by Мишель Роуэн
“You’re still in love with him, aren’t you?” she asked pointedly.
I shook my head. “Amy—”
“And he’s the one who dumped you, isn’t he? Not the other way around?”
Oh, it was pointless to try to convince her otherwise once she’d made up her mind. She might not be a Rhodes Scholar, but she was relentless. “You got me. Thierry’s the one who broke things off. I was just trying to save face when I said it was me.”
She looked distraught by my false admission. “I knew it.”
“I’m doing what I can. It’s over. It hurts like hell but I’m trying very hard to accept it.”
I had lied so much lately that I was honestly surprised my pants weren’t literally made of fire.
“Barry did say he couldn’t believe you would be the one to walk away.”
“I just bet he did.” I refrained from rolling my eyes. “So, just relax. It’s no big deal, okay?
I’m fine. I’m accepting the way things are slowly but surely.”
“He left you just when things were really difficult… with your curse.” Her expression tensed. “I always knew he was a selfish jerk. First, cheating on his wife with you—”
I cringed at that. “I wouldn’t exactly call it cheating when Veronique knew and was fine with everything.”
“Still.” Tears were actually welling in her eyes. “Oh, Sarah, I don’t want to tell you this, but I have to.”
I leaned over the table and grabbed her hand. “Oh, my God. Amy, what is it? What’s wrong?”
“I… I saw Thierry an hour ago in a restaurant down the street. In fact, he might even still be there. That’s why I called you.”
“Well, that is shocking considering that he doesn’t eat anything.”
She shook her head. “He was having drinks with somebody. When I saw who it was—I was so shocked. I never would have guessed it for a million dollars. Sarah—” She let out a shuddery sigh. “I think Thierry may have been having an affair on you while he was having an affair on his wife. He’s a two-timing two-timer!”
My eye began to twitch. “What are you talking about?”
“I wasn’t going to tell you but it’s important that you know this. It just proves that he’s a supreme creep and not good enough for you.”
“You’re saying that you saw him having drinks with another woman?”
She nodded gravely.
“And it wasn’t Veronique.”
She shook her head gravely.
I cleared my throat. “And it seemed as though they were together together. Not just having drinks, but romantically.”
Another grave nod.
“What exactly led you to that conclusion?” I asked stiffly.
She reached into her bag and pulled out her cell phone. “I have proof.”
“You took pictures of him?”
“I’m thinking about getting my private investigator license.” She brightened slightly. “I think I might be good at catching good-for-nothing men in the act of adultery. And I hear there’s some great money to be made in that field.”
I wasn’t sure why I found it hard to believe. She regularly sent me pics from clothing store change rooms to get my opinion on new outfits. Why would this be any different?
“You don’t have to look if you don’t want to. I mean, you have gone your separate ways.
I just wanted to show you that he’s a cad. An absolute cad, considering who he’s taken up with. And if you’re still upset about your breakup, you shouldn’t be.”
I didn’t believe a word. Especially when that word was as outdated as “cad.” Thierry wouldn’t do this, would he? No. Of course not. We might not agree on absolutely everything—to say the least—but he loved me. We’d been through too much together for him to casually start a new relationship in the midst of this mega crisis in our lives. I trusted him with every fiber in my being.
Sarah + Thierry.
True love forever.
But, still. It wouldn’t hurt to have a quick look.
“Show me,” I said tightly.
She scrolled through the menu and then handed me the phone. I stared down at the first picture, then went to the next. Then the next. And the next.
Thierry was having drinks inside an upscale restaurant, right near the window, which was why Amy got some good shots.
There was a picture of Thierry laughing.
Uh. Laughing? That was so unlike him.
Another of him reaching across the table to take his companion’s hand.
Another of him… kissing… her… hand.
My jaw clenched.
Another had him actually leaning across the table… and… kissing… her… on… the… mouth.
My vision went a bit red at that one and my heart slammed against my rib cage.
The woman was smiling widely, obviously enjoying herself. One photo showed a clear shot of her face as she glanced out the window.
“Can you believe it?” Amy said breathlessly. “I thought she was engaged to be married.
That skank! That sneaky blond skank ho!”
I recognized her immediately. There was absolutely no doubt who Thierry appeared to be blatantly romancing in the pictures.
“It’s Janie Parker,” Amy said with obvious disgust and outrage. “Can you effing believe it?”
I couldn’t. I really effing couldn’t.
Janie had recently been my bodyguard, hired to protect me from hunters due to my unfortunate and false reputation. In the end, I learned she’d been lying about who she was, and that she was actually a freelance mercenary who wanted revenge on me for killing her crazy hunter brother in self-defense—which is where my Slayer of Slayers rep had originated.
She’d redeemed herself by saving my butt in the end, but we definitely weren’t BFFs. The last I’d heard, she was engaged to another friend of mine, Quinn, after a super-fast romance that took even me by surprise.
Quinn used to be a vampire hunter, but he’d been turned into a vampire and had had a very difficult time dealing with that transition. To put it extremely mildly. I considered him a very good friend, although he’d originally wanted more from me than friendship. I tell you, if I hadn’t fallen hard for Thierry, Quinn would have gotten more. Even though as a hunter he’d tried to kill me a couple of times, he was a good guy. And damn hot, too.
He’d left town. Janie had left town. And I heard that they’d hooked up, which surprised me on many levels. The last I’d heard, they were going to come back here to get married.
By the look of Janie macking on my man, I’d say those plans were canceled.
I was going to kill her. And him. Not necessarily in that order.
But, no. No. There had to be more to this.
Thierry had suggested “seeing other people for appearance’s sake” last night, hadn’t he?
How it would help to convince Gideon that there was nothing between us anymore and that I’d definitely followed through with his explicit order for us to break up.
If there was one thing I didn’t have the time or patience for at the moment, it was being part of some lame vampire soap opera in the making. But I had started thinking that dating others might throw Gideon off our scent, so to speak.
I wondered if the pictures of him and Janie had anything to do with making everyone think we were definitely seeing other people. But if Janie was with Thierry right now, then I wondered where—
“Hey, Sarah,” a male voice over my left shoulder said. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
I recognized that voice. And so did Amy. She looked past me with a shocked expression, which slowly turned into a wide and bright smile before her gaze moved to me again.
“You sneaky little devil,” she exclaimed. “Of course! This all makes sense now. Why didn’t you tell me you were back together? This is so wonderful!”
A man slid into the seat next to me. “Sarah likes to keep her secrets, doesn’t she? But yeah, Amy, we’re together and neve
r been happier. Make sure you tell absolutely everybody you know, okay?”
She was already keying in a text message on her cell phone. “Way ahead of you. George is going to go ballistic when he hears about this. Ballistic!”
I slowly turned to look at Quinn. The shock at seeing him again out of the blue like this was enough to knock me completely speechless.
Chapter 6
Quinn looked exactly the same as the last time I saw him, which, since it was only a month ago, wasn’t surprising. He had dark blond hair, vivid blue eyes, and a very attractive boyish charm about him even though I knew he was now forever thirty. He dressed casually in faded blue jeans and under a black leather winter jacket he wore a green T-shirt that fit his muscular frame perfectly.
I was used to seeing him rather unhappy and angsty, but today he had a smile on his face wide enough to partially reveal his fangs.
“You look gorgeous, Sarah,” he said, and then before I could say a word in reply or greeting, he leaned forward to kiss me.
My eyes widened and I heard a clicking sound as Amy took our picture.
He looked at her. “Good to see you, too, Amy.”
“Ditto.” She was beaming. “You have no idea how happy I am right now. I always thought you and Sarah were perfect together. I was totally on Team Quinn. It’s good to see she finally clued in to who her real Mr. Right is.”
“You’re obviously very savvy when it comes to love,” he told her. “That’s definitely what
I like most about you.”
“When I heard that you were getting married to Janie—”
He waved a hand. “Rumors.”
Her forehead creased. “But you told me yourself. When you called a couple weeks ago, remember?”
“Oh, right.” He coughed. “Uh… let’s just say that Janie and I had a change of heart. It happens. No hard feelings on either of our parts.”
“Awesome.” She slid the phone back into her bag. “Well, somebody’s feeling like a third wheel. I’m going to take off and leave you two lovebirds to it.”
“Um…” I began awkwardly. “Wait a minute, Amy—”
Quinn reached down to take my hand in his and he squeezed it. “We’ll see you later, Amy.
Thanks for taking care of my angel while I’ve been gone.”
She grinned. “No problem!”
She left with a few more excited glances over her shoulder at the two of us.
“She’s sweet,” Quinn said after she’d left the café completely. “A natural blond, right?
You should probably keep an eye on her in the future. Wouldn’t want her to hurt herself.”
“Quinn—”
“Come on.” He stood up. “Let’s go for a romantic walk outside, shall we?”
“But, Quinn—”
He squeezed my hand again and this time it actually hurt.
Okay, I got it. Shut up, Sarah.
We left the coffee shop and walked slowly down the street, hand in hand. I eyed him from the corner of my dark sunglasses. “Okay, what’s going on?”
“Not here,” he whispered, then picked up his pace. “Somebody might be following us. All you need to know is that we’ve started seeing each other again and all is well with the world.”
“Who contacted you?”
“Who do you think?”
Thierry, of course. Instead of being impressed by his planning skills, the thought that he’d done something like this without even giving me a heads-up kind of pissed me off. That man kept too many secrets from me—about the Red Devil and now this with Quinn and
Janie that Amy had to tell me about like a fanged Nancy-Drew-in-training.
“I never knew how much I adored you until I left,” he said loud enough for anyone we passed on the sidewalk to hear. “I’ve traveled all over. Arizona, Las Vegas, Florida. I was in New York before I came back here. But you are the ray of sunshine in my dark, dark life that led me back to you.”
“Spreading it on a bit thick, aren’t you?” I couldn’t help but smile a little despite my current annoyance at Thierry. I really did like Quinn a whole lot. When he’d left I thought that he hated me, even though he said he didn’t, and that I’d never see him again. We’d been through a lot together with the whole vampire-fledglings-united thing. He’d be another aspect of my vampire life I would have forgotten if The Darkness had performed that curse eradication.
We turned a corner and his cheery smile faded at the edges as he glanced over his shoulder. “Okay, I think we’re clear. Thierry contacted me.”
“I find that hard to believe, but go on.”
He snorted. “Yeah, I know. We’re not exactly poker buddies, are we? Anyhow, he explained the situation. Shit, Sarah. I feel like I’m to blame here. I’m the one who told you all that Gideon was dead.”
“He’s not.”
“Obviously. He’s like a cockroach; he can survive anything. The man is dangerous. Even more now that he’s desperate.”
My cheeks felt tense as I tried to smile. “And now you’re supposed to pretend to be dating me. What a great way to deal with a desperate killer like Gideon.”
He shrugged. “You don’t know Gideon like I do. We were friends ten years ago until I realized he was a complete sociopath. Don’t underestimate him for a moment.”
“I don’t.” I frowned hard. “So you don’t think there’s any part of Gideon that can be reasoned with? Some part of him that still has a chance of being redeemed?”
“He kills vampires.”
“So did you and you turned out okay in the end.”
He grimaced. “I never took pleasure in it like he does.”
I’d helped Quinn. In fact, I’d helped him when I probably shouldn’t have, back when he thought I wasn’t any better than a mosquito that needed to be squashed. It had taken him a while to realize he didn’t feel any different as a vampire than he did when he was human.
He saw what he’d done in the past was wrong. He was a hunter who wasn’t truly evil.
Now Gideon was going to become a vampire—if all went according to his master plan.
Would he see the light? Was it possible that he wasn’t completely evil? That there was a kernel of goodness somewhere inside him?
Hey, you never know.
“Thierry also told me about your curse,” he said in a near whisper and glanced at me sideways. We began to walk again. A few average, harmless pedestrians—at least that’s what they looked like—moved past us going in the opposite direction. “And he thinks it’s a good idea for me to be around just in case.”
My stomach lurched at that. “Just in case what?”
“Just in case the Ring sends somebody to investigate you. And by investigate, I mean eliminate. Consider me a layer of added protection at the moment.”
I swallowed hard. One more thing to obsess about.
“What about Janie?” I asked quietly.
“She’s willing to help out, as well.”
I raised an eyebrow. “I saw a picture of her kissing Thierry.”
His jaw clenched and his expression darkened. “Maybe I’ll kill Thierry just for old times’ sake. I’m sure I still have a sharp stake lying around somewhere.”
“So it’s true? You and her are together?”
He was silent for a moment. “Unless she decides she prefers ancient humorless vampires with zero personality, like some women I know.” He glanced at me and gave me a slight grin. “Yeah, we’re together.”
“You have strange taste in women.”
“You have strange taste in men.”
“Touché.”
He laughed at that. “I know it might seem crazy, but I love her. Completely. And I want to spend the rest of my life with her.”
“But she’s human. Won’t that be kind of awkward when she’s eighty and you look exactly the same as you do today?”
“She’s… well, she’s not exactly human anymore. She’s a vampire, too.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Long
story, okay? Life or death situations call for rash decisions.”
I tried to keep the shock off my face. Everybody seemed to want to become a vampire lately. Were vampires the new black? The old black? We were in fashion? Maybe being a vampire was cool and desirable.
Sure, I believed it. If I was still as naïve as Amy. I kind of wished I was.
I let out a long breath. “I’m sure Janie probably wasn’t too thrilled with the idea of you pretending to be with me.”
“She said something about slicing you open and eating your heart if you touch even one square inch of my body.”
My eyebrows shot up.
“She was kidding, of course. Well, mostly.” Then his eyes narrowed as he looked farther up the block. “Speak of the devil.”
We’d turned a corner that brought us back onto Yonge Street. We’d walked around the block during our rushed and half-mumbled conversation. Up ahead I saw two very familiar vampires leaving the upscale restaurant they’d allegedly spent a good chunk of the afternoon at—the site of Amy’s earlier stakeout. Quinn slid his arm around my waist as we approached.
Thierry narrowed his gaze at Quinn, and then at me. “What a coincidence. Sarah, a pleasure as always.”
His words were warm, but his expression was not. In fact, it was subzero.
For that matter, so was mine. Half of me was happy to see him. The other half wanted to give him the cold shoulder for not being forthcoming with the info. Any info.
So annoying.
And yet I was supposed to just go along with everything and keep a smile on my face.
“Thierry,” I said, not trying to sound the least bit pleasant. “I see you have a new friend.”
“Old friend.” He took Janie’s hand in his and kissed it.
I felt my cheeks heat up and forced myself to relax and play along. For now.
Janie’s gaze fell on me like a death ray. “Great to see you again, Sarah.”
“Likewise,” I said tightly.