by Jade White
“I’ll get him,” he said softly.
Kim didn’t respond, she just knelt on the ground, crying.
I am a freak. I’m a monster. What the hell was that? She’d never been a violent person, but she’d never been so angry in her life. Why did everything intensify around him? She couldn’t get his expression out of her mind – he’d never looked afraid in front of her before, and she never wanted to see it again.
You won’t, she thought mournfully. He’s leaving. He’s definitely leaving now.
She managed to slow her tears by the time Luke came back in. Surprisingly, he walked over to her, lifting her from the glass with both hands and carrying her to the couch. Kim looked up at him as he set her down, not daring to trust his sudden tenderness. This guy changes tact like the fucking wind.
He brushed her hair from her eyes and kissed her temple softly. Kim felt a shiver of delight roll through her despite herself, and she swung her legs over his lap, desperate to be close to him. It was like three months had passed without contact, instead of just three days.
“You’re right,” he said finally. “I can’t predict the future. I shouldn’t be thrusting assumptions on you. I have to trust your word just as you trust mine.”
Kim blinked. “I threw you,” she said thickly.
Luke smiled faintly. “Yeah, you did.”
She looked at him seriously, unsure how genuine his flippancy was. “Are you hurt?”
Luke chuckled. “God, no. Don’t get me wrong – you’re stronger than a human should be, obviously. I’m sure it’s the bond.” He looked at her, a sense of curiosity in his gaze. “But it wasn’t hard enough to hurt me. You just shocked me, is all.”
Kim gripped the lapels of his jacket. Something that had been growing in the back of her mind for a week finally felt ripe enough to spring from her lips. “Luke. Is there something in your past that makes you not want to do this?”
Luke didn’t seem surprised by the question, but he was clearly uncomfortable. “Is that what’s been bothering you? My hesitancy?”
Kim nodded. “Well, yeah. For one, it’s not any girl’s dream to be jerked around like this. Also, Su...someone told me that vampires usually jump at the chance to be with humans, even casually.”
Luke smiled, amused. “I know your best friend means well, but I’m afraid that’s a stereotype. There are vampires that fetishize humans, just like there are humans who fetishize us, but I’m not one of those vampires.”
“Okay,” Kim said. “So...what about you? Do you have something against humans?”
“Not exactly.” A shadow passed Luke’s eyes. He took her hands and held them in his. “Kim…”
A shrill ringing noise interrupted his speech. Dammit, Kim thought.
“Dammit!” Luke pulled his phone out, and his apologetic tone seemed genuine. “I’m sorry, vampire business. That’s the boss’ ring.”
Kim swung her legs to the floor as he stood and walked to the kitchen, muttering into his phone rapidly. She wanted to follow and listen – then remembered that her senses had been growing sharper since she met Luke. Maybe I don’t need to follow. She strained to hear, but was only able to catch a few words.
“...outpost...second time...kiwi…”
Kim frowned. None of that means anything to me.
“...heart...pronto…busy...girlfriend…”
That word meant something. Her heart did a wobble of happiness in her chest. He mentioned me!
Her joy deflated when he came back into the room. His face was a mask of terror, and his voice was frantic. What now?
“Dougie is dead,” he said bluntly. His mouth twisted in anguish, and Kim’s heart broke for him.
“Dead?” she echoed. “But--”
“I have to go,” he said hollowly. “I’m sorry, babe, I have to. He didn’t die in a battle or of natural causes or anything like that. This is bad, and it might even be dangerous.”
Kim ran to the door before he could reach it. “You told me you wouldn’t leave me out of the loop again,” she said sternly. “What’s going on? And if you’re in danger, I want to come with you.”
Luke looked like he was going to say no, but he seemed to decide there was no time to argue. “Okay, but the baby--”
“Suzanna can be here in five minutes,” Kim said stubbornly. “I can tell something is going on that you’re not telling me about. We just had our first fight, and I need to prove to you I’m not going to run when things get sticky.”
Luke looked touched, but the mountain of fear was still there. She fired off a text requesting her best friend’s assistance and looked him solidly in his eye. “I’m going to change. Stay here. When Suzanna gets here, you’re taking me with you. You can brief me in the car.”
Ten minutes later, Kim was speeding down the highway, almost wishing she’d stayed out of the loop.
“So,” she said slowly. “You’ve been training your group against an enemy...that you don’t know exists?”
“We know it exists now,” Luke said impatiently. “Vampires started dropping dead a few months ago with no clear cause of death, and at first, we thought it was a new plague.”
“Vampires have plagues?”
“Yes,” he said, exasperated. “Just like humans, we can get sick. Then it started happening to specific vampires. Powerful ones, ones in line to be president of their territory.”
“And they were all….like Dougie?” Kim asked weakly. “Completely bloodless with no sign of puncturing?”
“Yeah. Turn here.”
Kim turned onto a dirt road not far from where she’d come upon Luke’s band of vampires fighting. They were going to one of their outposts – buildings that used to be used when vampires had feuds with others vampires, or even with other creatures. This one was a nondescript shack, Luke said, like most of the ones out west; some of them even looked like outhouses, meant for only one vampire at a time.
“This outpost was used for storage?” she asked again.
“Most of them are,” Luke said. “They’re guarded by magic so humans and non-vampires can’t cross the threshold, but there’s only stores of blood and a few living essentials in there. Some outposts have weapons, but nothing illegal.”
Kim’s headlights finally found the dusty brown building, roughly twenty feet long with a low, sloped roof badly in need of repair. The curly haired woman – Sonia--was standing outside of it, arms crossed in front of her as she awaited their arrival.
“Are you sure it’s okay to be here?” Kim asked nervously. “For me, I mean?”
Luke turned and gave her shaky smile. “Are you afraid of Sonia? She’s harmless, I promise.”
“You said she’s stronger than you,” Kim protested. She didn’t mention the look of disdain Sonia had shot her the last time they met.
Luke laughed. “She’s about fifty years older than me, so she’s stronger. Not by much, though.” He squeezed one of her hands. “If you can handle me, you can handle Sonia.”
They got out of the car, and Sonia nodded curtly to Kim before turning to Luke.
“Are you ready? I removed the barrier, so she can come in if you think she handle it.”
Kim bristled, unhappy with being spoken about instead of spoken to.
“I can handle it,” she said tersely. Sonia looked at her in surprise, then smiled.
“Well, you really are spunky, aren’t you?” she asked. “Let’s go then.”
As they entered the shack, Kim was less sure that she could handle it. Dougie was lying flat on his back, his left arm bent over his head, his right bent back behind his body. His legs were at odd angles on the dirty floor, and his eyes were open. Those were the least unsettling details, Kim thought. The rest was harder to take in, but she kept looking as Luke and Sonia bent over his body and began to talk quietly.
His skin wasn’t white, it was gray--the color of ash as it tumbled from the end of a burning cigarette. Kim watched Luke touch Dougie’s face, and the flesh was hard and unyielding
, almost waxy in its appearance. His chestnut eyes were no longer flecked with gold; in fact, they were solidly brown, with no hint of an iris or even the white that should have been surrounding them. Kim felt bile claw up her throat, and she fought to breath around it.
“Look at his tongue,” Sonia said.
Kim’s eyes drifted to Dougie’s open mouth. There was a small flap of pink flesh a few inches behind his teeth, ragged and raw. What tongue? She felt dizzy.
“It’s gone,” Luke said, his voice hushed. “Like the others.”
The two vampires looked at each other over the body, and understanding passing between them.
“So it’s probably a message,” Sonia said, talking more to herself than to Luke. “The others were also vampires who had voiced their suspicions. Clark in Anaheim, Alicia in Rockford, even Dale had been building a line of defense with the handful of vampires in Black Oak.”
“This isn’t something you can fight, though,” Luke said softly. “This isn’t a normal hit man. There’s no sign of trauma beside the tongue, and that was taken post-mortem.” He paused. “How is he doing it?”
Sonia shook her head. “We don’t even know it’s a he, or even if it takes a humanoid form. This could be a demon.”
Kim felt as though she were going to faint.
Luke shook his head. “We’d feel it if it were a spirit. They always leave footprints.”
“True,” Sonia said. “Werewolves leave clues, too. It’s not a chimaera, not messy enough.”
Chimaera? Maybe I should have stayed home. This was the first dead body she’d ever seen in real life, but the novelty was fading fast.
Luke stood and passed a hand over his eyes. “We have to double our patrols. Make sure no one is out here after dark, that’s when all the hits happen. Tell other bands in other cities, maybe they can send along other information we missed. And tell Anton, he’s our third in command. He should be caught up before the others.”
Sonia nodded, still gazing at Dougie. “I already called him.” Her eyes were growing misty. Kim looked away; Luke had told her he and Dougie had known each other for decades, and Dougie had been Sonia’s lover at one point. All he’d ever done for her was break and then attempt to repair her car. Sharing their grief felt too intrusive.
Sonia took a shaky breath. “Okay, Luke. I just wanted to know if you saw what I saw.”
“I do,” he said solemnly. “We have a serial killer on our hands.”
Sonia’s full lips disappeared into a line. “Son of a bitch. We finally get out into the open and it turns out someone’s been waiting for this all along.” She shook her head and looked at Luke, then at Kim for the first time in ten minutes. “Hey, you guys should go on back home. I’m okay.”
“We still have to notify the human police,” Luke protested.
Sonia shrugged. “Yeah, but here comes Anton, anyway.”
Kim looked over her shoulder to find the redheaded vampire she’d seen fighting Dougie barreling toward the shack. That fight seemed like it was years ago. It seemed impossible that someone she just met was dead, let alone a vampire whose body had destroyed her engine without harming himself at all. She turned back around and was alarmed to find Sonia openly weeping, her slim face covered in tears.
Luke touched her back gently. “Come on. We have to give her some space.”
They got back into the car and drove away in silence. Kim kept shooting Luke nervous glances, but he didn’t meet her eyes until they got back into the city proper. When they were nearly back at her apartment, he finally turned his body toward her.
“Still don’t think you’re going to run?”
Kim glared at him, then turned back to the road. “I’m not going to run, Luke. I love you.”
He was silent for so long that when she pulled into her parking spot, she expected to turn and find him gone. He wasn’t of course – but he was looking at her with a mixture of awe and exuberance.
“What?” Kim asked.
He smiled, then, a beautiful, genuine smile that broke apart the sheet of ice that had been covering her heart. “You said it before, but it was kind of knocked out of my head when you threw me. But you said it again just now. Do you mean it?”
Kim stared at him, trying to work out what he was talking about. She ran through what she’d just said in her head, and a blush of color spread across her cheeks. “Oh.”
Luke took her hand in his. “Do you mean it?”
“Of course I mean it,” Kim said. “Can’t you tell? I’m crazy about you, Luke. Bond or no bond, this is real.” Her heart was hammering so hard it felt like it would leave an imprint on her ribcage. “What about you?”
Luke brought her hand to his lips, and his grey eyes shimmered when he spoke. “Yes. I’m in love with you.”
Kim grinned and dove across the armrest, smothering his face in kisses. Luke unbuckled her seat belt and pulled her to his lap, laughing as he returned her kisses.
“I love you,” she said again breathlessly.
Luke kissed her nose. “I love you, too.”
It was the first time she’d said it to anyone. Of all the firsts she’d had that night, she decided, it was certainly her favorite.
Chapter Six
Kim hardly saw Luke over the next two weeks. He came by briefly most evenings to check in with her and see Evan, but there was no time to celebrate their first relationship hurdle, or even acknowledge it. Kim was having trouble dealing with both the enormity of her feelings for him and the alleged serial killer targeting vampires; all the areas of her life had started to overflow and spill into each other. She found herself venting to people she didn’t normally confide in – meaning she was seeing a lot more Daisy.
Her sister-in-law was being far less judgmental than she had proven to be in the past. She listened patiently to Kim’s fretful questions about babies, boyfriends and stress, giving out surprisingly sober advice almost every time.
“It’s normal to be scared,” Daisy said after dinner one evening, pushing a toothpick through the gap in her front teeth. “You’re not sure if you’re doing the right thing. Just listen to your heart, and remember to do what’s best for the baby.”
Kim suspected much of the change in demeanor was due to Evan. She was somewhat disappointed that Daisy wasn’t that interested in keeping her company, but she could accept and appreciate that the baby was more important to her. She was also making an effort to be less chilly to Luke when he came by, though she always left as soon as he came by, and didn’t return until the next morning.
“When this over, we won’t need her anymore,” Luke promised one night. They were lying in bed after making love; Evan was at Daisy’s house for his first sleepover.
“I’ll watch him when you’re at work.” He paused, looking bashful as he continued. “You know...you can move in with me if you want.”
Kim smiled. “She will come around, Luke.”
Luke snorted.
Kim decided to let it go – partially because she was starting to doubt it herself. “You know what? Normally I’d freak out about being asked to move in after a month of dating. Right now, though, I just want to say yes.”
“Then say yes,” Luke murmured as he buried his face in her hair. “Where’s that impulsive streak I’ve come to love?”
Kim laughed and shoved him playfully. “You’re not gonna love it when leads to me redecorating the entire place, or selling my car and buying a scooter.”
Luke raised his eyebrows. “Would you do that?”
“I’ve done it twice in my lifetime already,” she admitted. “But I don’t think Evan would like it much.”
The now familiar warble of Luke’s cell phone shattered their lazy bliss. Luke stood up from the couch’s pull-out bed and slipped his shirt over his head before he answered.
He’s expecting bad news, Kim realized. That’s not healthy...but it’s come every night now, so I guess it’s the safe bet.
Luke closed his eyes and exhaled heavily. “
Shit. Shit, shit shit. Shit.” He hung up and looked at the ground for a moment before meeting Kim’s eye.
“What?”
Luke opened his mouth, then closed it. He gulped and tried again, and his voice was hoarse. “It’s Anton.”
Kim stood and walked over to him, gazing up at his sorrowful gray eyes as she cradled his face. She knew Anton was the third strongest member of their vampire pack, so this meant the killer was stronger than they thought. There goes our night, she thought, then immediately regretted being so selfish. “Luke, I’m so sorry.”
He wrapped one of his arms around her waist and put his other hand on top of hers.
“He was expecting a baby, too, did you know that? Natalie had just gotten pregnant.” His eyes were brimming with pain. “Ryan and his half-human wife Vicky had a six-month old. Leshaun had just found out Hilda was having twins. Dougie was on his second kid.”
Kim nodded. “I remember you telling me. I’m sorry those babies will never know both of their parents.”
“We checked with the other towns, too,” he continued. “Same story with all the deaths so far. Not all the towns have reported back, but I’d bet anything I know what we’ll hear.”
Kim stared at him, unsure where he was going with his speech.
Luke’s face had hardened. “Kim. You can’t come with me anymore.”
She thought he was joking at first. “Uh, no. That’s not an option.”
He pulled away from her, retreating so quickly she was still grasping at air when he stopped moving. “Kim, we have a pattern now. All the vampires killed were either parents or had babies on the way. Sonia wants me to come out to this site, because there’s something different about it, but this feels like a trap. I won’t have us both walk into a trap, Kim. Evans needs at least one parent.”
In the back of her mind, she could tell he was making sense; as usual, however, being near him had driven her emotions into hyperdrive, and all she could feel was panic.
“I’m coming with you, Luke,” she said angrily. “You can’t stop me.”
