I smiled my shark’s smile again. “Hello, boys. See anything you want?” Behind me, I was aware of a very familiar brush of supernatural energy, and my smile widened even further.
Three sets of eyes fell on me, desire twisting through the air between us like smoke. Bikini girl squeezed through the gap left open when the guys turned toward me. She paused, shooting me a concerned glance, which was nice of her.
“Go on, hon,” I told her, as a cool arm settled over my shoulder. I settled against Rans’ side and threw her a wink. “We’ve got this.”
Rans’ frosty blue gaze ran over the little group. “Four of them, love? Goodness. Someone’s hungry tonight.”
His tone was the overly cheerful one that should have made anyone with a couple of brain cells to knock together feel distinctly nervous. Surfer Dude exchanged a look with his two buddies, while Studmuffin stood off to the side and continued to stare glassily into the middle distance.
“Right then, lads,” Rans said, his eyes going sharp and bright. “Party’s over for you tonight. Come with us. We’ve got a nice little cove nearby that’s ever so private.”
I watched with a pleased half-smile as Surfer Dude and his friends’ expressions glazed over, growing calm and compliant under the force of my vampire lover’s gaze.
* * *
Blood from assholes probably didn’t taste any different than blood from nice people, but somehow it was infinitely more satisfying to drink. I was busy enjoying the dicks-du-jour when I sensed someone approaching the villa.
“If I’d known we were having a party, I would have dressed for the occasion,” said a familiar voice.
I looked up from the neck I was draining, to find Guthrie walking up the steps leading to the villa’s front porch. He looked... a bit less grim than he had the last time I’d seen him, perhaps. Meanwhile, Rans lounged hipshot against the table set across from the large sofa, where our four victims were silently waiting their turn for bloodletting.
“That’s what you get for not RSVP-ing,” Rans said carelessly. “You’re in luck, though—the bar’s still open. Care for a vein, mate?”
“I already ate, thanks,” Guthrie replied in a tone as dry as the desert.
A bit sheepishly, I climbed off Surfer Dude’s lap and closed his wounds with a couple of drops of my blood. “Hi, Guthrie.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Hello, Zorah. Don’t let me interrupt.” Then he paused. “Unless there’s going to be sex involved, that is. In which case, do let me interrupt long enough to turn around and leave again.”
Rans waved him off. “Not to worry. We got that part of things out of the way earlier.”
I picked a small seashell off a nearby end table and threw it at him, hitting him in the chest. “‘Out of the way’? Really? Wow, and here I thought romance was dead.”
“Yup. Real smooth one, Casanova,” Guthrie told him. “I’ll be out on the back porch when you two are finished with the Beach Boys here.” He gestured at our little collection of assholes.
Rans snorted in amusement. Once Guthrie had disappeared inside the villa, I turned my attention to the last Beach Boy on the couch, smiling sweetly at him as I slid into his lap and tilted his head to one side.
Afterward, I stood in front of the four hypnotized guys, regarding them with a frown.
“So it really wouldn’t do any good to try to mesmerize them into not being assholes to women?” I asked, disappointed.
My companion gave an elegant shrug of one shoulder. “You can certainly make the attempt. My experience is that it’s more of an ‘in the moment’ thing, rather than a tool for personality modification. You can convince someone to relax, or to forget what’s just happened to them. But you couldn’t convince, say, an alcoholic to stop drinking, or an adrenaline junkie to stay home and take up knitting.”
“Hmm.” I pondered the issue for a few moments before turning my attention back to our victims. “Okay, boys. Here’s the deal. You went to a party at a private cove, but you can’t remember exactly where it was located. While you were there, a gang of really big, strong gay men started hitting on you and wouldn’t take no for an answer. It freaked you out. Then, you realized that you’ve all done the same thing to women in the past, and that you should stop acting like that.”
Four sets of glazed eyes stared at me witlessly, making it impossible to tell if my words had penetrated in any meaningful way.
Rans came to stand next to my side, taking over. “All right. Look sharp, lads. Up with you, now, and go back to the beach where you were earlier tonight. You don’t remember seeing us, or the man who was here a few minutes ago. Chop, chop!”
He clapped his hands, and the Beach Boys scrambled up from the couch, stumbling down the stairs and heading down the winding driveway toward the main road like a bunch of drunkards. I sighed as I watched them go.
“It’s not going to stick, is it?” I asked.
“Hard to say,” Rans replied. “It might make an impression, I suppose... or it might just make them all rabidly homophobic in the future. Human brains are tricky that way.”
“Damn.” It irked me that I couldn’t indiscriminately use my new powers to fix things. Or, rather, to fix people. It irked me even more that even trying to do so ran the risk of making things worse, rather than better.
“Shall we go and see how Guthrie’s getting along?” Rans asked.
“Sure. Why not?” I said, even as an unpleasant sinking feeling took up residence in my chest. Guthrie had come back in preparation for setting us up with access to an offshore bank account he had stashed here on the island. After the formalities were taken care of tomorrow, he
