I patted Killian on the shoulder in dismissal. “We had good times, old boy, but here we must part.” I swept into the parlor. “Amée, Auberi, I would appreciate it if you don’t try to gaslight Jade into sharing your weird behaviors.”
Amée bristled. “Weird?”
Jade nodded—first to Auberi, then to Amée. “Thank you for the advice, but I must politely disagree. Communication is imperative for partners—it fosters teamwork and superior fighting forces—so I think it would be better if I talked things out with Considine when we have problems.”
Auberi was so puzzled by her answer, his forehead wrinkled so much it resembled a puzzle. “Talk things out?” he repeated.
Hazel cackled as she leaned into Celestina. “Wow, I guess being emotionally repressed isn’t just a Killian thing, it’s a Dracos’ trait!”
“Don’t lump me in with them,” Killian objected as he sauntered across the parlor and positioned himself behind Hazel’s couch. “I have grown—emotionally.”
“You sure have,” Hazel leaned back so she could grin up at him.
Killian leaned over, and the two shared a brief kiss.
Amée and Auberi looked green at the open display, but Jade didn’t even notice.
She smiled at me, her green eyes alluringly vibrant. “Is it time?”
“Yes.” I held out my hand to her.
Jade stood and edged around Auberi’s feet so she could reach me, taking my hand. “Thank you for the tea—I enjoyed talking with all of you, and I appreciate your friendliness.” She bowed to the unusual group, then followed me to the door, swinging our linked hands.
“Did you have a nice time?” I asked.
“The twins were fine,” Jade said, correctly identifying my worry through my question. “Amée has considerably thawed towards me since the slayer stake freed you. I think she just doesn’t know how to reach out in friendship.”
“An accurate assessment—although I would add that she doesn’t know how because she is unbelievably arrogant,” I grumbled.
Jade grinned but said nothing more.
I wanted to stop and kiss her, but as alluring as the idea was, I was fairly certain Jade would ignore the attempt and keep on marching to our destination—she was relentless when we had a mission.
I cleared my throat and let her lead me through the mansion. “And how goes your campaign to speak casually with Hazel and secure a lifelong friendship?”
“It’s going,” Jade said. “She’s encouraging, but it’s hard to forget she’s the protégé of the wizard Elite.” She made a face, disturbing her dusting of freckles. “As much as I hate to admit it, it makes me better understand our squadmates’ actions.”
“I promise I won’t tell Sunshine,” I said as we strolled down the hallway that ended with a large wooden door, flanked by four Drake vampires. “As she would never let you hear the end of such an admission.”
Jade nodded to the vampires as I used the key Killian had lent me to unlock the door. I let Jade in first before I slipped in behind her, closing it on my heels.
I flicked the lock, shutting us in, and glanced around the room, which was kitted out for a vampire to drink from a blood donor.
Killian, ever paranoid, had designed it to have the security of a fortress. Usually, the blood donor was escorted out after the vampire finished for…safety reasons, but Jade and I would stay together.
Jade rolled up the left sleeve of her flannel shirt, baring her wrist, then dug out her cellphone to consult her calendar app. “I already washed my wrist before tea—just let me pull up my schedule so I can confirm the details for today.”
“Mmhmm,” I said as I continued my inspection. As usual there was a couch, several comfortable armchairs, and an end table that I knew from experience usually had fruit or some kind of snack for the blood donor.
The Drakes, however—always thoughtful—had also left some sharpening stones for Jade to use on her daggers during any downtime, and a cleaning rag.
“Look, Brunch. The Drakes very kindly left you something to do in case I get drunk on blood.” I moved into her space and gestured to the end table.
Jade glanced at it, then frowned up at me. “You told me it takes a proper feeding for a regular vampire to experience the grogginess of fresh blood consumption and lose consciousness,” Jade said, describing one of the closest held vampire secrets with clinical disinterest. “A proper feeding is approximately one pint of blood, and we’ve barely made it to a cup in our experiments.”
“You haven’t had any adverse side effects,” I said. “Perhaps we could push it a bit today.”
Jade gave me an unmovable look. “No,” she said. “I created these guidelines with the help of other vampires. We are observing them foryourprotection so we can be certainyouare safe from the poison of my blood. I’m not risking increasing the dosage more than what we have scheduled.”
