Page 31 of Black Hollow: Awakening

“To see if vampires can do magic, too,” Will retorted. Blake was speechless for a moment. “Guess not.”

He sat down across from him.

“Did you just call me a vampire in a room full of people?” Blake scolded him in a low voice.

“Only you could have heard that,” Will replied. There was a considerable distance between them and everyone else, and the cafeteria was chaotic. If anyone had actually been able to pick it up, they probably had skills like Blake’s, so the existence of vampires shouldn’t have come as a shock.

“You don’t know that. That’s one. Two, spare me. Liam’s company has made me immune to idiotic jokes, so you’re not going to impress me. Get out of my sight.”

“I just want to talk.”

“I don’t want to talk to you.”

“I get that my behavior so far might have annoyed or offended you. This is all new to me. I’m trying to get a handle on it, but…”

“I’ll shed a single tear for you. Now, scram.”

“Why are you like this?” Will asked, bewildered. He was bending over backward to be polite, and Alden was still acting like a complete asshole!

“If my presence bothers you, you know what to do. And even if it doesn’t, do the exact same thing.”

“Or what? You’ll call me a pig?”

Alden frowned.

“Why would I do that?”

“You called Norma that.”

“Excuse me? I would never in my…” Blake stopped mid-sentence, as if he’d just realized what Will was referring to. “I didn’t call her a pig. I compared our conversation to a conversation between a human and a pig.”

“Yeah, because that’s totally different.”

“You better believe it is. Let me explain it to you in the simplest possible terms: to me, you are a potential meal. Got it?”

“But you don’t feed on people anymore. I think,” Will added after a moment of hesitation, feeling a new wave of fear. Maybe pissing Blake off wasn’t a good idea.

“That’s because we came to the conclusion, long before you did, that harming sentient beings is in poor taste.”

“Uh-huh… And this whole Agency has nothing to do with it? Or the Hunters?”

“Irrelevant!” Blake cut him off irritably, earning a condescending smile from Will. Will had a feeling it was relevant. Probably crucially so. “You can be a vegetarian, but that in no way changes the relationship between you and a pig. It’s a potential meal. Not when you’re full and have a choice, but in a situation where you’re not. You’d slaughter the pig then, wouldn’t you?”

Will was very… charmed by the comparison.

“No offense to the pig, but I don’t recall being able to have this kind of conversation with one, so…”

“You don’t seem to grasp what I’m trying to tell you, so I’ll be brief. I don’t associate with humans.”

“You associate with Abby. And Norma.”

“I don’t associate with Norma,” Alden stated firmly. “At least, not by choice. We just need each other sometimes.” Will raised an eyebrow. That sounded rather ambiguous. “And Abby is a different matter.”

“Is she not a potential meal?”

“None of your business.”

“Listen…” Will decided to try one more time. “I know I’m sort of… a new, forced element in your group. And I understand it might be hard for you to accept me. If you would just…”