Page 74 of Thicker than Blood
Elias nods. “Jagger will come with me.”
“Okay. Meredith told me no one can find Ronald, so he must be hiding.”
“Simply not a problem for a vampire. Benicio can get anything you need while I’m gone.”
“Thank you.”
Jagger and Elias exit the dining room, leaving me and Enyo alone with our very big problem.
“Now what?” Enyo asks.
“We need to make more antidote and figure out a way to distribute it.”
“Good plan. Can we also figure out how to get Jagger to want to keep me the way Elias wants to keep you?”
“One problem at a time, my friend.”
CHAPTER 22
Elias
“It smells disgusting out here,” Jagger complains as we travel through the city looking for our target. “Normally I love the scent of death, but something is off.”
“It must be the vaccine affecting the blood.”
“Foul.” He hooks his arm through mine. “You want to turn the mortal, eh? His blood must be extra sweet.”
“It’s divine.”
“But it’s more than that. You’re not a whimsical beast. It takes more than delicious blood to tie you down. What is it about him?”
I glance at my friend, deciding whether I want to speak aloud the words bouncing around my chest.
“Come on, Elias. I’ll keep your confidence.”
“It isn’t that. I’ve hardly determined the reason myself.” We turn a corner, finding yet another group of mortals tangled in naked ecstasy. “If I’m honest, I’ve been bored, Jagger. Extremely bored. When you’re me, there’s so much that goes along with it.” I chuckle darkly. “Listen to me go on about my privilege like it’s a curse.”
“I get it. You have a reputation to uphold and so many whose reasons for being with you are murky at best.”
“Like Tristan. I don’t know what he wants with me, but it isn’t pure. Sure, I could fuck him, but I sense he wouldn’t just go away.”
“Your instinct has always steered you well.”
“It has, and my instinct right now tells me to keep Geordi close. If he said yes, I would turn him tonight.”
“You don’t need him to say yes.”
“My friend, I am a lot of things, some of them rather dark, but I’m not a brute. I would never give someone this gift without their full and true desire. We’ve seen the result of forcing it upon someone, haven’t we?”
“True.” He bumps his shoulder into me. “Shall I turn the cute little Enyo? I like him. He’s a fun little toy.”
“And when you tire of him?”
Jagger shrugs, releasing my arm. “I can still care for him as long as he’s open to my lifestyle.”
“He does seem eager.”
Jagger walks slightly ahead of me, turning around to face me. “What did he mean when he said Geordi is obsessed with you? Do you know?”