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“Fine,” I said after a moment. “Find a private room with a first aid kit, and we’ll talk.”
Chapter Seven
“Give me that,” I said, holding out a hand for the curved needle and thread. “I can thread it. And stop holding your breath around me. It makes you look constipated.”
Rook fixed me with a dirty look, but didn’t hand over the needle and he didn’t say a word, apparently unwilling to waste what untainted air he had left. I rolled my eyes and snatched the thread from his hand. The curved surgical needle was different than the straight needles I was used to handling around Wanda and her endless sewing projects, but I managed to guide it through the eye after a few tries. He eyed me curiously when I handed it back to him.
“I’m not holding my breath,” he answered.
I frowned at him because I knew better. “Don’t make yourself uncomfortable on my behalf,” I insisted. “I know you don’t have to breathe, but it’s still an impulse. I’m told you do it automatically, even though you don’t need the oxygen anymore. Just one of those holdovers from humanity.”
Rook blew out a breath and straightened my arm out on a stone bench. We’d found a defunct corridor to work in after he stole what we needed from the nurse’s station. He’d also purloined a few towels, using one to wipe down the workstation, the next to staunch my bleeding head wound, and another to catch any blood that spilled when he tried to treat me.
“Know a lot of vampires, do you?”
“Seven of them, actually.” He appeared surprised at that. “There used to be eleven in Haven Hollow, but Marius and Mihaela decided to move, and took their kids with them.”
Technically, they’d only had one undead child left when they decided to move, but I didn’t see the point in muddying the waters by mentioning her murder. Rook would assume, and I didn’t want to make an ass out of him just yet.
Rook blinked. He couldn’t have looked more surprised if I’d hit him with my static shock hex. “What?” he asked.
“What to what part?” I demanded.
“You know seven vampires?” I nodded, and he continued to frown. “How?”
“Haven Hollow,” I answered on a shrug, repeating the words slowly for his benefit, secretly gratified when my tone made a muscle in his jaw tic.
“What about it?”
“I’ve been living there with my cousin for a while now.”
“I thought your coven was from Portland?”
I shook my head. “That was my old coven.”
“Oh.”
“The new coven is basically why the Grimsbanes hate me.”
“What’s different about your new coven?”
I shrugged. “We aren’t all witches.”
“Is that even possible for a coven not to be all witches?”
“It exists so, yes, it’s possible.” I took a breath. “And the Grimsbanes think it’s disgraceful behavior to fraternize with Blood Witches and Blood Warlocks, vampires, and gypsies.”
“And those people make up your coven?”
“Well, they make up some of my coven. We also have other witches, but all were kicked out of their covens for one reason or another.”
“So… you’re like the reject coven?”
I frowned at him. “If that’s how you want to think of us. I think of us more as… progressive.”
He nodded and then studied my face for a moment, eyes going round when he realized I wasn’t pulling his leg. I couldn’t blame him. Two years ago, I would have thought it was a joke too. Life in Haven Hollow had completely upended my worldview. I wasn’t just comfortable being around vampires. Under the right circumstances with the right person, I could see myself becoming one of them. Sixteen-year-old Astrid would have been horrified. Eighteen-year-old Astrid was just tired of all the prejudice.
“What?” I asked when he continued to stare at me. “No pithy comeback? I’m disappointed in you, Checkers.”
