The Wedding Crashers

Chapter Eight

Sam merged into the crowd of predominately non-human guests, wary and watching for any untoward moves on their parts. He did manage it much more easily than Cas had, he noticed; no one shied away from him. Actually, it seemed to be the opposite; he did not miss the curious and unsettlingly interested glances often tossed his way-always from the vampires.

He didn't like it. He deliberately avoided catching anyone's eye when they looked his way; he wasn't interested in talking with any of them. He wended his way between the small clusters of guests as if he had a destination in mind, all while surreptitiously sweeping his eyes from side to side and listening as closely as possible to any and all passing conversations. He did his best to catch names so he could match faces with the ones that Leah had told them about, the ones who could do anything extra, like electric shocks or hallucinations. He heard someone call out the name Kachiri, and made note of the tall vamp that answered, he heard someone else muttering about Amun, saw a vamp named Makenna introduce herself to another named Randall, and nearly jumped out of his skin when he overheard someone ask if Alistair was going to be here (he was not, and Sam was not sorry to hear it).

When he heard someone ask for a Maggie, however, he started at the sound of the high, childish voice that answered, "Coming, Siobhan!" He was utterly appalled to see a little girl who looked like she couldn't be more than ten go bounding gracefully over to a group of vamps who were talking pleasantly with what could only be a couple of wolves.

His mouth compressed into a thin line, his stomach rolling as he suppressed the desire to grab the cutlery and start beheading. Changing kids-what the hell? he thought angrily to himself, turning away. But that didn't make things any better, because in the opposite direction from that disgusting vampire child he spotted Sam and Emily Uley some distance away. They were talking animatedly to a few other Native Americans, and it was impossible for Sam to miss the way Emily glanced up and pointed deliberately at himself.

He resisted the urge to go over there and tell them to just shut up about Leah, instead making a sharp left, but abruptly came to a stop when he nearly crashed right into a pair of pale-blond, glittering people that had all but materialized right in front of him.

"Oh-sorry," he said as their eyes fixed upon him. They looked at him, and he looked back, and his fingers tightened reflexively around his champagne glass.

Leah had told them that with these fangless vamps, there was actually an easy way to tell which ones only ate animals and those that didn't care to bother with such formalities. While that little one they'd seen before, Alice, had had bright, eye-catching golden eyes, he'd pushed aside his natural inclination to loathe anything with yellow eyes and instead had taken some solace in reminding himself that the color indicated a "safe" vampire. However, the two vampires before him had deep burgundy irises, a dead giveaway to just what their preferred cuisine was.

His wariness only increased when he saw the way their nostrils flared as they stared up at him.

"It's quite all right," the woman said carelessly, giving him what was clearly meant to be a disarming smile that was anything but. "You wouldn't have bumped us. It is we who should apologize." She gestured at the crowd, smiling fondly. "So many of us gathered, and no need to be secretive-I'm afraid I rather forgot that not everybody here is like us."

"I don't believe I've ever seen you before," the man suddenly chimed in, his voice eerily similar to the woman's. "I know all of the other humans' connections to our kind-but not yours. What, exactly, brings you into our company?"

Sam managed a brittle smile as he took a fortifying sip of his drink. "Leah Clearwater-I came with her," he replied as politely as possible.

"Leah Clearwater-is that one of those werewolves?" the woman asked, sounding not remotely interested as she continued to stare intently at Sam. "It was so generous for the Cullens to invite them all. What did you say your name was?"