It took several attempts to clear my throat to get Aaron’s attention. When he finally looked up, he realized the barista was giving him the strangest look.
‘You’re a vampire now. You can see the reapers,” I said to him under my breath.
Realization dawned on Aaron’s face as his gaze swung from me to the barista who stared at what looked like empty space under his hands.
The reaper dogs fetched souls of the deceased then brought them to me for judgment. They could only be seen by Gods and Vampires.
“Oh, right,” he said. While Aaron had never seen them before now, he’d knownofthem.
Aaron laughed nervously as he stood again, wiping his hands on his shorts. “Sorry,” he said to the barista, “I’m practicing for my mime act later. You know, all kinds of shows happen on the Strip.”
I worked to suppress a snort, failing miserably.
The sheer disappointment on her face made it seem as though he had committed an unforgivable sin by pretending there was a dog she could pet.
“Still getting used to this vamp business,” Aaron muttered, falling into step with me and making a quick getaway from the girl’s accusing glare.
I satbehind the desk in my office, setting down my untouched coffee as Aaron chose to stand instead of taking the seat across from me.
Floor-to-ceiling bookcases lined the walls of my stark white sanctuary, their shelves punctuated by artificial greenery amid my alphabetized collection.
Between the volumes sat carefully arranged mementos—each positioned with the precision of chess pieces on a board.
My chair rolled smooth as silk. The armrests were cool under my fingertips. The lacquered desk reflected the faintest movement, pillar-straight pens and folders perched in precise alignment along its edge. A diffuser ran in the corner, pumping out a grounding, woody mix of cedarwood and frankincense into the space.
Where I enjoyed the familiar nostalgia of stepping back in time to our Egyptian homeland in the chambers of judgment below the hotel, I appreciated the modernity of my office. It was a refuge of order and efficiency, a pristine temple of contemporary design, where my mind could find solace and clarity amidst the chaos of the world.
Though I failed to feel that clarity with Aaron hovering over the corner of my desk. He picked up one of the pens, rolling it between his fingers.
A vivid memory of his dexterous fingers wrapping around me flashed hot and bright, hitting me right in the solar plexus.
I cleared my throat against the sudden heat building inside. “I need you to tell me what Seth is planning.”
Aaron shrugged with indifference even though his clear blue eyes stayed glued to me with an unerring focus. “He’s putting on a show. He’s hyping me up. Making me famous, I guess.” He set the pen down, askew on my desk.
The off-kilter position of it burgeoned a faint pressure that settled between my eyes.
Aaron wandered over to the bookshelves, unbothered.
I stood up and rounded my desk to pick up the errant pen and set it back in the cup with the others.
“And youwantto be famous?” I prodded.
Aaron regarded the rows of old tomes. “I guess. It doesn’t really matter much to me.” He picked up a glass paperweight shaped like a pyramid then set it down on a shelf below before walking on. This time the bridge of my nose prickled with an irritation I could not explain away.
“All I really want is to feel the rush, you know what I mean? And since becoming a vampire, I can do a lot of crazy shit.” He tossed me a grin over his shoulder.
Like I should be impressed with his wild death stunt habit.
The vision of his leather-clad body in that helmet descending from the sky, straddling that bike now took on a whole new tenor in my memory.
Why did his recklessness pull at me? I could never logically understand why that part of him appealed to me. Or maybe logic wasn’t part of it.
It was just...all of him. The way he’d tease me when I’d go to get my coffee from Perkatory. The grin that lit up his entire face until it felt like I was looking at the sun itself. Even when he got stuck in a stutter, he never seemed to let it bother him, and I never minded waiting until he got his bearings.
There was such warmth that rolled off him that I felt my cold immortality melt and flex underneath it, until I came alive.
That same grin now had me brusquely clearing my throat as hot tingles swept up my arms and shoulders, moving up my neck and landing in my ears, which were no doubt a bright red.
