s doing?”I slammed a glass down and spun on my heel, ready to go rip this man’s dick off.
“Hold on.”Sean stopped me.“Finish making that drink and then you can go.”
“But—”
“Focus. We’re at work. Dennis is taking care of it.”
I looked past him to seethatDennisactually was taking care of it in his usual fashion: a thinly veiled threat that left the man shifting uncomfortably.They kept eye contact for several seconds before theman slid from his spot beside Ari, mumbled an apology, and walked away with drink in hand.
“Thanks,Dennis.”Ari was happy but visibly confused.
I finished the drink and handed it to my customer, who gave it to his date and paid.“Can I go now?”I asked Sean.He nodded and I eagerly went to the other end.
“Really, thank you,”Ari was still going.
“You finally like her,” I said the moment I arrived.“He finally likes you, Ari!”
