“Asshole!” Milo jogged backwards with hishands in the air for the ball.
Ian threw the ball back to him. Some of theother guys from the frat began to emerge, and a pickup game oftwo-hand touch started to unfold. Someone broke out the beer,laughter drifted through the air to mix with the smell ofhamburgers and hot dogs cooking on the grill. Girlfriends gatheredon the sidelines to cheer on their boyfriends as people fromneighboring houses were drawn outside by the loud noise and theluring smell of the cooking food.
During these times, when he’d recentlysatisfied his more carnal urges and was back amongst his friends,he could almost remember what life had been like before he’dstopped aging. Almost remember the laughter and carefree momentsthat had made up most of his days. Everything had been so easythen. He’d been an athlete, he’d done well in school, he’d had aset plan for after graduation, and he had a loving family. Now,things were completely different.
He longed for his old life back, to be ableto sleep undisturbed through the night without being plagued withthe urge for sex. Even now as he joked with his friends, he couldfeel the urge building within him to go on the prowl for the nextwarm, willing body.
He refused to acknowledge this might be whatthe rest of his life was like. He might go completely insane if hehad to face this every day. Never had he believed the idea ofendless women and sex would become boring and tiresome, but it hadstarted to border on complete monotony a few months ago. The onlyproblem was there was no end in sight, not for him.
***
Paige sat in the hotel bedroom, idlyflipping through the channels on the TV as she stared at thechanging screens. The daytime was always the worst for her. She hadno idea what to do with herself during certain times of the day.She’d already been to the gym and worked out for an hour, alreadyspent another hour having a sparring match with Nabel. Her muscleswere still sore from their session. He hadn’t taken it easy on her,and she didn’t want him to.
The daylight hours weren’t so bad when shewas at home and had work to fill her days, but she’d taken thisweek off to follow the latest lead with Nabel. She would have quither job if she’d had to in order to be here; she’d spent the lastfour years of her life searching and waiting for this kind of abreak.
Tossing the remote aside, she rose to herfeet and strode over to the window. She pulled back the heavycurtains to peer out at the bright day. All she lived for now wasthe night, and it was still too far away for her liking. The nightwas when she could hunt the monsters plaguing their world,especially the monster that had been plaguing her.
With a sigh, she dropped the curtain intoplace and turned to face the room. She’d spent far too many of heryears living in and out of hotel rooms just like this one. Over theyears, they’d all blurred into one endless array of landscapepaintings, industrial carpets, and threadbare comforters. They wereall some form of beige or white with crappy fluorescent lighting inwhat was normally a pink or yellow bathroom. This one had thrown acurveball by sporting a blue bathroom with recessed lighting, butthe rest of the tiny space was like all the rest.
Paige looked helplessly around the room; shecould go back to the gym, but she didn’t want to tire herself outbefore nightfall. She should be napping, but she was far too wiredand excited to go to sleep. Grabbing some change and her room key,she stepped into the hall and headed down to the small vendingmachine area. She punched in the number for a bottle of water. Shewatched as it fell down and clanked against the machine when it hitbottom. Walking over to the next machine, she debated for a minutebefore settling on a bag of peanuts.
Heading back to her room, she paused outsideof Nabel’s door where she contemplated whether or not she shouldknock. They spent a fair amount of time together, but she wouldn’tconsider him her friend or someone she would normally pass the timewith. She’d bet he felt the same way about her and wouldn’t exactlyappreciate having her perched on the end of his bed talking aboutthe weather.
Four years ago, she would have just pickedup her sketch pad and pencils in order to keep herself occupied,but it had been years since she’d sketched anything. She foundherself pining for her old, artistic love as she headed back towardher lonely room. She didn’t think she’d ever draw again, thatobsession had been replaced with a new one, but at least it wouldhave helped her kill the time.
Opening the bag of peanuts, she popped acouple in her mouth as she moved past his room and back towardhers. The TV was still going and Divorce Court was in session whenshe settled onto the bed again. She absently began to flip throughthe channels once more before turning back to look at the sunfiltering around the edges of the thick curtains.
Only a few more hours,she toldherself. Only a few more hours and she would be back on the huntfor the vampires ravaging their world.
CHAPTER 2
Ian tipped his chair back and leaned against thewall of the crowded bar. Most of the occupants were collegestudents, a few were older, and a handful were high school studentswho had managed to slip past the bouncer at the door. They musthave had some fantastic fake ID’s as he knew the bear sized man atthe door, who actually liked to be called Bear, was a real sticklerwhen it came to who he let in and out of the bar. Either that orthey had far more money than a kid their age should if they hadmanaged to bribe Bear into letting them in.
He wouldn’t exactly call the bar seedy, butits main purposes were getting people drunk and providing a placefor college students to hook up. The edge of the campus was only ahundred feet away from the bar; the owner had made a fortune overthe years on the crowd of young students rotating through thedoors.
The ever changing crowd was what had drawnhim here in the first place. The only problem was that the onewoman he’d mistakenly taken home twice was here tonight too; hedidn’t feel like dealing with her if she decided to approach himagain. He’d spent a night with her during his freshman year but hadforgotten about it when he’d picked her up again three weeks ago.It hadn’t helped that it had been one of his really bad days, andhe’d drunk enough to kill three humans in order to get through it.The girl had remembered him and mistakenly assumed his slip upmeant something more. She appeared to be occupied with another mantonight, so he decided to stay at the bar and find someoneelse.
All the women he took home knew about hisone and done rule, his reputation often preceded him, and if theydidn’t know, he made sure they did before they went back to hisplace. If they had a problem with it, he had to know while he stillhad a chance to take someone else home.
He found enough women who were quiteagreeable to his rule. Some were only looking for the same fromhim, others hoped they could change him, while others were merelycurious. More than a few women had told him that not only had his,“hit it and quit it,” reputation preceded him, but so had hisprowess and skills in bed. He may have no intention of sleepingwith them again, but he was going to make sure every woman he tookhome had one of the best nights of their lives.
It might be better for him if he did have asteady girlfriend, an almost guarantee of regular sex to ease himwhen the pressure grew to be too much, but he liked people too muchto treat them in such a way. He didn’t deny this wasn’t the bestway to treat them either, but he’d never encountered anothervampire to set up something casual with around school.
“Someone’s on the prowl again,” Oscar jokedand elbowed Milo in the ribs.
Milo shot him a look and finished off hisbeer. “Your dick is going to rot off with the way you’ve beengoing,” Milo said to him before sliding the beer bottle toward thebartender.
Ian shrugged and folded his arms over hischest as he continued to survey the bar in the hopes of findingsomeone who piqued his interest. There were a few potentials on thedance floor, but right now they were more content to show off theirdance moves to their friends rather than anyone else.
The bartender replaced Milo’s beer andglanced at him questioningly. Ian nodded and polished off his beerbefore taking hold of the fresh one the bartender handed him. Hisgaze slid over the crowd again. A brunette across the way, sittingwith her friends, glanced over the packed dance floor and smiled athim. Ian smiled back at her and raised his bottle to give a briefsalute in her direction. She glanced away sheepishly. She couldpretend all she wanted, it would be her he left here with, soonerrather than later. With his future date already staked out for thenight, he relaxed enough to turn his attention to his twofriends.
“I’ve found who I’m looking for,” heinformed them.
“Seriouslyrotoff,” Milosaid.
Oscar clapped him on the shoulder. “My hero.Go get her.”
Ian snorted, finished off his beer andplaced it on the counter. His gaze remained on the brunette in thecorner. She kept glancing at him and then looking away. He knew itwas part of the game, but he’d prefer to skip the ridiculousness ofthis part of the evening and get to where they both knew they weregoing to end up, his bed.
