By the look of it, and the slight nudge Vivian was making at Trent to get him to slide over, Ivy needed someone’s neck. I shook my head, but Trent spoke up, handing the waitress a folded bill. “I want another beer,” he said. “And if you can get everyone’s meal out here in five minutes, there’s another one of those in it for you.”

The woman looked at Ben Franklin’s face and tucked it away. “I’ll see what I can do, honey,” she said, smiling at Ivy before she sashayed away.

“Beer and soup?” Jenks said as he dusted a thin sliver of silver, his own light hardly making a dent in the dusky shadows in here. “That’s going to mix well.”

“You’d be surprised by how a good beer mixes with clams,” Trent said, his attention on the male waiter Ivy was blinking at slowly. God, this was getting uncomfortable, and I put a hand over my neck as it started to tingle.

“He’s uptight about his timetable,” Ivy said, almost sighing the words.

“And you’re not?”

Trent’s expression froze when she turned to him, smiling to show her little fangs. “Excuse me,” she said as she got to her feet in one languorous move that made Pierce shiver. ’Course it could be the cold pop he’d just slammed down.

No one said a word as Ivy sat on the back edge of the fake boat and swung her feet over. Moving with liquid grace, she made a beeline for the vampire she’d had her eye on. People were getting out of her way, and the vamp in question was smiling, waiting for her.

“What is she doing?” Trent asked, but Vivian knew, her eyes cast down as she shifted on the bench to make more room for the rest of us. Hell, even our waitress knew what Ivy was doing.

I took a sip of my soda, watching Ivy drape her arms around the man and whisper something in his ear. “Keeping the rest of us safe,” I said, trying not to worry about her. She’d be okay. And if Vegas had a freethinking master vampire, then this was probably the only spot between home and the coast that she’d be able to take the edge off.

Jenks frowned, clearly not happy, but as willing as I was to let her take care of her own needs. I didn’t know if I should feel upset or not. I wasn’t her keeper—but I was her friend.

Pierce was ignoring everyone, and Trent didn’t seem to care apart from Ivy’s tryst possibly slowing us down. Vivian, though, pushed her glass around, clearly screwing up her courage, and I wasn’t surprised when she asked, “She and you—”

“No,” I said before Jenks could offer his opinion. “We’re not sharing blood.” I felt Trent’s eyes on me, but Pierce didn’t look up from his drink. “We tried,” I said, talking to the entire table though my gaze was on Vivian. “Well, we tried it enough to know that for it to happen, one of us would have to change too much. If I bend, she’d lose what she loved in me, and if she bends, I lose what I love about her.” I shrugged, flaming red in embarrassment, but that was my problem.