“I can’t decide if you’re an utter romantic for that bit of fiction,” Cass said, “or if you’re the bitterest, most twisted soul I have ever had the great fortune to meet.”
I paused in stomping on my boots. “Can’t I be both?”
“Uh, no.” She popped me on the butt. “You either believe in love, or you don’t.”
“I believe in—” I yelped when she smacked me again, harder this time. “Quit that.”
“I meant romantic love, and you know it.” She rubbed the sting from my bottom until I danced out of her reach. “What? I can’t resist your pert little butt in leather.”
What she couldn’t resist was unnerving me. Vampires had twisted senses of humor, and Cass’s was an endless downward spiral.
The joke here wasn’t that she thought a woman touching me would get under my skin, but that anyone touching my private bits made me squirm.
Playing nurse full-time for Hadley so Mom and Dad could keep up appearances meant I’d never had much of a social life. I had kissed boys, sure, but that had never convinced me to let them go any further. Lucky for me, the rumor mill swore my future husband had enough practice in that area for both of us. I could just lay back, relax, and allow him to inseminate me.
“Save it for your clients.” I pointed the blunt end of a stake at her. “I’m engaged.”
“Your lip curled on the word. Try it again.” She fluttered her lashes. “Mrs. Boaz Pritchard. Matron Boaz Pritchard.” She considered the Society hierarchy for a moment. “Matron Adelaide Pritchard? Whatever.”
“Matron Pritchard.”
The new title hurt my ears, the position more curse than blessing. I should have been Matron Whitaker, I should have inherited the mantle of matron from my mother—not Boaz’s—but should have beens didn’t pay the mortgage, buy food, or keep the lights on. They sure didn’t pay for medicine or for nurses to hover over sickbeds like angels come to Earth.
“You’re grinding your teeth again.” Cass frowned. “Forget Pritchard. Let’s hunt.”
Relief eased the tightness in my shoulders, and I strapped on my knives. “That’s the best idea I’ve heard all night.”
Two
Cass and I didn’t bother sneaking out of the house. I could no longer afford to pay a maid or a cook or a driver, and Dad had retired to his room. There was no one to catch us making our hasty exit.
As fake as my drinking act might be, his was very real and had been since Mom died. Yet another reason why I trusted him to ignore my faked drunkenness. Confronting my bad habits would mean facing his own issues.
Our bloodline brushed as close to High Society as any Low Society family could boast. We had power in our blood, and we could work small magics. Not that the past few generations of Whitakers had honed those talents or put them to good use.
The Pritchards might be as Low Society as it got, but their matrons were savvy, and their coffers were full. I might not want to exchange my last name for Boaz’s, but I had done worse to keep my family fed and clothed. Even if I tasted bile when I thought about losing what I had fought so long and so hard to preserve.
Maybe Boaz would consider hyphenating his last name? Whitaker-Pritchard or Pritchard-Whitaker was easier to swallow than erasing my identity altogether.
“You’re thinking about marriage again,” Cass singsonged. “You realize he’ll want to have sex with you. That means he’s going to touch you, kiss you, nibble on your—”
“How many years were you a prostitute again?”
“Plenty.” She leaned in, bosoms heaving. “Would you like to see what I learned?”
“I’ve watched porn with you and listened to your critiques.” I shooed her out the door. “I’m set, thanks.”
“Now that’s just mean.” Popping out her bottom lip, she pouted. “That wasn’t porn. That was an adult film.”
Cass was the rare vampire who relished dumping her past identities and embracing new roles. Most clung to what they knew and went mad from it in the end. She would never have to worry about that.
“As much as I enjoy discussing my best friend’s sexual exploits, we have a job to do. Remember?”
“You’re about to be married.” She sighed dramatically. “Have fun while you still can.”
“Anonymous sex isn’t my idea of fun.”
“How do you know until you try it?”
“I’ll make you a deal.” I spun it around on her. “Keep it in your pants for thirty days, and I’ll have the one-night stand of your choice.”
“It’s a…” She wet her lips, tried again. “It’s a…” Her mouth moved, but no sound emerged. “It’s a…”
“Deal is the word you’re looking for,” I said helpfully. “Come on, say it.”
“Damn it, Addie. That’s not fair. I have needs.”
“And I don’t.” I had made it this long without sex. I wasn’t in any hurry to rectify the situation given who the rectifier would be. “So stop bullying me.”
“I don’t mean to push.” She picked at her manicured nails. “I just worry.”
Vampires her age didn’t express affection the way necromancers did. They mostly bit or sexed up the ones they loved. Since I wasn’t interested in either, she was at a loss as to how to show me she cared. I tried letting her hug me once, but she took off her shirt first and pressed my face into her boob crack. It was a very nice boob crack, but it didn’t do much for me except give me perkiness envy.
“You don’t have to anymore.” I tacked on a smile. “I’m engaged, and Prince Charming will fix all my problems. Haven’t you read any fairy tales?”
“I was alive when a few were written,” she said dryly. “Trust me, the writers took artistic license. Except with the prince-kissing-sleeping-princesses thing. Sure, he claimed he was attempting to wake her, but he didn’t have to stick his hand up her skirt to find her mouth.”
“You ruined one of my favorites for me. Thank you for that disturbing mental picture.”
“Men are pigs.” She shrugged. “What did you expect?”
“Them not to put the moves on unconscious women?”
“You’re so adorable.” She stroked her fingers through my hair. “You and all your cute little ideals.”
The hunger in her eyes wasn’t new. She would bite me in a heartbeat if I let her. That’s the danger of being friends with a vampire. She would also dry hump me if I stood still for too long. Again, the danger of being friends with a vampire.
From what I could tell, even those with firmly entrenched sexual identities as humans reached an age where they became gender blind. Bodies became bodies to them, and pleasure could be found in either form. Since I was a stick in the mud—her words, not mine—any pleasure she derived from me came from annoying me until I reminded her of my flawless aim with a stake.
“Any idea where we can find Ron?” I swatted her hand. “Or are we starting from scratch?”
Cass knew most of the local vampires, which made tracking runners that much easier.