“What’s so earth-shattering about energy transfers?” Dom nodded his head toward their waitress still leaning on the bar.
“Between two vampires? As much as I like your prana, Dom, what’s yours is yours and what’s mine is mine. I’d take a little bit of yours if I could, though.” She flashed him a playful smile. “Butmy grandparents—they could share it between the two of them with just a simple touch.”
He supposed he had inadvertently absorbed some of Mackenzie’s energy at some point, although he had been careful not to touch his palms to her hands or her face. Well, when he had his wits about him, he hadn’t. Had he unknowingly given her some of his? Was that even possible?
“And their emotions?” he asked.
“Yeah. My grandparents could sense how the other was feeling even from a distance. Many years ago, when my grandmother worked at a medical clinic, a DB or maybe just a run-of-the-mill freak came in demanding Sweet. Said if she didn’t get him some sweetblood, he was going to kill her. Of course, she was scared. A short time later my grandfather burst through the entrance with a couple of Guardians and they staked the loser. Said he felt her fear as if it were his own and knew she needed his help. That story is one of the reasons I joined the Agency. I thought it was so heroic. Still do. And very romantic.”
Dom ran his fingers against his scalp and tugged at the roots of his hair. This was bullshit. Could it get any worse? “Anything else?”
“Well, apart from the fact that the sex is like an awakening of sorts, that’s about all I know.”
“You and your grandmother talked about sex?”
“What can I say? She was a very enlightened woman, comfortable with her sexuality. Over cocktails once, she told me that intimate relations were much more enhanced. But, no, she didn’t go into detail.” She grasped his hand gave a reassuring squeeze, then released it. “They were so completely bonded to each other that when my grandfather died, she couldn’t bear to live without him.”
Every nerve ending seemed to shut down as his body numbed, and the bar noise faded into the background. He staredat the amber liquid in his glass, twirling gently, watching the foam cling to the sides.
Was that what he was craving from her as well? Her prana? Sex? That certainly explained why he couldn’t stop thinking about her.
“But, like I said, they were both vamps. I’ve never heard of it happening with a human. Blood-bonded to sweetblood? That sucks.” She barked out an unflattering laugh. “And you’ve never spoken?”
“No.”
“Don’t know what else I can tell you. Why don’t you introduce yourself? What woman can resist your charm? I know I have a hard time.” She blew him an airkiss, obviously trying to lighten his mood.
“Excuse me, but you’re my soul mate. Pardon me while I kill you. Yeah, riiiight.”
“I’d see if she’d go horizontal first, eh?” One perfect plucked eyebrow lifted into a naughty arch.
“Very funny. For all I know, she’s a raging bitch. I’ve seen her lists, her alphabetized bookshelves, her antiseptic refrigerator.”
Not that a pretty girl’s personality quirks had ever mattered to him before. Most of the time he spent with them was between the sheets and what they did involved little talking. Maybe if they had sex, he could get her out of his system.
“I’m guessing you’re enticed by more than her blood, even if she is a sweetblood. My grandmother told me she was made for my grandfather and he was made for her. Not sure what that means in terms of sex, but all I know is that it’s a soul mate thing.”
“That’s insane.”
Lily fished a tube of shimmery pink lipstick from her purse, applied it without a mirror, and tossed it back into her bag. Sheshook her head slowly as she rubbed her lips together, and when she looked at him again, she flashed him an all-knowing grin.
From across the room, a whoop of laughter erupted above the music, momentarily distracting him. The singer had jumped onto the dance floor and stroked the microphone stand between his lycra-clad legs like a giant hard-on while an orgasmic-like guitar riff went on and on. A woman with an animal-print thong teeing above the waistband of her jeans hopped onto a man’s back and dry-humped him while the crowd cheered.
He turned his attention back to Lily who was still smiling, although he knew she despised this kind of music.
“No. I’m serious, Lil. I just need to be sure the DBs can’t track her. Then I’ll close the assignment and be done with it. I need to be in Portland.”
“Suit yourself, but I think you’re fucked, love.”
“Need somehelp, Sam?” Mackenzie’s roommate struggled through the front door holding a precarious stack of cardboard boxes. “Here, let me?—”
Dropping her paintbrush, Mackenzie jumped up, and they hefted the boxes to the dining room table. “What do you have in here? These weigh a ton.”
“It’s for my new online jewelry business. It’s a bunch of supplies I ordered.” Sam shrugged out of her jacket and started to put it on the chair across the table from Mackenzie, but she pivoted back to the entry way and hung it in the hall closet instead. Fluffing her short dark hair, Sam rewound her long, hand-knit scarf a couple times around her neck before she returned to the dining room and started opening boxes.
“When did you start that? Aren’t you still working at the hotel spa?”
Sam wasn’t quitting her job, was she? Giving up a regular paycheck? It had been a while since they’d been home at the same time. But still...wouldn’t she have let Mackenzie know? She eyed Sam warily over the top of the canvas. Mackenzie had liked Sam’s company this past year, but help with the mortgage was sort of the point in getting a roommate in the first place.
