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Willa waved it off. “Anytime. How’ve you been?”
A loaded question. “You know. Same old. I’m taking things day by day.”
Willa nodded as her gaze turned to the crowd of people dancing and singing. “Me too. It’s like an entirely different world out here.”
Willa’s eyes narrowed. I followed her line of sight to see what had caused the look and found a woman curled up on a man’s lap, his mouth on her neck.
Shivers coursed up my spine. Their embrace looked sensual, but I couldn’t stop my gut from churning at the same time. How many times over the last ten years had Willa and I been in the same position, unwillingly, being fed on by vampires?
“No, I guess it’s not so different after all.” I pulled up the collar of my coat and greedily drank the rest of the whisky in my glass. My face had warmed and already, my mind buzzed.
“We’ll get better,” Willa said, nodding again as if it’d help convince herself it was true. I understood completely. “It’s only been a year.”
“Yeah.” I dug into my messenger bag and pulled out the gift-wrapped dagger. “Speaking of, here’s the dagger you wanted made. I finished it today.”
Willa took the package, apparently not caring how weird handing off a blade in public might be, and opened it right there on the table. A smile grew on her face the moment she looked at the blade.
“This is incredible, Aisling,” she said as she traced the runes with her fingertips. “I know how you learned to forge wasn’t the best, but you truly are great at it.”
“I’m just glad I can help you keep safe with this. It’s a wild world out here.”
Sometimes, despite the trauma and the darkness, I missed Lazarus’s feeder community, if only for the familiarity and strange camaraderie of Willa and the other feeders. Like the devil you knew was okay so long as you understood what to expect. At least then you could make plans and coping mechanisms, and everything would be the same.
Out here, all bets were off.
Willa wrapped the blade back up and slid it into her own messenger bag. It was no coincidence we both had one. Something large enough to carry our few possessions, just like back in the community. Mine contained the book that’d summoned Mrak and a few sets of clothes. Nothing else I owned mattered so much that I couldn’t stand losing it.
Blade hidden, Willa glanced back to me, tilting her head. “What about you?”
I raised my eyebrow, a little shocked by her sudden attention. “Whataboutme?”
Willa gestured toward her bag. “I’ve got a dagger made by my best friend for protection. And I know you’ve got your whole shop full of weapons. But are you safe? Do you think they’re coming after you, too?”
I swallowed hard. By now, my body was more relaxed than it had upon my arrival at Bitter Star. And perhaps more relaxed than it should have been in a bar filled with supernatural strangers. “Yes, I’m safe. I have no idea if anyone’s coming after me, though. Honestly, I haven’t thought about it.”
Because, unlike Willa, I had Mrak to keep me safe from them. It’d been part of the pact I’d made with him. But safety with Mrak was such a layered situation, as I’d seen this morning. I knew he had meant well. I knew he’d never have taken control of my body unless it had been needed. But he could have asked first and—
I was buzzed. I’d only drunk a few times when forced to in the feeder community for vampires’ pleasure, but I knew this feeling. Would it be easier for Mrak to interact with and possibly take over my body in this state? If he’d even do that again.
“Aisling?” Willa asked with a concerned twist in her brow.
“I’m fine,” I said, a little too quickly for even me to believe. Inhaling sharply, it was my turn to nod as if it’d make my words more true. I held my breath for a five-count and then released it slowly. “I’m okay, and like you said, I’m surrounded by weapons if anyone did show up looking for me.”
But I was pretty sure I’d killed most—if not all of—Lazarus’s lieutenants. If anyone from the community still existed, they’d have had to escape the fires that had burned at my command. “Command” was a bit of a stretch, though. It’d insinuate I’d had control over the magic that had burst from my palms in a fiery show of power that day.
Willa suddenly reached across the table to take my hand in hers. Aside from Mrak’s touch—which inexplicably felt as tangible as Willa’s—I hadn’t touched another person aside from Willa even in so minimal a way as holding hands since burning down the feeding community. I was impressed with myself that I hadn’t jumped again this time, and even more proud when I squeezed her hand back.
Willa and I and the other feeders had been through so much. But that was all behind us now—unless Willa was right.
“Who do you think is after you?” I asked her. Maybe Mrak could help me track them down and kill them, too.
Willa shook her head. “I’m not sure.”
“What makes you think someone survived, then?” I tried not to make it sound like I didn’t believe her. But there had to be a reason why Willa thought she was in danger.
Willa shrugged and wrapped her arms around her middle. “I just feel like someone is always watching me. You know they hated me for my magic. That’s why…”
She trailed off. It was why Lazarus and his lieutenants had kept Willa on close watch, often with her beside them all day and night. Her magic had been theirs to use right along with her blood. All the while, she hadn’t been able to use it to fight back because they had threatened her family by name.
