Between a Vamp and a Hard Place

by Jessica Sims

  Gemma yawned. “Can we sleep? I’m fucking exhausted.”

  Sleep sounded incredible, but I looked over at Rand, wary. Somehow going to sleep with him in the room implied a lot more trust than I had at the moment. My neck still throbbed from his earlier bite. My head ached from the blood loss. My body was unsettled with unwanted desire. My lips still remembered that damn vassal kiss.

  I was a mess. An exhausted mess. I eyed Rand, who was listening to our hushed conversation intently. “What do we do with him?”

  Gemma rubbed a hand through her sleep-tousled hair and yawned. “I dunno, girl. TV? Internet?”

  I considered those. It would be the easy way out . . . and we might wake up to an even more insane vampire. “I think that’s a bad idea. He probably needs to be eased into the last six hundred years or so. Just a hunch.” After all, I’d seen how the man had reacted to the refrigerator. And the door. And, okay, to me. So yeah, the man needed a crash course, and I suspected that the advertisement-and-porn-laden internet would not be the place to do it.

  “Books, then?” Gemma asked. “There’s a ton of them in the other room. He probably can’t read the writing, but I’m sure they have pictures.”

  I brightened at the thought. “Now that sounds like a plan.” I hauled myself off the bed and gestured that Rand should follow me. “Come on.”

  Reluctant, he trailed behind me as I picked my way through the box-strewn apartment, Gemma padding along behind us. In the living room I found where we’d put several stacks of books. They were all from the ’70s or earlier, but there were plenty with lots of pictures and drawings. It could keep him busy long enough for us to sleep, hopefully. I cleared off a winged armchair and indicated that Rand should sit. “Here you go.”

  He eyed me warily, but he sat down, resting his arms on the chair like a king on his throne. When he gave me a small, jerking nod as if to indicate his approval, my irritation flared. I dumped a stack of books in his lap. “Go nuts. We’ll be up in a few hours.”

  Rand’s eyebrows went up and he gazed at me. “And what will you be doing?”

  “Sleeping, because if I’m going to escort you around the city, I’m going to need a few hours of shut-eye.”

  “Mmm.” He opened a book. I got the vague impression he wasn’t happy, but he said nothing.

  “Great, well, have fun. I’ll come get you after I wake up.” I turned my back and started to head for the stairs.

  “Our excursion will have to wait until it is dark,” Rand called after me. “I cannot move about during daylight. It is one of the many curses of upyri.”

  Right. Shoot. I’d forgotten what sunlight can do to a vampire. “All right. We can go out at night.” That would mean I’d have to get some extra sleep in the daytime if I was going to be up all night. Which meant I wouldn’t be able to help as much with packing in the daytime. A vampire was damn inconvenient. “And if that’s the case, I really need to head to bed, then. You have fun down here. You know where the fridge is.” I waved a hand in the direction of the kitchen, then pointed at the hall. “The bathroom is that way if you need to use it.”

  His lips twitched with amusement. “Do you truly think a vampire has such human functions?”

  “I honestly don’t want to know,” I told him. But his mention of functions reminded me. “Uh, so . . . when do you need to feed again? Like, how often?”

  He was still watching me with that calculating look. I couldn’t tell if it was amused or predatory. Or both. “Do not worry on my behalf. You may see to my needs later, Lindsey.”

  “Bow chicka bow bow,” Gemma called out.

  I ignored her and headed for the stairs. “That’s my cue to head off to sleep. Later. See you in the morning. Or not.”

  “Be nice,” Gemma murmured sleepily as we went up the narrow stairs.

  I heard Rand’s subtle laugh in the distance and grew more irritated. Nice? I didn’t want to be nice to a bloodsucker that was going to force me to work for him. “Feel free to stake yourself again and save me some trouble,” I called out, ignoring Gemma’s thwap to my arm. “Nighty night!”

  I was feeling pretty smug with my taunts and crawled under the covers, flicking off the light. I didn’t even care that I was fully clothed. I just wanted some sleep, I wanted to forget about today.

  Immediately, something heavy thumped below.

  I sat bolt upright in the bed. “What was that?”

  Gemma groaned and rolled over, hugging her pillow. “Probably the vampire. Go to sleep.”

  The heavy thump happened again, and again, over and over. With an irritated snarl, I leapt back out of bed and headed for the door to the bedroom.

  As soon as I opened it, I saw Rand standing there with the chair in his arms. A stack of books was in the seat, and as I watched, one of the books slid off the chair and thumped to the floor, making the same noise that had been driving me nuts.

  “What are you doing?” I asked him.

  “I am coming to be with you.” He pushed past me, and I had no choice but to step aside as he brought the large chair into the room, spilling books as he did so. “I do not trust you not to flee once more.”

  I sputtered. “You can’t come in here and just sit while we’re sleeping.”

  “Why not?”

  I looked over at Gemma for help, but she stuffed a pillow over her face and turned her back to me, not getting out of bed. Traitor. I turned back to Rand. “Because we’re trying to sleep!”

  “I will be silent. I will look at pictures in your books.” He set the chair down near the door. I crossed my arms over my chest and watched as he returned to the stairs and began to pick up the books he’d dropped along the way. When he returned a few moments later, he set his chair against the door, sat down in it, and pulled the stack of books into his lap as if to say, See? Harmless vampire.

  As Gemma would say, bull-fucking-shit he was harmless. I wanted to argue, but I was exhausted, and I suspected I wouldn’t win this one. I wanted to protest that he could trust me, but he was probably right. Who was to say I wouldn’t wake up, freak out a bit more, and run for the hills? “You suck.”

  “I do,” he told me, a puzzled look on his face. “Why do you ask?”

  “No reason,” I said, feeling smug that he couldn’t understand my insult. I crawled back into bed and hauled the covers over my body, now happy that I hadn’t undressed after all. I closed my eyes and tried to sleep.

  The soft swish of a page turning grated on my nerves. I pursed my lips and ignored it.

  Swish.

  Swish.

  Swish.

  Then, no swish.

  My eyes flicked open. I looked over. Rand was looking at me thoughtfully. In the darkness, his eyes seemed bluer than ever, and a little shiver moved through me. A shiver of fear, I tried to tell myself. Not desire. That’s just because he’s a vampire and vampires are supposed to be sexy predators. That’s how they find it so easy to kill.

  Gemma’s soft snore told me she’d had no trouble falling asleep. I sighed and closed my eyes again, determined to ignore Rand staring at me.

  That worked for about all of two minutes. I could feel his gaze on me. It made my nipples prick and my skin tingle with awareness. Stupid vampire. I squinted an eye open again. Still staring at me. The look on his face wasn’t predatory, though.

  It was sad. Lost.

  My heart squeezed despite myself. “You going to be okay while we sleep?” I whispered.

  His mouth tugged in a reluctant half smile. “My entire world has been turned whilst I slept. I am not sure if I will ever be ‘okay’ again.” Again, he looked sad in the darkness. I watched his fingers touch a picture on one of the pages. “Everything is unfamiliar. Strange. I know nothing and I find I dislike it, but I have no choice. Two days ago, I had no surprises in the world. Today, I know nothing of the world itself.” He shrugged his shoulders. “I will adjust. It will just take time.”

  “I hate that I feel sorry for you.”

  Hi
s smile was rueful. “I imagine you do.”

  Six

  I woke up at some point to the sun streaming in through the blinds. I sat up in bed and rubbed my eyes, glancing at the clock. Almost one in the afternoon. Gemma had disappeared; the bed beside me was empty. I looked at the door.

  No Rand. His chair had been pushed to the side, and the stacks of books on the floor lay in neat piles.

  My heart stirred with a thump of panic. “Rand?” I swung my legs over the edge of the bed—and noticed the corner of a blanket sticking out from under it.

  Heart thumping, I dropped to the floor and crouched on my knees, looking.

  There was a man-sized body covered in a blanket. It didn’t move, but then again, Rand didn’t breathe. I slid a hand under the blanket and felt cool fingers under mine.

  It was him. I gave his hand a squeeze of relief, and I didn’t even mind that he didn’t respond. He was just hibernating, or whatever it was that vampires did in the daytime.

  Still alive. Thank goodness. I didn’t want him to be my problem, but he was a living, breathing human with feelings.

  Okay, so he wasn’t exactly living and he wasn’t exactly breathing . . . but he did have feelings, and he’d been courteous to Gemma. And to me, once he’d recovered his bearings. I needed to get over myself and just help the guy.

  I headed downstairs and made myself a quick sandwich. On reflection, I ate a second one and pulled out one of my “emergency” bags of gummy bears. If I was going to be feeding a vampire—and all signs pointed to yes—then I’d need to keep my strength up. I was polishing off the last of my gummies when Gemma returned with a bag of groceries.

  “Hey, sleepyhead,” she sang out at the sight of me. “How’s our guest?”

  “Asleep under the bed.” I hesitated. “Do you think I should wake him?”

  “Nah. Let him be. We can work.” Gemma beamed at me, as if we found a vampire in a secret basement every day and it was no big deal. “You sleep good?”

  I rubbed my face. “I guess. Gemma, what are we going to do?”

  “Work?”

  “I meant with the vampire.”

  She shrugged, sauntering past me with the groceries. “I mean, as vampires go, he’s not the worst. Like we said last night, we can find his buddy, give him a nice pat on the back, and send him on his way.”

  She made it sound so easy. Me, I was worried. I was the control freak, and I had zero control in this situation. I followed her as she moved around the kitchen, putting things away. “What if something goes wrong? What if his friend is a . . . I don’t know, a bad guy?”

  “A monster? You mean, like a vampire?”

  “Not funny. You know what I mean.” I crossed my arms and thought about Rand upstairs. “He’s kind of helpless, you know?”

  “Yeah, I noticed. Dude tore a doorknob off last night. We really need to show him how to work those things. Who would have thought they’d be so hard to figure out?” She shrugged. “Look, if you’re feeling a little wiggy about the whole thing, just prepare.”

  “Prepare?”

  “Yup. I got you a few things while I went out.” She pulled a tiny bag out of her pocket and handed it to me. “It might be a good idea to keep this secret from a certain someone, but I want you to be ready for action.”

  I examined the bag. It was hot pink plastic with a zipper, small enough to fit in my pocket. “This looks like a makeup case.”

  “Precisely. Open it.”

  I unzipped it and pulled out a tiny bottle with a cross on the front. “Holy water?”

  “Yup. There’s also a tiny vial of minced garlic, a few toothpicks that I’m hoping can act as mini stakes, and dirt from a grave.”

  My eyes widened. “Dirt from a grave?”

  “Some old nun down in the city told me to get it. Something about how it’ll make a vampire stop in its tracks. I don’t know if it’ll work, but I figured it’s worth a shot. I don’t want you running around unarmed.”

  “Wow. You’ve been busy.” I was impressed. Here I’d been flailing and wondering what to do, and she’d been quietly getting things done. More and more, my flighty friend made me think I wasn’t giving her enough credit. Impulsively, I hugged her. “Thank you. I feel better having this.”

  “Of course,” she said, hugging me back. “Just because we’re not used to dealing with this sort of thing doesn’t mean we have to go in blind. Just keep your wits about you, and if he wants to lead, let him lead. Oh, and take this,” she said, handing me a small packet of cookies. “In case he needs to drink again, you have to keep your blood sugar up.”

  I blushed but took the packet and put it and my new vampire kit in my handbag. “I think he’s going to be out until sundown. We can work on packing the porcelain away for a bit.”

  “Correction,” Gemma said, folding the grocery bag and putting it away for use again later. “I can get to work on the porcelain. You need to find some clothes for that vampire that won’t attract too much attention. There’s bound to be something around here he can wear.”

  “Bossy,” I teased, but I liked it. Gemma’s assertiveness was making my own fears melt away.

  * * *

  Much later in the afternoon, I had a small pile of clothing for Rand to try on once he awoke, and Gemma and I had packed up the most valuable of the anhua jars. We continued working in the secret basement, cataloging the treasures while Rand slept.

  It turned out there were three of the precious “hidden design” jars, and I’d held my breath each time we’d touched one. They were utter perfection, so lovely it made my teeth ache, and so priceless that I lived in terror of a single chip or hairline crack. It wouldn’t destroy the value entirely, but as they were now, they were beyond compare. Each one looked as if it had come straight out of the kiln. The quality of the workmanship and the tiny paper invoices tucked into each jar told the story of their true age. They were so perfectly preserved, and with the proof that gave them provenance? They were incredibly valuable.

  The only thing that made me relax was to see how lovingly Gemma packed them. The care she took with each photo for insurance records, the detailed notes she kept before packing each item away, made me realize that while Gemma was a partner, I didn’t think of her as one and didn’t treat her like my equal. I’d been overlooking her all this time. I was a bad friend, and I felt awful about it.

  A thump upstairs told me that our vampire was awake. Was it sunset already? I suppressed the groan rising in my throat and steeled myself. “I should go and say hello.”

  “I’ll be up in a minute,” Gemma said, running a line of packing tape across a lid. “Just in case you guys need a few moments of privacy.”

  It was on the tip of my tongue to protest that I was not about to do anything of the sort with Rand, but the truth was, I didn’t know how Rand would react upon waking up. When I’d removed the stake, he’d been wild, almost feral. He’d said that had been with hunger, but I didn’t know how to predict how he’d react this evening now that he’d awoken again. I had to assume the worst.

  But I’d promised to help the guy. Rand had been impossible and annoying at times, but he hadn’t been cruel or abusive, and I knew that his strength was inhuman. He could have easily hurt Gemma while she’d slept. Heck, he could have killed me instead of stopping.

  So I deserved to give him the benefit of the doubt. Right?

  I trudged toward the stairs. “If I don’t come back in fifteen minutes,” I warned Gemma, “lock the doors and wait for dawn.”

  “That’s not funny,” she told me with a frown.

  I wasn’t trying to be funny.

  I put a hand on the railing and headed upstairs, determined. I pinned a smile to my face, trying to make it seem like I went to greet a strange vampire every day. No big deal, right? By the time I made it past the secret door, I almost had myself fooled. Almost.

  I found Rand upstairs, perched on the edge of the bed. His head hung, and his hands were braced on his knees. He looked
exhausted. I gave a soft knock on the open door to get his attention. “You okay?”

  “I had hoped it was all a bad dream.” His voice was soft. “That I would awaken from my slumber to find things had not changed, and that I am yet who I thought I was.”

  Damn it, there were those sympathy pangs again. “I’m sorry.”

  He looked up at me, that faint smile of amusement on his face. “It is not your fault. You are not the one who put me there. You are not the one who should fear my retaliation.”

  A shiver moved down my spine. “Retaliation?”

  “Indeed,” he said, standing up and stretching to his full height. He rolled his shoulders and strode toward me. “When I find who has done this to me, they and their family will burn.”

  For a moment, he looked completely, utterly inhuman. I took a step backward, away from him.

  “You have nothing to fear from me, blood vassal,” he said, voice soft. I watched his eyes move over my face, his focus going to my neck. I could practically hear him drooling. “In fact, you are the only thing I find pleasant about this time and place.”

  “Me?” My voice squeaked, and even though I hated myself for it, I felt a rush of pleasure at his words.

  “You are kind to me despite the situation,” he agreed, moving closer. He sauntered like a predator. A big, sexy predator. I stared at him, my mouth open just a little. He oozed sensuality, and I couldn’t stop watching him. Couldn’t stop gazing at the way he moved, the curve of his lips, the elegance of his brow. He was beautiful, and I was helpless before him. “You could have attempted to destroy me, but you have welcomed me into your home. For that, I thank you, Lindsey.”

  “O-of course,” I stammered, surprised at my immediate reaction to him. I could feel myself growing wet between my legs, my nipples hard. Just the sight of him was making me insane with lust.

  And that wasn’t natural.

  “Are you,” I breathed, not entirely sure how to phrase my question, “influencing me?”

  “It is the hunger,” Rand admitted, even as he continued to approach me. “When a vampire thirsts for blood, he becomes that much more attractive to his prey.”