Page 6 of Twice Bitten

It took a moment for him to speak. “I’ll have a double espresso. To go.”

A quick and easy drink to make. Thank goodness.

“Put it on the Prime’s tab.”

I almost snorted. Vampire Prime was such a twatwaffle name for their leader. Every state had a main Hive, and every main Hive had a Prime. Capital P. Just like the J in Jesus.Except if they saw Jesus, they’d experience spontaneous combustion. Which would actually be pretty cool to see.

Within each Hive were Nests, smaller groups of vampires who lived in what amounted to be a family unit. Depending on how large the Hive was, a Nest could be only a few vampires, or it could be hundreds. Since vamps kept their secrets close and their creation numbers tightly controlled, no one really knew exactly how many vampires a Hive actually had, much less the number of Nests inside one.

“Anything else?” I chirped, the false smile plastered on my face beginning to make my jaw hurt.

“Not right now.” He was still staring at me, a curious glitter in his eyes I didn’t like.

I totaled the order, took his money, and gave him a number. We usually took customers’ names, but I didn’t want to know anything about this vampire. Once he was gone, I hoped never to see him again.

Since the order was to-go and relatively straightforward, I gestured to the back that I would make his drink. Vampires had no known allergies except for the blood of the dead, and we didn’t serve anything with any part of a body, inside or out, so they were safe to patronize our shop.

Addy once thought about adding blood to the menu to draw in the discriminating vamps picky about their blood sources, but when she got a new insurance quote for the potential change, her face had gone pale and she hung up the phone, never to speak of it again.

When I turned to set a drink from another order on the counter, the blond vampire was leaning against the register, still watching me.

“What?” I demanded. His attention made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

He shrugged. “Few people fight back when facing someone like me. I’m curious,I guess.”

Curious was bad. Very bad.

“Then you shouldn’t ask for it,” I muttered, knowing I should act meek but unable to stomach pretending like I was scared. Vampires or shifters couldn’t turn witches. We were born with a specific protein in our blood that prevented transformation. Granted, we did our best to avoid getting bitten because who wanted to get bitten by anything, much less by something with enormous teeth and a name likeChad? However, I was being a little too mouthy, and I needed to cool it. While monsters couldn’t turn us, they could still attack and kill. I’d be an idiot to antagonize him.

He placed a hand over his heart and smirked. “My deepest apologies.”

The truth charm on my bracelet tingled. Delicate, silver, and strewn with various charms—some magical, some not—the bracelet was the last thing my mother had given me, and I cherished it. She’d added the truth charm last and said trusting my intuition was a powerful thing, and a little magical help wouldn’t hurt either.

Mom also made it so it only worked when I was in danger. I didn’t understand her logic at first. As a teenager, I wanted to know wheneveryonewas lying. But when I questioned her, she shook her head and said I’d understand when I was older. And I had. People lied more than they breathed. They lied when they spoke, when they screamed, when they slept, when they thought…people just liedallthe time. To people they loved, people they hated, and to themselves especially. That bracelet would have driven me slowly mad if Mom had made it tingle every single time someone told a little white lie.

The tingle of the truth charm told me one important detail. Whoever this vampire was, he wanted to hurt me.

But he wanted to play with his food first.

THREE

“Apology accepted,” I lied, my voice bright and cheery. His espresso spat and hissed from the machine behind me. I resisted the urge to add poison and turned to get it, carefully capping the paper cup and sliding it across the counter to the vampire.

“There you go! Thanks for visiting Three Little Beans!” My voice was a tad too screechy, but unease itched down my spine. All I wanted was for this vamp to leave and to never see him again.

I could happily go without ever seeing another vampire as long as I lived.

Instead, he held out a pale hand, tipped with long, slender fingers and perfectly groomed fingernails. “Beckett Caldwell.”

If I were a cat, I’d have bared my teeth and hissed at him. Instead, I calmed myself and shook his hand. “Alex Cole.”

That wasn’t my real last name, but it’s the one I went by these days. Mom had changed it years ago and quizzed me for a week until she was reassured I’d never forget. Now, it felt like I’d always been a Cole.

He turned my hand, palm down, and pressed a kiss against the back. His lips were cool and impersonal. I knew frompersonal experience vampire skin warmed when they fed. Beckett here hadn’t eaten in a while, making him even more dangerous than I first thought.

Shit.

“Pleasure to meet you.” He released my hand slowly, smooth fingers rubbing over my palm.