Chapter 4

More bad flirting behind the cut.

“And then you just left?” Milly asked, staring at me with wide eyes.

I chuckled, dragging a comb through my damp hair. “Well, yeah.”

“Whir, stir, thank you, sir.”

Snorting, I said, “Never say that again.”

Milly rolled her eyes. “Did you at least get his number.”

I stared at her. “What for?”

She shrugged. “I dunno, in case you’re up for another round or something.”

“That isn’t how random bar hook-ups usually work,” I replied, shaking my head.

“I wouldn’t know,” she said primly.

After our encounter in the alley, both of us had tucked ourselves back in, shot satisfied smiles at each other, and left. I’d come straight back to the Parkers’ to shower and get ready for bed, fighting yawns the whole way. Of course, in true girl-talk fashion, Milly had been waiting on the bed in the guest room when I got out.

“Hey,” Milly said suddenly, “you should come to school with me tomorrow.”

I laughed. “You just want me to drive you.”

“Nuh-uh,” she said. “Well, it would be cool to drive in your car some more, but the first half of the day is just this stupid career fair thing. No one would even notice, but we could sign you up as a guest just to be safe.”

“Okay,” I said. “I don’t have to have those papers back until Monday, so I guess it beats sitting around here by myself.”

“Great, see ya in the morning.” She got up from my bed and headed toward the door.

“Hey, wait,” I called after her. “What time does your school start?”

“Oh, you know,” she said, all nonchalant. “Eight fifteen.”

I fell back against the bed with a groan.

“So,” I said, “this is high school, huh?”

Kids my age and a little younger milled about the commons area. It was pretty easy to see what kid went where, by clothes, by hairstyle, by attitude. I was in a simple t-shirt that brought the green out in my hazel eyes and some jeans, not having any idea if there was something special kids these days wore to school.

Milly laughed. “Yeah. Believe me when I say you’re not missing much.”

That appeared to be an understatement. True to her word, Milly’s “stupid career fair thing” was, imagine that, pretty stupid. The entire commons area had been hijacked for it, tables and booths set up every few feet. Each station had little bowls of candy, pens and pencils, and other little trinkets. They even had plastic bags with the business’ logo on it to put all the goodies in.

Weirdly, to me, at least, there were even some colleges that had booths every now and then.

I pointed them out with a nod of my head. “I thought this was a career fair.”

She shrugged. “A few schools always show up. We actually have something like this but for college specifically in a few weeks.”

I didn’t manage to stifle the groan.

Milly fake-slugged me. “Oh, shut up. It’s not like you’ll be around then anyway.

“Yeah, my heart is breaking about that.”

She sniffed and trotted off to raid some peanut butter cups from a booth about oil drilling. I stayed where I was, shaking my head fondly. The familiar prickle of someone coming up behind me danced along my neck, but before I could turn around I heard a strangely familiar voice.

“I knew you weren’t legal.”

I turned to Ira with a coy smile and a canted brow. “I’m eighteen, thank you very much.”

His smile widened as he wiped his forehead theatrically. “Guess I’m off the hook then.”

He was dressed a lot more casually than he had been last night, in nice jeans and a long sleeved shirt with a college logo on it. I assumed he was here for one of the college booths, and opened my mouth to mercilessly tease him about this. But then I noticed his eyes. The iris was completely black, as dark as the pupil. I stared for a second, remembering the coolness of his skin against mine.

“Your eyes,” I said.

Ira shrugged self-consciously. “It’s a hereditary thing. It’s called—”

“Aniridia,” I broke in. “Yeah, I know. Just surprised me. I didn’t notice last night.”

He gave me a cocky, shit-eating grin. “Well, you did have other things on your mind.”

“Oh, please,” I snorted.

“So,” he said. “All that stuff about moving around for work?”

“Was the God’s honest truth,” I said. “I’m only here because I have to take all these tests to prove I’m not some slacker, and actually learning stuff on my own.”

Nodding his dark head, he replied, “I gotcha.” He gestured around us. “What are you doing here?”

I pointed out where Milly was, currently collecting some old school bubble-gum. “That’s the friend I’m staying with while I’m here. She asked me to come.” I shrugged. “So I did.”

Cracking a grin, I poked the logo on his chest. “What are you doing here?”

He had the sense to look embarrassed. “Just the usual college bullshit. Trying to round up some suckers to apply.” He gave me a wide-eyed earnest smile. “You interested?”

I stepped close enough to breathe against his neck. “I may suck, but I’m no sucker.”

Ira had to swallow before he replied. “I didn’t have that particular pleasure.”

I hooked one shoulder, a what-can-ya-do smile on my face.

There was a matching smile on Ira’s. “Got any plans for later?”

“Nope.” I shook my head. “I just got here, so I don’t know what there is to do on the weekend.”

“Honestly? Not that much,” he said. “Get drunk or high, mostly.”

“Gee,” I drawled, “sign me up.”

He held up a finger. “But I do know this good mom-and-pop diner that serves an amazing pie. We could go grab a slice, if you’re interested.

Cocking my head, I replied, “Ira, are you asking me out?”

“Why not?” he said, grinning. “I mean, we’ve already had sex, so no pressure, right?”

I laughed. “Right.”

“Besides, I have to know more about a guy who’s up for a quick-and-dirty in an alley,” his eyes swept up my body, and I had to restrain a sudden shiver.

“Give me the address of this little place, and I’ll see what I can do,” I said, interested despite myself.

He sighed. “I could just pick you up, but this is another one of your paranoid things, isn’t it?”

“Cautious,” I reminded him.

A skinny girl with blond hair came around the corner, calling his name. We said our goodbyes and he left. Milly rejoined me as I was watching him walk away. It was a good view.

“That’s him, isn’t it?” she asked, following my gaze. “Or did you make another random hook-up?”

I chuckled. “No, that’s him. Thanks for thinking so highly of my slut-points, though.”

She shrugged. “Hey, at least you have some. I’ve never even rounded second.”

I blinked at her. “What?”

Rolling her eyes, she replied, “Second base? You know, sexually.”

“Oh, right.” I shook my head. “Sports metaphors are not my thing.”

“So, you learn anything more about him?” Milly asked as we continued walking through the booths.

Casually, I said. “No, not really. Oh, except for I’m pretty sure he’s a vampire.”

For a few seconds, Milly stared at me, utterly uncomprehending. Then she said, voice low, “What?”

“I think he’s a vampire,” I said.

“You think?”

“Well, I’m pretty sure.”

“What makes you say that?” she asked.

I help up fingers as I counted off. “For one thing, his skin was cool last night in the bar. I didn’t think about it at the time. It was pretty cold that night. Number two, the lube never got warm from him touching it, which I also didn’t think about at the time, and I noticed just now that he has completely black eyes.”

Milly pinched the bridge of her nose. “Do I wanna ask about the lube thing?”

“Despite what trashy teen novels will tell you,” I began, “vampires are not deathly cold. They aren’t technically alive, yeah, but they do have low levels of energy running through their bodies keeping stuff working. It’s not enough to really heat them up, like humans, but there’s some energy there. Most vampires are a few degrees above room temperature.”

With a shrug, I finished. “So, in the cold air of last night his skin wouldn’t have been very warm.”

“And it wasn’t?”

“Nope. Not enough to warm up lube, anyway.”

She grimaced. “God, I didn’t need to know that.”

“Hey, you asked,” I said.

“Next time, stop me.”

“Duly noted.”

Almost as if she couldn’t help herself, she glanced back to where he’d been. “Did you call him out on it?”

I shook my head. “No, we just bantered for a sec and then he asked me out for pie.”

Milly snorted. “And you shot him down, right?”

“If by ‘shot him down’ you mean ‘told him yes.’”

She gave me an incredulous look. “You’re going out on a date with a vampire?”

I grinned. “Hey, pie is pie.”

“Oh, that’s a great reason to risk your life,” she groaned. “Pie is pie.”

To make her feel better, I patted her on the shoulder. “If he kills me, you can put it on my headstone.”