"Okay, okay, hold the fuck up." Ian stopped dead in his tracks and crossed his arms in an X in front of him. "Let me see if I understand this right: your vampire doctor boyfriend is his king's right hand; the king has a hard on for getting his way and threatened you to get it; vampire boyfriend then dropped the love bomb just before he fed from you; you might be a half-blood that, somehow, no one's picked up on until now; you go to a dragonkin who isn't under the purview of the dragons for help and almost get yourself killed... and you're still going?!"

"You forgot the part where it's been three days and we still haven't talked about the whole love bomb thing."

Rhia aimed and tossed the basketball. It bounced off the rim of the hoop and straight into the garage. She sighed heavily and looked at her friend. Arguably he was the only friend she still had after her time with Church. "I didn't, because that is actually the most normal part of this." he snapped. "Are you insane! Where do I even start?"

"How is that the part that's normal?" she demanded.

Ian gave her a look drenched in withering annoyance. "Do you not remember when I told Nathan how I felt? He didn't say it back and I pretended it didn't happen for like, two weeks. That's normal. What's not normal is you letting a vampire suck on your neck! You should have called the consulate or... or something!"

"I asked him to do it." she told him for what felt like the hundredth time. She thought she'd made that clear when she told him that part of the story because she knew he would react like this. "He has an exception. He wouldn't have gotten in any trouble anyway."

"Jay-sus," he didn't have even a hint of a Celtic accent, but when he was this agitated, he tended to mimic the way his Irish mother cursed. He cracked his knuckles one by one as he spoke, a nervous tick he'd had since before they met. "Why would you ask him to feed from you? You know what the venom high does to people."

"I'm not turning into a junkie." she rolled her eyes.

"That's not the point, and you know it! One slip up and boom. Fangs. No more sun. Your existence is dependent on the contents of a P.V.C. bag of expired blood. It doesn't matter how good the sex is, it isn't worth that!"

"Thousands of humans would disagree with you." she shrugged, thinking of the publicized reports of how many people applied to be turned into vampires everyday.

Ian blanched. "Do not tell me you're actually considering-"

"No, that's not what I meant. I don't want to be a vampire any more than you want me to be one."

"Then why-"

"Because if he didn't, Constantine would have, and he wouldn't ask for permission, he wouldn't take precautions to keep me from turning... it wasn't a matter of if, but when. This way, my vampire-venom-cherry has been popped. He can't take that away from either of us."

She tossed the ball again, missed again, and this time Ian caught it before it rolled into the garage. He tucked it under his arm, forcing her to stop fucking around and actually look at him. "That brings me to my next point;" he snapped. "If the vamp king is vocally planning on using you to get under Nolan's skin, why the hell are you going with him? You haven't been with him all that long, Rhia, you can break it off without any reason."

"That's what Constantine wants. I'm not going to let him win."

"He wins either way! You go, he gets a shiny new toy to rip apart. You stay, he gets to torture Nolan over it. At least if you stay here, you don't put your own life in danger! Hell, forget about the king for a second. The reason they're going to France is to fight a civil war. Don't you think you'll be the first person they go after once they realize you're the girlfriend of the king's right hand?"

She hadn't thought about that. She'd been so preoccupied with figuring out how to keep Constantine at bay, she hadn't once thought about Raphaël or the other rebel vampires. Crap. Maybe she should have asked Dáithí to protect her from vampires as a whole, not just Constantine. "I'm still human," she said slowly, thinking quickly. "There are still human laws that protect me. I would imagine fighting a human government is a whole different story."

"It is. But you also said you think you're some kind of half blood. If that's true and it can be proven, you're fucked. The humans treat us like Ancients and the Ancients treat us like humans. We're not protected by anyone and we're bound by both sets of laws."

"Nolan thinks so. Richard never would have taken me in if he thought I had any amount of magic in me."

"Are you sure? Maybe that's why he doesn't like you."

"Can we go back to the love bomb? I think I can do with some normal right now." She didn't need another person knowing about the heritage tests. "You would think someone who's been married as many times as he has that he would approach it a little more delicately than in the middle of sex."

"Or maybe he's just forgotten what it's like for someone on their first life." Ian's eyes narrowed, and she knew she wasn't going to get away with the change of topic for long. "So it's not a big deal for him. Or maybe he doesn't even remember saying it at all."

"How do you forget telling someone you love them for the first time."

"You said he said it just before he fed? If he got drunk or high enough, whatever you want to call it, he probably doesn't remember anything immediately before, during, or right after. Vampires aren't exactly reliable when the dinner bell goes off. I'm pretty sure that's why it's illegal for vampires to feed from the vein. That and the whole venom addiction."

Rhia snorted. "I'm pretty sure it's illegal because Constantine gets off on control."

"My ears are bleeding."

Rhia and Ian whirled around to see none other than the king of vampires standing at the curb, his hands casually tucked in his pockets of a perfectly tailored suit that probably cost more than either paramedic made in a month. "What are you doing here?" Rhia's voice cracked.

Constantine shrugged, his eyes flaring in excitement from her fear. "I wanted to talk with you. We haven't had the chance to be properly introduced. Constantine Moureaux."

He stepped forward and offered his hand. Rhia took a step back. "I know who you are. You know who I am. What the hell do you want? This is my work."

He looked to the basketball under Ian's arm and rose an eyebrow. "Taxpayer money hard at work, I see." His red eyes slid to Ian and he snarled. "Beat it, faeling."

Ian flinched, but didn't leave. "What do you want, Constantine?!" Rhia barked.

A dark chuckle rumbled in his throat. For the first time, Rhia noticed that the sun didn't seem to have any affect on Constantine. His skin was still paper white, the cracks around his eyes seemed to pulse black, and his eyes were still a glowing red. "Straight to the point, then." He relented, amusement saturating his voice. "I simply wanted to know if you have considered my offer?"

"Offer?"

"Yes," mocking concern crossed his face for a second. "I sent Kaila, Rasta, and Kain to give you a message. Poor Rasta never made it back, but Kaila was sure she passed it on."

"You set three vampires on me and you're worried that they didn't deliver your threat?"

"Not a threat, ma chére." He tsked. "A compromise."

He moved, so quickly Rhia's mortal eyes couldn't see him. Ian tried to react, but Constantine was older, stronger, and without a drop of mortal blood in his veins. He shoved Ian hard into the arms of another vampire waiting safely in the shadows. He turned to her, forcing her against the wall. One hand braced himself against the brick wall, the other took her chin in a rough grip. His expensive cologne did nothing to cover the smell of rusted iron and whiskey on his breath. She could just see his fangs in his slightly opened mouth, a shimmering liquid beginning to bead at the tips. Goosebumps washed over her skin as an uncomfortable arousal grew between her legs. The reaction to Nolan's bite had been burned into her flesh and her very blood tingled in anticipation.

Constantine chuckled, low and hot. His breath washed over her face and made her eyes flutter. She hated the effect this vampire was having on her. She had thought... she had hoped that only Nolan would have had this affect on her after his bite. Apparently not.

"I understand that Nolan craves companionship. He believes he needs what remains of his precious humanity to be good at his work." He whispered, his thumb stroking the line of her jaw. "Which is why I am willing to accept the presence of any female he chooses to pursue. You are, however, different. You are human. You are weak. You are a distraction. We are going to war, Rhia. I can't have him distracted. I need him focused."

He licked his lips and his eyes travelled down to her throat. "I can make you stronger, faster," There was a huskiness to his voice now. "I can make it so that you can keep up with Nolan's... preferences. He'll never have to worry about hurting you, and never have worry about you being hurt by our enemies. You will live for hundreds of years. Imagine... centuries at his side. And all it takes is one little bite... one little sip. Nolan won't break his personal rule against turning people and, if you are really so adamant against it, I won't make you share my bed. What do you say, Rhia Kincaid?"

Rhia ran her hands up his chest. It was like his body was made of rock. Not the hard but obviously living muscle like Nolan... Constantine felt like actual, immovable rock. A disgusting smile crept up his face as her hands moved up over his pectoral muscles. She braced herself against the wall and shoved him as hard as she could. He took several steps back and a mix of shock and rage washed over his face. Rhia stormed up to him and shoved him again, but he was expecting it and didn't budge. "How dare you?!" She seethed. "Becoming a vampire ruined Nolan's life. He is a loyal man, and you are testing how far you can push that loyalty! If Nolan needs to be reminded of his humanity, turning into a vampire is the absolute worst thing I could do to him!"

Pain exploded across her face and stars danced in her eyes. It took a moment for her to realize that he'd slapped her hard enough that she'd landed on her hands and knees on the concrete. Ian shouted something, but Constantine was already dragging her up by her throat. "I made him what he is!" he roared, venom and spittle flying from his mouth. "Nolan would be nothing without me! He would have died as the same pathetic human that I met in the courts of corrupted mortals."

Rhia gaped at him, his words rattling around in her stunned mind. He said human. He didn't know. How was that possible? His blazing eyes looked down at her lips. He brought his hand up and swiped his thumb across her bottom lip. Her blood seemed to glow against the white of his hand. Hunger danced in his eyes.

An alarm went off behind them. Constantine released her neck, and she took several steps back. Ian rushed to her and they clung to each other, watching the vampires, unwilling to turn their backs on them. "Kincaid, McSorely," Andrew, the shift supervisor, shouted from the opening bay doors. "Let's go!"

They backed up quickly before turning away. As she reached the ambulance, she chanced one final look at the vampire king. Their eyes met and he brought his thumb up to his lips. Cold fear filled her as he licked her blood off his finger. She slammed the heavy doors behind her and was comforted by Ian's grip on her shoulder. "What have we got?" Ian's voice was shaky as he addressed Andrew.

"Everything okay?" Andrew looked between them. "Who was that?"

"It's nothing." Rhia said quickly. "Why are you coming with us?"

"It's bad." Andrew blew out a breath, still looking like he wanted to know what was going on. "Eight kids are missing at South Coast Plaza."

"What!?" Rhia felt all the blood drain from her face. "How do eight kids go missing at the same time?"

He shook his head. "Call your loved ones now. Once we're in lockdown, no one's leaving until they found them."

Rhia stared at the man as Ian moved to the other side of the cabin to call his boyfriend. She pulled out her phone and dialed Nolan's number. "Doctor Wes," he sounded irritated, like he was in the middle of an argument.

"Hey, it's me." she said quickly. "Sorry, I know you're busy."

"I always have time for you." his voice warmed immediately. She chose not to remind him that he had been actively avoiding her attempts to talk about that morning for the last several days. "Sounds like you're busy too."

"Yeah, we're on our way to a missing kid situation. We'll be on lockdown until further notice. I don't know when I'll be off."

"Gods, that's terrible. Call me when you're done. I'll have a bath and wine ready for you."

Her heart swelled at that. He was so damn sweet. She glanced over her shoulder. Ian was busy speaking to Nathan, and Andrews was staring blankly out the window of the back doors, trying to give them both as much privacy as he could. "Constantine came to my work." She said quietly.

"What!? Are you okay? Did he hurt you?"

"No, but..." she hesitated and lowered her voice again. "He wanted to turn me. He called it a compromise. He does it so you don't have to, and we get to be together longer than we would if I stayed human."

"I'm going to fucking kill him." He snarled.

"Why would he want that, though? Begin human gives him leverage. If he... you know... That's it."

"I don't know. We'll talk about it when you get home."

"We need to talk about... the other morning too."

There was a noticeable silence from the other line. "Alright." he finally said. "Call me when you're on your way."

She hung up and felt like she was going to vomit. She really didn't want to have the 'love talk' but it couldn't be ignored before they went to France.

~