Мишель Роуэн - Tall, Dark & Fangsome

My cell phone rang three separate times and I knew by the call display that it was Thierry.

I didn’t pick up. He was probably furious with me for leaving. Probably? Make that definitely. I understood his point—my being out on the streets in my current chain-free condition wasn’t the best decision.

Another understatement.

Who cares what he thinks? my nightwalker said. That guy is such a drag. He never lets you have any fun.

“Is that so?” I said aloud. “Not that I’d take any advice from you.”

I am you, stupid. And I know what you want.

“And what’s that?”

To be free. To have fun. You used to have fun, but ever since you met Thierry you’ve been miserable.

“That has nothing to do with Thierry. That has to do with being a vampire.”

You know who’s fun? Gideon. He is so sexy and exciting and life with him would be so wickedly awesome.

“Wickedly awesome?” My evil inner voice sounded like a Valley Girl.

Yeah. You liked Gideon, didn’t you? You felt sorry for him. More than you should have.

And there was something else there as well—a spark of something more. Are those feelings all gone now?

I gritted my teeth. “They’re gone. He was using me—trying to manipulate me.”

And it totally worked. You left your “true love” lying on the floor unconscious so you could run out to find Gideon. You’re going to give him exactly what he wants from you.

“Only to save Amy.”

Mmm hmm. Sure. Yeah, I believe that. Vamp tramp.

My jaw tightened. “I don’t care what you think.”

Well, you should care. As soon as I have the chance, I get to make the decisions, sweetheart. I’m so sick of your taking the lead. I want my moment in the sunlight.

Figuratively speaking, of course. No real sunlight. It stings like a bitch, doesn’t it?

“You can shut up anytime now.”

Great. Now I was having full-fledged conversations with my inner nightwalker. That wasn’t a good sign. She wasn’t feeling any angst about this situation. She was happy to let the darkness take over completely. She wanted to find Gideon for reasons different from mine. And she couldn’t care less about Amy.

Is that really how part of me felt? Or was my nightwalker a separate identity completely from who I actually was?

I guess we’ll soon find out, won’t we? she said inside my head.

She was a total bitch.

Hey, no need to be rude.

I shouldn’t be on the streets in my condition. It was like drinking and driving—risky, dangerous, and insanely stupid. But I held on to one thought: Amy. It was like waiting until after Valentine’s Day to break up with somebody. I had to make sure she was safe before I could let my nightwalker take me over completely.

Unfortunately, she seemed to want to get an early start. I pushed back at her whenever she raised her ugly head.

Thierry’s words from earlier rang in my head. “Gideon cherishes your dark side while I restrict it. I suppose you’ll have to decide which of us is correct.”

Was he just being jealous, as he used to be with Quinn? I already knew which was correct.

It’s not as if I was conflicted about what side I was going to take. I loved Thierry. I hated

Gideon. It was that simple.

Yeah, right, my inner voice chimed.

“Shut. Up.”

Where the hell was Gideon? And how was I supposed to find him in a city of two and a half million people?

How about a location spell? my nightwalker suggested helpfully.

“Last time I checked, I was a vampire, not a witch.”

A few people on the Front Street sidewalk where I now briskly moved along glanced at me warily as I kept talking to myself like a crazy woman.

A location spell. A person’s exact location could be pinpointed if you knew someone who could work some hocus-pocus. What’s his name—wizard-boy Steven, aka The

Darkness—did a location spell to find out where I lived, didn’t he? Just before he was possessed by a demon and threw me into a wall, that is.

However, it might be worth it if I could find him.

But how was I supposed to do that? I didn’t have his phone number. I had no idea how to contact him. And time was running out.

Check it out, my nightwalker said. A falling star. Why don’t you make a wish, you loser?

My evil inner voice wasn’t very nice at all.

I looked up at the sky, dark but clear, showing a full moon and stars like a thousand sparkly diamond rings.

Normally, I’d wish for a million dollars. Tonight I’d make an exception.

“I wish I could find Gideon Chase,” I said aloud to the brightest star I saw. “Pretty please.”

The star moved to reveal that I’d just wished on an airplane.

Well, that sucks, my nightwalker said.

At least we agreed about something.

“Hey, lady.” Somebody poked me in the arm. I turned around to scowl at my attacker.

“Need concert tickets?”

“Concert tickets?” I repeated. “That’s one thing I actually don’t need right now.”

“C’mon. They’re cheap. Concert’s already started. You can have ’em for fifty each.”

The man’s breath smelled like a cross between Cuban cigars and a used litterbox. Pleasant it wasn’t.

“Not interested,” I told him.

“Death Suck is the hottest heavy metal band out there. You look like you could use a little excitement tonight.” He waggled his eyebrows. “Forty each. C’mon. Take them off my hands.”

I was about to open my mouth again to tell him exactly where he could shove the tickets when I froze.

Did he say Death Suck?

Did I not already know Death Suck’s biggest fan in the entire Northern Hemisphere?

Why, I think I did. And Death Suck’s biggest fan just happened to be a teenaged wizard who liked to be called The Darkness, who I already knew had expressed a very keen interest at being at the concert this evening.

I looked up at the path of the plane I’d wished on and said a silent thank you. Wishing on stars was obviously overrated.

“Give me the tickets,” I said.

“Forty each.”

I narrowed my eyes and held out my hand, reaching down a little into my nightwalker self to pull out my “thrall” ability as though I was searching through a cluttered purse. “Give them to me.”

His eyes glazed over immediately. “Sure thing,” he said, and he handed me the tickets without further argument. “Enjoy the show.”

I snatched the tickets away from him. I’d forgotten that the thrall was, hands down, my favorite side effect of being a nightwalker.

Not that there was anything good about the curse, mind you. But if there was, it would be the thrall. Wonderful, glorious thrall.

I focused on going into the domed Rogers Centre stadium, getting past security, who saw nothing suspicious about my strolling into a heavy metal concert more than an hour after it had already started. The scent of beer and pretzels and popcorn hit me, along with the very mild scent of weed.

Vampire nose at full capacity. Check.

The sound of twenty thousand screaming kids assaulted me, and the grinding whine of guitars and synthesizers hit me like a brick wall as I wandered the seating area, straining my senses, for any sign of the wizard I was looking for.

“Death suck!” the lead singer screamed into the microphone.

“Kill them! Stab them! Make them bleed!

“Tear their hearts out, THEN WE’LL FEED!

“Suck! Death! DEATH! SUUUCCKKK!”

Catchy.

Vampire hearing: not exactly an asset at the moment. Check.

A quick sweep of the place showed me nothing I could use. This was already taking too long. How would I be able to find him in a crowd of thousands of kids?

I kept searching until a glance at my watch told me it was just after ten o’clock. I’d already been wandering aimlessly around the concert for way too long.