“I think she was more caught off guard than purposely losing,” Sean said. “She’s used to getting away with whatever she wants.”
“How come?” I shifted when Dennis moved his hand to put an arm around my shoulders.
“Reasons.” Sean shrugged.
“Who are the other vampires?” Ari asked in a hushed tone. “If you don’t mind telling us,” she stammered, backtracking at Dennis’ gaze. He stared for several seconds while she shrank back.
“Stop scaring her.” I smacked his leg.
“It’s nothing you need to know about.” His eyes were still on Ari.
“If you guys are gonna keep following us around, we should know these things. What if Emy picks a fight with another vampire and it doesn’t go as well?”
“I can hold my own, thank you very much.”
“I doubt you can hold your own with a vampire. I’m pretty sure you got lucky. We need to know who to be careful around.”
“You’ll be fine,” Dennis said.“Or at least you will, Vixen.”
“Wait, why only me?” I glanced at Ari.“She’s right, if you’re shoving your way into our lives you better start explaining things. Also, question. How do you get inside without being invited? I guess technically we invited you in here by holding the door open, but what about the other times you go places?”
“Emy. Focus,”Ari scolded.“I’m not safe because I’m not blood bound, right?”
“You catch on fast. Unlike Vixen over here.”
“Rude. I’m smart. I was about to say that, too.”
“No, you weren’t.” Dennis pulled the lighter out and flicked it on.“You were wondering if bouncers have to invite us inside the bar so we don’t melt in the doorway.”
Ari laughed as Sean shot me a confused look.
“What? It’s a real question. And why are you such a pyromaniac? You’re gonna burn the whole restaurant down.” I tried to grab the lighter from Dennis but pulled my hand back when he almost set it on fire.
“Emy, stop distracting everyone. This is serious. More people have been randomly killed in town lately. What if they’re all being killed by vampires? We need a warning if places aren’t safe anymore.”
“You’ll be fine. Most of those were me.”
She gaped at Dennis while I made a noise of disbelief. I knew which murders she meant. They’d been on the news lately, including this evening before we left for the bar. One happened the night Dennis first drank in front of me and the time of death was nearly the same, probably while he was harassing me at the bar. There was no way he’d done them all. At least not that one.
“No, they weren’t. You were literally with me when one happened,” I said.
“Oh, thank god.” Ari’s horror melted away. “I’m tired of you messing with me all the time.”
“Who said I’m messing with you?”
“Stop it.” I smacked his leg again.
“Fine. I was messing with you.” He smirked at her sigh of relief. “But the murders were vampires. Our system has been falling apart lately. I must say, I’m all for it. There are too many humans. Most of you are unnecessary and should probably die.”
“Ignore him.” I shot Dennis a warning look as Ari shifted uneasily. “I’m sure he’s kidding.”
“I’m not.”
“He’s not wrong,” Sean said. “I mean, he’s wrong about humans needing to die. But it’s true about our political system kinda falling apart.”
“So there’s a vampire political system.” Ari pursed her lips. “Interesting. That makes sense. I mean, vampires must stay organized and hidden somehow, right? What’re the basics of this system?”
“All you need to know is that things might start getting weird and dangerous. Probably not too bad, but without a bind you won’t be safe the wayEmyis.”
