Sabine nodded. "I'm sure you all hate me, and that's why you joined the site. Except for Darren. I'm pretty sure he just joined to meet chicks."
Darren blushed slightly. "No, I definitely hate you too."
Sabine smiled at him. "Got it. You all hate me. I joined the site because I wanted to find the bastard who did this to me."
"So you were a full-on vampire with no soul when you practically drained me dry," Robert said, eyeing her. "But now you're not."
Sabine nodded. "I think there was a tiny bit of me in there, which kept me from killing you. I've never killed anyone in my life. I was really worried I had. I'm glad you're alive."
Robert held out a hand. "Let me feel your pulse."
Sabine held out a gloved hand.
Robert touched her wrist, and a jolt of energy passed between them. Sabine sensed something new about Robert; something compelling at the edge of her consciousness.
"One of my co-workers found me passed out on the floor and called nine-one-one. He was old, and had a heart attack from the stress," Robert said.
"I guess that's my fault then," Sabine said, feeling sad.
"It's not. He was a total ass. You have no pulse, and your skin is room temperature."
"Give it a minute."
"Let me feel!" Darren said, grabbing her wrist. She didn't resist, and he felt back and forth like an amateur, fondling. "I felt a beat."
She pulled away from Darren and offered a wrist to Gabe and the other to Sam. "My heart beats about once every two minutes when I'm resting. I'm not sure if it beats at all when I sleep. At the most it might beat three times a minute, if I'm really stressed. Apparently a heartbeat isn't normal for vampires."
The guys felt for a minute and nodded.
Kim stirred, then jerked away, scooting closer to Sam.
Sabine turned to Kim. "Would you like to feel my pulse?"
Kim shook her head, looking pale. "Um, nope."
Sabine sat back. "Okay, so now that we've found each other, how can I make it up to you guys?"
Darren was first. "I wanna shoot you." Then he thought about it for a second. "No. I wanna have sex with you, and then shoot you."
"Ew!" Sabine held up her hand. "I'm not a slut. And besides, you'd just go Renfield on me. I'm pretty sure you don't want that."
Trent piped up. "You'd have to get past me if you want to have sex with her."
Sabine glared at Trent. "You trying to stake a claim on me?"
Gabe turned to Trent. "So you're a Renfield? Another vampire?"
Trent shook his head. "I'm just immune to her charms."
Sabine raised an eyebrow at him. "We'll have to talk later."
Kim gulped. "Why me?" Her voice squeaked, and she cleared her throat, trying again. "Why me? I mean, that night. If I had been jogging with someone else, would I have been safe?"
Sabine shook her head. "You were the first warm-blooded creature I saw after being buried for a week. Think about it - not breathing or eating or drinking for a week. If you hadn't been there, I probably would have attacked the tourists at the lookout. I was literally starved out of my mind."
"So it was just totally random," Kim said, fingering her stakes.
Sabine nodded. "I'm truly sorry, and I know you all might not trust me, but I believe in Karma, and I want to set the scales right between us."
"What if we just take turns staking you?" Gabe asked.
Sabine sighed. "Would that really make you happy?"
Sam put a protective arm around Kim. "We've spent the last year hoping for vengeance. Against you. Now, you show up and want to be friends. What do you expect?"
Sabine took a breath, and looked at each of them, then back at Sam. "I don't know, Sam."
Gabe had a harsh look on his face. "I was suspended for six months from the Fire Department and had to go to therapy because they thought I had had a nervous breakdown. How do you propose to fix that?"
"I quit driving taxis and took a job as a clerk," Sam said, putting away the cross and stake.
Sabine looked to Kim. "What about you, Kim? How do you feel about me?"
Kim glanced back at Sabine. A tear dripped down her cheek. "I keep thinking back to the biker chick at the restroom and wondering why you'd save me."
Gabe turned her way. "Whoa. What happened?"
"Some biker chick named Beatrice pulled a knife on me, and Sabine protected me."
"Beatrice Smith?" Sam asked.
Sabine thought back to the name on the driver's license. "Yeah, why?"
Sam looked pale. "She lives down the street from me. She's in an outlaw biker gang that's got the whole neighborhood running scared."
Kim looked even more pale. "I helped hold her! Oh God! What have I gotten myself into now?"
Sabine smiled wide and rubbed her hands together. "Don't worry Kim, I can totally run them out of town in one night."
Sam shook his head. "You don't know what you're up against. They have more than a dozen armed thugs living in a run-down house, with some serious firepower. That's after ATF raided them and arrested four guys and confiscated about fifty guns. That was just a dent in their inventory."
"So Sam, if I can get the biker gang to leave town and clean up your neighborhood, will you forgive me?"
Sam stared at her, then nodded. "I think I could, if you did that. My God, I can't believe I'm just talking to you like this!" He laughed. "I never imagined forgiving you."
Sabine smiled. One down. Well, a little neighborhood cleanup and then one down. "What about the rest of you? I'm willing to do whatever it takes to earn your forgiveness. Except sex, Darren."
"Can you be my bodyguard so I can go jogging every night?" Kim asked softly.
Sabine turned to her. "You would trust me?"
Kim downed the rest of her drink, and stared. Then she slowly nodded. "You saved me tonight."
Sabine felt a warm rush fill her psyche. This was more than she had hoped for. "Will you forgive me for biting you?"
"Maybe. Eventually."
"All right then," Sabine smiled.
Darren stuffed his gun away. "I bought bullets just for you. I'm thinking I should use them after you fix Sam's problem for him."
Sabine shrugged. "So you'll forgive me after you've used up those six bullets on me?"
He smirked. "You'd be dead."
Sabine shook her head. "Not likely. You'd be lucky to hit me at all, but I could give you one free shot. It might hurt like hell, but I'm pretty sure I'll survive."
Robert squinted at her as he absentmindedly twirled his silverware. "What about a head shot?"
"One month after I turned, I tried jumping head first off a high-rise." She held up her hands in a shrug.
"That explains a lot," Trent sniped.
She glared at him. "You, be nice or I might bite."
"Don't threaten me with a good time." Trent smiled back at her.
Gabe turned to him. "You want her to bite you?"
"She has this new trick: sending pleasure into a donor. People are already lining up. It's amazing how good it feels."
Darren looked again at Sabine with lust in his eyes. "Really."
Sabine rolled her eyes. "I'm not biting any of you ever again."
Darren put his elbows on the table and rested his chin on his hands in contemplation. "How about using that vamp power to get some other girl to sleep with me?"
Sabine blinked, then stared at him open-mouthed. Maybe her Karmic balance wasn't far off kilter with Darren, and it would be better to walk away. She glanced around the table to see how the others felt about what Darren had just said. They all watched for her response. Gabe looked annoyed. Sam looked angry, and Kim glanced from behind her drink.
"Darren..." She began, then paused, rubbing her temples. "How do I phrase this nicely? I'm completely offended. On behalf of women everywhere, I'm going to decline to use supernatural persuasion to assist you in getting laid."
Gabe turned to Darren, a bulldog facing down a weasel. "See Darr
en, I keep telling you. This kinda shit is why you don't have a girlfriend."
"You're not on a high horse anymore, Gabe," Darren shot back.
That seemed to touch a nerve with Gabe, and he gritted his teeth. He glanced at Sabine and decided not to reply.
Sabine concentrated on Gabe and tried to read his mind. It wasn't difficult once she focused. He had been dating a woman named Patty for a few years, and they had broken up a few months back. He had loved her, but the stress of dealing with his obsession over vampires had torn them apart.
It was Patty's dog he had been walking that night.
Sabine turned to Robert. She started to wonder what his aura was about. It didn't feel like werewolf or witch. "Robert, you're looking a lot better than last year. You've been working out?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact. I've been on a self-improvement kick."
Darren grumbled at the loss of attention. "He's studying necromancy, like it'll actually work."
Robert shook his head. "Darren, you're a piece of work. That was more useful as a secret with a vampire at the table."
Darren shrugged. "Whatever, dude. It's all B.S. anyway."
Sabine turned to Robert. "I'm guessing necromancers have power over the undead. If that's true and you're any good at it, you could be really useful hunting vampires."
"I'm getting good at it."
Trent rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "From what I've heard, necromancers are born, not taught. Like witches, they have an innate ability that just has to be trained. If that's the case, how could Sabine have gotten the better of you a year ago?"
"I worked in the morgue because something about working with the deceased fascinated me. And contrary to Darren's opinion, it wasn't necrophilia. It was some kind of affinity. I had been holding that part back..." He turned to Sabine. "And when you came to life there and bit me, it changed me. Suddenly I felt different. For the first time, I realized that there was something beyond normal; and I reached for an understanding of it. I did some research on necromancy and things just started to click."
Sabine nodded. "So are you happy I bit you?"
Robert squinted in thought for a moment. "I see it as an unpleasant event that had a beneficial outcome. Like when a superhero gets his powers from being dropped in a vat of radioactive acid or something. I learned that monsters existed, and I learned that I could do something about that. This last year I trained to be ready when we would meet, but I haven't tested myself on a vamp yet."
"I bet you're itching to try me," Sabine said, slightly nervous.
"As a matter of fact, I would like very much to test what I've learned."
"If I cooperate, then you'll forgive me?"
He nodded, a gleam in his eye.
Trent looked anxious. "Sabine, are you sure this is a good idea?"
"I guess that depends." She turned back to Robert. "What would this experiment entail exactly?"
Robert sat back and crossed his arms. "I'll take over your mind and make you do something against your nature."
"So, am I supposed to resist, or let it happen?"
Robert smiled. "Resist all you like. Ready?"
Sabine nodded, and almost immediately felt the power wave thrust at her. She tensed and held the image of a fortress in her mind. It felt like the world was spinning on its side, and she couldn't tell which way was up.
Sabine felt her mind coming apart, and felt a sudden desperation. Her thoughts started melting, evaporating. She grasped for anything to fight back and remembered Esmerelda's smiling face and the way Esmerelda had trapped them in her mind. She wished she knew how to do that, but she knew how to use her other powers. Even as her defenses crumbled, she sent out a wave of her own power at Robert.
The smile on his face faded, as they stared each other down in a trance.
Kim looked from one to the other. "What happened?"
Gabe put a hand between the two of them and waved it back and forth. "Hmmmm."
Trent looked from one the other and got up, walking around Robert to Sabine.
"Don't interfere. Something bad might happen," Sam said, readying his cross again.
Trent whispered in Sabine's ear. "Sabine?"
There was no reply.
"Sabine, can you hear me?"
Gabe waved his hand in front of Robert. "Robert! You in there?"
Robert started to lean over, and Gabe propped him back up. Gabe snapped his finger in front of Robert. "Dude! Wake up! Snap out of it!"
Sabine's head lolled forward and she collapsed on the table, just as Robert did the same.
Trent grabbed Sabine and shook her. "Sabine! Are you okay?"
"She'll be fine in a minute." Sabine's mouth had said the words, but with Robert's inflection. Her head lifted, eyes vacant.
Gabe put a hand on Robert's shoulder. "Robert? Are you controlling her?"
Sabine nodded and smiled.
Trent stepped over to Robert and glared at him. "Let her go."
Robert turned vacant eyes toward Trent. "Patience, Lone Ranger."
Trent stepped back. "Sabine?"
Robert winked at him, then fell forward again. Gabe caught him before his head hit the table.
Sabine took a deep breath and pushed away from the table. She stood and shook her hands, then patted herself. "Damn it, I do NOT want to do that again."
Trent eyed her suspiciously. "Is it you?"
"We need to help Robert, quickly!" Sabine said. She pushed Trent aside and picked Robert out of his seat with one arm. The others jumped out of their seats as Sabine rested Robert on the ground. She started CPR, pressing on his chest.
Gabe rushed around the table. "What the hell are you doing?"
Sabine pushed up and down on Robert's chest, careful not to push too hard. "His heart stopped. What does it look like? Do any of you know CPR?"
"I'm a firefighter! What do you think?" Gabe said, pushing her aside to start CPR. "Sam! Call nine-one-one!"
Sabine pinched Robert's nose and held his chin, opening his airway. She lowered her mouth to his, ignoring the exclamations of the vampire hunters as she breathed into Robert's mouth. She pulled back just as Robert's eyes flew open and he grasped at her and Gabe.
Sabine looked into his shocked eyes. "Welcome back to the land of the living, Robert."
Robert took a few breaths and pulled himself up, arms shaking. "Sabine, I think you're supposed to be alive if you're the greeter for the land of the living."
Kim had rounded the group to kneel beside him. "What happened Robert? Are you okay?"
He breathed deeply. "I will be in a minute."
Sabine looked around. Darren had his gun aimed at her, Sam had a stake out, Trent was blocking them from Sabine's back. "You guys thought I'd attack him right here?"
Their looks told her she was right.
She looked to Sam. "You didn't call for paramedics."
He swallowed. "I thought-"
Sabine used a fraction of a second to jump up and grab their weapons before they saw her move. She held them up, staring at Sam. "How do I prove myself to you? You thought I was attacking him? Damn it!"
Darren held out his hand. "Give that goddamn gun back."
She stared him down. "Don't you get it? You just had me dead-bang. Did you even see me take it from you?"
He glared at her.
"Same goes for you Sam. Did you see me move?"
Sam shook his head.
She turned to Gabe, Kim and finally to Robert, now getting on his feet. "How about you guys?"
Robert brushed himself off as Kim shook her head.
Gabe let go of Robert. "You're a vampire, I believe you already."
Sabine nodded. "So you'll all acknowledge that if I had wanted to kill all of you by now, I could have. You wouldn't have seen it coming. I moved slowly when I picked up Robert so I wouldn't hurt him. Do you see that now?"
They all looked somewhat sheepish; except Trent, who was wondering if he had misjudged her speed.
Sabine handed
the stake back to Sam and the gun back to Darren. "You guys need to believe me when I say that I'm trying to be a friend and make up for what I did to you before. So stop drawing weapons on me and just assume that no matter what I do, I'm not going to hurt you."
Most of them nodded, except Gabe.
Robert spoke up. "You saved my life just now. I'd say we're even."
Sabine smiled. "I wish I could take credit, but I think it was my fault your heart stopped."
Gabe's expression showed his confusion. "How so?"
Sabine struggled with what to tell them, of what she had experienced. She settled on bare essentials. "Basically, we traded bodies, but I'm not used to breathing and having a normal pulse."
"So I stopped breathing and my heart stopped," Robert added.
"Shit," Darren said, stuffing his gun away again. "So our great white hope can't even beat a newbie vamp."
Sabine looked to Trent. "How long was I out of it?"
Trent glanced around at the group, then looked back to Sabine. "You were vulnerable for about a minute."
Sabine nodded and looked Darren over. "Darren, you seem like the kind of guy who would only need a minute with a vulnerable girl."
"That's what she said," Trent added.
Darren sucked in a breath. "Hey! I take way longer – I mean – screw you!"
Kim laughed.
Robert bowed his head slightly as he straightened his tunic. "Thanks, Sabine."
"Robert almost died giving us that minute," Darren shot back.
"Sabine saved him," Kim said, stepping around them to sit down.
"Right, and if I hadn't, Gabe would have," Sabine added, as they followed Kim's lead and returned to their seats. "Being part of a team means everyone brings something to the table."
Kim took a shaky breath. "I'm not sure I bring anything."
Darren licked his lips. "You're the hot cheerleader."
Sabine put a hand on Kim's shoulder. "She brought you together. I could see that from the forum. She inspired you all to be here as much as my bite did. If it weren't for her courage in posting her story, you all never would have found each other."
Kim blushed.
"That's true," Sam said.
Gabe nodded. "She doesn't need to kill vamps to be here."
They sat in silence for a moment before the waitress walked up. "Are you folks ready to order?"
Reborn to Bite (Vampire Shadows Book 1) Page 11