Tai watched her every move with the attention of a cobra waiting to strike. He was still there somewhere, behind his eyes, but she couldn’t see the things that made him Tai. He stared at her as coldly as if she were a stranger, even an enemy. When she opened one of the fridges, Tai’s lips drew back from his teeth to reveal his fangs. When she pulled a blood bag and offered it to him, he snatched it from her hand with a loud hiss.
Then his face changed. His eyes focused on her, saw her. He stared down at the bag in his hand.
“Tai, it’s okay. You need to slake. Go ahead and slake.”
He let out a sound she’d never heard from a vampire before, a garbled blend of hiss and groan. He squeezed his eyes shut for about twenty seconds. Then he opened them, tore the seal on the bag, and drank.
He drained every last drop as fast as she’d ever seen a vampire drain a bag. It dropped to the floor as he folded over onto the bar, forehead resting on his arms. He began to shake.
When Ryker forgot to slake, his hands trembled for about a minute after he finally remembered and did. This was different.Tai’s whole body was wracked. Claire slid from behind the bar to stand beside him.
“Shh, it’s okay, Tai. You’re okay.”
And then she did the thing she’d been yearning to do. It wasn’t so much a decision as an instinct. She perched on the stool beside him, drew Tai into her arms, and let him rest there. He clung to her. His head fell to her shoulder. His hands pressed her back as if he needed her closer.
“I’m sorry,” he said. His voice was back, rich and smoky, thick with emotion but no longer rasping. His fangs made a hiss of everys. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”
“Hey, shh, it’s okay. Tai, listen to me. It’s okay.”
“It was too much. I tried to fight it, but it was too much.”
“Of course it was. Blood in the air, human pain and fear, sensory overload, immense physical exertion—you couldn’t have planned a worse combination for a bloodfiend. This isn’t your fault.”
“I wasn’t strong enough.”
“No. Listen to me.” She drew back and brushed his hair away with gentle fingers, and he shivered at her touch. “I don’t know how you didn’t lose control. The strength you showed tonight was incredible.”
He held eye contact this time, didn’t turn away or shut his eyes. A thin ring of silver now showed around his pupils. “It’s weakness. It’s the worst possible weakness a vampire can have.”
“You told me you’ve never hurt a human. That proves you’re not weak at all, Tai. Based on tonight alone, you’re the strongest vampire I know, and I wish I…”
Puzzle pieces that she’d shoved aside while she prioritized getting them here suddenly clicked together. She no longer wanted to hold him; she wanted to yell. But he wasn’t ready for the next discussion.
“Are you okay to sit for a minute?”
Tai nodded. “You said you needed to slake. Please go ahead. I’m fine.”
That he thoughtfinewas an accurate word to describe him right now made her want to yank her hair out in addition to yelling at him.
“And thank you,” he said.
She couldn’t respond to gratitude either. She didn’t want to fight while his pain was so freshly exposed, but he’d kept this from her for no good reason, and… “When I’m done, we need to talk.”
Another nod.
Claire poured herself a glass of her favorite, type A. She sipped and closed her eyes as her fangs descended, as renewed energy poured into her body, stopped the sting of a few scrapes on her right arm she hadn’t noticed until now. She drew a deep, cleansing breath, a trick she’d learned from humans in general and Ember in particular. She finished the glass, and her body settled into a refreshed sense of vitality.
Now to have it out with the most frustrating man on the planet.
“Come on,” she said. “There’s a little break room in the back, with a couch and stuff.”
They didn’t need light to see, and after so much overstimulation at the accident scene, even the vampire-friendly, lower luminescence of the fixtures in here seemed too glaring. Claire left them off. Tai paused a moment to take in the room, though there wasn’t much to see—the usual counters, sink, table, and chairs along with a refrigerator, microwave, toaster oven, and coffeemaker. The appliances were stainless, and Claire had picked out an indoor/outdoor carpet in navy and had one wall painted to match, again to mitigate the glare a too-white room could inflict on sensitive vampires.
Tai nodded appreciation at her choices. “It’s a comfortable space, even for us.”
“That’s what I wanted. For every space in the building.” A detail he’d have known, been part of, if he hadn’t run away.
They sat on opposite ends of the charcoal-gray couch. Their fangs had retracted in the minutes after slaking, and the predatory focus in Tai’s gaze had receded as his pupils constricted back to normal size.
