Ry sighed. “We haven’t rehired staff yet, sire,” he said, with a definite sarcastic bent on the royal title. “I’ll handle it.”
I gave Erin my keys and indicated she should walk out with Ry to get Carla’s body out of the trunk.
After they left, I stood there awkwardly, feeling like I should say something, only I didn’t know what. “Thank you” didn’t seem right, and anyhow, Erin had already covered that part.
“Do you need something else, Henri?” Lark asked impatiently. “We’re busy.”
“I see that. Doing what exactly?”
Lark started to say it was none of my business, but Sean cut her off. “Negotiating Cazimir’s reinstatement as… uh…”
“Monarch of the Greater Seattle Area,” Cazimir supplied. Sean did not argue with that title, though I suspected that like me, he didn’t exactly see things that way.
“Seeing as Lark was kind enough to take care of things in my absence,” he emphasized the word kind in a way that was almost as sarcastic as Ry’s use of sire, “I am offering her compensation for her time and effort.”
“I see,” I said, though I didn’t get it entirely. More vampire politics. I guessed that Cazimir couldn’t just come take over again without Lark looking weak or something, so they had to come to a formal agreement. This was why I’d never spent much time at the Factory playing these games even when I’d had fangs. I couldn’t take it seriously. “Well, good luck with that.”
Cazimir sat back down and waved me off. I was dismissed.
Sean and I shared a look and then I went out to make sure Carla’s body had not gotten up and walked off when we weren’t looking.
It hadn’t, and Ry let us watch as he shoved her into the incinerator just for our own peace of mind.
Chapter 30
A week later, I walked along Alki Beach watching the sunset, trying to memorize the way the world transformed from day to night. It’s a cliche, of course: someone hoping to become a creature of the night trying to mentally absorb the way the sun spreads oranges and yellows across the sky as it sinks behind the mountains, but there you go.
I had no guarantee it was the last sunset I’d see, but I could hope.
Once it was dark, I got in my car and drove over to Sean’s.
I knocked on his front door, my heart pounding in my chest. I was done fucking around. I was ready to get what I wanted.
He answered the door looking disheveled from sleep, his dyed black hair mussed. He wore gray pajama pants and a soft-looking t-shirt. A mischievous smile tugged at his lips. “I’ve been expecting you.”
“I want you to make me a vampire,” I said. It wasn’t a question. It was a demand.
“Do you?” He sounded amused.
I didn’t smile back. “Yes or no?”
He considered my request. I tried not to let the blood rushing in my ears make me dizzy. There was only one right answer, and if he gave me the wrong one, it was going to be a long damn time before I had anything to do with him again.
Finally, he gestured that I should come inside.
I shook my head. “Yes or no, Sean? You’re out of excuses. Cazimir had the Cure and came back from it. It didn’t poison Ryuto. There’s no reason for you to deny me.”
“No,” he said. For a second, my heart plummeted into my stomach. But he kept talking. “I suppose there’s not.”
I stepped over the threshold and he shut the door behind me.
“You’re sure?” he asked. “You don’t want to go eat sushi one last time or try fondue or visit Hawaii while you can see it in the sunlight?”
“I’ve been human again for almost a year. Trust me. I’m ready to leave this crap behind.” My shoulder was still messed up and sore from Carla’s spell, and I couldn’t seem to find a sleeping position that was comfortable for it.
I was tired of the constant aches, of the constant needs, the overwhelming weakness.
I was tired of trolling listings for jobs, and frankly, ready to let my apartment go and burn that identity. If I was a vampire again, I was pretty sure Rhonda would give me my job at Underground back.
“And if I refuse?”
I wanted to punch him. I wanted to scream. I took a deep breath. “Then I’m going to find someone who won’t. You’re not the only vampire in the world who thinks I’m worth the effort...”
“Oh, Henri, come here,” he said, pulling me close to him. He smelled faintly of soap that lingered on his immortal skin.
He kissed me gently on the lips, smiling slightly as he led me downstairs to the sofa. He sat me down, my heart a jackhammer in my chest.
Sean could hear my frantic heartbeat, of course.
“You’re scared?”
“I’m about to die, aren’t I?” I said, annoyed. Of course part of me was scared. It was only natural to be in this situation, no matter how much I wanted it. And there was always the slim chance that something might go wrong and it would fail, and I’d end up dead for good instead of immortal.
“It’s nothing you haven’t done before,” Sean said, with no hint of concern that things wouldn’t work out perfectly. That was one of the things I loved about him: his unflappable belief that the world would bend to his will.
He pushed the hair back from my neck and his mouth trailed down my jaw to my throat. He hesitated before he bit down, and panic rose in my middle that he might change his mind. And then his fangs sank through my skin with the tiniest jolt of pain. His cool lips moved over the wound as he drank. I smiled and held him fast against me. All I could think was Finally.
* * *
I lingered on the corner, pretending to search for something in my purse, staring absently at the glittery flecks of stone on the sidewalk. It was the sort of thing my immortal eyes could see that my mortal eyes would never have caught. The world was strangely beautiful when you could see the gritty details in the dark. I’d missed vampiric vision.
The killer, my mark and future victim, had gone into the little corner market to buy cigarettes. He was taking a hell of a long time, and I wondered if he’d passed out from the whiskey he’d chugged in a bar all day.
I should have caught up with him earlier, but I’d stopped by the hospital to visit Jeff, who had miraculously pulled through, and was being released tomorrow. When he’d asked if his former friends were dead, I’d told him they were without many details other than the fact it was the witch who’d killed them, not Lark. Then I’d left him to process the news.
I dropped my purse to my side and let out an impatient breath. I considered going into the minimart after my mark. How long did it take to buy a pack of smokes?
This guy was evil to the core, and I couldn’t wait to sink my fangs into his neck. He’d killed several women during the previous months. I’d caught him in the act a few nights ago. It had been too late to save his latest victim, so I’d let him go and done my homework on him. So far I had traced at least three other victims to his greedy, murderous hands. Just the kind of asshole I enjoyed taking down. The kind who truly deserved a violent end to satiate my bloodlust.
My veins pulled tight and I longed for the hot rush of his blood over my tongue. But I couldn’t kill him until I could get him alone. It wouldn’t do me any good to dispatch him in front of witnesses. And he’d been good at sticking to crowded areas, looking over his shoulder like he knew he was being followed.
He’d seen me come out of the bar right after him, of course, but I hadn’t seemed to bother him. If anything, I probably looked like a possible victim: an average-sized woman with blonde hair. I was probably his type. He didn’t know I had fangs. He didn’t know I’d killed better men than him before. He didn’t know I was a monster.
“He slipped out the back,” Angela said, startling me. Even with my new vampire senses, I hadn’t heard her approach.
“Shit,” I said. I was surprised. I must have followed too close and triggered his paranoia. He may or may not have realized it was me he was running from, but he was smart enough to
figure out he needed to run. Damn. That meant he was smarter than I’d thought.
And, like an idiot, I’d let myself be distracted by the sidewalk and hadn’t been listening for the back door.
“You’re rusty,” Angela said. “You’ll get better.”
“Thanks,” I said sarcastically. I was doing just fine. So what if he’d slipped away? I could track him down.
“King Cazimir requests your presence,” Angela said. Her tone was flat, and I couldn’t tell if she was mocking him or actually respected the title. I fell somewhere in between these days. I would never really consider Cazimir my king, but his existence did foster some stability in the arcane world. I had to appreciate that.
“Does he?” I asked. “And why does he request that?”
Angela smiled, fangs out. “I could tell you, but why ruin the surprise?”
I didn’t really want any surprises, especially involving Cazimir. I sure as hell didn’t want any vampire drama.
“Someone was murdered,” Angela said, then, answering my silent comment, continued, “he wants your help solving it. Isn’t that what you do?”
“Is it?” I asked. I mean, it sort of was, but only because I hadn’t had a hell of a lot of choice. I hadn’t planned on continuing to do that now that I was a monster and killer again myself. “What if I say no?”
“You realize you owe him a favor.” Her eyes were light, full of amusement. At least someone was entertained.
“Like hell I do,” I said. “If anything, he owes me. I did his laundry, for god’s sake.”
Angela shrugged, the motion fluid and graceful. It was no skin off her nose whether or not I went.
I glanced back at the minimart where my prey had escaped from and sighed. I could pick up his trail if I hurried, but I supposed it could wait. “Fine, I’ll go. But only to hear him out. I might say no.”
“Suit yourself,” Angela said.
I walked down the hill toward downtown, forcing myself to keep a mortal pace. There were a lot of pedestrians walking up and down the hill, even at midnight, and moving too fast would freak them out, but it was harder than I’d remembered. My limbs wanted to go faster and I had to think about my steps to keep them even. I’d get used to it in the coming months—I knew that from experience—but it was a struggle for now.
Angela kept pace with me effortlessly.
“Why are you playing messenger for Caz?” I asked her.
“I have my reasons.”
“I don’t doubt that,” I said.
We walked the rest of the way to the Factory in silence, but I kept glancing over at her ivory face surrounded by that mane of red and yellow hair. She looked magnificently monstrous, doubly so with vampire eyes.
I pressed my tongue up against my fangs. They were razor-sharp and cut the skin. The taste of salt and iron danced on my tongue even as the tiny cuts healed.
I was finally myself again, and it felt good.
Thank You For Reading
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The Henri Dunn Series
The Immortality Cure (Book 1)
Bloodless (Book 2)
Sanguinity (Book 3)
For more information, visit toricentanni.com
About the Author
Tori Centanni is a nerd girl and recovering goth who lives in the rainy Pacific Northwest. When she’s not writing or reading through her never-ending book pile, she spends her time watching competition reality shows and wrangling cats.
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