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“Are you kidding me right now? You ripped my throat open! The next time you think about taking my blood, I’m staking you out in the sun, and then I’ll really torture you.” I got up and then swayed, and immediately The Scholar put his arm around my waist to steady me.
“Such a charming couple,” Horace said with a snarl.
“We aren’t a couple,” I said with a snarl of my own. “He’s a vampire. Maybe you’ve forgotten, but I despise vampires.”
“Love and hate can be interchangeable, Miss Morell,” he said with a cold and terrifying glare.
“No, they can’t, Horace. Take me back to bed, Mr. Stead, if you would be so kind,” I said, turning to look up at him. “I’m done here.”
He picked me up and strode out, much more quickly than before, Pansy trotting behind. He didn’t take me back to his room, his bed, but instead, walked with me out of the lab’s front door, past all kinds of monsters who stared at us in the public area like we were a terrifying act of nature. He carried me across the street, into the Song Lydian, and then into the room with the garden courtyard.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked as he headed towards the elevator. I’d distinctly meant for him to take me back to his sturdy bed surrounded by weird plants.
“Your bed, Miss Morell. You did ask me to take you to bed, didn’t you?”
“I said, ‘back to bed,’ so I assumed that you would take me back to the bed you took me out of.”
“It is a bed that I sleep in from time to time.”
“I know.”
“You shouldn’t sleep in a vampire’s bed, or he might think that you wanted him to sleep with you.”
“Ah.” I didn’t have anything else to say after that, so I just clung to his neck and tried to not be disappointed that I’d be back in my lonely little apartment by myself in the bed too small for me and Pansy. There it was, a logical reason to want to stay in his bed. “It’s just that my bed is quite small, and Pansy worms her way onto it with me, so it’s much more comfortable to stay in your bed.”
“The danger outweighs the comfort.” His words were short.
“You’re saying that if I was in your bed, since you’re a vampire, you’d be forced to what, suck my blood? Rip out my throat? Give me the sketchy gift of immortality?”
“Sleep with you, Miss Morell. I would be forced to sleep with you and Pansy. Once I got accustomed to sleeping with you in my bed, I wouldn’t be able to sleep without you and that dangerous creature who finds you almost as charming as I do. Here we are.”
He set me down outside the elevator and left back the way he’d come, leaving me staring after him and feeling far too many things that I didn’t want to name, wistfulness, aching, and a very tiny spark of something that burned dangerously bright for being so small.
Chapter
Twelve
Islept for a long time, then woke up feeling sore, but mostly normal on Friday morning. I got dressed, took more time than usual fixing my bun, and got Pansy happily walked and fed, but it was still early as I approached the library. I had reservations since the last time I’d been early, I’d found Bert’s body.
I needed to go to the hospital and see how he was doing after work. I rubbed my shoulder absently as I neared the doors. My way was blocked by several reporters who took pictures of me as I stared at them.
“What’s going on?” I asked the woman who looked the least likely to take a picture of a bus hitting me instead of pulling me out of the way.
“Didn’t you hear about the former CEO? He came back as a vampire and almost killed everyone. What do you know about it?”
I shook my head and pushed through them to the door where the new guard was, his scowl ominous as he demanded that I show him my badge before he let me inside.
I smiled, but his scowl didn’t budge even after I’d taken my ID out and slipped inside, past him and away from the reporters.
“They want you to stay at the main desk this morning,” he said, cocking his head slightly like he’d jump me if I objected in any way.
“They?”
“The board. You’ve missed work for a few days.”
“I wasn’t feeling well, but I’m back now. Okay. I’ll be at the main desk if anyone wants me.”
He looked skeptical, like who would want me. I took two steps, then turned around to ask, “Any news from Bert, the other morning guard? He was hit pretty bad.”
