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“I’ll get us some juice boxes!” Kenny said excitedly.

Carver tried not to feel the loss of not being able to drink out of those little boxes that he’d once loved.

“Come on.” Owen hooked his arm with Carver’s to pull him toward the living room as Kenny raced away. “He forgets.”

“I know.” And usually Carver didn’t mind. Would it be harder now that he’d drank from Dante? Carver licked his lips. Dante had tasted better than any of blood he’d ever had. Better than the bagged blood he’d stolen. Better than both Owen and Kenny.

Owen pulled Carver down on the couch. Carver had bought it new when he’d first moved into his house. Another purchase that he’d made when he thought that he had his entire life, human life, in front of him. The soft fabric cushioned Carver like welcoming him home.

“Here we go!” Kenny shouted as he ran into the living room. He looked down and frowned. “Oh! I forgot.”

Carver glanced briefly at the three juice boxes that Kenny held. “No problem. Guess you’ll just have to drink one for me.”

Kenny nodded but sadness filled his eyes.

“Gimme.” Owen grabbed one of the boxes and poked the straw through the hole on top.

“Come sit with us.” Carver beckoned Kenny.

“K.” Kenny wiggled around the coffee table to join them on the couch with Carver in the middle.

Carver brushed a hand over his mouth. “I can drink from other vampires.”

“You can?” Kenny questioned before taking a long sip from his juice.

“Yeah. In the club. Dante said that he could tell that I was starving and he fed me himself.”

Owen winced. “Right there in the room.”

Shit! Carver hoped that he wasn’t blushing. “Yeah.” He hadn’t cared. Not once Carver was close enough to smell the blood that had been pumping through Dante’s veins.

“Is that why you look so much better?” Kenny asked.

Carver shrugged. “Dante said that the more powerful the vampire, the better the blood would be.”

“How different would the blood be anyway?” Owen questioned.

Pretty damn different. Carver was always so hungry that it was about filling his mouth and not taking too much so he didn’t think about how good it tasted. With Dante feeding him, Carver had been able to engage. To nearly gorge himself. He really should have drank from the vampire leader before he left.

“That’s good news though, right?” Kenny asked.

“I think so.” Carver gave a small shrug of his shoulder. “Gives me more options.”

“If Dante fed you, does that mean the plan worked? You got in with him?” Owen questioned.

“Yeah, I got in with him. After he fed me, he took me back to his house.”

“The bat cave,” Kenny said in awe.

“You’ve been over this!” Owen exclaimed. “Vampires don’t turn into bats so it can’t be called a bat cave.”

“But I like it.” Kenny stuck out his bottom lip.

“Dante has a familiar raven named Syn,” Carver shared. “Maybe you can come up with a name using that?”

Kenny clapped. “Cool!”

“Vampires have familiars?” Owen tilted his head to the side. “Huh. We didn’t know that.”