Letting a little grin settle on his face, he asked, “So what had your expectation been?”
“That you were going to be the worst human who’d ever humaned in the history of man.” I smiled ruefully. “I…I really don’t know why I came at you so hard. You’re Sky’s cousin, and I love that guy. I should’ve been kinder based on that. Or the fact I work for the manor and guest services is part of my job description. I wouldn’t have ever treated another guest that way.”
“Aw, stop beating yourself up.” He leaned into me, quickly bumping our sides together, then leaned back up. “You’recompletely forgiven. In some ways, I think it was good you were so hard on me. It made me examine myself—my motives, my actions, how I was treating my employees and fans.”
He’d just made that way easier than he had to. Didn’t that speak to who he was? This man literally felt like his life had been ruined. He was shattered by his transformation. Half an hour ago, he’d been destroying his own house in his rage.
But now, here he sat, instantly forgiving me. “You’re wrong about one thing, though.”
He snorted. “I knew it was too good to be true.” He laughed, taking away the guilt as it started. “Lay it on me, Scotty.”
“You might not be alive the way you were before you were bitten, but, Ego, your soul’s not dead. Your heart hasn’t hardened to blackness. You’re still you, whether you want to believe it or not.” Inspiration struck, and I turned to him. “Didn’t Lysandro say that after the change, all of his senses were amplified?”
“Yeah, but he meant like, the food he liked before, he liked better now, and if he didn’t like it before, he can’t tolerate it at all now.”
“Right? But isn’t it possible that it goes for who you are inside, too? Like, I don’t want to stroke your little ol’ ego—” I cut off, horrified by the way that sounded.
A small hiccup-giggle came out of Ego, then a chuckle, before he was full-belly laughing. “I’m…so…sorry,” he managed to get out. “I didn’t realize I asked you to…to…to…stroke…” He broke out into a new wave of laughter.
Pretending to be aggravated, I stood up and glared down at him. “Fine. No compliment for you.” Then I stormed back to my chair with enough sass that he’d know I was kidding.
I wasn’t lying. He’d lost his chance at drawing a compliment out of me today, but there would be another time and another opportunity. Now that I’d prepared his sustenance, pissed himoff, and apologized—sort of—it was time to address why I was really here. He had to listen to his mentor whether he liked it or not. And he needed to trust his family. Hopefully, he’d be reasonable.
Chapter 12
Ego
Tonight wasthe first time in the last week that Lysandro came over and slit his wrist in front of me, draining his blood into a cup from the cupboard for me to drink from. It had been good to see him, but even better to get my elixir freshly from the source.
I’d braced myself for his endless lecturing when he sat down and made himself comfortable, but instead, we talked about Dead Air. In the time since he’d last been here, he’d gone to my channel and watched every video. He even had a favorite, which gave me an unexpected boost of pleasure, like a favorite teacher praising my last essay.
When he caught me darting glances at the front hall, he assured me that Scotty wouldn’t be joining us this evening like it was a good thing. Considering all he did was gripe and harp on me for not talking to Sky, you’d think I’d be happy about his absence, but…I wasn’t.
I wasn’t sure Scotty actually liked me any more than he had previously, but I found his presence soothing in a way that I didn’t with Delaney or Lysandro. Which was honestly more surprising with Delaney than Lysandro. She was my manager,assistant, and friend. She’d been by my side since the beginning of my career.
Maybe Scotty’s presence was like a balm because he was currently my only link and connection to my cousin. Sky’s text messages and attempts to video message had ramped up lately. I kept sending him brief check-ins that all was well, but his concern was on a knife’s edge between sheer panic and anger. I just…I wasn’t ready. Once he knew, this—my new life—would all be real in a way I’d no longer be able to deny.
After Lysandro left, I went through my nightly routine of pulling my amp and guitar from the closet I was storing them in, then set up the tripod and phone, ready to record my latest Dead Air song.
The desperately despondent place these songs were coming from required no preparation, no scribbling on random pieces of paper while the song lyrics composed themselves, no fiddling around on my guitar trying to find the right chords. The minute I sat down, they were just there.
If I had it in me to work on my next Ego album—if I even thought there would be another—this process would be epic, but alas…the popstar known as Ego was dead, leaving a husk of a man?—vampire?—in its place.
As I settled in, ready to record, I heard the familiar thump, thump, thump of Scotty’s heartbeat from outside. With no more than a thought, I moved to the window and stared out into the darkness. No Scotty, no car, just nothingness. Great. Now my imagination was conjuring the younger man.
Shoving down my disappointment, I let go of the heavy drape, letting it fall, only to hear the thump echoing with the sounds of a vehicle. Spinning, I looked again, peering past the darkness, beyond the corpse of trees, until I saw it. Scotty was coming down the hidden side road that led to my prison.
As much as I didn’t want him to catch me watching for him out the window, I couldn’t move. How had I heard his heartbeat from so far away? For that matter, how had I heard his car or been able to peer through the slivers of space between trees and bushes to see him out there moving toward me?
That had never happened before, and I spent each night waiting for him to bring me Lysandro’s blood in such anxious anticipation that I focused on hearing his arrival. As usual, he used the keypad to gain entrance into the house.
“What are you doing here?” I whispered as soon as he was close enough.
“What? Were you hoping you got rid of me?” he teased, going straight to the couch and dropping into my space.
“No.” Turning, I gulped at how loudly the beat of his heart had grown, at the volume that his blood hummed, calling to me. Scared by my visceral reaction to him, I clasped the amulet, ensuring it was still there, but also drawing strength from it. “It’s just…” I gulped again. “So late.”
“Or early, depending on how you look at it.” He grinned. “I actually took a nap and set my alarm so that we could talk.”
