The Vampire's Curse (5 page)

"Oh my God." She breathed.

He leaned over her again, his smile both predatory and playful. "Now do you believe I'm cursed?" He kissed her full on the mouth once more even though it obviously wasn’t needed before getting up to better inspect himself.

Jackie sat there, dazed. He didn’t sound like a man who was cursed, but she nodded to his previous question anyway.

"So if you're a witch, do you think you can help me? Because this cure seems to be only temporary." He spoke as casually as a man would ask about how her day went.

Again she nodded, but the questions in her head were too great to be held back. "B—but, this shouldn't be possible. I can only heal things that are physical. I shouldn't be able to heal you."

He raised another brow at her. "If you thought that kissing me would do nothing then why'd you kiss me last night?"

Jackie groaned. The same question Mike asked her, only this time asked by the man she’d kissed. Awkward. "I don't know, okay? It was just something I did."

He grabbed her hands and helped her to her wobbling feet. He reached a hand to his inside coat pocket and pulled out a black something before handing it to her.

It was her wallet.

"Hey! You stole my wallet!" She immediately searched for any missing money or credit cards.

His voice was flat. "No, you left it in the alley after you ran."

Jackie's face heated, and what was worse, she found that nothing was missing. "Oh, sorry," she said without knowing why. He broke into her house to manhandle her, and scared the crap out of her. She could be as rude to him as she damn well pleased.

The problem was that she didn't have much of it in her.

He slid his hands into his pockets and rocked back on his heels. "So, since I'm new to the city would you show me around?"

She knelt down to her purse, stored the wallet safely inside, and began picking up the rest of her things. He knelt down to help her, and she could feel his eyes still on her, waiting for her answer. Dammit, her eyeshadow case cracked with the fall.

“What do you want to see?"

“Anything that will help me break this curse."

“This curse shouldn’t exist.” Jackie stood when her things were cleaned up and looked at him. He was determined to do something about his predicament and just as determined that she help him.

She sighed. "I guess the library is our first stop."

"Makes sense, where is it?"

"Far enough away that I'm not walking. How long have you been in town anyway?"

"Just a few days, I haven't had the opportunity to look around."

She knew she was probably going to regret it, but she straightened her coat and made the decision to help him.

"Do you have money for a cab?" There was no way she was going to pay to cart him around town after the scare he put her through.

"Yeah, we’ll need to take one anyway since I haven’t been using my truck to get around much.”

“Why not?”

“It seems faster to get around the city at night without it.”

She nodded and understood. He’d been using his vampire speed to get around, jumping buildings and the like. Vampires were known to only buy cars for the look of them rather than a need to get around. “I guess it is better on gas.”

He smiled. “I was a little shocked when I got here to find that all the stores took American currency."

She blinked at him. "What else would we use?"

"I don't know, I guess just because this place is so well hidden—"

Jackie went to the phone and picked up the receiver. "Yeah, yeah, I get it. You're the tourist in town." She dialed the number and told them where to send the cab. "It's going to be a few minutes."

He nodded, shifting his feet and looking at some of the cheap artwork on her plain, white walls. He was purposely avoiding the garlic spray still stuck in the wall, as well as her.

She didn't know why it bothered her. He was a stranger in her home and she only shared a few kisses with him, kisses that he needed to become human again. So why did it irritate her so much that he wouldn't look at her?

"So," he started. "are libraries here anything like libraries ... in the other cities?"

She spared him a smile. Yeah, definitely new to the whole vampire and witch scene. She'd be nice to him from now on. "Of course it is. This library's pretty nice, a friend of mine works there. She'll probably let us stay after they close."

"And, what will we be looking for? Spell books?"

"Uh, no, we'll just sit in the nonfiction section and look up a history of curses. If you are cursed then there's no way your case is going to be unique."

The headlights of a car shone outside and brightened the room. Jackie when to the window, pulled back the transparent curtains for a better look, and there was their ride waiting for them. "Time to go, what's your name, by the way?"

He opened the door for her. "Kyle."

"And your last name?"

There was a brief hesitation on his part. "McKane."

She held her hand out to him to shake, again aware of the shock that entered her body through contact with him, but she kept her smile up. If he felt the same thing then his poker face was just as good as hers. "Nice to meet you, let's get going."

He smiled, warm and powerful enough to spread the shocking tingle to her legs. "Yes, let's. I suppose you won’t introduce yourself?"

“No point really, since you already know my name.” She pulled out her wallet and waved it at him. Then she sighed. “I’m Jackie Moore, how do you do, sir?”

He chuckled. “Very well today. Shall we go to the library?”

Jackie couldn't wait to get there, because the sooner they were there the sooner she could slip away and give Mike a call.

FOUR

Kyle paid the cab driver and got out, holding the door open for his new tour guide with a grin. Her eyes went down his torso and widened. His gaze followed hers to where his coat opened, and landed on the gun sitting in its holster.

He was glad the cab drove away before she said anything. "Why would you carry a gun?" She stepped away from him.

He straightened
his
jacket, hiding it from her sight. "I figured if I was leaving your apartment today as a human then I'd need to carry it."

Her wide eyes didn’t go back to their normal size. "Why would you need a gun to begin with?"

"I'm in a city filled with witches, warlocks and vampires, if it had not been for one of those witches, I wouldn't be in this situation. I figured I'd need it for protection."

Her blue eyes blazed behind those glasses of hers, and he wanted to take them off to see how bright they could be without them. "I don't like guns."

She spun to march away but he snatched her arm and turned her to face him. "Calm down, it's legal. I used to be a bodyguard."

She cocked her head, eyeing him suspiciously. "I didn't know bodyguards carried guns."

He released her. "Not all, just some." He turned and walked up the library steps.

If he was scaring her then he'd let her go. She did enough by giving him one more night of normalcy and then bringing him here. It shouldn't be long before he could find the woman who did this to him and have her reverse the spell anyway.

He couldn't stop the upturn of his lips when her footsteps crunched against the snow behind him, and she was beside him again. They were silent until they reached the glass doors with the library hours painted on them. They had half an hour before closing.

"You were cursed by the woman you were guarding?"

"Yes."

They entered the building together. Lamps were lit over dark wooden tables and glowing overhead but the place was bare.

Kyle had never seen such a beautiful library. When Jackie called it nice she hadn't given it nearly the credit it deserved. A high arched ceiling made him feel small, painted with delicate angels fit for a church, pixies playing tag with each other in their clothes made of flowers of soft purples and pinks. Another area of the ceiling depicted a wolf howling at the full moon. Werewolf. And nearby stood a vampire dressed as though he was expected at a fancy party. His arms were crossed and a cocky smirk graced his lips, showing a hint of the fangs that Kyle knew all too well. A swirl of bats surrounded him.

"Can vampires turn into bats?"

"No, of course not. Hey Charity."

Kyle hadn't realized she was leading him to the front desk until they stood before a tall, lean woman with hard blue eyes, a bun of pale blonde hair stretching her face back, and thin arms folded over a cream blouse. Her expression twisted her face and made Kyle feel anything but welcome.

Hadn't Jackie said that this woman was a friend of hers?

Jackie leaned against the front desk and beamed a smile that Charity did not return. She turned her suspicious eyes on Kyle, and he adjusted his coat again to be sure she wouldn't catch a glimpse of his gun like Jackie had, though he doubted this woman would fear it.

"Hello Jackie, what can I help you with?"

"Um, this is my friend Kyle."

He tried smiling at Charity when both women looked at him during his introduction. "Hello ma’am."

She smiled back, a forceful little thing that made everyone involved uncomfortable. "What can I get the two of you?"

Jackie looked away, and Kyle realized he'd forgotten to make up a story with her in case anyone asked about him.

"Um, look, he has a brother who was bit."

Charity tensed. "By what?"

"A vampire."

Her body and eyes melted, and when she looked at him he got a splash of both sympathy and pity. The ice princess of the library left the building. "Oh, I'm so sorry. How is he? He hasn’t turned, has he?"

Kyle managed a sad expression because he actually did have a brother whom he hadn't seen since his curse, and wouldn’t see until it was lifted. "He seems sad, doesn't like the situation at all. As for turning, we’re not completely sure."

Charity gave them her full attention. She leaned against her desk and kept as much eye contact with the two of them as possible. Kyle was pleased with this.

Jackie cleared her throat. "The thing is, Kyle and his brother didn't know about any of this," She motioned towards the entire library with her hand, as if that signified the paranormal world in general. "And he's having trouble adjusting."

Charity nodded. "It usually is a rude awakening for people who don't know about our way of life. I guess you found this city because someone told you where to go?"

Kyle nodded. "Yeah, I found another vampire in a bar and he told me about this place. It was hard to find."

Charity nodded again. "Yes, you won't find this city on any map or GPS. So, when was he bitten?"

"About five months ago." Kyle replied.

Again her eyes became suspicious. She crossed her arms. "And has he been drinking since then?"

"I guess you mean blood. Well, he's been trying not to, he doesn't want to hurt anyone." Kyle was fully aware of Jackie’s eyes piercing him while he fed her librarian friend bits and pieces of truth with the lies.

Charity shook her head, and he was shocked at the anger he saw in her eyes. "I'm sorry, but if he has the urge then he’s a vampire, and it's stupidity like that, that makes ferals."

He tensed, annoyance flooding him at her tone. "Excuse me?"

She raised her hands. "Look, I have nothing against responsible vampires, but the irresponsible ones need to all be locked away. It's the irresponsible ones who are careless when they bite people, and vampires don't even need to feed from people that much nowadays anyway."

Kyle saw Jackie shaking her head and covering her eyes out of his peripheral vision. "And why would that be?" He asked.

She held up her fingers, tapping them off. "For starters, this city has enough stores selling enough blood that vampires who live near it only need to buy it to quench their thirst, right?"

He nodded, but only because he figured that if he disagreed with her there’d be Hell to pay.

Jackie looked at her friend. "Charity, maybe you shouldn't be getting into this."

"No, really, and secondly, even if some vampires prefer to drink from people, because it tastes better or whatever, they all know that if they leave their fangs in too long you can create another vampire. If that happens to someone like your brother who doesn't know what's going on and doesn't want to feed because he thinks it'll hurt people then, that creates more ferals. Ferals who feed to kill and need to be put down."

Kyle couldn't believe what he was hearing. Is that what happened to those people he fought off in the alley? Someone turned them into vampires and in their confusion they didn't feed until they went crazy?

Like a punch in the gut, he realized that nearly happened to him. It
would
have happened if he hadn't met Jackie.

Jackie seemed to have enough of her friend's rant. She clapped her hands together once to get their attention. "Anyway, we were wondering if we could look around in the nonfiction section. I told Kyle I'd show him some books on how vampires really are, that way he and his brother can be educated on the subject."