by Mandy Rosko
The idea that someone might be out to kill her had never crossed her mind, and tonight Mike had to ask her if she ever got on the bad side of a man she'd never even heard of.
Thank God Kyle came along when he did, otherwise she and Evey might not have made it.
Getting to Evey required moving to another area of the hospital entirely, and passing through two sets of double doors with a security guard on both sides, all just to get to the light tight part of the hospital. The fact that it was still dark outside it didn’t matter, protocol still needed to be followed.
The light tight side of the hospital was of a decent size because of the number of vampires in the city. When she crossed into the section of the hospital for vampires, all of the windows were deeply tinted, but that was the only noticeable difference. Nurses and doctors still hurried by with clipboards and the walls and floors were still a sterile white.
She asked one of the women in a pink flower nurse's outfit where Evangeline Smith was, and was pointed down the hall to a private room, number forty-three.
Evey's bed was positioned so that she could sit up, and even though Jackie expected her to be so pumped full of drugs that she would be in La-La Land, she was shocked to see her friend wide awake and smiling at her.
Her black clothes were replaced with a spotted white hospital gown, her black hair a dark fan against the white sheets and pillows of the bed, and the machine that monitored her heart gave out a gentle, steady beeping sound.
"I wondered when you'd come to visit. If this is about getting out of my lifetime supply of type O you can forget about it."
Jackie laughed, grabbed a seat and sat down, taking Evey's good hand into her own. Her charred arm was bandaged to the point where Jackie didn't have to look at it, and the lack of smell suggested it had been thoroughly cleaned. "You'll get your blood, don't worry, but I think I'm getting ripped off here, even the hospital's giving you free blood."
"What, this?" Evey nodded towards the sack of blood hanging from a hook and dripping through a tube into her body. "I'd rather drink it, but they won't let me," she said, sinking into her pillows. "I had some police officers visit me, they took my statement. Your new man friend saved our lives I suppose? I was asleep for that part."
Jackie nodded, deciding to not even bother fighting Evey's little joke of a new man friend. "Yeah, Mike thinks someone might be out to hurt me or my mom, and that's why I keep running into feral vampires so close to the store. When you get out of here you might want to keep your distance if you don't want to end up back here."
"Silly girl, you can’t keep me away.”
Jackie knew her well enough to know that she was telling the truth, but felt it only fair to warn her anyway. "I also wanted to ask you something."
"Ask away."
"Well, Kyle was here earlier, and when Mike asked him how he knew to come to the store, he said something about how he just knew."
Evey cocked her head. "How do you mean?"
"Well, all he said was something about how he thought he had to be there. And I know all vampires have some kind of psychic sense—"
"No we don't."
Jackie blinked at the interruption. "What? But I could've swore—"
"The only thing vampires possess that comes remotely close to being psychic is the sense of when their match is in danger, sad, angry, that sort of thing."
Jackie was never very good at any area of magic or magical knowledge, but she knew perfectly well what Evey meant when she used the word match.
"He sensed his mate was in danger?"
Evey nodded, eyeing her carefully from her bed.
Jackie leaned back in her seat, letting Evey's hand slip from hers.
Her heart pounded beneath her chest in an off-beat, panicky rhythm. A strange swell of sadness took her for a moment but she forced a smile for Evey’s sake.
Kyle was Evey’s soul mate.
She told herself to be happy. Genuinely happy for them. It was ridiculous that she should be sad that Kyle was taken. She barely knew him.
"Is it possible that he could have that kind of ability? He's not even a real vampire."
Evey shrugged, no alarm showing at the statement she made and what it could mean for her. "Being a vampire half the time is all it takes, I suppose."
"All it takes for what?"
Jackie spun in her seat, she hadn't even heard the door open, and there stood Kyle, pale and dark at the same time against the off white floors and walls of the hospital.
Jackie swallowed hard and stood up. “You must want to talk to Evey and ask a few things. I was just leaving."
He moved in her way before she could get out the door. "Where are you going?"
"Yes, where are you going?"
Jackie didn't understand the frost in Evey's voice. Evey'd just told her that this man was essentially her soul mate. Wouldn’t she want to be alone with him?
"I was just thinking I'd go so you two could talk," she said, giving Evey a hard, hinting look so they would let her go.
Evey's red eyes flew wide open, and she burst out laughing.
Jackie nearly fell over. "What's so funny?" She looked at Kyle as though he would have the answer, but he could only shrug his shoulders.
Evey wiped tears from her eyes. "That was too funny. You thought I meant him and I ...?" She motioned between herself and Kyle.
Jackie didn't know how it was possible to be so uplifted and beaten down at the same time. "Well, yes."
"What’s she talking about?" Kyle demanded, his arms folded, and Evey laughed harder.
"He doesn't understand either! This is wonderful!"
A nurse ran in to check on them, and calm Evey down. Her laughter had brought her heart rate up and the nurse was adamant that she rest and not get overexcited.
When the plump woman left the room, warning glares for everyone inside, Evey finally stopped laughing at Jackie's red face, but the knowing smirk that replaced it was worse.
Worse than being wrong about Evey and Kyle, or worse than the idea that instead of being Evey’s soul mate, Kyle was Jackie’s.
Jackie felt her face heat up in a bad way. Her head rushed and dizziness consumed her.
"Are you alright?" Kyle asked.
"Mm-hmm," she said, but really she wasn’t.
Kyle put his hand on her shoulder and tried to turn her, but she shook him off, insisting on hiding her red face under her hand and focusing on breathing and not puking.
Not that it mattered, if what Evey told her was true, he could feel how embarrassed she was through his link to her.
Oh God, this was not happening. Yes she felt something for Kyle but that didn’t mean she wanted him to be her match. Her soul mate!
Oh Jesus, she was still wearing his jacket too. She went to pull it off her shoulders and return it, but then stopped.
She couldn’t even part with the fucking jacket!
Two minutes ago she had hated the idea that she wouldn’t have her chance with him because she thought he was Evey’s match. Now she didn’t know what to think, or whether to be happy or miserable.
Thank Heaven Evey said nothing else to Kyle. Jackie could not have a soul mate. Not with someone she barely knew.
Then another thought occurred to her, and the red on her face turned angry.
If she had fantasy sex with him on her mind every ten seconds or so, then it was because he was sending her those thoughts!
Irony of ironies, the sex thoughts came to her in that instant.
Does he not know the meaning of inappropriate?
"So Kyle," Jackie said, if she didn't talk about something to take her mind off him and the thoughts he was sending her right now, she would have to kill him herself. "What was the name of the woman who cursed you?"
Like magic the sex thoughts disappeared. While she couldn’t sense any of the emotions he was having, she only needed to look into his face to know that the mentioning of his curse put him in a darker place.
He clenched hi
s fists as he all but growled her name. "Sarah Valier."
Jackie looked back at Evey. "That name sound familiar?"
She shrugged and shook her head. "No. How did you meet her?"
"He was her bodyguard." Jackie said even though the question wasn’t directed towards her.
Evey pretended not to notice, thankfully, so did Kyle. "Ah, and, do you have any idea why she'd want to curse you?"
Jackie wanted to know that herself. His face tightened and looked crueler, his fangs unconsciously becoming longer until they poked out from under his lip.
"Uh, Kyle," She tapped the top of her lip, and when he realized what he was doing he got enough control to put his teeth back to their normal size.
He frowned at himself for the slip. "Thank you. Anyway, we dated, and when I tried to break it off, she blew this red dust in my face, told me I was cursed, and I never saw her again."
"That was it? Just red dust?" Evey asked.
"Would the color mean anything?"
"Not all the time, but usually that color covers anything from love, lust, and even anger. I've never heard of a curse that could be inhaled before, but curses aren’t exactly my specialty."
"What happened to you after that?" Jackie asked.
"I thought she was out of her mind after that. I didn't realize anything was wrong until the sun went down and I changed."
Evey looked around her. "Wish I had a pen and paper."
"Here." Jackie dug into her purse and pulled out a small pad she carried around and a blue pen. She gave it to Evey who began writing down the things Kyle told her.
"Did you feel pain the first time?"
Kyle nodded. "Yeah, still do."
"Where? All over your body, your insides, where?"
Kyle sat down in the chair that Jackie vacated earlier, she could see the eager relief in his eyes, and she couldn't blame him. This was probably the first time anyone was able to offer him any sort of help with his condition. "My eyes, my teeth, and my nails mostly. My skin tingles a bit and after that I get a splitting headache for a few minutes."
Jackie inched her way closer as Evey began making checks on the paper. "Makes sense, your eyes'll change so you can see in the dark, your nails will get longer and your canines will do the same. Have the police asked you these questions?"
"No, they wanted to know who Sarah was and where I last saw her, but I want a cure. At first I thought I could keep doing my job as if nothing was wrong, but because I can't sleep at night I was exhausted during the mornings. I lost my job because of this and I can never get more than a catnap of sleep in everyday."
Jackie’s heart went out to him. No wonder he was willing to sneak into her apartment and get a kiss out of her if that’s what he had to go through. It made her wish there was more she could do for him other than give him a peck on the lips every once in a while. "And, after you met me?"
He smiled at her. "Best night's sleep I had in months, Gorgeous."
It shouldn't have mattered, especially the Gorgeous comment that she still wasn’t sure if she liked, but his response warmed her. She wasn't very skilled in anything she did, but without meaning to she'd used what little magical ability she had to help him.
The steamy thoughts returned, and this time Jackie didn't bother fighting the blush that came with them.
"Are you alright?" He asked for the second time.
Jackie cleared her throat. "Yeah, I'm just a little hot."
He smirked when she said that, and she didn't understand why.
"So anyhow Kyle," Evey started. "If you've been fighting the change then that could be the reason why you find that it hurts so much. Just let it happen. That should help with the pain."
“It should?”
“Might.” She amended.
"What about my curse?"
"Like I said, I've never heard of anything like it before, right now I can promise you I'll help you look into it, but the only thing I can think of off the top of my head is that the caster is the only one who can give you a cure."
Jackie watched him take in the information before he nodded. It made sense, if the police thought like Evey did then it explained why they didn't bother asking what his symptoms were.
Only the caster can provide a cure.
"Where were you cursed?" Jackie asked.
"I already told your detective friend the specifics about her. She was a model in New York and she cursed me there after I broke up with her after one of her shoots."
Jackie couldn't believe their luck, or her jealousy at the reminder that this woman and Kyle dated. "A model?"
He nodded.
"That's perfect! My sister's a model and she just got back from there. Maybe they knew each other."
Kyle didn't look impressed. "That's like saying every cop and firefighter in New York knows each other."
"Well, maybe she knows her by reputation. Carly's the biggest snob in the world, she loves bragging about the people she knows and the connections she has."
"It's worth a shot." Evey said, looking at Kyle and waiting for his decision.
He looked between them both and gave a hesitant smile. "Well, why not then? When can I meet her?"
"She should be here with my mom by now. We can go see her right now if you want." Jackie got up and opened the door.
"You'll be fine by yourself for a while?" She asked Evey, suddenly feeling like she was abandoning her.
Evey waved her hand at them. "Go, go, but if you feel guilty enough you can go down to the gift shop and buy me something pretty."
"I can do a lot better than that." Jackie rushed to the pole that held the bag of blood that was out of Evey’s reach, lifted it off of its hook and handed it to her. "I didn't just do that for you."
Evey's fangs were already coming out. "An innocent little thing like you? Of course not." And she punctured the bag and began sucking away.
Kyle and Jackie left the room before Evey could finish.
***
Kyle was touched by Jackie's gesture to give Evey the bag of blood even though he figured she probably shouldn't have. That, and how she was going out of her way to help him, a complete stranger.
When he walked next to her he made sure their shoulders brushed. "Thank you for doing this for me," he said.
Her cheeks colored. "Don't worry about it."
His grin was proud. "You blush a lot."
She stopped suddenly, ignoring his comment. "I forgot. I guess you'll want a kiss now?"
Hell yeah he wanted a kiss, but not the kind that she was thinking of nor in the place she was thinking of. Not tonight at any rate.
Instead he took her hand and planted a kiss on the top of the smooth flesh. He could feel the quickening of her pulse through her wrist and hear the beating of her heart. Was he sensitive to it because he was a vampire or because of how she quickened his blood as well?
She let out a sound that was almost a giggle. "It doesn't quite work like that."
Was there sadness in her voice or was he hearing things? "I know, but I figured that if someone's out to get you then I might want to stay like this so that we'll have a fighting chance."
She pulled her hand away from his awkwardly. "Listen, thank you for what you did for me and Evey today, but I don't need a protector. Mike isn't even sure if those ferals were really after me or not, it could have been a mistake."
"But he's not sure, right?"
"Right."
"So then ...?"
She rubbed her face with her hands. "You're only hanging around with me because I can give you a temporary relief, because I'm grateful to you for saving me and because I want to help you, I'm introducing you to my sister. That's all that this is."
He scowled, hating her for putting it into words like that. "With the way you tried helping me the last time I should be wondering if there's going to be an ambush waiting for me outside those doors."
He pointed to the doors that led to the area of the hospital that was friendly to sunlight.
He felt her shame coming off her in waves. "I'm sorry about that. I didn't think he was coming to arrest you."
He decided not to let her in on his other complaints. While he was sure that the police of this city would be out looking for Sarah, he doubted they much cared whether or not she was found. His case had been more or less treated like a joke when they thought he couldn't hear them.
He had the best of both worlds, according to a couple of patrolmen chatting in front of a water cooler. He was a man with the strengths of a vampire but capable of walking around in the daylight, able to live a normal life.
“Lucky son of a bitch,” They’d said.
Yeah, he felt really lucky. Lucky that he was fired from his job for being unreliable and unable to stay alert, had to be away from his family because he had thoughts of biting them, and was treated like a criminal even in a town filled with the supernatural. Yeah, that was peachy.
"Whatever then, fine, you're right. All you are to me is a temporary relief. That means that if someone's out to kill you then I'm going to be around to make sure they don't. The last thing I need is for the woman who can cure me to get put in the ground because she couldn't accept my help in return for hers."
This time he felt a mixture of emotions rolling off her, most of which he regretted. The hurt and embarrassment were the strongest of those emotions, and she looked away from him.
He wanted to tell her he was sorry, but the words refused to leave his throat.
Out of all the months he’d been like this he never felt anyone's emotions. Why with her? Why not anyone else?
He thought back to the strange conversation—that he understood no part of—that she had with her vampire friend. They knew something Kyle didn’t, and he intended to find out what it was.
Something else from her hit him just then: disappointment. He had to take a step back to understand why.
She was disappointed with him and sad for herself. Why? He didn't get it. Why were women so complicated even when he could feel what they felt?
This time the words did come. "I'm sorry."
The bad feelings he felt inside her didn't disappear, but they did shrink considerably, and that made him smile, but also curious as to why she would hold feelings like that deep inside her.