Sire (15 page)

Liam bared his fangs and hissed, but he let go of Caitlin, too.

His human face returned, and he started to clean the blood off his mouth with his fingers. "Nice doing business with you," he said, and walked away.

Caitlin lay on the forest floor, motionless. Her blood spilled out onto the ground.

Chapter Nine

Alexis was furious.

That son of a bitch had hurt her friend. Never mind that he was a vampire—she'd process that little bit of information later—she was going to find him and kick his ass. Ram a stake through his heart. Drag him out into the sun. Cut his head off. Whatever it was she had to do.

Michael—another son of a bitch that had hurt her friend, and don't think she'd forgotten that—was kneeling next to Caitlin, cradling her head and examining her injuries.

"Is she all right?" Bethany asked.

"No," Michael said. His voice was grim.

Evan had his cell phone out, and was calling Campus Security or 911 or something.

He dropped the phone when Michael's teeth turned into fangs.

"Holy shit, you're one of them!" Evan yelled. Olivia started crying.

"Oh no," Alexis said. "You keep your fangs off of her." She scrambled on the ground, looking for the silver necklace that Caitlin had dropped. Even touching it had burned Liam, and Alexis bet that it would burn Michael, too.

But Michael didn't bite Caitlin. He bit
himself,
and held his bleeding wrist to Caitlin's mouth.

"What are you doing to her?" Garret asked.

"Saving her life," Michael said. "Now shut up."

Alexis kept the silver chain ready, but waited to see what happened. Sure enough, the color started returning to Caitlin's face, and the holes in her neck closed right in front of her eyes.

"That's ... incredible," Evan said. Which was true, but that was no reason to start getting all buddy-buddy with a vampire.

A vampire. Jesus.

Alexis shook her head and knelt next to Caitlin. Which put her next to Michael, too. She tried to act like she wasn't freaked out by that. "Hey babe, you okay?"

Caitlin was looking up and around at everybody. "Yeah, I'm fine. Olivia?"

Olivia took that as her cue. "What the hell was that?" she screamed. "What happened to me? How does he know you? God, am I going to die?"

"You'll be fine," Michael said, but his eyes never left Caitlin. Alexis couldn't decide if he was staring at her like he loved her, or like he wanted to eat her. "He didn't take enough blood to hurt you, and he didn't open any major arteries. He barely nipped you."

"How do you know? I need to go to the hospital!"

Michael turned and gave her a look that would turn water to ice. "I know because I can smell your blood, and there isn't enough to interest me. And what exactly do you plan on telling the doctors?"

"That I got bit by a vampire, you idiot!"

"Have fun with that. I think the term they use is 'twenty-four hour psychiatric hold.'"

"Oh." Olivia said, and sat down on the ground.

So okay, maybe Michael wasn't
all
bad.

"Are you all right?" Michael asked Caitlin. Alexis wasn't wild about how close he was to her; he had one hand on her back, and one on her knee, and was leaning in way too much.

"Yeah," she said. Her voice was surprisingly strong, and her tone was light. Whatever else Michael's blood might do to her, it seemed to have made Caitlin as good as new.

"Good," he said. "Let's get you home."

He helped her off the ground. They wrapped their arms around each other and started walking out of the woods side-by-side. Everyone else just kind of looked at each other, then followed.

Caitlin swiped them all in, then unlocked the door to their suite. Michael took her by the hand and led her to the couch.

"Wait a minute," Alexis said. "How come you can just walk in here? Aren't you supposed to need an invitation or something?"

Michael glanced up at her. "You haven't lived here long enough to keep me out. This place isn't your home yet."

Olivia's jaw dropped. "Wait, you mean he can just come in here, any time he wants, and do anything he wants?"

"No," Michael said. Olivia's face brightened, until Michael continued, "he can only come out at night."

"This is so busted," Garret said. Bethany huddled next to him. Her face was ashen, and she was staring at the floor.

"So how can we protect ourselves?" Alexis asked.

"You can leave town."

"
That's
your answer? Leave town? No better advice? No list of weaknesses?"

Michael rolled his eyes. "Everyone in this town is insane. Fine, you want a list of weaknesses? You'll need silver, sunlight, or fire. And a death wish, if you decide to take one of us on."

"Death wish, huh? Well what if I did something like this?" Alexis lunged at him, the silver chain held between her outstretched hands like a garrote. She aimed for his neck, planning to knock him away from Caitlin and pin him to the floor.

Except Michael wasn't there anymore. He was standing
behind
her. She hadn't seen him move. Hadn't felt him slip by her. He was just
gone.
Damn, he was fast.

Alexis yelled and swung the chain like a whip, but Michael caught her wrist and lifted her off the ground. His face was completely composed, and still human. Alexis kicked and squirmed, but she couldn't get away from him.

"That's enough," Caitlin said. "Michael, she's my friend."

Michael raised an eyebrow. "Really? Because she isn't acting very friendly."

"Alexis, he saved my life. Twice now. He isn't dangerous. Please, settle down, both of you."

Alexis stopped struggling—but kept giving Michael a nasty glare. Michael shrugged and set her down.

"Okay," Olivia said, "I'm out of here. I have a bottle of Xanax calling my name. Caitlin, I appreciate what you did for me, but I just can't." She choked back a sob. "I just can't." She left, and a moment later her door slammed shut.

"So why would you sacrifice yourself for a bitch like her?" Alexis asked.

Caitlin shrugged. "She's not that bad."

Bethany looked up. "Are you kidding? Or do the pretty girls just stick together? She's terrible."

Caitlin looked surprised. "Oh. Well, I ... I mean, that doesn't mean she deserves to get eaten."

"Speaking of," Alexis said, "we still haven't discussed how we're going to keep ourselves off the buffet menu."

"Michael?" Caitlin asked.

"I was serious. There's nothing you
can
do, except get the hell out of here and hope he's not bored enough to follow you."

"Wow, you're a great hero," Alexis said. "Why did you even bother showing up tonight, if you were just going to leave us hanging?"

"I didn't come here to protect
you
," Michael said. "I came here to protect
her.
"

"Oh, so
now
you're all about Caitlin? What about when that other chick you're sleeping with? Are you protecting her, too?"

Michael looked at Caitlin, his mouth open. "Sorry," Caitlin said. "I needed some girl support. And I don't want to be safe if my friends aren't, too. So whatever solution we come up with, it has to work for them, too." She looked up at Alexis. "It's ... a lot more complicated than I let on. Mostly because the other girl is a vampire, too. The one that made him."

Alexis threw her hands in the air. "Fantastic. Anything else I should know about? Werewolves?"

"Um, actually," Caitlin said.

Alexis' response was surprisingly creative, and almost shockingly profane.

But Evan's eyes had lit up. "Werewolves, too? That's awesome." Alexis looked daggers at him. "Well it is," he said. "I mean, come on. This is world-changing information. This is ... this is
incredible.
" He looked at Michael. "What else can you tell me?"

"I can tell you that you're in over your head."

"Michael," Caitlin said. She sounded like a stern mother. Alexis laughed.

"Fine," Michael sighed.

"I've been a vampire for about a year. Sunlight will kill me in just a few minutes. Fire, too, if it damages me enough. Or you could cut my head off. A stake through the heart will hurt me, bad, but it won't kill me. It might have, at first, but I'm getting stronger every day. A silver knife is worse, but I can survive that, too. Silver burns if I touch it. Saps my strength. It's poisonous, if you leave it in long enough. And if you'd gotten that around my neck," he said, looking at Alexis, "you could have actually taken me down."

Alexis grunted.

"Liam is over two hundred years old. He came over from Ireland, during the Great Famine. He was turned on the boat, by the same vampire that turned me, and he slaughtered everyone on board. Including his own family.

"He's stronger than me, faster than me, and more vicious than me. I wouldn't stand a chance in hell against him. And if
you
went toe-to-toe, the best that you could hope for is a quick death."

"But you
did
go toe-to-toe with him before, didn't you? When you were still human?"

"I tried."

"But it almost worked, didn't it? What did you do?"

Michael looked annoyed, but he settled down on the couch. "Liam killed a friend of mine. A girl named Sarah. My best friend's twin sister. We decided to do something about it.

"I was ... already involved with the vampires, so I started learning everything I could about them, about their weaknesses. I pretended to be trying to decide if I could live as one of them, but I was really planning revenge.

"There were three of us—me, Eric, and Morgan. Eric was all gung-ho, wanted to charge in with crossbows blazing. You'd have liked him," he said, looking at Alexis.

He continued. "But we realized that that would just get us killed. There was no way we could take him on physically. We needed an equalizer."

"So what did you do?" Caitlin asked.

"Magic. Morgan's grandmother was Romani. She passed down some of her superstitions and good luck charms, but when we decided to take on Liam, Morgan started doing some real research. The Romani and the vampires have had a feud going for centuries."

"Are you kidding me?" Alexis asked. "A freaking
witch?
What, is Eric a mermaid or something?"

Michael ignored her. "Morgan was the bait. We fought her on that, of course, but Liam doesn't go for dudes, so it was her or hire a hooker. She actually went up and hit on him in Indigo. The girl had brass.

"She had a trap waiting for him. A containment spell from one of her Grandmother's cookbooks."

"Oh, yeah, I saw that in your library," Caitlin said. Michael looked at her sideways. Caitlin blushed. "When I was totally not snooping through your personal belongings."

"Anyway, she had a containment spell set up. A circle drawn on the roof, with a bunch of symbols on it. She lured him in and powered it up, and for a while, it worked.

"Eric and I went at him with silver, but he could still move around
inside
the circle, and we couldn't pin him down. We weakened him, but not enough. And eventually the strain of keeping the circle going was too much for Morgan. It collapsed, and Liam got away."

"What happened to all of you?" Bethany asked.

"We ran. An example all of you should follow. Eric and Morgan got away, but Angelica was able to track me, because she'd had my blood."

"Angelica?" Evan asked.

"My Sire, the one who created me. She's the Regent of St. Troy."

"Like a queen?"

"More like a governor, but yeah, basically."

"How is Angelica in bed?" Alexis asked.

"
Alexis,
" Caitlin hissed.

"Sorry."

"So what did Angelica do when she caught you?" Evan asked.

"There was a trial, and I was found guilty. The sentence was death, but Angelica intervened. Instead of killing me, she turned me. Made me one of them. One of the things I tried to destroy."

Everyone digested that. Finally, Alexis piped up. "So. Question still remains, what are we going to do about this?"

"Can I get a look at that spell book?" Evan asked.

"Sure," Michael said. "Do you read Latin?"

"I ... speak a little French."

"It's not in Latin," Caitlin said. Michael shot her dirty look.

"We need a plan," Alexis said. "He has vulnerabilities. We just have to figure out how to exploit them."

Michael shook his head. "You're all going to get yourselves killed." He stood up and walked to the door.

"Michael, wait," Caitlin called, but the door slammed shut, and Michael was gone.

***

Bethany was lying in Garrets arms, listening to the sound of his heartbeat and examining the fine sheen of sweat on his chest. A candle danced on the table next to the bed, which was against the dorm rules, but whatever. Bethany had been breaking all kinds of rules lately.

She probably should have been thinking about what she had just seen, what she had just learned, but she couldn't get her mind off of the beautiful man holding her. It seemed like a dream.

"Why are you with me?"

"What?" Garret asked.

"Why are you with me? Why are you here, doing this, with me, and not somewhere else?"

"You're kidding, right? You're amazing."

"Stop. I meant it. You're this totally hot guy, and I'm ..."

Garret got up on his elbow. "You're serious?"

Bethany rolled onto her side, so she could look Garret in the face. "Yeah. I mean, when I left for college, I hoped ... well, I wanted things to be different than they were in high school. But I didn't expect them to be so different, so fast."

"Let me get this straight ... you're complaining that you got a hot boyfriend faster than you expected?" He was grinning a little, but his eyes were serious.

"No, I'm not complaining. I just ... I want to make sure that this is real. And that what I think about all of this is realistic."

She rolled back over and looked up at the ceiling. "I feel alive, Garret. For the first time in I don't know how long, I feel alive. The night we hooked up, I thought that was all this was. A one-night thing. And I was okay with that. But ... it kinda keeps happening, and I'm
glad
that it keeps happening. The thing is ... you're so incredible, and it seems almost too good to be true, and I want to make sure that I'm not setting myself up for disappointment."