“I’m flattered that I can bring that out in him,” Solan teased. He leaned back in Everett’s embrace, secure in his partner’s affection.
“I don’t know why I let you all rile me up,” Everett said, shaking his head.
Raul smiled at his friend’s antics, but didn’t laugh along with them.
“Why are you so tense, Raul?” Everett suddenly asked.
Raul blew off Everett’s question as he shuffled the next hand. The cards flipped between his hands in a rapid blur. “I’m not tense.” He thought that would be the end of it, but Peter chimed in on the topic.
“I think Everett is right,” Peter said. “Normally you’re laid back and joking but tonight you’re quiet and kind of moody. Are you having trouble with one of the casinos?”
“That’s not it.” LaToria tilted her head to the side as she studied Raul. “He needs to feed,” she declared firmly.
Peter raised an eyebrow in surprise. “I’ve never known you to go without feeding. And aren’t Linda and Alan staying with you again?”
“You’re out of the loop, Peter.” Everett said as he accepted the hand of cards Raul dealt him. He raised an eyebrow as he looked at them but then he finished answering Peter’s question. “Linda and Alan departed so that he could bring in a new snack.”
“Who?”
Raul answered Peter’s question. “His name is Ji-Su. He had a blood patron who got rough with him so I bought out his contract to get him safely away.”
“And he’s staying with you.”
“Yes.”
“As a blood pet.”
“Technically.”
“Then why haven’t you fed from him?” Peter asked in genuine confusion.
Raul sighed. “I didn’t take him into my home to feed off him. I did it to help him.”
“Have you drunk from him at all?” LaToria asked.
“Once.”
“And how was it?”
Raul thought back to that night when he’d tasted Ji-Su’s blood for the first time. “His blood was so perfect it was likedrinking heaven. It took me nearly an hour to fully shake off the feeding haze afterward.”
Everett swirled his high ball glass of Rip Van Winkle bourbon, ice cubes clinking against the sides.
“It was that good and you think you can resist taking from him again while he’s there in your home?”
“I will. Because that’s what’s best for him.” Raul was firm in his decision on that. He wanted Ji-Su to be safe and healthy, not doing something that would hurt him either mentally or physically out of obligation.
LaToria looked at him with her finely arched brows drawn in question.
“Does he want to feed you?”
“He said that he did.”
Peter laid his cards face down on the table, giving up all pretense of focusing on the game. “Then why don’t you take what he’s offering?”
“I’m afraid I won’t be able to control myself with him,” Raul answered honestly.
“You think you might drain him?”