chapter FOUR
I went back inside, but the moment I approached their booth Roane jerked his head towards the door. The other vampires stood and followed him. Kates frowned at the abrupt exit, but Emily gushed with a glazed look over her face.
She smiled at me with stars in her eyes. “Did you see him, Davy?”
I had more than seen him, but I wasn’t about to share that with her. I asked Kates, “What happened to her? She looks drunk.” There were no empty glasses in front of Emily.
“What do you think?”
Kates was still annoyed with me, but my stomach rumbled and I pressed a hand over it. I had worse things on my mind. With a closer look at Emily, I saw the glazed eyes, flushed lips, pink cheeks, and then I saw her neck. There was a small red mark over her artery. “What did they do?”
“What do you think?” Kates asked flatly, bored. Hell, she probably watched the whole time.
Vampires weren’t supposed to feed off humans, but I knew a few of them used lovebites to sneak a taste. It was frowned upon by the Elders, but not strictly prohibited—especially when it happened in a bar. It was considered the same as making out to them.
“I’m bored,” Kates announced.
Emily smiled, drunkenly. “Did you see him, Daveeena? He was here and then he was… out there and now… he’s… he went that way.” She swung her hand towards the door and smiled sleepily.
“Maybe we should go.”
Emily protested, “But… he’s…”
“Not coming back, wino.” Kates snorted and stood. She stretched and pretended to heave a big yawn—her boobs arched in the air.
I rolled my eyes. “Come on, Emily. I’ll get you home.”
Kates dropped her arms abruptly. “You had four shots. You can’t drive anywhere.”
“I’m fine. Really.” I could’ve told her about the nausea, but she was mad. I wasn’t feeling all friendly and soul-confessing.
“Well…” Kates raked us up and down and then glanced over her shoulder. “I think I might stay. I’ll give you a call.”
Emily stumbled, but I caught her. Then I frowned even more when I saw her cheeks pale abruptly. Lovebites are just that—they’re little nips. They don’t take too much blood, but she was reacting as if they drank her empty.
“Did you drink?” It would explain a little…
“She had some beer. She’ll be fine. Take her home, get her in bed. She’ll be the same tomorrow.”
I didn’t bother to ask Kates how she’d get back. I knew she’d be fine or sleep somewhere else. She was still branded and a lot of vampires held a grudge. “Just… be safe.”
“Yeah. Whatever.”
“Seriously, Kates. Safe, not stupid, remember?”
“Yeah. I know,” she grumbled and shoved through the crowd. I watched as she disappeared into the bathroom until Emily stumbled in the opposite direction. Someone caught her and pushed her ahead. I tried to grab her, but someone else bumped her further ahead. Pretty soon, I watched helplessly as Emily managed to fall out the front door backwards.
Talk about exits.
I darted through the crowd and found Emily on the wet sidewalk, ashen, and with mud on her khakis. If the girl could see herself, she’d be mortified. She looked like every other drunkard.
“Come on. Let’s go.”
I bent forward to help her stand. Fishing the keys out of her pocket, I guided her to the car and in the backseat. My inner empath alarm was going off when we drove off. There were an inappropriate number of vampires. My home town had a population of 2,000. Southdale wasn’t big, but it wasn’t a three hundred bump in the road. We averaged five or six vamps. Benshire was at least 12,000. That meant there should be around 200 hundred vamps around. I knew the vampire population would be significantly more compared to home, but as I drove past Bud’s, I saw more than I should’ve trolling the streets and alleys.
Emily puffed out a snore and there was a speck of drool at the corner of her mouth. Of course. She’d be one of those slobbering drunks when she drank. Then I remembered the red mark. The vampire drank from her. That meant some of him was in her. It was a small bit, but it was something. My stomach rolled over on itself as I considered the possibilities.
Too many vampires. That girl had jumped from my building and eight vamps had been there. A Hunter was here and he looked like he was permanently staying. Something was going on.
No—forget it! I did not want to get involved with the local vampire political crap. They had their own community. As long as they stayed away from me…, but they hadn’t stayed away from Emily. I was worried they wouldn’t stay away from Kates. She’d been branded as a slayer’s daughter. It was known that a vampire slayer’s strength passes to her daughter at the slayer’s death. The vamps hadn’t hurt Kates then, but if they saw the burned mark in her skin they’d know that Kates had the strength of a slayer. She could handle her own, I knew that, but I knew that a lot of them still held resentment towards slayers of all kinds—the good and bad. If there was an overabundance of vampires in the area, which I was pretty sure there was, chances were good that some of those with chips on their fangs would be in town. If they ran into Kates… who knew what would happen.
I had to know. It was for Kates’ safety.
Suddenly, I felt like I would vomit again. I pressed my arm over my stomach, but it didn’t help. I felt the first gag and veered the car over to the edge. Bursting through the door, I upchucked my entire stomach contents on the side of the road. When I leaned back on my knees, I warily eyed three vamps in the alley. I waited, since I didn’t know what they would do. If it came to it, I could probably obliterate a vampire just from my breath. It was rank.
“Davy?”
“Yeah?” I wiped my mouth and moved back to the seat.
Emily peered at me through foggy eyes, haphazard hair, and pasty white cheeks. Talking about vampires…
“Where’d you go?” She frowned, confused.
I held the steering wheel in my hands, but I needed a breath to settle my stomach. “Nowhere. You fell asleep.”
She giggled. “Did you see him? He was there. He didn’t talk to me, not really, but he was there. Am I pathetic? I think I need to do something. Maybe I could—what kind of girls do you think he likes? I bet he likes girls like your friend. She’s a little skanky, sorry. I’m not able to stop what I’m saying before I say it. But she is.”
“Don’t worry, Ems. I know what you think about Kates, but… there’s more to her. Trust me. She’s a good friend.”
“Not to you.” Emily poked the air with her thumb. Not her hand, her thumb. It was comical to watch.
Then I heard what she said. “What?”
Emily heaved a deep sigh and pressed her cheek against the window. “Yeah, yeah. You were somewhere and she wasn’t saying nice things about you tonight. Said you were crazy, obsessive, and there were other words. I know there were other words.”
“I wasn’t really nice to her when we went to the bathroom.”
“Don’t matter.” Emily was firm. She shook her head in a circle. “A friend is a friend, no matter what’s been done between you. I know that much. I have some good friends. Of course, they’d never go to Buds, but they’re good friends. I don’t like ‘em sometimes, but still… I don’t say bad things about ‘em.”
There was some merit in what she was saying, but… “What about when you just have to vent about something?”
“She ain’t vented. Or… no. She didn’t vent. That’s it. She’s seen me at my ugliest times. She’s still around. Bethany Ann saw me one time with a green foliage mask on. That wasn’t pretty.”
“See.” I flashed a grin. “You know exactly how I feel.” Except what she had to say wasn’t sitting well with me. It didn’t feel good. None of it.
“Yep… yep…” And she was back to sleep.
I heaved a sigh of relief. Emily drunk was almost as annoying as Emily sober. Turning back to the steering wheel, I pulled onto the road and it didn’t take long before I saw the campus. When I parked the car, I considered how heavy my roommate was. She was a little taller than me, but my weight.
I could handle her.
Hefting her up the stairs a few minutes later, I regretted my decision. Her head hit not one, but two doorways. Then she hit our doorway. When I caught sight of the couch, I knew I’d never be so glad to see that paisley thing in my life. Grunting one last time, I dropped Emily on the couch. Then I shut the door and sat watching Emily sleep, weighing what I needed to do. There was no real question, though. Deep down, I knew Kates was in danger.
I rubbed my hands together and knelt on the ground by Emily. Then I closed my eyes and I reached out… I broke through Emily’s first layer. It was sluggish, but that was no surprise. It was the booze, but immediately underneath was a swirl of emotion. Adrenaline. I felt excitement, passion, rigidity, and a firmness inside of her. All of it was jumbled together. Then I went further and I gasped silently.
I’d always known she had a black and white perspective on life, but she was harder on herself. I felt like I was being suffocated inside of her, but I pushed further down. That’s when I was hit with a wall of pain. It was masked with jealousy and insecurity. A blast of emotions hurled at me and I could almost hear the snarl. They hit me like a downpour of sleet. When I caught onto them, the hatred was physically painful. I knew I sobbed, but I just held on. I couldn’t do anything else.
Hatred. Evil. Turmoil.
The adrenaline was mixed with eagerness. I knew the feeling would haunt me, but I’d found what I was looking for. The vampire was in her. Taking my time, I waded through each strand. They were all entangled together. This vampire might’ve spent time with a Hunter, but he was cruel. I felt how much he loved to be cruel, but then again, a Hunter was sometimes the cruelest of them all. It made sense what company he’d keep.
I managed to search through each strand. Sometimes I just got a feeling. Sometimes I got a name. Other times, I got a place or a memory. Certain emotions centered on a specific time or memory with him. Then I got an image of his cruelty, a little girl. When I heard her defeated whimper, I shed some tears. The pictures, feelings, thoughts, memories—everything swirled together and then out of the middle the word ‘slayer’ lashed at me.
I bolted upright and jerked away from the couch. I was hurled out of Emily. Curling into a fetal position on the floor, I was helpless to stop the tears. They just trickled down. Some of it came from the vampire. Some from the little girl, but I knew the majority were from my own wounds.
I was bleeding and raw, but I needed to find Kates.