Bound by Night(53)

“Whatcha doin’?”
Nicole jumped at the sound of the scary katina chick’s voice right behind her. “It would be very helpful if you guys would stomp your feet when you walk,”
Nicole muttered.
“But then we couldn’t scare you.” katina eased next to her. “What’s in that vial?”
Nicole followed katina’s gaze. “The green one? That’s kool-Aid. Lime, I think.”
“Why?”
“You’ll have to ask Dr. Frankenstein.” katina laughed, a deep, melodic sound that was as beautiful as she herself was. “I dare you to call Grant that to his face.”
“I already did.” She sighed.
“What did he do?”
Nicole rolled up the sleeves of the black and blue flannel shirt she’d picked out of the bag of clothes katina had brought her last night. She figured she might as well color-coordinate with the bruise on her face. At least the swelling had gone down.
She was truly grateful for the clothes, though. Even the ones that didn’t fit so well. Like the two-sizes-too— big flannel shirt. Okay, so maybe the yellow granny underwear wasn’t the most awesome thing ever, but the jeans she’d selected were perfect. She even liked the worn hole in the butt. The hole was the only way the yellow granny panties would ever look sexy.
“He called me Dinner à la O-Positive.” katina laughed again. “Pretty cool how he can determine your blood type by smell, huh? Most of us can’t do that.”
“Cool is not the word I’d use,” Nicole said, as she pulled a tray of vials close, “but we’ll go with it.”
katina flipped her thick black braid over her shoulder. The vampire had fabulous hair. “Did you know each type tastes different?”
“No, I didn’t.” Nicole squeezed a dropper full of liquid from one of the vials onto a microscope slide.
“It’s true. You Os are lame. Too metallic-tasting. My favorite is B-positive. There’s a spicy aftertaste I love.” She frowned. “It’s so rare, though.”
“You need to be eating Asian people.” Nicole checked on Grant’s whereabouts—far across the room, thank God. “Asians have the highest percentage of B-positive blood.”
“Really?”
Nicole’s stomach turned when she realized she had just offered up an entire ethnic group of people on a platter. She might as well draw up a menu for all the blood types and people who shared them and distribute the menus to vampires who wanted to know how to find their favorite flavors.
“Um . . . can you pretend I didn’t say that?”
“Nope. I’m so taking a trip to Chinatown tomorrow.” katina playfully slugged Nicole in the shoulder, and it was all Nicole could do to keep from rubbing her arm and crying like a baby. “You know, I’m glad we didn’t eat you that first day. I think I’ll ask Hunter if we can keep you.” keep her. Like a stray dog or a captured wild bird . . . or a vampire slave. With every passing hour, Nicole became more and more ashamed of her race.
“How do you know so much about blood, anyway?” katina asked.
“My specialty is vampire physiology,” she said, happy to talk about something she actually enjoyed.
“To know how vampires work, I need to know how humans work. Vampires are dependent on humans to live, which means I need to know everything I can about blood and how it affects vampires. Blood type can play a huge role in everything from the vampire origins to how vampires breed, mature, get diseases . . . the possibilities are endless, especially when we apply what we’ve learned about vampires to human medicine. It’s fascinating. I even discovered a way to use the vampire racb protein to cure ovarian cancer in humans.”
Silence.
Nicole took a deep breath. “Aaaand . . . I’ve just reminded you of why I’m here and why you hate me, haven’t I?”
“Yup.”
katina stepped back, folded her arms over her breasts, and scowled. All those knives sheathed all over her curvy body suddenly looked bigger. The other female by the door, Zara, ran her tongue over her fangs.
It occurred to Nicole that female vampires were scarier than males.
Bending her head, Nicole peered into the microscope. What she saw sent a thrill of excitement through her. “Grant? The cell expanded.” She tweaked the magnification and grinned. “It’s three times its normal size! We did it. I think we might have found the cause of bloodlust. I mean, we need more tests, but you were right about that enzyme. Grant?”#p#分页标题#e#
She turned, and her heart nearly stopped. Grant was hunched over, gripping a table so hard that cracks were starting to work their way out from his palm. Reddish glints lit up his eyes as they flitted between her and katina and the other female.