Cherry Stem by Sotia Lazu Read Free Book Online Page A

make me stop sulking. Whatever it was he’d meant to say next, I’d gotten the point. And I liked it.
    Not that I could actually show my improved mood, with him scowling the way he was.
    “I’ll pretend you never offered to do that,” he said finally, only slightly mellower. “Now tell me what I need to know about all this.”
    What did he need to know? “I guess I’ll just take it from the start.” I bit the inside of my cheek. “I mean, I was sort of a celeb, I got bitten by a guy I met at a party, and until now I thought he’d left me for dead.” Alex’s gray eyes were locked on mine, making it exceedingly hard for me to remember what I’d meant to say next.
    I can proudly say I managed, nevertheless. “Ted, who went poof, found me, supposedly recognized me from my films, and took me to the council to record my turning.”
    “The council. You mentioned it before. What is it exactly? How does it work?”
    I took a deep breath, then let the air rush out noisily between my lips. “It more or less comes up with rules to be followed. And of course with the repercussions for not following those rules.” Like for spilling my guts about our kind to a human. But it wasn’t like he’d tell anyone while I was around, and I was going to make him forget about us when I said good-bye, whether he wanted me to or not. I had to.
    Alex looked at me raptly, waiting for the interesting part, I guess. Too bad there wasn’t such a part coming. “There are five council members. Used to be the oldest vampires that ran things, but after”—I pointed at myself—“well, most of the ones that overthrew them are younger.”
    “Why was the council overthrown over something that an errant vamp did?”
    That was a very good question, actually. Why hadn’t I wondered about that before? Oh, right: I hadn’t bothered to try and understand. What I’d cared about at the time was that I’d never have the perfect abs, that I was hungry, and that my career would never take off. “The story was that the old council should have come up with rules against random turning earlier, and that the fact that they hadn’t done so showed they didn’t really care about the ones they were appointed to protect.”
    “And the new council cares more?”
    “I don’t know. The services that took me in had existed since vampires were first organized, but they’re no longer necessary, since we don’t have more fledglings, so they were…discontinued. That’s the only change I know of.”
    “Services?” He tilted his head to the right and cocked an eyebrow. It was unsettling that I already considered the movement a trademark of his, like I’d known him for a long time and not just twenty-four hours. “Like social services?”
    I could see the idea of a vampire society with an infrastructure similar to that of humans amused him. “Yup.” I popped the p . “ Vampire Social Services. We called them VSS. They took new vamps in and taught us what we needed to survive.” I paused. “There was also a handbook to be memorized and destroyed before we left.”
    That got a full-blown grin out of him.
    I swatted his shoulder playfully. “Don’t mock, sir. It was helpful.” It really had been. “I wouldn’t have learned how to control the thirst or fend for myself without it. I’m not sure I’d have even wanted to.” Constantine had helped me practice what I’d read, but it wasn’t the time to mention him.
    He caressed my back, his long fingers drawing soothing circles that drove the stress away. “In that case, I’m glad you had it.” He leaned closer to me.
    I wanted to kiss him. He certainly looked healthy enough for more than kissing, but there were things to be discussed. “I think I should talk to the council about tonight.”
    He sucked in his lower lip. I wished I were the one doing the sucking.
    “Sounds good.” His fingers crawled up my neck and began massaging my scalp. “And I should keep looking at what the missing