Grant glanced over his shoulder at her. “You know of the Dracula Diner?”
Intimately. “I, uh, work for Daedalus, too.”
“Ah. Horrible people.”
Well, this was awkward. “Did you think they were horrible when you were human and working for them?”
His smile was as chilly as the room and way too fangy for her liking. Not at all like when Riker smiled.
His fangs were sort of . . . don’t think it. Do. Not. Think. It. Riker’s fangs were not sexy.
“Of course I didn’t think that. I was a brainwashed fool with my own vampire slave.” Grant measured a small amount of reddish liquid with a dropper and added it to a test tube containing white powder. “I met the CEO once. William Martin. Fawned all over him like he was a rock star or something. Practically pissed myself like a puppy welcoming his master home. Now I’d like to rip out his heart with my teeth.”
“Someone beat you to it,” she said, hoping Grant didn’t notice the hitch in her voice.
“He’s dead? Ah, yes, I remember now. Him and his entire family.” He shrugged. “I hope they died in agony.”
Bastard. “I’m sure they did.”
Grant’s broad grin gave him boyish dimples and softened his square jaw. “You think?” After a moment, he frowned a little. “Though someone recently mentioned a daughter who survived. There’s still hope that one of us will kill her.”
So this was what it felt like to be a mouse in a python tank. “Everyone needs a dream, I guess.”
“Agreed.” He positively beamed. “Humans are usually worth only the price of their blood. But I like you.”#p#分页标题#e#
“Um . . . thanks?” She eyed the layout of the equipment in front of him as he poured a quarter of the contents of a blue liquid into a flask half full of pink liquid. “What are you doing, anyway?”
He held the now purplish mixture up to the light.
“I’m mixing kool-Aid flavors to find the best-tasting combination.”
She arched an eyebrow. kool-Aid? He definitely wasn’t firing on all cylinders. Did his clan shove him into this lab to keep him out of the way? She wandered around, stopping at a corkboard covered with papers about vampire physiology, equations scribbled on index cards, and a photo of two male vampires, one blond and backed up against a tree, the other pressed against him, his reddish-brown hair falling forward to frame them both as their foreheads touched.
The intimacy of the photo took her breath away.
She’d never been in a position like that, had never experienced a secret moment that defined a relationship as something to be treasured. She’d had lovers, but she’d never loved. Not like that.
“What’s this?”
Grant wandered over. “Ah, Takis and Aiden.” He touched his finger to the photo. “They’re gay.”
“Yeah, I guessed that.”
He sighed. “Once a month, they have to feed from females. You know about that, I assume?”
“Of course,” she replied. “On the eve of every full moon, male vampires must feed from female vampires, and on the new moon, the opposite takes place.”
“Exactly. I’m trying to find a way around that for them.”
She’d never considered the problems homosexual vampires would face. “I’ve hypothesized that the feeding is a biological imperative, sort of heat cycles for both sexes. Because vampires don’t conceive easily or often, it’s like a way to make sure vampires get together.”
He nodded. “Most vampires mate during the feeding. The opposite sex’s blood is an aphrodisiac to vampires. Aiden and Takis would prefer to spend the nights of the full moon together instead of with females.”
“The most obvious solution would be to package female blood and let them drink it that way on the full moon.”
Grant’s lip curled in disgust. “The way humans feed their vampire slaves?”
It was possible that this could get more awkward, but she didn’t see how. “Yeah. Like that.”
A hiss sifted out from between his teeth. “Humiliating. No one feeds that way by choice. Human
blood from little packages is one thing. Vampire blood
in juice boxes is another.” He turned to her, his deep— set eyes shadowed with irritation. “Have you ever seen vampires after they’ve fed from damned juice boxes of moon blood? Have you witnessed the hour of misery afterward as their bodies cramp from a lack of sexual release? Self-gratification only helps so much.”
Yes, she’d seen their misery, which was why Daedalus now recommended that humans kept at least two slaves, one of each sex, or that they arrange for a partner once a month for a single slave. Packaged vampire blood kept them healthy, but without a sexual partner, recovery was much slower.