Tall, Dark & Fangsome

by Michelle Rowen

  “In case I need to remind you,” I looked up at him, “you haven’t exactly been around lately. Who was I supposed to share my problems with? The Red Devil?”

  Thierry’s eyes narrowed at the mention of his alter ego.

  “I will see you tomorrow, Sarah.” He didn’t give me another look as he left the house.

  George also stood up and went into the kitchen where he fixed two quadruple martinis made from his dwindling supply of moonshine—a mysterious liquid that helped to inebriate even those unfortunate creatures, like vampires, whom regular alcohol no longer affected. He downed one glass in a long gulp and handed me the other. I tossed it back.

  “That’s a start,” I wheezed.

  “Please tell me that you’re not in love with Gideon Chase,” George said. “I don’t have enough moonshine to get me through that revelation.”

  “I’m not.” I hissed out a long, frustrated breath. “I love Thierry, even though I want to punch him sometimes. But—”

  “But what?”

  “I can’t help that there’s a part of me that cares what happens to Gideon even after everything he’s done. I’m supposed to sire him at midnight tomorrow. And yes, he’s used his charm as well as a whole bunch of threats to get me to agree to what he wants. But—”

  “But what?” he persisted.

  I shook my head. “I don’t know.”

  “That’s not very helpful.”

  I sighed heavily. “Tell me about it.”

  I slept. Dreamlessly, except for a nightmare about Thierry trying to stake me before I staked him first. Pretty standard stuff, lately. Terrifying and disturbing, but totally standard.

  I remembered when I used to dream about shoes. Like, literally, trying them on to find that they all fit me perfectly. I think Prince Charming was in those dreams as well. And, possibly, a chorus line of cute, singing mice.

  The unfortunate reality was that the shoe didn’t always fit no matter how perfect it looked on the shelf. I could squeeze my foot into it and wear it, but it would be uncomfortable and binding.

  Hard to run for your life when your feet hurt. Even vampires got blisters.

  I woke to a strange sensation—a buzzing by my cheek. It took me a while to figure out what it was and in my half-conscious state I thought I had a pillow full of friendly bees.

  But it was Gideon’s BlackBerry. I’d taken it to bed with me for safekeeping like a cold black teddy bear.

  I eyed the screen.

  UNKNOWN NUMBER

  After a few more moments it went silent. I sat up quickly. Who would be calling Gideon? Thierry had seemed convinced now that he didn’t actually have any assassins on speed dial. I knew it wouldn’t be George—not if he knew what was good for him.

  And it definitely wasn’t me.

  When it buzzed again, I moistened my dry lips with the tip of my tongue and pressed the answer button. I held it to my ear with a trembling hand.

  There was silence on the other end. And then, “Sarah? Are you there?”

  The chipper female voice was immediately recognizable. “Amy?”

  “Yup. It’s me.”

  “Where are you?”

  “No idea whatsoever, actually. I’m supposed to talk to you for a moment. How’s it going?”

  I felt incredibly confused. “Why are you calling me at this number?”

  “It’s the number Gideon gave me.” There was a pause. “You know, after everything I’d heard about him I was expecting something totally different. But he’s actually super nice, isn’t he?”

  My throat closed and I found it difficult to breathe. “Gideon has you?”

  “He picked me up yesterday when I took a break from work. I was a bit surprised at first. I may have screamed a little bit when he grabbed me, but then he gave me something to relax me.”

  I had a death grip on the phone. “He drugged you?”

  “Dunno what it was, but I’m all mellow and groovy now. Totally chilling. Tell Barry I’m okay, okay? I know he worries.”

  There was a shuffling sound. I waited, my hand twisting into the bedsheets until my knuckles were as white as the linen.

  “Sarah—” Gideon’s deep voice greeted me. “How are you this morning after our exciting evening?”

  “What are you doing? You grabbed Amy yesterday morning? That was way before what happened last night.”

  “I like to cover my bases just in case. As you can hear, she’s perfectly fine.”

  “Only because she’s drugged.” I struggled to breathe normally. “Let her go.”

  “Why would I do something like that?”

  “Because it doesn’t have to be this way.”

  “Unfortunately, it does. You proved last night once and for all that even though I want to, I can’t trust you.” I could hear a strange edge of disappointment in his voice. “I can’t let anything get in the way of what I need. And if I must use your little blond friend to ensure that everything runs smoothly tonight, then that’s exactly what I’ll do.”

  I shook my head. “You can trust me.”

  “You tried to seduce me in my hotel room to steal my BlackBerry—”

  “I wouldn’t really use the word ‘seduce.’ ”

  “Then you underestimate yourself. And then you took it away from me in the alley at your first opportunity. Did it give you the information you were looking for?”

  Being that I was speaking to him on the device itself, I couldn’t very well deny I had it. “You must have dropped it. I was going to return it to you. Oh, and by the way, really sorry about what happened there. I didn’t mean to… to…”

  “Bite me?” he finished. “When your nightwalker takes over you become a very different woman entirely, don’t you?”

  I exhaled shakily. “Now you can see why I have to find a way to break my curse.”

  “Just the opposite. With the right nurturing and guidance I’m now convinced your darker side could be an asset. I envy you that other self, Sarah. I wish I had something similar.”

  My jaw tightened. “Then I guess it was a mistake for you to kill the witch who cursed me. She could have set you up with a nice shiny inner nightwalker of your own.” My honey was starting to turn to acid. “You need to let Amy go. Now.”

  “You’re just a girl who can’t take no for an answer, aren’t you? So let me ask you this… did you discuss everything with my good friend George? I assume since you slid your talented little hand into my pants last night to steal my phone you know we’ve been in contact.”

  My back stiffened. “Maybe.”

  “You can have George—provided you tell him nothing further. Consider his life a gift from me to you since you refuse to take jewelry from me. Besides, I don’t need to use the false threat of shadowy assassins anymore, do I? I have something much more tangible now—Amy.”

  “What do you want, Gideon?” I asked.

  “What I’ve always wanted. For you to sire me at midnight.”

  “I’ll do it.”

  “Of course you will. And you’ll also come to my hotel room right now. There’s something important you need to see.”

  The line went dead.

  Chapter 14

  When I arrived at Gideon’s hotel room—hoping for the best but expecting the worst—the door was open and a housekeeping cart was out front. I sidestepped it to get into the room.

  The suite’s fireplace currently cast a warm glow on the rich décor. The bed was made and on the brocade bedspread I noticed some photos. I walked directly toward them.

  When Gideon had first revealed himself to me—so to speak—he’d shown me these photos. At the time I’d assumed he’d hired a private investigator to follow me and my friends and family around, but now I had a funny feeling that Gideon had been the shutterbug himself.

  There were pictures of Thierry leaving the nightclub he used to own. There were pictures of my parents up north in my hometown of Abottsville. Pictures of Amy and Barry going about their newlywed lives, and pictures o
f George. The shots all looked familiar even though I’d been in a fog when I’d first seen them. At the time I’d been dealing with the beginning stages of my nightwalker curse.

  There were new pictures as well. They made my stomach sink lower and lower.

  The first was a picture of me talking to the Red Devil after he’d stopped me from chomping the fledgling. A picture of Veronique and me having coffee from yesterday. And a picture of Thierry leaving George’s house in the wee hours last night after confronting George and our subsequent argument about my misplaced loyalties.

  A cold line of perspiration slid down my spine.

  Okay, so he officially knew I’d been lying to him about seeing Thierry. So what was he going to do about it?

  The thought that my secret was out made me feel very ill. But even with my secrets laid bare in the photos, Gideon Chase still needed me. That fact alone would keep Amy safe.

  This could still turn out okay.

  It could. Leave me to my delusions, please. Luckily, things couldn’t really get much worse than they already were.

  The maid emerged from the bathroom and she touched her hand to her chest when she saw me. “Goodness! You scared me.”

  “The… the man who was staying here. Where is he right now?”

  “Checked out. I’m making up the room,” she said. “Left me a real mess to clean up, too. It’s going to take forever to get whatever that is out of the fireplace.”

  I turned slowly to look at where she pointed. I’d never stayed in a hotel room that had a fireplace. Usually for me it was a bed, a desk, and a bathroom. Maybe some generic shampoo and a tiny bar of soap if I was lucky.

  I tilted my head. “What is that?”

  The maid shrugged. “Looks like he’s burning a big book of some kind. Guess it wasn’t a page turner. I like some Stephenie Meyer, myself.”

  My mouth went dry. I grabbed a poker from a stand at the side of the fireplace and poked at the large rectangular object.

  “What are you doing?” the maid exclaimed as I dragged the book out of the fire and it landed in an ashy heap on the floor.

  It was the grimoire.

  Or, at least, it had been.

  Now it was no more than a black, charred excuse for a once-magical book of spells. The pages were seared and blackened. I pushed it open with the tip of the poker to the middle and found that the pages were ruined and unreadable. It had been burning for a while.

  Liar, liar. Your grimoire’s on fire.

  “What is that, a phone book?” the maid asked curiously.

  “You don’t know any magical incantations that will unburn a book, do you?” I asked, mostly to myself.

  “Magical incantations?” She now gave me a wary glance. “You’d better get going so I can finish up in here now that you’ve given me more to clean up. I don’t have time for nonsense.”

  Gideon had burned my grimoire. He had destroyed my chance to break the curse.

  I take it back—things could always get worse.

  The maid moved around to the side of the bed. “You’re not Sarah, are you?”

  I looked over at her. “That depends on who’s asking.”

  She snatched an envelope off the desk. “This is addressed to a Sarah.”

  I made a beeline to her and took the envelope, slicing it open with my thumbnail and reading the inside quickly.

  You will find me at the nightclub you frequent lately. It’s nice and quiet at this time of the day. Tell your master vampire lover nothing about this. Please don’t disappoint me again. Be there by noon.—G

  Well, at least he said please.

  Yes, he was definitely having a hissy fit. On anyone else I might be able to brush it off, but Gideon Chase was a different story.

  I’d been reading the wrong translation of that story for some time now. The real Gideon was no one to mess with, no one to flirt with, and definitely no one to underestimate. I wouldn’t make that mistake again.

  The sun was extra bright when I emerged on the sidewalk, and I slid my sunglasses into place and got my bearings. My cell phone rang. I had both my Pink Razor and Gideon’s BlackBerry on me now. I went through cell phones like I used to go through panty hose.

  A glance at the screen told me it was Thierry. I answered it.

  “Where are you?” he asked.

  “Downtown,” I said simply.

  “I was worried. George said you left without saying anything. Quinn has been looking for you as well.”

  “I had something I had to do.”

  “Something to do with Gideon?”

  I huffed out a breath. “I can’t talk right now.”

  “Sarah, please tell me what’s going on.”

  I swallowed past the lump in my throat. “Can’t. Busy, busy.”

  “I’ll come and get you. We can deal with Gideon together.”

  Yeah, and if I showed up at Darkside arm in arm with Thierry, Amy would be picking out her angel wings.

  “Sorry, Thierry. I’ll have to take a rain check on that.”

  “I can be there in minutes. Tell me where you are; where you’re headed.” He sounded worried.

  “I need to clean up this mess myself. If there was any other way then we’d do it that way, trust me on that. I… I have to go.”

  “Sarah—”

  I ended the call and slid the phone into my pocket, ignoring it when it began to buzz a few moments later. He was calling me back. The man was persistent with or without the mask.

  If I’d been feeling hunky dory about everything it would make me smile. Thierry pursuing me, insisting he be by my side—even after we’d had a fight.

  Talk about a one-eighty from where we’d come from. Honestly, he’d been the most standoffish guy I’d ever met in my entire life. I figured that it had a lot to do with living for so long. He’d been hurt, both emotionally and physically. A lot. Badly. Therefore there was a ton of armor he carried around with him. He didn’t trust people and he didn’t open up. Keeping his Red Devil secret was only one example of this. He’d pushed me away so many times that it was only out of sheer stubbornness and questionable intelligence that I hadn’t walked away and not looked back. He’d been silent and moody and sullen and unbelievably bossy.

  But for some strange reason that totally did it for me. Who knew what a masochist I was?

  I’d kept digging and digging until I’d found the real Thierry. He was a bit dusty, to say the least. But beyond that dusty, moody exterior was my Mr. Right. Nobody believed we fit together except for me. Everyone was all too ready to accept that we’d broken up.

  But I didn’t care. I loved him.

  I was all stubborn like that.

  Darkside was closed for business when I got there, but the front door was unlocked, so I summoned my courage and went inside, past the false front of a used bookstore. It smelled musty and dusty and had paperback novels stacked from floor to ceiling and several tables with stacks of mysteries, romances, and thrillers.

  The interior of the club seemed completely empty as well, but I knew it wasn’t.

  “You’re here. Right on time, too.”

  I turned to face Gideon, who stood behind me with his arms crossed. “Where’s Amy?”

  “Somewhere safe.”

  “I want to see her.”

  “I’m sure you do. But there’s a little business we need to take care of first.”

  I scanned the dark nightclub but didn’t see anyone but Gideon. “Business? I thought that the ritual wasn’t until midnight?”

  “It’s not.” He cocked his head to the side. “I wanted to give you the chance to apologize for lying to me about ending your relationship with de Bennicoeur.”

  “I think you burning the grimoire makes us more than even on that subject.”

  His expression shadowed. “Perhaps I acted a bit rashly.”

  A bit rashly? “You think?”

  “Do you like this place?” Gideon turned away from me and looked at the interior of the nightclub. “
I know you come here a lot lately.”

  “Sure, I like it. It’s recently been sold, though.”

  “I know. It was sold to me.”

  My eyes widened at that. “You bought a vampire club?”

  He nodded. “I did.”

  “Why?”

  He leaned against the bar. “You wouldn’t take the earrings I wanted to give you. I thought I might give you something a bit more practical.”

  I blinked hard. “You bought me a nightclub? Because I said no to some earrings?”

  “I got a very good deal on it. The papers are in your name. The transfer of ownership will be next week. It’s a gift to thank you for helping me. Do you like it?”

  “If I say no will you get me a private jet instead?” I drew in a slow breath. “I don’t want gifts or money. The only thing you had that I wanted was that grimoire and now it’s gone.” I felt sick to my stomach as I said it. “I just want you to leave me and my friends alone after tonight.”

  I was about to say something else when he tensed and his face convulsed. He let out a gasp and grabbed hold of the side of the bar top. A shudder went through his body.

  I resisted moving any closer to him. “What’s wrong?”

  “The pain from the hellfire has returned even worse than before,” he managed. “Your blood wasn’t strong enough to keep it away for long.”

  Every muscle in my body was tense. “What does that mean?”

  “It means your blood may be strong enough for some things, but not strong enough to fully heal my particular injuries during the ritual.”

  “Unfortunately I don’t offer a money-back guarantee.”

  “No, I’m sure you don’t.” He remained hunched over for another minute before he slowly straightened up. There was a sheen of perspiration on his forehead. “Come with me. I have someone I want you to see.”

  “Who is it?” I asked, my mouth feeling very dry.

  Gideon turned and walked away without giving me a detailed description of our destination. He moved across the dance floor and toward a hallway leading toward the restrooms. I followed him at a safe distance, and he glanced over his shoulder at me.