Bitten & Smitten ib-1

by Мишель Роуэн

  Kalisan pointed at me. “Shoot her. She’s a vampire; you’re a hunter. This should be no problem for you.”

  I backed up a step. “Quinn.”

  “Shut up,” Quinn said. Then to the doctor, “You’re saying that all I have to do for the cure is to shoot her. Right here. Right now. And you’ll give it to me.”

  “That’s correct.”

  Quinn raised the shotgun toward me, and I backed up against the wall. I was barely breathing, barely thinking. Just the word “no” going through my head over and over again. And the thought that I shouldn’t have made him sleep on the couch last night. Big mistake. Huge.

  “Just shoot her,” Quinn said to himself as he aimed the gun at my forehead. “Easy as that.”

  Then he turned the gun toward Kalisan.

  “Sorry, Doc. Things stopped being that easy for me a while ago. Now about that cure?”

  The doctor stared at him for a second and then laughed and pushed the gun away.

  “Blanks. Just blanks. I was only testing you.”

  I hadn’t moved. I’d been seconds away from needing adult diapers and was trying to make my brain work again. Guns are bad. Very bad. Especially when they’re pointed at me.

  “Sarah,” Quinn said. “You okay?”

  “Sure, no problem.” My voice was squeaky.

  “Come,” Kalisan said. “I’ll make coffee.”

  Five minutes later I was sitting in the doctor’s expansive kitchen trying to make my near- death twitches go away. He’d given me a coffee mug that read RESEARCHERS DO IT BY THE BOOK. I think it was supposed to sound dirty, but I wasn’t in the mood to find it amusing. We’d already called for a cab. Being where we were, it would be better to have one waiting outside than be stuck here forever. To put it mildly.

  “You two are an item?” Kalisan asked after biting into an apple Danish.

  Quinn glanced at me. “No. Just friends.”

  “May I ask why you want to be cured?”

  “It’s simple,” Quinn said. “We want our old lives back.”

  “Then perhaps you should have thought twice before being sired.”

  I shook my head. “We were both turned against our will.”

  He studied me for a moment, perhaps trying to decide if I was lying or not. “You’d allow yourselves to be my guinea pigs?”

  I didn’t particularly like the sound of that.

  “Has the cure been used successfully before?” Quinn reached under the table and squeezed my hand.

  “Yes, of course. But, in the grand scheme of things, it’s still a new technology.”

  He nodded. “We’re interested.”

  Kalisan went to refill his coffee mug, topping it off with a lot of cream and several spoonfuls of sugar. “Then there is only the matter of price.”

  I’d expected that. You can’t get anything good for free anymore, even when you volunteer to be a guinea pig. I could sell my sofa. There were those commemorative Princess Diana plates that were probably worth a pretty penny on eBay. And I still had a bit of money my grandmother had left me in her will. It was only a few thousand, but it was nice to know I had it for a rainy day. And it was very rainy.

  “Okay,” I said. “How much?”

  “One million dollars.” Kalisan took a sip of his coffee. “Each.”

  My Princess Diana plates couldn’t go up that much, even if there was a last-minute bidding war.

  “What?” I managed. “Are you kidding me?”

  I looked over at Quinn. His face was red. “That’s excessive. There must be another way.”

  “Unfortunately, that’s the going rate,” Dr. Kalisan said, almost apologetically. “It’s not as though I have a lab here and am able to mix up the ingredients easily. It is a long, expensive process. Components have to be gathered from the four corners of the earth.

  Dark magic is involved, too, and you would not believe how much the going hourly rate is for a wizard these days. Working wizards have such huge egos, you have no idea. I don’t care what the movies would have you believe.”

  I grabbed Quinn’s arm. This was bad news. We weren’t going to get the cure. It existed, but it was all about money, like everything in the world. Money talked, bullshit—and vampires—walked.

  “Thanks for your time.” I pulled at Quinn. “We’ll hold on to your number in case we win the lottery. Come on, Quinn, let’s wait for the cab outside.”

  That was it, then. It was over. I was stuck as a vampire forever.

  “Just a moment,” Kalisan said. “If you truly have no money, I think there might be another way.”

  We turned back around.

  “You’re from Toronto, isn’t that so?”

  Quinn crossed his arms. “That’s right.”

  “There is a much-sought-after vampire who is reportedly living in your city. He is old, very old, and impossible to kill. He’s a legend. There is a price tag on his head, which would more than cover your fees. If you were to give me his location—information I could sell to those who wish to find him—then I think we could come to an understanding.”

  “You’d give us the cure for this information?” Quinn said with disbelief.

  “Yes.”

  I didn’t say anything, but my mouth had gone dry. He wanted information for the hunters to capture and kill a vampire who was old and powerful enough to be considered a legend? There was only one vamp living in Toronto I was aware of who fit that bill. Gee whiz. What a small world.

  “Who is it?” Quinn asked.

  “His name is Thierry de Bennicoeur.” He smiled. “To bring the great Thierry de Bennicoeur down would be a feather in anyone’s cap. A feather that they’d be willing to pay quite dearly for.”

  I dug my fingernails into Quinn’s arm before he had a chance to say anything.

  “We don’t know him,” I said.

  “Perhaps not. But I am quite sure he is in the city. I am confident that you are sufficiently motivated to find his location, his hiding spots, for such a reward as the cure.”

  Quinn inhaled deeply. “I don’t know about that.”

  I could have kissed him.

  Kalisan nodded. “Ah, loyalty. I respect that. Misplaced loyalty, but loyalty nonetheless. Protecting your own kind, whether or not you wish to remain one of them, is an admirable gesture.”

  Quinn didn’t say anything, and I knew it was a struggle for him. It wasn’t as though he liked Thierry very much, but he had saved Quinn’s life. Quinn was honorable, and that counted as something to him.

  “There has to be another way,” Quinn said.

  “I wish that there were. But I am not the only one involved in the process. If it were up to me, I would hand over the cure to you happily, for free. But I’m afraid that’s not the way

  it works.”

  “Then I’m sorry we couldn’t work this out.” Quinn’s voice sounded strangled.

  The photo of Kalisan with Quinn’s parents had been placed for the time being on the shelf behind the doctor. He glanced at it. “Your mother was a wonderful woman. Beautiful, charming, a marvelous wife and mother. I had the honor of meeting her on several occasions. A shame about what happened to her.”

  “I didn’t come here to discuss my family,” Quinn said sharply. “Sarah, I think you’re right. We should leave.”

  Dr. Kalisan nodded. “A painful memory. Yes, I understand that.”

  “You have no idea.” There was no more friendliness in Quinn’s eyes. He looked at Dr. Kalisan as he once looked at me. Emotionless, murderous, without compassion or feeling.

  He grabbed my hand and steered us back in the direction of the stairs without another word.

  Kalisan cleared his throat. “I see that you have no idea that it was Thierry de Bennicoeur who was responsible for your mother’s death, or I can’t imagine that you would be protecting him so fiercely.”

  Quinn froze in place.

  “Yes, he murdered her,” Kalisan continued. “It is well known in the hunting community, but I w
ould assume your father has shielded you from the unfortunate details. I saw the papers, the reports. I know what he did to her before her death, and if I shared with you the grisly details, then you would be having no second thoughts about handing him over on a silver platter.”

  I was screaming inside at what I was hearing, though I tried not to show anything on my face. I couldn’t think about what was true and what was not. I only knew that I had to get Quinn the hell out of there before he did something crazy. He was still in the same spot, hadn’t moved an inch. I touched his arm and he flinched.

  Quinn glanced over his shoulder. “I’ll think about your offer.” His voice was dead.

  “Yes, you do that.” Kalisan took a sip from his mug of coffee. “You have my number. Would you please be so kind as to close the door behind you?”

  Chapter 21

  The entire ride back to the city was in silence. But it wasn’t just uncomfortable silence, it was torture. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know what to think. It felt like some sort of a nightmare come to life. Thierry killed Quinn’s mother? It couldn’t be true. Dr. Kalisan was lying, he had to be.

  The cab pulled up in front of my apartment building. I turned to Quinn.

  “What are you going to do?”

  He didn’t meet my eyes. “I don’t know.”

  “Where are you going now?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “I can come with you. We can talk about this. There has to be another way.”

  “I want to be alone.”

  “But… you’re not going to…” I swallowed. “Are you going to call Dr. Kalisan back?”

  He looked up at me, and his eyes were full of pain. “I don’t know.”

  “He’s lying to you… to us. He has to be.”

  “Of course you’d think that.” His voice was scornful. “I don’t know, Sarah, I can’t think straight. I need to be alone. If what the doctor said is true—if Thierry really did that to my mother—” His voice broke off. “I still don’t think I’d tell him.”

  I let out a breath.

  He gritted his teeth. “I’d rather kill Thierry myself, even if it costs me the cure.”

  “Quinn…”

  “Get out of here, Sarah.”

  “But—”

  He leaned over to open the cab door and practically pushed me out onto the sidewalk.

  “Get out.”

  I struggled to keep my balance, and by the time I was ready to say something else, the door slammed shut behind me and the cab drove away. If only I’d never tried to find out about the cure. Opening that can had let out too many worms. And I hated worms. I didn’t know where to turn. I didn’t know where to go. I thought briefly about just going up to my condo and crawling back into bed, but that didn’t seem like something I should do. A sign. I was lost and didn’t know what to do next— I needed a sign to show me the way. Looking up, I saw a billboard for the Toronto stage production of Mamma Mia!, surrounded by glowing reviews from a bunch of newspapers. I frowned. I meant a different sign. Not that one.

  Somebody bumped my shoulder as they walked briskly past me.

  “Hey!” I yelled after him. “Watch where you’re going, jerk.”

  The man turned to glance at me and my breath caught in my chest. It was Eugene, looking nervous and jittery, but he was alive and well.

  “Eugene!”

  Fear crossed his expression when he saw me. “Leave me alone,” he said in a quavering voice. “Don’t hurt me.”

  I ran to catch up with him and grabbed his shoulder. He backed up against the wall and held his hands up to protect his face.

  “I’m not going to hurt you. What are you doing here? Did they let you go last night?”

  “Y-y-yes,” he stammered. “They released me when they finally decided I was telling the truth.”

  “They just let you go? Just like that? Even now that you know where the club is?”

  “The dark-haired man, the scary one, he let me go. The others didn’t want to.”

  The dark-haired, scary one had to be Thierry. Everything I expected to happen last night, all of my crazy imaginings of what Thierry would do—letting Eugene go was not one of them.

  I cocked my head to one side and tried to look mean. “And you aren’t going to say anything about where you were?”

  “Nothing! Not a word. I promised him. Scout’s honor!”

  “What about the other hunters?”

  “I don’t know any other hunters. This was all Melanie’s idea. She wanted some kind of revenge on her old boyfriend. I didn’t want to hurt anybody. I’m leaving town, so I won’t be speaking with anyone. I’m leaving the country and going back to Wisconsin.”

  I let him go. “Good. You do that. And, uh, have a nice trip.”

  He scurried away up the street like a scared mouse who’d just escaped from a hungry cobra. It was highly strange to have someone look at me like they were afraid I might hurt them.

  Thierry hadn’t ordered Eugene’s death. He’d let him go. I let it sink in. Then I took a streetcar to Lakeside Drive. I didn’t have enough money for a cab, so public transit would have to suffice. It was three o’clock. The club wouldn’t be open yet, but I tried the front door, anyhow. Surprisingly, it wasn’t locked and swung inward at my touch.

  I walked into the tanning salon just before I was attacked. Well, “attacked” might be too strong a word. It was more like a fierce hug that seemed to come from nowhere. I pushed away from whoever it was and looked at them, my eyes wide. But it was only

  Amy, smiling bright and shiny back at me.

  “Hello, sunshine!” she said. “How are you on this fine day?”

  “Amy.” I tried to compose myself, then realized it was impossible. “What the hell?”

  “I have had such a great day, you would not believe it. And last night? In-freaking-credible.”

  Oh, yeah. Amy and Barry’s little romance from hell. Spare me the details.

  She frowned at me. “You don’t look so good.”

  “I don’t?” I said with mock surprise. “That’s funny, ‘cause I feel like a million bucks. That reminds me, you wouldn’t happen to have a million bucks I can borrow, would you?”

  “Sorry, no. Oh, dear, I guess I shouldn’t be acting all happy in front of you then, if you’re having a lousy day.”

  “Try lousy decade.”

  She laughed then and flicked her light blond hair off her face. I spotted something odd on her neck. It couldn’t be what it looked like, could it? I grabbed her and pulled her hair off to the side to inspect the fading fang marks, like two tiny hickeys over her jugular vein.

  She clasped a hand over her neck and smiled sheepishly at me. “I didn’t want you to see that.”

  I waited, not saying anything.

  “I have news,” she said.

  I raised an eyebrow. It wasn’t a happy eyebrow by any means.

  She held up her left hand. She was wearing a ring with a tiny diamond in it.

  “I’m engaged.”

  I still didn’t say anything. Her smile faltered.

  “Aren’t you happy for me?”

  I felt the headache/potential brain tumor arrive right on schedule. “Amy, don’t you think you’re taking things a little too quickly? I don’t want you to get hurt. He’s probably just doing this so he can feed off you. Disgusting, but true.”

  She looked shocked. “Feed off me? How dare you say something so horrible about my Barry. He didn’t just feed off me…” She paused and then met my eyes directly. “He made me into a vampire just like you!”

  She said it with such enthusiasm, such pure joy, I almost felt happy for her. She made it sound as though she’d just won an all-expenses-paid trip around the world. But she wasn’t going anywhere. Except to hell in a handbasket, that is.

  Her smile slowly faded when I didn’t jump up and down with excitement about her “wonderful” news.

  “I’m so sorry, Amy.” I felt tears rising in my eyes. “I dragg
ed you into this. This never would have happened if I hadn’t let you come here last night. It’s all my fault.”

  She frowned at me. “What are you talking about? This is the best thing to ever happen to me.”

  I shook my head. “You’re delusional. I can’t believe you, Amy. Wake the hell up! Being a vampire is horrible. If the hunters don’t kill you, you’re in constant pain if you don’t have blood regularly. You grow fangs and lose your reflection. It’s not normal, and it’s definitely not fun. Why would you want this for yourself?”

  Her expression turned cold. “You’re just jealous.”

  “Jealous? Yeah, I’m so jealous.”

  “You are, you just don’t know it.” She crossed her arms in front of her, defensively. “I’m engaged to a wonderful man, I’m happy, and now I’m a vampire just like you. You thought you could be the only one? Well, I’ve got a news flash for you: the world doesn’t revolve around Sarah Dearly.”

  “You know something? Just three weeks ago you went out and bought the same skirt as me because you thought it was cool. You are such a follower, Amy. Well, hate to break it to you, but this isn’t exactly a piece of clothing you can just return tomorrow if you don’t like it. This is your life, and you’ve just gone and ruined it.”

  “What has happened to you, Sarah?” Her disappointment in me was palpable. “You’ve changed so much. I barely recognize you anymore. I mean, you look the same, but you don’t act the same.”

  I snorted at that. “Yeah, I suppose I used to act like an ignorant bubblehead just like you.

  Funny how a week of running for your life can change a girl.”

  “It’s your own fault that you can’t see the positive side of things. Maybe that’s where we’re different. I’m sorry that you can’t be happy for me. But I’m happy for me. Barry’s happy for me. And that’s all that matters.”

  I held up my hands, totally exasperated with her. “Whatever. I don’t want to deal with this.”

  “Then don’t.” Her bottom lip quivered. “Just don’t. Now, if you’ll excuse me, Barry said I could use the tanning beds for free this afternoon.”

  She turned away and went into one of the rooms; then she slammed the white door shut behind her.

  I stood there for a minute in stunned silence. I couldn’t believe it. She was such a dope. Was that really the way I used to come off to people? Like there wasn’t anything more in my brain than what I was wearing and how pretty other people might think I look? It was sickening. But a part of me wanted to go after her and talk. We’d been friends for so long. We’d shared so much, and it hadn’t just been surface crap. I hoped our friendship could survive this. I really did. I just wasn’t so sure. Then again, by the sound of things we might have a long, long time to make up.