“He still creeps me out,” Ari said.
“You should trust him a little. That’s the second time he’s saved us.” I buckled my seatbelt as he returned from the alley. He tossed a bag beside me, along with my soiled boot, before rounding the car to get in front. I rifled through the bag and realized it was our snacks. “Where’s my ice cream?”
“It melted so I left it with the corpse. He might get thirsty.” Dennis’ spine chilling laugh caused Ari to shoot me an alarmed look.
“He’s kidding.”
“Not at all,” he said cheerfully. The engine roared to life and we pulled away from the curb.
“Where’re we going?” Ari nervously shifted beside him.
“Your place. If we’re changing Vixen, we should do it soon. She’ll need to stay with us for a couple days to make sure her thirst stays under control. I’m assuming you’ll insist on staying with us if she is, and you’ll both want some of your stuff?”
“Yes, please.” Ari paused before adding,“Thanks for everything.”
I didn’t pay attention to his response. I was losing focus as the pain in my foot came back. It had subsided during my hospital freakout, or at least my mind had managed to block it out, but the adrenaline was gone and the pain was returning in a wave like no other. I closed my eyes to fight the growing nausea.
“Emy, what do you want?”
“Huh?” I opened my eyes to a surge of dizziness.
“I’m going inside to get things. What do you want?”
“I don’t care.” I gritted my teeth as another bout of nausea hit.
“I’ll just grab some stuff.” Ari shut the door and walked away.
I took a minute to gather composure before asking,“So we’re really going to stay with you guys?”
“If you really wanna change.”
“Of course I do. Where do you live?”
“A few minutes away.” Dennis waved a hand in the general direction.“Mateo and Sean and I renta condo. It’s fancy. Pool and all.”
I couldn’t help but laugh.“Do you guys serve each other blood in silver goblets on a gold platter?”
He laughed and twisted to look at me.“How’d you know?” He glanced at the house, where Ari was presumably packing.“You need some painkillers. Your ankle is killing me.”
“How is it killingyou? I’m the one attached to it, if anyone complains it should be me.”
“I can feel it, like everything else you feel. I only agreed not to drag you to the hospital because it’ll heal when you change tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” My eyes widened. It was sooner than I’d expected. Although I didn’t really knowwhatto expect.
“It’s what you want, right?”
“Yeah,” I quickly agreed. I didn’t want him to change his mind.
Ari emerged a moment later, lugging two large bags to the car. She put them in the trunk before getting back in. “I packed enough for a few days,” she said.
“Thanks. You got my hair stuff, right?”
“Yup. And multiple pairs of boots and your fifty bottles of medication.” She strapped her seatbelt as Dennis backed into the street.“Where are we going now?”
“I’m dropping you guys off. Can you tell Sean what happened?”
“Sure.” She reached for her phone but Dennis stopped her.
