by Anya Nowlan
“You were the one who pointed out that I’m not a cop anymore,” Ruby countered. “Thanks, Mickey, you’ve been very helpful,” she added, throwing him an insincere smile. “And you really should get that door taken care of. Anyone could just walk right in,” she said, before turning to leave.
Harlan followed her down the stairs as they made their way back to his car. Ruby was not eager to get back into that vehicle with Harlan behind the wheel, but she had a feeling Harlan wouldn’t have it any other way.
The way he had been little more than a blur to her when he’d snatched up Mickey’s gun did speak to his fast reflexes, though. So maybe him driving like a maniac was justified, in some way. As she turned to face him, she noticed Harlan was still holding the Colt in his hand.
“Thought we should confiscate this from Mickey,” he said, handing it to her.
“It’s not much use to me now,” she shrugged, looking down at her hand as she struggled to squeeze her fingers around the weapon.
“I bet you’re a better shot with your left hand than that excuse for a man will ever be with his right,” Harlan replied, and she couldn’t help but smile. “That was fun, huh?” he added, as he opened the passenger door for her.
“Thank god I’m not the only one who thought so,” she laughed. “It’s kind of messed up we feel like that, isn’t it?” she asked, tucking Mickey’s gun into her waistband.
“Everyone’s messed up,” Harlan shrugged, his gaze sweeping over her in a way that made her feel warm inside. “You live as long as I have, that becomes very clear. Being well-adjusted is boring anyway.”
“Someday you’re going to have to elaborate on all these little snippets of information you’re throwing out,” Ruby warned, pointing a finger at him before getting in the car.
Harlan was sitting by her side before she could even close her door. This time, she didn’t even hold on to the edge of her seat or tell him to slow down when he pulled back into traffic and gunned it.
Ridiculous as it was, she was starting to trust him more and more. That was the side effect of having to lean on someone as they did on each other. If only she knew more about the guy, maybe they could even be friends.
Friends with a vampire, Ruby laughed to herself. Sounds like a bad sitcom.
When Harlan glanced over at her, those green eyes looking like he could see right through her, she knew the feelings stirring inside her had little to do with friendship. Watching him handle everything like he did his car – with easy confidence and graceful purpose – Ruby couldn’t help but be drawn to him.
“I think I can reveal some of my secrets, as long as you promise not to sneak up on me in the middle of the night and put a stake through my heart,” he replied, taking a sharp curve while barely looking at the road.
“That would work?” Ruby asked, maybe a little too eagerly.
“You see? Planning my funeral already,” Harlan laughed, a smooth, pleasing sound.
“That’s not what I meant,” Ruby said, looking away. “You’ve helped me more than you know. Not being able to be a cop again, and having no one believe me about what Grant was capable of… I felt so useless and dismissed. But then you came along.
“Thanks to you, I at least know I’m not crazy. And I have a shot at payback. But I don’t want to be easy pickings to any pair of fangs that happens to come my way.”
It felt like her words hung in the air for far too long as she looked out the window and wondered if she should have said anything at all. Hadn’t she just yesterday found Harlan annoying and arrogant, and would have done anything to get rid of him?
Things were changing so fast, and she was having trouble keeping up with her own feelings.
“Yes, that would work,” Harlan simply said. “A stake to the heart means death. Decapitation does the trick, too, if you bury the head and body separately. Silver is poisonous to us, but that’s more of a slow death that can be avoided by removing the silver.”
He had conveniently not responded to Ruby’s sappy declaration of gratitude, and she was totally fine with that. The fact he had just told her all of his weaknesses said enough. Ruby had many more questions, but as Harlan pulled up to her home, she thought she’d wait until they got upstairs to throw them all at him.
Harlan opened the door for her, which was something she was quickly getting used to. As they walked up to the building, Ruby couldn’t help but watch Harlan move, deliberate and powerful, with his muscles bunching beneath the fabric of his well-fitted suit.
“I need to eat soon,” he remarked as they climbed up the stairs.
“Oh. What happens if you don’t eat?” she asked.
“I get hungry,” he replied, earning an eye-roll from Ruby. “Don’t worry, I don’t go mad and start seeing everyone around me as blood bags,” he assured her with a chuckle. “But going without blood does deplete me, make me weaker. As does spending time in the sunlight.”
Ruby nodded along, committing all of this information to memory. As they reached her apartment door, she noticed Harlan was suddenly on edge. He grew tense and went extremely still, before grabbing Ruby’s hand and yanking her away from the door.
Clearly, something was wrong.
“What?” she whispered, brow furrowing as she looked up at him.
“Either your friends are throwing you a surprise party or someone other than me has broken into your apartment,” he said.
“I hate surprises,” Ruby replied, already reaching for the gun she had tucked away in her waistband.
“Me, too,” Harlan replied.
11
Harlan
“There are three people inside,” Harlan said, as he and Ruby carefully approached her apartment door. “Humans.”
“How do you know?” Ruby whispered.
“I can hear their heartbeats.”
“Well, that’s useful,” she nodded, gripping her gun with her left hand as she pressed herself against the wall. “Could Grant have sent them to finish what he started?”
“At this point, I’m not ready to rule anything out,” he replied.
Harlan had never known his former friend to associate with humans all that much, but if Mickey’s intel about Grant teaming up with Theo Greene was reliable, it seemed Grant was getting out of his comfort zone.
“Stay back,” he instructed, before stepping closer and pulling Ruby’s door straight off its hinges.
“Now I know how Mickey felt,” he heard Ruby mutter behind him as two men immediately came charging at him.
He would have found mere humans trying to take him down amusing, if he hadn’t suddenly been incapacitated by a searing hot pain. Falling to his knees, he realized one of the men had thrown a metal net at him, and from the way his skin was burning, he could only assume the metal was silver.
Of course things only got worse when Ruby came charging into the room, probably tipped off that something was wrong by his pained grunts.
“Ruby, run,” he managed to say, struggling to get free and burning his hands on the silver in the process.
She ducked back behind the doorframe, but held her ground, aiming her weapon at the three goons spread out in her living room.
“I don’t remember inviting you into my home,” Ruby called out.
None of the men, all in their mid-to-late thirties, covered in tattoos and wearing silver chains around their necks, responded. Harlan managed to get one side of his body free, but the side that was still covered in the net was weighing him down, as the silver seemed to melt deeper and deeper into his flesh.
The men turned their guns toward Ruby and let out a spray of bullets. Plaster went flying, coating the floor. Harlan could hear people in the adjacent apartments scream and run for cover.
“Alright, no banter, then,” Ruby said, noting the silence before returning fire as best she could.
Outgunned and outnumbered, Harlan knew it was only a matter of time until she caught a bullet trying to protect him. And he couldn’t let that happen. Reaching
deep inside him, he pulled on whatever strength he had left.
Ignoring every instinct he had, he grabbed onto the silver netting, curling his fingers around the metal even as it melted right to his bones. On what seemed like willpower alone, he gave the thing a good yank, and managed to pull it off his body.
Seeing this happen, one of the goons, a tall man with a snake tattoo on his throat, reached back into the vest he was wearing, and pulled out a stake.
Now these guys are annoyingly well-prepared.
With barely enough power left to mend the damage the silver had done to his body, Harlan felt his singed flesh knit back together as he got up on his feet and charged at the man he had nicknamed Snake in his head.
The Snake with the stake. It even rhymes.
He wasn’t as fast as he normally was, but he still caught Snake off guard as the man was trying to run at him with the sharpened piece of wood aimed at his chest. Harlan only hesitated for a moment before snapping the man’s neck. Snake was human, and Harlan usually restrained himself from killing humans, but with Ruby’s life on the line, he didn’t feel like taking any chances.
As Snake’s lifeless body hit the ground, Harlan whirled around, ripping into the next man who got in his way. That happened to be a bodybuilder-looking dude standing in the middle of the room, staring down at Snake’s corpse.
Taking advantage of the man being momentarily distracted, Harlan leveled him with a single punch that sent the man flying into Ruby’s coffee table. The glass shattered and the wood cracked, and Harlan made a face as he made a mental note to replace the thing when he got the chance.
Now, there was only one man left. A blond guy wearing a tactical vest, who was pointing his semi-automatic right at Ruby. She was trying to get cover, taking a couple of shots at the guy before ducking away.
But the flimsy walls of the apartment building were already nearly shredded by all the gunfire. Now more hungry than ever, his burns barely healed and darkness creeping in on the edge of his vision, Harlan rushed toward the last man standing, sluggish by vampire standards.
As Ruby rounded the corner to take another shot at the blond goon, Harlan managed to leap in front of her, catching the spray of bullets meant for his new partner. As pain erupted through his body, he knew his day was about to get even worse.
Silver bullets. Son of a bitch.
Two loud pops sounded out from behind him, and the blond man went down. Next thing Harlan knew, Ruby was rushing to his side. With the silver already pumping through his veins, he could barely stand as he leaned on her.
It was as helpless as he’d been in a very long time, and he didn’t like the feeling one bit.
“Oh, god,” he heard Ruby mutter as she struggled to keep him standing. “Is that silver?” she asked, and Harlan was glad he’d let her in on some of his secrets.
“I can’t heal,” he ground out. “You need to get it out.”
“Alright, alright,” Ruby said, as she maneuvered him to the couch, stepping over glass and bodies on their way there.
Harlan knew it would be a matter of time until the cops showed up, and he really didn’t want to be there when they did. However, he also wasn’t keen on dying from silver poisoning, so he had to take the time to let Ruby dig the bullets out of him.
She rushed to the kitchen as he lay on the couch, trying to stay conscious despite the excruciating pain. His whole body was throbbing with it as the silver spread, infecting every part of him. The fact that he hadn’t eaten lately only made it worse. It meant his body was succumbing to the poison faster than usual.
Ruby returned, holding a set of pliers.
“Is this okay? Should I sterilize them?” she asked, looking like she was trying very hard to stay calm.
“No need,” Harlan replied.
“Yeah, right. Undead and all that,” she muttered before rushing to his side.
Pulling away whatever shreds were left of his shirt, Ruby went to work. She grimaced when she had to feel her way around his bloody chest, looking for the entry wounds. Her fingers dug into his flesh, but the pain barely registered next to the silver burning in his veins.
“You’re doing great,” Harlan whispered, his head lolling back.
“I’d be more inclined to believe you if you didn’t look like you were about to die on me,” Ruby said, using the pliers to grab onto a bullet lodged next to his collarbone.
Harlan’s eyes fluttered shut as she managed to pull out one bullet after the other, until the fire gripping his body started to slowly subside. He managed to force his eyes open again, only to see Ruby eyeing him worriedly.
“I’m pretty sure I got all of them, but you still look awful,” she said.
“Thanks,” Harlan replied, managing to give her a weak smile. “I don’t have enough blood left to heal. You need to take me to a bar, fast. And we need to get out of here before the cops arrive.”
“Running from the police. What a turn of events,” Ruby grunted, as she helped Harlan back on his feet. “What about these guys?” she pointed her chin at the guys sprawled out on the floor. “Can’t you take a sip from them?”
“They’re dead. That means they’re blood is no use to me,” he replied.
“Right,” she pursed her lips, considering that.
Shouldering at least half of his weight, Ruby helped him to the door, and then down the stairs. Harlan was stumbling and shivering when they finally managed to get outside, and the sun shining down on him definitely didn’t help.
“Shit,” Ruby muttered, as she picked up the pace to get him away from the light.
Reaching the Corvette, Harlan leaned against the car while Ruby got the doors open and helped him into the passenger seat. Running around the car, she got in the driver’s seat and reached into his pocket, fishing out the keys.
“You’re looking even worse,” she remarked, as she started the engine and peeled off.
“I’ll be fine once…” Harlan trailed off, feeling his body constrict around him. “I get some blood,” he finished.
His eyes slid shut, but snapped open again when he felt the car come to an abrupt stop. Looking up at Ruby, he could see she looked nervous, yet determined.
“I don’t know where the closest vampire bar is and you need to feed like right now,” she said, cutting the engine and twisting in her seat to face him. “Drink from me.”
Did she just say what I think she said?
12
Ruby
“I can’t ask that from you,” Harlan whispered, looking paler than she’d ever seen him, and that was saying something.
“You’re not asking. I’m offering,” Ruby said firmly, despite the fear building in her gut.
The last time she had been a vampire’s meal had not turned out well for her, and here she was, volunteering to go through that again. She knew Harlan was different than Grant, and that he would most likely die if she didn’t give him her blood, so that made the decision a little easier.
You don’t abandon your partner when things get a little tough. Besides, he took those bullets I dug out of him for me.
Harlan still looked hesitant, but Ruby knew they didn’t have time to argue. The veins on his body were starting to become more pronounced, turning an alarming shade of blue. It looked like he was withering away right before her eyes, with dark circles appearing under his eyes and the last bit of color draining from his lips.
Ruby was surprised at the emotions rolling through her. By all accounts, she barely knew this man, but she had already grown way too attached to him. Watching Harlan die was not an option.
“You’ve saved my life more than once. Now shut up and drink up,” she said, tugging down her turtleneck and leaning closer to him, her heart beating wildly.
“No, not there,” Harlan sighed, reaching for her arm.
Confused, she pulled back as Harlan gently rolled up the fabric of her sweater. His thumb grazed over the veins of her wrists, and the soft touch sent a shiver down her spine.
“Thank you,” Harlan said, looking up at her, before he bent his head down to her hand.
Unable to look away, Ruby watched as Harlan started by softly kissing her wrist. His fangs were already out, as she felt them poke at her skin from between his lips. His tongue snaked out, slowly sliding over her wrist as his mouth sucked the veins there closer to the surface.
Taken aback by how intimate the whole process felt, Ruby’s breath hitched as she felt a sharp pressure against her wrist. Feeling Harlan’s fangs sink into her skin a moment later, she was surprised at how it barely even hurt.
And when his mouth started to work, sucking at her lifeblood, whatever twinge of pain she had felt melted away. An odd warmth spread across her limbs, making her hands and feet feel like jelly. She was all too aware of how soft his lips were against the skin of her wrist, even if his touch was a little cold.
Oh my… she thought, as her head started to spin in the most delicious way. I get it now, Roberto.
Looking down at Harlan, she could see the dark circles under his eyes disappearing. He let out something sounding like a small moan as he drew more of her blood into his mouth, and Ruby gasped when the sensation carried over straight to her core, making her thighs clench.
Harlan’s eyes snapped to her, and their gazes locked as his soft lips pressed against her skin. She could feel it when his fangs retracted, but he kept his mouth on her wrist, circling the wound he’d made with his tongue.
There was a dangerous glint in his eyes that Ruby found sexy as hell, and when he pulled away to kiss her wrist, his gaze still glued to her face, that was the last straw for her. Without even thinking, Ruby jumped into his lap, her hands locking behind his neck as she brought her mouth down on his.
All the sexual frustration she had been feeling since meeting Harlan bubbled up to the surface, clamoring for an outlet.
Harlan’s hands slid up her back, slowly and deliberately, until he was holding her face in his hands. Ruby felt out of control as she kissed him with a passion she’d never felt before. He responded, teasing and coaxing her with his tongue in a way that only added to the heat pulsating through her.