by Liz Schulte
“I’m the one you are searching for.” Thomas held his arms out wide in a universal nonthreatening gesture. A cough tore from the center of him, doubling him over as he clung to the wall with one hand.
Everything in me stuttered to a halt. I had never seen a vampire cough. They couldn’t get sick. They were the undead—emphasis on dead. They didn’t even breathe. The coughing kept on ripping through him, sounding more and more like bits of his unused lungs might come up. After several minutes, he regained control and slowly stood erect, eyes glowing bright red and his shoulders hunched. “I bet you didn’t see that coming.”
I was to him in about three steps, drew back my arm, and punched him right in the face. What an idiot. “You’re being glib? You’ve killed at least eight people. Your actions threaten to reveal the Abyss to humans.” Thomas wasn’t dumb. He probably knew I would never be sent here to look into human murders, but if he killed enough paranormal creatures, then… “Did you kill the ghoul and the elf and the bounty hunters as well?”
He didn’t reply. Instead he snapped his nose back into place.
“Damn it, Thomas. It’s too late for my help. You think that Corbin hunting you is a bitch, wait until the council wants you dead or locked up… Wait, that’s already what they want. That’s why I am here. I am either to kill the culprit or neutralize it, but don’t worry, because you’ve got jokes.” I was tempted to punch him again, but instead I poked him in the chest with my fingernail.
He looked up at me, eyes even redder than before. “Don’t touch me again,” he growled. “Are you trying to get killed? I am hanging on by a thread. Do not provoke it. I don’t want to hurt you—not you.”
“If bullshit were a language, you’d be fluent. You’ve lived with being a vampire for how long? And now one full moon and suddenly you’re killing everyone in your path. I’m not buying it. You know how to resist urges. At least, you damn well should. Have you gone completely mad?”
He moved out of my reach. “This isn’t like being a vampire. I lose time. I don’t remember anything that happens after I change. I don’t know how many people I have killed or who they were. When I wake up, there is almost always a new body found somewhere. And the transformations have nothing to do with the moon. I could transform right now, if I was pushed. The beast can smell you, Femi. It wants to taste your blood.” His eyes grew brighter. “It’s you more than the others.”
“I will kill you,” I told him.
He nodded. “That’s why I brought you here. Maybe you can help me control it.”
“What do you mean brought me here?”
“Tonight, with the boy,” he said. I nodded. “Believe it or not, I don’t actually enjoy indiscriminatingly killing people.”
The Abyss killings weren’t those of someone who was crazed or rabid or out of control. Each slice, each bite, each piece had been left with a purpose in mind. Whoever it was wanted all of this to be found. There was a message of some sort, I was sure of it, but for the life of me, I couldn’t understand what it meant. The human deaths were out of control, except for three of them. Then again, this was Thomas we were talking about. The best lies were always based in partial truth.
I crossed my arms. “Why shouldn’t I kill you? End all of this right now. The case would be solved, the vampires would get off my ass, and everyone would be happy.”
Eyes blue again, he looked even more tired than before. “I can’t give you a good reason not to do exactly that. Hell, I deserve it. If the situations were reversed, I’d probably do the same to you.” He blinked a couple times, staring off into nothing. “But I am counting on the fact that you are a better person than me. I came to you for help because I am scared and I don’t have anyone else. You’re the only friend I have, Femi.”
“You don’t have me.” I didn’t try to keep the annoyance out of my voice.
“I know. I also know the kind of person you are, and even though I would betray you in a heartbeat, you won’t do the same to me or you already would have done it.”
Turn him in and finish this, the practical voice in my mind said. But at the same time, another voice was there. If you don’t keep digging, you’ll never know the truth.
“Where were you before this?” I asked.
He shook his head slightly. “I can’t tell you.” Why did I even bother? I pulled out my cell phone. His hand snapped out, covering mine. “Who are you calling?”
“You want my help. You’re going to take what you can get.” I waited for him to let me go before I dialed.
Dempsey answered on the fourth ring. “Yeah.”
“Hey, it’s Femi. When you were a loup-garou, did you black out?”
He didn’t answer right away.
I shifted beneath Thomas’s unrelenting stare.
“No. I remember it all. I remember the anger and the hatred for everything and everyone I saw. It took everything I had to keep myself from being a monster all the time.” His voice got very soft. “I can still hear their screams.”
I felt a wave of sympathy for him. “I’m sorry.”
“Is that all?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Talk to you tomorrow.”
The other end of the line went dead.
This was more than a case for him. He’d lost everything. If we did find a way to break the curse, what would Dempsey have left? Right now, chasing this ever-changing monster was probably what got him out of bed in the morning. If I took that away, what would happen to him? I pushed the thoughts to the back of my mind and refocused. “You’re telling me that you black out and then wake up and someone is dead.” He nodded. “How long has it been happening?”
“Since I got to New Orleans.”
I nodded. “And when was that?”
“I came here when I heard you were coming here.”
Lie, but I let it go—for now. “How were you cursed?”
He sank into the small loveseat. “There was a deal that I was a part of, but before everything had been arranged, the other party lost his mind and turned into a werewolf. He attacked me and I held him off, but it was stronger than me and its teeth sank into my shoulder. I grabbed it by the head and broke its neck.” He pulled the collar of his shirt to the left to show me the unhealed wound. “It was the longest night of my life waiting to turn into that rabid dog, but it never happened. I thought I made it out. Then the next day something happened and I got mad. The beast took over. I thought I had it under control, but the moment I set foot in this city, everything changed.”
“And you came here for my help?” I asked.
He nodded.
“But the problem with that is, if you had it under control, then why come to me at all? All you had to do was wait it out and it would pass on to someone else.”
“It’s hard enough to stay hidden as I am. With this thing happening to me, the vampires will be able to find me. They will be able to track me.”
If a single piece of his story meshed with Dempsey’s, I might have been able to believe it, but it didn’t. It never did with Thomas. Only one thing he’d said reminded me of something Corbin had mentioned. Thomas said that he didn’t come until he found out I was here. Corbin had said he was seen here the same night I was assigned the case. Either Thomas knew the moment it was assigned to me or he was lying. The only way he could have known was if he had a source on the council. “You didn’t get here after me, did you?”
The corners of his mouth turned down. “I got here two days before you. I knew you were coming though, so it’s basically the same thing.”
“You couldn’t have,” I said. It was impossible that he knew. I didn’t even know. “If you can’t be honest, then I don’t know what you expect me to do.”
Thomas gave me an impatient look. “Well, if you know all the answers, why are you asking me questions? I mean, obviously the great Femi couldn’t be wrong. She says I couldn’t have, then I guess I didn’t. Why don’t you tell me when I came here? I’m sure you are right.”
I glared at him. “Fine
. Let’s say it was two days before me because you knew where I would be, as implausible as that is. What do you want from me? Be specific.”
“I want you to break the curse, but I don’t want to die. So lock me up, do what you have to do, but keep me off the street and away from the vampires until it runs its course. Then I will leave and I promise you will not see me again.”
“What are the odds,” I said. “How did you know?”
“I can’t tell you,” he said. “If I could I would. Please just promise to help me.” His eyes pleaded with me. “You will never see me again. I swear.”
Him gone from my life was what I told myself I wanted. And it was, but for some reason him using it as a bargaining chip made me doubt that.
He raised an eyebrow when I didn’t reply. “Unless you want to see me again, that is.” He reached out, brushing his hand against mine. “It was good between us. It could be again.” His eyes rose up to mine.
I was already shaking my head. I was positive that wasn’t what I wanted. “Never seeing you again sounds fine.”
If Thomas had a source on the council, it had to be Leilah. She was the one behind sending me here, but what would a dragon want with one outlaw vampire? The two of them didn’t make sense. He didn’t have any real power. There was nothing he could do to further her agenda, whatever it might be.
“I’ll leave it entirely up to you,” he said. “But you might surprise yourself, Femi. You might find that despite all of your plans, I am still the adventure you crave.”
“Craving something doesn’t make it good for me. It’s a lesson you taught me.” The words sparked the memory, and his eyes darkened as his tongue ran over his bottom lip as he took half a step close to me.
“Since when has life ever been about doing what’s good for you?” He breathed the words into my ear, fingers trailing down my arm.
For just a moment I let the temptation wash over me, remembering the way he had touched me. The way his lips felt against mine. It was one night. Why couldn’t I let this go? He also fed on me, stole countless years from my life because I was too naïve to know vampires fed by touch. The intoxicating pull of him that night had nothing to do with chemistry and everything to do with him feeding on my life. I turned my face so my nose pressed against his cheek as he twined his fingers in mine.
“If you ever touch me again, I will cut off your balls. Then you can tell me all about how life isn’t about doing what’s good for you.”
He released me at once, taking a step back. “So long as you are still mad at me, Femi, there will always be a chance for us. I won’t give up.”
“Then prepare yourself for a frustrating life.” I pulled out a knife from my belt and flipped it with my fingers as I thought about what he had told me and everything he hadn’t. “I can’t help you if you keep lying to me.”
“You’ll manage,” he said with a wink.
I threw the knife, sticking it in the wall an inch from his head. “The thing is that I don’t have to manage. You want my help. It’s not the other way around. So I’m going to go and you’re going to stay here and think long and hard about how you can make my life easier. Then if you’re lucky, I’ll come back.”
“Where are you going?” he asked, catching my arm as I pulled the knife from the wall.
“I’m going to talk to the only other person I know who has been a loup-garou. I’m going to figure out what in the hell is happening here. That’s my main priority. I’m helping you”—I poked just below his collarbone with a sharpened nail—“only because you might be the key to figuring out all of these murders. So stay inside and stay off everyone’s radar. You understand?”
He nodded. “What am I supposed to do until you come back?”
“Maybe use that time to think about what you’re doing with your life. And try not to have a furry relapse before I get back.”
“Easier said than done.”
I gave him a sweet smile. “You’ll manage.” I slammed the door behind me.
I hated vampires. I hated how they complicated everything and thought they could charm their way out of the truth. I also hated that I hadn’t called Corbin to tell him Thomas was here immediately after I found him. Most of all, though, I absolutely loathed the fact that what I had to do next felt a lot like betrayal.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and stared at the screen as I walked. Finally, I dialed the number.
“Where are you?” Corbin answered.
“Why? Did you miss me in the building tonight? You should have just bashed me over the head again.”
He was quiet for a moment. “I wasn’t a part of the raid. It was Paolo. He sensed you were close and sent people in, but obviously they didn’t find you.”
“Obviously,” I echoed, my stomach twisting.
“I told you to call Sy. He has dealt with Paolo before. He wouldn’t blatantly go against the elf’s wishes.”
“Sy can’t help me with this,” I said.
“You were lucky this time. I wouldn’t count on it twice. Also, I wouldn’t go back to your hotel. You need his help whether or not you want it.” Corbin sounded vaguely, but legitimately, concerned.
I pressed my lips together hard before I closed my eyes and said, “How much time would Thomas buy me?”
“Where are you?” he asked, suddenly less worried and infinitely more alert.
“How much time?” I repeated slowly.
“You give them Thomas, and they have no need for you. It should end all of this,” he said.
Having no need for me could go one of two ways. “As in they leave me alone or they kill me?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “It doesn’t matter. Where you are. Meet me at your car. I’ll be waiting.” He hung up.
Corbin was the wild card. I needed him or I was never going to finish my case, but trusting him was a whole different story. My instincts were no help in this matter. Given a choice between believing Thomas or Corbin, I’d choose Corbin. He had earned at least that. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t flip sides the moment he thought it would help him more. But so long as I kept that in mind, I would be okay. Probably.
Chapter 13
