chapter NINE
“Empath,” he greeted as he pulled over and unlocked the doors of his black car. I was horrible with recognizing makes and models, but I knew it was black. As I got in the front seat, I saw that it was new, like new new, like next year new. The seats were made up of black leather and they were still slippery. I almost wooshed off when Kates climbed into the back seat.
“Thanks.” I felt stiff as I reached for the seatbelt. “I see our truce is over with, Vampire?”
“You don’t have to bother with the seatbelt.” He shifted gears and shot back onto the street. “I’m taking my cues from you. You called me ‘Vampire’ in your head when I pulled up.”
“Huh?”
Kates just snorted.
“I have vampire reflexes, Empath. We won’t get into an accident.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that he can go fast and still land on his feet, just like a freaking cat. Didn’t you know? All vampires have nine lives,” Kates drawled from the back. She was still pissed.
I sighed.
Roane murmured, “Vampires have one life. It’s called immortality.”
Kates met his gaze in the rearview mirror. “Is that so? Here I thought you were the one that took away their immortality, right? You hunt them. Or did I get that wrong?”
“Takes one to know one…” The words were so smooth, so chilling, and deadly…
I had no idea what that was, where that came from, but something else was in the car with us. As I looked between Roane and Kates, I knew it was something between them and it was something specific. I held my tongue, though. I knew that I did not want to step sideways into whatever they were in…
“You have something against vampires, Kates? I wasn’t aware of that.”
I needed to give him his due. He could hold his own against my nolstage.
Kates choked on something. “Please. We both know what I have against vampires and it ain’t a grudge, Hunter.”
“That’s right. You and Cherry go way back. How long exactly?”
Kates was silent, the very scary quiet when I knew she was about to explode… any second now…
Roane slowly rolled his knuckles over the steering wheel. He was in control, perfect control. “You don’t know him. You met him tonight and you had every intention of killing him.”
“You don’t know that! You don’t know anything!” Kates came unhinged. She jerked upright and slammed against my seat. She was so furious. Kates always looked sultry. She was the sexy one of us, but just then her heavily made up make-up looked clownish on her. It looked wrong. That’s when I knew that what Kates was doing was wrong.
Their argument passed over me, but I tuned back in to hear Kates shout, “—who made you judge and jury? You’re a Hunter. You kill them and you enjoy that. That makes you an animal in my eyes. You’re no more above the rest of them, but you like to think you are—”
“—an animal?” Roane narrowed his eyes dangerously and replied, silkily, “I’m the animal, Kates? I died. I came back as a vampire. You’re a human. You have a choice in the matter. You have a soul.”
“A soul.” Kates threw herself back in the seat, disgusted. She glanced to the window and muttered underneath her breath, “What is that anymore?”
“Okay.” I sat up and ignored the chilling glance from the vampire and turned around. I even ignored how Kates refused to look at me and how her back was perfectly poised to make me feel insignificant.
“You’re stupid.”
I caught the slight jerk of Kates’ eyebrows.
“You can sit there and ignore me, but I know you’re listening.”
“Tell me, o wise best friend, why am I so stupid?”
“Are you killing vampires?”
“Like I’m going to have this heart to heart with you when he’s in the car. Not to mention, why did you call him? I thought you hated the guy. Now you’ve got him on speed dial? I still can’t believe that you showed up with him.”
I ignored that. “Are you killing vampires? And we’ve been over that—I had to.”
Kates scorched me with those sapphire eyes and I gulped. “I am not talking about this with him in the car—with him in any close vicinity at all. And what if I was? I’m not saying that I am, but what if I was? So what, Davy! I’m a slayer. It’s what I was born to do. You don’t know what it’s like to have this thing inside of you, this darkness or something. I am programmed on the inside to do one thing. Kill vampires. I’m not allowed because some stupid decree made a decision that they could patrol their own. Well, that’s just…” She trailed off, almost sad.
“You don’t think I might know a little bit about that? I can feel inside of people. Remember what it was like in the beginning, before I upped my blocking levels? It was hell, Kates. You should remember that. I had this thing that came from inside of me and I couldn’t control it. I do understand a little bit about what you’re talking about.” I felt wrung out just talking about it, but I remembered those first few years. I would do anything to not remember them.
The air was thick. I heard the swish of the car’s wipers and a part of me realized that it had started to rain, but I concentrated on Kates, just Kates. She was so still with her face turned towards the window. I glanced at her reflection and wasn’t surprised to see a lone tear trickle down the side of her face.
“I don’t care what you’re doing. I just can’t lose you and I know that if you are doing what I feel is taboo to talk about right now—then just stop it. Okay?”
Kates sniffed. That was rare.
“Fuck off.” That was the real Kates.
I fell back in my seat and glimpsed my dorm through the window. Roane turned the car into the parking lot and slowed to a halt just before the quad’s archway. As soon as we had stopped, Kates scrambled out and slammed the door. The car rocked from her force.
“That went… stupendous,” I sighed.
Roane shifted the car into park and turned it off.
I didn’t care if the car sprouted roots and became a tree. I just knew that my butt had no desire to follow a pissed off vampire slayer, especially when my roommate was probably still sleeping.
“She heard you. That’s all that I really hoped for the night.”
Huh?
Roane added, “She knows that I know what she’s doing. She knows that you know and that you’re worried for her. That’s all we can hope. If she stops, then good for all of us. If she doesn’t, then it’s my problem. Not yours.”
“I didn’t follow anything you just said.”
“You don’t need to. You tried. That’s all you can do.”
“You’re very supportive for being a vampire.” I couldn’t stop the sneer. Then I felt the same coldness from before. I looked up and gulped when I felt his coal eyes on me. They were colder than normal.
“You need to get over your ex. Things will go a lot smoother for the both of us when you do.”
“What are you talking about? I felt that Kates was in trouble and for some screwed up reason, I got you to help me. Whatever. We both saw how well the ‘slaying intervention’ just went. You and me, that’s never going to happen again.” I felt brave and bold, but a part of me trembled on the inside. I just didn’t know what or why…. Then I burst out, “Why was your name in her head? Why did I have to call you? You’re the one…” I called her executioner. That’s what I did. So… why? That question burned me.
I was surprised to hear sympathy in his voice. “I know that she’s breaking vampire law. I was in her head because she fears me and she needs me. I’m the one that has to stop her.”
“But…”
“You’re the friend who can help me do that. No one else can do that.”
That explained some of it, but there was other weird stuff going on too. “Why are there so many vampires?”
“Because…” He trailed off. For the first time, I didn’t sense all of his attention on me. It felt liberating and yet, I got a sudden sick feeling. He was the primal predator. When their attention wasn’t on the prey that meant it was on some other prey, something worse…. He blinked, once, and the spell was gone. His fierce eyes turned back on me and I felt all that attention once again. “Does it matter?”
“I think it does.” My throat was dry.
“Talk to your friend. Plead with her again and maybe you and I won’t have to do this again.”
He’d dismissed me. Just like a flip of a switch. “And here I thought you were a little more human than most vampires. You proved me right. You’re just as much of a dick as most guys I know. Thanks for that, it’s very human of you.” I threw open my door and stalked off. When I reached my dorm I glanced over my shoulder and saw that he was gone. Ass.
As I moved through the first lobby and darted up the stairs, I paused before my dorm door. I didn’t know if I could handle what was on the other side. I was tired. The hallway smelled of moldy toast and I grimaced when a bad aftertaste formed in my throat. I stood there for awhile and took a deep breath.
The moldy toast had nothing on Kates.
When I bolstered up the courage and opened my door, I wasn’t surprised to find Kates packing a bag. I didn’t even comment when I saw a pair of my jeans in her bag. Instead, I closed the door, sat by my desk, and heard the snores from Emily.
Kates clenched her jaw tighter and threw more clothes in the bag. After a minute of silence, she screamed. “Nothing? Really? Nothing?”
“Are you leaving town?” It was all I asked because I wanted her gone. I wanted her away from him. It didn’t bother me one bit if she was mad at me. This was for her own good.
Kates studied me as she twisted her hands in a sequined halter top. She loved that shirt and I knew she’d regret ripping it so I stood and gently took it away. She let me, which surprised me. “Are you doing what he says?”
“…yes…” She turned away as the admission slipped out.
I knew it, but hearing it was different. I already felt like I needed a time out. “Can you stop?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because…” Kates turned back to face me. I saw the tears swimming in her eyes and I blinked back my own. “…because they killed my mother, because they’re trying to tell me that I can’t be who I am, because they’re my whole world. I know what’ll happen to me if I’m caught and he knows that I am. I finally know that he knows.”
“Leave town.” ‘Get away from him.’
“There are others like him. There are other hunters.”
“You can go to one of my meetings with me. It might do you good.”
“I’m not empathic.” She dipped her head and I heard a chuckle.
I nudged her toe with mine. “It doesn’t matter. The meetings are supposed to help anybody and everybody…Why do you do it? Do you know why, I mean, really why? It might help if you understand it.”
“Right. I’m going to go to a shrink and tell them that I can’t stop killing vampires. I won’t get thrown in an asylum at all.”
“What about Blue? She knows about this stuff. She makes me talk to her about my stuff all the time.”
“Oh, I can see that one. Your sponsor and me as roommates, because she doesn’t know how much I hate all that crap she makes you do.”
Blue did know. Blue knew a lot more, but I wasn’t going to voice it. “Try it.”
When I heard my phone peel, I already knew who was on the other end. “Hello, Blue. You know we were talking about you.”
“I’m not a damn mind reader. I felt a question. What’s the question?”
Blue would never cease to amaze me. “Can Kates come and stay with you for awhile? She’s got… some things to talk about.”
“I’m making breakfast. Have her pick up some coffee on the way. I like the pumpkin spice latte.”
“Blue says—”
“I heard.” Kates didn’t look too sure… “I go and talk to her and this is how I’m supposed to get help? It’s just like that? That’s too easy, Davy, even for you.”
It was all I could think of. “He won’t know where you are.”
“If he wants to know, he’ll know.”
“Kates…” I wasn’t sure if I should ask, but another question kept nagging me. “Why are all the vampires here?”
“Because they have fairy tales just like us. We have Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, but they have the Immortal.”
So much of that statement made no sense. “They are immortal.”
“Not their immortality. It’s the Immortal, as in a human who has immortality.”
Huh?