Raya jumps about a foot in the air when she sees me, slapping a hand to her pounding chest and instantly gaining a cute little rabbit nose. I try to hold in my grin, I know this isn’t the time for amusement, but it’s hard to contain.
“Stars above, you scared me!” Raya whisper-shouts, as if that doesn’t make the whole scene even cuter, until her fingertips find the bunny nose twitching on her face. “Freaking, fudging, dang it! What is wrong with you,” Raya shrieks, whipping back into the restroom and slamming the door.
I blink at the empty hallway, realizing I hadn’t moved a single muscle during that one-sided exchange and mentally punching myself in the face. I followed her to help, not to make it worse.
I step forward and gently knock on the door.
“Go away,” Raya says, and I’m unsure what emotions her words are laden with, but they sound heavy.
“Are you okay? You keep leaving, and I wanted to see if there was anything I could do to help," I reply, keeping my voice slow and calm.
“Great. Just great. Not only do I look like a freak, but now people probably think I have a UTI or bowel issues or something.” Her grumble is adorable.
I bite my lip to hold in the laugh that wants to break free. It’s such a strange sensation, wanting to laugh. I can’t remember the last time I felt this way, if ever. I suspect Raya didn’t intend for me to hear that though, so I don’t answer.
When she emerges again a couple minutes later, sans bunny nose, her eyes are blazing and her lips are pinched together. My heart stutters at the sight, wondering anew how I can get her to stop hating me.
“Are you okay?” I ask again.
Raya pins me with a fierce look, one I assume issupposed to be a glare, then shakes her head as she pushes past me and heads back toward the meeting room.
“Raya,” I say, reaching my hand out, aching to touch her but stopping before I make contact. Raya pauses to look sideways at me.
“It’s your shifting, isn’t it?” I say, still trying to keep my voice quiet and calm, then continue when her only response is to bite the inside of her cheek. “Look, maybe I can help.”
I run a hand through my hair before I can think to stop the nervous habit, and Raya’s distrustful eyes track the movement. I get lost for a moment tracing the freckles across her nose.
“How?”
“How?” I parrot back to her, unsure what she’s asking.
“You said maybe you can help.” Her voice and posture are both stiff, sharp and unyielding. “How?”
“Right, yeah. I mean, I had to learn to control my emotions and urges in order to not be a completely unhinged, blood sucking vampire at all times of the day and night, and I was thinking maybe some of those lessons could help you, too.”
Raya scrunches up one side of her nose and blinks at me, her face a mask of confusion, but before either of us can speak another word, a voice interrupts from down the hall.
“Hey, you two good? We’ve got a schedule to keep.”
“Yep, be right there!” Raya’s bright voice chirps back at him and she turns away from me. Her sweet strawberry and coconut scent swirls around me as she looks my way once more, a lingering, searching look that I’m too pessimistic to hope might be intrigue, before striding back to the meeting.
11
DROWNED RAT ISN’T MY BEST LOOK
RAYA
I’m sittingat the hotel bar that evening, nursing a grapefruit mocktail and contemplating the disaster that is currently my life, when my least favorite person slides up to the bar next to me.
“Hey, sunshine. Mind if I join you?” Asher asks, and his smooth voice sends involuntary shivers down my spine.
I ignore the mocking nickname and gesture to the open stool. He sits without turning away from me, then orders “whatever she’s having.”
His eyebrows go up in surprise when he takes a sip and notices there’s no alcohol.
“Not a drinker?” he asks.
I shrug. “Just figured now wasn’t a good time.”
