I picked up the reusable, bling-covered Perkatory cup and sucked on the hot pink straw. Human blood hit my tongue and my body warmed. Though it satiated me, it was nothing compared to the blood of a god. It was the equivalent of having to change my diet from ambrosia to cheap diner food. It did the trick, but my taste buds longed for the sensual experience, not to mention the intimacy of the act with Grim. I ached for so much more.
“Is that really why you are doing this?” Miranda asked gently.
“I have to tell him, Miranda,” I said, putting down the cup, my voice thick with emotion. “I let fear hold me back, thinking that I’d lose myself if I loved him. Now, I see how stupid that was.”
Miranda licked her lips as if trying to be extra careful with her next words. “Is it? We do a lot for love, to find it, to make it work, and to keep it. In the Army, I learned fear sometimes keeps you safe. That’s its job.”
Taken aback by my best friend’s anti-pep talk, I asked, “Are you saying I should be afraid?”
“I’m saying I hope you are right. I hope bringing him back is the right thing to do. That it’s not like Bianca said, and something catastrophic will happen. Or that he comes back…different.”
“I thought you were on my side,” I whined.
She reached over and touched my arm. “I am on your side. I just don’t want to see you hurt.”
I had to muscle my way past the defensive feelings, past the resistance to what she was saying. It was then I realized she wasn’t talking about me. The fear was hers, and she was just ascribing it to me. Was it because we were on the verge of a war with immortals and a new world order? Or because the idea of handing over her heart to someone scared the ever-loving tacos out of her too?
I knew Miranda hadn’t been married long before she became a widow, and she hadn’t given anyone a second look since I’d known her. I’d asked her once if she was maybe asexual, she shot back, “What I am, is busy.”
But I gathered she purposefully avoided those feelings. In fact, I realized she resolved to live vicariously through me and Timothy and our torrid affairs, rather than take any risk herself.
“Just because you’re a widow and single mom, it doesn’t mean you’re dead,” I said gently.
Her eyebrows shot up in surprise before she cleared the reaction. “I know that.”
“Do you?” I asked. “Because I know you were pretty young when…” She never talked about her husband. For crying out loud, she still had several years before she saw thirty, but she acted like she was an old crone sometimes.
“I g-get it,” Aaron said, dropping in the seat across from Miranda. I hadn’t even realized he’d been listening. “When you hold onto control so t-tightly, it’s hard t-to let it go. You worry you’ll lose e-everything.”
“Is that what you do?” I asked him, leaning back. “You always seem so laid back.”
A wry smile spread across his face. “I-I’m an alcoholic and a c-compulsive gambler.”
Miranda’s mouth dropped open while I stared at him in abject horror. “Then what the ever-loving fuck nuggets are you doing working at a hotel on the Vegas Strip?”
Then it all came out. How he’d traveled around the world chasing adrenaline and parties. He’d parachuted in Brazil, ziplined in Spain, and hiked through Japan. All the while playing online poker to fund his travels.
But two years ago, while surfing in Australia, some amateur surfer collided with Aaron and their board slammed into Aaron’s jugular. Before then, Aaron never had a stutter, but the trauma seemed to be permanent. His need to chase the next high took a dark turn as he resorted to hitting the bottle and continued betting when he should have folded.
But one day he cleaned up his act with the usual programs and a good sponsor.
I finally understood why Timothy held himself back. Timothy kept things in tidy order, helping Grim control events accordingly. Aaron was chaos by comparison. He loved the thrill and the danger. Even now, he skated along the edge of his darkness by serving java to the people who played in the pits where he used to live. Anyone else would have run far away to stay clean, but Aaron wanted to feel the warmth of the fire.
If the two of them ever let loose, would some beautiful alchemical harmony come about, or would they crash and burn in some fantastic explosion?
Despite all our girl talk—we informed Aaron he was officially one of the girls—we still had airtime to kill. It passed by impossibly slowly while we silently imagined what hell unfolded at Sinopolis in our absence.
When the plane landed, we waited for night to fall so I wouldn’t turn into a crispy critter. When Miranda finally gave us the all-clear, I practically blew the door off the hinges to get out.
The air was hot and dry in a familiar yet different way from the Vegas climate. Here I could smell the sand, the history, and spices coming from the nearby town.
A private car in black waited on the tarmac. Timothy arranged for a local guide to meet us and take us wherever we wanted.
Our guide didn’t say a word as he drove us to the pyramids of Giza. I sighed, looking out the window as we made our way into Al Haram. Yellow spotlights were trained on the world’s wonders, so they could be admired even at night. The complex of pyramids were referred to as the Giza necropolis. Another day I would have loved to get out and walk around and explore the pyramids and massive sphinx. But there was no time. We needed Grim, and we needed him now.
I took a moment to appreciate the sphinx settled in front of the great pyramid. If I needed oxygen, this place would have stolen my breath away. The Vegas edition could not compare to the real deal.
The car stopped, and the guide opened the doors for us. Tourists gathered en masse during the day, but in the dead of night, the place felt downright spooky. AndIwas a bloodsucking vampire.
