A Quick Bite

by Lynsay Sands

  “He’s helping us escape some bad guys,” Greg told the second kid soothingly, his gaze moving to Lissianna. She was staring at the road ahead, concentrating as hard as if she were doing the driving herself, and he suspected she was. Greg had no doubt she was controlling the teenaged driver, just as her mother had controlled his own actions.

  Greg turned to glance up the driveway as the car flew past it. Tossing the bike up the drive had been a smart move. The red sports car was stopped at the foot of the driveway, the bicycle racked up under its front end. Marguerite and Lucian were just getting out to stare after them, two dark shapes in the gray predawn.

  Lissianna walked out of the ladies’ bathroom and peered around the food court, but Greg was nowhere in sight.

  They’d fled the house without either her purse or his wallet, though Lissianna hadn’t thought of that until after she’d had the boys drop them off at the Eaton Center. Her main concern had been that they hadn’t thought to grab coats and it was cold out. Eaton Center was right downtown. Large and always busy, it was also on the route of the Path, an underground walkway that linked almost thirty kilometers of stores and services in metropolitan Toronto. Coats weren’t necessary and sunlight could be easily avoided if you stayed to the lower levels. It was the perfect place for a coatless man and a vampire to hang out during the day while they figured out what to do next.

  Actually, the Eaton Center and the underground Path were the perfect places for a vampire to hang out, period. That was a small problem. Lissianna knew quite a few of her kind who worked down here, able to move about during daylight with little need to risk too much exposure to sunlight.

  Still, it had seemed the best bet, a safe haven until she figured out what to do. After discussing their next move, Lissianna and Greg had spent all morning wandering the walkways, stopping in various stores to look around, then moving on until Greg had commented with concern that she looked exhausted. Five minutes later he’d steered her to the food court and urged her to sit, but Lissianna had mentioned a wish to visit the ladies’ room and had slipped away to splash water on her face in the hopes of reviving herself.

  The water treatment hadn’t made her feel any better or more alert. Lissianna was exhausted, and that was all there was to it. It was afternoon, and she hadn’t slept at all today. After several days of only four or five hours of sleep a day, not getting any at all, but instead spending those five hours wandering around the Eaton Center trying to kill time, was wearing. And she hadn’t eaten since the morning before. While Thomas had fed her three bags then, it was well used up, and she was starting to suffer from the lack. She needed blood and sleep and wasn’t likely to get either for quite a while.

  Lissianna wasn’t the only one doing without, of course. Greg hadn’t eaten yet today either, but hadn’t complained. A sharp whistle drew her eyes to the center of the food court, and she felt relief flow through her as she spotted Greg waving at her from a table.

  “I was afraid I’d lost you,” Lissianna admitted as she dropped into the seat across from him, then paused and stared at the tray of food between them. “Where did you get this? I thought you didn’t have your wallet.”

  “I didn’t, but my office isn’t far from here and I’m a regular at that little deli over there.” He gestured toward a small restaurant, then continued, “The owners are a little, old married couple. Real nice. And because they know me, they let me get it on credit. They’re mailing the bill to my office. I told them to add a delivery charge for their trouble. They’re a decent couple.”

  “Oh.” Lissianna watched him unload soup and a sandwich as well as a drink before her.

  “Eat,” Greg ordered as he pulled the tray with his own soup, sandwich, and drink toward himself.

  “I don’t eat,” she said blankly.

  “Lissianna, I can’t get you blood, but food will help you build blood. It might help.”

  Grimacing, she accepted the spoon he offered and dipped it into the liquid to take an experimental mouthful. With the memory of Father Joseph’s soup in her mind, she took a rather small spoonful, but was pleasantly surprised. It was good.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “Cream of cauliflower and cheese.” Greg raised an eyebrow. “What do you think?”

  “It’s good,” she admitted. “I don’t think I’ve ever had this before.”

  He smiled, but merely concentrated on eating.

  After a couple of spoonfuls of soup, Lissianna tried the sandwich and found that rather good as well.

  “Smoked Montreal beef and mustard on rye,” Greg informed her before she could ask what the sandwich was.

  “It’s good, too,” she admitted, and they both fell silent as they ate. Lissianna finished long before he did. After years on a liquid diet, she simply didn’t have the capacity for a lot of food in her stomach. She barely managed half her soup and less than half of her sandwich. What she didn’t eat, Greg finished for her. Surprisingly enough, the food did make her feel a little better. More awake at least as they emptied the garbage from the tray into one of the bins, then set it on the stack of trays on top. They wandered the Path for a while after that, ending in the furniture section of a department store.

  “This is just about the ugliest couch I have ever seen.”

  Lissianna started to chuckle at Greg’s horrified expression which just made his eyebrows rise. “You don’t agree?”

  “Oh yes. It is ugly,” she assured him. “I’m just finding it amusing that our tastes match so well.”

  He smiled wryly. “I know. At first, I thought you were just agreeing to be agreeable.”

  Lissianna’s eyebrows rose, and she said, “I’m not Meredith.”

  “I know,” Greg said apologetically. “I stopped commenting for a while to try and catch you out, but you still liked and disliked the same things I did. I guess we just have the same taste.”

  “Classic,” Lissianna murmured, and when he arched an eyebrow, she explained. “I like timeless classics. Solid colors and timeless styles rather than patterns and styles that show their age after a while. I also like comfortable, cushiony furniture.”

  Greg grinned and nodded. “Classic. I wouldn’t have known to call it that, but it’s what I like, too.” His gaze slid past her shoulder and he grimaced, then took her arm to urge her forward. “Rabid salesman closing in.”

  “Rabid?” she asked with amusement.

  “They’re all rabid,” he said dryly, as they hurried to the safety of the escalator. “This one looks a little more eager than most.”

  Lissianna glanced back the way they’d come as she stepped onto the escalator, and felt her expression freeze as she spied the man in the dark suit hurrying after them.

  “What is it?” Greg asked, glancing back as well.

  “That’s not a salesman,” Lissianna gasped, then caught his hand and began to hurry down the moving stairs, apologizing as she bumped other passengers on the escalator in her hurry.

  Greg didn’t argue or ask questions. He tightened his hold on her hand and followed, adding his own apologies to hers as they fought their way to the bottom of the escalator.

  Once at the bottom, Lissianna didn’t pause to glance around, but hurried for the exit.

  “He’s still following us,” Greg said, as they weaved their way through the crowds milling through the Path.

  Lissianna began to move a little faster, only now sending out the thought to those before them to move out of the way. The fact that she hadn’t from the start was a sign of her exhaustion.

  “What are we doing?” Greg asked several moments later when Lissianna suddenly turned into the movie theater, dragging him behind her.

  Lissianna didn’t waste the energy explaining, her mind was occupied controlling the ticket takers as she led Greg past them. Several matinees were playing and she read the audience emotions as she passed each door, pausing abruptly when waves of building anxiety poured out at her from behind the doors of theater three. Greg followe
d without comment when she started inside, waiting until they were seated to speak.

  “A movie?” he asked with disbelief, as they sank down in their seats.

  “A scary movie,” Lissianna corrected, glancing back toward the door. “Their anxiety will cover ours. I told you fear broadcasts, and he can just follow our anxiety. But with everyone in here reacting to the movie, I hope he’ll just bypass us.”

  “Oh.” Greg glanced back toward the door as well, then asked, “Who is he?”

  “Valerian. An immortal.”

  “Cousin? Brother? What relation is he?” Greg asked.

  Lissianna glanced at him with surprise. “None of the above. We aren’t all related, Greg.”

  “Oh.” He shrugged. “Well, I just assumed anyone in Toronto who was a vampire would be related.”

  Lissianna shook her head. “Toronto is popular among our kind.”

  Greg was silent as he digested that, then said, “I suppose it’s the Path? It would make Toronto attractive to vampires. They could move around during daylight and—”

  “Who do you think encouraged the Path’s being made?” she asked. “They have something similar in Montreal, they call it the underground city. You’ll find lots of our kind there, too.”

  “Oh.” Greg sat back in his seat, appearing nonplussed. “Just how many of you are there?”

  Lissianna shrugged and gave up watching the door, pretty sure that they’d lost Valerian. “I don’t know exactly.”

  “More than a thousand?” Greg asked.

  Lissianna opened her mouth to answer, then started and glanced sharply toward the movie screen as everyone in the audience jumped and several people screamed.

  “It’s a vampire movie,” Greg said with amusement. “The twins would be annoyed at the very idea.”

  “Yes,” Lissianna agreed, then frowned when he settled more comfortably in his seat. “Don’t you want to leave?”

  “And go where?” Greg asked. “We can’t go to that friend of yours—”

  “Debbie,” Lissianna supplied. Debbie—her coworker from the shelter—had been the only person she’d been able to think of to go to for help, and while she’d been reluctant to involve her, there had been nowhere else she could think to go. Greg had suggested going to his sister’s home, but she’d rejected the possibility at once. Anyone in his family was out of the question; it would be the first place her mother and uncle would look. As were all her family and friends…at least her vampire friends. Debbie had seemed the only answer. She was a coworker, and they were friendly, but they weren’t so close they went places together, or turned to each other when they needed a place to stay…so far anyway. However, Debbie worked the night shift as she did, and Lissianna knew she slept through the day. Lissianna was hoping that she’d be up by 4 P.M.

  “We can’t go to Debbie’s for another couple of hours.” He shrugged. “We may as well stay here and relax. It will kill an hour or so at least. And you can catch a nap.”

  It would also keep them out of the way of any other vamps they might otherwise run into, Lissianna realized, and relaxed back in her seat. She didn’t really think she’d sleep, but just being able to relax for a bit would do her some good.

  Chapter 15

  Greg had brought his knee up and shifted sideways in his seat to watch Lissianna sleep when her eyes suddenly opened. She blinked at him sleepily, then peered around to see that the movie was over, the credits rolling on screen, and the movie theater half-empty. Her head turned slowly back to Greg, and she asked, “Why didn’t you wake me?”

  “You needed your sleep,” he said simply.

  Her eyebrows rose. “So…what? You were just going to leave me sleeping?”

  Greg shrugged. “Until one of those guys with a flashlight threw us out.”

  “Ushers,” Lissianna informed him. “That’s what those guys with flashlights are called.”

  “Oh.” He shrugged again, not really caring what they were called. Greg was more concerned with her. “How do you feel?”

  Lissianna sat a little straighter in her seat and avoided his eyes, as she said, “No worse.”

  The answer just made him frown. He wasn’t fooled by her choice of words. “No worse, means no better either, doesn’t it?”

  She simply glanced around the emptying theatre, neither agreeing, nor denying it.

  “You need blood,” Greg stated the obvious. “You’re starting to look pale even here in the dark.”

  “Yes, well, you needn’t worry unless I start to actually glow in the dark,” she said lightly. When his eyes widened in alarm, she quickly added “I’m joking, Greg.”

  “Oh,” he murmured, then stood to follow when she got up and began to lead the way out of the row of seats, then up the aisle.

  Greg took her arm, his gaze searching for and finding a clock over the ticket counters. He noted the time with relief. “It’s four-fifteen. Can we call your friend now?”

  “Yes.”

  “Neither of us has a cell phone, or change for a pay phone,” he pointed out. “Can you put the whammy on someone and make them loan us their cell phone?”

  “Yes, but I think I’ll ask first,” Lissianna murmured, and started across the theatre lobby.

  Greg trailed after her, unsure where she was going until Lissianna stopped by a man just disconnecting and putting his cell phone away. He found his shoulders straightening and his chest puffing a bit as he noted the guy could have been a GQ model. He had short blond hair, blue blue eyes, and was built like someone who worked out, but not so much he would become muscle-bound.

  He’s probably gay, Greg thought to himself, and scowled when the guy smiled with interest at Lissianna as she stopped before him.

  Greg was still far enough away that he didn’t hear what she said as she asked to use his phone, but he saw the hesitant look that crossed Mr. GQ’s face. Cheap bastard, Greg thought with satisfaction.

  “It’s a local call and I’ll be quick,” he heard Lissianna assure Mr. GQ as he drew closer. “I just need to call a friend to pick me up.”

  “Yeah, okay,” Mr. GQ didn’t sound too enthusiastic, but he did dig the phone out of his pocket. He even managed a smile as he handed it over.

  “Thank you very much.” Lissianna took the phone. “I really appreciate this.”

  “Always happy to help a beautiful lady,” the guy said lightly, apparently deciding to make the most of it now that he’d agreed.

  Oh please, Greg thought irritably. He paused behind Lissianna and put his hand on her shoulder in a possessive move that even he was surprised at. His shame at this sign of jealousy was replaced by satisfaction when he saw the disappointment on GQ boy’s face as he realized Lissianna wasn’t alone.

  Ignoring the man, Greg turned to peer at Lissianna as she punched in a number and lifted the phone to her ear. She waited. And waited. She then bit her lip, her eyebrows drawing together as she appeared to listen to something on the other end. Greg guessed it was probably the answering machine when she said, “Debbie, if you’re there, please pick up.”

  She waited again, then said, “I guess you aren’t there. I’ll call back later.”

  “No luck, huh?” Mr. GQ asked as Lissianna disconnected and handed back the phone.

  “No, but thanks,” Lissianna murmured.

  “Thank you,” Greg added, and took Lissianna’s arm to lead her out of the theatre. He waited until they’d joined the shoppers on the Path before asking, “Do you think she’s still sleeping and has the phone’s ringer turned off, or has she gone out?”

  “I don’t know,” Lissianna admitted, she sounded distracted. Her attention was focused on examining the faces in the crowd around them. It reminded him of their earlier near miss with the vampire Valerian. She was obviously concerned about being spotted again.

  “We have to come up with somewhere safer to wait until we can reach your friend Debbie,” he said.

  “Yes.”

  She sounded tired, and he frowned with w
orry. Now that they were out of the dim theatre, he could see just how pale she was. She was also starting to appear gaunt, as if the nanos were running low on blood, so had turned to eating away at any fat in her system, and he wondered if they could do that. He forgot all about the question when he took a closer look at her face. She was gritting her teeth, and there were small lines by the corners of her eyes, signs of pain. She was suffering.

  “You have to feed,” he murmured, moving closer to her as he spoke so that he wouldn’t be overheard.

  “What do you suggest?” Lissianna’s voice was expressionless. She was asking what he was willing for her to do and that was when Greg realized that if he hadn’t been with her, she would have fed hours ago. Actually, if it weren’t for him, she wouldn’t be in this position at all, he acknowledged, but it seemed rather obvious to him now that she had refrained from munching on a passing shopper to keep from upsetting him.

  “Feed,” Greg said firmly.

  She paused to peer up at him uncertainly. “Really?”

  Greg nodded as he urged her to the side, out of the way of passersby. “You already told me you don’t take more than a little per person. They won’t miss it, and you need it, so go to the ladies’ room and find a donor…or three,” he added thinking she probably needed more like six or seven people, but she would know better herself. “I’ll wait in the food court.”

  “Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “For understanding,” she said simply.

  He shrugged. “I’m starting to think of it like hemophilia, Lissianna. You just use a different type of intravenous and bypass the blood bank.”

  Lissianna smiled and Greg found himself going still as she leaned up on tiptoe to press a kiss full of gratitude to his lips. At least, Greg suspected it was a kiss of gratitude for her, for him, just that light brushing of lips had him wanting more and he wrapped his arms around her as she started to withdraw, then deepened the kiss.

  “Greg?”

  Greg recognized his name, but preoccupied as he was he didn’t pay attention.