Now, they seemed even more carefree. And this time… maybe I couldn’t fault them for it. I’d spent hours wandering these streets in search of dangers to protect them from and had found none.
Maybe that was worthy of celebration.
Still, their behavior felt foreign to me. If some tiny part of me had come here searching for familiarity, I hadn’t found it. I had some human blood, but I was nothing like these people—even if a part of me wished I was.
“Hey, pretty girl, you here alone?” a young, copper-haired man said, sidling up to me, and I shot him a dagger stare that made him make a face and immediately turn away.
I realized after he left that I’d had my hands on my blades.
For fuck’s sake. What was I doing here?
You don’t belong here, little serpent, Vincent whispered in my ear. Here among the mice.
Even in my head his voice was so disgusted by them, so dismissive. I could hear it so clearly, because I’d heard that tone from him countless times in life.
It set my teeth on edge. My fingers tightened at my sides.
Fear is a collection of physical responses.
I forced my breath to slow, my heart rate to lower.
If Raihn could do it, I could certainly do it.
I managed to fight my way to the bar by wielding some mixture of appropriately stomped feet, pointy elbows, and my ability to be small enough to slip between the hulking bodies of sweaty bearded men.
Ugh. Humans did sweat so much more than vampires.
When I made it to the bar and the barkeep, a wiry old man with deep set, tired eyes, turned to me, I froze.
Seconds passed. The barkeep looked increasingly pissed with every one.
“Well?” he pressed. “We’re busy, kid.”
“Beer,” I choked out finally.
The barkeep stared flatly at me.
“One…one beer?” I tried.
“Two beers,” a deep, very amused voice corrected from behind me.
Familiar warmth encircled me as a large body leaned against the bar beside me. I recognized him long before I looked at him.
How the hell did he find me here?
Raihn murmured in my ear, “You brag about winning the Kejari, but you don’t know how to order a beer?”
My face heated.
“Not a very useful skill,” I grumbled.
“Really? I’ve found it very useful.”
The barkeep returned with two mugs of foamy brown liquid, and Raihn slid a couple of coins to him with a jerked half-nod of thanks. It had been long enough since I’d seen this version of him that it was jarring all over again. He wore a dark cloak and a slightly yellowed white shirt unbuttoned distractingly too low, his hair messy and unbound. Everything about his body language mirrored those around us. Casual, rough, unpolished.
Unmistakably human.
Still, I noticed he kept his hood up this time. Maybe he trusted his disguise a little less than he used to.
He took the two mugs and gestured to a little semi-secluded table across the room, not far from the spot he and I had sat the first time we came here. The place was so crowded that he practically had to fight his way through—though, of course, he managed to do it with a lot less overt aggression than I had.
Helped to be huge, apparently.
“Why are you here?” I asked, as soon as we were at our table.
His brow twitched. “You planned on drinking alone? How depressing.”
“Were you following me?”
He set the mugs down and raised his palms. “Easy, viper. I’m here for the same reasons you are. The seductive allure of piss beer. Good to know it’s grown on you.”
He smiled, and I didn’t.
“So it’s just a god-chosen coincidence that you’ve shown up here?”
“Your sarcasm is so subtle, princess. Elegant and refined. Like fine wine. Or this beer.” He took a swig, made a face, and let out a refreshed sigh. “What, you think I’ve been spying on you?”
“That’s exactly what I think.”
“So what if I have? You think Mische is that shitty of a bodyguard, that you could slip out into the human districts and no one would know?”
Embarrassingly, it hadn’t even occurred to me that Mische had seen me go.
“So you were tailing me,” I said.
“No. I knew you could handle yourself. This part, you and I ending up here at the same time… that actually is luck. I come here a lot. Missed it while we were gone.”
I did have to admit I believed that. A part of Raihn existed out here that didn’t exist in the Nightborn castle. Maybe… maybe just like a part of me existed here that couldn’t there, too.