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I try not to think about that. Like, logically I know my vampire roomie is centuries old, but it makes my head spin when I focus on that tidbit too closely. I’m only twenty-six, a mere baby compared to him, and I get that I’m a fully mature adult, but it’s still a little… weird to me that my bi-centennial buddy is interested in fucking me.
If I didn’t think it would ruin our friendship when I can’t quite reciprocate his feelings for me, I might. But since I’d much rather have a true friend instead of just a friends with benefits, I purposely shove that idea out of my head.
It’s eleven flights from the ground level to our balcony. I scurry up them, hoping that no one is watching me go, leaping when I reach the last stair.
Aleks leaves the balcony door open for occasions just like this. Considering this is a vamp building and everyone on our block knows Aleks, we don’t have to worry about anyone breaking in. It… it’s just not done in a Fang City. But on the few occasions I shift and need to get back inside of the apartment and he’s not here, he keeps the balcony door set so even a blonde wolf can shove her way inside.
Since I’m still in my skin, I use my hand to push the door open.
Aleks is sitting on the couch, glasses slipping down his nose as he reads his book.
I wave in greeting. “Hey.”
I know for sure that Aleks picked up on my arrival as soon as I set foot on the first rung of the fire escape. Not because of me, but because of his fang. He’s in tune with it, and even with it stuffed in my pocket, he can sense it and know where it is. He’s not rude, though. Instead of staring at the balcony, waiting for me to pop up, he continued to finish his page until I made my presence known with a greeting.
Once I did, he sets his book aside, lips curving in a welcoming grin that has my stomach going tight—and it has nothing to do with the hint of his fangs biting into the lush bottom one.
I have to brace myself whenever I look at him straight on. He’s too pretty and, even after knowing him for a year, I tend to get a little drool-ly when he catches me unaware. Between his flawless pale skin, his carelessly tousled caramel-colored curls, and a stunning pair of light green eyes, he’s otherworldly.
It’s not his fault. He’s a vampire. Snaring his prey is part of the job description. When Aleks turns his attention on you, you feel like the only person in the whole damn world. He can talk you into anything.
A sip of blood? Anything you say, Aleksander…
Good thing he’s never tried that on me. I mean, I’d probably let him feed, but when I came around again? I’d rip his dick right off, and since he’s hopeful that he’ll get to stick it inside of me sooner or later, I’m pretty safe from his vampire lure.
One good thing about being myself with Aleks? He knows I’m a wolf, and he knows I don’t bluff. When I threaten his dick, I mean it, and maybe it’ll regenerate like his fangs do, but he’s not about to test that theory.
I don’t blame him.
“Evening, Gem,” he says, a smile that’s charm-free but still pretty fucking irresistible. I’m glad I braced myself. “Tea’s in the kitchen for you. I’m glad you’ll get to drink it hot tonight.”
His voice is cultured. Relaxed. Now that I know him, I catch a hint of his accent—Polish, I’ve discovered—in even the simplest of sentences; around those he trusts, he lets down his guard enough not to consciously work to cover it.
He’s in a good mood, I notice, though that’s nothing new. On nights that I make it back before he has to go out and patrol for the Cadre, he’s always pleased.
I try not to read too much into it. “You’re the best.”
“Mm.” He pauses for a moment. “I noticed you forgot to drink it last night.”
Oops.
“I meant to, but I passed out while watching my show,” I tell him. “I guess I didn’t need it, but I’m looking forward to some tonight.”
Aleks’s tea is one of the traditions we’ve built together since I moved in. It’s technically a chamomile tea, and the first few times he made it for me, he said it was to help me relax so that I could sleep. Having spent my whole life living in a pack—the Western Pack, Lakeview, Mountainside—I was used to the quiet of a rural setting. Living in a city was a huge adjustment for me. If he thought the tea would help, I was willing to try anything—after he swallowed it first, of course.
Even though Aleks has always been honest with me, I couldn’t quite shake the feeling that there was something he wasn’t telling me about the tea. He brushed me off when I asked, and that just pissed me off so I refused to take another sip.
And that’s when he admitted that it was a chamomile blend. And that blend? It was designed to help hide my scent so that the other vamps didn’t figure out that I was a shifter.
Of course I freaked the fuck out. He said scent, and I started to think he was doing something to my wolf. I shifted right in the middle of the kitchen just to prove to myself that I still could, then shifted back to test that. I forgot that non-shifters treated nudity differently than we did in the pack, and I showed Aleks all of my goods in the heat of the moment.
Surprisingly, he shrugged off his own shirt, giving it to me to cover up since I was in no state of mind to realize why standing in the middle of a stranger’s kitchen butt-naked might be inappropriate. I’d only known him for one week at that point, and I was still licking my wounds from Ryker’s rejection.
I understood why I needed to hide out even more than Aleks did, but still. I refused to pull the shirt on until he fully explained his blend.
Since then, I’ve had a cup of tea every night almost religiously, and Aleks hasn’t been able to convince me to get naked in front of him ever again. I used to tease him that he wasted his only opportunity, but when he came clean about his feelings for me, it didn’t feel right to joke anymore.
Though the fang is supposed to cover me, I’m grateful that the chamomile tea gives it a boost. In case I forget to wear the necklace or—oops—I break it, I’m still protected.
