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“But—but I seem to have a larger—problem,” she said, her usually upbeat and happy voice trembling.
“What?” Cort’s stomach churned, this time not at the threat of losing his lack of lunch, but because obviously something awful happened to her. And he might have been there and didn’t even remember what it was.
She hesitated, then straightened as if bracing herself. She swept the mass of blonde hair away from her very pale face and looked at each of the men in the room, then back to Cort.
“You are going to think I’m absolutely insane,” she said. “But I seem to be”—she paused, clearly not knowing how to go on, but finally she just blurted it out—“I think I’m a vampire.”
Cort was certain she expected some sort of reaction to her statement, but he highly doubted it was the one she got.
“What the hell,” Wyatt said. “We’ve always said no crossing over coworkers. We don’t shit in our own backyard.”
“I didn’t do it,” Saxon said, shaking his head adamantly, his eyes wide. “Man, I didn’t do it. No way, dude. Nooo way.”
“I sure as hell didn’t do it,” came a raspy voice from behind Katie, which caused her to jump and scurry over to stand beside Cort.
Drake walked into the room, looking no better than the rest of them. In fact, he looked almost as distraught as Katie.
“Dude, do you remember what happened last night?” Saxon asked.
Drake shook his head, his strange expression not fading. Hell, maybe Cort looked the same way.
This was beyond weird. They’d all blacked out. They all had hangovers. And clearly someone had broken a cardinal rule and crossed one of their human acquaintances. He looked toward Katie, who seemed to be getting paler by the moment.
Quite possibly, she’d been turned into a vampire against her will.
He suspected he was becoming as pale as she was.
This was bad.
Damn, he couldn’t have been the one who bit her. It went against everything he believed in. But he could admit, at least to himself, he’d wanted Katie enough to think about biting her. He’d thought about having her in every way possible—but all he’d allowed himself to do was think about it. Hell, he hadn’t even asked her out. His vampirism always stopped him.
But apparently that isn’t a stumbling block anymore, he thought wryly.
But wow, she was a vampire. What if he had bitten her? No, he just wouldn’t have done that.
“Well, like I said, I didn’t do it,” Saxon repeated, as if he’d read Cort’s mind. “I’m all about safe sex.” He pulled a condom out of his jeans pocket. “See.”
Wyatt glared at the youngest band member. “What the hell does a condom have to do with crossing a human over? What, do you put them on your fangs?”
“No,” Saxon said, making a face like that was the dumbest thing he’d ever heard. Clearly he didn’t listen to himself. “I have a motto: Keep ’em sheathed.”
Everyone stared at the dopey keyboard player.
“Get it? I keep my fangs sheathed and my . . .” Saxon glanced down toward his crotch. “Brown sugar sheathed.”
Cort grimaced. “What does that even mean?”
Saxon made his you’re so dumb face. “I’m talking about my penis.” He whispered the last word.
“I know that,” Cort said, getting impatient with this whole situation. “But you aren’t black.”
“You don’t have to be black to have a . . . you know.”
“Oh for Christ’s sake,” Wyatt growled, “why even bother, Cort?” He stood and strode over to the window. “We need to figure out what happened last night.”
“And I need to find my damned fang.”
Now it was Drake’s turn to gain everyone’s attention.
In response he curled back his lips to reveal a gaping, black hole where his fang should be.
Cort, Wyatt, and Saxon all gasped. Holy crap. Having one fang was like having one testicle. You could still get the job done, but you didn’t want anyone looking too closely while you did it.
“That sucks, dude,” Saxon said.
“It really does,” Wyatt agreed.
Cort opened his mouth to also agree—fang loss was no laughing matter—but Katie spoke first, her voice high-pitched and bordering on hysterical.
“Wait, wait, wait,” she said, raising a hand to stop them. “You are all vampires. You’ve all been vampires? As long as I’ve known you?”
Wyatt nodded as if that should be pretty obvious. Saxon gave her a hang-loose sign—because, well, he was stupid.
“I’m half the vampire I used to be but, yes,” Drake said.
Cort gave her a pained, apologetic smile, but nodded.
“So it must have been one of you that made me this way?” She tilted her head to show them two already healing puncture wounds, then she bared her teeth like Drake had just done to reveal two white, sparkly, and brand-spanking-new fangs.
“Show-off,” Drake said wryly, but his dry sense of humor was met by a glare from Katie.
“Perhaps not the best timing for that joke,” he conceded.
“Maybe it was one of us,” Cort said, only to be cut off by the adamant denials of the others, but he raised a hand to stop them. “But since none of us can remember, it’s hard to say.”
Katie stared at him for a moment, then said slowly, “So there are more vampires in the Quarter than just you guys?”
Before Cort or any of them could answer, a sudden whoosh and flapping sound echoed through the room, followed by a high-pitched squeaking.
Katie squealed, too. “A bat!” She ducked closer to Cort.
“Now, who the hell is that?” Drake asked, frowning up as the black winged creature circled the room wildly.
“Who?” Katie said, looking up at Cort with wide, wary eyes. “That bat is a person?”
“Well, not a person exactly, but maybe another vampire,” Cort said.
Her gaze shifted to watch the bat, her expression a combination of disbelief, dismay, and fear.
“Although sometimes a bat really is just a bat,” Cort added, hoping that might calm her. It didn’t seem to.
“I bet that’s Bob,” Saxon said with certainty. “You know how he always gets stuck in bat form when he gets drunk.”
Cort didn’t know, and he suspected none of them knew. Hell, Cort wasn’t even sure who Bob was.
“Bob?” Katie said. “Bob the bat.” She laughed, and Cort was pretty sure she was getting hysterical again. It was startling to see the always smiling, always sweet Katie totally falling apart, but discovering you are a vampire definitely did that to a person. In fact, he’d seen worse reactions. Much worse.
