Page 13 of Cold Sacrifice

I’d eaten half the bar before he finished speaking. “Lucy?” I asked.

“Yeah. She told me I need to keep food stashed in the car just in case.”

“Lucy’s the smartest person in the world,” I said, then looked at the bag. “What else you got in there?”

He laughed, then pulled out a bag of peanuts, a rather warm energy drink, and another candy bar. “Do you want the peanuts, the drink, or the candy bar?”

“Yes, thank you,” I said, then grinned at his look. “I told you I was hungry.”

“Hey,” he said. “No judgment here. Besides, I’ve seen you eat half a dozen double cheeseburgers and wash them down with an extra-large milkshake. I’m not going to be shocked by a couple of candy bars, no matter how gigantic they are.”

I’d nearly eaten the second candy bar when my cell phone rang. “It’s Bastien,” I told Joe.

“I know what that means,” he said, and cracked his knuckles.

I pulled out of the parking lot as I answered. Bastien wouldn’t be calling just to say hi.

“Are you in the city?” he asked when I answered.

“I am,” I said. “What do you need?”

“Over the last month, four of my people appeared to have given themselves their true death. Sometime during his death-sleep, one of them drove a stake through his chest and was found tonight. I would like you to come to Alexandria and look at his body.” He hesitated. “Vampires don’t kill themselves, Kait.”

Joe and I exchanged looks, but Joe didn’t speak. “Okay,” I told Bastien. “I’m on my way.” I hung up and then pulled off the street. “You drive,” I said. “I want to grab some food and eat on the way so I can deal with whatever awful vampire shit Bastien has going on.”

Luckily for me, there were always fast-food places open in the city, no matter what time it was. As Joe sped through Jakeston, eager to reach Alexandria, I sat in the passenger seat, happily munching my way through five double cheeseburgers.

“Joe, we won’t make it back to Huntersburg before dawn. So you—”

“I’ll sleep at my master’s house,” he said, frowning as he looked through the side mirror at something behind us. Then it dawned on him what he’d said. “Fuck me,” he muttered, stuck between anger, outrage, and embarrassment. “Did I just call Bastien my fucking master?”

I licked mustard off my wrist. “I’m afraid so, Joe.”

“Sonofabitch,” he said, truly devastated. “I’m changing, then. This is where we are.”

“He turned you,” I said gently. “It’s okay to call him whatever you feel like calling him. You’re his vampire child, and—”

“No,” he said. “I’m not doing that shit. No one is my master. I don’t care if he turned me. I don’t care about any of that. As far as I’m concerned, he saved my life. Kept me from dying. Turned me into a monster. But he’s not my damn master, Kait.”

But we both knew that Bastien was absolutely his master, and if he wanted to press the issue, Joe would be compelled to obey him. That was just the way it was, and it didn’t matter what Joe called him.

I squeezed his arm but said nothing. Joe would deal with his issues in his own time, his own way. And he’d know I’d be there for him while he did it.

“Anyway,” he said, pushing it away, “there’s a cop on our ass. He’s looking like he’s going to pull us over.”

I shrugged. “If he does, I’ll flash my ID.” I held my last burger with one hand while I pulled the lanyard off the rearview. Two seconds later, red and blue lights flared in the mirror.

“Oh hell,” Joe said. “I don’t like cops, Kaity Bug.”

I laughed. “We’re around cops a lot. And Rick is a cop.”

“You’re around cops a lot, and Rick is different.”

He was honestly nervous.

I texted Bastien while we were waiting for the patrol officer to get out of his car and come to the window.

Got pulled over. Might be a little longer.