by Tijan
His quick eyes snapped to hers and read the warning. He straightened and ran a hand through his auburn curls then he flashed a charming smile. “No, she’s not just empathic. She’s the empath that was cozying up with the Hunter.”
“What?” Kates whirled to me. Her mouth didn’t drop, but I felt her bristling in shock. Kates hated being surprised.
The Hunter. That made him sound like he was famous or something, but then I realized he was famous in the vampire community. All hunters were known. “I—it wasn’t like that.”
“Sure,” he scoffed with a knowing smirk.
Kates looked between us. “Okay.” She turned and pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth. “I’ll be seeing you.”
He didn’t respond, but seemed to melt into the shadows as Kates grabbed my elbow and walked me out to the street and across to the next block. “Kates, I—” I started.
She hissed, “Not yet. Not here.”
I was left with little choice but to follow. After we walked down another three blocks and hailed a taxi, Kates started as soon as the taxi’s door was shut, “What were you thinking? You don’t show up at a bar like that, not alone.”
“I wasn’t alone and hello—you took me to the first one, remember?”
“I was there! You weren’t alone. And what do you mean, you weren’t alone?”
“I went with the Vam—,” I shot a fevered look at the taxi driver. “I went with Roane.”
“Who?”
“Luke Roane, you know… the one that you wanted me to talk to in the first place.”
Comprehension flashed and she sat back, slightly appeased. “Why?”
“Um… I thought you were in trouble. I felt it. I did my thing and his name came up. I was told to get a hold of him and he’d know what to do. He could help you.”
“I’m not in trouble. What do you mean you did your thing? You didn’t—that’s private, Davy!”
If the taxi driver was listening, he’d think we were both crazy. “I didn’t! Blue did and she told me to call Roane.”
“What? Why?”
I shrugged. “She said that you respect him or something. I don’t know. She said he was the one to call about this.”
I waited for more confusion, but to my surprise there was just silence. I stole a look and saw that Kates looked contemplative. “Do you? I mean, do you respect him?”
She threw me a cold look. “That’s private. It’s not your business or your silly sponsor’s. I think that whole thing is just… you don’t need their help anymore. You’re doing fine just by yourself. Why do you keep talking to her?”
“Not this again.” I crossed my arms and scooted low in the seat.
“You don’t need help. They get in your head and mix everything up. It’s not good, Davy.”
“You’re just pissed off because someone might know a little more of your inner workings than you do, Kates.”
Silence. Complete, utter, death defying silence.
“How dare you!” Kates seethed. I felt her body bristling from unspent fury.
I’d done the deed. I’d gone where both of us knew I should never go again. The truth is that Kates had more baggage than I could ever feel my way through. I suspected that Blue had only done a quick sweep of what made Kates go boom.
“Emotional baggage? I’m not the one who lit a vampire on fire!”
The taxi jerked. I met his gaze in the rearview mirror and he looked panicked. Correction: he looked like he was about to kick us out. “Ex-nay on the ampire-way.”
“Screw that! And screw you, Daveeena. Do you even know what you were doing coming to the Shoilster? I thought you hated Roane. You hate all vampires and then I hear that you’re snuggling up to one? And it’s a Hunter! Really? Of all of them?”
“Kates,” I tried to assuage, but I already knew it wouldn’t work. “I’m sorry, but I’m not sorry. I don’t think you’re here to be my friend. I’m not stupid, Kates. I know that a crap load of vampires are in town. You didn’t come because I saw that girl kill herself. You came for all of the vampires.”
The taxi slammed on his brakes and neither of us was surprised. Normal people would’ve slammed against the seats from the abrupt stop, but not us. We reached out, held ourselves in place, and continued the argument.
“You’re telling me what kind of friend I am? Is that what this is about? Is that why you came to the Shoilster? Because I’m a shitty friend?”
“No…” Good gracious. For such a kick ass tough chic, she was sensitive. “Look, I’m just…”
“Get out! Get out! Get out!” The driver twisted around in his seat and gripped a steel bat in his right hand.
We didn’t blink. We got out and as the taxi shot off, Kates yelled, “You’re right. I didn’t come for you. I came because all the freaking blood-thirsty vampires are here, but do you even know why they’re in town? You have no idea because this isn’t your world. It’s my world, Davy!” She breathed in and out raggedly.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, perplexed. Our arguments never made sense. “I don’t even… What?”
“You’re right! I didn’t come for you. You were just my excuse. I’m a horrible, horrible friend,” Kates nearly screamed.
She was irrational. I wasn’t much better when I said things like this, “No, you’re not. You’re just… your mom was a slayer and you saw her die. All that power went to you and they all know you’re a slayer, but you can’t do what you’re supposed to do and you can’t do anything about it—except you have this weird thing with hooking up with vampires. I don’t get that. You’re protective about that world, which you can be because you know how I hate vampires, but…” What else could I say? I didn’t know what I was trying to say. “I’m rambling. I ramble when I have an idea, but I lose the idea and you’re here and I’m here and… I don’t know what we’re fighting about.”
Kates snorted. “Just call someone to pick us up, would you?”
I took out my phone, but I caught myself. Who could I call?
“What?” Kates growled.
I waved the phone around. “Who do I call? If you’re going to haul off on me again, I don’t want to call Adam or…” I had no one else.
“What happened to Love Bit and Twice Not Shy?”
I groaned at the name, but it was fitting. “Emily’s out for the count.”
“She passed out?”
“She passed out.”
I caught a fleeting grin before Kates turned her back to me and eyed the empty street. We were nowhere. We were somewhere, but I had no idea where we were so we were nowhere. Kates gestured to a street sign. “We’re at Emerson and Keeley Ave. Call someone and tell them to pick us up here.”
I sighed and I had no choice. I called The Vampire.
CHAPTER NINE
“Empath,” he greeted as he pulled over and unlocked the doors of his black car. I was horrible with recognizing makes and models, but I knew it was black. As I got in the front seat, I saw that it was new, like new new, like next year new. The seats were made up of black leather and they were still slippery. I almost wooshed off when Kates climbed into the back seat.
“Thanks.” I felt stiff as I reached for the seatbelt. “I see our truce is over with, Vampire?”
“You don’t have to bother with the seatbelt.” He shifted gears and shot back onto the street. “I’m taking my cues from you. You called me ‘Vampire’ in your head when I pulled up.”
“Huh?”
Kates just snorted.
“I have vampire reflexes, Empath. We won’t get into an accident.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that he can go fast and still land on his feet, just like a freaking cat. Didn’t you know? All vampires have nine lives,” Kates drawled from the back. She was still pissed.
I sighed.
Roane murmured, “Vampires have one life. It’s called immortality.”
Kates met his gaze in the rearview mirror. “Is that so? Here I
thought you were the one that took away their immortality, right? You hunt them. Or did I get that wrong?”
“Takes one to know one…” The words were so smooth, so chilling, and deadly…
I had no idea what that was, where that came from, but something else was in the car with us. As I looked between Roane and Kates, I knew it was something between them and it was something specific. I held my tongue, though. I knew that I did not want to step sideways into whatever they were in…
“You have something against vampires, Kates? I wasn’t aware of that.”
I needed to give him his due. He could hold his own against my nolstage.
Kates choked on something. “Please. We both know what I have against vampires and it ain’t a grudge, Hunter.”
“That’s right. You and Cherry go way back. How long exactly?”
Kates was silent, the very scary quiet when I knew she was about to explode… any second now…
Roane slowly rolled his knuckles over the steering wheel. He was in control, perfect control. “You don’t know him. You met him tonight and you had every intention of killing him.”
“You don’t know that! You don’t know anything!” Kates came unhinged. She jerked upright and slammed against my seat. She was so furious. Kates always looked sultry. She was the sexy one of us, but just then her heavily made up make-up looked clownish on her. It looked wrong. That’s when I knew that what Kates was doing was wrong.
Their argument passed over me, but I tuned back in to hear Kates shout, “—who made you judge and jury? You’re a Hunter. You kill them and you enjoy that. That makes you an animal in my eyes. You’re no more above the rest of them, but you like to think you are—”
“—an animal?” Roane narrowed his eyes dangerously and replied, silkily, “I’m the animal, Kates? I died. I came back as a vampire. You’re a human. You have a choice in the matter. You have a soul.”
“A soul.” Kates threw herself back in the seat, disgusted. She glanced to the window and muttered underneath her breath, “What is that anymore?”
“Okay.” I sat up and ignored the chilling glance from the vampire and turned around. I even ignored how Kates refused to look at me and how her back was perfectly poised to make me feel insignificant.
“You’re stupid.”
I caught the slight jerk of Kates’ eyebrows.
“You can sit there and ignore me, but I know you’re listening.”
“Tell me, o wise best friend, why am I so stupid?”
“Are you killing vampires?”
“Like I’m going to have this heart to heart with you when he’s in the car. Not to mention, why did you call him? I thought you hated the guy. Now you’ve got him on speed dial? I still can’t believe that you showed up with him.”
I ignored that. “Are you killing vampires? And we’ve been over that—I had to.”
Kates scorched me with those sapphire eyes and I gulped. “I am not talking about this with him in the car—with him in any close vicinity at all. And what if I was? I’m not saying that I am, but what if I was? So what, Davy! I’m a slayer. It’s what I was born to do. You don’t know what it’s like to have this thing inside of you, this darkness or something. I am programmed on the inside to do one thing. Kill vampires. I’m not allowed because some stupid decree made a decision that they could patrol their own. Well, that’s just…” She trailed off, almost sad.
“You don’t think I might know a little bit about that? I can feel inside of people. Remember what it was like in the beginning, before I upped my blocking levels? It was hell, Kates. You should remember that. I had this thing that came from inside of me and I couldn’t control it. I do understand a little bit about what you’re talking about.” I felt wrung out just talking about it, but I remembered those first few years. I would do anything to not remember them.
The air was thick. I heard the swish of the car’s wipers and a part of me realized that it had started to rain, but I concentrated on Kates, just Kates. She was so still with her face turned towards the window. I glanced at her reflection and wasn’t surprised to see a lone tear trickle down the side of her face.
“I don’t care what you’re doing. I just can’t lose you and I know that if you are doing what I feel is taboo to talk about right now—then just stop it. Okay?”
Kates sniffed. That was rare.
“Fuck off.” That was the real Kates.
I fell back in my seat and glimpsed my dorm through the window. Roane turned the car into the parking lot and slowed to a halt just before the quad’s archway. As soon as we had stopped, Kates scrambled out and slammed the door. The car rocked from her force.
“That went… stupendous,” I sighed.
Roane shifted the car into park and turned it off.
I didn’t care if the car sprouted roots and became a tree. I just knew that my butt had no desire to follow a pissed off vampire slayer, especially when my roommate was probably still sleeping.
“She heard you. That’s all that I really hoped for the night.”
Huh?
Roane added, “She knows that I know what she’s doing. She knows that you know and that you’re worried for her. That’s all we can hope. If she stops, then good for all of us. If she doesn’t, then it’s my problem. Not yours.”
“I didn’t follow anything you just said.”
“You don’t need to. You tried. That’s all you can do.”
“You’re very supportive for being a vampire.” I couldn’t stop the sneer. Then I felt the same coldness from before. I looked up and gulped when I felt his coal eyes on me. They were colder than normal.
“You need to get over your ex. Things will go a lot smoother for the both of us when you do.”
“What are you talking about? I felt that Kates was in trouble and for some screwed up reason, I got you to help me. Whatever. We both saw how well the ‘slaying intervention’ just went. You and me, that’s never going to happen again.” I felt brave and bold, but a part of me trembled on the inside. I just didn’t know what or why…. Then I burst out, “Why was your name in her head? Why did I have to call you? You’re the one…” I called her executioner. That’s what I did. So… why? That question burned me.
I was surprised to hear sympathy in his voice. “I know that she’s breaking vampire law. I was in her head because she fears me and she needs me. I’m the one that has to stop her.”
“But…”
“You’re the friend who can help me do that. No one else can do that.”
That explained some of it, but there was other weird stuff going on too. “Why are there so many vampires?”
“Because…” He trailed off. For the first time, I didn’t sense all of his attention on me. It felt liberating and yet, I got a sudden sick feeling. He was the primal predator. When their attention wasn’t on the prey that meant it was on some other prey, something worse…. He blinked, once, and the spell was gone. His fierce eyes turned back on me and I felt all that attention once again. “Does it matter?”
“I think it does.” My throat was dry.
“Talk to your friend. Plead with her again and maybe you and I won’t have to do this again.”