Nev had spent the day sleeping, or perhaps not so much sleeping as lying in bed thinking in spirals rather than circles. Then early evening, he'd traipsed around the coven estate trying his best to stay clear of Celuvian. His maker would want to know what happened during the stake out, and Nev hadn't figured out what to tell him yet.

He peered outside from one of the tall windows in the old dining room. Snow. The white fluff made him ridiculously happy for reasons no one else needed to know. The weather did make things a bit trickier, though. He was off rotation tonight, so he had no legitimate reason to loiter outside Raven's building, but he had the beginnings of a new game plan taking form. Snow might put a damper on that.

He'd figured that if anyone could tell him more about Raven, it was Astrid. If she'd had a phone like regular people, he could have fired off a text, but no, she enjoyed being hard to find—that also included not having a regular hang-out. That meant he'd have to do a bar hop across town, but he refused to do it alone.

Adeem answered his phone on the second attempt to call. "Yes."

"Hello to you too..."

After a beat of silence, Adeem snorted. "Stop being so damn cheerful."

"Fine. But I'm taking my favorite demon around town today."

"The fuck you are."

"Come on, I need to find Astrid. I know you adore her." Perhaps that was bending the truth just a little. "She's the only one besides me who's not afraid of you."

"I don't adore people, Nev." Yes, Adeem was rather prickly from time to time.

Nev went in for the kill. "I can poke my teeth into someone and let you eat the memory." It was one of Adeem's special skills that made other paranormals uncomfortable. Adeem chewed on memories to sustain himself, along with regular food, strangely enough. Had that skill been isolated to human victims, it would have been one thing, but Adeem had no such restrictions. Rumor was that Adeem had snatched memories from some rather imposing werewolves in Stockholm, and it was anyone's guess what those memories had contained.

Before Adeem had time to answer on the other end, someone knocked on Nev's shoulder. He turned around and did his best to act like he had nothing to hide.

"I need you to take my shift tonight." One of Celuvian's other spawn was already on her way off, not even waiting for Nev to actually answer.

He would have gritted his fangs any other day, but tonight he didn't care. Not even her shitty attitude rained on his parade.

"You're off the hook, my friend," he said to Adeem. "Got called away on something."

"Cool. Not like I wanted your face around or anything." It sounded the exact opposite.

"Aww, my grouchy Bubs."

"Bubs?"

"You know, Beelzebub, also cutie. You're cute." Nev grinned, imagining how that would go down. "Anyway, ta-ta, I need to run." He closed the call before Adeem had time to answer and made his way up to his room, or closet as he liked to call it when he was feeling generous.

The space allowed for a narrow bed (no coffin), a wardrobe that could barely hold half his clothes, and a piano that he couldn't even play. Why someone had decided to put it in this room was a mystery, and hell-a annoying. Some days, he wanted to sit on the keys just to wake up every single vampire in the mansion. All of those days, he thought it better to simply sit on his hands.

He dug through a pile of clothes he'd washed the other day, frowning when he couldn't find anything cool. He wanted to look the part of a professional tonight, but apparently there was a fine line between professional and drab—and that was the opposite of what he wanted. At least he had a pair of brand new shoes that would work a treat.

****

It was freaky cold outside again. Sometimes snow arrived with a change of temperature, but not today. Nev's nose itched while he watched Raven's building. He guessed Raven lived on one of the upper floors. The Council wouldn't have acquired a paltry first floor apartment for one of their agents. No, it had to be top notch.

He ran a few more narratives in his mind, thinking that Raven might be watching him through one of those fancy spy telescopes, or perhaps he had an infra-red camera. Nev pulled up his scarf and hid beneath his hood—perhaps it had been a crap idea to accept the shift. He could picture it perfectly. Him, caught by a high tech lens, and his photo distributed like a mug shot between the Council members. Not that his life was fascinating enough for them to actually be interested. He was unimportant even to the coven. Celuvian had more or less said it outright at one point.

Nev made his best impression of the old vampire, extending his fangs to ridiculous lengths. "You're still a wee thing, no one expects you to do much else than go on rampages." Like he had no self-control at all, and no purpose until he was at least a couple of hundred years old.

Shifting from foot to foot, he tried to keep warm—only pausing as a woman entered the building after a quick glance in his direction. He was supposed to note these things down, but she'd been distinctly human, so he shrugged and kept his hands tucked neatly inside his pockets. He felt more and more certain that Raven was the target here, and he planned to have plenty to say about him. None of it to do with the guy's ridiculously sexy face.

Nev began to shift his weight again, waiting for some action. Bored didn't even begin to cover how he felt—it was hell to actually wait for someone because time moved at the pace of a damn tortoise. An hour passed, agonizingly slow, before the door whined as someone pushed from the inside.

There was no pretense at all this time. Raven cocked his head and waved for Nev to join him. "Let's go inside somewhere. You look miserably cold."

Nev had forgotten the cadence of Raven's voice over the past 24 h and had to take a moment to savor the sound. In fact, Raven had made quite a head start when Nev finally got the memo that they were on their way somewhere, together.

He caught up and kept himself from blatantly staring at Raven like a love sick puppy. He was not love sick. Fine, perhaps a little mesmerized, but his mission was far more important, and he'd decided that his mission tonight was to keep close. Very close. It was totally fine to follow Raven to some bar, then head back toward Raven's apartment, and maybe they'd get to know each other better in a more personal capacity. He'd run the scenario of teasing Raven with his body if it gave results.

He was not opposed.

"So the choice is yours tonight. What's your favorite place?" Raven asked.

"Uhm." That hadn't been part of the plan at all. Was he really supposed to give away information like that? "Let's go to Carmen's." That dump wouldn't tell a single thing about Nev's true preferences. That was the place he'd gone to with a false ID as a very awkward and human teenager. Another life and all that.

"Nice choice. I've never dared to enter before, just passed by outside." Raven ended with a brief chuckle.

Nev winced. Way to be subtle about one's disdain. But of course, agents for the Council probably had their pick of the best tables around the world if they ever needed to eat out, and probably an open bar tab at the finer establishments—but perhaps not at Carmen's.

"I'm promising a genuine Stockholm experience with cheap vodka and watered tequila. About as far as you can get from the fancy bars downtown and your hipster brewery." Nev had meant to sound a little bit caustic, but from the smile on Raven's face, he realized he'd been everything but.

"Looking forward to it." Raven's grin should have been outlawed. It did all kinds of weird stuff to Nev's non-existent heart. It was right between feral and sweet, if there was such a thing.

Carmen's was crowded. Not crowded like the restaurant had been the previous night, but truly packed with people. Not much had changed since Nev were seventeen, but it stank to his sensitive nostrils in a way that was thoroughly new.

"It's a bit rank tonight," he said, hoping the comment masked that he was anything but a regular these days.

Raven's dark eyes glinted. "It smells deliciously debauched."

A guy reeking of smoke and bad breath pressed Nev aside on his way to the bar. There should have been a no-touching rule at this place considering how many wayward hands Nev had encountered years ago. Maybe the guys had cleaned up their act since then, though. He had this feeling that things had been going in the right direction there for a while. Now he wasn't so sure. Humans were notoriously weird. Now that he wasn't one, he could say that with relish.

Raven placed a hand on the small of Nev's back, leaning closer to his ear. "You've found us a great hiding place?"

Surely, time hadn't slowed down. "Huh?" He couldn't exactly think when Raven was touching him. That no-touching idea had been awful.

"I can't detect a single paranormal except us in here. We're definitely incognito." Raven stood infinitely close.

Nev shivered, not sure if it was the good kind of nerves or slight tremors of terror. Maybe a bit of both. If Raven decided to kidnap him or something, Carmen's would be the place to lose the trail. No one would think to look here, and he doubted even a werewolf would be able to make out his scent in this stench.

Maybe he was about to die for a second time. Death by infatuation, much like last time when a hot guy had pressed all his buttons before the bastard sank his fangs into Nev's neck. Good thing Celuvian had been there to unkill him. He doubted he'd get that kind of help if anything happened to him tonight.

Oh well.

***

RAVEN

The vampire was skittish. There was no other word for it. Nev alternated between states—he twitched and frowned, then broke out in the cutest smiles Raven had ever seen. He'd never encountered such a young vampire before, strangely enough. Someone had once explained that the young ones were rarely let off the leash by their makers. That made him think Nev had a rather indulgent maker, who perhaps saw these smiles and wanted Nev to live another few years with the full exuberance of a human on the cusp of adulthood.

He probably should have been discouraged by Nev's lack of years, but it had been long since he'd met someone quite so unguarded. It gave him hope, of all things.

Carmen's was refreshingly human, and it said plenty about Nev. He belonged in here, with this crowd of fearless hedonists—not because he was naïve, but because he'd had no reason to turn afraid.

Raven had lived too long, had seen too many grow either wary or weary as the years piled behind them. At a certain point, he'd started to reinvent himself over and over with each generation, anything to remember how it was supposed to be, but it was getting harder to catch the fleeting moments that made up a lifetime. He hoped the vampire still lived as if life had an expiration date.

Nev's light blue eyes widened as their gazes connected. "Are we getting drinks?"

He smiled at the question. The vampire revealed so much with so little.

"Sure," he replied, as if Nev's question had been necessary and not simply a nervous cry for guidance.

"Cool. First round's on me. I'm getting you something you've never had, I promise." Nev's infectious grin fulfilled half that promise already.

It turned out that simply watching the vampire trying to get the bartender's attention kept his smile going. Nev leaned forward, shoulders squared to give himself some space. Assertive he was not, but that only made the vampire more endearing—if that was an applicable label for a guy who drank human blood to survive.

Raven had never been keen on the Sanguine Societies with their warped sense of morals and hierarchies, but Nev didn't seem to belong to them yet, still too human to be a true vampire. Or perhaps that was simply his mind trying to adjust his long held beliefs to this newfound fascination.

Nev turned around with two drinks, one bright pink and the other something that looked like a regular whiskey on the rocks. The vampire gave him the pink one, face straight for a second until he couldn't keep the glee contained.

"You trying to poison me?" he asked, too entertained to sound upset.

"With Lovepotion," Nev said, waggling his eyebrows.

Raven laughed. A true belly laugh he hadn't tried in ages. The cheek!

"Looks delicious," he replied before braving the first sip. It tasted sickly sweet, but smacked his lips for effect. He would get his revenge with the second round.

Nev stumbled away, skittish again. "Let's see if there are any free chairs in the basement."

"You're taking me down the basement?" he couldn't help but ask. "How exciting."

Nev answered with a snort, which sounded much like a kitten sneeze, before traipsing down the stairs.

The basement turned out to be a little calmer, with more space between the tables. Chatter rose above the music, but it was tamer than upstairs.

Raven forced himself to take another sip from the drink while Nev scouted for a place to sit. The vampire approached two young women, whom after a brief chat removed their bags from two tall chairs next to them. The casual exchange reminded Raven again of how very young Nev must be.

"You've been here as a human, haven't you?" he asked when they'd seated.

Nev tensed. "Why do you ask?"

"Aren't you afraid someone will recognize you?" he said with true concern. To have changed a life like that, and remained.

"Dude, I had no friends. Made no lasting impression on anyone ever."

Raven caught the slight hitch beneath Nev's too blatant nonchalance. "I have a hard time imagining that." No need to point out the pain beneath and expose it—that would have been cruel, something he'd vowed to never be again. Not in this lifetime at least.

Nev glanced away, increasing the distance between them. Raven allowed him his silence. He hadn't meant to touch something raw with that question.

"So, what are we doing here?" Nev asked.

For the first time, Raven thought he detected a real question. So many of the others had been from the script. He wanted to counter with the same question, but thought better of it. "I believe we're getting to know each other."

"Why?" Nev watched him, eyes too blue, his full lips slightly parted.

"Because I find you arresting."

to be continued...