“So, you stopped stalking him?”
Bennie barked out a laugh, shaking his head. I gave him a dirty look, but he appeared to be completely unbothered by it.
“Soo… the stalking is still happening?”
Bennie nodded. “At this point, he’s basically only at home during the day so he can get a bit of sleep.”
I rolled my eyes.
I wasn’t that bad.
Not really.
“It’s completely natural,” Aries said, folding his hands on his knees.
“Stalking is natural?” Bennie asked, raising his eyebrows. “Dude, please don’t encourage him. I’m over here trying to teach him that stalking isn’t okay.”
Aries gave Bennie a withering glare, his pale blue eyes basically shooting icy daggers. “I’m not yourdude. Also, I’m not saying I condone your youngling’s methods. But I imagine he’s feeling quite… untethered with no bond in place. His instincts are probably running rampant.”
Great.
“I have it under control,” I said tightly, crossing my arms in front of my chest.
“No one said you didn’t.” Bennie turned to me, his expression a lot less teasing now. No, there was actual compassion on his face as he placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “You forget that I can feel when your anxiety is getting bad. I can feel it ramping up the longer you don’t see him or don’t text with him. I hate that you’re stalking him…”
“Watching over him,” I grumbled. It wasn’t like I’d put a tracker on him or anything like that.
“Whatever you want to call it. I don’t like your methods, but I get it. And if stalking him gives you a bit of peace of mind, I’m not gonna stop you. Just… I hope once the two of you get to know each other better, you can stop with those creepy-ass notes.”
“Naaaw,” Aries cooed, hands on his cheeks. “You younglings are so disgustingly sweet. Really, it’s quite unusual for vampires. Anyway. There’s a second thing I wanted to talk to you about.”
“There is?”
Aries gave me a hard look. “Believe it or not, I’m not just calling you over for a bit of gossip.”
Bennie and I exchanged looks. Aries definitely liked to know the latest tea, but since we both wanted to keep our heads, we kept quiet, waiting for him to tell us what he wanted to know.
Aries pulled his phone out of his pocket, his fingers dancing over the display for a few moments, then he turned it around to show us.
“Here. Do any of you know this guy?”
I looked at the image of a young, very pale guy with curly black hair. In the picture, he was standing at the bar downstairs, obviously talking to Aries, his hands up in the air.
“No idea.” Bennie shook his head. “Can’t say I’ve ever seen the guy. What about you?”
“Nope,” I said, shaking my head. “He looks like a vamp, though.”
“He is.” Aries nodded, his lip curling into a sneer. “He’s a fledgling. A fuckingbaby. And he’s running around town all alone, asking questions about the two of you.”
“Us?”
“Yeah.” Aries shrugged. “I figured you’d want to know.” He leveled Bennie with a hard look. “You haven’t sired any other vampires, right?”
Bennie shook his head vehemently. Gone was any playfulness. “Definitely not.”
“Good,” Aries sighed. “Because leaving a fledgling, a baby, out on the streets like that is not cool. It’s against all kinds of protocol.”
“And here I thought you didn’t like vampire politics and stuff.”
