“The others might,” I reminded her.
“Others?” she echoed the word.
“The party.” I lifted the shoulder closest to the door as if pointing her toward the missing clue. “We’re all vampires.”
“Oh. That explains it!” It sounded like she wanted to giggle. Perhaps she was prone to hysterics. That was common in cases of shock. But she didn’t dissolve into a fit. She bit her lip like she was restraining a smile.
I needed her to stop doing interesting things with her mouth. It was giving me ideas. Bad ideas. Very, very bad ideas. Ideas we would both thoroughly enjoy.
“It explains what?” I forced myself to ask.
“Nothing!”
I arched an eyebrow. “I told you my secret.”
She considered for a moment, and then she answered me. Thea Melbourne might resist my efforts to compel her, but she obviously appreciated the concept of give and take.
“You’re all so good-looking,” she blurted out.
“That’s what you noticed?” Humanity was doomed. Still, I felt an unfamiliar twinge in my chest. Who else had she been looking at?
Before I could press her on it, a small moan interrupted us. I swiveled in surprise, and Thea took an unsteady step toward me. But she didn’t fall into my arms. She pushed by me and rushed straight to the woman in the toilet stall.
“Carmen?” she called in a panic. She turned to me with searching eyes. “Is she dead?”
I paused to listen for a heartbeat. I’d been too distracted by Thea to worry about the young vampire’s victim. I could hear the racing beat of Thea’s heart, the organ pumping so loudly that it took me a moment to make out the much fainter one in the room.
“She’s alive,” I said grimly.
“I thought he killed her,” Thea whispered. Guilt flitted over her pretty face but didn’t settle. When she continued, I understood why. “I didn’t even think to help her. I just stood here. I couldn’t move.”
There wasn’t time to explain compulsion to her. Her friend’s heartbeat was growing fainter. She was near death. Any moment now, she would pass into the next life. The jealousy I’d felt earlier was nothing compared to the bitterness taking hold of me now. But one more look at Thea’s stricken face erased it. She blamed herself. She shouldn’t, but humans were rarely rational creatures.
“I can heal her,” I said softly, ignoring the fact that I shouldn’t. Because it was definitely not part of my plan to get any deeper into the pile of shit I’d found myself in. “But I can’t let her remember any of this.”
Thea’s tongue darted over her lip, her shoulders setting with determination, as she nodded. She moved to the side, giving me enough room to reach the victim.
“How…” she began but trailed away as I drew one manicured finger across a vein on my wrist. Bringing it to the other woman’s lips, I held it there until she began to drink. I felt Thea’s eyes watching me as I fed my blood to her friend.
After a few sips, her dark eyes fluttered sleepily. I drew my wrist away and took a handkerchief from my pocket. Carmen bolted up–or tried to. Thea knelt quickly to steady her.
“What happened?” Carmen asked. She blinked a few times. Confusion was normal. She had lost a lot of blood, but there were also the aftereffects of feeding on vampire blood. “Why am I here?”
Thea chewed on her lower lip, searching for what to say. I tried to ignore the attention she was drawing to her mouth and failed. So I returned to dealing with the mess the reckless vampire had left behind.
“You fell,” I said. Carmen startled at the sound of my voice, but as soon as she looked at me, she relaxed.
“I did?”
“Yes.” Unlike Thea, she showed no resistance to my manipulations. “You tripped on your gown and hit your head on the toilet. Thea found you.”
Her eyes widened in horror, and she glared at Thea. “I fell on the toilet,” she shrieked, her voice hitting a pitch I hadn’t thought humanly possible until this moment, “and you brought a man to help me?”
“I can see you’re fine now,” Thea said with a sigh. She glanced over at me. “You can go. I’ll take care of her.”
“Not fucking likely,” I snapped. By my count, I’d saved her life twice tonight. I wasn’t letting her out of my sight.
Thea squared her petite shoulders and stared me down. “Then wait outside.”
I didn’t budge.
“Please,” she added.
“I’ll find someone to deal with this mess.” I turned back to the other woman. “You feel fine. You’ll walk out of here without noticing the body. You won’t remember the attack. You only remember smashing your head on the toilet.”
“Thank you. I’ve got it from here,” Thea’s voice shook a bit.
My eyes narrowed, but I stalked toward the door. Not only was this tiny mortal not afraid of me, but she was also giving me orders. I slammed the door behind me and melted into the shadows to wait. This time, she hurried. My blood has done its job. There was no sign that anything had happened to Carmen when they exited the restroom. I only hoped Thea hadn’t told her what really happened. Were they close?
I should find my brother. Sebastian had to be here by now. He could erase Thea’s memories of the night. She could continue her normal life. As for me, I would see to my obligations. I would settle on some perfectly adequate familiar and see to the family business of marrying. Somehow that plan felt even less appealing than before, and before, I would have rather been staked.
“Thank you for your assistance,” Carmen said, still avoiding my eyes. She was embarrassed by her understanding of tonight’s events. “I can see myself back from here.”
She glanced over at Thea and smiled tightly.
“Of course,” I said, letting her pass. She walked confidently but swiftly down the dark hall and back to the party. As soon as she disappeared into the shadows, I turned to offer Thea my arm.
She just glared at me, not moving an inch. “Wait, a second. Why can she just wander off without a chaperone?”
