“Oh my God, dude.” Jamie’s voice broke through his thoughts. “You’re smiling. Like, actually smiling. Is it the whiskey? We need more.” He turned around in his chair, raising a hand. “Monique! Shots!”
Colin was vaguely aware of Monique telling Jamie to get his own damn shots, but he couldn’t focus too hard on it.
Two vampires. No mates.
Colin could work with that.
This was a bad idea. Or possibly it was a great idea, but one that should definitely be left until the morning, when Colin had sobered up and maybe—hopefully—even slept a little.
He didn’t think he wasdrunkdrunk, but Jamie had poured them quite a few whiskeys, and Colin had maybe forgotten to eat dinner. Good thing he was, for the moment, living within walking distance of downtown. And maybe, if things went well here, he’dstillbe within walking distance of downtown.
He walked up to the house he was 99 percent certain was the one Jamie had been leaving earlier that night. It had definitely seen better days, what with the peeling paint, sagging porch, and sprinkling of cracked pots with dead plants inside. The only thing in reasonably good condition was the porch swing, painted a bright white, with a padded cushion on the seat.
Overall, it wasn’t exactly the gothic mansion of Colin’s vampire dreams. More like the crappy haunted house of his mediocre nightmares.
Still. It was what was inside that counted.
He felt like he was on the edge of something major. What or why or how, he had no idea. But it felt right, even more than it felt crazy.
Or was that just the whiskey talking?
It was maybe a little late in the night to be doing this—Colin was fairly certain it was well past midnight but couldn’t be bothered to check—but it was now or never.
Or, again, in the morning, when he’d sobered up. But fuck that.
He rang the doorbell.
Vampires barely needed to sleep anyway, so what was the point in following pointless social niceties?
In less than a minute, the front door was opening. Colin’s breath left him in a rush.
Well, damn.
He wasn’t sure exactly what he’d been expecting, but it wasn’t a muscled ginger in a bro tank and clingy athletic shorts. The guy only had an inch or so on Colin, but he was definitely…bigger. His biceps alone said he could toss Colin off the porch no problem.
He’s a vampire, dummy. He could do that anyway.
The guy did that thing hot guys did where he grabbed onto the top of the doorway with both hands, showcasing all those upper-body muscles Colin was sorely lacking as he leaned out. His hair wasn’t bright orange but a deep auburn, and he had it slicked back from an annoyingly handsome face. He raised a brow as he gave Colin a lengthy once-over. “Well, what do we have here? You lost, little lamb?”
Littlelamb? Colin briefly debated a swift kick to the ginger’s shin but ultimately realized that would be counterproductive to his goals. He took a deep breath and let his stupidity take the wheel. “My friend tells me you and your brother are vampires.”
He was gratified to see a look of pure shock flash on the guy’s face before it was covered swiftly with an exaggerated smirk. “Sounds like you and your friend have had one too many shots of—” He paused and made a show of sniffing the air around Colin. “—whiskey?”
Colin frowned at him. “We weren’t shooting it, we were sipping it.”
So there. Point one to Colin.
A muffled voice sounded from inside the house, and Colin tried to peer around the probable vampire to see inside, but the guy’s unnecessarily massive form took up the whole doorway.
Buff Ginger tipped his head back to answer whatever had been asked, but he never took his eyes off Colin. “There’s a guy at the door says we’re vampires.”
He focused back on Colin, giving him another once-over while he was at it. “If we’re vampires, what does that make you? Local vampire slayer?” His voice lowered to a sultry croon. “Is that a stake in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?”
Colin was saved from answering that mind-crushingly dumb line by the appearance of a second, identical buff ginger, this one with mussed hair and a slightly less hostile look about him.
And then it was sort of suddenly very hard to breathe. Which was annoying. Annoying and nonsensical. Because, like, they were handsome, sure, but there were plenty of handsome people in the world. It was just that they seemed to take up a lot of space. They had…presence.
And they smelled super good. Rich and a little bitter, like coffee and dark chocolate.
