The kid just turns up at Niall’s place one night. He’s there waiting, leaning against the door when Niall gets back from the meat market. The real meat market, not that faded hook up joint with bad music and mercifully dim lighting. “Gonna stake me again?” Niall asks, elbowing the kid aside so he can get his key in the lock. It doesn’t rattle. Well, maybe just a little. “Do I get to eat first?”
“No.”
Niall can feel the heat in the kid’s face, smell his embarrassment. The acrid reek is a lot like fear. “I checked up on ghouls. You’re a…like a failed vamp, aren’t you? One that didn’t take. I mean—s**t, I’m saying this all wrong. I mean, you’re a victim. Just like Kyle was.”
Niall leans against the doorframe. The grocery bag’s begun to drip blood, and the smell is fogging his brain with hu
