The Fangover (19 page)

“I should have realized you needed to feed,” he told her, moving to sit on the edge of the bed, still facing her. “Since you are new to this, I’m sure you didn’t even realize you were hungry.”

He should have realized that as soon as he’d seen her eyes were so dilated. But he’d been too distracted by his own physical need for her.

“I—I didn’t,” she admitted, the new blood in her system allowing her to blush. “I thought I was just—aroused again.”

“Well, those two feelings can be very similar. And one can actually trigger the other.”

She stared at him for a moment. “Was—was that how you were feeling, too?”

“No.” Cort shook his head. “I was definitely feeling very, very turned on. Not hungry.”

Her body seemed to relax slightly against the mattress.

“But I will admit, your bite was also very, very enjoyable,” he said.

She stared at him, her eyes more blue than black now, although they were still a little dilated.

“You—you liked it?”

He nodded, smiling slightly. “It was pretty awesome.”

Her body relaxed even more, and she was silent for a moment, then she asked, “So why did you stop me?”

“Because, like I mentioned before, when you are new to this, it’s easy to take too much. Even from another vampire.”

“So I could have killed you?”

Cort shook his head. “Probably not, but definitely incapacitated me.”

She nibbled her bottom lip, looking worried again.

“It’s really no big deal,” he assured her. He leaned down to snag his jeans from the floor. He rose and tugged them on.

“Where are you going?” She still looked worried.

He smiled reassuringly. “I’m just going to get us a drink. I think we both can use it.”

“I don’t think I need any more liquor.”

His smile broadened. “Not liquor.”

“Oh. Right.”

“Just relax here. I’ll be right back.”

She nodded, pulling the sheet up around her more. She was so damned pretty, even looking confused and vulnerable and worried.

“Really,” he said, reaching out to brush a lock of her honey-blonde hair away from her cheek. “You didn’t do anything wrong, and you definitely did not hurt me. Quite the opposite.”

She nodded. “Okay.”

He smiled again, then left the room.

She was so sweet. He didn’t usually think of vampiresses as sweet. He thought of them as tough and determined and savvy, much like male vampires. He really only hung around one vampiress these days. Stella, their sound woman and self-appointed manager. And that’s how he thought of Stella. Very together and strong. Even during this awful time, what with her brother’s suicide and everything.

But he didn’t think that description would ever fit Katie.

As he walked to the kitchen, he realized it was a good thing he and Katie were married. She needed him. And he’d push for them to keep the marriage intact. She might not agree. At first. But he thought he could convince her.

If her reaction to their sex was any sign, she was very attracted to him. They could build from there, couldn’t they?

And he could help and protect her.

Yes, that was it. He’d make their marriage work. Decision made.

He opened the fridge and started to reach for a blood bag, fat with deep red blood. B negative, his favorite. But before he could pick it up, his phone rang.

He pulled the ringing, vibrating rectangle from his pocket.

Wyatt.

He pressed Answer.

“Hey, Wyatt. What’s up?”

Chapter Nineteen

POSSIBLY KATIE OVERREACTS

K
ATIE
had bitten Cort and liked it.

She looked down at the back of her hand. His blood was now dried to her pale skin. She stared at it, then looked away disgusted, not only at her actions, but at the fact, even now, she was tempted to lick the stain.

“This can’t be right,” she said to herself. It couldn’t be normal to want to . . . eat a person you loved.

She froze for a moment, realizing exactly what she’d just thought to herself.

A person she loved? Did she—she remained totally still—really feel that way?

She sat up, looking around her as if someone or something could give her that answer. But nothing external could or needed to do that. She knew the answer deep inside herself.

She did love Cort, and had for a long time—as fanciful and schoolgirlish as that sounded.

She looked down at her hand again. And she needed him, too. She wasn’t sure she knew how to be a vampire—or at least control all of these new desires.

The blood on her hand had dried, but she still felt the urge to lick it. That couldn’t be normal. Although maybe, in vampire terms, it was a bit like eating dried fruit or something.

“Yeah, I don’t think so,” she muttered to herself and threw back the covers. She slipped out of bed and gathered up her T-shirt and her panties. She pulled them on, then headed across the hall to the bathroom, but she stopped just inside the bathroom door. She could hear Cort talking.

“For real?” There was a pause. “Yeah, I guess so.”

His tone sounded strange, but Katie couldn’t tell what he was talking about. Or to who.

She went into the bathroom and quickly washed her hands in the sink, then wiped them on a dubiously clean towel hanging on a rack by the shower.

She stepped back into the hallway to hear Cort say something about the parrot always trying to peck his balls. The bird was darned annoying and did like to peck, but she didn’t think it had attempted that particular area before. It sounded to her like he just wanted to get off the phone.

He sounded strange. Maybe a little upset, or disappointed. She wasn’t really sure. Who had he been talking to?

Just as she started toward the kitchen, she heard the apartment door open.

“Yo.” She heard Drake’s gravelly voice.

“Hey.” Cort sounded distracted.

She hurried back to Cort’s bedroom door, not wanting to be caught in just her panties and a tee. But she left the door open partway and listened.

“I have good news for you, my man,” Drake said. Or at least that’s what Katie thought he said. His words were a little slurred and thick like he had cotton in his mouth.

“Oh yeah, what’s that?” Cort still sounded like he was only half listening.

“That priest—” Drake said in a leading way as if he expected Cort to respond.

Cort obviously didn’t.

“You know, that one from the bathtub,” Drake prompted.

“Yes, I know who you are talking about. It’s not like I know many damned priests.”

Wow, Cort sounded downright testy.

“Well, excusth me,” Drake slurred. “Well, it turns out, he’s a—”

“A stripper,” Cort finished for him. “Yeah, I know. I just got off the phone with Wyatt.”

“Oh,” Drake said, clearly disappointed that he hadn’t gotten to share the news first. “Well, shit, man, you don’t exactly sound as pleased as I thought you would.”

Cort didn’t answer for a second, then he said, “No, it’s definitely a good thing. I mean, married. That would have been totally crazy.”

“Totally crazy,” Drake agreed, his tone decisive even through the slurring. But Katie wasn’t concerned with Drake’s feelings about her and Cort’s marriage. She only cared about how Cort felt.

“I didn’t think it could be real,” Drake said. “Marriage is not your thing, my man. We all know that.”

“No,” Cort agreed. “I’m not about that. Not at all.”

Katie’s stomach sank—no, more than sank. She actually felt sick to her stomach. Here she’d been thinking about the fact that she loved him, had loved him for some time, and needed him to show her how to adapt to her new life. Or death. Or whatever.

Damn, she could feel tears welling up in her eyes. She was a vampire, for crap’s sake, didn’t that mean she shouldn’t be able to cry or something?

She sure as heck didn’t want Cort to find her all blotchy and red-eyed. She turned and hurried to find her jeans and flip-flops.

She threw them on then paused at the door. She also didn’t want to greet Drake looking all tousled, smelling like sex, which she knew firsthand he would smell with no problem, and bleary eyes. She’d suffered enough embarrassment for one day, but she had to get out of here.

She crept back to the door and listened again. The two men’s voices still emanated from the kitchen, which meant she couldn’t leave yet, since the apartment door was off from the room where they were.

She looked around her, glancing at the window. That was a no-go, since the jump from the window had to be more than twenty feet down. But she walked over to look anyway.

Easing up the window, she winced and glanced over her shoulder as the noise from Bourbon Street filled Cort’s room. Had they noticed? She didn’t hear anything, so she stuck her head out the window, trying to judge how far away the ground was. Could she make that jump?

Oh hell no.

But wait, she was a vampire now. She might be able to make it. She looked back down at the dirty, cracked pavement below.

Nah, she’d wait to find out about that ability. Not to mention, even as rowdy and drunk as the partiers on Bourbon Street were, they’d definitely notice a woman jumping out of a building.

She debated other possibilities. She could turn into a bat, couldn’t she? That was a potential option. But how did she go about it?

Try focusing, she told herself, visualizing herself as a small black creature with large ears, beady black eyes, and flapping wings.

That was kind of disturbing, actually. Maybe she would be a cuter bat, more like a Disney movie sort of bat. She liked that image better.

She refocused, imagining her new bat self as well as adding a little of the Peter Pan version of how to take flight—happy thoughts, minus the pixie dust, of course. She scrunched up her face, squeezing her eyes closed, and began to talk quietly to herself.

“Warm puppies, strawberry smoothies, rainstorms, warm breezes, pedicures, hot fudge sundaes, good music, laughing, riding a bike without hands, Christmas morning . . . believe, believe.”

After a moment, she opened one eye, then the other, and looked down at herself.

Nothing. No wings or ears, cute or otherwise. Nothing had changed, except several tourists had stopped on the sidewalk below to peer up at her. She backed away from the open window, realizing she probably did look rather crazy.

Okay, so the window was definitely not an escape option.

She tiptoed back to the door, just in time to hear footfalls coming down the hall. She slipped behind the door, hoping they passed.

They did.

“You still got the bird, huh?” Drake said.

“Yeah. No one would take that damned thing even if you paid them.”

Katie had to agree with that.

Drake chuckled.

“The new tooth looks good,” Cort said, their voices becoming more muffled as they walked into the living room.

“Thankth, man. Although thith Novocain stuff sthuck.”

Well that explained Drake’s sudden and strange lisp.

“What happened to Katie, anyway?” Drake asked.

“She’s resting,” Cort said, and Katie noticed he didn’t add that she was resting in his room. Was he ashamed of what they’d done as well as being relieved that he wasn’t saddled with her as a wife, for even a brief time?

Well, that was fine. Right now, she just needed to get out of here and think. She listened. They were definitely in the living room. Now was the time to make her break.

She slowly pushed open the door, glad the hinges didn’t creak. She poked her head out and looked toward the living room, praying neither man was in a place where they could see her.

They weren’t, so she crept into the hallway, moving as quickly and quietly as she could. When she reached the kitchen, she actually allowed herself a moment to pull in a deep, calming breath.

She’d just finally made love with the man she’d fantasized about for years, and it had surpassed every one of those fantasies. And now she was sneaking away, hoping to not see him again for a good, long while. That definitely was not how their lovemaking had ended in her fantasies.

She glanced over her shoulder, struggling with another wave of tears. She swiped at her eyes, irritated that she was being such a damned girl. She forced herself to stand tall, and suppress any more crying.

Go,
she told herself.
Just go.

The apartment door also cooperated, making no sound as she eased it open. She stepped through the door into the dingy, narrow stairwell, and was about to pull the door shut, when a loud
caw
echoed throughout the kitchen.

Startled, she looked around to see the parrot still perched on top of the refrigerator. The annoying creature cocked its head to the side as it watched her, its beady little eyes regarding her as if it realized she was trying to escape without notice. And it wasn’t going to let that happen.

“She’s gone, she’s gone,” the bird warbled in that eerie singsong way.

Katie glared at the animal. The darned thing was narcing on her. Was it really possible that a bird could be that smart? And that conniving?

“She’s gone, she’s gone,” it repeated, louder this time.

Katie put a finger to her lips to shush the bird, then realized what she was doing. Smart or not, she was still trying to reason with a darned parrot.

Okay, the bird might want to stay perched in the kitchen, but it was time for her to take flight. With a little more force than she intended, she pulled the door closed and turned to rush down the narrow wooden staircase.

Her heart pounded in her chest as she reached the street, or maybe it didn’t. Probably not, now that she came to think about it, since she was now undead. But she did feel panicked, which seemed silly, since she was pretty certain Cort wouldn’t follow her anyway.

Why would he? He’d made it pretty clear in his conversation with Drake that he didn’t want to be married to her. Sure, Cort was a nice guy and would have made the best of the situation, but he didn’t want her. And here she’d been so willing to fall into bed with him. And stay married, too, if she was being honest.

Talk about being pathetic. It was probably childish to run, but she was too embarrassed to face him, still wanting him, still being crazy about him.

So she wouldn’t face him. She looked toward Bourbon but immediately dismissed heading in that direction. It would be the easiest place to get lost, amongst the crowds, but it was too much of a sensory overload nightmare. She headed right instead, with no destination in mind. She just had to get as far away from Cort as she could.

*   *   *

“WHAT THE HELL
ith that?” Drake said, then wiped his mouth. Clearly he wasn’t used to the new fang yet. Or Novocain really affected vampires. Cort didn’t know the answer to that, since he had his original fangs.

“That stupid parrot.”

Drake made a face. “It’s really off-key.”

“It’s a bird,” Cort pointed out, moving away from the window, looking down the hallway.

“I thought birds could sing.”

Cort shrugged, really not concerned with birds’ abilities to carry a tune. “Did you hear the door, too?”

“I don’t know.”

Cort frowned back at Drake, who had now gone from fiddling with his missing tooth to fiddling with his fixed one.

Cort shook his head and walked down the hall. Obviously Drake had spent too much time with Saxon.

When Cort entered the kitchen, the only one he found there was the parrot, which flapped down from the fridge and landed on his favorite perching spot, Cort’s left shoulder.

“She’s gone, she’s gone.”

Cort winced slightly at the loud, irritating sound of the bird so close to his ear, but then the parrot’s awfully sung words sank in.

Katie had left.

He spun and hurried to his bedroom. Sure enough, the room was empty and Katie’s clothes were gone.

Shit! Why would she leave? Had she heard they weren’t married and she figured she didn’t need to hang around any longer? Or had she regretted the fact that they’d made love? Was she ashamed and embarrassed of that, too?

No, he believed her reaction to him was real. She had been genuinely attracted and responsive. He believed that. He had to believe that. He couldn’t deal with the possibility that she hadn’t felt anything when he’d felt so much. So damned much. Enough that he’d wanted their marriage to be real.

Even now, he knew he had to find her and try to convince her they had to give being a couple a shot, marriage or no marriage.

Wow, that sounded weird, but oh well. He was determined to be with this woman. Forever.

“Drake, get off your ass,” he yelled. “We need to go find Katie.”

Drake appeared in the doorway of the living room. “You lost Katie?”

Cort sighed. Yeah, Drake had definitely spent too much time with Saxon, but at least his dentist-induced lisp was lessening. He hoped.

“Come on.”

Drake fell into step behind him. “Where are we going?”

Cort had no idea, but he had to find her. Not only because he needed to talk to her and see what she was thinking, but also because she was a new vampire, and that could be dangerous for herself and others if she got into a situation that she didn’t know how to handle.

“Just come on.”

*   *   *

AS KATIE MADE
her escape, it didn’t take her long to realize something very important. It probably would have made a lot more sense to have spent the time alone in Cort’s bedroom looking for her purse rather than attempting to turn into a bat flying on the wings of happy thoughts.

She stopped on the corner of Dumaine and St. Peter, looking around, debating what to do. Her options were sort of limited since she didn’t have a wallet, or a phone, or the keys to her apartment. And it was way too late to wake up her curmudgeon of a neighbor, who’d had her spare key from when she’d watered Katie’s plants the last time she’d gone home to visit her parents. Katie was pretty sure her neighbor wouldn’t answer even if she knocked.