Luckily, I wasn’t much of a cook.
My bedroom, if you could call it that, had an air conditioner shoved into the window. And when it came on, it shook the entire building. A queen-sized bed was squeezed into the corner, and that left me just enough room to open the closet doors where I stashed my clothes and my camera equipment.
The old, black, leather couch my sister sat on was the only other furniture, other than the secondhand TV near the window. I hardly ever watched it. It wasn’t much, but it was enough for me.
By the way she perched on the edge, careful not to touch any more of the cushion than she had to, Alice gave off the distinct impression that she did not agree. “You could’ve just called,” I told her.
“So you could ignore my phone calls and messages?”
With a sigh, I grabbed a couple of beers from the fridge and sat down beside her, offering her one.
“Alex, it’s barely past sunrise. And don’t you have to work today?”
“No. I’m between gigs.” Winters were slow for me. “And your point?” I asked, offering the beer again.
She stared at me with what I like to call her “mom stare,” because it was the same look our mother used to give me before she died and left the two of us alone. Well, not exactly alone. We had Judy, and the coven. And we had each other.
Her expression softened, and her brown eyes filled with concern.
Gods. Here we fucking go.
“Alex, I’m worried about you.”
“And why is that, Alice? What the fuck are you worried about this time?”
“Your obsession with the female vampire,” she told me bluntly.
That was one thing I liked about my sister. She didn’t waste my time. Or anyone else’s, for that matter.
“Kenya,” I said.
“What?”
“Her name is Kenya.” I took a long swig of my beer, trying to fight down the reaction I had just mentioning her name.
“All right.Kenya,” she repeated. “I’m worried about your obsession with her.” She paused. “I know where you were all night.”
“If you know that, then you also know why I was there.”
“It’s not up to you to protect her, Alex. She’s just a vampire.”
I exploded up off the couch. “Jesus Christ, Alice! Stop fucking saying that.” We’d had this same conversation when she first found out I was hanging around the outskirts of The Quarter in my free time.
Luckily, she was used to my moods, and hardly reacted anymore. “It’s true. She’s not your concern.”
Finishing off the bottle I was on, I set it down on the TV stand and popped the cap off the other one. “She wouldn’t even exist right now if it wasn’t for me.”
“That doesn’t make her yours.”
I stilled. I couldn’t look at her. Because that’s exactly how I felt. My lovely sister had nailed it on the head with a few softly spoken words. “I never said she was.”
Her skirt rustled as she stood and made her way over to me, putting her face in my line of vision until I had no choice but to look at her. “Alex, you’re my brother. You’re all I have left. Getting involved with the vamp…with Kenya,” she corrected, “will cause you nothing but a whole lot of trouble. It may even get you kicked out of the coven, if her master doesn’t kill you first.”
“Killian is mated to a witch.”
“A witch who isn’t part of our coven. At least, not officially. And do you honestly think that will make him—or Aunt Judy—more lenient?”
I searched her delicate face, so like my own, and yet at the same time so different. I didn’t want to think about Killian or Kenya’s blood tie to him. “How did you know?” I asked her, giving up the pretense.
