Bounty



"I need to go out," I tell her.

It's true. The blood I brought back from my crypt's gone and I've actually caught myself staring at her neck.

I'm not going to feed from her again. She's lost too much blood recently as it is.

I never meant to feed from her anyway.

It was an anomaly.

"Can I come?"

That's both bad and good. It's bad, because she shouldn't have to come shopping for pigs' blood. It's good, because it's the first time she's showed any kind of interest in leaving the house since the apocalypse. At least I won't have to worry about leaving her alone. Best to just get something to eat and stop myself thinking about how there's still a little of Buffy running in her veins. Just stop thinking about it.

That way lies madness... and migraines.

"Yeah, you can come."

*

I pull up outside the Bronze and she's looking at me, vaguely disgusted.

"You're going clubbing?"

"No. This is strictly business."

It is. Pigs blood isn't free after all. Maybe I should start breeding rats. That's what snake owners do. Buy a couple of 'em. Start a colony, then never have to pay for snake food again.

Fucked if I'm eating rats though.

Not all that keen on the idea of giving up pick-pocketing either. It's pretty much the only one of my talents I can still exercise.

So. Bronze then.

We get inside and it's just as packed as usual. Crowds of people enjoying the not-ended world, without having a clue how lucky they are not to be dragon food.

Morons. It won't hurt them to lose a little cash.

We're walking through the crowds slowly. Partly because of my leg, partly because I'm trying to spread the losses out a little.

If somebody notices what I'm doing and gets angry, I can't fight back because of the chip and now I can't run away because of my injuries.

What the hell. Makes things interesting.

"Is that it?"

We've finished touring and we're headed back out the door.

"Got what we came for," I tell her, displaying a fistful of bills as we walk to the car.

She shoots a disapproving look at me, but she doesn't say anything.


Next story
Back to contents
Send feedback