Free Paranormal Bromance by Carrie Vaughn Page B

why did my hands hurt?
    “This one may be past saving,” Jack said, picking at the nice round dent right over Face’s, um, face.
    Ginny came to save me, peeling off the tape for me. I held my rash-covered hands up. They hurt less that way. Ginny made a move to touch one, wincing in sympathy.
    “I don’t know how to do first aid on vampires,” she said. “I didn’t think vampires could get hurt.”
    “Learn something new every day,” I muttered. Apparently, vampires could also get adrenaline spikes and crashes, because I suddenly just wanted to sit down. My whole body felt like jelly.
    “Blood,” Rick said. “You need blood to heal that. Then give it a night, you’ll be fine.”
    Yeah, that was what I thought. Blood always came into it somehow.
    Ginny got this look, wide eyed and full of trepidation. I hated to see her scared. But you know what would have been even worse? Her stepping forward. Volunteering. I didn’t want to hurt her. I couldn’t hurt her.
    “I’m not going to ask you for that,” I said.
    “Okay, thanks—but I thought that was what you guys were all about.”
    “Maybe, sometimes… really, I’m just happy to have a friend I can hang out with and talk about gaming. You don’t even have to move in. I mean, you should probably pay a couple of bucks to make the good on the lease—”
    “We’ll talk about it,” she said.
    We stood there grinning at each other, me with my hands still raised and covered in red welts, Rick regarding us with obvious amusement.
    Jack had been clearing debris from the doorway when he came over and grimaced at my hands. He called out, “Hey, Aaron—Sam’s hurt, he needs blood.”
    Still wearing rubber gloves, Aaron had been cleaning up Nerf darts. “Okay, I’ll call for pizza.”
    Rick looked back. “Pizza? Is that how you’ve been doing it?”
    “Um, yeah,” Aaron said. “They don’t usually remember and no delivery place has banned us yet. Sam usually takes the pizza to the homeless shelter a few blocks down the street. But I guess this time… Ginny, you want some pizza?”
    “You know, I think I do. Pepperoni.”
    Aaron disappeared into his room, where we could hear him making the call.
    “I don’t know why I ever worried about you three,” Rick said.
    “Thanks for, you know. The help,” I said.
    “No, thank you. You have no reason to look out for me, but I’m very glad you did. I’m happy to return the favor. In the meantime, I’ll get some people over to clean up the bodies. If that’s all right with you.”
    “That would be great,” I said.
    “Very well, then.” He nodded, a gesture that coming from him almost looked like a bow, and turned around.
    “Who was that?” Ginny asked in awe.
    “Rick, Master vampire of Denver,” I said.
    “Really? Wow. Not what I’d have expected.”
    “Yeah, I know what you mean. Oh, and when the delivery guy gets here… you may not want to stick around for that.”
    “I thought I was getting pizza out of this.”
    “Well, yeah, if you want it, I just thought maybe—”
    She patted my shoulder and finished picking duct tape off my shirt. “Don’t worry about me, Sam.”
    Impossible. Just impossible.
     

     
    Ginny did not move in. Not entirely. But she paid ten bucks a month and kept some of her stuff here, and came over for dinner sometimes after work and to help playtest games or to just blow off steam. It was… nice. She never said anything about the mess.
    Sometimes, Ginny and I would go out to a movie or coffee shop or something—she’d get a drink, I’d watch her drink. I didn’t know where this was going between us, or what was going to happen. I assumed at some point she’d get tired of hanging out with someone who could never take her out for dinner—or rather, who’d be all too happy to take her out for dinner. At some point she’d want to get married and have kids. All the things I couldn’t do for her. She’d find someone, and I’d maybe see her once a month