Crimson Death (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #25)(31)

Darnell and Niamh, on the other hand, had pulled away from the group. He gave a shocked-sounding laugh at something and nudged her shoulder. She rubbed the spot he’d touched with a wide grin, then curled the tips of her glorious, long hair around one finger.

“Definitely Darniamh,” I decided. “They’re an inevitability.”

“Darniamh,” Will repeated. “That’s perfect, isn’t it?”

“Another reason Lara and Matt don’t fit. What can you do with those names?”

“Latt? Mara?”

“Larmatt?” I tried, and Will choked on his drink.

“That’s ridiculous. It sounds like a cleaning product,” he said, wiping his chin.

“You think? I thought it was more like a ground surface. Like, hey, I’ll meet you out on the Larmatt.”

“Let’s go shoot some hoops on the Larmatt court.”

It wasn’t even that funny, but we started giggling until we were helpless anyway. Half of it was me laughing at the stupidity of it. The other half was because it felt so damn good to be talking to Will out in the open.

When I’d calmed myself—which took an embarrassingly long time, because every time me and Will caught each other’s eyes we cracked up again, despite the weird looks we were getting—I straightened and noticed something.

Over near the stage, red-haired Renee—Lara’s Renee— was standing beside a guy I didn’t recognize. Not that that was unusual. What was unusual was how close she stood to him. With her hand in his. And her cheek leaning against his shoulder.

That wasn’t the body language of someone who was flirting, or even someone who was about to hook up with someone. Nope, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, that was unmistakably the body language of someone in a relationship with someone.

Lara was nowhere to be seen. I did a quick sweep of the bar. Niamh and Juliette didn’t seem to have noticed she was gone. Although, to be fair, Niamh looked like she’d forgotten anyone other than Darnell was in the room at all.

Maybe Lara was in the bathroom or something. But maybe not. “Hey, I’ll be back in a minute,” I said to Will. An apparently naive part of me wanted to check that Lara was all right. For some unexplainable reason, I gave a shit.

Well, she definitely wasn’t in the crowd anywhere. She wasn’t backstage, or hanging out on the sidewalk outside like a few others were. I stood outside, crossing my arms and looking around, then decided to head back in. Just before I did, though, I wandered around the side to peek down the alley. There was Lara. She was sitting on the edge of the curb, her soft pink, tulle skirt haloing around her on the dirty concrete and her stockinged legs stretched out in front of her. She was clutching her leather jacket across her chest for warmth, staring ahead at nothing.

Without a word, I sat next to her, plonking myself right above the storm drain.

She didn’t even look at me. “Yes?”

“I saw Renee in there. Wanted to see if you’re doing okay.”

She laughed shortly. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Do you want me to spell it out?”

There was a long silence. Then she waved a hand, her silver bracelets jingling. “Screw her. It doesn’t matter.”

“Nah. You can totally do better than that. But it still sucks. So.”

Lara drew one leg up and picked at her boot. Her face twisted up, like she was trying to scratch her nose without touching it.

“How long were you two hooking up for?” I asked.

She sighed, clearly resigning herself to the fact that I wasn’t going to leave this alone. “Like, a year, I guess? It was only at parties. It didn’t mean anything.”

I figured. Hence, the drinking. Because if you could blame it on alcohol, then you didn’t have to deal with any awkward conversations. Like, “me, gay, what? Nah, that’s just a side effect of alcohol. Blurry vision, inability to walk straight, sudden insatiable desire to undress other girls. Wait, that doesn’t happen to everyone? Weird.”

“Do you think it meant anything to her, or … ?”

“We never talked about it. Probably not. Why do you care anyway? Oh,” she said, slapping her forehead with so much exaggeration she might as well have been a Looney Tunes character, “it’s because of Will, isn’t it?”

I studied her, then shrugged. “Maybe. That, and I figured you wouldn’t have many other people to talk to about this.”

She actually relaxed at this, and made a taken-aback face. It kind of felt like a trap, but I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. “So what’s his deal, anyway?” she asked. “Is he pretending nothing ever happened, or is he just playing straight?”

“Not sure right now. You said he’s been spending time with his ex, didn’t you?” I asked.

Lara let her hands fall in her lap. “… I made that up. They haven’t been talking. Not that I know of, anyway.”

“Oh, thank God.” I grinned. To my surprise, she grinned back, and it didn’t even have the slightest hint of Evil Queen to it. I hadn’t realized she was capable of that when it came to me.

“Do you think he still likes you?” she asked.

“Will? I don’t know. No clue.”

“Ugh. Don’t be that person. Figure it the hell out, okay? I can’t stand people who float around, wringing their hands and hoping someone sees how goddamn special they are. If you want him, go after him. If you don’t, find someone else, and make sure you flaunt it in his face for good measure. It’s sure as hell what I’m gonna do.”