Allegiance(82)
Glory was packing up leftovers behind the counter when they entered. “Hey guys, you’re in time to grab some of this before I send it home with Mark. Most of it’s still hot.”
“Whatcha got?” Robin looked over the red-and-white cardboard boxes, each with the name of the contents written on top in black ink. “How about the lasagna. Is it good?”
Glory laughed. “Well, I think so. Here.” She handed her a heavy container the size of half a shoebox. “Eat whatever you want. And there are all kinds of sandwiches and some tortilla soup left.”
Robin glanced around to locate Nik and was glad to see he’d joined Mark at the table in the corner. “You’re meeting Mirren when he wakes, right? What’s it like being, you know, tied to vampire hours?”
Glory leaned on the counter, grinning at Robin with a knowing expression she didn’t much like. Big old Mirren was a big old gossip. At least the woman seemed to read Robin’s mood, because she cleared her throat and offered no editorial comments to go along with the grin.
“It was hard at first because I wanted to stay up when he was up, and sleep when he was daysleeping, but it just wasn’t practical. First, who sleeps that long? I’d wander around the daysleep space, talking to myself for hours, bored out of my skull. And I missed seeing the sun, feeling it on my skin. I mean, I’m sorry he can’t enjoy it, but I can. Not gonna feel guilty about that. Besides, he says he can smell it on my skin and he likes that.”
TMI. Robin didn’t want to think about Mirren Kincaid’s nose getting anywhere near her skin; she doubted that would ever happen unless her knuckle happened to collide with his face. Which, on second thought, might not be so far-fetched.
“Cage is a good guy.” Glory raised an eyebrow, probably waiting to see if Robin was going to tell her to fuck off. But she was such a nice woman, Robin couldn’t help but forgive the fact that she never stopped talking. “Melissa wouldn’t have survived if he hadn’t rescued her from Matthias. Maybe none of us would’ve survived because, eventually, if he tortured her enough, Mel might have slipped up and told him something he could’ve used to find us.”
Yeah, yeah, Robin had heard about the great rescue. “Cage has that whole Superman thing down, all right. He wants to save everybody.” Maybe she needed to have Nik tie her to a railroad trestle so he’d come running to rescue her for a change.
Where the hell had that thought come from? She wanted to be the predator. Since when had she started daydreaming about being prey?
“Well, if he has a savior complex, think of it this way.” Glory finished packing up the boxes and grabbed her purse from behind the counter. “You like the guy, and if he didn’t have that savior complex, he might be a different guy—one you didn’t like.”
By the time Robin devised a comeback, Glory had already gotten in her car and driven back toward the house. “I just want him to save me,” she whispered, and then looked around to make sure no one had heard her.
Damn, but she was acting too much like a girl. She needed to fucking get over herself.
She grabbed the container of lasagna and a plastic fork and sat at the corner table next to Mark and across from Nik. She’d stuffed the second forkful of food into her mouth before she realized the tension level between the two men rested somewhere in the ozone.
“What happ’n?” She might not have the best manners in the world, but her mom had taught her not to talk with her mouth full. Sometimes she forgot.
Nik leaned back and scanned the big dining room, which was empty except for the three of them. “All that blood in the tunnel below the greenhouse? It was Britta’s. Cage and Mirren found her.”
Suddenly, the pasta covered in thick red tomato sauce didn’t look so appealing. “She’s dead?”
Mark shook his head. “No, but having your guts ripped open with a silver knife’s a hard thing to heal, even for a vampire. Krys is keeping her in one of the rooms at the clinic that’s still usable.” He drummed his fingers on the table. “They locked her in her room, and I understand it. I just have a hard time believing she’s in on any of this. The more I think about it, the more sure I am that she didn’t leave those drugs for me.”
Robin thought of how easily Nik had gotten in the back door of the house they’d just scoped out. It made the possibility that someone had broken into the house more real, which meant Britta might not be guilty at all—just a victim. Maybe a scapegoat.
“You got to know her pretty well?” she asked Mark. Britta had been feeding from him for a while, and although Robin still hadn’t had the experience of a real feeding, she’d felt enough to know it had to make two people close.