Page 81 of A Shade Too Far
“No,” BatKian said. “It’s prohibited in the Jewish religion and I used to be a rabbi. With the advancements in synthetic blood, there’s no need to break that forbiddance.”
My daughter hung off his every word. “That’s amazing.”
Yay. Gold star vampire for not feeding off humans. I snorted. In my head. Where Zev couldn’t hear. Hopefully.
“Where do you want to take the blood from?” I said. “Neck? Wrist?”
“Would you like to remove the intruder first?” Zev asked.
If I didn’t, then Naveen would be able to get through the ward, but I doubted he’d hurt me anymore. Well, not until he’d gotten it on with Eli. I shuddered. Laurent’s best friend and the brother of the doctor who’d delivered my child hooking up with my ex. This was getting incestuous.
“No,” I said. “He can stay.”
“As you wish.” Zev held out his hand and I placed mine in it. Sadie was right. He was warmer than expected.
I blushed, remembering being pressed up against his body, craving him. Yeah, no. That wasn’t happening ever again.
The vampire pulled a tongue depressor out of his pocket and handed it to Sadie. “Hold this please.” He sliced his fingernail across a vein on my inner forearm and I jerked. His nail hadn’t looked long enough to inflict damage, yet a fat drop of blood welled up. He cut his own skin, then took the tongue depressor, squeezing his blood onto it.
“This might hurt,” he said.
I nodded and he squeezed my arm hard to get more out. Once the stick had a good amount of our mingled blood, he licked his finger, running his saliva over my wound, which immediately healed up.
“Whoa,” Sadie whispered.
Zev dabbed some blood into the dirt under the fig tree, then Sadie and I accompanied him as he circled both my house and Eli’s.
Naveen and Eli trailed behind, bonding over a Canucks’ home game they’d both recently attended. A mutual love of stick handling. Spare me.
When Zev returned to the fig tree, he wiped the rest of the blood on the ground. “Kinehora!” he cried, following it up with ptu ptu ptu, mimicking spitting three times.
I stared at him gobsmacked.
Sadie nudged me. “Is he messing with us?”
Zev brushed his hands off on his jeans and stood up, handing me the tongue depressor.
Yum. Just what I always wanted.
“I could have made up something complicated,” he explained to her, “but simpler is better. The Jewish expression ‘kinehora’ is a bastardization of ‘kayn’ for not, ‘hara’ meaning the evil, and ‘ayin,’ eye. It’s a protective folk action intended to avoid, fool, or attack evil spirits and perfect for our needs. Give it a second to cohere and—” He seized up, his body stiffening out, and was blown backward into my fence.
Sadie screamed.
I pushed her behind me. “Mr. BatKian?”
A flash of light out of the corner of my eye showed Naveen had unleashed his staff.
Eli sprinted across the grass to grab our daughter, snatching the flamethrower away from me.
The vampire rose up hissing, his eyes red, and his fangs descended. “What did you do?”
“No-nothing.” I stumbled back, shrieking when a hand came down on my shoulder.
“Steady on,” Naveen murmured.
Nodding, I held out a beseeching hand to BatKian. “I wouldn’t ever screw you over. I swear. Especially not with my daughter here.”
He glanced at Sadie, who’d buried her face in her dad’s chest, her foot tapping rapidly. She was in full panic mode and there was nothing I could do to help her because I had to appease the vampire.
