The Vampire's Curse (23 page)

"So what are you going to teach me?" She asked, hoping that whatever Kyle had in mind was going to be badass enough to keep her safe should she ever be without him. Another thing she prayed would never happen. If she'd been alone when she was shot she probably would have lay there on the glass for hours until she built up the courage to move and call for help.

Or until someone came to finish her off.

He sat a little straighter, all emotion draining from his face and being replaced with the serious persona of the teacher. "Well, considering your arm, and that you've never had any self defense teachings before this, we'll have to start with the most basic of defense techniques. The stuff they teach women and children nowadays who aren't really up for a few years of karate class."

"Great." If she felt helpless laying on the floor of her own apartment then it was nothing compared to being told she’d have to start at the level of a child.

Kyle found her amusing enough to chuckle and plant a quick kiss on her lips. The kiss jarred the extra pair of glasses he’d brought for her and she straightened them.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine."

She pouted. "You're getting better at reading my emotions if you're having such an easy time of it when you're human."

"I certainly haven't felt normal ever since I met you."

She blushed.

He plowed on. “Something that you don’t need any training on is the way you do magic anyway.”

“But every time I try any magic stuff usually gets blown up.”

His head jerked back a bit. “What?”

She groaned, hating that she had to explain this to him. “Remember when I said that I’m the only witch in town who blows things up?”

He nodded.

“I wasn’t kidding. When I told you that I wished I was more like you, it wasn’t just … I mean. Well, I’m a pretty lousy witch.”

“Because you blow things up?”

She looked away and nodded.

“I remember your mother once saying something about your magic skills.”

Jackie threw her head back on the pillow. “Great.”

“I don’t think she meant anything by it.”

Jackie felt the familiar resentment rising inside of her. “She never does.”

Kyle cleared his throat. “How strong would you say these little explosions of yours are?”

She cocked her head. “Uh, well I’ve never measured them, but it can destroy a ceramic mug into pretty much nothing.”

His face lit up. “Well, there you have it. If anyone ever attacks you, just use your magic on them.”

She stared at him deadpan. “You want me to blow up a person?”

He shrugged one shoulder. “If that person is trying to kill you, then, yeah, go for it. Always remember that it’s better him than you.”

“Huh,” She leaned back in her bed and smiled. “I’ve never thought there could be a use for my useless magic.”

Blowing up your attackers. That was something that sounded really badass.

“There’s always a use for something. The last thing I want is to see you get hurt, so you just keep that idea in your head if you’re ever in a position where you need to fight back. If you’re in a position where you can’t fight back, say you’re trapped or something, remember to always stay calm, take deep and even breaths, and observe your surroundings. Find possible hiding places, exits, and weapons. Ten seconds of that can save your life.”

He was really serious about making sure she could take care of herself. She could read it in his eyes. It made her ashamed of the things she’d said to him before.

Jackie wet her lips. "Listen, I think we need to talk."

Again he became serious and sat straight, away from her, and cleared his throat. "Alright."

She squirmed under his stare. "I don't think, for obvious reasons, that you're only hanging around anymore because of what I can do for you—"

"Good, because I've been meaning to tell you about that."

She blinked a few times. "Tell me what?"

He kept his face straight. "I like kissing you, and not just because your lips turn me back every night. I really like kissing you, but the fact is that it's unprofessional if I'm going to be the one seeing to your safety. So from now on, I think we need to stop doing that."

She couldn’t believe him. "Earlier today you said you cared for me."

Confusion covered his face. “I do care for you.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You also told me you were tired of holding back because of the promise you made.”

His steady gaze offered zero negotiation on the subject. “And that was true, before you were shot, that is. So until all of this is over it might be better if I didn’t distract myself by kissing you.”

She couldn’t help the disappointment that washed over her. “Oh,”

She perked up a bit. “What about during the day?”

He shook his head. “No. You were just shot in your own home in the daylight. I don’t think you’re any safer just because the sun is up. Not anymore.”

She couldn’t believe him. His nerve. He told her he cared for her only a few hours ago! She clenched her fists into her blankets. “You want me to pretend what you said about caring about me never happened.”

He didn’t look away or appear ashamed at all, and that made her all the more furious. “It did happen, I did say those things to you, and I’m sorry. I don’t want you to think that I want you to forget it, though.”

“I hate you.”

“You’re acting like I’m dumping you. We were never together to begin with. But I still want something with you.”

She pulled the hospital pillow over her head with her good arm. “I still hate you. Go away.”

She couldn’t see what he did, but his voice, suddenly so close, let her know that he stood directly over her. "Look, I’m not going to argue with you about this. This is better anyway because at night being a vampire comes in handy, so I might need to stay this way for a little while longer. Carter said he's got some people trying to find the anti-curse for me, so until then I'll just stay the way I am. Not like I haven't been like this for several months already."

She lowered her pillow and stare at him, still wishing he was anywhere but close to her.

His eyes were puppy-dog sad on her, his hand rested flat on her bed on one side of her body, so close to her stomach that she could feel his heat.

She tried to remember that he betrayed her, so she put all her anger over everything, her sister, her mother, getting shot at, into one look and threw it at him. But it wasn’t as strong as she would have liked because he didn’t back off.

"I think you just look at me like that so I’ll feel guilty and let you off the hook."

Her lips quirked against her will. "Pretty much."

She didn’t want to understand his position, she wanted to stay angry with him. But that would be acting like a total spoiled brat. That fact was that she did understand. She understood that he wasn’t changing his mind like this to hurt her, but that didn’t make her feel any better.

She waited a beat. He said nothing else so she asked him with a sigh, "What are you going to do about sleep?"

He shrugged. "I never had an easy time of it before, but like this I'll have to try and rest every once in a while. But only when you're with Carter or anyone else who can watch over you. Besides, the lack of sleep didn't start to really bother me until a few weeks after I was cursed, so I should be able to watch over you at a hundred per cent for now."

She wasn't sure she liked the idea of letting him become an insomniac, but he seemed to have an answer for every argument she had. “There’s nothing I can say that’ll talk you out of this, is there?”

“Not really, Gorgeous.”

Her eyes softened. "So then, if we can’t be together now, what are we?"

"I'd like to think we're something. Not sure what, yet."

Her face heated. "I’d like to think we’re something too. Even though it probably won’t go anywhere because you’re a stubborn jackass."

He grinned, leaning back so far that his seat used only two of its legs to support him. “And this stubborn jackass will make sure to stick around and wait impatiently for the right opportunity.” He looked at her lips just then.

Jackie shivered. If only she'd said something to him right away when Evey told her about the match, maybe they could've started on whatever this was a lot sooner.

Which reminded her, "Do you think Evey's still here? I should visit her before my mother gets here." Anything to get her out of this room and away from staring at Kyle’s mouth.

Kyle slapped his knees and stood, apparently just as eager to be away from temptation as well. "Well Gorgeous, as you're injured there's no way I'm letting you leave this bed, and since the daylight is shining through tall windows right about now I don't think having her come to you is going to happen either."

She huffed out a breath and glared at him. "My arm was injured, not my legs."

"I don't care," he said with a huge grin, then went for the door. "I’ll go to her and see if she wants to send you a message though. I don't think anyone would've told her you were here yet. Anything you want to say?"

"Uh, just that I hope she gets better. Thanks for the advice, and that I’m well."

Kyle took his leave from her room, and Jackie lay back in her pillows and drifted off without meaning to.

***

Kyle walked down the now familiar halls to the section of the hospital for the daylight impaired, through the two guarded doors and into the safe area with heavily tinted windows. He looked out and saw the glowing orb that was the sun, only it looked like he was peering into a cloudy day.

An orange haired young woman sat behind the desk, typing something into her computer. Her tag read Annie.

"Is Evey Smith still in room forty-three?" He asked.

She took one look at him and smiled her perfectly white teeth at him. "Let's see." She tapped away on her computer again and shook her head. "Evangeline Smith checked out earlier today."

He blinked. "Really? Well, thanks anyway."

"Are you a relative?" She asked just as he turned to go.

"A friend, and so is Jackie Moore. She's in the other side of the hospital and just wanted to talk to her."

"Oh, well I was hoping you would know, but never mind. I guess that's a stupid thing to assume if you came here looking for her."

Kyle leaned against the counter, his spider-senses tingling. "Know what? Did something happen?"

The young woman leaned closer to him, lowering her voice. "I don't want to make you worry for nothing, sir, but if you have her cell number you might want to give it a call just to make sure she's alright."

"Why? What do you think happened?" He asked, wondering if Carter was still in the hospital somewhere, perhaps he waited for Jackie's family to get here to ease them into the situation. He hoped that was the case. He'd need the man here if Evey couldn't be found. As a vampire she was in as much danger as Jackie was, especially by some freak out to torture vampires into insanity.

She bit her bottom lip, her face rough as though she were pulling a triple shift. "Well, her driver came inside earlier looking for her. Apparently she wasn't outside waiting."

"Her driver?"

Anne looked at him sideways. "Her cab driver."

He didn't know the drivers actually got out of the cab to look for their fare. “Don't the drivers usually drive off if no one's there to meet them?"

A light went off behind her blue eyes. "I see. You're new in town, aren't you?"

Kyle forced back a growl, she grinned at the discovery. He hated looking so obvious. He'd have to work on that. "Yeah, so back to why that's suspicious?"

She straightened out a little. "Right, um, now remember that this might be just us worrying, but you're right that normal cabs drive off if no one is outside to meet them, but tinted cabs don't."

Tinted? "What exactly are they?"

"They look like normal cabs but with tinted windows. A passenger calls, explains that he or she is a vampire and the company sends a tinted cab. It's law that the driver has to knock at the house or come inside the public building if no one's outside waiting during the day. And when he came asking for Evey Smith and we told him she wasn't here, well, we called her apartment in case she got a ride from someone else, and no one answered."

The hairs on the back of Kyle’s neck stood on end. "When did he arrive to pick her up? Exactly."

"I remember thinking he was a little late because the sun was already up, but not by much, so we gave her a reflective robe to wear since she insisted on waiting outside. It was, at least, after seven-thirty. He waited around here for fifteen minutes before leaving."

He tried to think of anything else that could be of use to him, any question that should be asked under the circumstances. "So if a driver comes inside for the safety of the vampire then what other rules apply for that safety?"

Anne pulled a clipboard out from under the counter and ran a slim finger down the list. "One of the rules is that the inside of the car can't be electronically controlled by the driver. Like locks and windows. Another is that when a vamp calls for a car in a public place like a hospital or restaurant, she has to tell the man on the phone where she's going, and tell whoever's in charge that too, to make sure the vamp gets home safe. Otherwise the family can sue us if the vamp goes missing. Here it is." She held the clipboard out for him to see. "Griffon Units, apartment 4B."

Kyle tapped the counter and turned. “Did you try calling her family when she went missing?”

“We called her emergency number, but no one answered.”

Shit. He suddenly had a bad feeling. “Is Jackie Moore her emergency contact?”

Annie clicked her keyboard, and then her eyes brightened. “Yes. How did you know?”

Fuck. If the driver was late and the staff waited before calling, then he and Jackie would’ve just left her apartment by the time the call came. They’d missed it.

“Did anyone think to call the police?”

She looked at him sideways. “It hasn’t been twenty-four hours yet.”

That meant no. Kyle dropped the list back on the counter and walked away. "Thanks for your help," he muttered.

He needed to find Carter. Right now if what that woman said was the truth.

He didn't find him in the waiting area like he'd hoped, instead he found him standing outside of Jackie's room on the other side of the open door.

There was a uniformed guard beside him, who stood straight at attention when he saw Kyle.

Carter looked up and saw him too. He must’ve sensed something was off in Kyle’s stare. "What is it?"

Kyle peered into Jackie's room and saw her speaking quietly with her mother. He could sense a small amount of distress and embarrassment, but nothing that required immediate attention. "Do you know Evey Smith's cell phone number?"

"All I know is where she lives. What happened?"

"She was released earlier today and her cab driver came inside to pick her up but she wasn't here."

Carter didn't blink, he kept his voice even and calm. "You think she was taken?"

"Which is why I'd like it confirmed that she's actually missing before we tell Jackie."

"I'll send someone to her place to check on her. The driver came in and didn’t find her?"

"According to the girl at the desk he even waited in the hospital, I don't know, in case she was in the bathroom or something. He got there just as the sun went up and left fifteen minutes later. If this is our same shooter then she could've taken Evey and drove by Jackie’s place while Evey was still with her."