Bitten & Smitten ib-1

by Мишель Роуэн

  His eyes burned now like silver flames. I’d struck a chord. Well, I knew how to leave them wanting more. I pushed open the black door and left Midnight Eclipse, for what I’d decided would be the last time. The cold night air cut into my face, but I ignored it. I glanced across the street at Clancy’s neon bar sign. Nope, wouldn’t be making a repeat performance in there tonight. Straight home, do not pass go. There was a yellow cab a block away, parked at the side of the road. Finally something was going right for me. About time, too. I wobbled toward it on the heels that had been getting less and less comfortable as the night wore on. The street was deserted. It felt a little odd, actually. It wasn’t all that late on a Saturday night for it to feel this empty. Not that it was such a great party section of the city, but still. I suddenly felt very alone.

  And I got the weirdest feeling that I was being watched. Or maybe I was just being paranoid after my lousy day.

  No. Somebody was definitely watching me. I could sense it. I groaned inwardly. Why? Why me? Why am I such a moron who would leave the club all alone without a ride? I noticed that the cab’s NOT IN SERVICE sign was up, and the driver was nowhere to be seen. I nervously glanced over at the local hangout for vampire hunters. When will I ever learn? And will I still be breathing when I do?

  “Hello?” My throat was dry and I swallowed. “I should let whoever you are know that I’m a triple black belt and my boyfriend’s a cop. So beat it.”

  There was a sound then. A moan? Or was that just the wind? No, it was definitely a moan. Followed by a heavy sliding sound. A hand appeared from around the corner of a building, white-knuckled and gripping the brickwork. There was blood on the hand. My eyes widened and I raised my own hand to my mouth.

  “Who are you?” My voice was raspy with apprehension.

  A face appeared, pale and drawn. Dark circles were under his eyes. His bloodied white T-shirt was torn. No jacket on such a cold night. The fang marks on his neck were bruised and fresh. He tried to stay on his feet, but it was no use—Quinn slid down to the sidewalk in a heap. Frozen in place, I glanced around, but there was no one else nearby. Just the two of us. Me and the man I’d seen murdered before my very eyes earlier that afternoon. Maybe I should have run away. Put as much distance between myself and the vampire hunter as I possibly could, but again I found my feet had a mind of their own. And they were moving me closer to the man who wanted me dead.

  I crouched down at his side and reached out to push the dark blond hair off his face. He flinched and tried to pull away.

  “It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you.”

  “You.” His dark blue eyes narrowed as he recognized me.

  I tried to smile. “Yeah, surprise, surprise.”

  When I’d met him in Clancy’s last night, he’d appeared attractive but a bit boyish. He didn’t seem boyish anymore. This was a man who knew pain, who had been through hell and managed to come out the other side. He hadn’t died, as I’d assumed, but something about him had died. That much I could tell. I reached out to grab his tense, firmly muscled arm. There was nothing weak about Quinn. Nothing soft. He pushed me away and scooted farther back in the shadows. His jaw was clenched tightly, and he looked at me as if I’d been the one who bit him.

  “Stay away from me… you… you…”

  “Bloodsucking monster?” I finished for him. “Look, buddy, I’m not the one who did this to you. You’re lucky they didn’t kill you.”

  He laughed—a short, wild sound that raised the hair on the back of my neck. “No… they didn’t kill me. Worse than that. Much worse.”

  “You need to get to a hospital.” I tried to touch him again, but the look on his face made me stop.

  “Too late for hospitals. Just leave me the hell alone.”

  He managed to stagger to his feet, but immediately doubled over again, clutching at his stomach and moaning loudly in pain.

  Oh, no.

  I recognized those symptoms. Jesus, they’d done it. Dan and his friend. I thought they’d wanted to kill Quinn in revenge for killing Dan’s wife. But they didn’t kill him. They made him into one of us. They made the big, bad vampire hunter into the thing that he hated the most in the world—a vampire. It was almost poetic.

  Only, as with me, they hadn’t finished the job properly. He was in pain. He needed the blood of a full-strength vampire, or he was going to die for real.

  “Come on.” I shifted my purse to my other shoulder and reached for him again, and this time he didn’t have enough energy to pull away. He leaned against me. It was either that or fall to the cement again. Our eyes met.

  “I hate you,” he said.

  “There’s that charm I remember. Come on, I know that’s just the pain talking.”

  “Leave me. I want to die. I want to get over there.”

  I followed his pain-filled gaze. He was looking over at Clancy’s. Filled with his beer-drinking, vampire-killing buddies.

  “You think they’re going to help you out?”

  “No.” His voice was low and deadly. “They’ll kill me. Put me out of my misery.”

  “Well, it’s just your dumb luck that you ran into me, huh? Because I’m not planning on letting you die.”

  However, as I half supported him, half carried him back through the doors of Midnight Eclipse, I figured that I should be more concerned about myself. As soon as Thierry saw what the cat dragged in, I figured he might kill me instead.

  Chapter 10

  Less than five minutes after I’d sworn never to step foot inside Midnight Eclipse again, I was back for more. And this time I’d brought a date. Quinn had stopped being a dick for the time being. He was too busy dealing with the pain. It was almost a blessing. I quickly made my way through the tanning salon, then pushed the black door to the club open with my foot and half dragged Quinn inside with me past the fake potted palm tree.

  George ran over to us. “Oh, my God! What is this? Another hunter attack?”

  “Nope.” I pushed Quinn toward George so I didn’t fall over from bearing his weight for another minute. “Vamp attack.”

  George frowned as he closely eyed Quinn’s neck wound. “Did someone order takeout?”

  “He’s a victim, not a snack, you dope. And please don’t tell me you’re serious.”

  He shrugged. “He looks tasty. I can’t help it.”

  “Where’s Thierry?”

  When I turned around, my face bopped off Thierry’s silk-covered chest. Hadn’t even heard him approach. I took a step back from him and tried to look composed.

  “What is going on now, Sarah?” he asked wearily.

  I nodded toward Quinn. “Vampire attack. They turned him, but he’s in major pain.”

  Thierry eyed Quinn, and I couldn’t get any sense of what he was thinking, since his expression was the usual controlled blank one that seemed to be his trademark. “And why did you bring him here?”

  “Because you can help him, like you helped me.”

  Thierry’s gaze moved to George, who was studying Quinn as if he were the catch of the day. “Take him to my office.”

  George opened his mouth to protest, but then closed it He grabbed Quinn and effortlessly swung him over his shoulder, as if he weighed next to nothing, then strode through the club.

  I smiled. “So you’ll help him?”

  “No.” Thierry didn’t look at me. He went to sit back down at his nearby booth. “But it would be distracting for the customers to let him die out here.”

  A rise of anger flooded my body. “You’re not going to help him?”

  “No.”

  I gritted my teeth and tried to breathe normally. “You’re an asshole.”

  He stood up and was in my face in one smooth motion. His hands were balled into tight fists. “No one speaks to me as you do. Do you have any idea who I am?”

  “Yes. An asshole. I thought I just said that.”

  I turned away from him with a dismissive flick of my hand and tried to walk as calmly as possible to the office
.

  George had put Quinn onto the sofa. It was sure getting a lot of action today. Quinn was writhing and clutching his stomach.

  Zelda appeared at the doorway to see what the racket was all about.

  “Come on,” I said to them. “Somebody help him.”

  George shook his head. “No way.”

  Zelda just shrugged. “Sorry, but the boss says no.”

  I felt my face flush in anger. Dammit, did I have to do everything myself? I opened my purse. I didn’t need anybody’s help. The bottles of newbie special were waiting there, looking pink and innocent at the bottom of my bag. I pulled one out, unscrewed the cap, and approached Quinn.

  Thierry appeared behind Zelda. He raised an eyebrow at me as I knelt, like Florence Nightingale, next to the sofa.

  I raised a hand in his direction. “Don’t try to stop me.”

  “Wouldn’t dream of it,” he said. “Please go right ahead. Don’t let me interrupt.” Good.

  “Here.” I pushed the bottle at Quinn. “Drink this.”

  He moved his face in the opposite direction and pushed at me weakly.

  I frowned and poked him in the shoulder. “Do you want to die?”

  “Yes.” It was more of a moan than a word.

  When I was a little girl, my family had a Labrador retriever. I’d named him Princess. I don’t think he’d ever gotten over the unfortunate name, being a relatively macho dog, but what can I say? Little girls call things pretty names. Anyhow, Princess got sick once, and we had to give him three pills a day to cure the infection. We tried to trick him by hiding the pills in his food or wrapping them in cheese. But Princess would have nothing to do with that. He knew. After trying time and time again to get him to take the pills in a pleasant manner, my mother finally did what she had to do. After all, it was for his own good.

  I thought I’d try a variation with Quinn. I pinched his nose shut.

  “Hey!” he protested and batted my hand away.

  He was weak. I could handle him. I glanced over at the doorway. Thierry looked almost amused by my actions. I gave him a dirty look. Then I climbed onto the sofa—pulling my skirt up high enough to be able to maneuver properly—and straddled Quinn’s chest to trap his arms under my knees.

  “What are you doing?” The pain in his voice wasn’t hiding his surprise very well.

  “Treating you like the bad dog you are,” I said, and then pinched his nose shut.

  I put the bottle of diluted blood against his lips and held on. He thrashed around a bit, but I had him pinned pretty good. In fact, after a moment I almost felt as if I should be charging our audience for the show. It had been a lot different with Princess. My father pried his mouth open and my mother pitched the pill to the back of his throat. Nice and easy. Not like “Rodeo Quinn at the Midnight Eclipse.” Hey, that sounded like it could be a porno movie.

  Finally Quinn opened his mouth to breathe and he choked against the water, but not before I managed to get quite a bit down his throat. I smiled at the small victory and lost my concentration for a split second. His left arm came loose from under me and he sat up. I lost my balance and slid backward off the sofa, my legs flailing in the air. He had the water bottle in his hand now. I thought he was going to throw it away, but he tipped it back and finished drinking it down.

  I straightened out my borrowed black skirt and slowly got to my feet.

  “See?” I informed the onlookers. “Exactly like I’d planned it.”

  Thierry came fully into the room. “How long has he gone?”

  “What?”

  “When was he turned?”

  “Um, it was this afternoon when he was attacked. Just before I got here.”

  Thierry nodded. “I see.”

  “You see what?”

  Quinn threw the empty water bottle away as if he’d just realized he was licking a spider.

  “Disgusting monsters,” he snarled as he got to his feet. “I want no part of your evil world.”

  I tried to smile. “Good to see that you’re back to normal. Why don’t you sit down and rest for a minute?”

  “I need to find my father.” He made for the door, but Thierry stepped into his path. “Out of my way, vampire.”

  “Yes, I thought I’d recognized you. You’re one of the hunters. I saw you from afar the other night.”

  “That’s where I suggest you stay. Far away from me. Now let me out of here.” Thierry crossed his arms but didn’t budge. “So you can inform your friends of where we are? I don’t think so. Besides, I doubt that you’d get very far in your condition.”

  “My condition?” Quinn frowned. “I feel fine now.”

  “More than eight hours with no intervention? We shall see.” Thierry stepped aside.

  Quinn blinked, uncertain about what to do, then managed to compose himself. He walked confidently as far as the door and then screamed and hunched over while he clutched at the door frame.

  I made a move to go to his side, but Thierry put his arm out to stop me.

  Quinn clawed at his stomach as he slid down to the floor. “No,” he managed. “Not again.”

  “What’s going on?” I asked Thierry. “I gave him the blood already.”

  Thierry just stood there in front of me. He turned, with the barest motion of his head, to George and Zelda. They turned and left, closing the door behind them.

  I grabbed his sleeve to force him to look at me. “Come on. Tell me what’s happening.”

  He sighed and extracted his sleeve from my fist. “He has gone at least eight hours. A mild blood cocktail will not rouse him out of this.” I felt confused by what he was saying, and then I remembered. At his townhome… he’d said something about vampire toxins. Like a poison in your bloodstream that needed to be counteracted by the blood of your sire as soon as possible, or—Death . A horrible, pain-filled death that could take hours. My bottles of newbie special couldn’t compete with that.

  I felt panic clutch at my chest as I watched Quinn suffer. “What can we do?”

  “We do nothing, Sarah. He is a vampire hunter. He kills our kind without a moment of mercy. Do you really wish to help him?”

  My entire body was clenched as tightly as my fists. “I can’t just stand here and watch him die.”

  “Then leave.”

  “Thierry, please. Do something. What does he need?”

  “He needs the blood of a strong vampire. A lot of it.”

  I looked at Quinn, then back at him. “Your blood.”

  He didn’t answer.

  “Thierry. Please help Quinn.”

  “He doesn’t deserve your misplaced compassion.”

  I didn’t have a response to that. Or did I? Quinn was one of the bad guys. I got that. But I’d seen something in him before—something that wasn’t so bad. He didn’t like what he did. What he was. If not for his father’s tight grasp on his life, I wondered if he’d even be a hunter at all.

  “I know,” I finally said. “I know all of that. But please help him, anyhow.”

  Thierry walked to his desk slowly and then stood there, staring at me for a full minute.

  “We would need to keep him here until we are sure he’ll not give away our location.”

  I nodded. “Of course.”

  “If I do this, you must promise to do something for me.”

  Quinn moaned in agony, and I glanced at him before returning my attention to Thierry.

  “Okay. Anything. What is it?”

  His eyes flashed at me. “Later. All I need now is your promise to help me.”

  “I promise.”

  The knife was suddenly in his hand again. I hadn’t even seen him reach for it. Quinn watched him approach, his features contorted with pain. When he glimpsed the knife, I saw fear race through his eyes. He murmured something, but I couldn’t hear it. He tried to back away, but he was already pressed against the wall as far as he could go.

  Thierry slashed his left forearm in one quick swipe. He tossed the knife to the side and pre
ssed his arm against Quinn’s mouth. “Drink, hunter.”

  I watched in silence as the last ounce of fight went out of Quinn. Finally it was too much, and his body went limp. All except his hands, which clutched at Thierry’s arm like a baby with a bottle. After five minutes Thierry pulled his arm away and helped Quinn over to the sofa. He fell asleep instantly.

  Thierry picked up the knife from the floor and left the room without glancing at me. I followed him out into the club.

  “Thank you for doing that,” I called after him.

  “He’ll sleep for a while, I think. He won’t be happy when he wakens.”

  “Yeah, he doesn’t seem like much of a morning person.”

  He turned to look me directly in the eyes. “If you’ve endangered the people who look at this place as a refuge, I will not be pleased.”

  I swallowed. “I know.”

  “Go home now, Sarah. Rest.”

  “Okay.” I turned to leave. “Oh, so what did I just agree to, anyhow? What do you want my help with?”

  Thierry settled back into his booth and took a sip from his glass of cranberry juice. “When the hunters have moved on to their next city, and when I’m sure that you will be safe, you will assist me in ending my existence once and for all.”

  I took a moment to let his words sink in before I freaked out.

  “You want me to help you kill yourself?” I sputtered. Maybe I’d heard him wrong.

  He stared at me. “That is correct.”

  I sat down heavily. My face and hands felt cold. “Have you ever thought about going to see a therapist? Maybe try some kind of antidepression medication?”

  He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I have given this matter much thought, Sarah. My existence has simply ceased to mean anything to me anymore. There is no longer anything to keep me here. Being what I am, I was not able to live a normal life and die of natural causes; therefore, I must choose the proper time for myself. That time is now.”

  “And on the bridge—”

  “On the bridge I was considering my limited options more than anything. Obviously, I was well aware that the fall would do nothing. The wooden stake in my pocket was another thing.”

  “Oh, that was a stake?” I said. “I thought you were just happy to see me.”