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I understood it, but I also hated it.
I liked tending bar.
I liked meeting new people and telling dickhead jerk-offs where to go when they got rude.
I didn’t want to give that up.
But that was a problem for another day because I had forty-four safes to crack.
I polished off the rest of my sandwich and blood, then headed over to the new guy.
First, he needed a name.
I gave him a good once-over, walking around the entirety of the matte black monstrosity. I could already tell he was gonna be a pain in my tit. “Wesley it is, then. After two awesome but polar opposite pain-in-the-tit vampire hunters.” I went to the far wall, collected the tools I thought I’d need, some backup tools when those failed, and backups for the backups, because a girl had to be sure.
Nestled down to eye level with the PIN pad, I stroked a finger down the exterior shell. “Tell me your secrets, Wesley.”
* * *
“Eden?”
“Ya?” I popped my head out of Diana, the diva safe. I must have looked like a prairie dog emerging from its hidey-hole because Sunny covered her mouth to suppress a giggle.
“I can’t believe you’re still down here.”
I gave her a puzzled look. “This is why I’m here, right?”
“Um, I suppose. But you haven’t taken a break in a day and a half.”
What? That couldn’t be. I surveyed the basement, stepping out from inside Diana. “Oh shit,” I mumbled as I counted how many safes I was from the door.
“I just kept bringing food and blood and you just kept working,” Sunny said with a strange half-smile as she offered me another tray with sandwiches and the perennial Starbys cup.
Without thinking, without meaning to, I blurred to her and snatched the cup from her, yanking the lid and straw off.
My fangs descended as I poured the blood down my throat.
Sunny backed all the way up the stairs as I threw the plastic cup aside and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.
We stared at each other, her eyes just as wide and confused as mine.
“I need a break,” I said around my fangs.
So embarrassing. I hadn’t lost control like that since my snatch-and-grab days.
“Yeah, why don’t you take some time to sleep and shower and get yourself together? I’m sure you’ll feel better after.”
“Yeah. totally. That’s what I need.” I climbed up the steps and pretended not to notice the quiver in Sunny’s voice or that she maintained a healthy distance.
“You need me to show you to your room?”
“No—uh, actually…” I knew the compound inside and out, but I didn’t know which room she was calling mine. “Which one’s mine?”
She gestured behind her. “It’s across the hall from the king’s suite.”
“Yeah. Of course it is.” I aimed for the king’s wing. “Thanks, Sunny,” I called behind me, but she’d already sped off to whatever it was that kept her busy.
This was bullshit. I’d stumbled across one pretty, super-old vampire two years ago, and now I was some king’s bitch?
