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“What hurts most of all,” Ren continues. “I trusted you. I gave you so many chances to open up to me, and you cut me short on all of them.”
“Just cut to the chase,” I say. “What are you accusing me of today?”
“Every night, you don’t go home, and you don’t go back to headquarters,” he replies. “You always smell of flowers, and perfume, and all manners of expensive gifts. This human girl you’re tailing, it’s gone beyond the needs of the investigation, and you need to stop before you get in too deep or hurt somebody.”
I ruminate on exactly what to say as he levels the accusations against me. It is true that I underestimated the capabilities of a full-blooded shifter like Ren, but he still isn’t aware of the break-ins, or of how our relationship has escalated to the next level. No longer am I prowling after Quinn like some obsessive stalker… she sees and acknowledges me, and she’s mine to possess.
“Get to the point,” I say, turning my back on him.
He breezes around me and faces me anyway, as a yellow sports car blazes through the alley, kicking up loose rainwater. Somewhere in the distance, I hear a garbage truck already making its early morning rounds.
“Look me in the eye and tell me there’s nothing going on,” he says. “If you can do that, I’ll leave you alone.”
“There’s nothing going on.”
I meet his gaze without issue. If he thinks a vampire has difficulty lying after all my centuries on this earth, he is seriously ill-informed.
“Careful Caspian,” he growls. “You’re sweating a lot more than normal.”
“Vampires don’t sweat,” I reply simply.
“No, but you still have the ducts, and I can still smell them,” he says. “You’re pretty nervous for somebody telling me the truth.”
“You said you’d get out of my face,” I state. “I played your little game, so get the hell out of my face.”
“You’re obsessed,” Ren says simply. “Take stock of yourself. We need your head in the game.”
Baring my fangs, I push Ren down in the alley, before stepping back, realizing what I’ve done.
Ren is entirely wrong to say these things, but he is correct that I need to rejuvenate my focus. My attention has been torn to other realms. I believe ‘on edge’ is the term Ren used.
Ren gets up and brushes his coat off, patting off the rainwater. A small cut has formed on his palm where his hand collided with the cement. It nauseates me, and for a moment, Quinn leaves my thoughts, as the scent pulls me out of my drive.
“Hit a nerve, did I?” Ren says. “Good.”
He walks around me, moving back into the bar. It’s not the bar where Quinn works, so I have no interest in following him.
“Where are you going?” I demand. I have no interest in pursuing the case with Quinn so strongly on my mind, but I still need to keep up pretenses.
“Back into the bar,” Ren says. “If you’d like to join me, you’re more than welcome to. But I know where your head really is right now.”
He slams the door behind him. For a moment, I consider following him, but no. I have more urgent matters to attend to.
Every minute I let my prize leave my sight, it’s another opportunity for another vampire to rise from the earth and take her from me.
I start to walk off into the night. But something in me pulls me back into that bar.
I throw open the backdoor of the bar, as the echoes of country music boom louder and louder in my ears. Ren has a collection of glasses in front of him, all filled with the last drops of downed liquor. My eyes perceive him, still blaring from the brightness of the lights in the room - bright as a monster truck rally.
He looks disheveled and disorderly, and pangs of concern stab into me.
“Come back to find old pal Ren, did you?” He asks. “Did you come to push me again or to tell me the truth?”
“With everything we’ve been through lately, I would have thought you’d ask to be reassigned,” I say. “I know I haven’t made any of this easy for you.”
“Damn straight,” he growls, downing another shot of whiskey before pounding on the bar countertop. The bartender looks fed up with him, as he polishes a glass. I look around the room, no longer overwhelmed by my senses, to see that we’re the only two people left in here.
He wipes off his mouth. I watch him sympathetically.
