He began to relax, bit by bit.
“We could have been friends,” Claire said. “Maybe not partners, because look, I wanted to open a blood bar, and if you’d come to me and explained why that was the one business you couldn’t help me run, I probably still would have chosen Slake It Off over our record store. But Tai—we could have beenfriends anyway. We could have found our own little haunts downtown, hunted for a record store with good vibes.”
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“Me too. It has really sucked, keeping my grudge alive and not being able to have you around because I don’t do friendship with liars.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I want to understand,” she said. “I have more questions.”
“Ask me anything.” His voice strengthened as he continued. “I… You’re right, I’m having a hard time believing this is real. But if you want to know me, then I want that, Claire. So if you have questions about me, or—or about the…”
“The condition,” she said. He needed a word to replace the others.
He nodded. “I’ll answer whatever you want to know.”
Thirteen
“Well, first of all,” she said, “how many people in your life know about this?”
“Ryker and Leslie. And you, now.”
That was…all? Claire shook her head. Everything she knew about bloodfiends, she had learned from long chats at the blood bar with Peter. She couldn’t claim expert status by any means, but one of things he stressed every time the topic came up was the necessity of a support system. People surrounded Peter who accepted his condition as one facet of his whole person. Instead, Tai had been hiding.
Could a person be too good at hiding?
“Did you choose to tell Ryker, or did he find out the way I did?”
“We were sparring at the gym one day, and this human wandered in off the street thinking it was a medical office. He’d hurt his hand on a construction site, wrapped a cloth bandage around it, but it was still bleeding pretty bad. One of the staff walked him back out and helped him get to the clinic a block over, so he was only inside for maybe three minutes, but I…”
Tai was shrinking against the couch, looking smaller the longer he spoke. When Claire slid her hand between his back and the couch and rested it between his shoulder blades, he gave a start.
“What’re you doing?” he said.
“Keeping you from shrinking.”
“Oh.” He pressed his fingers to his eyes. “I guess I was.”
“You don’t need to, Tai. After all the time I wasted mad at a version of you that didn’t exist, let me get to know the real you. No shrinking, no hiding.”
“I…I want that.”
“You keep saying that. Are you trying to convince yourself? Because you can also say no.”
“No, no, it’s not that. I just…” Tai swiped a hand under his eyes. “You stayed.”
Claire took one of his hands and laced his fingers between hers. “I’m still here.”
“That’s what I have to keep convincing myself. Not that I want you to know me, but thatyouwant to.”
“Well, in that case, I’ll keep reminding you. Meanwhile can we talk a little more about the day at the gym?”
He nodded, this time without hesitating.
“When this man came in and you smelled him, smelled the blood, you wanted to slake from him?”
He ducked his head, but after a moment he nodded.
