Vampire's Shade 1 (Vampire's Shade Collection)

by Vivienne Neas

  Chapter 13

  I woke up to darkness. The room around me was suffocating with it, and where the window should have been was only a vague black shape. I sat up and looked around. Everything was different.

  A movement next to me startled me until I realized it was Connor. I wasn’t in my home; I was in his. And I was in his bed, with him. Naked.

  I tried to orient myself. It was Sunday, sometime, but the darkness in the house made it hard to tell what time it was. I didn’t know how long I’d slept.

  I slipped from underneath the covers and found my clothes on the floor, half-tangled with my holsters, which were empty. I felt vulnerable without my guns. After I dressed and put on my holsters, I padded to the kitchen and found them on the counter, and my stake on the floor near the wall. When I found my phone, also on the floor, it was dead.

  I put the guns back into their holsters and flipped on the kitchen light. The darkness was chewing at me, and I needed to get rid of it. Aspen would be worried about me. My stomach turned when I thought about her. I would lose her if I didn’t kill Connor. Why the hell hadn’t I killed him? Instead, I’d gone and slept with him.

  Great move, Adele. Great move.

  Dammit.

  There weren’t a lot of options. The only intelligent thing I could do was get rid of Connor, no matter what it did to me. Because losing Aspen would be a thousand times worse. There was no pain that would compare to losing her.

  Connor appeared behind me before I managed to smell him or feel him. He’d crept up on me noiselessly. I spun around and pulled out my Smith & Wesson, pointing it at his head.

  He froze in his tracks, slowly lifting his hands. “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “What does it look like I’m doing?”

  He rolled his eyes and dropped his hands. I was getting tired of him not feeling threatened by me. I had a gun this time. I could keep far enough away from his that his body, his eyes, everything that made him Connor, wouldn’t distract me.

  “Are we back to that again?” he asked. “Dammit, Adele, I thought we’d passed that. We just slept together, for god’s sake.”

  I shook my head, forcing down the emotions that had threatened to bubble up. I could still feel his body against mine, the imprint of him between my legs. I ignored it.

  “She’ll die,” I said, my voice so soft it didn’t sound threatening at all. “Your master vampires – they’re going to kill her if I don’t kill you.” Tears ran down my cheeks, and the anger that came with them licked through my body. “I can’t lose her. Don’t you see? There’s no other way out of this.”

  He took a step closer to me. “Will you just let me—”

  I didn’t give him a chance. I fired the gun.

  I hadn’t intended to hit him. The gun bit a hole into the wall behind him, big and ugly and raw.

  He turned to look at the hole. “What the hell, Adele?” he exclaimed. “This isn’t you.”

  “Oh, no, that’s where you’re wrong,” I said, and now my voice sounded a lot more like my own. “This is exactly me. This is what I do, Connor. You can’t love someone like me, because I kill people like you. I kill vampires.”

  “Will you just calm down so we can talk about this? Maybe we can figure this out. I know them. I know what they can do. And I know what they can’t.”

  “I know what they can do, too,” I said, not taking my gun off him. He moved slowly toward the table in the corner and sat down on a chair. “They can kill Aspen.”

  He sighed. “I don’t even know who that is. I don’t know anything about you, and every time I think I’ve figured something out, you pull the rug out from underneath me.”

  I took a deep, shaky breath. Could I tell him? Could I trust him? I should just kill him; I knew that. But he was so casual, and leaning on his knees with his elbows the way he did now made him look tired, even though he’d just woken up. I lowered my gun, letting it hang by my side, but my finger was still ready to slip onto the trigger. I wasn’t going to let down my guard with him again. Weird things happened when I did.

  “She’s my sister,” I said. “She’s in a wheelchair. She can’t protect herself. And she’s like me.”

  “Like you? Wild and unpredictable? Good with guns? Beautiful?”

  That last comment threw me off-balance. I whipped the gun back up, pointing it at his face. I bit my bottom lip.

  “Easy. Easy, there,” Connor said, gesturing me away with his hands. “It was just a compliment. I was trying to keep things light. I won’t mean it if you don’t want me to.”

  A tremble ran up my arm from where my finger was on the trigger and shook through the rest of my body.

  “A half-breed,” I whispered.

  Someone ought to know. If I died, they would know. And if he died, my secret would die with him. What did I have to lose? It was a question I’d been asking myself for a long time, and I still didn’t have an answer.

  Connor looked like the sun had suddenly come up for him. Maybe he was thinking about the times I’d nearly managed to kill him, the way I moved, and my lack of fangs.

  “I’ve heard of half-breeds before,” he said. “I just didn’t know they were real. How can you kill vampires if you’re half-vampire yourself?”

  “Because vampires are what put Aspen in a wheelchair. Vampires killed my mother.”

  “And your father?”

  “He was the vampire who did it.”

  I could see him thinking about it. He put all the pieces together: the jail, me, my job. And then he nodded slowly.

  “Tell me about Aspen,” he said softly.

  I sighed and sat down opposite him. I put the gun down on the table, ready to grab, but the barrel didn’t face him.

  “She’s like Christmas morning,” I said. “The kind of person everyone wishes they knew just by looking at her. She’s thin and frail, but she’s fought through one of the hardest battles you can imagine. People think she’s weak, but she’s stronger than I am.”

  “You’re pretty strong if you can handle all of this,” he said, nodding toward the gun.

  “She deals with everything I do, without killing anyone for it. She’s a good person.”

  “Hey,” Connor said, and put his hand on mine. I flinched, but I didn’t pull my hand away. “You’re not a bad person.”

  I snorted. “Now you’re just trying to be nice. I kill vampires, Connor. Even though I believe they have feelings and lives and loved ones. Just because the law doesn’t have a fit when some of them disappear the way it does with humans, doesn’t make me a good person for doing it.”

  Connor sat back in his chair, taking his hand and his warmth with him, and I felt his absence acutely. “Well, maybe you should just fix that, then,” he said. “It’s not too late to change.”

  “You should know,” I said.

  He grinned half-heartedly and looked down at the gun that lay between us. “You know, if I were human, they would have killed me. When I found out about the trafficking, I wanted to put a stop to it, but nothing is that easy.”

  “Police?” I asked.

  “No. They would have arrested me. All the paperwork is in my name. I didn’t think I’d even survive a trial. My company definitely wouldn’t, and I wanted to leave a legacy behind. Something my children could take over one day. But now I don’t think that’s going to happen, either.”

  “What, your girlfriend isn’t the vampire-loving type?” I said, and smiled. Jennifer was much too perfect for something like that.

  Connor’s smile had vanished when I mentioned her name. “Not exactly. She wouldn’t have me now. Besides, I didn’t really think she was in it for the love, anyway.”

  “For your money, right? Why else would she keep all that a secret?”

  Connor’s head shot up, and his eyes were a cold kind of blue. “What did you say?”

  Maybe I shouldn’t have said what I’d said. Connor looked so hurt I wanted to kick myself. And that was saying so
mething, considering I’d been willing to kill him eight out of ten times.

  “But you slept with me, so you’re not really in a good place to beg for her mercy right now,” I said lightly, trying to change the topic.

  “She kept what secret?” Connor asked, narrowing his eyes at me. He was like a dog that had bitten into something and wouldn’t let go.

  “I don’t think…” I started, but his expression stopped me.

  Anger and hatred poured out of him in waves. I wondered for a second if this was what I looked like to other people. Suddenly, he scooped up the gun so fast I couldn’t react quickly enough, and before I knew it he was pointing it at my head.

  “Hey, don’t do anything rash,” I said calmly.

  Connor had stood up, and I pushed myself up too, moving slowly so he wouldn’t do anything stupid. The gun was pointed right at my heart. Something told me Connor had worked with firearms before.

  “You do this all the time, don’t you?” Connor said. “I kind of see the appeal.”

  “You don’t mean that,” I said, still keeping my voice calm. “This is just a misunderstanding. You knew Jennifer sent me. I was just on the wrong tangent.” “Tell me what you know,” he said.

  “I don’t know anything,” I started, but his finger curled around the trigger and I knew I was running out of time. “I found out she knew more about the trafficking than she’d let on, but other than that, I don’t know anything. I went to confront her for lying to me after I found the article in the news, and I left when I couldn’t stand being around her anymore.”

  “She knew about it? Why did she keep that from me?”

  “Because she said…” I swallowed hard. I hated being the one who ruined the image of a loved one. I knew what that did to someone. “She said it was because she needed you to marry her. She couldn’t go back to the hole her ex had left her in.”

  His face fell, and for a moment his attention wasn’t on me. If I moved now, maybe I could get the gun away from him and swing it around again so that I was in charge. But his gaze slid back to me.

  “Her ex. It always comes back down to that. I’m so sick of hearing how I compare to him, how her life is exponentially better because of me, when at the end of the day I know it’s just about the money.”

  I groaned inwardly. I didn’t like having a gun on me. I didn’t like emotionally unstable people. I didn’t like monologues, and I didn’t like it when someone made their problems mine.

  “Look, just put the gun down, okay? This drama is all between you two. All I was doing was finishing a job.”

  “Whose job? Hers or the masters’?” he asked.

  I couldn’t wait any longer. I was in his face before he knew it, and I snatched the gun out of his hand. I pressed the muzzle against his chest and squeezed the trigger. The clap of the gunshot was loud, and tiles splintered off the wall behind him.

  He was gone.

  A thick black mist filled the air, and I sank into a squat to get away from it. Connor had dematerialized faster than my finger had moved on the trigger.

  Where would he have gone to in the middle of the day?

  It didn’t matter. He was still alive, which meant I had to get to Aspen.

  It took me all of five minutes to get to Aspen’s house and knock on the door. When Zelda opened it, she blinked at me, surprised.

  “Oh, Adele. It’s you. We weren’t expecting you,” she said, glancing over my shoulder.

  “Who were you expecting?”

  “Aspen is expecting a Mr. Joel.”

  Joel was coming by? I pushed past Zelda and walked into the house. Aspen was at the dining room table, setting out a tray with mugs for coffee.

  “Adele! Where have you been? I tried calling, but I only got voicemail and I know you never check that.”

  “I’m sorry. I’ve been busy. Are you all right?” “I’m fine,” she said, smiling. “Joel’s coming over.”

  “Why?”

  “He contacted me yesterday and asked if he could set up the cameras you asked for.”

  The cameras I’d asked for? I kept the questions off my face. He was a hell of a friend.

  “I’m so glad he’s coming,” I said, and my relief was complete as it washed through me. It was a way I could keep her safe until I found Connor. I had no idea what had just happened between us, but I was pretty sure he wasn’t going to show up any time soon.

  “What’s wrong?” Aspen asked.

  I didn’t know what my face showed, but I did my best to clear it. “Nothing,” I said. “When is he coming?”

  “Any minute. Zelda thought it was him when the doorbell rang.”

  I sat down and we waited together after I borrowed a charger and plugged in my phone.

  “How’s your case coming along?” Aspen asked.

  “My case?” I had to make a point of keeping track of my lies to her, I told myself.

  “You were looking for a guy who was kidnapped.”

  “Oh.” That one. The one where that guy and I had slept together and now wanted to kill each other. “He’s a vampire, after all. A lot of people are after him.”

  “I’m sorry,” Aspen said, reaching over and putting her hand on mine.

  “It’s okay. He’s different from the rest. I hope for his sake that they find him, because I don’t want to.”

  Aspen didn’t answer.

  “What?” I asked.

  “You smell like frustration,” she said. “Frustration, and sex.”

  “I do not!” I cried out. “You’re being inappropriate.”

  “You slept with someone! You slept with someone, and now you’re angry. You like him, don’t you? Only men make you this angry.”

  “I don’t like anyone. In fact, there are some people I hate even more now.”

  Aspen smiled, dropping the subject, but she gave me a knowing look. I rolled my eyes. I didn’t “like” anyone. Besides, if I liked Connor, I wouldn’t have tried to blow a hole in his chest, would I? Aspen was being absurd.

  We talked about other things. I asked about her week. It felt like I hadn’t seen her in a while. The time ticked by, and after an hour had passed, I frowned.

  “He’s running very late,” I said. Joel was never late.

  “Do you think something came up?”

  I shook my head and walked to my phone. I dialed Joel’s number, but it went straight to voicemail. Joel’s phone was never off. If he couldn’t be connected, he lost his mind.

  “I’m going to take a drive,” I said.

  My blood was tingling, and I felt like an itch had crept in under my skin. I’d been around the block enough times to know that I shouldn’t ignore this feeling. I stopped at the door.

  “I want you to get out of here,” I said to Aspen.

  “And go where?”

  “A safe house,” I said. I took a deep breath, bracing myself for my own words. “To Mom’s house.”

  “But…” Her voice trailed off.

  We’d never gotten rid of the house. I couldn’t let it go. It would have been like I was letting mom go.

  “Trust me, Aspen. It’s not safe for you here. I’ve been working on a… a case. And the guys involved are making this personal. I don’t want to lose you.”

  Her face contorted with horror.

  “I don’t want you to be afraid. I’m making you safe before things get out of hand. But this one will get worse before it gets better, and I can’t risk you getting caught in the crossfire.”

  “Adele…” Aspen’s voice was soft, and she looked down at her hands, lying in her lap. “You’re not a cop, are you?”

  I hesitated before I shook my head slowly. When she looked up at me, her eyes were shimmering with tears. How long had she been pretending she believed me, for my sake? We both knew she wasn’t stupid, and we’d both been pretending.

  “Promise me one thing,” she said. “One thing, and I’ll go.”

  “What is it?”

  “After
this, you’ll put to rest all the demons that are still chasing you.”

  I took a deep breath and blew it out in a shudder. “I don’t know if I can do that.”

  “Promise you’ll try?” she asked.

  And I nodded. Because for Aspen I would do anything. For Aspen I would change the world.

  “Get your bags packed,” I said.

  Zelda jumped into action. I walked over to Aspen and hugged her. She wrapped her arms around me. I squeezed my eyes shut, regretting what I was about to do.

  I bit her in the neck.

  Aspen jerked and shoved me away hard enough for her wheelchair to move back a little despite the brakes. Her hand went to her neck, and when she pulled it away it was red.

  “What the hell?” she cried out. “You bit me!”

  Because of my blunt teeth, the bite had been a hell of a lot harder than a purebred vamp’s would have been. The metallic taste of her blood was in my mouth.

  “I’m sorry,” I said.

  “Who are you, Adele? You’re not the person I used to know, anymore. You’ve changed.”

  I sighed. I had changed; she was right. But hearing it from her hurt more than my own admission of the truth.

  “You have to get to the house as fast as you can. I’ll meet you there as soon as I find out what’s happening with Joel.”

  I turned and walked out.