Nicole Peeler - [Jane True 01] (14 page)

For a second I wondered if I should resist, if I was doing the right
thing. But he was funny, and beautiful, and so
different
, and he knew my
secrets and didn’t care… I studied Ryu’s face, looking for an answer to a
question I couldn’t even articulate.

Which is when I noticed, with the tiny portion of my brain that wasn’t
entirely
vaklempt
, that the pointy tips of two very sharp-looking fangs
had just begun to peep out from under his top lip.
Holy shit!
thought
the part of me that was trying to remember where I kept our Band-Aids.
Meanwhile, the part of me that was really attracted to Ryu was wondering,
Does
that mean he likes me
?

Every last one of my conflicted feelings went entirely silent, however,
as Ryu’s lips brushed my own: just the faintest touch like that of a feather.
He
likes me!
I thrilled. And, if I was honest, I liked him right back… so I
braced myself for what was coming.

But before Ryu’s lips could again touch mine, we were interrupted by a
voice choked with anger and contempt.

“Nice display, slut.” It was Stuart, of course.

Ryu’s arms turned to steel around me, but I managed to extricate myself
from his grasp and turn around. Stuart was standing behind me, his gang spread
out behind him like some Wild West posse. He looked at me as if he would like
to hit me, which he probably did.

“Look, man,” he said to Ryu. “I don’t know what this bitch told you, but
I hope you have good life insurance. She kills her boyfriends.”

I got a glimpse of Ryu’s face as he took a step toward Stuart, and I
couldn’t believe Stuart was so dumb as to challenge him. Ryu didn’t look scary,
he looked
terrifying
.

He really is a vampire, after all,
I marveled.

One of Stuart’s few good points is that he’s consistent. And in this
case, he was consistently stupid. Instead of backing away, as his friends were
doing, he didn’t notice the warning signs.

Stuart looked back at me, staring me full in the face. His voice dripped
with vituperation as he said, “It should have been you who died that night, you
stupid cunt.”

He’d only just articulated the
t
in “cunt” when he was on the
floor, knocked out cold by a single punch from Ryu. All but two of Stuart’s
friends fled.

“Get him up, and get him out of here,” Ryu growled. Something told me he
didn’t need to use a glamour to make them obey. “And if you hang around waiting
for us, I’ll break your legs.”

Stuart’s friends each grabbed an arm and dragged him out of there as
fast as they could. The bar was silent for another second, as Ryu watched their
progress out the door, and then everybody went back to their private conversations.
People were used to Stuart acting like a dick.

“Are you all right?” Ryu asked, taking my hand and peering into my eyes.

“Yes,” I lied. It had been such a nice night, and Stuart had ruined it.

“Can I get you anything?” he asked.

“No. Can you just take me home? I’m sorry.” I suddenly wanted very much
to have a good cry. Then a good swim. And then maybe another cry.

What were you thinking? Rockabill will never let you forget…

“Of course,” Ryu said, although he didn’t look happy about it.

I went to stand by the door while he settled the bill and collected my
things. I merely waved good-bye to my new friends. I didn’t want to go over and
have them apologize for Stuart. It was too embarrassing, and too depressing,
and it made me fear that this glimpse of freedom, this opportunity to escape my
past, that I thought I had glimpsed tonight was just an illusion.

Ryu made me walk out ten seconds after he did, so he could make sure Stu
and his gang hadn’t waited to wreak vengeance in the parking lot. While I was
standing at the door, I noticed that the greasy academic from that morning was
sitting at a little table tucked away in a corner, behind the big table where
Stuart had been sitting. Creepy must have liked the Sow enough to stay the
night in Rockabill. The light reflected off his glasses with an eerie flash,
but I could tell he was watching me. I felt the bitterness churn inside my
belly.
I hope we gave you a good show, jerk
.

I pushed open the Sty’s door to join Ryu, figuring there would be no
trace of Stu or his buddies. Stuart’s friends, at least, were smarter than him.

Ryu and I drove the short way from the Sty to my house in silence. When
we arrived, he got out of the car to walk me to my door.

“Thanks,” I said. “I had a really good time. I’m sorry that Stuart
ruined everything…” I felt tears hovering and I lowered my head to try and hide
them.

But Ryu put his finger under my chin, again forcing me to meet his gaze.
“I feel like you’re trapped here,” he said. “And I hate it.”

I shook my head, blinking back the wetness in my eyes. “I’m not
trapped,” I lied. “There’s my dad, and Grizzie and Tracy, and now I know about
Amy and Nell…” My voice trailed off. I realized I was protesting too much.

Ryu took my hand and raised it to his mouth. I felt his lips press
against my palm.

“You deserve more,” he told me. “Much more. More life, more happiness.”

“Maybe I don’t,” I whispered. And then the tears came.

He used his thumbs to brush them away and then he cupped my face in his
hands and I felt his lips against mine. When I didn’t respond, he backed away.

He straightened my coat and gave me a sad smile.

“Good night, Jane. I’ll see you tomorrow, after work. I’ll pick you up
from the bookstore.”

I nodded, too weary to reply.

When he’d gotten into his car and pulled away, I let myself into the
house. My dad was already asleep, and all was quiet. I walked in through the
front door and then right out through the back.

I needed a swim.

CHAPTER EIGHT

A
t work
the next day, all I could think about was the night before. Even my dreams had
consisted entirely of stylized revisions of my “date,” if that’s what it had
been. My sleeping mind would flash from abstract image to abstract image: Ryu
and I wearing fancy dress clothes—tux for him, puffy princess dress for me—in
the Trough, eating a lobster that kept asking me “why” and weeping into a
lettuce leaf. Then we’d be in his car, dressed in PVC unitards like warriors
from some sci-fi movie, motoring to the moon while we discussed rescuing Peter
from an enemy known only as the Sow. Then we’d be back in the Sty, and Ryu
would be fighting a duel with Stuart, using
Star Wars
lightsabers. Then
Ryu and I were naked, in a sea of red velvet, and I was falling into his arms…

And then my damned alarm clock went off… the story of my life.

Tracy was working with me that day, and she didn’t mention Ryu. I
understood what Ryu had done, glamouring Grizzie not to mention his appearance
at Read It and Weep. After all, if Grizzie had gone home to announce the
arrival of my great friend from college, that one I always talked about, Tracy
would think Grizzie had lost her mind.

But it also made things difficult. I had so many secrets rattling around
in my empty little life that I hated adding any more. Plus, I really would have
appreciated being able to talk to Tracy about the whole situation. In the warm
light of day, my evening with Ryu was far less ruined by Stuart’s outburst than
it had felt like at the time. Instead, I was mostly thinking about the good
stuff. Like dancing with Ryu. And holding Ryu’s hand. And being in Ryu’s arms.
And Ryu whispering in my ear. And the brush of Ryu’s lips against mine.

Not to mention my tuna melt had been particularly tasty.

It didn’t help that a few of the customers coming in for their newspaper
and morning coffee were giving me the stink eye, having heard about—or
witnessed for themselves—my dinner with Ryu or the little spat between Stuart
and me in the Sty. Villages like Rockabill have long memories. Jason may have
died eight years ago, but in the collective unconscious of the town it had
happened just recently.

Luckily, that morning we’d gotten nearly our entire inventory for that
month delivered in one fell swoop, so we had a lot to keep us busy. Tracy and I
took turns taking care of customers and stocking shelves, making the day go by
quickly. I bunked off at a quarter till closing, to change my clothes, at which
Tracy only raised an eyebrow. I never bothered to change at work unless I was
going out with them after. But I’d just go ahead and let Ryu explain
everything.

When I emerged from the bathroom, freshly deodorized and changed and
variously brushed and touched up, Ryu was at the counter, already whammying
Tracy with our fake backstory. She was nodding her head agreeably, although,
being less omnivorous than her life partner, Tracy wasn’t nearly as impressed
by Ryu’s good looks as Grizzie had been.

I watched the exchange, shivering at the touch of his power. It felt
like someone had turned on a fan somewhere in an already chilly room.

It’s so easy for him,
I thought.
He manipulates us so
effortlessly. His kind must find it easy to hold humans in contempt…

The idea was disturbing. Equally disturbing was that I had just used
“us” and “humans” as synonymous but I wasn’t sure what I was anymore. Was I
human, or supernatural, or both, or neither? I had heard myself called a
halfling by the supes, but that seemed a rather loaded term, like the words
“mulatto” or “quadroon” from the slave days.

The more I find out about this world, the more questions I have
…

My reverie was interrupted by two sets of eyes staring at me
inquisitively. Tracy and Ryu were waiting for an answer to a question I hadn’t
even heard. “Sorry, off in my own world,” I apologized.

“I was just asking where you two were off to tonight. You’ve already
experienced our one and only diner and our lone bar, so will you head over to
Eastport or just repeat yourselves?”

I hadn’t even thought about tonight beyond remembering to bring to work
the stuff I needed in order to get ready. I knew Ryu wanted to look for Peter’s
car, but obviously I couldn’t tell that to Tracy. So I mumbled something about
“playing it by ear,” which seemed to satisfy her.

“Well, you two go ahead and have a good time. I’ll close up here.” Tracy
looked so obviously pleased I had a date that it bordered on humiliating. I
knew I was fairly pathetic, but was I really
so
pathetic?

Probably
, replied my inner voice, snarkily.

Bite me
, I thought. Followed quickly by,
I really gotta
stop talking to myself.

Ryu waited to greet me properly until we got out to his car. With one
hand on my door’s handle he used the other to brush my bangs from my eyes. “Hey
there,” he said, gently. “You feeling okay today?”

“Oh, yeah,” I said, blushing. “I’m sorry I freaked out last night.
Stuart and I go way back and he knows exactly how to get under my skin.”

Ryu smiled. “No need to apologize, I figured as much. But I hate to
think that idiot wrecked our evening.”

“He didn’t,” I assured Ryu, blushing even harder. “I had so much fun
last night.” I wanted to tell him it had been one of the best nights I’d had in
the last eight years but I knew how pitiful that sounded.

“Good.” He grinned, opening my door for me. He looked decidedly pleased
with himself. After he’d settled himself in his seat and we were pulling away
from the bookstore, I realized I had no idea where we were going.

“Everything got rather exciting this morning and so today’s plans have
changed slightly,” he said, as if he’d read my mind. “Anyan already found the
car; somebody set it on fire late last night. But now there’s a protective
spell over the whole thing so we can go investigate at our leisure.”

I gave a murmur of assent. I wasn’t at all opposed to spending another
evening in Ryu’s company, but I wasn’t sure why he was bringing me with him on
his search.