Bitten & Smitten

by Michelle Rowen

  He sighed. “It’s hard. I’ve always been raised to believe that they’re evil. Now I’m one of them, and I don’t feel any different than I ever did. It makes me wonder if I’ve been in the wrong all of this time.”

  “You think?” I rolled my eyes. “Let’s just leave it with your apology and my saying no big deal. I hope you have a good life, Quinn, I really do.”

  When I turned to walk away, he grabbed my shoulder. “It’s not just that, Sarah. Ever since I met you, I… I don’t know. I just can’t think about anything else.”

  I looked up into his blue eyes. “Come again? Can’t think of anything else but what?”

  He turned away, rubbed his forehead hard, then turned back to me. “I can’t stop thinking about you.”

  “Me?”

  “I know it’s stupid. I know that you and Thierry… well, whatever. That guy wants to kill me as it is. I don’t know what this is between us. But it’s something.”

  I didn’t say anything for a moment. He couldn’t stop thinking about me? My brain temporarily stopped working. Finally I found my voice.

  “Are you nuts?”

  “What?”

  “You have a hell of a lot of nerve, you know that?”

  Quinn stared at me blankly.

  I shook my head. “I’m just supposed to forget everything that happened before, now that you suddenly realize I’m not as evil as you thought I was? If it hadn’t been for your father at the bar, I’d be dead right now. If it hadn’t been for Dan and his friend in the PATH, I would be dead again. No way, buster. I’m not about to give you a third kick at the can. I helped you out because I felt guilty about what happened to you. That’s it. That’s all. So, why don’t you find some other girl to stalk?”

  He rubbed his forehead again. His face was a little red, either from all the rubbing or from embarrassment, I wasn’t sure. “You’re right. All of it. You’re absolutely right. I don’t deserve your forgiveness. I’ve done nothing to prove myself to you. I’m sorry to have bothered you.”

  He shook his head hard, as if that might erase everything he’d just said to me, and turned to walk away. After my little outburst I’d be surprised if he ever came near me again.

  And that was a good thing, right? I don’t care if he’d seemed like a nice guy when I first met him, that we hit it off really well. He’d been nothing but a problem since that moment.

  But still…

  I was in a little bit of shock. Mr. Vampire-Hunter-turned-Vampire had just basically admitted that he had a crush on me? The last damn thing I needed was another complication in my life.

  I chewed my bottom lip. Not that that had ever stopped me before.

  I swallowed hard. “Quinn!”

  He stopped and turned back around. “Yeah?”

  “How do the words ‘double date’ sound to you?”

  Chapter 16

  Amy was thrilled when I phoned her at work. She immediately put me on hold so she could call to make reservations. She got right back to me.

  “Tonight. Top of the CN Tower,” she said. I could tell she was grinning from ear to ear at the prospect of our mutual date. “In the 360 Restaurant.”

  “Isn’t that expensive?” The CN Tower was Toronto’s landmark tourist attraction, a huge tower that rose high above all the other downtown skyscrapers and had a world-class rotating restaurant on the top floor. Fancy schmancy.

  “So?”

  “Yeah, I’m unemployed, remember? I was thinking more along the lines of McDonald’s.”

  “Don’t worry about money. This is a special occasion. You are so going to love Peter.”

  I was already regretting agreeing to this. Why did something sound like a great idea one moment and a horrible mistake the next?

  But it was just dinner. It didn’t mean anything. It would give me something other than my vampire problems to focus on for a while.

  I returned my overdue monster movies and begrudgingly paid the late fee. Then I returned the designer shoes and went shopping for a dress to wear to dinner. After seriously shopping for two hours I finally found it. Short, tight, and a gorgeous shade of violet. Plus, it was on sale. Buying it triggered my happy shopping endorphins. Maybe the day was turning out better than I thought.

  I went back to the apartment to get ready. I’d decided I was going to have a good time and forget all about Thierry and his magical mystery spouse.

  It was working until I had to put on some makeup. As soon as I pulled the shard out of my purse, I got a little misty-eyed. I had the overwhelming urge to throw it against the wall and watch it shatter into a thousand pieces. But I wasn’t that crazy. Not yet, anyhow.

  Quinn had given me his cell phone number and I called to tell him when to show up. At seven-thirty I pushed open the glass door to my apartment building and strode out into the chilly night air on my three-inch heels.

  He was waiting for me. When he smiled, I could see his brand-new fangs. Guess we were in the same boat when it came to developing early, thanks to Thierry’s full-strength blood. He looked good, too. Some men clean up well, and Michael Quinn was one of them. He wore a dark blue suit with a crisp white shirt underneath, open at the collar. The color of the suit brought out his gorgeous blue eyes. His sandy blond hair was combed back off his face, and as I got closer, I noticed he was wearing my favorite Calvin Klein men’s cologne.

  Still didn’t excuse him for almost killing me twice. But it was a nice start.

  We took a cab to the CN Tower, then gave Amy’s name at the reservation desk and were ushered past the tourist crowds to the elevator reserved especially for restaurant patrons. I’d been there a few times before, so it was all no big deal, but Quinn looked amazed as the elevator rose high into the sky.

  The hostess showed us through the busy restaurant to Amy’s table, which was against the curved window that looked down at the city lights below. She sat there all alone, napkin in lap, sipping a glass of white wine. When she saw us, she got to her feet and gave me a hug. She wore a sea green sparkly dress and the earrings she’d bought the other day at the mall. Her light blond hair was pinned back from her face with matching sparkly green clips.

  “You look amazing,” she said. “And, Quinn, it’s good to see you again.”

  Quinn smiled back at her. “You too.” I’d told him to be on his best behavior since Amy didn’t exactly know about my secret identity as one of Toronto’s best-dressed monsters.

  “Peter’s still at work. But he said he’d get here as soon as possible.”

  “Overtime?” I glanced down at my watch. “Dedicated guy. What does he do for a living, anyhow?”

  “Um.” Amy frowned. “Not totally sure about that. I think it has something to do with pest control.”

  I nodded. “That sounds sexy.”

  We sat down at the table.

  “So, what do you do for a living, Quinn?” Amy asked.

  “Coincidentally enough,” Quinn said, “I used to do a little pest control myself.”

  “Really?”

  I kicked him under the table.

  “What is it about that business that makes you work such long hours?” Amy asked.

  Quinn ignored my dirty look. “Dedication to a job done right, mostly.”

  “Did you find it dangerous?”

  “Dangerous?”

  “It’s just that Peter keeps getting hurt. I’m worried about him. Every time I see him, he has a new bump or bruise.”

  “Accident-prone,” I said. “Or a really badass cockroach. Hey, let’s change the subject, shall we? Talking about work is depressing for an unemployed slob like myself.”

  “Sure, no problem,” Amy said. “Quinn, have you lived in Toronto long?”

  The waiter arrived to take our drink orders and brought a basket of various breads for us to pick at. I ordered a tequila sunrise and ignored the bread. Quinn asked for a beer.

  “Not long,” Quinn said when the waiter left. “Only a few weeks so far. Actually, I was planning on leavin
g soon, but things change. I may end up staying here permanently.”

  “Well, I hope for Sarah’s sake that you do.” Amy grinned and grabbed a sesame-seed bread stick. She crunched on it thoughtfully. “Peter’s new in town, too. You guys sure have a lot in common.”

  And that was about the point I began to feel an odd sense of dread concerning Peter, the mysterious pest controller. I started putting two and two together, but instead of adding up to four, they added up to a gnawing, sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

  Amy glanced up. “Finally! Here he is.” She leaned over the table toward me and grabbed my hand. “Try not to look at the eye patch too much,” she whispered. “He’s very sensitive about it.”

  I swallowed the huge lump of dismay that was forming in my throat and slowly turned around in my seat.

  Amy was right. Peter was very attractive. He wore a dark suit with a T-shirt underneath that, along with his blond hair, gave him a vaguely Miami Vice look. He wore a black eye patch over his injured eye. He gave Amy a wide smile of sparkling white teeth as he approached the table.

  The smile drained from his face as he noticed I was sitting across from his new girlfriend.

  My last memory of White-teeth had been feeling my big toe making squishy contact with his left eye. Just before Thierry and I had jumped off the bridge nearly a week ago.

  Now he was walking toward me at least a thousand feet above street level.

  I wasn’t planning on jumping from that height, but the night was still young.

  He hesitated. I could practically see his brain churning out different scenarios, different reactions to seeing me. His eyes flicked to Quinn, and he immediately seemed to relax at the sight of a fellow vampire hunter.

  He approached the table and leaned over to give Amy a quick kiss. His good eye never left me.

  “Hey, darlin‘,” he said to Amy. “Sorry I’m late.”

  He sat down directly across the table from me. I felt like I might melt into a puddle of goo right there on the floor of the 360 Restaurant with the intensity of hate in his single eye.

  Amy, perhaps blissfully, remained unaware of the bad vibes shooting over the top of the bread basket.

  “Peter,” she said and took hold of the sleeve of his jacket, “this is Sarah. I’ve told you so much about her that you probably feel like you already know her, right?”

  “Yeah.” Peter’s voice was low and gravelly. Barely restrained. “Feels like I already know you… Sarah.”

  “And,” Amy continued, “this is Sarah’s boyfriend, Quinn.”

  Quinn glanced at me after hearing Amy’s choice of introduction. Then he looked back at Peter and smiled. “Small world, man.”

  Peter grinned at that and clasped Quinn’s outstretched hand. “You can say that again.”

  “You two know each other?” Amy asked with surprise.

  “We do,” Peter said.

  “See?” Amy smiled at both of them. “I knew you had a lot in common with the whole pest-control thing, but it never occurred to me that you might already know each other.”

  I sat there as quietly as I could. Maybe I could just slide under the table, crawl through the crowded restaurant, past the bustling waiters, toward the elevator. No one would even notice.

  Then again, what was I so worried about, anyhow? We were in the middle of a restaurant full of well-dressed, potential witnesses. Also, he wouldn’t dare murder me in front of Amy. It would be doubtful she’d date him after that, or at least I’d like to think so.

  “Pest control, huh?” Peter said to Quinn as he raked his eye over me. “Looks like you have some work ahead of you tonight.”

  Quinn’s closed-mouth grin held. I noticed he wasn’t taking a chance of showing his fangs. “You can say that again.”

  An uncomfortable hush fell at the table, and I felt everyone staring at me. I grabbed a piece of bread for lack of anything else to do and buttered it violently.

  “So, Peter”—I felt the sudden and overwhelming urge to break the silence—“what the hell happened to your eye?”

  All five eyes at the table shot to me.

  “Sarah!” Amy said, appalled.

  “Sorry.” I shrugged. “I’m just curious. So sue me. I simply want to know if my best friend is dating someone with a real injury or if it’s just some weird pirate fetish.”

  The seething rage came off Peter in hot waves. I cocked my head to one side and tried to give him a friendly smile. It would have worked better if I hadn’t felt as if I’d just had my lips Botoxed.

  He stroked the patch tenderly. “An unfortunate workplace accident. But you know what they say, don’t you, darlin‘? ’An eye for an eye‘?”

  Amy frowned. “I thought you only called me ‘darlin’. I thought that was our thing, like when I call you ‘pooky.’ ”

  “Pooky?” Quinn asked.

  Peter gritted his teeth. I was honestly surprised that he hadn’t reached across the table and attempted to kill me with my butter knife yet.

  “What are you going to order?” Amy asked me as she glanced down at her menu. She had drawn a little away from Peter, her annoyance about the pet-name faux pas obvious.

  “I’m fine with the drink,” I said.

  Amy closed her menu. “Don’t be silly. Order whatever you like. Peter said he’d pick up the tab this time, didn’t you?” She nudged him.

  Peter clenched his jaw.

  I gave him a closed-mouth smile. “Gee, that’s so nice of you, Peter. In that case”—I scanned the menu for the most expensive item—“I think I’ll have the prime rib. And maybe we should order another bottle of wine.”

  “That sounds great,” Amy said. “I’ll have the same thing.”

  I turned to Quinn. “Okay, why don’t you tell me all about how you two know each other?”

  “It’s not a very interesting story.”

  “No, come on, Quinn,” Peter prompted. “Let’s tell your new girlfriend all about it.”

  Did he think I was completely oblivious to the fact that Quinn was a vampire hunter? Well, ex-vampire hunter. He said it as if it would come as a complete shock to me when the truth finally came out. What a moron.

  “We’ve worked together on occasion,” Quinn said after a long swig from his bottle of Heineken. “We’re more acquaintances than close friends, actually.”

  “Come on, Quinn,” Peter said with an unpleasant grin. “We’ve done a whole lot of pest control together over the years. Long days, even longer nights. The search, the hunt, and then the incredible kill. The satisfaction of knowing you’ve snuffed out an evil creature with your bare hands.”

  Amy made a squeamish face as she probably imagined her handsome new boyfriend killing cockroaches and spiders in the palm of his hand.

  “That’s true,” Quinn said with a glance toward me. “But I’m thinking it may be time for a change in careers.”

  “You’re kidding, right?” Peter said. “Even after what happened last night? Taking down that”—he looked at Amy—“uh, that nest of disgusting insects? Come on, that was a rush. Best time we’ve had in months.”

  My eyes widened at that. Last night? I stared at Quinn, wanting him to deny it, but he wouldn’t meet my gaze. My heart was jumping inside my chest.

  Quinn was going about business as usual, even though he was now a vampire himself? Even though he had acknowledged to me that he no longer believed vamps were all evil? The thought of him joining the other hunters on a raid made me feel sick. I wanted to hit him, slap him so hard that his ears rang. I wanted him to say it wasn’t true, even if it meant he had to lie to me. How could I keep on being such a bad judge of character? Was I honestly that stupid? Don’t answer that.

  Peter was still grinning at the memory of whatever had gone down last night. The waiter came to take our order, but Amy told him we needed a few more minutes. He brought us more ice water instead.

  Quinn finally looked at me. He didn’t share Thierry’s ability to have an expressionless face. Every em
otion he was feeling, every thought he was thinking, was etched into his features.

  Unless he was just an amazing actor. Maybe that would be easier for me to stomach.

  “I didn’t kill anyone,” he told me quietly.

  “Don’t be so modest,” Peter said. “You know, Quinn, I think your father’s all wrong about you. I think you’ll make a great leader one day. You’re not afraid to make the hard decisions, go after the difficult kill.” His gaze slid over to me. “No matter how good she is in the sack.”

  Amy poked Peter in the arm with the rest of her bread stick. “I honestly don’t know what you’re babbling about, pooky, but did you just insult my friend? I don’t think I like that very much.”

  “Amy…” I rose from the table. Quinn was staring out the window again. Either feeling major guilt or major denial. He could sort that out on his own. I was through. “I’m going to the bathroom.”

  “Okay.” Amy stood up and grabbed her bag.

  I’d slipped the butter knife into my small beaded purse just in case I needed a weapon later. I know, my choice of weapons did lean toward the nonlethal culinary variety, but it was better than nothing. I made a mental note to invest in another can of pepper spray.

  I swung the ladies’ room door open and we went inside. I did a quick stall check to make sure we were all alone.

  “I don’t really need to pee,” Amy said. “I just wanted to apologize for Peter. I don’t think he’s going to be the one, after all. I don’t know why he’s acting so weird.”

  “I know why.” I felt tense and watched Amy inspect her makeup in the mirror while I stood with my shoulder against the door to prevent anyone from entering.

  “You do?”

  “Yeah. I need to tell you something, Amy. Something I should have told you already.”

  “What?”

  I took a deep breath. “I’m a vampire.”

  Amy stared at me for a moment. “Huh?”

  “A vampire. A creature of the night.”

  She continued to stare at me blankly.

  I sighed heavily. “Dracula, Lestat, Angel, you know? Blood drinking, no other food, live forever and still look good… slightly pasty, pointy-toothed… vampire.”