Page 27 of Fangbanger

The feeling from earlier corkscrews in my chest, spiraling tighter and constricting my organs. If I could breathe, I suspect it would be stealing that function too.

“No snappy retort before I disappear?”

“Nope.” Another shot. “You’re right.”

I take a few steps into the living room, wary, not sure how she’ll react. Her eyes are silvered in moonlight, and I wonder briefly if she’ll try to stake me. She looks feral and drunk enough to try.

“Right about what?” I ask.

“I should be so lucky.”

I reach the kitchen. Her shoulders are tense, even though her face is blank. “You should be so lucky as to feel me feeding?” I tip my head, not sure what she means.

She shrugs. “Probably the closest I’m going to get to connection for a while.”

“You weren’t going to feel a connection with Dean?”

“No.” She barks a laugh. “I was just asking him to drive me. I didn’t want to feel you with her.”

“Why not?”

She shakes her head. “This is dumb. I should eat something and sober up.”

“Tell me.” I fold my arms. It’s a move that has intimidated many a young vampire, but her gaze flicks to my upper arms, then away, but not before her tongue swipes over her bottom lip.

“She hates me.”

My teeth grind. No one gets to hate the slayer except for me.

“I killed her brother.”

I freeze.

“That’s how they all looked at me.” She slumps against the counter. “Sirens lose control of their powers sometimes when they hit puberty. We were on a class trip to a human waterpark. The older students were supposed to fit in with the humans for the day. Practice, I guess. Dawn’s brother was an asshole, and he’d gotten in trouble for luring students before, but this time he lured a human girl into the pool and held her under the water. I couldn’t get her free. He was feeding from her, and she was seconds from drowning. I staked him with a piece of railing I tore off one of the slides.”

Her lids flutter shut. I picture her, a slight teenager, with those big, sad eyes, her parents gone, going up against an older siren for a human.

No one I know would do that.

“You saved her life.”

She gives me a sad smile. “And ensured that the town would be waiting for me to snap and kill a cousin or an aunt for the rest of my life. Dawn’s family is the richest and most influential in town. She spread rumors about me that I still hear, even over a decade later.” She rolls her shoulders. “So there you have it. The whole sad story. I’m alone. I’ve been alone, and I’ll probably always be alone. Most of the time I’m fine with it.”

“But tonight you weren’t.” I cock my head, watching the play of emotion across her face. Her throat moves in hard swallows, like she’s warring with herself. She’s lovely in the moonlight coming in her kitchen windows, even sad. I feel the unwelcome urge to wrap my arms around her and pull her against my chest.

I scowl at myself. The bond is a heady thing. No one warned me it would make me soft for her.

“I was drunk. That’s all. Like I said, I just didn’t want to feel you feeding from her. But with distance, I’m sure it will be fine.”

It will get worse, until I crave her and only her and I’m compelled to bind her to me or walk away forever. But fine is not how it would feel between us. It would be incendiary.

I should stop myself from moving toward her, from liking the way her head jerks and her pulse rabbits in her throat.

I should go back to the bar, find a willing victim, and lose myself in them. But instead I say, “It’s far better than fine. I’ll show you. If you’d like.”

16

LEAH