Мишель Роуэн - Bitten & Smitten

Her eyelashes fluttered open and she stared up at me. “Sarah. What happened?”

“Don’t move. You’re hurt.”

She looked down at the stake and her eyes widened.

“I’m going to have to pull it out,” I told her.

I touched the stake, but she pushed my hands away. She wrapped her own hand around the base of the wooden weapon and pulled it out of her chest in one quick, sickening motion. She didn’t even scream. She gingerly sat up on the sofa.

“If I had a nickel for every time I’ve been staked”— she glanced at me wearily—“well, I’d only have about twenty cents. But still, it’s never a fun experience.”

“You’re going to be okay?” I was surprised she’d been able to remove the stake all by herself. She was one tough cookie.

“No, I’m not.” She looked down at herself. “This dress was one of a kind. I’m very upset.

Let’s shoot the hunter again, shall we?”

“You saw me shoot him? I thought you were unconscious.”

“I was, but I see him lying there with a hole in his chest. It’s obvious what happened.”

I smiled and helped her to her feet. We stepped around the mess that once was Peter and

Zelda, and I opened up the door to peek outside. Everything was quiet. Too quiet.

“Maybe you should stay here,” I told her.

She shook her head. “No. Let’s go.”

We slowly made our way out to the main club area. It was mostly cleared out. The fight was over. There were a few bodies on the ground. Some vampires, a few hunters. Some were moving, some weren’t. It looked like a dimly lit, smoke-filled war zone with makeshift nurses and doctors tending to the injured.

George rushed toward us with a huge smile on his face. “You’re okay!”

“Yeah. And you, too.” I smiled back. “You stayed safely under your table?”

“No. I got out and kicked some ass. It was more fun than I thought it would be.”

“Good for you.”

“Sarah.” Quinn made his way over to join us at the bar. He was limping, and there was another cut on his forehead to match the one his father had given him earlier on his cheek.

He grabbed me and hugged me tightly. I was so glad he was okay that I almost burst into tears.

“You look like hell,” I told him.

“You look like heaven.”

I rolled my eyes. “You honestly have to start working on your pickup lines.”

He grimaced. “I don’t think I’ll be picking anything up for a while, but I’ll keep it in mind.” He glanced at Veronique. “Who are you?”

“Veronique.” She extended her hand and then winced in pain.

He took her hand but didn’t shake it. “Nice to meet a fellow battle-scarred soldier.”

She shook her head. “I’m not planning on scarring. My injury should heal up fine.”

He let go of her hand. “It was just an expression.”

Amy and Barry joined us. Barry was cut up, too, but smiling. Amy hugged me.

“Glad you’re okay,” I said to her.

“You too.”

“No hard feelings?”

“None. We’ve been friends too long. I just want you to be happy for me.”

I looked at Barry and he met my gaze. “I love her. I know it seems fast, but sometimes life’s just like that.”

“Fine.” I smiled at him. “Then congratulations, you two. When’s the big day?”

“We’re leaving tonight,” Amy said. “We’re going to elope to Niagara Falls.”

“You’re going to Niagara Falls for your wedding? That is so cheesy. I love it.”

Amy paused. “This means I won’t be able to go to Mexico with you.”

“I kind of figured that. After everything that’s happened, I might just skip it myself. I mean, a vampire in Mexico? How weird would that be?” I glanced around. “Where’s Thierry?”

George turned around in a circle. “Don’t know. Haven’t seen him since the battle royale took place.”

My breath caught in my throat and a tear streaked down my cheek. “Shit. Please don’t tell me that they killed him.”

Quinn touched my arm. “No, he’s not dead. He fought hard against the hunters, but he’s not dead. I saw him leave through the tanning salon five minutes ago. He didn’t say where he was going.”

I let a long, shaky sigh out slowly and wiped my face. I tried to smile.

“You care about him, don’t you?” Veronique said. “You’ve denied it before, but you can’t fool me.”

I bit my bottom lip. “Look, I know he’s your husband and—”

She waved me off and laughed until it hurt so much she had to stop. “It’s okay. We were married a long time ago, but we haven’t been man and wife for so long, I forget even what it was like. I have had many lovers since then, and I certainly don’t expect that Thierry has remained faithful to me. Now, dear girl, answer me. Do you care for him?”

I sniffed. “Yes. But I just figured that since you came back after all this time, you were interested in getting back together with him.”

She smiled, but it didn’t hold. Her expression turned serious. “I came here because it was requested of me. Thierry asked me to come.”

“Why?”

“There’s something you need to know,” she said gravely. “Thierry plans to end his life; he’s weary of living. There’s nothing in it for him anymore. Six hundred years is a long time.”

“I know that already. But why did he ask you to come?”

“He knows I have an excellent head for business. He asked me to look after the clubs he owns, to either run them myself or sell them to another who will keep them open. He didn’t want his employees or clientele not to have a place to count on being here. I agreed, because I feel a sense of responsibility to him. I sired him, after all, and he was my husband at one time. I’m also searching for direction in my own life now. I, too, am weary, but not ready yet for it all to end. I don’t know if I’ll ever be. This seemed like the perfect answer.”

“But you didn’t say anything to try to talk Thierry out of what he wanted to do?”

She paused. “No. It’s his decision. I don’t think anything I could have said would have swayed him otherwise.”

“I need to talk to him. I need to know where he went.”

No one said anything.

Anxiety filled me, spreading evenly through every part of my body. “He’s gone to do it tonight, hasn’t he? Where? Where did he go?”

They all glanced at one another.

George shook his head. “Sorry, he didn’t say.”

I exhaled and it sounded shuddery and hopeless.

“I can’t deal with this. After everything that’s happened, I can’t lose him. I just can’t.”

I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was Veronique. She smiled at me, and there was more warmth in her perfect features than I’d seen before. Or maybe I just hadn’t been looking hard enough. “If there is one thing I’ve learned after all of my many years, it’s this: when the world has gone mad and you feel the most lost—that is when you must trust your heart to lead you where you need to go.”

I blinked at her through my tears. “That is the lamest thing I’ve ever heard.”

It may have been lame, but I knew it was the truth. The one thing I’d trusted during all that had happened to me was what my heart told me, be it right or wrong, and at that moment my heart was telling me it wasn’t too late.

“There is a reason why those as old as I do not sire fledglings.”

I closed my eyes. Thierry had said that sires and fledglings have a bond, sometimes heightened by age. Okay, he wasn’t my real sire, but goddamn it, this had to work. I cleared my mind. I focused. It was like being at Missy’s wedding again searching out the other vampires. A Spidey-sense.

But there was nothing. Nothing.

Nothing. And then… I opened my eyes.