I swallowed and grimaced. “I’m sorry.”
“Hey, Brodie seems to think I’m pretty mouthwatering, too.” Kye winked.
“I’m not actually hungry, so that helps,” I promised.
“I know. Rian explained everything. The boys will keep you topped up until you can go a bit hungry for a while.”
“What about them?” I nodded toward the stairs.
Brodie took a deep breath and turned his head. “Carys?”
It took only moments for the two young women I considered friends to appear at the top of the stairs.
“Yeah?” Kye’s sister asked, holding onto the hand of her girlfriend.
“Can you come down to see Luca?”
“Of course.” They walked down the stairs, and I couldn’t really think for a moment with how their scent overwhelmed me.
“Can you stop hogging him?” Carys asked Kye.
I hadn’t even realized we were still holding hands. Kye snorted and let go, and she slipped her smaller hand into mine.
“Hi,” I whispered, then smiled awkwardly.
“On a scale from one to ten, how bad is it right now?” Carys asked as she squeezed my fingers and smiled.
I could see the relief that I was okay, and a tiny bit of trepidation just in case, but I was pretty sure all three humans were very conscious of what they were up against. I remembered meeting my first vampire as a kid. It had been the weirdest thing.
Of course these three had met various vampires, but never someone as new as me, which their lizard brain would recognize.
“On a scale of ‘not interested’ to ‘want to bathe in your blood?’” I asked dryly.
Lina snickered.
Carys nodded. “Sure.”
“About… five. But I’m not at all hungry.”
She hummed thoughtfully. “I’ve known to demolish a donut even when full from an actual meal.”
“Good point.”
“If you do drain us dry and somehow escape it, will you at least write a murder ballad about it?” Lina asked.
“Jesus Christ….” Brodie let his head drop.
“No, there’s nobody here who is taking this situation with the gravitas it deserves,” Rian deadpanned, grinning.
“I have dinner to make, not be,” Carys snarked as she let go of my hand. “You want your blood bags to be fed, right?”
The brothers made mock-affronted sounds behind me.
I nodded. “That’d be preferable.”
She used the grip she still had on my hand and pulled me closer as she leaned forward to kiss my cheek.
At least three people made alarmed sounds, but I couldn’t tell who, because suddenly my fangs were down and my head was swimming.
