Gloriana gave me an honestly puzzled look, then turned to Oliver. “What does she mean?”
“She means that humans have status here.” He didn’t look particularly happy about it, but then, that’s Oliver for you. “You can’t expect civility from them. And, unfortunately, you can’t punish them for failing to provide it.”
I snorted. “Bite me, fanger.”
“See?”
Gloriana looked honestly taken aback for a few seconds, and then smiled in what I could only call utter delight. Despite my best intentions, I got a traitorous little impulse to grin back. “Really? But this is wonderful!”
“It is?” Oliver’s turn to look bemused, as if she’d suddenly started rattling on in a language he didn’t recognize.
“Of course! You know I’ve never been terribly conventional, cuz. I’d be delighted to converse with humans again on an equal basis. Most of them are terribly dull, of course, but this one looks bright enough.” Her green eyes swept over me, giving me the female X-ray of appraisal. “And certainly not afraid of controversy.”
“This one is named Eve,” I said. “And don’t check my teeth like I’m your livestock. I bite back.”
Gloriana laughed, an honest, full laugh, and I felt a shudder go through Oliver’s body next to me. I couldn’t tell what had brought that on—not fear, surely; the old dude didn’t fear anybody that I could tell. “Eve,” she said. “I’d like something to drink. Something hot and salty, perhaps in an O negative if you have it.”
Ugh, but okay, I served vamps from time to time. I summoned up the professional smile again. “Sure thing. Coming right up.”
It was only as I was warming up the blood out of the refrigerator that it occurred to me that she’d named my own blood type.
Hmmmm.
Coincidence. Probably.
? ? ?
Gloriana’s visit to the coffee shop was eye-opening, to say the least. I put her blood in an opaque coffee cup, with a lid, and she and Oliver went to sit down together, presumably to jaw about old times, and I mean old times. She wasn’t standoffish, the way some of the other vampires were—she said hello to people as they passed, gave them the same sweet smile, shook hands with a few.
I was pulling espresso shots for a mocha when my boyfriend came in the vampire entrance and got in the ordering line. I waved, and he winked at me. Michael is a total hottie, always has been: tall, blond, built, and shy, for the most part. He’s always been focused more on music than on the people around him, and from what he’d told me about how he’d come to get dead, that had been a real mistake. So he was trying to do a little better about connecting with people, as well as guitar riffs. He’s always been my friend, but these days, he’s a whole lot more than that.
I don’t want to be sick about it, but I love him with my life. It scares me down to the bones to think about losing him—although, in Morganville, it’s a lot more likely that he’ll lose me, given the mortality rates among humans here.
Still.
I rushed through the next three orders to get to Michael, and then took my time, leaning over the counter and smiling as our eyes met. “Hi, handsome,” I purred. “See something you like?”
“Always,” he said, and gave me just a flicker of that devastating Michael Glass grin. “And the coffee looks good, too.”
“You are suave. I’ve always said so.”
“And you’re strange. But I love strange.”
“Mmmm. Want to go take inventory with me in the back?”
“Isn’t the boss here?” Michael made a show of looking around for Oliver.
He found him. He also spotted Gloriana, who was leaning her chin on her tiny little hand, looking at Oliver with luminous, big eyes.
“Wow,” he said. This was not the thing you wanted to hear out of a boyfriend, believe me. “Who’s the new girl?”
“Gloriana,” I said. “She’s not new. She’s ancient.” I was hoping that would put an end to it; Michael wasn’t interested in hanging around other vampires, although he did it when circumstances required; he liked me, and Shane, and Claire. He liked us a whole lot better than the nonbreathers.
Until now, apparently. I could almost see the word balloon floating over his head: Should go say hello. But he was smart enough not to say it. With an effort, he dragged his attention away from Gloriana, and looked at me again. “So, you have plans for lunch today?”
“Nope. I was thinking about a smoothie.” In this coffee bar, you had to be sure you were grabbing the pureed strawberries, and not, you know, something else, but the smoothies were pretty awesome. “I could be talked into something non-food-related, though.”
“Shane’s at work,” Michael said. “Claire’s at school. House is empty. I could make you something hot.”