The female mugger managed to move enough to shake her head no as Jack moved in close. He set a hand on her shoulder, letting one of his fingers trace over the nape of her neck. She had gooseflesh there, probably from fear, rather than the cold. The rush that came just from touching her felt so good that it made him feel sick.
“No,” said Jack. He turned his back to the woman, feeling like the only way to remove the temptation was to put her totally out of his field of view.
“She deserves it,” said Mira. “She and her partner would have done worse to the poor girl they’d been tormenting.”
“The fact that they’re terrible people doesn’t mean that we can just do whatever we want to them,” said Jack.
“What a naïve thing to say,” said Mira. “You would torture yourself tonight, for the sake of what? Your own misguided sense of justice? Fine then.”
Mira exhaled, and the tendrils dissolved into puffs of shadow. The man fell to his knees, looking at Mira with an expression that was reverent, and a little sexual. The female mugger let out a surprised gasp and immediately began pulling her partner in crime away as fast as she could manage.
If not for Mira’s presence, Jack would have tried to get enough identifying information to ensure an easy arrest for the local authorities. But his broodmother loomed over him, smiling slightly, watching and waiting.
“You could have bitten that woman and drunk your fill,” said Mira. “You could have enthralled her and given her instructions to turn herself in to the local authorities. She would have done it, confessed all of her crimes, received a fitting punishment, and never hurt anyone again.”
“It… wouldn’t have been right.” Jack felt unsure even as he spoke the words. “She was a bad person, but that doesn’t mean she deserves to be bitten by a vampire.”
Mira laughed. “But Peter’s orphaned apprentice does? You’re already thinking about the next time you’ll see her, aren’t you? The next time she’ll offer her body to you and let you sink your fangs in deep?”
“Shut up,” said Jack.
“I bet you’ve imagined what it would be like to enthrall her,” said Mira. “To have her obey your every word. The things she would do. The fun you could have with her. She wouldn’t struggle against it, once it was done. She’d enjoy every second of it.”
“Shut up!” snapped Jack.
Mira moved with blinding speed, pulling him into an embrace and kissing him deeply. Jack pushed her back, wincing as she bit his lower lip in response. He swung at her, but his strike found only shadows. Mira’s laughter echoed through the empty street.
CHAPTER 18
The warehouse was empty. Jack had felt a growing sense of anxiousness on the walk back, and it had finally become real when he checked the spot where he’d left Katie and didn’t find her there. He spent a few minutes searching the nearby area, checking the trees and bushes, only to confirm what he already suspected. She was gone.
He tried to let himself hope that she’d be back at the mansion. Had this been Mira’s real purpose in leading him away? Did she have an accomplice, another vampire acting on her behalf, or maybe an enthralled human? Maybe she’d found a way to reanimate Bert’s body a second time and given him instructions to capture Katie while Jack was distracted.
His assumptions were thrown into question when he slipped through the mansion’s outer gate and saw an unfamiliar car in the driveway. Jack hurried to the front door and let himself in, trying to shake off the nervous, insidious sense of dread riding on his shoulder.
Katie was standing in front of the stairs in the foyer, dressed in her yoga clothing from early in the day, smiling and talking to someone. Talking to a man. Talking to a man who had one of his arms around her. She laughed at something he said, only then seeming to notice that Jack had returned.
“Jack,” she said. “Hey. I was wondering when you’d finally get in. This is my fiancé, Bruce.”
Her voice sounded cheery, but her eyes were narrowed halfway and filled with an intense gleam that warned Jack against saying anything potentially compromising. He recognized the expression from when their first reunion after he’d arrived back on the island. It was an expression that demanded that he mind his place and not do anything to fuck with the life she’d created for herself.
“Uh, hey,” said Jack. “Yeah. I went for a little walk.”
“I’ve heard a lot about you from Katherine,” said Bruce. “It’s nice to finally meet you, Jack.”
Bruce let go of Katie and approached him, reaching out for a handshake. He was tall and muscular, with black hair, olive tanned skin, and a strong jaw line. Jack felt a little annoyed by the fact that Katie’s fiancé was basically handsome, though he recognized it as a superficial, paleolithic response.
“Yeah,” he said. “Nice to meet you, too.”
Bruce squeezed his hand into a vice grip, which Jack was happy to reciprocate. He saw the look in the other man’s eyes as he realized just how much stronger Jack was, and he couldn’t help but smile. Katie watched them from a few steps away, fidgeting nervously.
“What’s with the trench coat?” asked Bruce, eyeing Jack’s duster.
“It was a gift,” he said. “From…” He glanced at Katie, and thought better of what he was about to say. “From my grandfather.”
“I think you’re a little too pale to pull it off, bud,” said Bruce.
Jack found himself wondering how pale Bruce would be after having a hole punched in his stomach by a supernaturally strengthened fist. He took a slow breath, reeling in his inner cave man.
“Bruce,” said Katie, in a chastising voice.
“Sorry,” said Bruce. “I like to speak my mind. Gets me in trouble with the wife, sometimes.”
It seemed like it would have been a little too petty for Jack to point out that they weren’t actually married yet. It would have been even more petty to point out that he’d had his finger inside a certain, tight, usually hidden part of Bruce’s “wife’s” anatomy the previous night. Jack just kept smiling, instead, knowing that it would more probably infuriate Bruce more than any other reaction.
“Katie,” he said. “Can I talk to you for a second? I need to get your opinion on something. In private.”
Jack’s bloodthirst had been building slowly ever since the fight with the muggers. It reached the point where each breath he took made his throat feel dry and itchy. His temples were pounding in time with his heartbeat, miniature headaches laced with an edge of dizziness.
“We were just leaving,” said Bruce. He walked back over to Katie and put his arm around her again. “I’m sure you understand, Jack. Katherine’s been so busy lately that we haven’t had many nights together.”
Katie nodded slowly. She looked uncomfortable, but it was impossible for Jack to tell whether it was due to him or her fiancé.
“We can talk in the morning,” she said. “If you need anything, Ryoko’s here.”
“Katie, I-”
“See you later, bud,” said Bruce, cutting him off.
Jack watched them as they walked past him and out of the mansion. Bruce’s hand slipped from being around Katie’s waist to resting on one of her buttocks. He glanced back at Jack over his shoulder with a wide grin on his face as he shut the door.
The mansion was quiet. Jack stood alone in the foyer, and he knew he couldn’t blame everything he was currently feeling on his bloodlust. He was jealous, and it was stupid. As much as he disliked Bruce as a person from their relatively brief first meeting, he couldn’t ignore the truth of the situation.
Katie had lived a life without him in it for over a decade. It was unfair for Jack to show up on Lestaron Island and expect a damn thing from her, emotionally or otherwise. She’d been helping him, but his issues with Mira and with the changes he’d been going through were not her burden to bear. She wasn’t the little girl who’d promised herself to him. She was a grown woman, with a life and a future of her own. A grown woman who’d found love and agreed to marry so
meone in pursuit of it.
With that said, he wasn’t at the point of feeling sorry for himself, and he certainly wasn’t at the point of giving up. If she’d already been married, he probably would have thrown in the towel. Probably. Maybe.
Jack felt his headache ramping up as he made his way over to the stairs, forcing him to hang onto the railing to keep from losing his balance. He was annoyed with himself, and doubly annoyed over how he’d passed on feeding on the female mugger, even though he still thought it had been the right choice to make. He tried to breathe slowly and clear his head, hoping it would help limit his suffering.
“Mr. Masterson?” Ryoko’s voice came from the lounge, and the light turned on an instant later. “Are you feeling all right?”
Jack cleared his throat and forced himself to stand up straight. The last thing he needed was Ryoko worrying about him more, or even being around him, when his willpower was on the verge of failing.
“…I’m fine,” he said. “Just a little tired.”
“If you don’t mind me asking, what were you doing outside so late, sir?” asked Ryoko.
She’d apparently been sleeping, as she had on a short blue nightgown. Her hair was down for the first time Jack had ever seen, and combined with her soft facial features, it made her look very young.
“I’m a night owl,” said Jack. “I just like to go on walks, sometimes.”
Ryoko bowed slightly, accepting his explanation without further question.
“Is there anything you need, sir?” she asked. “I was going to head to bed early, since I wasn’t sure if you’d be back or not tonight.”
“I’m all right,” he said. “I don’t need anything.”
“Ms. White made some tea while she was here, if you’re thirsty,” said Ryoko. “I had some myself, actually. It’s quite good.”
The tea. Jack closed his eyes, trying to tamp down on the excited direction her words had sent his thoughts in. Katie had dosed the tea with the anti-enthrallment potion. He could bite Ryoko without having to worry about her sustaining serious lingering effects, if he wanted to. If he waited until she fell asleep, he might even be able to do it without her waking up.
“Mr. Masterson?” Ryoko walked over to him and set a hand on his shoulder. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
Jack felt his muscles twitching, demanding that he grip her by the arms and sink his fangs in to her neck, right there and then.
“…It’s late,” he said. “You should head to bed, Ryoko. Please.”
He opened his eyes and looked at her, trying to make her understand without having to say the words. Ryoko brought her free hand to her chest, her lips turning down into a worried frown. He must have looked even worse than he felt.
“If you’re sure, Mr. Masterson,” she said.
“Call me Jack,” he said.
Ryoko smiled. “Fine. Goodnight, Jack.”
It was a small victory, but it made him smile, and it gave him the resolve he needed. He watched her as she made her way back toward her room. The temptation was still there. It wasn’t a thing that could be banished through a single decision. It was constant and insidious, and it made Jack worry over whether he could trust himself for an entire night with Ryoko under the same roof.
He went up to his room and attempted to fall asleep. It wasn’t like it had been earlier in the day, when the bloodthirst had been counterbalanced by the fatigue and newness of the sensation. Instead, his throbbing head conspired with the dryness of his throat, forming a constant, looping demand for him to act on his urges.
Jack headed downstairs into the basement. He found the hidden panel and made a halfhearted attempt to guess the code that would open the door to the workshop. His hope was that there would be something inside that might help. A recipe for a potion, or a hidden incantation, or possibly a magical muzzle to physically prevent him from attempting to bite someone.
He didn’t manage to guess the code and hadn’t expected to. Jack slid down against the cold stone wall of the basement, trying to direct his frustration at Mira for turning him in the first place. He was sitting directly across from one of the wine racks and furrowed his brow as an obvious potential solution came to him.
It wasn’t classy, but he didn’t care. Jack found a bottle of one of the newer vintages, less likely to be missed, and opened it with an antique corkscrew on one of the nearby shelves. He drank straight from the bottle in long, unflattering gulps. The taste was flat and dull, though that may have just been due to what he was comparing it to.
He drank the entire bottle and was halfway through a second when he finally blacked out.
CHAPTER 19
Jack awoke on the basement floor with a pounding headache and a blanket pulled up to his shoulders. He groaned as he sat up, unsure if the discomfort he was feeling was due to his bloodthirst or a hangover.
He was surprised to find that he wasn’t as desperate for blood as he’d been the previous night. It was, at least in part, due to his roiling, liquor-sick stomach, but even discarding that, the bloodthirst was notably muted.
He made his way upstairs slowly, wincing as he opened the basement door and stepped out into the foyer. Sunlight poured in through the windows, too bright for it to still be morning, or even early afternoon. Ryoko came out from the kitchen, smiling with relief when she saw him.
“Mr. Masterson,” she said. “I was starting to get worried. How do you feel?”
“Hungover,” said Jack. “But otherwise all right.”
“I tried to help you to your bed, but I wasn’t strong enough to carry you,” she said. “You didn’t feel like you still had a fever, so I thought I’d wait instead of calling for a physician. I wasn’t ignoring you, sir. I just thought it might upset you if I made too much of a fuss.”
“No, you did the right thing,” said Jack. “The blanket was all I needed.”
Ryoko smiled and bowed slightly at his praise.
“Would you like me to fix you something to eat?” she asked. “I was on my way to purchase groceries, but I can hold off for a minute if you’re feeling hungry. And there’s tea, if you’re feeling thirsty.”
Jack shook his head. “I’ll manage.”
Ryoko nodded and headed outside. Despite how rough his body and head felt, Jack was pleased with himself. He’d found a solution to his bloodthirst. Granted, not one that he could rely on indefinitely, and certainly not one that would be appropriate in most settings. But it was reassuring to know that he could stop himself from losing control by drowning his mental faculties in alcohol. He wondered if he could get the same effect with sleeping pills, or another drug, prescription or otherwise.
He was a little surprised that Katie hadn’t stopped by to check up on him. He wanted to know the details of what had happened to her after he’d left her in the warehouse, and he was sure the same was true in reverse. Thinking about Katie made Jack remember seeing her with Bruce the night before, and he ended up having to lie down on the couch in the lounge and play a game on his phone to chase off annoying thoughts related to that encounter.
Half an hour later, he heard a heavy knock at the mansion’s front door. Jack sat up and frowned. Ryoko usually came in through the servant’s entrance in the garage, and Katie still had a key.
He made his way to the door and opened it. Bruce was standing on the other side, dressed in his tan and yellow sheriff’s uniform. Jack furrowed his brow.
“Bruce,” he said. “What’s up? Did Katie send you to grab something?”
Bruce shook his head once, narrowing his eyes.
“You know damn well why I’m here,” said Bruce.
Jack met the other man’s glare and tried not to wince. He’d been wondering how Katie would end up handling the situation with Bruce ever since he’d first kissed her, handcuffed to the workshop’s weapon rack. The question had only become more prominent after the last time he’d fed on her, with the two of them going about as far as a man and a woman can without doing the deed.
&
nbsp; “Ah,” said Jack. “Right. I suppose I do.”
He scratched the back of his head. He didn’t feel guilty, exactly. Especially not after the way Bruce had tried to go all macho on him the night before with his verbal barbs. But he did feel his fair share of regret, especially when he considered how Katie would be the one suffering the brunt of the fallout. He wouldn’t lie to Bruce if the other man wanted answers, at least not about this. It just didn’t seem right.
“How do you want to handle this?” asked Bruce, in a gruff voice.
“To tell you the truth, I’ve never really been in this position before,” said Jack. “I mean, I’m sorry. I’m not sure how much me saying that helps, on its own. You want something to drink? Wine? A beer?”
As hungover as Jack still felt from the previous night, it seemed like the conversation they were about to have was one that would need the extra social lubrication. Bruce furrowed his brow, looking more than a little caught off guard.
“Uh, okay,” he said. “It’s a little early, and weird as shit for you to offer, but I never turn down a free beer.”
Jack gestured for Bruce to come in, leading him into the lounge and grabbing them each a drink from the fridge. He handed Bruce one, and then took a couple of seconds to organize his thoughts.
“Listen,” said Jack. “I don’t know what Katie told you, but really, it wasn’t her fault. This is a… very strange situation. One that neither of us were expecting to be in.”
“What does Katherine have to do with anything?” asked Bruce.
Jack hesitated, suddenly getting the distinct impression that he’d totally misread Bruce’s intentions.
“Uh…” He shrugged. “Apparently nothing.”
“Where were you last night, Jack?” asked Bruce. “Tell me the truth.”
“I was hanging around the mansion,” he said, quickly. “I went out for a short walk, but that’s basically it.”
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