Run the Gantlet by Amarinda Jones

for the long haul, and al the pretty words and orgasms in the world could not convince her he was. Wanting and being were completely different.
    “Hmm, not what I had in mind.”
    “Have you never been to a supermarket? How do you get food?” Eloise knew he needed blood to sustain him, but how did Arrow eat and where? In some ways she felt as if she had known him forever yet little things escaped her.
    “I eat when I’m hungry and I just spin off somewhere exotic and get something I fancy.”
    Eloise snorted. “Wel , that’s al going to stop if you become mortal.”
    “It’s ‘when’, shorty, and I wil gladly give up whatever I have to in order to be with you. I have heard about grocery shopping but never indulged.”
    Indulged? There was nothing indulgent about it. “I have to warn you that people who shouldn’t drive cars let alone wheel trol eys of food, are let loose in a maze to hunt food.” It was not something Eloise ever looked forward to doing.
    “But that could be fun.”
    She shrugged her shoulders. “Don’t blame me when someone runs over your foot with a wonky wheel.”
    “A what?” Arrow’s eyes were ful of amusement.
    Eloise stopped and looked at him. “Oh come on. You’ve been alive seven hundred years and you don’t know that al supermarket trol eys are deliberately made with crooked wheels to keep you longer in the store to buy crap you didn’t need?”
    “Show me, shorty.”
    That look he gave her made her knickers smolder. “You have much to learn, fang face.” And I have decisions to make.

    * * * * *
Arrow pul ed Eloise back against him for protection. “She could have kil ed you.” A woman shot past, barely acknowledging the fact that she had nearly taken off Eloise’s foot in her mad rush to pass them. His first instinct was that of wanting to hunt the careless woman down and teach her a lesson, but Eloise had stopped him.
    “When there is a red-light special on in the bakery section, people wil maim you to get one dol ar off bread.”

    “Do you need bread? I’m prepared to do battle with those women.” Of course Arrow had seen these large, ugly, generic shopping mal s in his travels, but he had always chosen to bypass them as they appeared to be tedious and provincial. He had not been aware that under the harsh lighting, seemingly normal mortals became crazed hunters ready to maim for what they wanted. Arrow gripped the handle of the trol ey and was ready to do anything Eloise requested, wonky wheel and al .
    “That’s sweet of you but I‘l pass.” Eloise dropped a jar of Vegemite in the trol ey and looked to her left. “Who is that woman?”
    “I have no idea.” Arrow knew exactly who Eloise was referring to. He had seen the blonde ten minutes ago. It had been impossible not to. The woman was wearing a tight mini-skirted red dress that left very little to the imagination. That she wore no bra under her tight tank top indicated she wanted attention.
    Maybe once Arrow would have given it to her but not now. Eloise was the only woman he desired. “What?” He saw the look Eloise gave him. It was one of confusion.
    “The way she’s looking at you makes me think she knows you.”
    And that was the thing. Arrow felt he did know her, that she was connected to the supernatural world and not of the mortal trol ey-set. “I do not know her nor do I want to.” The flaunted charms of the blonde could not compete with the quirky peasant Gothic beauty of Eloise. But he had to wonder why she was staring at him so intently. It was clearly a come-and-take-me look. Arrow had been on the receiving end of many of those. But why so obvious especial y as he was with another woman?
    “She is gorgeous.”
    The dul tone of Eloise’s voice caught at Arrow. Surely she did not think he could ever be interested in this woman? What he had with Eloise was for life.
    He needed her. He adored her. And I am no longer lonely . Arrow did not speak those words. As much as she tried to act