Drink Deep - Chloe Neill [85]
“Grass is greener,” she agreed, then slid me a glance. “Now that we’ve worked through my relationship issues, are you ready to talk about Jonah?”
What I wanted to do was nip that conversation in the bud. “There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Look,” she said, her tone softening. “I’m not saying now is the time for you to find an eternity partner. But maybe it’s time for you to consider considering someone. A friend. A lover. A friend with benefits.” She bumped my shoulder playfully. “Jonah is like—I mean, Jesus, Merit. He’s crazy beautiful, smart, he’s got the trust of his entire House, and he appreciates you.”
“He’s not Ethan.”
“That’s not fair. There was no Ethan before him, and there will be no Ethan after him. But Ethan’s gone. I’m not saying you forget he existed. I’m just saying eternity is a long time. And maybe you could consider the possibility that there are other people who could become a part of your life if you let them.”
We sat there quietly for a moment.
“He kissed me.”
Lindsey offered up a dolphin-worthy squeal. “I knew he would. How was it?”
“The kiss? Great. My regret after the fact? Less enjoyable.”
“Eek,” she said. “What did you do?”
“I kind of bailed on him?” I thought putting it into the form of a question would make it sound a little less bad. Maybe not surprisingly, it didn’t.
“Bad form, Sentinel. Bad form. You still on speaking terms?”
“Possibly not, but that’ll change. It has to, since he’s the only partner I’ve got at the moment.”
“True dat. Times are tough, guards and partners are in short supply, and humans are whiny little babies. I mean, we’ve been here as long as they have. You wanna bet the murder rate among humans is a lot higher than it is among vampires? We are not the ones causing this city’s issues.”
She stood up and moved her hands down in front of her body, blowing out a breath as she did it. “I’m calm. I’m calm. I’m also really hungry. You ready for breakfast?”
I shook my head. “I don’t have time. I’m visiting the mayor.”
She whistled low. “Again? Are you that hard up for a date?”
“Har har. I think he might have information about what’s going on.” I filled her in on my lemon and sugar theory. Unlike Catcher, she thought there was merit to the idea. But that didn’t deter her from her goal.
“Mayor or not, even vampires have to eat.” She tapped a finger against her head. “Empathic, remember? I can feel how hungry you are. And if you’re going to figure out what the hell is going on here, you need to be ready for it. You can’t put off food just because you’re tired. It will only make you tireder.”
I didn’t disagree that she had a point, but I wanted this matter done sooner rather than later. On the other hand, I did have a tendency to run myself until I was quite literally sick of it, until I was in bed for a week with a virus that knocked me completely on my ass. A week of no sleep, slamming down junk food, and stress tended to do that to a girl.
I wasn’t sure if vamps could get colds, but it probably wouldn’t be very responsible of me to test that theory now.
We walked downstairs and moved into the cafeteria line. Unfortunately, Juliet and Margot had been right about Frank’s new nutritional choices: free-range eggs; turkey bacon; organic fruit salad; and a grain-heavy gruel that looked like it would have been served in Little Orphan Annie’s orphanage.
“Ugh,” I remarked, but scooped up eggs and fruit and grabbed a drink box of blood.
We took our food to a table and were quickly joined by Margot and Katherine, another Novitiate with a wicked sense of humor and a fabulous singing voice.
“So it’s been a really freaky week. How’s it going out there?” Margot asked, picking through her bowl of fruit.
“I’ve been beating the streets. But I’m not sure I’m making progress.”
“That’s all you can do,” Margot said, pointing at me with a cantaloupe-laden fork. “Besides, things are back to normal for now. Maybe they’ll stay that way.”
I wouldn’t bet on it, but I nodded my agreement.
Margot gave me a sly look. “I hear you’re working with Jonah—the captain of the Grey House