Free Always the Vampire by Nancy Haddock Page B

discoloration.
    “Saber, you’re acting like a vampire searching for the choicest place to bite me. It’s creepy.”
    He quirked a grin, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I think you need another bottle of Starbloods. Just to be sure you’re healing internally.”
    “Gag, no. One a day is enough. What I need,” I said as I levered upright, “is to know what Ray said.”
    Saber sat beside me and gathered me in his arms.
    “You don’t want to know how he looked?”
    I tilted my head to see his expression. “How bad?”
    “His skin is two shades darker and lined like a road map. The younger vampires are in worse shape.”
    Bile rose at the image. God, what would I do if Saber’s gorgeous Latino skin began to blacken and shrivel? I resolutely push the thought away.
    “You think he and the others will survive?”
    Saber scooted deeper into the cushions and dropped his head against the sofa back. “I don’t know, Cesca. Even if they do, the effects of the life force drain may not be reversible.”
    I snuggled closer, my head on his chest. “Are he and his crew going underground figuratively or literally?”
    “Literally. Ray’s heard on the undead grapevine that the illness slows in vampires who live in basements, so he’s going one better. He’s moving the crew deep into caverns.”
    “In Florida?”
    “West of Tallahassee.”
    “Huh. Hope he has mega cases of bottled blood to take.”
    “He has enough, but he’s also taking the blood bunnies.”
    I pushed upright and stared at Saber’s somber expression. Blood bunnies were groupies and donators, and the three I knew of were romantically involved with some of Ray’s vampires. But surely he wasn’t forcing them to go.
    “He’s not,” Saber said.
    “Not what?”
    “Not forcing the blood bunnies.”
    “You’re reading my mind?”
    “Your face. They volunteered to go, and I approved the plan.”
    “Simple as that? Don’t those women have jobs and families?”
    “Families not so much, from what I know. I assume they’ve taken leave or vacation time from jobs.” He shrugged. “They may be young, but they’re legal adults, Cesca.”
    “True.” The blood bunny I’d had a fondness for, the lisping Cici, had cut her ties with the Daytona Beach vampires even before Ray took over. She’d moved to St. Augustine, was attending a local college, and worked at Walmart.
    “Look at the upside. The bunnies can make grocery and Starbloods runs, thus protecting the public.”
    “The bunnies can also notify the VPA of any deaths.”
    “True,” he said. “And best of all, their vampire lovers won’t go through the illness alone.”
    Neither will you, I silently vowed, and cupped his cheek in my palm. “Saber, you’re such a romantic.”
    He waggled his dark brows and pulled me close again. “Any fantasies I can fulfill while the night is still young? A candlelit bath, perhaps?”
    I levered away and gave him my best intense stare. “Are you sure you don’t read my mind?”
    “Only as much as you read mine.”
    With that and an enigmatic grin, he rose and strolled into the bedroom. The faucets roared with water a moment later, so I locked the door, reset the alarm, and joined Saber. With candlelight flickering on the glass tiled walls of my art deco bathroom, the swirl of warm, scented water in the jetted tub, and my man both relaxing me into a rag and stimulating me to passion, I never did puzzle out if he was reading my mind or not.
     
     
    I found Saber’s note on the turquoise 1950s retro kitchen table the next afternoon. He wrote that he’d gone to Cosmil’s and would see me after my ghost tour for some more quality time before I took off for the bachelorette weekend in Fernandina Beach. He’d also programmed Triton’s and Cosmil’s cell numbers into my phone. What a guy.
    If you’re wondering why a design student has an art deco bathroom, a retro kitchen, a surfer-chic bedroom, and a British-colonial living room, it’s because I’d