Finn slowly inched closer until he was close enough to rest his head on my shoulder.
“Why did he do it? Did you ask him for it?”
I let out a laugh, but it sounded hollow.
“I definitely didn’t.”
Even if I’d wanted to, I couldn’t have. I’d been unconscious. Bleeding out in a dark alley because my misguided hero complex had me running towards the gunfire, not away from it.
A slender hand caressed my back, rubbing over a tense spot below my shoulder blade, and then started massaging the back of my neck.
“What happened?”
I swallowed.
“I told you about being shot, right?”
Finn nodded against my shoulder.
I put the rice down, my stomach suddenly feeling like I was filling it with lead instead of rice and veggies.
“That wasn’t a lie. I can’t lie to you.” I laughed. “I can be vague, but I can’t lie to you. So… uhm. Three years ago, I was heading back home after meeting a couple of friends at a club. I should’ve taken an Uber, but I was short on cash and thought nothing of it. It was a sketchy part of town, yeah, but I’m a fairly big guy and usually don’t even get noticed. Anyway, I was on my way home when I heard it. Shots. I’ll always remember thepop, pop, pop. It wasn’t like on TV. It was so much louder. And then someone screamed, and I… was an idiot. I figured I could help, so I ran towhere the screams were coming from. It was a dark alley next to a pizza shop. I didn’t know it back then, but the shop was a front for a drug ring.”
I took a deep breath to steady myself. The memories were still so vivid in my mind. I could still smell the yeasty notes of discarded dough from the dumpster. The metallic tang in the air. The stench of piss from people who’d taken a leak in that damn alley.
Finn’s head wasn’t resting on my shoulder anymore. He’d straightened up and turned so he could look at me. But I couldn’t meet his eyes. Not right now. And he didn’t try to make me. He just reached for my hand and pulled it into his lap.
“I rounded the corner, and it was…” I shuddered. “There was someone on the ground, holding his leg, rolling around, screaming. Someone else was laughing their ass off. I know I skidded to a stop when I realized that there were several people holding guns, but it was too late. The last thing I remember was fire in my shoulder and chest, and then… nothing.”
“What happened? Did Bennie come along and save you?”
I snorted.
“Bennie was part of the group of guys with guns.”
“What?” Finn shouted, his hands tightening around mine.
I looked up and gave him a wry smile. “Hard to believe, huh?” Bennie wasn’t a violent guy. He never had been. The fact his sire had used that against him… I shuddered. “He wasn’t there because he wanted to be. But his clan was involved in drug trafficking, and his clan head—and Bennie’s maker—had ordered Bennie to get a bit of real-life experience. Bennie was usually the IT guy. The money guy. Hiding the clan’s fortunes behind offshore accounts and stuff. Money laundering.”
“We’re talking about the same person, right? Your jokester friend?”
“Yep.” I nodded. “He’s… truth be told, I only ever experienced the way he was around his clan for like… two to three weeks, right after I was turned. His maker—that’s another word for sire, but it’s less like an honorific, and more like you’d use the term sperm donor instead of father—wasn’t happy that Bennie had turned me. Apparently, it’s against the rules to turn someone without your clan head’s permission. But Bennie had turned me when a member of the drug ring had shot me. He always says that I was innocent and he couldn’t let me die.”
“Soo… you’re telling me I need to thank him?” Finn joked, squeezing my hand again. “That I’d never have met you if it wasn’t for him?”
I let out a laugh, but it caught in my throat, coming out a bit wet.
“Do it. I certainly wasn’t as grateful in the beginning. I was mad. Especially because his maker treated me like trash. I had no idea that Bennie had broken any rules. And neither was Bennie.”
“Soo… no one hands out vampire law books when you’re turned?”
I snorted, a smile tugging at my lips. My naïve, innocent mate, who in reality was a strong-willed, sarcastic little shit.
“No. No one is handing out rulebooks or anything. Usually, your sire is the one to explain all the rules to you, but if you don’t have a good sire, you’re kinda fucked.”
“So Bennie didn’t know he’d broken a rule?”
“Nope. And it took his maker four weeks to address the problem. By demanding a public apology and my execution.”
