The Vampire's Curse (25 page)

"The spell wasn't meant to last for so long—"

"Right, Carter told me all about that when you sobbed your story out to him."

"I thought you wanted to talk?" Her fists clenched and eyes hardened. He smirked as the fight started to come out of her.

"I do."

"Then stop interrupting me! I'm trying to explain."

He waved a hand at her. "Explain away. Why'd you ruin my life?"

She bit into her manicured thumbnail this time. "You were going to leave me. I … just didn't want that to happen again." She laughed shortly. "I even tried to spell you into staying, but you were adamant that you go." Her face was pointing towards the carpet now. She wouldn’t even look him in the eyes.

Kyle knew his eyebrows must have touched his hairline. It certainly explained the indecision he went through when he made the decision to leave.

"You're kidding," he said. Not only had she cursed him, but now she admits to making attempts at taking his self control from him. Unbelievable.

She shook her head even though it wasn't a question. She looked up, her eyes were swimming. Guilt jolted him, but he kept it together.

"Jackie always got all the attention when we were girls, y'know? But I never did. She was the smarter one, got better grades and didn’t have friends who talked about her behind her back. If I wanted a boy I always had to make them come to me with skirts that were a little shorter, and a bit of magic."

She gave a weak shrug of her shoulders, begging him to understand with her eyes.

The statement rocked him back a little.

Sarah was jealous of Jackie? He couldn't believe it. A part of him wanted to run back to the hospital and tell Jackie. That little bit of him thinking the news might cheer her to know that all those boyfriends she had growing up were just small minded enough to be lured to Carly because of magic. Not because of some flaw in Jackie’s looks or personality.

But the other little part of him raised up to squash the idea as childish, petty, and unnecessary.

Jackie didn't need that kind of news to make her feel any better. What she needed was an apology from her sister and a little more love from her mother.

He grasped the idea and mentally went through Carly's confession. He had to make sure he had it all right. "So, all these years you were actually jealous of Jackie?"

Carly swiped her hand across her wet cheeks, smearing some of her make-up. "She made making friends seem so easy. Everyone liked her, a lot more than me, no matter how hard I tried. When I left for New York the first time, no one wanted me. They all said I wasn't tall enough, thin enough, didn't have the face or body shape. Mom doesn't know I had to make them hire me."

"With magic?"

She sniffed. "Right. Don’t need to do that anymore since I got my portfolio and all now.” She picked at the thumbnail she’d bitten into, another of her many nervous habits. “But I always knew that I wouldn’t have made it without cheating.”

An angry thought jumped into Kyle's mind. "Did you ever use magic to influence me into being with you?"

She snatched several tissues from a box on the nightstand, plopping herself down next to him, no longer afraid. "You were the first person who I didn't need to do that to. And you eventually wanted to leave anyway."

A guilty groan built inside him as she wiped her eyes and blew her nose. Whether or not he made the mistake of dating her, it was still his mistake.

He didn’t mean for it to happen, but slowly he found himself sympathizing with her. "So you cursed me?"

She looked him in the eyes, and he could see true sincerity there behind the building water. "I swear it wasn't supposed to last so long. After I did that to you, I left, spelling people to forget all about me, and my credit cards weren't even under the name Sarah, so that's probably why you're brother couldn't find me when I went to Paris."

She twisted and tore up the remaining tissues in her hands. "I'm so sorry."

Despite his excuse to come here and talk like adults, he really hoped to meet the bitter Sarah that he knew so well, let her hurl her excuses at him so he could give her the tongue lashing she deserved.

Maybe she wasn't the narcissist he thought she was.

"Why don't you visit your sister?"

He watched the color under her skin change to a light green, and she covered her mouth with her fist. "Hospitals make me sick."

Well, that wasn't faked either. He leaned back on his hands. "I'm sorry for scaring you the other day."

She looked at him, smiled shyly through her tears. "I'm sorry I cursed you. I hope it hasn't put you through too much."

He had to hold back the giant burst of sarcastic laughter that bubbled beneath the surface. He coughed and lied instead. "Uh, not too much, no."

He heard the click of the other door in the room and looked up to see his other guest. He’d almost forgotten. Patty walked in from the connecting room and stared, bewildered, at her teary eyed daughter.

Carly took one look at her mother's disbelieving face, and the damn broke. "I'm sorry, mom. I'm sorry."

Patty hesitated for only a second before rushing to embrace her. Rocking her and making shushing sounds while having Carly promise to never do such things again.

Kyle felt out of place all of a sudden. He could barely handle the idea of Jackie crying, but two crying women was two more than he could handle. He got up and decided make himself scarce.

They didn't notice when he left the room.

He got the answers he wanted, and although those answers didn't come with his cure, he could definitely let go of a lot of the anger that he carried.

He hadn’t told her because Patty walked in, but he did forgive her.

He was inside his truck with his key in the ignition when Patty and Carly, dressed in a mismatched green T-shirt and a pair of pink jeans that she must’ve thrown on, ran outside to catch him.

He rolled down the window.

"We'll go with you."

He looked at Carly, who still couldn't meet his eyes, and understood why.

He opened the passenger door for them waited for them to climb in.

***

Jackie flipped the page of her book, having resorted to reading it since she couldn’t take waiting for Kyle anymore, the door to her room opened.

Jackie’s mouth dropped, as did her book. The teal colored uniform she wore was unfamiliar compared to the bright red T-shirt she wore at the donut shop.

"Claire, what are you doing here?"

Jackie looked passed her and saw the leg of the security guard sticking out from where he sat in his chair, still reading his magazine, and she relaxed.

Claire pulled the chair closer to the bed and sat down without an invitation. "I just came to see how you were. Mom doesn't feel comfortable coming over, but she heard you were here."

Jackie's cheeks heated up. "Uh, look, I wasn't the one who said it might be her.” It was a cowardly shield to avoid blame but she didn’t care. The last thing she needed was for Charity’s daughter to come into her hospital room and berate her for accusing anyone of murder.

Claire’s face remained pleasant and smiling. "Don't worry, she's not accusing you, but she said it probably wouldn't look too good if she came so soon after your accident. So she sent me and told me to give you her best."

Jackie inwardly cheered and sat straighter. "Thanks. And could you tell her I didn't mean for her to get dragged into this. Kyle's a good guy and all, but he worries a lot, y'know?"

"What man doesn't worry?" she asked knowingly, turning her head towards the plastic curtain that gave them the small measure of privacy against the other bed on the other side.

"No one's there, we're alone." Jackie said.

Claire nodded. "Good."

They were silent for a moment and Jackie struggled to find something to talk about. Claire wasn't too much younger than herself, only about six years or so, just fresh out of college and still looking for work in her field. Maybe that was the reason they rarely spoke, and Jackie didn't know what to say to prolong the visit without making it pathetically short. "So, what's with the new uniform? You get another job?"

Claire pinched the ironed shirt she wore. "Yeah, I work here now full time, actually. Maintenance. No tips like at the shop, but with the better pay, it was worth the switch. It’s only temporary until I can save enough to get out of here." Her smile remained neutral. "This is my first day on the job without a trainer behind me."

"Well that's good, it's always great to be on the lookout for better things." It was the line you gave whenever someone switched jobs, but Jackie had nothing better to say.

It was getting awkward now and she no longer wanted to prolong it with conversation. She wished Claire would stop staring at her and go. The longer she stayed the more uneasy Jackie became.

"What book are you reading?"

Jackie nearly jumped. "It's a romance, it's really good," she said.

"Oh, can I see?"

Jackie held out the book and Claire sprung like a cat, pressing Jackie into the bed by her face. She didn't have time to react to the wet cloth with the weird smell that was forced over her nose and mouth. She punched against Claire’s weight with her good arm, and though the woman was smaller, Jackie's position under the bed blankets trapped her legs. Her other arm was useless to fight with.

Claire wrapped her long fingers around her wounded shoulder and squeezed while she pushed down.

Fire burning! It felt like fire in her skin and Jackie inhaled sharply to scream at the pulsing pain. The cloth muffled her voice and she only inhaled more of the strange scent.

Without meaning to her struggles weakened. Cotton filled her mouth and the light behind her eyes became dark. She grabbed Claire's face and dug her finger nails into her cheek to try and stop her.

Why wasn't the guard stopping her? Why wasn't anyone walking by the open door and seeing what Claire was doing to her?

Claire yanked back when Jackie drew blood and slapped her. "You
bitc
h,
" she sneered.

Jackie didn't feel the slap. She was nearly gone, but she did understand the sensation of the IV being yanked from her arm and being bundled up in her own blankets. She was out after that.

***

Kyle's footsteps quickened against the tiled floor of the hospital, dread filling him with every step.

Something was wrong. Some deep pitted sensation in his gut clenched and squeezed painfully, and the closer he got to Jackie's room the more apparent it became.

The security guard was sleeping in his chair outside her door, his legs crossed and the magazine over his face.

"Why's he sleeping?" Carly asked, sniffing the air and wrinkling her nose. “Ugh, what’s that smell?”

Kyle didn't turn to answer as he slid the magazine off the man's face.

Like his mouth, his eyes were wide open. His face was in the beginning stages of swelling and changing color. He was dead.

Carly let out a tiny shriek and turned away.

"Oh my God." Patty whispered, stepping back.

Kyle punched the door open and stepped inside. She was gone as were her bed sheets. "Jackie?"

He rushed to the other side of the room and ripped back the curtains. She wasn't there.

He suddenly jolted. That feeling of dread, the emptiness, he knew what it was now. He didn't feel her. He couldn't feel her anywhere in this hospital!

"Maybe … she went for a walk?" Patty hugged her daughter close to her, tears spilling. "Where's my girl?"

He wished he knew. Fuck! He
should
know. "Listen, I want you to quietly go and find someone. Another security guard or a cop if there's still one hanging around here. Try and keep this quiet. We'll find out what happened."

He watched Patty and Carly go, and then slid the eyelids of the dead security guard shut before returning the magazine to his face. The last thing he needed was some frail patient to walk by and see a dead man.

He stood next to the body and guarded the open door without touching anything else. It was bad enough he walked through the room. Hopefully no evidence that could help Jackie be found had been tampered with.

***

Kyle had to give him credit. Carter showed up quick when he was called to the scene. Soon after the room, the entire area surrounding the body, was taped off, and people with big cameras began snapping pictures of the body and laying down cards with numbers wherever any fingerprints or other pieces of evidence were found.

"I'm sorry." Kyle said, but the apology meant nothing while Jackie was out there somewhere. In the hands of a killer, suffering or, he prayed it wasn't the case, already dead.

"You'll find her."

Kyle snapped his head up. He hadn't expected that, and the jolt hadn't been a welcome one either. "I'm not exactly a detective, Carter."

He fisted his hands in his pockets, not two minutes ago the bigger man looked ready to pop a vein in his forehead, now he was the picture of calm and professionalism. "No, but you are her match. Her kidnapper likely doesn't know this and probably won't be expecting you tonight. Assuming she's alive."