“I did promise that,” said Adrian, no remorse whatsoever. “But then I read some article that said those artificial sweeteners aren’t good for you. So, I figured I’d watch out for your health.” He paused. “You’re welcome.”

Dimitri said what we were all thinking. “If you want to start tackling healthy habits, I could suggest a few.”

If Eddie or I had said that, it would have rolled right off Adrian—particularly since it was completely valid. But coming from Dimitri? That was different. There was a huge amount of tension between the two men, tension that had been building for a long time. Dimitri’s girlfriend, a notorious dhampir named Rose Hathaway, had briefly dated Adrian. She hadn’t meant to hurt him, but she’d been in love with Dimitri the whole time. So, there was no way that situation could have ended well. Adrian still carried a lot of scars from that and was particularly bitter toward Dimitri.

“Wouldn’t want to inconvenience you,” said Adrian, a bit too coolly. “Besides, when not hard at work with this research, I’m actually conducting a side experiment on how cigarettes and gin increase charisma. As you might guess, the results are looking very promising.”

Dimitri arched an eyebrow. “Wait, go back. Did you say hard at work?”

Dimitri’s tone was light and playful, and again, I was struck by the double standard here. If I’d made that comment, Adrian’s response would’ve been something like, “Absolutely, Sage. I’ll probably win the Nobel Prize for this.” But for Adrian, Dimitri’s words were a call to battle. I saw a glint of something hard in Adrian’s eyes, a stirring of some old pain, and it bothered me. That wasn’t his way. He always had a smile and a quip, even if they were often irreverent or inappropriate. I’d gotten used to that. I kind of liked it.

I glanced at Adrian with a smile that I hoped looked genuine, rather than a desperate attempt to provide distraction. “Research, huh? I thought you were a gambling man.”

It took Adrian a few moments to drag his gaze from Dimitri and fix it on me. “I’ve been known to roll the dice now and then,” he said warily. “Why?”

I shrugged. “No reason. Just wondering if you’d put your charisma research on hold and step up for a challenge. If you went twenty-four hours without cigarettes, I’d drink a can of pop. Regular pop. The whole can.”

I saw the glimmer of Adrian’s earlier smile returning. “You would not.”

“I totally would.”

“Half a can would put you into a coma.”

Sonya frowned. “Are you diabetic?” she asked me.

“No,” said Adrian, “but Sage is convinced one extraneous calorie will make her go from super skinny to just regular skinny. Tragedy.”

“Hey,” I said. “You think it’d be a tragedy to go an hour without a cigarette.”

“Don’t question my steel resolve, Sage. I went without one for two hours today.”

“Show me twenty-four, and then I’ll be impressed.”