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didn’t dare look at him right now. After
what she’d seen inside, and the way it made her feel, she couldn’t
face him just yet.
    With her arms wrapped around her stomach, she
doubled over and stared at the pockmarked surface of the parking
lot between her feet. A few more breaths, and she’d regain control,
settle the raging river in her blood and start to feel like herself
again. She hoped.
    “I told you.” His voice reached her from a
few feet away. When she peered up at him she saw only his back. A
fresh wave of shame washed over her when she realized he couldn’t
look at her either.
    “I’ll be all right. Give me a minute.”
    “It’s time I took you home.”
    She shook her head. “It’s only 4:00 a.m. I
want to go to another club.”
    “Sunrise is at 5:03 today. The bars are
closing now.”
    She shook her head, hiding a faint smile as
she pulled her hair down from the tight band that held it off her
neck. “Of course you know exactly what time sunrise is.”
    “Did you bring a car to After Dark?” he
asked, ignoring her comment. She wondered if it offended him to be
reminded of the limitations of his kind.
    “I walked from the bus stop on Dwight Avenue.
I was concerned someone might trace my plates if they saw my car in
the lot.”
    Now Max turned and met her gaze. For a brief
moment she thought she saw admiration in his eyes.
    “Who are you hiding from?”
    “I ... have a conservative life.” Perhaps
that was an overstatement. ‘Life’ was too strong a word to describe
what Erica had. By day, a stoic, proper insurance claims adjuster,
filling out complicated forms in triplicate. By night, more often
than not, Elena’s keeper. There was nothing in between. She hadn’t
had time for friends in months, didn’t have the energy to make up
lies about Elena anymore. She kept her coworkers and neighbors at a
polite distance to isolate herself--though she wasn’t quite sure
from what.
    “By vampire standards, so do I.” Max smirked
again.
    “You seemed pretty comfortable in there.” She
regretted that her statement sounded like an accusation. He didn’t
seem to notice, though.
    “I swing by now and then to keep an eye on
things, but that’s not where I feed. It’s just part of my job.”
    “They all have jobs, too, don’t they? Like
regular ... like humans?”
    He nodded. “Most of them. The nights can be
long and boring. We’ve all got to do something. Come on. Let me
take you home.”
    Erica straightened and followed Max toward
his car. Though her stomach had calmed, a slight tremor played at
the back of her jaw, and the giddiness hadn’t dissipated
completely. When she slid into the cool leather passenger seat, she
sank back and let the kinks in her spine work themselves out.
    “Why?” she asked as he started the engine and
backed out of the parking space. She noticed other cars queuing up
to leave the club as well.
    “Why what?” He glanced at her, and then
deliberately looked away as he guided the car through the white
painted posts that stood guard at the lot entrance.
    “Why everything? Why are they like that? What
was in that drink? Why do humans allow themselves ... ?”
    “It’s a complex symbiotic relationship.” Max
smirked as he spoke. The line was obviously well rehearsed. “It
took centuries for us to come to terms with our true need for
humans. Most of us don’t think of you as enemies anymore and
fortunately for us, there are more and more of you who don’t think
of us as enemies, either. But on the other side of the coin, years
ago no one became a vampire by choice. Turning someone was the
closest thing to procreation we could do. And there was the idea
that if vampires outnumbered humans, the world might be a safer
place for us.”
    Erica closed her eyes, torn between wanting
to absorb what Max told her and understand it, and wanting to drown
it all out and forget everything. She had so many more questions
but she was afraid of the answers.
    “Where do you