Free Love Is Fear by Caroline Hanson

eyes.
    “ So, how come you won the trip to Hawaii? And why are you not burned to pieces?”
    Rachel opened her eyes, her expression wary. “Too late. The sun set ten minutes ago. Oh, I almost forgot. Lucas wants you to practice containing yourself. Now that you have his blood, you are all over the place. In his dreams and memories. Frankly, he looks exhausted. You need to cut the guy a break. You dump him then haunt him. It's just not nice.”
    She was outraged, “I'm not trying to! What do I do to stay away from him?”
    “ I put a Post-It Note on that page. Some mental training stuff. Start tonight, see if you can get yourself separated from him sooner rather than later. He's not a guy you want to push, my tasty treat.”
    Valerie nodded, uncertain what to say or even how to feel about the fact that Lucas wanted her to stay out of his mind.
    “ Wait. Is he coming into my mind too?”
    “ Oooh. This is the question I wanted the answer too: did he drink from you? It's relevant so answer,” Rachel said, tucking her legs under and leaning forward eagerly.
    “ No.”
    Rachel's eyebrows rose sky high and her cheeks hollowed out as she clucked her tongue in shock. “Not even a taste? Wow. That’s some serious restraint.”
    “ He said he wanted to but was too old. He compared it to indigestion. Or maybe I did. What does that mean?”
    “ Oh, look. There’s Jack.” Rachel said, with an odd note in her voice. Anticipation and something… dark, but Val couldn’t have said what. “You know, Marion swore that if she'd known how cute he'd be, she would have kept him. I always thought she said it just to piss me off. Now I'm not so sure.”
    Jack was a long ways away, coming up a cut rock path from the restaurant down the beach. Men in hotel uniforms were lighting tiki lights ,  while little kids were being hustled back to their rooms by sunburned parents.
    They both watched Jack walk for a moment, his tall, graceful form eating up the distance before him. Rachel shifted her chair, moving it into the shadows so that if he looked up he wouldn't see her.
    “ So, before I leave here. Anything you want me to pass on?” Rachel asked.
    “ Well, he's okay, right? I almost drowned and I thought he was there. It was like he died, too.” She imagined it again—him dead, floating away from her and she couldn’t help him. Couldn’t save him. She blinked tears from her eyes.
    Rachel worried her lip, a dainty, pearly white fang visible. “Look, Lucas is old. He disappears and kind of retreats. When you saw him last you were in his mind. Not with him physically. He's been gone a lot lately. Physically present, but mentally...hibernating? I don't know. It's kind of taboo. Everyone knows about it but doesn't really want to talk about it. I guess it's a bit worrying or something.”
    “ Does it have a name? Is it a condition or illness?”
    Rachel shrugged, “We don't talk about it so how the hell can it have a name? Pay attention.”
    “ People don't like to talk about death but it has a name,” Val said sharply.
    Rachel huffed and waved her hand around airily. “I guess the people you hang out with don't talk about it, but man death is all  I talk about. My death, Marion's death, your death, Lucas' death. The Fey, the wolves...dead, dead, dead.”
    “ What about the wolves and the Fey? Roanoke, when is he going?”
    Rachel stood and brushed at her pants absently, taking a long moment like she was deciding what she wanted to say. “I think he's going to wait a little longer for you.”
    Valerie shook her head emphatically, “No, I'm not helping him anymore. He knows that.”
    “ Look, I could really go either way on you, but I'll do you a favor here, so listen up— you don't fuck with vampires. Don't think you are a step ahead of them. You will never outsmart them, nor will you survive them. You're a distraction, a means to an end, an object, maybe even a cherished one, but there is always an agenda. Lucas has big game