“I can’t catch what you’ve got. If I could, I’d welcome it about now. I’m about to freeze. Not to death, but to a lot of pain. You’re doing me a favor, neighbor. First time I’ve felt even a bit of warmth in hours.”
Penny shook her head and mumbled something.
She really is delirious. And that could be good—for me. Just let her keep talking, let her keep close. If I can’t drink her blood, at least I can borrow her body heat.
“I don’t have a lot of friends in this town, anyway. I mean, I’ve lived here my whole life, but I can see things other people can’t. My parents and brothers,” Penny shook her head with a frown. “They can’t see people like you. When I told them... Well, you try going back to middle school as the girl from the funny farm. It—it’s hard to be with friends who are going to find out you’re crazy. Or a boyfriend. Hard to have a relationship with someone who you’ll always have to hide things from.” She spoke in thoughts, whatever passed through her head. “I think people like me, the crazy ones, are supposed to be alone.”
“Yeah, well, so are vamps. Lonely ones, they call us, trying to be poetic. We don’t fit in with humans, we don’t fit in with demons. You don’t fit in around here.”
“I try!”
“Standing in next to nothing in subzero temps, screaming that vampires are real? The only place you’ll fit inisthe loony bin.”
She shivered convulsively. Brax thought she was finally feeling the cold, but then she whimpered. “Don’t let them take me back there. I know you’re real. You know it. Do you know what it’s like to see what’s true while everyone else around you is blind?” There was an edge of pure panic in her tone.
It was Marietta’s curse, he was sure. In the past, a screaming, panicking human meant he’d kill it quicker to shut it up. Now? Something protective plagued him. He wanted to soothe thebundle in his arms, the delightfully warm bundle pushing life and heat back into his chest.
“Yes, I know all about that. I am the thing they deny, say doesn’t exist, and yet here I am.” He walked faster, held her tighter.
“My parents said it was for attention. Said I lied. Said I was jealous of my big brothers, that I wanted to be special. Different. I tried not to see monsters, but I still see them. See you.” Her eyes were clouded with tears, and her voice was not the one Brax was used to. It belonged to a frightened child, not the woman who scowled at him and told him in no uncertain terms that she would kill him if he crowded her at the trash dumpster. “I was put in some ward and locked up, and I know they’ll send me back if I keep talking about it... Gotta get away... Want to get away, but I can’t drive like this...”
“Oh, honey!” Brax’s shocked tone was genuine, and he pulled her closer instinctively. “I’ve been chained up a bit myself—figuratively. I’m not gonna let anyone put you in some ward.”
They reached the lobby, and Penny slid from his arms. “Why would you help me?”
Help might be a bit of a stretch. Brax coughed, “Well, look, I’m not going to bite. I can’t.”
“That’s what everyone thinks. There are a few other humans who see monsters in this town—and some of them are perfectly okay with it. Even in relationships with them,” Penny hissed. “It doesn’t make it true.”
“No, I mean I literally can’t bite. I’ve got a voodoo hex or somesuch on me. Can’t harm a human, or the pain I inflict rebounds. First nip would send me into a coma of pain.”
“Try it.” Penny put her hands on her hips.
Her slender hips, leading to glistening, lightly tanned legs.
“Huh? No!”
Penny walked up and slapped him.
“Don’t try any foreplay on me, darlin’, I like it,” Brax chuckled.
The next slap made his eyes short-circuit for a second. “Fine. The hard way it is.” He reached out and gave her upper arm a swift pinch, and instantly felt like a blade was slicing through him. Brax grabbed his arm and groaned, speaking through gritted teeth. “See?”
“You could be acting.”
“I’m too fucking cold to act.”
“That’s true. You are cold. So cold.”
“Come on, back to your beddy bye.” Brax shook off the pain as best he could and ushered his delirious little human back towards her apartment. She’d left the door open, but when he tried to push her through it, she clambered back up him like a cat trying to avoid a pool of water. “What is it?”
“I don’t want to go in there. I’ll die in there! It’s too hot for humans.”
“Well, my place is too cold for humans. Or vamps.”
“Then undo the spell or whatever you did!”
“Listen, sweets, some fancy vamps have magic. I’m just the good-looking boy on the wrong side of town who got turned into vamp chow when I was twenty. At a card game of the very worst kind. When someone says ‘bet your life’ in New Orleans, they mean it.”
