“Honestly,” Reed said, mocking Zack’s tone, “you should have had this done last week.”
Groaning, Zack put his head on the table. He and Reed were tucked into the corner of the kitchen. While Nell’s staff provided a buffet for the people who worked the house, her pets and Josefina’s had dinner served to them an hour before dusk. Reed and Zack often skipped that in order to have a semi-private conversation in the kitchen while they ate. Since shifters worked in the mansion, they still had to be careful of what they said, but most of their conversations had been about social bullshit that Zack still struggled with.
Maybe, if I was picking suits for me instead of how naked Kit and I have to be, I wouldn’t have a problem. He grumbled, “Give me some credit. Roger’s gotten a dozen e-vites for Halloween parties, and he’s given me no hint whose he’s going to accept. And the themes range from Elizabethan to ‘sexy dinosaurs.’ And I’ve never been to a Halloween party before.”
“Seriously?” Reed waved a hand before Zack could answer. “Ah, right. Every once in a while, I forget about the hunterupbringing. Halloween was probably about raiding some poor witch’s closet every year, huh?”
Zack clenched his jaw. Obviously, his family hadn’t been the picture-perfect version he’d convinced himself for years. The whole reason he had taken the hunt to kill Roger was because he’d been left behind. His mother had never forgiven him for letting a teenage, less-than-two-week-old vampire out into the world instead of killing her. But the girl had been a victim, turned against her will, Zack was sure of it. He’d done the research.
Though he’d seen only the best in them, his family had only pointed at his flaws. And there was a relief in not dealing with them in his day-to-day. The new people in Zack’s life tended to accept him completely.
Except when it came to his fucking family and life before Taliville.
“My parents might have been focused on relevant threats to the goddamn world,” Zack said icily, “but I was usually celebrating my birthday.”
“I think that makes it sadder that you’ve never had a good Halloween party, then,” Reed replied.
“That’s because you grew up where it’s Halloween every fucking day.”
Reed closed the notebook Zack was filling with current clothing plans. “All right. I’ve poked the bear when you already didn’t want to dance. This shit can wait. I could actually use your advice.”
“Mine?” Zack asked.
“As you so eloquently pointed out, I grew up here,” Reed replied. “I could use an outsider’s perspective. Josefina asked me the question last night.”
“Marriage?” Zack tapped his pen against the table. He was thinking through how being legally married would work forvampires. Technically, Roger’s modern identity was fake, but it was real enough for the important paperwork. Vampires had figured out that system as it’d developed.
Reed laughed under his breath and shook his head. “God, no. Josefina asked if I wanted to become her sireling. She’d said she’d support me if I wanted Nell to do it instead, but she’s hoping I’ll say yes to her.”
“Why the hell would you say yes?” Zack said, the question blurting out of him.
“For starters? Being able to be with Nell and Josefina for hundreds of years instead of a few short decades.”
“But sunlight would hurt you, you’d be beholden to Josefinaforever, and you’d have to drink blood. You’d have an eternity of bills and … and—” Zack held up his notebook. “You would never escape the bullshit of fashion.”
“Some of us don’t hate parties, Zack,” Reed replied.
“You know immortality isn’t guaranteed, right? You can still die.”
“But it’s far more possible as a vampire than a human.” Reed sipped his tea. “Haven’t you thought about being with Roger? Long term?”
Zack had been giving some thought to what would need to happen after Roger became the coven master. At some point, he’d have to decide if he’d remain his “head pet.” Would sticking around and helping him mean that Zack wasn’t pretending anymore?Become his sireling?The idea churned Zack’s stomach. Humans could be vicious. He knew that. But vampires were still …vampires. Sires and sirelings shared a connection that Zack hadn’t fully figured out. Some seemed like lovers, some like parents to children, and some completely discarded their sirelings out to the world.
“I’m guessing your advice is a ‘hell no,’” Reed said.
Zack picked up a lone mozzarella stick left on his dinner plate and took a bite. His food was long cold, the mozzarella hardened instead of being in its melty state, but the flavor was there. He held up the half-eaten mozzarella stick. “Everything about this mozzarella stick changed when it got cold. Sure, it kind of looks the same. But it’s not hot. Not satisfying the way it was.”
“You’re still eating it,” Reed replied.
Zack shrugged one shoulder. “Maybe I’m desperate. Maybe I’m eating it remembering that it used to be warm. Maybe I’m thinking about how I wish I’d eaten it sooner. Maybe I regret taking the bite I just did and wish I’d spat it out instead.”
“I get it. Life is a mozzarella stick.”
“It’s not a perfect analogy.” Zack put the mozzarella stick down on his plate and wiped the trace of grease off on a napkin. “I don’t know if you should become a bloodsucker. But you’re not wrong for wanting to think it through, and if Josefina says you are, then you should dump her ass.”
“She said I could have as much time as I needed,” Reed said.
“Good.”I guess. But who wouldwantto become a vamp? Seriously?Zack sighed heavily and opened his notebook. “Do you think he’d really wind up going to a sexy dinosaur party?”
