Face darkening, Bastien rose. “What—are you fucking with me?”
Melanie’s eyes widened. Reaching out, she patted Bastien’s arm. “No, honey. I think he hasn’t heard the rumors yet.”
“What rumors?” Sean asked, wondering what was going on.
Bastien’s face cleared. “Oh. Well. Good to meet you, too.” He belatedly shook Sean’s hand.
Cam rolled his eyes. “I’m out. Sean, you have my number. Call me when you’re ready to leave and I’ll come pick you up.”
Sean thanked him, even though the fact that he couldn’t come and go as he pleased grated. He had no idea what the network had done with his car, but he wasn’t allowed to use it anymore because it could be traced. When he had suggested borrowing or renting a car, Chris had rejected the idea, saying, “I know it’s an annoyance, but until we get to the bottom of this latest mercenary threat, we need to restrict your movements and ensure you have a guard with you at all times. It’s for both your safety and ours.”
Annoyance didn’t quite cover it.
Cam left.
Sean looked at the vampires. “What exactly will this tell you? Are you testing their endurance?” he asked, curious to know what such activity would indicate.
Melanie snorted. “No. They’re just fooling around. Cliff bet Stuart he could go faster on a treadmill.”
The vampires grinned.
“Okay.”
Bastien smiled. “They aren’t allowed to leave the premises, so things can get pretty boring around here for them.”
“They’re really vampires and not immortals just messing with me?” Sean asked. The pair didn’t seem at all crazy.
Bastien shook his head. “They’re vampires. And, since you’ll hear it sooner or later . . .”
Melanie shook her head violently and repeatedly drew her hand across her throat in a slicing motion. When she noticed Sean watching her, she smiled and pretended she was scratching her neck.
“Until a couple of years ago,” Bastien continued, “I thought I was a vampire myself, raised an army of a hundred or so vampires, and waged war with the Immortal Guardians, intending to kill every last one of them.”
Sean stared at him. No wonder the other immortals had seemed rather hostile toward Bastien at the meeting.
“Damn it, Bastien,” Melanie complained. “We could have finally had someone on our side, but, nooooo. You had to go and open your mouth.”
He shrugged. “May as well be honest. It sounds a lot less damaging coming from me.” He looked at Sean again. “Oh, and I once killed an immortal.”
Melanie hit him on the arm. “Stop talking!”
Sean laughed. As did the vampires.
She smiled sheepishly. “Sorry. He really is a good guy. But I’m having trouble convincing the others of that.”
“Well, you won’t be getting any grief from me,” Sean assured her. When Bastien looked doubtful, Sean shrugged. “I’m new to this world and not invested in its past. As long as you don’t screw with me or my sister, I’m fine with you.”#p#分页标题#e#
Bastien raised his eyebrows. “I think I like you.”
“Gay!” Stuart called breathlessly. A loud clunk sounded as the motor of his treadmill let out a burst of smoke and stopped turning. Still running at top speed, Stuart slammed into the front of the treadmill, bounced off, and hit the wall behind him hard enough to crack the Sheetrock.
Cliff burst into laughter and slowed to a halt.
Melanie sighed. “I told you not to break anything!”
Stuart groaned and picked himself up off the floor, staggering a little. “Laugh it up, asswipe,” he told Cliff. “I won.”
“Dude, I totally let you win because I knew that would happen.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“Yes, I did. It happened to me the first time Dr. Lipton put me on a treadmill.”
Melanie winced. “I still feel bad about that.”
Cliff didn’t seem to hold it against her.
Bastien smiled. “Cliff was a member of my army. Stuart is a new recruit.”
This was not at all what Sean had expected.
Melanie smiled. “You look a little shell-shocked.”
He watched Cliff taunt Stuart while Stuart brushed the dust off his clothes and shook it out of his hair. “I’ve never encountered sane vampires before.”
“Well, hopefully our research will pay off and the era of psychotic vampires will end soon,” she said.
“I’d love to hear about the work you’re doing. I’m a medical student at Duke and Chris mentioned recruiting me. He said, if I did, we’d be working together and you’d mentor me.”
She nodded. “Are you considering it?”