I tracked his gaze. “Ahh, you mean the blood?” He dipped his head, a blush staining his cheeks as he tackled the food on his plate with less enthusiasm than I’d have liked, but he was at least eating. “We can take some with us, of course. The cool bag is ours to use as we see fit.” Gethin hadn’t said that, but I’d transfer some cash for him to buy a replacement if necessary. “When you need more, there are two options.” Charley’s blue eyes fixed on me, his fork frozen halfway to his mouth as he waited for those options. “One, we find some vamps local to wherever we rock up, and ask nicely for some of their backup supplies. Or two,” His pulse stuttered, “you take it organically.”
He set his cutlery down with a bang, and a miserable whine escaped him. “Jeez, what a choice.”
“Don’t think you could?” He looked at me helplessly. “Dude, your fangs are designed specifically to cut through human flesh like the sharpest blade you can imagine. You’re a predator, same as me. And humans are your prey. You might not like it, but them’s the facts.” This wasn’t the time to baby him. He was a vampire, for all his human side, and I’d seen the difference in him since his first feed. He couldn’t afford to allow his body to starve for blood ever again. Also, I didn’t know if drinking blood had now awakened a true vampiric hunger in him, but I didn’t intend to ever find out. Bloodlust wasn’t pretty. Or allegedly not. I’d never witnessed it, and had no intention of being anywhere near any vampire that went rogue in that way. Besides, it shouldn’t ever happen now. We had the technology to ensure any vampire who needed blood could access it. At least, I fervently hoped that was the case.
Charley blew out a shaky breath. “I wouldn’t know how to start, but I guess it’s like anything, gotta be a first time. Right?”
“Absolutely. And if and when the time comes, you’ll work it out.” I waggled my own knife at him. “Eat your dinner. Have you noticed how much better you’ve been looking, even in the short time we’ve been here? That’s what happens when you eat a balanced diet.” I shovelled in the remains of my mashed potato and gave a happy sigh. “Gethin knows how to shop, I’ll give him that. That beef was lush.”
He grimaced, but did as I said, managing to clear his plate. As we rinsed the dishes and tidied up, he asked, “Do you know how to bite someone? I mean, howI’dbite someone. I don’t want to even consider how wolves bite. It can’t be pretty.” He gave a small shudder.
I shrugged. “I’ve seen a vamp feed, but I didn’t pay close attention. I usually like to keep downwind of them. They fucking stink,” I clarified when he frowned.Oh, for fuck’s sake. His tender ego was bruised again. I captured his chin and forced him to meet my gaze. “You don’t stink. In fact, if you hadn’t noticed, I’m rather partial to everything about you, including how you smell. Call it a happy byproduct of being a hybrid.” I smooshed our noses together and watched as his pupils expanded.Gotcha.“Wanna leave the dishes and go dirty up the clean sheets?”
14
CHARLEY
We leftthe safe house late the next evening. Luc had allowed for plenty of time in case of delays or diversions, but we met nothing to slow us down as he kept a steady pace northwards through the National Park. The cool bag was loaded with blood packs, and enough snacks to avoid us having to spend long in any service stations after we began our journey north, away from the false trail we were laying. When we approached Conwy, Luc swung right, over the bridge towards Llandudno Junction, and parked up in the far corner of a Tesco superstore car park.
He pointed across the expanse of tarmac towards the way we’d come in. “Over there, next to the petrol station, is a Costa. Get your sexy arse over there and order a coffee. Change your mind a couple of times about what sort, and what size, then fumble your change and look apologetic. Pay by card. Uh, make it a large.”
I blinked at him. “Just one coffee? I wouldn’t mind one.”
He sighed patiently. “It is for you, Charley. But we want it to look as if you’re on your own. So yes, just the one. I’m more than happy to share it if there’s any left, but choose what you like best. Try to be memorable. This is one time you want to be caught on camera, but as we don’t know if you can be, you need to stand out.”
“God, I’m dumb as a brick sometimes,” I mumbled in embarrassment. “You’re so good at this kind of thing.” I checked I had some coins in my pocket —oh, now I see why Luc made me wear the same clothes tonight I was last seen running from Tratton in, so it looks like I legged it with nothing but the clothes on my back— and checked my bank app. Ah, excellent. My latest and now presumably final payment from the warehouse had cleared, so the ferry ticket wouldn’t take my account into overdraft. “You parked here deliberately, didn’t you, so it’s less likely anyone connects us?”
He grinned widely at me. “Now you’re catching on. C’mere and look at this route.” He thrust his phone under my nose. “You’re heading for Holyhead if you can wangle that into conversation. If you need to ask for directions, go ahead. Bat those baby blues and chew your lip. Look anxious.”
I memorised the route he’d shown me, and tried to give the phone back. “But where am I actually going? Shall I come back here?”
“No. Head out on this road here and I’ll catch you up.” Luc tapped the screen near the main roundabout that would take us towards the coast road heading west to Anglesey. “Lurk here, and if anything seems off, there are trees and bushes you can hide in, okay?”
“Got it.” I shoved my own phone deep into a pocket of my cargo pants, then instantly retrieved it. “Should I have your number, just in case?”As long as my phone decides to work when I need it.It was the most temperamental device I’d had by far, and even after repeated visits to the phone shop, they’d not been able to tell me anything except ‘some folk don’t seem particularly compatible with technology’, like I was a freaky walking electricity killer, insert eye roll. Personally I felt the phone companies were producing increasingly sub-standard merchandise, but anyway, I did what I could with what I had. Perhaps it was like giving off the wrong kind of magnetism, like blokes who said they ruined wrist watches. Ahh, that was also me. Huh. However, right now it seemed a good idea to have Luc’s number. Except, he said, eyebrows chasing his hairline,
“Absolutely not. Anything that links us right now is up there with the shittiest of shitty ideas.”
I swallowed. “Oh, right, okay.”Fuck, is he gonna dump me here and head off?I wasn’t usually this pessimistic, but I’d never before had dangerous blokes threatening to kill me either, so I figured my gloomy mood was understandable.No, Luc wouldn’t leave me stranded without my stuff, or more importantly, the blood supply, would he?I was being irrationally paranoid.
“Charley.” He said my name with a hint of impatience and a bigger helping of affection. “Stop looking for problems where there are none. Apart from the fact I’mnotabandoning you in the middle of Wales, I wouldn’t dare. The Council would bring me up on a charge of recklessness for leaving a vulnerable supernatural alone.” His eyes softened, and he reached through the open window to briefly caress my cheek with his thumb. “Besides, I’m already unreasonably fond of your arse, and your filthy mouth. I’m not giving those up without a fight.”
He held my gaze until I nodded, then blew me a kiss. “Good boy. I’ll see you soon.”
It took me the entire way to the coffee shop to ponder why I’d not felt ridiculous being referred to as a ‘good boy’ by someone barely older than I was, and I was still none the wiser. Shelving the in-depth mental questioning for another time, I stood in the short queue and allowed myself to simply enjoy the way Luc’s words made me feel. Perhaps I didn’t need to qualify everything. Some things just were.
Luckily for me, it was all too easy to make myself memorable. As I stepped up to the counter to place my order, a young girl in the group in front of me tripped, causing the contents of the tray she was carrying to go flying, sending china, cutlery and food everywhere. Hemmed in by a hefty guy behind me, I had nowhere to escape to, and the contents of two large cups hit me full in the chest. The scents of coffee and chocolate slammed my senses, and I gasped as the hot liquid began soaking through my T-shirt and splattering my unzipped hoodie. My naturally cool skin hadn’t had time to warm up from the walk across the car park, and it stung.
The young woman screamed, her friend screamed, and the baristas froze boggle-eyed as they took in the carnage. Broken crockery littered the floor, and I was already making a puddle where I stood.
Everything suddenly unfroze. Customers moved back, staff swung into action. An older woman, who had the air of a manager, hustled me towards the bathrooms, apologising non stop, and urging me to strip off so she could ascertain if there was any damage. Mildly irked that it couldn’t have been the taller of the two male baristas helping me remove my clothing — I’d clocked him as I walked in and he washot— I stripped off to the manager’s harsh intake of breath.
“Oh heavens, that looks very sore. Here, take these quickly and rinse your chest.” She ripped a handful of cleaning cloths from a packet and handed them to me, already running cold water into a basin. “Should I call an ambulance? I know first aid, but I’ve never actually done any.”
Christ no! No doctors.I gave her a shaky smile. “Definitely not. It was hot, but not bad enough to need more than rinsing off.” I plunged the handful of cloths into the water and spread them sopping wet over my chest.
“Can I leave you for a minute? I’ll try to find you something clean and dry to wear. I’m sooo sorry.” ‘Please don’t sue us’ was written over her face as plainly as if she’d used a marker pen.
She escaped, and I mopped at my abs, soaking every part of me as the pinkened flesh cooled. It didn’t really hurt, but then I hadn’t expected it to. My gasp had mostly been of surprise, not pain.
