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“I doubt we’ll ever find a good time,” he muttered, thrusting his arm against my mouth. “Now, drink, before Missy figures out what we’re doing.” With nothing else I to say, I chomped on his wrist. Gabriel yelped, prompting a smile against his skin. Unusual for me, I knew, but I could hear Missy and Dick’s argument winding down. Gabriel winced as I drew huge mouthfuls of his blood.
Zeb watched, coming closer and closer. “Is it going to be a Popeye thing? She eats her spinach and has the strength of twenty squinty sailors?”
“How have you survived this long without someone hurting you?” Gabriel asked as I finished feeding. I wiped a drip from my chin and offered Zeb a red-tinged grin. He recoiled, clearly grossed out.
Gabriel pulled a handkerchief from nowhere and dabbed at my mouth.
“I love it when he does that,” Zeb said, looking Gabe over for hidden pockets. “Why can’t I be a cool sleight-of-hand guy?”
“You’ve got a huge man crush on him, don’t you?” I said, shaking my head.
Zeb measured “this much” sexual confusion with his fingers.
The sudden drop in volume signaled that Missy had finally noticed us.
“Gabriel, I do believe what you just did could be considered cheating,” Missy said, her voice teasing and pouting.
“Do not attempt to explain the ancient codes to me,” he growled.
Missy ignored the chill in Gabriel’s tone. “Then I can count on you to mind your own business and let us girls sort this out.”
“You can count on me to keep this farce as close to the codes as possible. And if by some misfortune you happen to kill my bloodmate, I will make you wish for dawn.”
Bloodmate? What was that, exactly? It sounded like something I didn’t necessarily want to be. But the term seemed to have an effect on Missy. The supreme Tony Robbins-bred confidence melted away for a second before she flashed a guileless grin. “I’ll just let you two say your good-byes.”
“She’s really good at that intimidating smack-talk stuff,” I said, watching her flounce away. “Any advice?”
“Keep your hands up,” Gabriel said. “Protect your neck and chest at all times. And don’t try any of those fancy women’s self-defense tactics. She probably took the same classes when she was alive, and she’ll be expecting them.”
Before I could retort, Gabriel crushed me close and gave me a bloodless, friendly smack on the lips. He smiled. “For luck.”
“Idiot,” I said, before grinning broadly and crushing his mouth to mine.
“We need to pick new pet names for each other,” he muttered as I hefted myself up from the ground.
Honestly, how did someone who never once got into a fight in school end up getting into so many of them as an adult? Missy was standing in the middle of the yard, in a worn circle of dirt. I felt like that first anonymous fighter who gets killed off in the Jean -
Claude Van Damme cage-fighter movies. Missy smiled, and I circled.
“I guess we’re going to get to have that little catfight after all,” Missy said, rolling her shoulders.
“I’m not worried. If you kill me, my dead great-aunt will fix it so you spend eternity looking for your car keys,” I said.
I felt the power of Gabriel’s blood coursing through me, warming me, giving me that drunk driver’s confidence that maybe I could make it home. The burns on my arms had finally healed over. And the wound in my shoulder was a shiny, slightly sore memory.
“Question. Did you actually wear that Juicy Couture track suit with this in mind?”
Missy scowled. “If we’re going to talk fashion, shug, I think we need to start with those Payless specials you wear.”
“Ow, I wear cheap shoes, you got me,” I deadpanned. “Let’s just cut the banter and fight. I feel the need to warn you, I’m a hair puller.”
“I feel the need to warn you,” Missy said, before simply punching me right in the eye.
I responded by collapsing to the ground. That’d show her.
Can someone punch you in the head so hard that it actually decapitates you? Because Missy came close.
From my position on the ground, I could see the heel of Missy’s shoe on a collision course with my throat. I rolled, ramming into her shins and knocking her off balance. She fell on her butt with an outraged “uhff” and kicked up, launching me about twenty feet in the air. Giddy from the fall, I landed on my feet but didn’t have time to avoid the crushing kick to my solar plexus. I stumbled back, making a sound not found in human language, and struck out, punching her in the eye. She swung blind, dragging her frosted-pink nails down my chest. I swiped my fingers under my shirt and found blood streaked across them.
