The Vampire's Curse (2 page)

Her cheeks heated and heart pumped just a little faster. He was really cute.

Jackie had to shake herself.
Wait a minute. What?

She grabbed her purse and ran while he was still distracted and didn't stop until she got to her apartment and had the door locked behind her. Her lungs were on fire as they struggled for air.

Then she realized that she left that woman in the alley with that dangerous man.
“Oh God." She ran for her phone and dialed 911, told the girl on the other end what happened and where to send the ambulance and the police, then she called Mike.

He picked up his phone on the second ring. "Carter."

"Mike! Listen, I saw on the news about the vampires—"

"Try not to worry so much about that. We're looking into it now and if there's any reason to think it's true the public will—"

"It's true."

His reaction was immediate. "What?"

"I saw them today, attacking a woman and ... some guy in an alley."

His voice became ten times more alert, she could see him in her mind sitting up straighter and leaning into the phone. "Are you alright? You weren't bitten were you?"

"No, I'm fine." The punctures in her arms itched but she knew that in itself wouldn’t turn her into a vampire. "I just got scratched, that's all."

"Thank God."

"I just called an ambulance for that girl. You should be getting buzzed about it any minute now, so I need to ask you a few questions before you head out."

"Yeah, of course. You sure you're okay? I can go to your place and say I'm questioning the witness."

She breathed deeply, his lawful voice calming her, making her feel safe. She was in her apartment, the door was locked, and a cop was on the other end of the phone. Nothing could touch her now, but she would still rather be alone. "I'm good, you don't have to come over, but I was just wondering, do feral vampires talk?"

"What? Well, no. I heard they can, there's nothing wrong with their vocal cords, but they just don't. They do all their talking telepathically."

So he wasn't feral. The impression she got when she saw him in those few seconds before he was about to bite her was that he was a vampire in the process of turning feral, but he looked a little
too
human when she finished kissing him. "Okay, and, can anything cure a feral vampire?"

He sighed, the worry drained entirely out of his voice now that he knew she was alright. "Where's this going?"

"Nowhere, I just wanted to know."

"Did you do anything while you were there? That other guy, if he's a vamp and he's turning, you need to tell me so he can see a doctor."

She should have known he'd catch on that something was wrong, but she didn't know how to say what she needed to say without sounding crazy. "I kissed him."

"You
what?
"

"Obviously not anything like that! Look, he looked like he was going to bite me, but he also looked like he was about to turn, so I grabbed him and kissed him."

He groaned. "I know you can heal people like that but you can't cure vampirism with your lips."

She was standing and pacing and pacing now in her excitement. "I know but that's the thing, I think I did."

"What? Damnit, I'm getting the call. Is anyone in uniform on their way to your place?"

"I wanted to stay anonymous."

"Okay good, I'll talk to you myself when I get the chance. You sure you were only scratched?"

A flare of annoyance rose inside her. "I'd know whether I was bit or not."

"Well you did
kiss
the guy, I needed to be sure."

She heard the jealousy in his voice and tried to tone herself down. "I'll get myself checked out right after work tomorrow."

"Pat can't take your shift?"

Jackie opened her mouth but then quickly shut it again. Saying that her mother wouldn't be able to take the shift so Jackie could go to the hospital wouldn't sound so great, especially since the woman only had a cold.

"I'll call her and ask."

"Good, lock your doors and windows, clean any cuts you might have. ...Good night."

She knew there was more he wanted to say to her since she knew about his feelings, and it made her nervous and guilty. "...Good night."

Jackie hung up the phone and went to the bathroom and did as Mike said. she cleaned the punctures in her arms, brushed her teeth, washed her face, then put her glasses on the nightstand and flopped into bed with her clothes still on. That man’s face flashed in her head right before she fell asleep.

TWO

Kyle McKane stared after the girl as she ran from the alley, his eyes glued to the spot where she turned the corner long after she disappeared.

He thumbed his teeth again just to feel their normal shape, how they didn’t cut his skin and he laughed and fell back into the fresh snow.

Cured. He was
cured
.

His hysterical laughter stopped when the sound of sirens soared through the air. He stumbled to his feet, adjusting to the change of not having the extra speed, stealth and strength that he was used to having at night and checked on the girl. She was fine, just unconscious.

Good.

He'd heard her screams and rushed to her rescue against those creatures. If that other woman, whoever she was, hadn't shown up to help him when she had, he might have been on their menu as well. Even if he had somehow managed to beat the last two after an exhausting fight with the first four, he probably wouldn't have been able to put a cap on his thirst.

The fight to rescue the attacked woman had turned into a fight over who would be the one to feed from her, possibly kill her, and Kyle thanked God that he didn't have a murder hanging over his head.

The sirens piercing the air moved quickly, towards him. The woman who kissed him must have lived nearby to call the police so quickly, Kyle was shocked that there were police in this city at all.

Griffon City. The first time he’d heard of it in that bar he thought for sure that the law here was like stepping into the old west. A man made his own justice.

How wrong he'd been.

He took the blonde haired woman and turned her over, lifting her into his arms with a troubling grunt. He could have used that amazing strength right about now. She wasn't heavy, kind of petite really, but whatever that other woman had done to him when she cured him had been draining.

There was no place to put her that did not have any snow, luckily she wore a long coat that went to her knees, and leather boots that rose just as high. He placed her gently under a street lamp where she could easily be seen and away from the body of the dead vampire. He turned his head about to make sure there were no more unsettling characters nearby and ran back to the shelter of the alley.

His plan was simple enough, run through the back alley’s until he knew there was no one following him and get back to the cheap motel where he was staying.

However, he wasn't even halfway down the alley when a little black something sticking out of the fresh snow, and quickly becoming buried by the snow still falling, caught his eye.

A wallet. He stopped and picked it up, and flipped it open. He grinned at the picture.

Not the face of the woman he just put under the street lamp, but the one who kissed him. The picture wasn't flattering, but these kinds of pictures never were. He'd seen the real thing and knew what to appreciate. "Hello Gorgeous."

He pocketed the wallet and ran, he didn't have the time or energy to try and return it. Maybe after he slept through the night, for the first time in five months, he'd think of a way to get it back to her.

Right now, he just wanted to sleep.

***

Jackie flipped the little TV off when the bell over the shop door tingled. Her mother walked in, tramping snow on the mat that wished customers a magical day and covering her red nose with an old tissue.

Jackie sighed, glad that her mother was finally here so that she could leave early.

Patty threw away the used tissue and immediately grabbed five more from the complimentary box on the counter. She nodded to the TV, having seen it was on before Jackie could turn it off. "You know I don't like that on during open hours."

"It's not busy, and I was hoping there'd be something on the ferals from last night."

Patty blew her nose, threw out the tissue, and held the rest in her fisted hand like a lifeline. "Well, at least you're safe. I can't believe so many dead ferals were picked up so close to here. You're lucky you didn't run into them."

"Right." Jackie wouldn't look her in the eye while she got her coat and purse. She didn't like lying to her mother, but she didn't want to worry her needlessly either. She did get home safely after all, and what her mother didn’t know wasn’t going to hurt her.

Patty smiled, her eyes red and watering while she got ready to take over for the rest day. "Well, even though you did have to thoughtlessly drag your poor mother out of bed to work while she's sick, I'm glad you're going out on a date."

"Mom."

"Don't get me wrong or anything, I'm not nagging you. Believe me, I've learned my lesson, but Michael is a nice boy."

Jackie put more of a warning into her voice this time. "Mom."

"All I'm saying is that it's nice you're giving him a chance. You don't get out enough, it's not normal. And if your own mother has to tell you that then you
know
it's not normal."

If only she knew. Jackie only told her she was going out on a date with Mike so that there would be no suspicion when he picked her up to take her to get tested. Her guilt tripled.

Patty sneezed and then pointed out the shop window. Her red eyes alight with glee. "He's here, that's his car."

Jackie turned and watched Mike get out and stand in front of his Toyota. He saw her through the window and didn't come in the shop.

She breathed a sigh, grateful that he did that for her. If he came in Jackie knew her mother would bombard them both with questions, hints, and praise, mostly for Mike, whom she wanted as a son-in-law. Jackie suspected that it was mostly because having a cop in the family would be just the coolest thing to her.

Jackie jogged for the doors. "Okay, thanks for coming in mom, see you later."

"Wait! Maybe you should take some garlic spray if there're ferals running around."

"I took some last night, don't worry. Bye mom!"

***

Jackie couldn't even look at Mike on the ride to the clinic. She knew he knew that her mother saw him and had gotten excited again. Even if he wasn't a psychic, which he was, he would have known.

She could hear him tapping the steering wheel. "You know, your mom is only trying to help."

Jackie clenched her fist in her hair and shut her eyes. "I know."

"And I would like to get to know you better."

She faced him. "Mike it's nothing against you, okay, but ..." She couldn't even bring herself to say it.

Mike said it for her, his voice a low growl. "But you don't like the idea that I can read minds."

He tried to meet her eyes with his dark ones, she had to look away. She was too ashamed of herself. "I know you don't mean to—"

"You know I don't have much control."

"But I just don't like the idea that at any time you could be in my head, even by accident. Every time I think something bad, or embarrassing, you would see it."

She sneaked her head up for a glance; he was staring straight at the road, his hands clenching the wheel. Even when they stopped at the red light he wouldn't look at her, but his voice was soft again. "I'm getting better at controlling it."

She nodded. She knew that, he'd been improving for years, to the point where the little accidents he had were fewer and fewer, which was why she allowed herself to become his friend.

The problem was that he wanted more. But as his control improved, she had to admit to herself that it wasn't entirely his ability that turned her off of him, she just didn't see him that way. As handsome and noble as he was, she didn't feel the pull that she wanted.

"
You could try dating him anyway, it will come on its own."
Her mother had said when she talked to her about it, but Jackie didn't want that. She didn't want to date someone just because they were good and nice, she wanted attraction to go with it. Attraction like she felt the night before when that Feral turned back into a normal vampire.

Too bad she knew absolutely nothing about him. For all she knew, he could have been trying to become a Feral on purpose when she kissed him. It made the attraction she felt for him in that split second as useless as her lack of attraction for Mike.

The red light turned green and they moved slowly through the traffic. The plows had already passed through but the snow still fell in heavy clumps and was quickly building again on the street.