Page 25 of Reapers Don’t Ride

I slowly looked up at the Scholar who looked so incredibly polite and respectable.

I stood, moving so the chair was between the two of us. “I’m here for blood bags.”

“Yes. I know.”

“That’s perfectly legal.”

“Of course. You could order blood at any restaurant in Song. You must need to stock up.” He made it sound like a question. Why did I need to stock up on blood bags?

“I don’t always like to go out. Are you truly married to an angel?”

His eyes narrowed slightly, and I felt an answered prickle of danger. “Truly, she is something like that. You smell of angel, but a more potent sort than my heart. I heard that there is a vampire and an angel running from HOST.”

I held very still while I studied him for points of weakness I could use to make my escape. Killing him wouldn’t work, not without more research than I’d done, but everyone had at least one weakness. “Did you? I’m a vampire with the slight scent of angel, therefore, I must be the fugitive?”

He smiled slightly, showing fang, but not a lot. “I knew your master.”

“If you truly knew him, you must be very pleased that he is dead.”

“Oh, I am. The demon was a monster that needed to be eradicated. I have heard whispers of a demon rising again. I’m not saying that you broke into the HOST’s barracks to steal a weapon that you could use to destroy the demon, but in any case, I am not loyal to angels and wish you well.”

I stared at him and then shifted uneasily. “It’s much easier to kill a target that doesn’t see you coming.”

He raised his brows. “Then I will make a point of not having seen you here.”

I gave him a slight smile that he returned with his own. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Come back any time. You’re now in the system.” He took my blank forms and crumpled them in his hands. “Perhaps when your mission is completed, you will source some spectacles to aid your vision.”

A woman handed me an insulated box filled with blood bags. After one last look at the Scholar, I took it and fled.

Could a vampire get reading glasses? That would be ridiculous. As ridiculous as a cold-hearted murderer pining for an angel. And yet, the Scholar had made that last one work. Lucky vampire.