Insatiable

to save.

“What about some Taco Torpedoes?” the waitress suggested. “Or the Spicy Potato Stax

are on special today, twelve for five ninety-nine.”

“Just the Diet Coke,” Meena said with a smile. She had her red scarf back on, set at a

jaunty angle. It made her look like an American actress’s idea of how a French girl would

dress.

Kind of like this place was some soulless corporate conglomerate’s idea of how a

restaurant should be.

The waitress turned to Meena’s brother, Jon.

“I’ll take the Torpedoes and the Stax,” he said. “And also the Paprika Curly Fries and the

Sticky Wings and the Onion Brick.”

Meena shook her head. “You suck,” she said to her brother. “I hate you.” Alaric had no

idea what this exchange meant. Perhaps she resented her brother for his lack of caloric

restraint?

Jon smiled at his sister. “Oh, and a Coke,” he said to the waitress.

The waitress beamed at him approvingly, took his menu, and smiled down at Alaric.

“And you?”

“Coffee,” Alaric said, handing her back the menu. It was as heavy, he suspected, as the

Onion Brick. “Black.”

The waitress lost her smile. “Coming right up,” she said, and disappeared.

“Tell me one more time,” Alaric said, leaning his elbows against the sticky tabletop.

“Who is Yalena?”

Meena glared at him. It was clear he wasn’t her favorite person. “She’s a girl I met on

the subway,” she said. “She’s new to this country. I gave her my number and told her to call if

she got into trouble, because I could tell her boyfriend was going to try to kill her.”

“Unlike with us,” Jon said bitterly, gesturing to himself and Alaric. “When Meena gets

one of her visions about her boyfriend trying to kill someone, she just invites him in and sleeps

with him and lets him bite her on the neck.”

Now Meena was glaring at her brother. “Lucien is only going to kill you in self-defense.

If you don’t try to kill him, then he won’t have a problem with you and so won’t—”

“I want to go back to talking about the girl on the subway,” Alaric interrupted, placing a

thumb and forefinger on the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes. “I’m tired of hearing about

how wonderful Lucien is. Also the two of you fighting all the time is giving me a migraine.”

Spending the night on the couch hadn’t helped, either.

Nor had the fact that he’d missed decapitating Lucien Antonescu so nearly. If Holtzman

ever found out about that, he’d never hear the end of it back in the office.

“Oh,” Jon said with a snort. “ Us fighting? What about you two? You two sound like an

old married couple when you start in with each other.”

Alaric opened one eye and eyed the younger man. “I have my sword with me, you know.

I am perfectly willing to use it here at Shenanigans. I highly doubt anyone would notice, in

fact.”

The brother closed his mouth and picked up the glossy cocktail menu that sat at the end

of the table with the ketchup bottle and other condiments, clearly sulking. He was upset, Alaric

knew, because he wanted to be a member of the Palatine, and the slightest hint of criticism

from Alaric marred his dream of future employment.

Alaric knew that sooner or later he was going to have to tell the brother that his dream

was never going to happen in this lifetime. Primarily because it took years of training to

achieve, and Jon was too old to start that training.

But also because Alaric found Jon, like his sister, annoying.

But in entirely different ways, of course. Alaric was not, for instance, sexually attracted

to the brother, as he was to the sister. A fact about which he kept berating himself. How could

he be attracted to a woman who was sleeping with the master of eternal darkness? She wasn’t

even that attractive! She kept her hair too short for his taste, and her front teeth were a little

crooked.

Plus, she had an irritating habit of jiggling her foot. She was doing it now, under the

table. He could feel her shoe brushing his leg. The contact was far too intimate, considering

how she’d spent the evening—making love with Dracula’s son under his very nose.

Meena went on as if her brother had never interrupted. “He—Gerald, the boyfriend—

took away her passport and was holding her captive, making her…” She looked down and

coughed. “Service other men. Yalena got away somehow and called me because mine was the

only number she had. She’s going to meet me here. Though what she’ll do when she sees you

two, I don’t know.” Meena glared at both her brother and Alaric darkly. “She doesn’t exactly

trust men right now.”

“Well, I don’t exactly trust you, either,” Alaric said, still rubbing the bridge of his nose.

“Especially now .”

“Oh, right,” Meena replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “Because it’s so likely this

is all just a ruse so I can run off with my vampire lover. Or tip him off about where to find you.

Like I couldn’t have done that last night, when you were watching movies in the room next

door. We’ll see how much you still think that when she comes in here, all beat up, terrified and

alone.”

Alaric dropped his hand and opened both eyes to stare at her. “You act like you’ve done

this before.”

Meena shrugged. “It’s not totally uncommon. Unfortunately.”

“I don’t understand,” the brother burst out. “Is my sister a vampire now or not?”

Both Alaric and Meena turned to look at him in astonishment.

“Well,” Jon said, “it’s the elephant in the room. She got bit again . Is she or isn’t she? Do

we have to stake her?”

“Oh, that’s very nice, Jon,” Meena said, still sarcastic. “Just talk about staking me in the

middle of Shenanigans.”

“I already told you.” Alaric’s headache was not improving. “He has to bite her three

times, and then she needs to drink his blood to become a vampire. This is only the second time

he’s bitten her. Did you drink his blood, Meena?”

“No!” she cried, looking horrified. He felt her foot stop jiggling and come to rest against

his leg. He didn’t think she knew his leg was his leg and not part of the table.

He ought, he knew, to move his leg away.

And yet, he didn’t. He didn’t know why he didn’t. This was the most disturbing thing of

all.

All right. He did know why.

This was the most disturbing thing of all.

He ought to get out of this assignment as soon as possible. Possibly Holtzman was right,

and he did need psychological counseling.

“And I’m not going to, either,” she insisted. “I happen to enjoy things like sunshine and

dining at Shenanigans. Even if it is owned by Consumer Dynamics Inc., which means it’ll

probably be showing up on an episode of Insatiable soon, considering the way things are

going,” she added darkly. “And would I really be sitting here in broad daylight if I were a

vampire?” She looked up at the ceiling. “I cannot believe I’m actually having this

conversation. In a Shenanigans .”

The waitress appeared and slammed Alaric’s and Meena’s beverages down in front of

them. For Jon she had a gracious smile.

“Your Taco Torpedoes and Spicy Potato Stax will be ready soon, sir,” she said.

“Thank you,” Jon said, smiling back at her.

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