Page 82 of Bite Me
“Dammit, Greenwood. Couldn’t you keep it in your pants?”
I couldn’t help but chuckle. With my hands on my hips, I shook my head. If he only knew how much I tried to do just that. I’d starved myself for weeks, trying to keep my hands off Eddie, only to cave at the slightest temptation. “Had it been about sex, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, and I think you know that. You know Eddie. You sang his praises when I first started, remember? And you were right about him. He’s brilliant in every aspect.”
Anthony grimaced. “I didn’t think I was matchmaking.”
“Eddie’s my absolute priority. Everything else is negotiable, but he has to come out of this unscathed.”
Anthony dissected me with his cold gray eyes. He dropped his pen onto the desk with a clatter and rubbed his forehead.
“See, my problem is, I don’t want to lose either of you.”
“Firing Eddie would be much worse for the team and for the company.”
“Is your judgment affected when you say that?”
I smiled. “Possibly. But you yourself told me how talented he is, and you were right. I’m resigning, and he’s staying because it’s the best solution for everyone involved. You know just as well as I do how sharp Eddie is. In five years, he’ll be the best crisis manager in the city. You need to hold on to him.”
“And there’s no way I could convince you to switch teams.” It wasn’t a question. He knew where this was headed.
“I’ve been toying with the idea of freelancing for a while. I’m tired, Anthony. I want weekends and vacations. I might even write a book.”
He squinted at me. “Then I can call you in when we need you.”
“I’d be happy to help on a project basis.”
“Those weekends and vacations… You don’t plan to spend them all with Eddie, do you? Because you’ve just made him irreplaceable.”
“I hope to find a compromise.”
Anthony shook his head, and I was given the gift of one of his very rare smiles.
“I’m not happy about this,” he said, contrary to his expression.
“I’m sorry.” I smiled back.
“Submit the paperwork with HR and announce it to the team when you want. You will finish the ongoing projects, though.”
“Thank you, Anthony.”
He waved me off.
20
EVERYBODY KNOWS
EDDIE
It’s no coincidence that we leave the myth about siren blood for the end of this book. It’s unique in that it creates an overlap between human folklore about vampires and the mythology that the vampire community itself perpetuated.
Stories about siren blood existed in ancient Greece, but they can be even older, just never codified. In Greece and Rome before the rise of Christianity, vampires might have lived in near openness, enjoying society’s liberal notions about pleasure and sexuality. Even monogamous relationships between the species occurred. According to the myth, some people had blood so rare and irresistible that the vampire who tasted it would forever covet that one human.
The most famous and historically most studied case of a vampire’s obsession with one person’s blood is the relationship between Alexander the Great and Hephaestion. Hephaestion was originally an officer in Alexander’s personal guard. Alexander probably fed from his soldiers occasionally, but this was a well-kept secret since Alexander presented himself as human to his court.
Something must have changed the day he first fed from Hephaestion. He kept the man by his side for the rest of his life and likely drank his blood daily. Historians agree that the two were ardent lovers, and when Hephaestion suddenly died at the age of thirty-two, Alexander was overwhelmed by grief. He ordered a period of mourning, petitioned for Hephaestion to gain a divine status, and built monuments in his memory.
Alexander survived his lover by a mere eight months. The philosopher and historian Plutarch depicts the symptoms preceding Alexander’s early death in Babylon. “The king’s skin was gray, his eyes white like snow, and he wouldn’t rise from his chair on the palace’s balcony. He sat in bright sunlight and refused to drink when his servants begged him. Burning with fever, the king breathed his last breath, blindly gazing into the sunset.”
Did Plutarch mean the servants asked Alexander to drink water, or did they try to convince him to feed?
