Free Silent Cravings by Jess Haines, E. Blix

your room more comfortable. Jacques will start your lessons in another day or so.”
    Analie inched forward, gingerly taking the plate and retreating as rapidly as she could without spilling half of it to the floor. Even under the overwhelming reek of leech, it smelled fabulous. Everything was perfectly cooked, fried to a crispy golden brown. As much as she wanted to tear into it, she felt too uncomfortable to eat in front of Royce, fidgeting uncomfortably as she stood there with the plate.
    “Um, okay. What am I supposed to do in the meantime?” Aside from crawl up the walls until she could get this horrible, damned smell out of her room.
    “Eat, for one thing. Don’t wait on my account.”
    Damn him to hell. He must have realized how much it was triggering her defensive instincts to have him here, worst of all with food in her hands. She looked at him, down at the plate, back at him. Shuffling uneasily over to a nightstand, she set the plate down and crouched beside it, gingerly popping a French fry into her mouth.
    God, this is good, she thought, closing her eyes in bliss at the salty, tangy taste. These weren’t made in a microwave or bought from a drive-thru. They tasted too fresh for that, with some kind of spice on it she wasn’t familiar with.
    “Jacques will be teaching you after hours at La Petite Boisson . The kitchen closes to new orders at midnight, which is when your lessons will begin. I haven’t finished arranging a teacher for your other subjects yet, but I imagine I will have them arrive sometime shortly after sunset so they can take you to Jacques afterwards. You will study six nights a week. On the seventh, you may spend your time as you wish, as long as one of my people is in attendance to supervise.”
    Analie twitched, munching on the first fish stick as he laid out the rules. If it wasn’t so tasty, she would have leapt at him with fangs and claws extended. The food was far superior to anything she’d ever thrown together in her kitchen at home. Even the tartar sauce tasted better than the stuff she was used to. Mmm, and the fish sticks were so crunchy on the outside…
    “While you’re with Mouse tonight, you can get anything you may need to fill your hours when you aren’t in class or doing homework. If you wish to use a phone line, I’ll have one installed. We’ve got wireless Internet set up for the building, so if you have a laptop, get with John and he’ll give you the passwords to connect to the network.”
    Why was he offering all these things? “I don’t have a laptop.”
    “No? Get one tonight if you want.”
    Analie choked a little on the last bite.
    “Are you all right?”
    Oh, yes. I’m in the hands of a leech. Home is three thousand miles away. I won’t see my friends or family for five years. I’m just peachy, Analie thought. Out loud, she said, “Yes, I’m fine.”
    “Hmm.”
    Analie fidgeted under his scrutiny. He didn’t say anything more, and she was too mortified to take another bite of food, tempting as the thought was. Why wasn’t he saying or doing anything? Why was he just sitting there?
    She couldn’t take it anymore. She was hungry, damn it, and wanted him to go away. Her voice came out more like a wail than she’d meant, only grinding her embarrassment home further.
    “Why are you doing this?”
    “Doing what? Waiting? I need to give Mouse her instructions and the car keys. She’s still getting ready.”
    “No. Why are you being so nice to me? You’re… you’re a vampire. You’re supposed to be this bad, evil thing. We’re enemies, aren’t we? You’re just—you’re not supposed to be like that,” she finished lamely, her tirade dying out at his soft chuckling.
    “Oh, my dear,” he said, reaching up to rub away feigned tears of laughter. “You have been sadly misled by someone. I have no desire to be considered an enemy of your pack, but I could not let the damage you and your little friend did slip by without penalty. If I did,