Silent Cravings (22 page)

As Clarisse explained the facts of life to Ashi, Jessica was shaking Thad awake from the light stupor he’d fallen into on the couch. “Go get Analie, please? I’ll be right back.”

“Ugh.”

“ʼKay. See you in a minute!”

Ashi stared at Clarisse. He’d still get bitten if he made nice with someone, but at least he wouldn’t be a public drinking fountain. Somehow this brought absolutely no comfort. He didn’t want to get bitten
at all
. It was like telling someone you’re only going to shoot them once with a shotgun, not three times.

“That’s like a cow making friends with a butcher,” Ashi said, shuffling a few steps toward the bed.

“Ah, no, lad,” Clarisse said, going grave for the first time. “Cows are killed for their meat. Donors are kept, and kept well, by their hosts. What good is a dead donor? If ye have someone who thinks ye a bit of a tasty treat and give them reason tae be interested in ye aside from what ye can do for their hunger, then ye have no worries of being treated poorly.”

Thad shuffled downstairs, rubbing his eyes on the way. He tugged his pajama pants up and scratched his bare chest, yawning hugely as he knocked on Mouse’s apartment door. He hadn’t expected it to be ajar, and it opened up at the rap of his knuckles, revealing something that made Thad wonder for a second if he was hallucinating.

There was a giant… furry…
something
lying on the floor.

His eyes widened, a sharp breath taken as it
looked
at him. It only took a second for the terrified reaction to switch from frozen in fear to actively attempting to claw his way through the wall behind him.

“What the heck
is
that?” he screamed, rapidly backpedalling.

Analie whined, looking worriedly at Thad. Christoph stood up, holding up his hands.

“Hey, hey, it’s cool. This is Analie. Calm down. Look.” He reached down and scratched under Analie’s chin. “See?”

Thad was clearly not convinced that this made her harmless.

“What the
fuck
?”

Wesley poked his head around the doorway down the hall. “What the hell is going on over there?”

Thad pointed, gaping, not saying anything else as he stayed mostly flattened against the wall.

Christoph urged Analie to flatten herself against the floor. He’d have rather gotten her to her feet and farther away from Thad, but a pony-sized Goliath wolf rising to its full height was probably not the best move.

“It’s okay! She’s harmless!” Christoph said. “Please don’t freak out.”

Analie whined loudly, her ears pinned back.

“Look, she’s afraid of
you
. Please, just calm down.”

Wesley, overhearing the commotion, jogged over to see what was making that whining noise and what Thad was pointing at.

Half a second later, he was plastered against the far wall next to Thad, also pointing and gaping.

“What the
fuck
?”

Ashi laughed softly, without humor. “So it’s more of a ‘pet’ situation than ‘livestock.’” He glared at Clarisse. “I don’t know how anyone here stands it. I
never
want to be bitten again. I’ve seen and done some intense shit in my life, and I would rather get mauled by enemy Weres than have a vampire bite me.”

His whole body was shaking badly. He wished it was due to rage rather than an I’m-ready-to-piss-myself reaction.

Clarisse sighed, giving his shoulder a good-natured pat. “Not quite, lad. Usually donors know beforehand what they’re getting into. Unfortunate it wasn’t that way for ye, but ye can at least make the best of what lot ye’ve been given, aye?” She frowned. “Did ye not like how it feels?”

Ashi took a few jerking steps away from Clarisse.

“How is that a good thing?” he snarled. “That’s worse. That’s
worse!
It was supposed to hurt. It was supposed to be the most painful thing any Were has ever felt. It’s not supposed to feel good!”

He kept backing up until he hit the wall. “I’m not supposed to like it! I’m supposed to feel pain! It should hurt! I couldn’t move. I didn’t want to! I didn’t want to beat the living shit out of him and run away!
I liked it!
”

His voice had slowly risen until he was now shrieking.

“What the hell is wrong with this place? What is wrong with these people? This is insane! Everyone here has got to be fucking insane!”

Clarisse held up her hands in a “calm down” gesture, looking worried. “Maybe it’s that way for some vampires’ bites, but not Alec’s line. Please just relax, somebody might wake up and not take too kindly tae that kind of talk.”

Her, for one. Yeah, this one was obviously a little too high strung to be one of her pets. She hoped Thad would bring Analie and that she’d know what the hell to do about Ashi’s panic attack because she sure didn’t have a clue.

“Just leave me alone,” Ashi hissed. “Okay? Just leave me
alone.
”

“It’s
Analie!
” Christoph shouted. “Christ, guys! Grow a pair!”

He moved closer to Analie. “Look, she’s like a big puppy. A fuzzy, cuddly puppy.” He threw an arm over her wide shoulders. Analie almost growled but thought better of it. “See, she’s cool. Look, she likes head scritches. See? She’s a good Were! She’s da best Were in da world. Are you da best Were in da world? Yes, you are! Yes, you are, looka dat Were!”

Analie’s swishy tail thumped against the floor.

“Is da Were a big bad Were? Nooooo, she’s not a big bad Were. She’s a puppy! She’s a puppers! Looka da puppers!”

Please, dear God, will those two idiots calm down already? This is the second most emasculating thing that’s happened to me in twenty-four hours.

“Will you guys shut up so we can sleep already? Jesus!” someone shouted from down the hall.

It broke Wesley out of his fright enough to regain a semblance of poise. Okay. The big, giant, furry, scary thing with really big teeth wasn’t attacking. He could deal with this.

Shuddering, running a hand raggedly over his face, he inched away from the wall.

“Look, just… just… don’t… just…”

“Fuck me, that thing is—”

Wesley slapped a hand over Thad’s mouth so hard, the human’s head thumped against the wall.

“Can you just shift back? Please?” he finally got out, all in a rush.

Clarisse narrowed her eyes, getting a trifle peeved.

“Look, jocko, ye’re not winning yerself any friends by acting this way. Might I suggest ye calm down before ye wake up Angus and he does it for ye?”

Jessica wandered in with her bag of medical supplies, her eyes widening at Clarisse’s switch from cheerful gaiety to flat out hostility in the short time she’d been gone.

“If you leave the room, I’m sure she’d be happy to,” Christoph said. “She’s not going to shift right in front of you. She’s
au naturel
currently.”

Analie rounded her back sharply, shoving Christoph away. She bared her teeth at him briefly and put her head back down.

“I don’t
care
. I don’t
want
to be friends with anyone here!” Ashi shouted. “This is insane! How can you be so god damned
cheerful?
” Ashi pointed at Jessica. “You’re
food!”

Jessica laughed at him.

“Is that the bug that’s crawled up your ass? Look, hon, we’re all a heck of a lot more than food to our hosts. Does a lion treat a gazelle to a trip to Rio or help pay their way through med school? Give them work, a home, and an entire network of professionals to go to whenever they need something? I doubt that very sincerely. And it’s not like we’re opening veins to them on a daily basis. They space out their feedings so that none of us are in danger from having too much taken in too short a period. So kindly sit your ass down, shut up, and let me check your blood pressure.”

“Gladly. One sec,” Wesley said, turning to interpose himself between Thad and the doorway, blocking his line of sight to the Were as he slowly removed his hand from the guy’s mouth. Wesley wasn’t thrilled about turning his back on the monster, but he figured he was fast enough to get out of the way if it should attack. “Thad?”

Thad stared blankly up at him.

“What did you come down here for?”

Thad gestured weakly.

“One of those two?”

A nod.

“The guy or the…?”

“The other one,” he whispered, eyes widening.

Wesley sighed, turning back to face the pair. “Look, when you’re… uh… decent, go upstairs and to the end of the hall, last apartment on the right. Sebastian or somebody wants you up there for something. Probably to do with that other new guy.”