Page 8 of Claiming Starlight
“Why’d you come to this part of town, Sophie?” he demanded.
“I was looking for something. Can you take me home now? Or, if you have a way to call? Are you on the switchboard? I can call someone.”
“I’m not on the fucking vampir switchboard. This is badlands. You gonna have to trade a bit of hair or fingernail for that. Maybe your blood. You offer to trade with the wrong person, though, and you end up enthralled to a sorcerer.”
Sophie had a little resistance to magic, but Micah couldn’t know that. “I didn’t find what I was looking for. I need to get back.”
“Someone missing you?” His words rolled into growls at the end as if he was growing upset. But why did he care? Why was he asking so many questions?
“My guardian will have noticed I’m missing.”
“Where’s that guardian?”
“Brood house duty.”
“So, you decide to come here to South Bloc alone. Looking for something. Must be something important. You sneak away when your watcher can’t watch, get a ride from a troll, and just go on a scavenger hunt?”
Sophie shrugged and looked at her lap, not wanting to admit how right he was.
“Words,” he demanded.
“I didn’t mean to be a bother. I really didn’t. You seem like you are angry with me. Please, just drop me off. I’ll figure it out on my own. You don’t have to bother yourself anymore.”
“Leave a little white kitten like you in this hellhole for the dogs to come and gobble you up? Baby, that isn’t happening.”
What could she say to that? The man was impossible, unyielding, and utterly confusing.
The streetlights here didn’t work. The car lights caught shadows jittering along the broken sidewalks and through the intersections. Lights glowed from windows in wavy bursts of life. People had candles, oil lamps, and those with means had generators.
Her side of town was connected to a power plant repaired by a dark dwarf tribe willing to contract with the vampir. And most of the good parts of Old City were still playing with the self-sustaining, eco-friendly power of the early 2000s that still worked fifteen years after the world went to hell.
They passed an expanse of Old City blocks that smelled like a garbage dump—the barrens. Was he taking her home? He turned right, then left, and five minutes later, a different liquor store lit up before them. Streetlights worked here, as if they’d crossed some invisible boundary into more civilized neighborhoods.
She didn’t recognize this part of town, but that didn’t mean anything. This was her first time on this side of the eyeninety, her first time farther than the park and her favorite bakery.
He pulled up to a lighted storefront with a blinking sign that said twenty-four on it and parked the car. It looked like a restaurant. Why was he bringing her here?
Micah got out and opened her door again, giving her no choice. His firm but painless grip on her arm directed her where to go as he led the way inside, and Sophie wondered what she should be doing with herself. Should she protest? Keep quiet? She didn’t know.
He led her to a booth, sat her down, and slid in next to her. A skinny blue-blood boy, a young shifter by the look of him, came to their table. Micah ordered for them both without even looking at Sophie.
She didn’t want to eat anything that blue-bloods served. She was sure it would be foul, or there would be some kind of magical price tag attached to it. The waiter walked away, and she watched his back as he left, wished she was leaving too. “I don’t have any money.” Sophie admitted, hoping he’d reconsider. She didn’t want to owe this man anything.
“We’re getting food. I’m hungry. I know you’re hungry. And you’re gonna eat. Or are you the kind that won’t eat in front of a guy? Want greens so you can pretend I didn’t see those plump tits and ass?”
How to respond? She was so out of her league. Vampir looked down on her, but they were normally dispassionate and uninterested in her. They lacked Micah’s sensual edge, every word provoking a confrontation.
He shook his head, laughing low to himself. He bumped her shoulder with his. “Shit, baby. What the fuck were you thinking coming here? I say tits and you look like you’re going to throw up. You need a keeper.”
His laugh surprised her, that seemingly friendly bump disarming her. She mumbled into the coat, “I don’t need a keeper. I can take care of myself.”
She started to unzip his jacket, but the sound of him clearing his throat stopped her. Sophie glanced his way, her finger still gripping the zipper.
“Leave it on.”
“What?” She studied him, trying to understand. Got distracted by those strange, pretty eyes of his. They were blue with a dark ring around the edges, but the warm, caramel color of his skin made them stand out so brightly.
“You didn’t hear?”
