Dara’s breathing nearly stopped. Her vision darkened around the edges, and she had the strangest impression the room had begun to shrink, the four walls pressing in toward her. Her first instinct was to recoil from him. She wanted to rip her wrist from his grip and shoot to her feet, pelt away into the bedroom, and slam the door shut. She wanted to sink to the carpet and cover her head with both arms.
More than anything, she wanted to forget she had ever heard such a nauseating admission spill out of Jason’s perfect mouth.
“Dara…” Jason said, shaking his head.
She shook her head, too, and tugged on her wrist. Tears were collecting in her eyes. Let me go, Jason. Let me go. The words were climbing up her throat, readying to emerge on a yell. She tensed her legs, gaining leverage to pull away.
“Dara…” He released her and buried his face in his hands, letting out an anguished sob.
The sound froze her in place again. And then it undid her. Raw and tormented, it wrung Dara’s heart like a rag, and, in an instant, her own pain seemed to dissolve like vapor. There was only concern left behind for him, for this man she loved more than anything else in the world.
“Jason? Honey?” She draped her arm around his shoulders and leaned her head against his. As she pressed a comforting kiss to his temple, she noticed a smell she’d picked up before, when she was bringing him up the stairs. Sour, like he’d been sweating a lot. In panic, maybe. Or in fear. Goodness, what had happened to him tonight? Something awful, she was suddenly sure. A fresh wave of sympathy crested in Dara’s breast.
“It’s okay,” she crooned. “Everything’s going to be okay now, baby, I promise.”
Another quiet sob shook his shoulders, and then he lowered his hands, turning to gaze at her with red-rimmed, astonished eyes. “You’re not mad?” he sniffled, wiping his wrist across his nose.
Dara shook her head, realizing that she really wasn’t. Not anymore. For the past few hours, she’d been imagining all sorts of horrifying scenarios, wondering if she would have to start phoning the police station and emergency rooms, trying to figure out if Jason had been in some terrible accident. Now, she was just relieved he was home and in one piece, that he was still alive. Because Jason wasn’t only her husband, he was her very best friend. He had never done anything to hurt her, had never cheated on her or anything close to it. Why would he suddenly start now?
I kissed that girl, and I don’t know why. I didn’t even want to…
Whatever had happened to him tonight had obviously been against his will.
Affront bubbled up inside Dara, sending an acidic taste into her mouth. Something had been done to her husband at that party, and she was going to help him figure out what it was. She was going to help him fix it.
“I’m not mad,” she said evenly. “Not at you. Now show me where all this blood came from. Where are you hurt?”
Jason flinched as he tugged down the collar of his jacket and showed her his wound.
That time, Dara did recoil, gasping in horror as she dropped the gauze to the floor and slapped her hand over her mouth. The bottle of hydrogen peroxide slipped from between her knees and splashed all over the carpet.
Chapter Four
So, lemme get this straight. Two days ago, he sort of blew you off, and then he called you sounding like he’d just downed half the bar by himself, and left a voicemail saying you were awesome and asking you out to dinner, and then…what? He just stopped talking to you?
Lucy carefully tapped out her reply to Jessica.
Yeah, pretty much. Weird, right?
Aaron had been late to work the day after he’d drunk-dialed Lucy and asked her out to dinner. When she’d texted him to find out if he was okay, he’d written back that he was sick and had overslept. He’d shown up an hour later, unshaved and wearing sunglasses, and marched right past her desk, into his office, without saying anything to her. Minutes later, he’d sent her an IM asking her to cancel all his meetings for the day, and to do whatever it took to put off any calls or visitors until tomorrow morning. He’d stayed in his office the rest of the day with the door closed and his blinds shut tight.
Lucy had stayed late to see if he’d ever come back out again, but he hadn’t. She’d eventually given up and gone home. This morning, his door had been standing open when she’d arrived. No sooner had she settled in at her desk, though, then it had slammed shut and he’d never reopened it. She couldn’t help wondering if he was having second thoughts about asking her out. Aaron had never struck her as the passive aggressive type, but why else would he be avoiding her now? Although it was possible he didn’t even remember calling her in the first place. Like Jessica had mentioned, he’d definitely sounded buzzed that night. Really buzzed.
Jessica: I’ll say. What’re you going to do about it?
Lucy: Do?
While Lucy waited for Jessica’s reply, she swiveled her chair around and stared at Aaron’s door. He hadn’t stirred from his office all day. She hadn’t even heard him make a sound in there. He was probably still sick, she decided, and had maybe been sleeping it off on the couch he had in there, but…if he felt that bad, why had he even come into the office in the first place? He hardly ever took a day off, so he had plenty of sick leave available to him. Something bizarre was definitely going on. In fact, Lucy’s stomach had started to cramp with worry.
Jessica: Well, you can’t just let him get away with this. You have to go in and talk to him. Find out what the deal is.
Lucy: How?
Jessica: What do you mean, how? Just go into his office and ask him WTH is going on. He owes you that much. Look, Luce, I’m sorry, but some customers just came into the store. I’ll have to talk to you later. LMK what happens, though. LYL!
Lucy set aside her phone. She chewed on her thumbnail. She knew Jessica was right, but the thought of barging into Aaron’s office and confronting him made her stomach tie up in knots. At the very least, she needed a plausible excuse to walk in on him.
Coffee, she decided. Aaron loved coffee. But not that sludge from the breakroom. Stuffing her phone back in her pocket and grabbing her wallet from her bag, she went down to the café on the second floor and paid for a pumpkin spice latté and an Americano. She headed back up the stairs, left the latté on her desk, and stood shifting her weight in front of Aaron’s door, stalling for another few seconds before she finally knocked.
“Aaron? It’s me. Can I come in for a minute?”
When he didn’t answer, she twisted the latch and peeked inside. The lights were all off, and shadows shrouded the room. The smell of sickness assaulted her nose, and she grimaced as she took a step back. It stank like someone had been retching into the garbage can. Clenching her jaw, she slipped inside, shutting the door behind her.
“Aaron? I brought you some coffee…” She trailed off, blinking as her eyes adjusted to the gloom and she realized the office looked completely deserted. Huh. That didn’t make any sense. Unless he’d snuck out when she’d gone to get the coffee just now, she knew Aaron had to be in here somewhere. But he wasn’t at his desk, or in the chairs in front of it, or on the black leather sofa pushed up against the back wall. “Aaron?” She crossed the carpet to the big bay windows and started twisting open the blinds.
“Don’t,” a rusty voice croaked out at her. “Don’t do that. Just leave ’em closed.”
Lucy jumped and hurriedly closed the blinds again. With one hand pressed over her heart, she peered into the shadows but didn’t see anything. A shuffle sounded from somewhere near the desk. She crept over and stole a glance behind it.
“Oh,” she gasped, and set the Americano down on Aaron’s blotter. Because there he was: her boss, huddling next to the filing cabinet with his legs curled against his chest and his head bowed. He looked miserable. “What’s wrong?” she asked. “Are you still sick?”
“Don’t feel so good,” he murmured.
Lucy’s heart clenched. “Oh, you poor thing.” She knelt next to him, ducking her head to
look into his face. A sour smell was wafting off him, but she ignored it and leaned in to get a better look at him. She brushed the hair back from his eyes. The strands felt thick and greasy, like he hadn’t washed his hair in days. He looked like he hadn’t changed his clothes, either. His tie was missing, and his dress shirt gaped open at the neck. The shirt was untucked and wrinkled, his pants a landscape of rumpled creases.
“Have you been sleeping in here?” she asked. “The past couple of days?” He didn’t answer. His forehead, when she laid her fingers against it, was ice cold. “Oh, you’re freezing!” she cried, drawing back in alarm. “Have you been to see a doctor?”
He straightened his head a fraction, leaning it against the desk. “Don’t want to go to the doctor,” he said plaintively, his voice sounding slightly slurred. “Pretty sure they can’t help me, anyway.”
She stared into his eyes, which looked darker in the shadows than usual. And there was something else there, too. Something familiar that churned Lucy’s gut. Her first year of college, she’d toyed with the idea of majoring in Social Work. She’d spent her first semester and a summer volunteering at a violence intervention center, filling out intake reports. She had seen things there she would never forget, including the haunted look in so many of the victims’ eyes. She saw that same abject shock in Aaron’s dilated pupils now, and anger roiled inside her at the thought that anyone might’ve hurt him.
“Aaron, what’s going on?” Given how her insides were quavering, she was impressed at how steady her voice sounded. “Did something happen to you?”
“I dunno.” He rubbed his face. “Not sure.”
“You can’t remember?”
“Not everything.”
“Well, then tell me what you do know.”
His face twitched, his mouth jerking before he finally said, “It was…couple nights ago, at the Red Palm. You know that bar?”
“Yeah.” She sat down next to him. “You were drinking, weren’t you?” She remembered his rambling voicemail. Maybe that’s all this was, she thought. He’d partied a little too hard. Two days in a row. While she’d never known him to go out on benders, or to come into work hung over before, it wasn’t an unheard-of thing for a person to do. Maybe something had upset him enough to send him out on a crazy binge for a couple of days.
But Aaron frowned and said, “Yeah, but that wasn’t it.” He looked past Lucy, at the little University of Houston piggy bank squatting on his bookshelf, but his eyes seemed unfocused, like he wasn’t seeing anything but his memories. “There was a girl, there. At the Red Palm. Very pretty girl. Prettiest girl I’d ever seen, actually.”
“Oh.” Despite how worried she was, Lucy’s heart momentarily ached with jealousy.
Aaron’s frown deepened. “She took me outside. Into the alley. She kissed me and then…” His hand came up, brushing at his shirt collar.
Lucy noticed a few dark brownish spots staining the fabric. Blood, she thought, and reached to pull the collar away from his neck. A bandage clung to his skin. “She did something to you?” Lucy wondered if maybe he’d been cut somehow, or stabbed with a syringe. Drugged. She’d seen that, too, at the intervention center. It was appalling, some of the things people were willing to do to one another.
When he didn’t answer, Lucy tugged at the edge of the bandage. “I’m going to take this off, okay? I’m just going to have a look.” She peeled the plastic strip away as quickly as possible, surprised when he didn’t even flinch.
“Aaron,” she said, staring at his neck. “What is this?”
“A bite,” he said flatly. “From that girl.”
Lucy’s brows knit together. She started to shake her head. “I don’t…No, I don’t think a person bit you. This looks like…like a snake or a…baboon or something.”
“A baboon?”
“Something with fangs.”
“I know what it looks like.” He pulled away, training his feverish eyes on her. “And so do you. I know the kind of books you read. We talk about it all the time.”
Lucy’s pulse started to pound. “Aaron, you can’t mean—”
“That girl was a vampire,” he said, pointing his finger in her face. “She bit me.” Then he dropped his hand and lowered his voice to an urgent whisper. “You don’t believe me, do you? I know you don’t. And no one else is going to, either. I’m going to die from this because no one will ever believe me. They’ll all think I’m crazy and…No one can help me.”
“Aaron, you are not going to die.”
“Yes, I am!” His voice was still quiet, unsteady with panic. “I can feel it happening already.” He held out his hands, gaping at them. “Or maybe I’m just turning into…into some sort of monster…” Fear flared in his eyes, and in Lucy’s heart. She watched him start to shiver.
And then her anger came flooding back, sluicing heat through her insides. Why would anyone do something to hurt Aaron? He was one of the kindest people she had ever met. He didn’t deserve this.
Whatever this was.
Lucy’s gaze cut to the hideous wounds marring his neck again. She tightened her jaw and clenched her hands against her thighs. Suddenly, she decided she didn’t care what had happened to him—if he’d been drugged or mugged or if it really had been a vampire who had bitten him—she was going to get to the bottom of it and make sure Aaron came out of this alright. It was the only thing she could do, the only course of action that would help her make any sense out of all this.
She wriggled closer and slipped her arm around his shoulders.
“Lucy, don’t.” He tried to jerk away. “I could be dangerous. You should get away from me.”
“It’s okay, sweetheart. Everything’s going to be okay now. I’m not leaving you, and I’m not going to let anything else happen to you, either.” She stroked his face, running her hand across the light coating of stubble shadowing his cheek.
“Lucy…” he whispered and bit his lip.
She saw moisture start to gather in his eyes, and a new surge of compassion pressed against her chest. “Shhh, shhh…” She brushed a swift, featherlight kiss across his forehead. With her free hand, she slipped her phone out of her pocket.
Aaron’s frightened eyes fixated on the gadget. “What’re you doing?”
“Shh, it’s okay. I’m going to call Jessica.” When he started to protest, she added, “I’ve known her since I was nine, okay? She’s a good friend. We can trust her. And she always knows what to do.”
She wasn’t sure if Aaron had decided he trusted Jessica too, or if he’d just run out of energy to continue arguing, but he fell silent. Resting his head against Lucy’s shoulder, he let out a long breath and seemed to drift off to sleep. Or lose consciousness, she wasn’t sure which. All she knew was that he felt like a block of ice sitting next to her, but she refused to move away from him. No matter what else happened from here on in, she knew she wasn’t going to let him go. Not until he was okay again. Not until she had made this right.
“Come on, Jess,” she murmured under her breath as she listened to the phone at the bookstore ring. “Please pick up. Please, please…”
Chapter Five
“You know, you don’t seem nearly as freaked out by all of this as you probably should,” Lucy mused, following Jessica’s sleek ponytail deeper into the maze of bookshelves. Heeding her best friend’s advice, Lucy had headed to Book of Love as soon as possible, to conduct some “research” on how to help Aaron with his vampire problem. A problem Jessica seemed to be taking in stride.
“I don’t know,” Jessica shrugged, “maybe it’s all the books I’ve read and movies I’ve watched, but it just doesn’t seem that far-fetched to me that there could be vampires in the real world. Seriously, were you that surprised? I guess not, seeing as how you figured out Aaron had been bitten by one all by yourself.”
“I didn’t figure anything out,” Lucy corrected her. “Aaron told me that’s what’d happened to him. In fact, he insisted that’s what’d happened.” Despite ho
w many times, and how many different ways, she’d questioned him over the past few hours, he’d never changed his story. And despite how hard she’d tried, Lucy hadn’t been able to shake the image of those welts on Aaron’s neck, or the stark fear in his eyes as he’d described his attack in the alley behind the Red Palm.
Holes, Lucy thought. Those weren’t welts on his neck, they were holes. Two ragged puncture marks, bled deathly white all around their circumferences.
That girl was a vampire. She bit me.
Lucy shuddered as she remembered Aaron’s rasping words, and his trepidation as he’d clung to her in her apartment, where she’d left him before coming here to talk to Jessica. I wonder how he’s doing? she thought, plucking nervously at her sweater. Hopefully, he hadn’t gotten any sicker. Or...worse. Distracted by her gruesome thoughts, she almost ran right into Jessica, who’d stopped at the end of an aisle with one hand on her hip. Purple velvet Queen Anne chairs and settees circled a coffee table up ahead, forming a reading nook for the Book of Love customers in the largest section of the bookstore. Lucy looked up at the metal flag, shaped like the sickle from the A Prince at Midnight standee, hanging a few feet above their heads.
“Paranormal Romance?” she said, blinking at the words printed on the blade.
Jessica lifted her hands. “This is a romance book store, Luce, not the Library of Congress. PR is the best I’ve got. Anyway, there’s got to be something in here we can use. Something to get us started, anyway.”
“Get us started doing what?”
“Looking for a cure for vampirism. That’s what you need, isn’t it?”
The Sharpest Kiss Page 4