My Roommate Is a Vampire(62)

Laughter drifted down to us from an open window. The party was already in full swing. “They’re going to think that’s weird, Frederick.”

“Be that as it may, I don’t have much of a choice.”

Just then, a guy I recognized as Sam’s downstairs neighbor appeared in the doorway, dressed in a bright pink leather minidress that stopped about six inches above his knees. He had an occasional gig as a burlesque dancer at a club in Andersonville, if I remembered correctly.

He was fumbling around in a purse he carried that matched his outfit. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Frederick gaping at him and his outfit in stunned silence, his dark eyes wide as saucers. I ignored him.

“Jack!” I exclaimed, hoping to get his attention, and hoping that was actually his name.

He looked up.

“Cassie?”

“Yeah, hi.” I looked over my shoulder at Frederick, who nodded encouragingly. “Can we come inside?”

“You heading up to Sam’s?”

“We are.”

He opened the door wider for us and motioned for us to come inside. “Sure. I’m just on my way out.”

I glanced questioningly back at Frederick, who gave me a subtle nod that I interpreted to mean good enough for me.

“Thanks, Jack,” I said. I made my way across the threshold, Frederick close behind me. He let out a quiet sigh once we were both safely inside.

Fortunately, Scott was already waiting for us in the doorway to his second-floor apartment.

“Can we come in?” I asked, hoping my voice didn’t betray how nervous I suddenly was. A loud cacophony of voices and some kind of avant-garde house music poured out into the hallway from inside.

“Of course,” Scott said. He gestured to the apartment behind him. “I’m just waiting for Katie to get here, then I’ll go back inside.”

My eyebrows shot up. “Katie? As in, Gossamer’s Katie?”

“Yeah,” Scott said. “We got to know her from all those nights visiting you at work. I was happy when she said she could make it.”

I wished I was happy, too. Katie and I got along well—but Frederick had made such a weird first impression on her the night he’d tried to order coffee and then pay for it with his fanny pack of gold doubloons.

He’d made real strides towards passing as normal the past few weeks. He’d learned how to order clothes online. He’d ridden the El without anyone thinking he didn’t belong there. The last thing he needed was to see Katie at this party and have her ask uncomfortable questions.

But I supposed there was nothing to be done for it.

I turned to Frederick. “Want something to drink?”

His brow furrowed. “No. I ate before we got here. You know I can’t—”

I grabbed his lapel and tugged him down until his ear was at a level with my mouth. I resisted the urge to just stand there, breathing him in—but barely. “You have to do some pretending tonight for this to work.”

He swallowed, then straightened.

“Right.” He nodded. “Let’s get a drink.”

As we made our way inside, I turned to him and asked, very quietly, “By the way, what happens if you don’t get permission?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“You said you can’t enter someone’s home without an invitation,” I reminded him. “What happens if you try?”

“Oh. That.” He quickly looked over his shoulder to make certain no one was within earshot, and then leaned in close. “Instant disintegration.”

I stared at him. “You’re kidding.”

He shook his head gravely. “When I first heard about this phenomenon, I thought it was a joke, too. But not long after I was turned, I saw another vampire try and break into a local farmer’s house while he and his family were out of town.” He paused, then leaned in closer before adding, “Vampire bits everywhere.”

I shuddered, though I was somewhat distracted from the graphic story by both the fact that in telling it, Frederick had chosen to share with me another closely guarded detail of his prior life—and the fact that his mouth was now just a hairsbreadth away from mine.

“How awful,” I said, trying to keep it together.

“Yes,” Frederick agreed, somberly. “It’s not a mistake you make a second time.”

“Cassie.”

I looked up to see Sam, striding towards us from the kitchen. He had a beer in one hand and a glass of white wine in the other.

He handed the wine to me, but his eyes were on Frederick.

My stomach was suddenly a hard, tight knot of anxiety. It had been one thing for Frederick to interact with my best friend for two minutes at the mall the other day. It was another thing for them to spend an entire evening together. From the look on his face, Sam seemed to have gotten over whatever oh no he’s hot moment he’d succumbed to during their last brief meeting and was prepared to come to a final decision about whether Frederick was a creep or was trustworthy.

I fidgeted with the stem of the wine glass and inclined my head towards Frederick. “Sam, you know Frederick.”

Sam extended his hand. “Nice to see you again.”

Frederick clasped Sam’s hand in his and gave it a firm shake. “Thank you for extending us this invitation to your home. It is nice to see you again as well.”