Darcy asked me to get dressed, and when I walked out into the club, I found him behind the bar on the lower floor. I descended the metal stairs and cautiously yet curiously made my way over to stand in front of the bar.
“I thought you were going to take me hunting.”
“If you’re a new vampire, I am not taking you outside this club. Anyway, it’s daytime, and if you’re a vampire, you’ll catch alight.”
“But you go out in the daylight, and you don’t catch alight.”
He stopped what he was doing behind the bar, which I couldn’t see because the bar was high—and I am short. He dropped his voice and seductively said, “Ah, that’s thanks to the magical blood I once drank from a certain witch-dragon princess.” He winked and went back to doing whatever he was doing. My cheeks inflamed. So, I am the cause of his power, and he is the cause of mine.
“What are you making?”
He placed a glass filled with thick red liquid garnished with a stalk of celery in front of my face on the bar. I automatically turned up my nose. It smells metallic and not citrusy like it should.
“Is that…a Bloody Mary made with real blood?”
“Yeah. If you’re becoming a vamp, then you’ll become ravenous when even a single drop of this hits your tongue. Your fangs should also protrude.”
“Eww,” I said, pushing the glass away. “I can already tell I’m not. That smells revolting.”
“Just taste it so we can rule it out. We need to be sure.”
“Ugh. Fine.” I grabbed the glass. The scent of the disgusting concoction hit my nose, and I felt like puking. It smelled like blood mixed with tomato juice and vodka and all the usual ingredients used to make a normal Bloody Mary. I held my nose with the other hand and took a small sip of the concoction. Iron, and copper, and tomato, along with garlic hit my tongue, but mostly blood. I leaned forward and placed my hand over my mouth to keep from spewing.
“Oh, my god! I can’t believe you made me do that!” I slid the glass back on the bar, and Darcy grabbed it and drank it down fast, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand afterward. I stared at him aghast.
“At least we can rule out turning into a vampire.” He chuckled.
“Brilliant plan, Darce. What’s next? If I’m not a vampire, then what am I?”
He stopped laughing, then leaped over the bar and landed softly before me.
“There’s only one other explanation.”
I was afraid of his answer.
“What? What is it?”
He went silent and looked down at his hands, which had specks of blood on them from mixing the blood cocktail.
“Darcy?”
“I was afraid it would be this. I didn’t want it to be true.”
“What is it? Tell me!”
He sighed and looked up at me, his eyes filled with sympathy and something else I couldn’t grasp.
“You’re human.”