When I woke the next evening, the first thing I thought of was Edgar. My dick was hard and I was starving hungry—not for food this time. I dealt with the former, then dragged on some clothes and took the dogs outside. I didn't trust myself near Edgar until I'd fixed the latter, and I sent the dogs into the store by themselves, then quickly walked away.

It didn't take me long to find a lone homeless person on the beach. I drained him until his heart stopped, checked he didn't have anything worth taking, and threw the body into the sea. I went back to the comic book store and found Edgar eating something. As I watched, he picked a couple of bits out of it and fed it to Zeus and Mars. He looked up and smiled as I approached, then quickly wiped the smile off his face and frowned instead. I smirked. He was so determined not to like me.

"What are you eating?"

"Meatball pasta. Zeus and Mars like the meatballs."

I sniffed. The food smelled delicious. "Did you make that?"

"Yeah. You want some?" Edgar picked up a plastic box from beside the till and passed it to me, along with a fork.

"You made me dinner?" I said in disbelief.

He scowled. "Don't eat it if you don't want it. I wanted a change from takeout food, that's all."

"Oh, I'm gonna eat it. I was just surprised. How do you know how to cook?"

"My mother taught me and Alan when we were young. It comes in handy when you live on your own."

"I suppose." I opened the box, dug a fork into the pasta, and shovelled some into my mouth. Beef, garlic, herbs, and tomatoes exploded on my tongue. "This is amazing."

"Good thing garlic doesn't harm you." Edgar actually laughed. "There's a lot in there."

We fell silent and ate. Edgar gave the dogs his last two meatballs. I ate all mine and put the box and fork back beside the till. "If you feel like you owe me, I'm happy to accept payment in food," I teased.

"I can do that sometimes. Is there anything you don't like?"

I shrugged. "Not that I can think of."

"How come you sent the dogs in here by themselves tonight?"

"I, um, had something to take care of."

"Oh." He paused. "Doesn't it make you feel guilty? Killing people?"

"Used to a long time ago. I had to get over that or suffer."

"Who made you like this? Was it David?"

"Yeah."

"Is he here?"

"No. He's in Texas with Dwayne. Do you know what happened before we left?"

"No, you just disappeared. Sorry, wait." Edgar stood up to deal with a customer. I moved away from the till and sat in my usual spot. When he was free again, he came to me. "Go on."

"Sit down." When he didn't, I grasped his wrist lightly and tugged him closer. He sat down on the bench. I kept a loose grip on his arm, my fingertips resting over his pulse. "We were sleeping—the four of us. The dogs woke us. Did you know Max?"

Edgar shook his head.

"He made David. David made me and Marko within a couple of months of each other. Then Dwayne much later."

"What about Star?"

"She was a mistake. David wanted a companion and he tried a number of women, but none of them would change for him. Star wouldn't either, but eventually she changed for Marko. David decided to try a guy instead and ended up falling head over heels. It was sickening." I laughed at the memory of David and Dwayne fawning over each other.

"You don't like the idea of being with someone like that?"

"Well, I didn't for a long time. Never really appealed." I shot him a quick grin. "People change. Anyway, Max was killed before Dwayne came along. Run in with some other vampires. We were new and young and we didn't protect him. That morning two years ago, Max's maker Vincent came. He wanted to make us pay because Max was gone and we were drawing a lot of attention to ourselves. He killed Marko. The three of us and the dogs got the better of him in the end, but Dwayne almost bought it. We decided it was time to leave after that."

"Why did you come back? Didn't you like Texas?"

"I wanted to see if it was still the same. It's always been my home. I was born here, as a human, I mean. David and Dwayne don't need me right now. It's quiet where they are. There are no hunters and no other vampires."

"So you came back to a place you know there's at least one hunter?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Maybe I wanted to see how he was getting along, too." Edgar's pulse quickened. I stroked my fingers over the vein in his wrist. "I'm sorry about what happened to Alan," I murmured.

"You didn't do it."

"You have to understand that if one of you had staked my lover, if I'd had one, while she or he slept next to me, I'd have done the same thing."

"I know. I get it."

"You still don't want to kill me?"

"No. You're not like them. The redheaded guy and his thugs. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right?"

"I thought you said we weren't friends," I teased.

His pulse was rapid and a flush touched his cheeks. "I changed my mind."

"Well, that's a good start." I glanced around the store, finding it empty. I slid my hand from Edgar's wrist to his hand and laced our fingers together. His heart thundered in his chest and he gulped. My nostrils flared at the scent of his blood, and my own headed south. I lifted my free hand to grip his chin and turned him to face me. Wide brown eyes met mine and he parted his lips to suck in a breath. I leaned in closer until our noses touched. Edgar's pulse sped up so much it seemed to hum. I closed the remaining small gap and brushed my lips across his, once, twice. He didn't respond, but he didn't pull away either. I drew back. "Don't do this because you think you owe me."

"I'm not." He grinned. "I have meatball pasta for that."

A movement caught the corner of my eye and I released him as a group of kids came into the store. Edgar went back to the till and I found a comic to read, sat down with the dogs, and spent the rest of the evening entertaining myself with vampire stories.

At midnight, I helped Edgar lock up. "Don't you ever take a day off?"

"I used to. The last few months, I've had to open up every day for the money. I should have some breathing space again soon." He pocketed the store keys and pulled out the ones that unlocked his apartment.

I waited until he'd opened up Fort Knox. As tempted as I was to invite myself up again, I decided against it. Let him wonder and decide if he wanted me. "Goodnight, Edgar." I took the dogs back to the RV, let myself in, and closed the door.

When I peeked out the window, he was still standing there, a look of confusion on his face. Then he shook himself, went inside, and slammed the door. Normally, I would have taken the dogs out again and wandered the beach for hours until dawn came, but I didn't bother. I waited, wondering if Edgar would come back out and knock on my door. His light went on and about fifteen minutes later it went off. That was all. He didn't have the guts. Or he didn't want to. Sighing, I resigned myself to more entertainment with my right hand.

Something disturbed me as I slept. It couldn't have been too long past dawn, otherwise I'd have been more difficult to wake, and it couldn't be anything bad because Zeus and Mars were quiet.

"Paul?"

I grunted, my face smothered in the pillow. What the hell did Edgar want? I hated being woken in the day. It hurt and it made it practically impossible for me to keep my fangs retracted. His fucking comics and the books in his apartment didn't teach him anything important—like not to disturb a vampire when it's sleeping unless you want to wind up dead.

"Hey." He touched my shoulder and pulled the blanket off my head.

I hissed. "Whadayawant?"

He snatched his hand back. "Sorry. I wanted to talk to you."

I turned my head away from the pillow, wincing at the light coming in through the open door. "Not now. Christ, Edgar."

"Shit!" He jumped away from me, stumbled, and landed on his ass. Zeus and Mars growled.

Groaning, I forced my fangs to subside. "Boys, stand down." The dogs returned to their bed, calm again. "Edgar. That shit you read will not help you be with me, if that's what you want. Don't ever wake a vampire in the day, unless you're aiming to get yourself bit." My head was pounding and my eyes felt like someone had jabbed red-hot spikes into them.

"I'm sorry!" He was still sitting on the floor. "I didn't think."

"Are you okay?"

"Yes."

"I'll see you later then." I dragged the blanket back over my head and buried my face in the pillow. A moment later I heard the door close as he left. Shit.

When I went to the store at dusk, it was closed with a sign up saying it would be open for business the next day. Cursing, I went to the apartment door and pressed the buzzer. A couple of minutes passed, but he didn't answer. I buzzed again, then backed away and peered up at the window. He was lurking behind the blind with the lights off, looking out, unaware how well I could see in the dark.

I went around the side of the building where his lounge room window was and noticed it was open a crack. I sprang up there, perched on the sill, and opened the window wide. I slipped through silently and went into the kitchen where he was still standing by the window.

"Edgar?"

He spun around, eyes wide, and pressed himself back against the wall. "How did you get in?" he gasped.

"Front window. Do you really think I'd hurt you?"

"I don't know." He glanced at the counter beside him, where a stake rested.

"Fuck. I'm sorry about this morning." I took a step towards him. His heart raced and his hands trembled, before he clenched them into fists. "I won't hurt you. Listen to me. If you wake a vampire during the day, its first instinct is to defend itself. Plus the light is painful. My eyes and my head were burning. I'm sorry I scared you."

"I'm sorry." Edgar's shoulders slumped and he hung his head. "I shouldn't have come in. I should have knocked."

"What did you want?"

"It doesn't matter now. I don't want this, whatever it is, with you. We're supposed to be enemies. This morning just proved that. That could easily happen at night too, if I pissed you off."

Shit. My spirits sank, shocking me by how disappointed I was. How could I change his mind? "That wouldn't happen," I said.

"How can you say that? People annoy each other all the time."

"I didn't mean that. I meant I don't kill people just because they annoy me. I would never hurt you for that reason. Or any other. I kill when I need to feed, or if I'm under threat. That's it. I like you, okay?"

"Even though I'm pretty much always bad-tempered and shitty with you?"

I grinned. "You're not as bad as you used to be." I moved closer, longing to touch him. "Tell me one thing. What did you want to say to me this morning?"

He licked his lips. "Just that I, um, I was gonna—" He broke off and sighed, shaking his head. "It's impossible though."

"No, it isn't." If I still had a heartbeat, it would have been hammering by now. I reached for him, rested my hands on the sides of his neck, and used my thumbs to tilt his head back. He lifted his hands and I waited to see if he would push me away, but he laid them on my chest. I lowered my head and brought our lips together. His were warm and soft, and they parted in response this time. I caressed them with mine and ran my tongue along the lower one. He tasted so good. I forced my fangs to stay hidden, and slid my tongue into his mouth with a groan. I pressed closer, letting him feel what he was doing to me. He was hard too, and the scent of his arousal made me realise this was going to be a lot more difficult for me than I'd anticipated.

I'd fucked a lot of people since I was changed, but always with the intention of feeding from them at the same time, or afterwards, so it didn't matter whether I could control myself or not. Now it mattered, and stopping myself from doing what came naturally was going to be a real test. I broke the kiss, worried I would unintentionally bite his tongue or his lip. If I could keep my mouth off him this one time, hopefully it would get easier.

"Where's your bedroom?" I whispered. A process of elimination told me it was the door opposite the kitchen, but I wanted to give him the opportunity to slow things down, if he wanted.

"The door opposite." He pulled away from me and led the way. I followed, hoping I wasn't about to do something I'd sincerely regret.