Time Will Tell

by Chloe Garner

  “Your time is much too important,” he said. “The twisted thing is that you’d end up asking me to do it.”

  “Your time’s value is measured in the thousands of dollars per hour,” Tina said. “Hard to compete with that.”

  “Just money,” he answered.

  “Easy to say when you have it,” she told him, and she heard him smile again.

  He picked up her hand and wrapped his fingers through hers.

  “You play in the deep end on your first time out,” he said quietly. “I don’t like that Tell enables that, but I’m not going to get in the way.”

  “Are you going to pout?” Tina asked.

  “Maybe a little,” he said. “I like you. Is that so unforgivable?”

  “You almost missed talking to me at all tonight,” she said. “Morning…”

  “I know,” he said. “And the two of you up on your crusading horses, there’s no talking you out of any of it. I know. But someday I’m going to get out of here and be able to travel the world again, and I’d really like to be able to do that with you.”

  “Like, that I not be dead,” Tina said.

  “That,” he answered. “And… I don’t want you to be human again.”

  He hadn’t said it before, but she’d known.

  She’d known.

  And yet.

  “You said that it was simpler with humans,” she said. “That with vampires it’s all politics.”

  “I lied,” he answered, running his thumb across her knuckles. “It’s always politics, and mostly that’s just me.”

  “I’m not convinced you lied so much as that you live in denial that it really is all you,” she said. Her ability to smile was even gone. Words would not come much longer.

  “You know me so well,” he teased.

  “I love you,” she said. Now or never.

  There was a long silence, and she wished dearly, more than anything she could remember, that she could have looked over to see is face.

  He kissed her cheekbone, just in front of her ear, a cool blossom of sensation there on the side of her face, and he settled in closer so that the length of his arm lay against hers.

  “I don’t know what those words mean, anymore,” he answered. “But I’m willing to work at learning it again.”

  She swallowed.

  Her words were gone.

  He rolled his temple against hers for a moment, then shifted again so that his head was balanced on a pillow comfortably.

  “Rest well, sweetheart,” he said.

  Veronica was waiting downstairs when Tina finally regained her ability to move the next night. Hunter had been up and about for most of two hours, but he’d stayed in the room, just fidgeting at this or that, straightening and putting away, or reading a book, taping on his phone. At one point he’d gotten onto his computer, but after a brief flurry of typing that sounded like it was a rather hostile conversation, he’d put that back away and returned to the bed on his phone again.

  Tina sat up, stretching her wrists and looking around at how dark the room was.

  “Life with no sunlight,” she said. “Do you really want all black to go with it?”

  “It’s a style choice,” Hunter said without looking up from his phone. “And the chicks dig it.”

  “Oh, I bet they do,” Tina said. “You ready?”

  “Thought you might want to go, like, change and stuff,” he said, indicating the door. “Seeing as you’re still in sleepover mode and not actually moved in.”

  He dropped his phone on the bed and rolled over toward her, putting a hand behind her neck and kissing her, slow, deep, for just a moment. He let his nose stay there rested against hers for a moment longer, then he sat up again.

  “You’ve got a busy day, as I recall.”

  “They’re all busy,” Tina answered. “Stop sulking.”

  “Stop taking risks that are going to get you killed,” he said. “Oh, wait, that isn’t going to happen, is it?”

  He was playful again, today, easy, and Tina went to lean her shoulder against his for a moment, appreciating that she could do it without there being some idea that she was breaking an unspoken agreement, or that she was sacrificing a dignity to do it. Hers or his.

  Geez, they were complicated.

  “Don’t keep the working girl waiting,” he said after another minute. “She charges by the hour and by the pint.”

  Tina nodded, standing.

  “I’m pretty serious about this room,” she said. “It’s abysmal.”

  “Yours is better,” he admitted. “Everything except that bed. This one is awesomer.”

  She actually agreed with him.

  Twisted her mouth to the side.

  “You looking to avoid your investors for a bit tonight?” she asked.

  “Sellers,” he said. “They need a couple of hours to stew, yes.”

  “You want to take a crack at trading them?” she asked, and he grinned.

  “Now that would make a twisted pair of rooms. How did we not see that before?”

  She smiled and touched his face, then left, going downstairs.

  “How did you do without the feed?” Tell asked from the kitchen.

  “Didn’t notice a lot of difference,” Tina told him, getting a bowl of cereal for breakfast.

  It was an affectation, a habit, but she liked it, and Tell had eaten plenty of cereal since she’d moved in, so she wasn’t going to apologize for it.

  “You want to wait until after breakfast to do this?” Tell asked. Tina shook her head, setting the bowl down and turning to look at Veronica, who was intently on her phone.

  “You ought to get the luxury of a real breakfast, as long as you’re doing this,” she said.

  He nodded, putting away his computer and coming to stand next to her. Veronica put down her phone.

  “Not quite as complicated as last time,” she said.

  “Kirsten paying you enough to stay safe?” Tell asked, going to stand at the end of the couch where the Nag was sitting.

  “I know what I’m doing,” Veronica said. “Though she’s going to some pretty serious ends to get me in and out of here without someone deciding they’d rather I be dead.”

  “Yeah,” Tell said. “We’re kind of in the thick of it here.”

  “Less time I spend here, the better, as far as I’m concerned,” Veronica said, raising an eyebrow. “If you’re done pretending to be concerned about me?”

  “Right,” he said, sitting next to her.

  Tina wasn’t sure what to expect. She’d never seen Tell lose control of himself save the time he’d fed on Veronica, but he’d also been in really bad shape at the time, with several bullet holes in him that Veronica had healed with her own blood just before that.

  He was civilized to begin with, the way he was with all of the fountains, but the same odd transformation happened as he sat there, his mouth on the Nag’s neck. He pushed her down onto the couch, unpleasantly, and then the two of them fell onto the floor as he continued to try to pull her under him.

  It wasn’t sexual.

  It was always sexual, but this wasn’t anything of the kind. This was a predator feeding on prey. A hungry predator who was jealous of his meal.

  Veronica squealed in a short burst of pain as she hit the floor, but she put an arm up to signal that Tina should leave well enough alone.

  Tina waited, on edge, until Tell sat up onto his knees, wiping his mouth with the back of his arm.

  “I hate that,” he said. “Are you okay?”

  “I need to go take care of it,” Veronica said. “It’s no worse than it ever is.”

  “Tina can help you,” Tell said, rolling his way up onto the couch. “I’m sorry.”

  His heart beat.

  It was such a strange sound.

  A vampire’s heartbeats were long, long gaps apart, and they were a slow throb, the muscle contracting one compartment of the heart at a time, almost deliberately, whereas the human heart was a convulsion, the
two paired compartments spasming almost at the same time.

  Tina went to Veronica, helping her up, and the woman waved her off, heading for the bathroom across the hallway from the den.

  “He needs you more than I do.”

  Tina went to sit next to Tell, just taking up the very end of the couch as he lay draped awkwardly across the rest of it.

  “This part was really hard, last time,” she said.

  “No easier this time,” he said. Shuddered.

  “What can I do?” she asked.

  He shook his head.

  “Don’t feel too sorry for me,” he said. “That only makes it worse.”

  He struggled to roll over onto his back, looking up at her.

  “You may as well start taking your samples,” he said. “No telling what’s going to be useful and what isn’t, when it’s all over.”

  Tina nodded, going up to her room to get the blood vials and working out in her head how many of them she could do at what intervals while still leaving herself plenty of margin to draw more blood once he was fully human again.

  Disposing of these was going to be involved.

  Or she could just burn them really, really hot.

  Right?

  That had to work.

  Smallpox couldn’t survive fire.

  Surely not.

  She took the vials back downstairs and sat on the floor in front of Tell, swabbing his arm.

  “Here,” he said as she hesitated. He knew his way around needles and blood, and he’d done all of her samples before, as well, but she hadn’t intended to ask him to do them now.

  He was struggling to focus, she could tell, and at one point he just put his head to the side, his teeth gritted, as he waited for something to pass, but he eventually got the needle into his arm and Tina got her blood.

  “Every other hour,” she said quietly. He nodded.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Veronica asked, coming back into the room as Tina stood up again.

  “Science,” Tina answered. Veronica came to look down at Tell with a cool expression.

  The nag looked over at Tina after a moment, then shook her head.

  “I’ll be leaving now,” she said. “Good night.”

  She went to the elevator and pushed the button, and Tina waited until the doors closed to look down at Tell.

  He didn’t appear to have registered what had just happened, but Hunter, standing on the bottom of the stairs, did.

  “Am I in trouble?” she asked, and he frowned after the Nag.

  “They’re touchy creatures,” he said. “A thousand years of being hunted down will do that to you. You ought to learn a lesson from her, actually. That’s you, in about a hundred years. I don’t know her specifically, because I’ve never hired a Nag, but Tell will have a guess whether she worked it out and what she’d do with that information.”

  “If you could figure out a cure from just Nag’s blood, someone would have done it by now, right?” Tina asked. “It’s always, by definition, temporary?”

  “You’d like to think it’s that simple,” Hunter answered. “But you never know. The world’s a big place.”

  “What do I do?” Tina asked.

  “Make sure he doesn’t suffocate on his own fluids,” Hunter said. “Keep him walking, when that’s what he needs. Circulation helps, sometimes. Other than that? Turn the music up loud to drown out the screaming.”

  Tina cringed and Hunter shrugged.

  “He likes being human. So he has that going for him. But he did it for you, and he did it voluntarily. I figure whatever happens, he’s got it coming.”

  “You’re a terrible friend,” Tina chided, and he shook his head, coming around to the front of the couch to look down at Tell.

  “No, I’m the friend who sticks around, even through all of this mess,” he answered, kneeling. “You’re going to want to go get some towels.”

  “What now?” Tina asked, and Hunter shook his head.

  “Don’t ask questions…”

  “… I don’t want the answers to,” Tina finished. “All right. What else can I do?”

  “Go get ready,” Hunter said. “You asked for this. You damned well better be ready to do whatever it is you want to do, when he comes through this.”

  Tina nodded, going to check her phone for texts from Vince. The equipment that she’d expected to be here by now wasn’t. There was nothing from Vince.

  She considered calling him, but it wasn’t like he was going to know anything about why things he didn’t have any control over hadn’t gotten here yet. Tina cast one more glance back at Tell, then went upstairs to get her computer and started tracking down her gear.

  They took turns tending Tell through the course of the night, and then at some point as morning was getting closer, Hunter stood to look at her.

  “You need to go feed,” he said. “We should have had Kirsten send over a second fountain this morning, but hindsight and all that. You should feed before tonight, and his blood is mostly human, now.”

  “What about you?” Tina asked. He shook his head.

  “I can get by on fridge blood for a couple weeks, if I have to,” he said. “Won’t make me the happiest vampire you’ve ever met, but it won’t hurt me. I doubt you’ve got that long, by the look of him.”

  Tina nodded, tipping her head to the side to look down at Tell again.

  Don’t feel sorry for him.

  Right.

  “Can I get you anything?” she asked. “Drive through burgers and fries?”

  Tell laughed darkly, his chest bubbling, and he lifted his head.

  “Two of everything,” he answered, and she nodded. Normally he was pale, but now his skin had a gray tone to it that scared her.

  “I’ll leave through the garage and come back through the garage, and I won’t go anywhere I normally go. I’ll call Kirsten and have her have someone meet me somewhere. All right? No one griping about me being unsafe.”

  “Watch for tails,” Tell said. “People following you.”

  Tina almost mocked him. She knew what a tail was.

  “Yeah,” she said.

  In truth, she probably wouldn’t have, if he hadn’t said something.

  “Anything else?” she asked.

  “If someone stops you, punch him hard in the face and run,” Hunter said.

  She rolled her eyes.

  “No one is going to stop me,” she said. “No one is going to follow me. I’m not that interesting.”

  “You are,” Tell said, struggling to sit up. “Even the Order might be willing to risk trying to grab you if they had a chance. We’re both plausible targets, and you are a path through to get to us. Be careful.”

  She spread her hands.

  “I’m going to go eat, and then I’m going through a drive-through. Don’t act like the world might end. I’ll see you guys in an hour.”

  She went down to the lobby, going over to Vince’s desk and lifting her chin.

  “Miss Matthews,” he said. “How are you?”

  “Looking for some advice,” she answered. “I’m a vampire. Just get that out there and said aloud. I need to go meet someone who I’m going to pay to let me feed off of them, but things upstairs are a little complicated, and the ninnies are afraid someone’s going to try to grab me while I’m out and use it against them.”

  “It has happened before, Miss,” Vince said, and she nodded.

  “Fair point. Anyway, I was wondering if you had anyone hanging around tonight who might be hungry. Whatever their interest, my treat.”

  Vince smiled.

  “I see,” he said. “I am loathe to stretch the resources of the building thin simply because someone might be willing to do a midnight run for junk food, but I imagine one of the Mendez family might be willing to take you up on it.”

  “Is that so?” Tina asked. He smiled again, nodding.

  “Let me call up and see if they’re awake.”

  Day dwellers.

  Oh, w
ell. Beggars and all that.

  “Miss Matthews from the penthouse is looking for a plus one for a quick run out for take out,” Vince said. “I thought that one of your boys might be interested.”

  “Make sure you say there’s some risk of a violent confrontation,” Tina said. Vince smiled at her and shook his head.

  “The Mendez’ live for that,” he said. “I believe they invented rugby.”

  Tina frowned, wondering if that was supposed to mean something specific to her, then Vince nodded at the phone again.

  “Yes, ma’am. She’s here in the lobby now and ready if they are.” He paused. “Yes, ma’am, I think that she would not mind if it turned into a plus-two.” He paused again. “Yes, ma’am. You, too.”

  He put his phone away under the desk and smiled once more.

  “I should warn you that the Mendez clan are rather insatiable. Something about their metabolisms. I assume that you aren’t offended at the consumption of commercial human food.”

  “No,” Tina said. “Not at all.”

  He tipped his head down, a little salute, and Tina turned to face the elevators. Moments later, the doors opened and two boys shaped like teenage football players came off one at a time. They wouldn’t have fit, trying to get out at once.

  “Gentlemen,” she said, hearing their hearts beat and their various systems chug and gurgle the way they did in a healthy body. “I’m Tina.”

  They shoved at each other, laughing about something that had happened before the elevator had opened, and the bigger one held out a hand to her.

  “Ricky Mendez,” he said. “This is my little brother Tommy.”

  “Not so little,” Tina said. “I want to be clear upfront. I’m interested in company tonight because I have friends who are concerned for my safety, outside of the building. There’s a religious order involved, as well as some assassin mercenaries, but they’re both after someone else.”

  “She just look like you?” Ricky asked, and Tommy laughed.

  “No,” Tina said. “Friends of mine. I’m not that interesting, but apparently everyone I know is.”

  Ricky twisted his mouth to the side in a jovial way, looking down his nose at her.

  “You look fine to me,” he said. “But you aren’t going out for the same food as us.”

  “No,” Tina said. “I’ll be meeting someone at a mall parking lot across town, first.”