Free Fangs for Freaks by Serena Robar Page A

incredulously.
    “Of course not. We weren’t at work at that moment . We were waiting. We had hours of waiting to do. And the mean guy at the reception desk was acting all icky toward me, saying I couldn’t stay and all. Just because I’m a half-blood.” Again I ended my tirade with a slight wail, waiting for Piper to agree with me.
    “But you know vampires don’t like half-bloods,” she tried to reason with me.
    “Piper!” I said in exasperation. “The point is that I was vulnerable and needed comfort from my boyfriend and he wouldn’t put out .”
    “But he’s never put out. Why would that moment make things any different?”
    “Aarghh. We had a private room, a big bed, no one to disturb us and hours to kill with no TV.”
    “Oh, you didn’t have a television? Well, I guess that does change things a little bit.”
    Sometimes I just wanted to bite Piper … really hard. But I refrained because she sounded like she was finally coming around.
    “So out of the blue Thomas says you’re immature and that’s why he won’t do you?” I could tell Piper was struggling to understand but since she wasn’t there it was very hard for her to grasp the facts. The facts were I was totally right and Thomas was cruel and insensitive.
    “Well, not really. I told him I wasn’t a virgin so what was the big deal anyway?”
    Piper gave me a pained expression.
    “Ouch,” she said.
    “Yes, exactly. That’s what I thought.”
    “I meant ouch for Thomas. That must have been nice to hear.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Oh, I don’t know. He’s an old-fashioned guy and is being totally respectful by waiting on the physical side of things. He’s training you and helping you to become a better Protector. He’s dating a half-blood, so I imagine he’s being ostracized by all the other vampires and his girlfriend screams she isn’t a virgin in his face when he won’t put out because he’s concerned about a mission to protect half-bloods, which is her responsibility in the first place. So yeah, I stand behind my ‘ouch.’ ”
    I looked at Piper, somewhat dazed. Well, yeah, when you put it that way.
    “Crap,” I whispered, dragging my hands through my hair.

Five

    P iper left me with my shame. I guess she sensed it was time to let her logic sink in. I lay down on the bed, debating if I should grab a little sleep. I was used to sleeping only a couple of hours at a time. In order to graduate from high school, I had to be able to attend my day classes, so I learned to survive off of napping. Instead I decided to search out my sorority sisters. After all, they were my job. I was in the business of protecting them. It seemed natural to assume they might eke out a little gratitude and I could desperately use a pick-me-up.
    I wandered upstairs and found Ileana going through her new purchases. She was giving orders to her maid to hang this, press that and put away the other. When she was satisfied everything would be accomplished to her satisfaction, she brushed past me and headed downstairs.
    “Doesn’t it bother you?” I asked the maid from the doorway, fed up with “Sophie, fetch this for me.”
    “No mum,” she answered quietly, never tarrying from her task.
    “Well for heaven’s sake, why not? You’re a human being and deserve to be treated with respect. Don’t you want more out of life than jumping up to do her ”—I gestured my thumb in Ileana’s direction—“bidding?”
    “My family has been in the service of the Romanavs for centuries. It is an honor to serve my lady.”
    “Really?” I puzzled, wondering if a long-standing employee /employer relationship was really worth putting up with Ileana.
    “Yes, my lady has been very good to my family.”
    “Oh, do you have brothers and sisters who work for her as well?” I leaned against the door frame.
    “No mum, I am an only child. Every daughter serves my lady. I do, and my mother, and her mother before her. It has always been so.”
    “Wow, so your