by Мишель Роуэн
"I think she was all talk," I said. "Because I feel fine."
His silver eyes were filled with concern. "She knew you were a vampire?"
I nodded and let out a shaky sigh. "It was freaky. But it doesn't matter. It's over. I think she ran away, since I don't see her in here." I glanced around at the reunion. It was officially a bust. In fact, it looked like most of the people had already called it an early night. "It's time to go."
"I think that's a wise decision."
George came over. "You're not leaving, are you? But we're having so much fun."
So much for keeping an eye on me for the Red Devil. He'd been too busy dancing. "Maybe you are."
"Come on, one dance. I promised that we'd have fun tonight." He eyed Thierry. "You don't mind, do you?"
Thierry raised an eyebrow. "One dance."
"You can join us if you like."
Thierry declined and George pulled me onto the dance floor along with five or six other couples. They were playing the high-school dance song to end all high-school dance songs: "Stairway to Heaven." The one that starts off slow and it seems like a good idea to dance to it, but by the end… all six minutes later when the hard-rock riffs come into play and you're dancing with somebody who is nasty and smells funny, you rethink your entire existence.
It was one of my favorites.
George spun me around in a slow circle. "See? We're having big fan."
"Yeah, I guess." I told him about what had happened.
"Sweetie, you are a magnet for trouble. It's just in your nature. What are we going to do with you?"
I sighed. "I have absolutely no idea whatsoever."
He grinned down at me. "So you were a total bitch in high school? I never would have guessed that."
It was getting really warm in that gym. "I didn't think I was. According to Stacy, though, I was a judgmental, man-stealing beeyotch. But I remember always feeling like the one who was picked on. I'm starting to think that high school is traumatic for everyone."
I fanned my face. What, did they turn up the heat in the last few minutes?
"I was home schooled. The Depression was way depressing. I think that's why I love a good party these days."
"Yeah, probably." I rested my head against his shoulder. "Stacy was obviously crazy and obsessed. She even knew I was a vampire. She seemed surprised that I'd never bitten anyone before when I explained that I was definitely not evil in any way. Actually, it was more like she was amused by that."
"She sounds like a total cow."
I pushed away from him a bit. "Is it seriously hot in here or is it just me?"
He leaned back and looked at me with a frown. "Sarah, what is up with your eyes?"
I frowned. "What do you mean? Is there something wrong with my eyes?"
"Yeah. They're completely black."
My frown deepened. "That is really strange."
And then I sank my fangs into George's neck.
Chapter 7
George screamed and tried to pull away from me but I held on tight. I was so freaking thirsty and I'd never had any idea how unbelievably delicious he was.
"Sarah, what the hell are you doing?" he managed.
I ignored him. Honestly, the guy talked too much for his own good.
I faintly heard voices around us of other couples on the dance floor.
"What is Sarah doing to Jim-Bob? I thought she was here with somebody."
"Poor Jim-Bob! The woman is obviously a tramp."
"She's giving Jim-Bob a dance floor hickey! That is so hot!"
After a moment, I felt strong hands clamp down on my upper arms and I was wrenched away from George's neck. He stared at me with wide eyes, with his hand now pressed against the side of his throat.
"Sarah," Thierry said sharply into my left ear. "We must leave."
Without another word, he forcibly dragged me off the dance floor, pulling me through the gymnasium and then out to the bright hallway. After another moment I felt the cold night air as we left the high school to go outside to the parking lot. I glanced back over my shoulder at the interior of the high school I'd spent four years at. I was still thirsty. What was going on? Why wasn't I back inside?
"Sarah," Thierry said, gently shaking me. "Sarah! Snap out of it!"
Slowly, as I breathed the fresh air, my head began to clear. My heart drummed in my chest, making me aware again of my still-tender stake wound, as I reflected on the last five minutes of my life.
"Oh, my God." My eyes widened and I looked up at Thierry's concerned expression. I touched my hand to my lips. "I have no idea why I did that."
The doors creaked open and Claire and Reggie joined us. Behind them was George.
"I'm so sorry!" I managed. "George, I don't know what happened in there. I didn't mean to hurt you!"
"It's fine," Thierry said.
"It's fine?" George held a hand up to his neck. "She bit me! In public! I am traumatized!"
Claire approached, with a frown, and studied me. "I take it you don't normally bite a lot of necks?"
"I've never bitten anyone before. Ever. I have a total no-bite policy." My bottom lip wobbled. I felt ill. "It's never even occurred to me before, but it's like I couldn't control it.
I didn't even plan to do it until it just happened."
"This witch in the washroom," Thierry said. "She did something to you. Perhaps it was a spell to make you attack a human and create a scene to ruin the reunion. You didn't. There is no harm done."
"No harm done?" George protested. "Hello? Vampire with a neck wound over here!"
Thierry stroked a tear away from my cheek and then pulled me against him. "It is fine, Sarah. It's over."
I buried my face in his black shirt, breathed in the light scent of his cologne, and slowly began to feel normal again. That had been so incredibly strange. Nothing like that had ever happened to me before.
Although, I suppose that wasn't exactly true. The day after I was sired, when I still thought that nothing was wrong, my boss at the time had cut her finger during a meeting with me. I'd temporarily lost my mind and attacked her finger to suck the blood off it. She fired me thinking I was a finger-sucking freak. My fledgling vampire tendencies had kicked in and I couldn't control them. A very unfortunate situation.
But that had been the only time anything remotely like this had ever happened. At least, until tonight.
Talk about a wake-up call.
"She wanted revenge," I said. "Stacy did. And I guess that's what she was saying in Latin.
For me to bite somebody. I'm so embarrassed."
"Nobody noticed anything strange," Reggie said. "There were other people making out on the dance floor, and they figured you and Jim-Bob were just doing the same."
"Jim-Bob is not happy!" George exclaimed.
I pulled away from Thierry to tentatively approach George. "Is it bad?"
He pulled his hand away from his neck and I cringed when I saw the raw-looking, dark-
red bite marks. "Bad enough, but it'll heal."
"I'm sorry. Seriously. I never would have done that if I wasn't all screwed up by the glitter spell."
He nodded. "I thought you looked sparklier than normal."
"So you forgive me?"
"Of course I do. Just warn me if you're going to go for the jugular again, okay?"
The thought made me feel sick to my stomach. "I didn't exactly plan to do that. Other than feeling a bit overheated, there was no warning at all."
"That's not very comforting."
"I think we should leave," Thierry said.
I nodded. "I think that's a good idea. Can't go back in there. They think I've just compromised Jim-Bob's integrity."
"So you're feeling okay?" Claire asked.
I concentrated. Other than my elevated heart rate and an overall feeling of weirdness, I felt fine. "Yeah, I'm okay."
She pulled pen and paper out of her purse and scribbled something on the paper. "If you need me, you can reach me here."
I squinted at the name and number. "What is this, a motel?"
"My basement apartment was recently condemned due to a minor demonic outbreak, so
I've been staying with Reggie there. Call me if there's anything I can do to help you. Hell, call me if you want to hang out sometime. Niagara Falls isn't that far away."
"Thanks, Claire." I gave her a quick hug.
Reggie nodded at me. "Great meeting you, Sarah. And just for the record, you can bite my neck any time."
"Reggie," Claire said sharply.
He blinked. "Uh… I didn't mean anything by it."
She smiled tightly. "We're going back inside now."
"We can leave for Toronto right now," Thierry said. "There's no reason to stay, and it's still early."
I shook my head. "No, let's go back to the motel and get a good night's sleep. Everything will be better tomorrow."
"Glad you think so," George said. "I'm leaving. I'll see you back in Toronto."
And we all went our separate ways. I guess biting George's neck canceled out what the
Red Devil had asked him to do—look out for me. Can't say that I blamed George much. If somebody had bitten me I wouldn't be hanging around for a potential second course.
I'd hoped that attending my high-school reunion would be a good way to remind me that, even though I was a vampire, I could still be normal.
Okay, so it hadn't exactly worked out as I'd envisioned it.
However, three glasses of punch and one bitten neck later, the ratio was still in my favor.
Barely. But I was very glad I wouldn't have to come in contact with Stacy McGraw again.
She was a witch with some serious issues to sort out. Preferably far away from me.
I guess it could have turned out a lot worse than it did.
After we returned to the motel room and locked the door behind us, Thierry turned to face me. He had this thing he did with his expression. I would assume it was because after six-
plus centuries of practice, he was able to give the ultimate poker face. No expression, no emotion, just a flat, bland look on his painfully handsome face.
However, he wasn't giving me that look at the moment. His dark eyebrows were drawn closely together, his mouth was set in a thin line, and his jaw was tight.
"I'm fine," I told him. "Seriously."
"You would tell me if you were feeling any different?"
"Trust me, I'm now paying very close attention to how I'm feeling."
He studied me for a long moment and then nodded. "I have come into contact in my life with those who practice dark magic, and it doesn't always end as pleasantly as this has."
I threw my purse down on the table next to the television. My stomach churned unpleasantly from what had happened earlier. "I think George might disagree with you on that."
"George will be fine."
"You've known witches before?"
"A few. I also remember a particular fortune teller I once met. At the time I thought that she was a fraud, but I have come to realize that she had admirable skill. Another witch I knew of specialized in creating curses for profit."
I slipped off my shoes and flicked them toward the door. "Do you think Stacy was trying to curse me?"
He was silent for a moment. "That was my first assumption. But since you've easily recovered from what happened, I believe it was simply a temporary spell. She is obviously not a powerful witch."
I shook my head. "I can't believe there's so much for me to still learn. Magic, witches, werewolves. Claire said she can summon demons. Was she serious about that? Why didn't
I know any of this when I was human? I just sailed through my life thinking anything remotely like this was fiction."
He crossed his arms. "How would you have reacted if you had learned that it wasn't fiction? That it is, in fact, reality?"
I thought about that. "I don't think I would have believed it."
"Most humans, when shown something out of the ordinary, a flash of fangs, for example, will not make the connection. They see what they want to see and assume that it was a human who had sharper-than-normal incisors. To believe anything else would require them to reassess their entire place in the universe."
"That's pretty deep."
"You've seen for yourself that vampires are not much different from humans."
I nodded. "Other than the fangs, lack of reflection, and immortality thing, we are human."
"And the desire for blood," he added.
I felt myself pale a bit. Right. The blood. "I think I'm going to get ready for bed. I'm tired."
He drew closer to me and put his hand against the side of my face. "You don't have to feel as if you've done something wrong. Vampires, especially fledglings, require blood. It's in your very nature to seek it out."
"Not when it involves chomping on one of my best friends."
His jaw tightened. "Better him than an unwilling human."
Vampires took blood where they could get it. I got mine exclusively at Haven, from the delivered kegs, but I could also put in a special order with the delivery companies if I wanted to keep some on hand in the fridge at home. So far, that hadn't been necessary, since I could do "takeout" from the club when I needed to.
I'd learned that a human's blood was the first choice. A fellow vampire's blood was a good second choice. Then there was animal blood, and the last resort, synthetic, which apparently had all of the nutrients but none of the zing.
I thought of it in terms of the human blood's being the main course, and the vampire blood's being dessert. Only some vamps, like Thierry himself, had more of a sweet tooth than others.
It was so bizarre.
Bottom line, I'd gotten off easy tonight. I should be thanking my lucky stars.
Thank you, lucky stars.
I glanced down at the beautiful ring on my right hand and then looked up into Thierry's eyes. A promise, he'd said. He hadn't exactly clarified what that promise was. A promise he'd help me? A promise he'd be around and wouldn't get any more stupid suicidal "I'm going to jump off a bridge" ideas into his vampire brain? A promise that after he had his marriage to Veronique annulled, we might have a real future together ahead of us?
All of the above. Pretty please.
He raised an eyebrow. "What is that for?"
"What is what for?"
"The smile."
I felt the expression widen on my face. "I'm just reminding myself how lucky I am."
"Lucky?"
"To have somebody who is willing to put up with the crazier moments in my life."
He held out his hand. "Come. Let us get the rest of that glitter off you."
I placed my hand in his and he led me to the bathroom. He moistened a facecloth and worked at gently removing the remainder of the powder Stacy had blown at me. He stroked the hair off my face and ran the warm cloth over my forehead, my cheek, my neck, and even down between my breasts.
"Wow, she got it everywhere, didn't she?" I breathed. This was starting to feel better than a general cleanup should.
"She did." He pulled the thin red strap of the dress off one shoulder and slid the cloth over my exposed skin there before moving to the other side. That strap fell away as well.
He moistened the facecloth again under the tap water and pressed it against the faint mark of my stake wound. His silver eyes flicked to mine.
"How does this feel?" he asked.
"Really, really good."
His lips twitched into a half smile. "No, I meant your wound. Does it still cause you pain?"
I looked down at the mark. My borrowed red dress had pulled away enough that I was barely covered. The pink mark from the wooden stake was now pale and shiny in the bathroom light.
"I barely notice it anymore." I was such a liar.
He moved the cloth away and stroked his thumb against the mark. "Your healing abilities have greatly increased."
"Another plus to being a vampire."
"Yes. But my blood has al
lowed you to heal much more quickly than I even thought possible. In this case, I think it's a very good thing."
My dress slipped another inch. His fingers then grazed against my left breast. I think it was intentional. The heat of his touch felt as if it was branding me. His gaze locked with mine again. "I almost lost you that night," he said.
"I'm hard to lose."
"I don't like feeling so powerless to help you. I don't know who this Red Devil really is, but he has my eternal gratitude for saving you."
I could barely concentrate on what he was saying. I was sort of focused on what his right hand was up to. "He… he should get a medal or something."
"Or something."
I licked my lips and tried to focus, but his fingers were circling my entire breast now and I wasn't thinking straight. "Have you ever been staked?"
He nodded. "Several times. None of my wounds have come as close to being fatal as this one did, though. Too close." The dress slid down to my waist as he leaned forward to kiss my chest over the wound. Over my heart. I leaned my weight against the bathroom counter, feeling a little lightheaded and warmer by the second.
"Your heart," he said, "is beating very fast for a vampire."
Your average vampire's heart beats approximately forty times a minute. Slower than a human's. When I was human my regular heart rate was about seventy beats a minute.
However, thinking about little facts like this wasn't helping my heart rate go down from its current one-fifty. I was like a half-dressed hummingbird.
He moved as if to release his hold on me, but I grabbed his hand and pressed it against my chest again. He looked down at the connection, and then into my eyes.
"I never did get that chance to thank you for my beautiful new ring," I said, and then reached around to the back of the dress and unzipped it. With a small shrug it slipped past my waist to pool on the floor at my feet.
Thierry's gaze slid down the front of me. "Sarah…"
I brought his hand to my mouth and kissed it.