by Mandy Rosko
She couldn’t believe how small he made it all sound. Jackie went to school with people who breezed through their classes without trying. Kyle earned his grades and he worked to be where he was before the curse. Then he had it taken from him. “Well, at least you’re dedicated. Even the people who got straight A’s in school couldn’t all say that.”
He smiled at her. Even though she couldn’t so much as sense what was happening with his emotions as he could with her, she still felt the pleasure bursting from inside him at her words. She saw it in his eyes.
“Did you always want to work in your mother’s store?”
She blinked out of her thoughts. “What?”
He shrugged and sipped his tea. “Just wondering, since we’re asking questions about each other and all.”
“Oh, well,” She’d never explained this to anyone before. “Mom did plan to have Carly run the store, but she took off to New York, so that left me.”
“What did you want to do?” He asked.
“Write, and travel a bit, I guess. But there’s not much time for writing when I’m keeping mom’s ledgers in good order. I’ve never even been outside the city, so being a travel writer is out.”
Kyle leaned closer. “When this is all over with, I’ll take you back to New York with me. You’ll have tons to write about there.”
A mist clouded over her eyes. It was the nicest thing anyone ever offered to do for her. She thought to question whether he was joking or not, but looked into his eyes and saw that he was perfectly serious. “Really?” She asked, needing it voiced.
He nodded. “Really.”
“Thanks, I’d like that.”
“Anytime, Gorgeous. I’ll show you the sights as soon as my curse is lifted.” He hesitated. “If it takes too long … or can’t be done, I’ll take you anyway.”
She was going to make certain he found his cure. "You're going to meet Carly today, she might be able to help."
His good mood vanished into something more skeptical. He took a sip of his tea and gave a half hearted shrug. "I'm really trying not to get my hopes up on that one. Like I said before, just because she's a model from New York doesn't mean she's going to know Sarah, and you even told me that she's visiting straight from New York. Sarah disappeared right after she cursed me."
Jackie wrapped her suddenly cold hands around her hot cup. "I know, I just want to help, and if that doesn't work out then we'll go back to the library."
He grinned mischievously at her from behind his cup, and she was tempted to kick him under the table. Instead she raised her hand as though swearing an oath. "I promise I won't call the cops to ambush you."
He chuckled. "That's good to know, but if you do, make sure you let me know so I can get a head start this time."
Jackie grinned and leaned back in her chair, she caught sight of Charity in the lineup at the front counter. “Speaking of which … Hey, Charity!"
Charity took her paper tray of coffees from her daughter behind the counter, paid for them and left the shop without so much as looking at them.
"Char?" Jackie's mouth fell open when it became obvious her friend hadn’t simply not heard her.
Kyle watched her get into a cab through the shop windows. "You sure she's a friend of yours?"
Jackie leaned back in her seat bewildered. “I don’t understand.”
"It's my fault."
She looked up at him. "What?"
"She hates vampires, don’t say anything, I don’t care what that woman says, she hates ‘em. And she knows that's what I am. Not to mention I was arrested in her library and yet here you are enjoying coffee with me. I bet that doesn’t look so good to her."
Jackie shook her head. "But you're not even a real vampire, and you're definitely not one of the things that killed her husband.” She thought for a second. “And even if you were a real vampire, she shouldn't be treating you like that or ignoring me because I'm with you. It isn't right."
"Hmm."
"You don't agree?"
He drank from his tea again. "I just don't know how I'd judge her actions since I've never had a spouse to know what it would be like to lose them."
Jackie blushed. Great, now she sounded insensitive.
"On the other hand," he said, casually stirring his tea with the little plastic stick. "Considering what nearly happened to you, having a prejudice against an entire race of creatures still isn't a good thing to have. All that hatred inside of her for so many innocent beings can't be healthy."
Jackie grinned. "Vampires prefer to be called people, not creatures."
"People they are then," he said, lifting his paper cup in a toast before bringing it to his mouth.
As Jackie watched him drink, the color disappeared from his hands and face, his golden eyes brightened until they shined, and the nails in his hands grew to points.
Jackie exhaled. Was that ever something to watch. Such a subtle yet severe change. The sun must’ve finally set behind the thick haze of gray snowfall outside. She hadn't even noticed it get dark.
Kyle flinched when hot tea dripped down his chin. He lowered his cup and touched his mouth, then noticed his nails and the flesh of his hand for the first time. He looked out the window where the street lights were on. "I changed."
He spoke as though he couldn’t believe it.
She wanted to reach across the table and take his hand into hers, excitement bubbling inside of her, but she gripped her knees instead. "This is the first time it's happened that you haven't noticed it?"
He grinned at her and she could see by the sparkle in his eyes that he'd forgotten all about being serious. "I probably wouldn't have noticed either if my fangs hadn't pierced my cup."
She laughed, and this time she did take his hands as she stood up. "We should get back. When we finish with the store we'll get in mom's car and head to her place. Carly'll either be there or at her hotel."
***
Jackie never would have though she could feel so much at ease with any man, as she felt with Kyle. Watching him transform without any pain made her giddy and excited that there was a good chance it had happened simply because he was enjoying her company.
Kyle couldn't be like the others. If she allowed it to happen, if she decided to put everything behind her and fall in love with him, he wouldn't leave her for her sister. He was too good of a person for that.
They got back to Patty's Potions in time to see her mother opening the door to give them both a hard glare. "You said only one hour."
"Sorry, we just got a little tied up." Not quite true, nor was she very sorry, but if they decided they wanted to spend some time together then it was none of her business anyway.
Patty looked at Kyle for confirmation. He smiled and nodded, and Patty had to accept it as the truth. "Well, you both might as well come in then. I see you've changed so I'll get you a bottle of blood if you like. And your sister's here."
Jackie had her coat in her hands and lifted halfway to the hook when she stopped. "What? When did she get here?"
"Came right after you left and hasn't left since. She wouldn't abandon her mother."
Jackie flinched and hung her coat. "Great, where is she? We can do this here."
"Mom!" Carly's voice wailed from the back room, and she came out holding a jar in each manicured hand with Jackie's spare pair of glasses on her face. "You need to start changing the labels on these older bottles, I can hardly read—" Her high pitched scream made everything silent, making the shattering of the jars she dropped at her feet that much louder, the issue of the labels no longer relevant.
Carly's mouth hung open, her eyes wide and terrified and her spine stiff.
"Carly?" Jackie looked at her, and then in the direction of what had scared her so senseless. It was Kyle.
He bore his fangs at her, his hands tight and fingers held out while his nails lengthened into razor claws. The whites in his eyes were drowned out by the pitch black that replaced them. They held no emotion whatsoever.
&n
bsp; "Hello, Sarah."
TEN
Jackie nearly laughed and said, No, that's my sister, Carly. But Kyle leaped across the room in the space of a blink and stood behind her, gripping her arm in one clawed hand and her neck in the other.
His eyes blazed and Carly shook with her mouth open, little squeaks escaping but otherwise incapable of speech.
"You," Kyle seethed into her ear.
"What are you doing? Let go of her this instant!" Patty grabbed the broom and took a swing at him but he ducked out of the way and was across the room with his hostage before she could land a hit.
Patty reached under the counter for where Jackie knew the garlic spray was kept, and she jumped between them before her mother could melt Kyle’s face off.
Patty lunged forward with the spray bottle held out. Jackie grabbed her by the arms before she could get any closer. "Stop it, mom! Stop it!"
"What are you doing? Help your sister!" Patty flung Jackie's arms off of her, her heated glare now directed at her.
Jackie looked at Kyle. Carly remained in his arms, tears dripping down her cheeks and leaving tracks through the makeup. She hiccuped and kept her eyes on him but did not move in his grip. Kyle glared at everyone with suspicion in his eyes, his hands still refusing to loosen his grip on his captive.
But despite all that …
"He doesn't look like he's hurting her." Jackie said.
Kyle's eyes widened and color returned to them, as though he couldn’t believe she said it.
Patty's face mirrored his, but her reaction was different. "Oh, get out of my way! I'll handle this myself!"
Jackie had to grab her and hold her back again. She might be the weakest witch in Griffon City, but she wasn’t going to let her mother attack Kyle with garlic spray.
Patty punched Jackie’s arms off her and looked on helplessly as Carly sobbed in Kyle’s grip.
"Mom, he's hurting me!" She wailed.
Kyle bristled. "I'm barely touching you!"
"Let go of her or I'll phone the police!"
"Phone them! Do it! They'll put her away for cursing me!"
"Wait, wait!" Jackie felt as though she were being pulled in two different directions. One towards the loyalty she had to her family, who demanded that loyalty, and the other towards Kyle, who so far demanded nothing but the police. "Kyle, that's my sister Carly. She couldn't have cursed you."
His eyes blackened again. "She did. This is Sarah."
"But you said yourself Sarah disappeared after she cursed you. Carly just got back from New York."
"You don't believe me? That's fine. Tell them." Kyle gave Carly a light shake, but it was enough that she let out a tiny scream and a few more tear drops.
"I ... I don't know what you're talking about."
Kyle shook her again. Jackie could see his fangs long and sharp when he opened his mouth to yell at her. "Don't lie!" He lengthened his canines until they stuck out of his mouth, and then lowered his face so the tips tickled the spot where her shoulder met her neck.
Patty scrunched her hands together. "Don't bite her!"
Jesus, this was getting out of hand. "Kyle, don't do this. Don't hurt her."
He looked at her. His angry expression unchanged. "I'm not going to hurt her. I'm going to turn her into a vampire like me."
Carly cried harder, and he returned his attention to her neck.
"Unless you tell them the truth." He finished.
Carly trembled in his grip, gasping sobs as tears streamed down her lowered face.
She nodded and mumbled.
Kyle’s voice spoke of barely contained rage. “So they can hear you.”
She inhaled sharply. "I did it." Then she wept like a woman who experienced the death of her best friend.
Patty gasped but quickly composed herself. "There, she admitted it so now you can let her go."
No way it was that easy. Patty thought Carly only admitted to the deed to get out of being bitten. Jackie knew better. Carly told the truth. "You cursed him?"
Kyle backed towards the wall with Carly still in his arms. She reluctantly went with him.
Patty shrieked. "She told you what you wanted to hear, let her go!"
Kyle ripped the cordless phone from the wall and tossed it to Jackie, his hand still gripping Carly's arm.
"Call your friend Mike. I want him here and her arrested."
"We don't need to bring the police into this." Patty said, raising her hands in an effort to regain control.
She must be starting to believe. Jackie thought.
Kyle's eyes never left Jackie’s as she gripped the phone. They were no longer enraged, but calmer, willing her to phone the police. He wasn't using any of his vampire mind games on her, she could tell, he wanted her to phone them on her own.
"Jackie, call them. Please."
Jackie sighed and started punching in Mike's number. Well, if she was going to phone the police on her own family then at least a friend would be there.
He picked up quickly, as usual with him. “Mike, hey, I have something of a problem. Could you come down here?”
“What is it? A big problem or little one?”
She knew what he was really asking. Should he come alone or bring as much backup as possible.
She looked into Kyle’s grateful gold eyes, and then into the enraged blue ones of her mother. “Depends on your point of view I guess. Kyle found the woman who cursed him.”
“He did? Where is she? Does she know he found her? Is she hurt?”
“Jacklyn Moore.” Patty whispered in a hiss. “Hang up this instant.”
“Um, she knows that we know. It’s my sister, Carly.”
Patty threw her arms into the air and paced the store.
Mike needed only a few seconds to process what she said. “Are you sure?”
Carly continued to sob quietly, her knees gave out and Kyle allowed her to sink to the floor at his feet.
“She admitted it. She’s not too happy that he found her.”
“I’ll be there with a few men in three minutes.”
She thanked him and hung up, then tried giving Kyle her hardest glare. It wasn’t much. "With your hearing you know I didn’t fake that call. You can let her go now."
He didn't step away from her and Carly was too busy sobbing to move. "Why? So she can cast a spell on me and fly away so I never see her again? I'm keeping her with me until that friend of yours puts her in handcuffs."
"Witches don't fly." Jackie said, having a hard time remembering through, her stress, that Kyle didn't know much about witches outside of what he read in books or saw in movies.
"I can't be seen in handcuffs! Mom, do something!" Carly wailed. Kyle reached down to put his hand on her shoulder, silencing her.
"Don't worry about a thing, baby. It's just Michael and a few of his friends coming. They'll straighten everything out and there won't be any cameras."
There weren't any cameras when Mike got there, but things weren't exactly straightened out either. Carly was questioned, handcuffed, and put into a patrol car and driven away for more questioning.
Kyle was taken with them. Threatening to turn someone was no small crime either.
Patty snatched her purse and ripped her car keys out as she hurried to follow. Jackie had no choice but to get in the car with her if she wanted to help.
"I hope you're happy." Patty muttered, twisting the key with the force of twisting a neck.
Jackie didn't know what she was talking about. "Happy about what?"
Patty pretended to focus all her attention on the snowy roads. "She's your sister. You couldn't even defend your own sister?"
"Mom, if she cursed him then she needs to own up to it and help change him back."
"Well, you certainly didn't need to get the police involved. If the press finds out this could impact her career in a very bad way. Do you want that?"
Jackie didn't get a chance to answer as Patty continued muttering to herself. "I don't believe for a second that she d
id it anyway, and neither should you. She's your family, and you have no business taking the side of a man you don't even know over her."
Jackie was silent the rest of the way to the station, wondering if her mother was right about her.
***
Kyle was questioned again and it was decided that, while what he'd done was suspicious and wrong, he didn't actually harm Carly, or Sarah, or whatever her name was. And though Detective Carter made it clear to never threaten anyone with a bite like that again, he wasn't going to be arrested for detaining the woman who cursed him while the police showed up.
He didn't notice Jackie was in the station until she leaned against the wall next to him in the waiting area by the water cooler.
He could feel her conflicting emotions, guilt being the strongest in the mix. He hated that he was the one to put them there. "I suppose you hate me now."
He was shocked with himself for speaking the words. Did it matter if she hated him? He did what he had to do and it was neither his nor her fault that her sister broke their own law.
She said nothing for a time, and the wait put him on edge until finally, "Are you sure it was her?"
He clenched his jaw. Of course she would want to be sure; that was her sister he'd attacked. "I could never forget that face."
She winced, and he had trouble understanding why. He looked around and saw for the first time that she was alone.
"Where's your mother?"
"Trying to get a lawyer, but I think mom's too late. Mike came to me and told me that she already told them everything. She's not even trying to deny it anymore."
"When did he tell you this?" Carter should have told him that information first. Kyle knew that Carly was Jackie's sister and that Jackie and Carter were nearly dating, but the entire ordeal was concerning his curse, no one else.
"Just a few minutes ago, I told him I'd tell you."
Oh.
"Listen," he started. "I'm sorry about what I did, scaring you and your mother, but you need to understand that I've been looking for her for so long that the minute I saw her again.” He shook his head at himself. “I just couldn't let her get away."