Marty smiled, reaching across the table to grasp Wanda’s hand. “Aw, honey. It was good, huh? So tell us, did you—you know?”
Yeah, she knew. Yeah, she had. Wow, she had. Multiple goodness. “That’s not why I asked you guys to meet me.”
“Don’t be shy,Wanda.We tell you details.” Nina looked offended.
“For which I’ll be forever grateful during my long, dry, sexless season,” she drawled back.
“So you’re doing the homeless guy. Did you give him the speech?” Nina asked.
Her face instantly caught fire with shame. She’d tried again after dinner—failed—and had another date with him tonight. “Could we just get to the point here?”
“Okay, okay. Sorry,” Nina apologized. “Go ahead. Tell me all about the guy who says he was a vampire and who’s now human—which is impossible, but whatever.”
Finally. “Okay, this is what he said. Heath says he was turned back in London almost two hundred years ago by a vampire who he’d pissed off at some party. He’d made a pass at the vampire’s mistress or something. This guy, Horatio, jumped him when he and Archibald, the guy who was with Heath in the homeless shelter, were walking home. Heath had had too much to drink. This Horatio bit Heath, and when Archibald interfered, he bit him, too. Anyway, Horatio’s sire, one of five original vampires left from the beginning of the world as we know it, and the people responsible for creating vampire clans, was killed recently.” She dragged a finger across her neck.
Nina tilted her jaw defensively upward. “Killed how, Wanda?”
“He was a logger in Oregon. His truck was hit head-on by another truck carrying logs. The log staked him, Horatio’s sire, and by proxy, Heath’s sire, too, in the heart, and in the accident, his head was severed as well. We’ve both done enough reading to know what that means.” She shuddered, as did Nina.
But Nina’s eyebrows furrowed. “Okay. So? How does that make Heath and the manservice guy a human?”
“Manservant,” Wanda corrected, pushing up the sleeves of her cropped jacket. “This is the part I think will really hack you off, Nina, and in advance, I’m crazy sorry, but save the screaming hissy fit for later. Heath said it’s like the domino effect. When their original—original being the key word here—sire was offed, it turned Heath and anyone else turned via this sire back into humans. But it totally explains so much about him. Heath says he still doesn’t understand why they were left with only the clothes on their back, and that crazy Yugo of Archibald’s. One morning they woke up in what was once their driveway with the clothes on their backs and nothing else.”
Nina jabbed a finger into the hard surface of the table. “Hold the fuck on. What you’re telling me is Greg’s sire, that whacked bitch Lisanne, once had a sire who turned her, too, and this person, whoever it was, can turn me back into a human if I kick the wings off him?”
Wanda nodded, wincing. “If what Heath says is true . . .”
Nina sat for a good, long while—stunned.
Marty broke the silence. “But hold on there, Mohammad Ali. If you kill Lisanne’s sire, technically also Greg’s and yours, as well, if what Heath says is true—you’d be screwing a lot of vampires. So don’t go there. That’d be like mass vampiricide. And this isn’t about you—it’s about Wanda and that nut she’s sleeping with.”
Wanda gasped in outrage. “Wait a freakin’ second. Why is he a nut? Are you two nuts? You’re both super-paranormal. Why couldn’t Heath have been, too? And, Nina, I’m sorrrry. I really didn’t know the stuff about the first vampires roaming the planet. I guess if there’s only four now, finding the original sire to your clan might not be so hard.”
Nina cracked her knuckles and her jaw simultaneously. She’d obviously thought about the repercussions Marty mentioned. “Actually, I gotta tell you the truth—I’m okay as a vampire. If I’d known this a few months ago, it might be different, but now I’m okay. Shocked as all hell, but in a good space. I do have to wonder what my man will have to say about this—or if he even knew it was possible. That’s what would hack me off more than anything else—if he knew something like this was possible and just never told me.” She shook her silky, dark head as if she knew that was impossible. “So why did Heath end up in a homeless shelter, Wanda? If he was vamp and for as long as you say, he’d have a lot of shit.”
“Because much like you and your mind-over-matter craziness, almost everything he owned was created via mind control and that vampire magic you haven’t mastered yet. He did have some investments, but he claims the guy took off with his money, and he didn’t find out about it until three days after he was reverted. In light of this particular revelation, if it has even a grain of truth, I’d say that’s something you and Greg might want to think about—like securing investments in the real world—building a real castle. If, by some fluke, something like this should go down—you guys would need a really big cardboard box.” A good portion of Greg’s, and now Nina’s, wealth had been acquired via this vampire magic—much like the means Heath had described. Some crazy conjuring up of monetary things with their minds—which almost freaked her out as much as Nina’s flying did.
“Holy. Jesus,” Nina muttered.
Wanda’s nod was grave. “Yeah. Precisely.”
Nina flipped open her cell phone. “What’s his clan’s name again? Is it Jefferson like him?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t ask, because if I got too involved in that conversation we had, I might give away what I know. It was hard enough as it was.”
“Did you tell him about us?” Marty asked.
Wanda was almost offended. “Don’t be silly. Of course not. But do you have any idea how hard it was to cover up my lack of surprise? I mean, hearing a tale like that is kinda so five minutes ago for me, after you two.”
Nina held up a hand, sliding out from the booth to head outside. “Okay, let me see what I can find out from Greg—then we’ll decide what to do.”
“There’s nothing to decide, Nina, because we’re just—just—” Wanda stumbled on her words.
Nina and Marty exchanged glances. “Doing each other—yeah, we know. I guess a guy would share something as killa huge like that because he was just doing you. Or maybe he thought it’d be crazy cool to try and impress a chick with the notion he was once a vampire.That’d be a new and refreshing take on making an impact on someone.”
Wanda feigned indifference in Nina’s direction, and she was getting damned good at it, keeping her face as unreadable as possible. “Well, that’s all it is to me.”
“You keep telling yourself that, Wanda—I’ll be right back.” Nina strode out the silver door of the diner.
“Sure that’s all it is to you, honey,” Marty chimed in. “That’s why you give a rat’s ass if he’s telling the truth,” she said sarcastically.
Wanda became thin-lipped. “I’m just curious.”
“Yeaaahhhhh.”
Wanda stuck her tongue out at Marty. “Stop mocking me.”
“Me, mock? Nope. I’m a believer. You’re just doing this guy. That’s cool by me.”
How in all things carnal did women do this? Remain so casual about the man they were giving their bodies to? She liked Heath far too much out of bed to treat what they’d done in bed so informally. Never in a million years, when he’d come to her door that night after she’d been to the shelter, had she ever thought he’d want something—anything more than a sexual relationship. Now he implied it left and right, and she didn’t quite know how to deal with that. But she couldn’t stop the tingle she felt when she thought about him. There was no thwarting the erratic beat of her heart when she heard his voice on the new cell phone he’d bought.
And it all had to end.
“Wanda?”
She clenched her eyes once before opening them to look into Marty’s. “Yeah?”
Marty’s voice was filled with concern. “Do you wanna tell me what’s really going on? If what Heath says is true, then he told you because he’s doing that open and h
onest new millennium relationship stuff. That means this is more than just sex to him. If it were just sex, he’d boink you, go home, come back and boink you again. He wouldn’t give a shit if you cared whether he was homeless or not. All you need is a bed when you’re just slamming each other, honey.”
Marty cupped her chin in her hand and gave Wanda a thoughtful gaze. “I know you, Wanda Schwartz. You don’t casually have sex. George, the putz, was the only man you’d ever slept with. If casual sex were your thing—you’d have been doing it long before now. What are you afraid of where Heath’s concerned? That if you get involved he’ll steal your independence the way George did? That he’ll control you the way he did? You’re a different woman now, honey. So much different than even six months ago.You won’t let that happen, because you’re empowered. Nina and I wouldn’t let that happen either. So why not just fall, sweetie? Nothing would make Nina and me happier than to see you happy.We want you to have what we have.You know, your HEA.”
Yeah . . . happily ever after didn’t look likely at this point. If only she could just explain to them why she couldn’t fall, but she wasn’t ready yet. “I’m just not ready to fall, Marty. I’m not ready. My divorce was ugly—I’m just getting back on my feet. Isn’t playing the field all part of being divorced these days?” Because truly, she was such a playa.
“It is—but a player, you’re not.” Marty bowed her head for a moment; when she looked back up at Wanda, her eyes couldn’t hide the fact that she just didn’t understand this Wanda. “Okay. I won’t pressure you. Just hear what I’ve said, all right?”
Nina bustled back in, slipping into the booth once more, taking the pressure off Wanda to say anything more. “Well, a liar he ain’t.”
Wanda’s eyes widened, her hands suddenly clammy and cold. “It’s true? He really was once a vampire?”
Nina gave her a thumbs-up. “Yep. This Horatio dude was some badass mutha, too. Greg knew exactly who I meant. Horatio’s sire was some guy named something I can’t even pronounce. Greg made a couple of calls, called me back, and bam. Heath’s telling the truth. He was well known in certain vampiric circles.”
Wanda was astounded. “Then why didn’t you guys know about this? Don’t you vampires keep in touch with emails or something? How could something this big have happened without you knowing about it? It’s basically a cure for you. Remember that little thing you were looking for a few months ago, and threatening bodily harm if someone didn’t give you back your mortality?”
“Yeah, I remember, but not all of the clan feel like I do—did. It’s like Marty said, it wouldn’t just be me I turned back if I hunted down one of these sires. And Greg and I are in the honeymoon stage of things—you know, we’re doing each other all the time—kind of the way you and Heath are . . .” Nina let her words sit with Wanda. When she refused to react, Nina added, “I guess we were out of the vampire loop, but Greg says maybe some vampire rescue is in order. I don’t know how he’ll locate thousands of clan members turned human if there are no records of them in the human world, but we can’t just let them piss in the wind.” Nina’s face had sympathetic written all over it.
God, Nina had grown so much over the past year. She took other people into consideration with regularity, and she was getting better at showing it, too. Nina was growing, changing, being with Greg and his mother, Svetlanna, and that made Wanda smile. Nina would be well taken care of if anything ever happened to her grandmother Lou. She wouldn’t be alone, and Wanda let that comfort her.
Marty flagged the waitress down to get more water. “So what are you going to do, Wanda?”
Her composure would surely slip if she let them hammer her any more. She grabbed her purse and pushed out of the booth. “There’s nothing to do. So he was a vampire—now he’s a human. Human, vampire, it’s all the same to me.”
She only caught a glimpse of Marty and Nina’s surprise before she made a conscious effort to leave in a calm, orderly fashion.
It took every last ounce of effort she had not to run from the diner, run from her friends, but most especially—run from Heath.
CHAPTER 14
“Miss Schwartz, again, the pleasure is all mine.” Archibald, Heath’s manservant—manservant—opened the door and waved her in with a formal hand.
Wanda couldn’t help but smile. Seeing Archibald in this setting, dressed as though he’d just opened the door to royalty, was surreal. The smell that greeted her nose was heavenly—clearly hot dogs weren’t on the menu. “Hi, Archibald. It’s good to see you again, too.” The apartment was drab, and that was being kind. The paint was peeling, the floors were warped, and they had not a stick of furniture—but neither of them showed an ounce of shame or apology.
And it made Wanda admire Heath that much more—which she shouldn’t be doing, but in light of the fact that that’s all she’d been doing lately, she accepted it.
Heath, big and sculpted, was in the kitchen. He wore a black, tight-fitting sweater and jeans that made her gulp because her mouth was so dry. “Hey,” he called, the indentations on either side of his mouth deepening.
The warmth in her belly spread up and directly to her cheeks. “So what’s for dinner tonight? Is it hot dogs—or maybe mac and cheese from a box?” she teased.
“Bah!” Archibald scoffed, raising an eyebrow and pushing past the folding chair in the nearly empty living room to shoo Heath from the kitchen. “I’m in charge of your dining pleasure this evening, Miss Schwartz. And you can thank the heavens above for such.There will be no boxes or processed pork products involved. Of this I can assure you. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to tend to the duck and fingerling potatoes. You two go get comfortable on—on the floor.” He rolled his eyes at that, gliding off to the kitchen to handle the duck in the oven that smelled so good.
Wanda’s gaze toward Heath was hesitant. “Duck, huh? Did that like kill your budget, or what?”
He held out his hand, and she slid hers into it like she’d always been doing it. “You’re worth the Ramen Noodles we’ll eat for the next two weeks. Arch can be very creative when he has to. It was actually him who insisted on cooking.”
“I think I know why.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because aside from your eggs and coffee, your cooking sucks.”
He chuckled, the deep rumble from his throat sending goose bumps along her arms. “Well, it’s not your cheese log, that’s for sure.”
“Oh, I forgot. I brought you something.” She dug around in her purse, pulling out a lumpy package.
“For me? Wow, Ms. Schwartz—you know what that means, don’t you?”
She peered at him with cautious eyes. “What?”
He pulled her closer, tucking her under his arm and running a hand along her hip. “It means you’ve been thinking about me. Not very uninvolved of you, eh? So whad’ja bring me?”
Okay, so she’d been thinking about him. Okay, so she’d thought of nothing else. Big whoop. She held up the bag, now with reluctance. If he’d pinned her for thinking about him before, for sure he’d have her pegged now. “These. And it’s just like bringing wine to a dinner party. Nothing more, nothing less.” Humph. And no, Wanda, that didn’t sound petty or churlish at all.
He snatched the bag from her fingers and held it up to the light that hung in the middle of the living room. Heath’s grin was smug. “Well, well. How very uninvolved of you.” He popped the bag open, unwrapping the wrapper that surrounded his favorite candy, and popped one into his mouth. His eyes instantly closed, his delicious mouth formed a smile of satisfaction. He took another out, unwrapped it with nimble fingers, and popped it into her mouth. The gesture, his fingertips against her lips, so intimate it made her bones melt, made her accept the candy, attempt to revel in it the way he did.
“There’s nothing like a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, huh?”
“Heathcliff,” Archibald called from the kitchen, leaning over the small breakfast bar and giving Heath a stern look. “Do not spoil the dini
ng treasure I’m creating with hedonistic cooking ware from Wal-Mart. This duck cost the earth, not to mention I’ve been preparing it all afternoon so the fair Wanda wouldn’t have to suffer through that ghastly block of meat you called Spam. Which, I might add, was Heath’s intention.” He wagged a wooden spoon at Heath.
Wanda giggled and found herself leaning her head against the hard nub of Heath’s shoulder.
Heath’s chin rested on the top of her head. “You want a beer?”
“No, thanks. Not much of a drinker. It makes me stupid.”
“You mind if I have one?”
“I’d never deny you something you couldn’t have for two hundred years.”
“About that—”
Shit. No more personal stuff. If you must eat with the man, then chow down, but no more delving into his life. No more comments about where he came from—if he was a vampire or a fire-man. The less said the better, dipshit. “No—don’t say a word.You don’t have to explain anything else.”
His eyes held amusement. “Right, ’cause that would be a sort of a couple thing and all—and we don’t want to do couple things, because we’re not invoooolved,” he drew out the last word, then grinned.
Once more, he joked a lot about her desire to remain uninvolved, but hadn’t ever seriously stated his desires. And he had confessed to once being the ultimate in playas, she reminded herself for the umpteenth time. Though lately, she wondered if it wasn’t just a convenient tactic to soothe her conscience. “About that—”
“No—don’t say a word. You don’t have to explain anything else,” he repeated her words verbatim. “I say we venture out to my fancy verandah and stargaze. That’s very uninvolved, don’tcha think?” He pointed to the glass door that led outside.
Wanda grabbed her coat and scarf. “It’s a fire escape, funny man.”
“Well, it’s the closest thing to a verandah I’ve got.You wanna?” He held out his hand to her once more and wiggled his eyebrows.
The Accidental Human Page 21
