She kicked the gun from my hands, and her arm sailed through the air with the makeshift stake, directed at my heart. I caught her wrists before she could jam it in my chest.
“Whoa, whoa, I didn’t say I wanted to test it.” The scent of her adrenaline fanned the flames of my hunger.
No, I am not a monster. I will not hurt her.
With vampiric strength, I pushed her, sending her flying backward, only to land ass-first on a couch. I’d planned for a soft landing, but the couch slid five feet and right into a podium displaying a three-foot-tall glass pyramid. It smashed into the ground with a tremendous explosion of glass. Or was it crystal? Diamond wouldn’t do that, right? Grim couldn’t be too mad if it was crystal. I think.
Miranda’s dark eyes widened as she regarded me from across the room. I picked up the gun and wooden stake before walking over to the kitchen. I set them on the counter with a loud clack. Okay, so I slammed them down. I grabbed a blood bag from the fridge and ripped off the top like a juice pouch. The cool liquid chilled the mug as I poured it in, then I stuck it in the microwave. As soon as the timer finished with a loud beep, I pulled out the cup and poured into a goblet. At the last second, I pulled out a cherry and tiny cocktail umbrella like I’d seen Timothy do. As I took a long sip, I realized it did taste better with that little extra pizazz. My ache abated as warmth spread through me.
I was about to take another drink when I turned around and saw Miranda was still on the couch, blinking at me. “Sorry,” I said with an apologetic shrug. “I get hangry.”
She got off the couch and edged her way toward me. Or she was trying to get closer to the elevator to make a getaway.
I continued to talk as if this were totally normal, and she hadn’t tried to impale me two minutes ago. “The truth is, I’m super relieved you came to me. I was going to come find you.”
Her chin tensed and her eyes narrowed.
I rolled mine. “Not like that. I need your help with the security camera at your hotel. There was a guy who recognized me before he tore off like a bat out of hell. I need to find out where he went.”
“What do you want with this man?”
“Funny thing about my being turned into a vampire, I don’t remember who I am.” I took a seat at the counter, hoping it would put her more at ease.
“Vampire amnesia?” she said, with more than a trace of skepticism.
I shared about the two weeks of my vampy existence, up until I met Grim. That I needed to figure out who I was, and that runner was the only link to my past. I hoped she’d understand that I was a good vampire who just needed to drink blood like she needed water.
Or I hoped she understood. She could have been just biding her time to get the gun back to put a bullet in my brain after humoring me.
“Why does Grim Scarapelli want you?” Miranda asked.
It was one thing to spill my own tea, but I wasn’t about to knock over Grim’s teapot. “He’s…helping me.”
“Seems like he is holding you captive.”
I set the mug down on the island. Miranda was way too damn smart. She’d seen me and Bruiser go vamp and was handling the info about the undead tolerably well. I could attribute her keeping cool under unexpected circumstances to her military training. Still, I didn’t think telling her Death himself ran the hotel next to hers was a pill she could swallow.
“It’s a…reluctant alliance. Grim’s a…” I tried to think of something. “A vampire hunter. And you got a good look at big and beefy,” I said, referring to Bruiser. “Unlike myself, that fang banger doesn’t mind chowing down on the innocent.” I waved my hands in the air. “More evil vampires are sprouting up all over Vegas, like a bunch of daisies. And Grim is intent on stopping them.”
“So what does finding this man in the hotel yesterday have to do with hunting other vampires?”
A woman of focus. I hated that. Mainly because I didn’t have the same superpower. “Um, nothing?” I got up and walked around the counter, feeling safe enough to be in closer proximity to Miranda. To her credit, she didn’t back away from me. She stood like a brick house, daring anyone to blow her away.
“So why should I help?”
“Because…” I didn’t have a good answer. “You’re a nice person?”
She made the sound of a buzzer.
I squared off and put my hands on my hips, bracing myself. “What do you want?”
I hoped it wasn’t to shoot me in the face.
“I want information,” she said with a resolute glint in her eyes. “I want to know about the vampires. If something is happening in my city, in my hotel, under my nose, I need to know.”
Oh, Grim wasnotgoing to like this. But Miranda was the only lead I had to finding out who I was.
I pretended to think about it, then said, “Get me info on the guy from yesterday, and I’ll share with you what I know.”
