His smile turned wry. “It isn’t like that. I don’t have to ask her permission.”
“And you can leave her whenever you want?”
“I wouldn’t want to.”
I’d already gotten more from him than I expected. I should have quit while I was ahead. “Can I ask a personal question?”
He didn’t say yes, but he didn’t say no. He had a great smile, which suddenly made me want to ask what was so funny.
“Are you in training?” I said. “It’s my understanding that some people in your position are serving some kind of apprenticeship, and that they hope to become vampires someday.”
“No, I’m not. I’d miss this too much to ever give it up.” He nodded at the sunlit world. “Anastasia’s offered. To turn me, I mean. But I think I like being alive too much. I stay with her because we’re friends. It’s not so mysterious.”
“I’ve talked to people who’d give a lot to be in your position. Who’d jump at the offer to become a vampire.”
“I listen to your show,” he said. “And no offense, but a lot of your callers are either crazy or looking for attention.”
I decided I really liked Dorian. He’d never call in to my show, because he knew how to fix his own damn problems.
“Yeah,” I said, grinning. “Can’t argue. So what about the immortality? The power? You’re not attracted to that?”
“There’s the price for all that,” he said. “I’ve seen it up close. It’s not worth it.” He glanced away, shaking his head.
“You are wise beyond your years,” I said.
“If you say so,” he said. “Now. Can I ask you a personal question?”
“Fire away.”
“Are you one of those people who went looking for this? Did you want to be a werewolf?”
I said, “If the first question people ask about vampires is ‘How old are you?’ that’s usually the first question people ask lycanthropes.”
“If you don’t want to answer, I understand—”
“I was attacked. I wasn’t looking for it.”
“You seem to have done pretty well with
it despite that,” he said.
“It was either that or go completely crazy. I got pretty close to that, by the way.”
He glanced away for a moment. “That’s true of most of this, isn’t it? Cope or go crazy.”
“Any bets on which way Conrad will go when all this finally hits him?”
“He’s a basket case waiting to tip over.”
I giggled. Wouldn’t that be worth the price of admission? I turned back to the door. “I’ll let you enjoy your sunrise. It’s been very nice talking to you, Dorian.”
“Likewise,” he said, with that gorgeous smile.
I left him to his sunny morning. It was hard enough to find a quiet moment of solitude around here without me wrecking it.
Next I called Ben, needing to rant to a friendly ear and hoping to get some outside perspective on whether we were all turning freaky paranoid or if something weird really was going on. Not only was he already awake, he didn’t even let me say hello. “Hey,” he said. “I’ve got something for you. A message from Rick.”
I perked up. “It’s about”—I didn’t even want to say her name—“what I asked you about?”