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Vampires were not kind to BlackBerrys.
He was just a boy, really, turned at eighteen or so. He was a lithe, whippet-thin kid with pale blond hair artfully arranged into stylish chaos. Everything about the pale storm-gray eyes and elegant features spoke of menace. He leaned far too close for comfort and inhaled deeply. His intense, hungry expression had me backing toward the door.
He purred. “Miss Scanlon, I need you to stay calm.”
“Who are you?”
“You can call me John. I’m just a courier, really, Iris. May I call you Iris?” he asked, offering me an ingratiating smile. Hesitantly, I nodded, but I refrained from taking the slim white hand he offered me. A ripple of disappointment flashed across his face before he settled his features into a polite mask. “It’s lovely to meet you … face-to-face, so to speak.”
He snickered as if he was enjoying some private joke. The sly laugh sent a nauseating echo through my belly.
“I need you to come with me, quickly, quietly, and without a fuss.” His voice wound its way around in my head, like cotton soaked in some sweet, cloying medicine. I couldn’t breathe. I could barely keep my head up.
“Why?” My head felt heavy. My thick tongue made it hard to form words, and I just wanted to close my eyes. Numb, I slumped against him, and he gently pushed me into a nearby chair.
“I finally caught up to your Mr. Calix. I’ve been watching your house off and on for a week, and this is the first time he’s left it alone.” He knelt in front of me, pulling at my chin so I was forced to look him in the eye. He grinned wickedly. “It was luck, you see, stupid luck. The night your vampire disappeared, I followed your scent from his place to yours. There was no sign of our Mr. Calix from the outside, not even his scent. All I got was the maddening smell of all those flowers in your garden. So I went back to Deer Haven and waited.” He trailed his fingers down my throat, to the long-healed bite mark he’d left on my skin. His fangs dropped, and he licked his lips. “And then, to stumble onto you when you returned to his home—his scent on you was so strong. I was sure he was at your house. But you were so careful to be home before dark. I couldn’t get information from you or about you. I was perplexed for days. And then, one night, I was out at a high-school football game. Large crowds are good places to find prey. And I found that scent again. Like lavender with just a hint of iron.
“Your sister was so sweet, so eager to please. And delicious. Both of you have such a delicate bouquet. It’s as if spending so much time in the garden has steeped flowers into your very skin. Every time we met, I asked her more questions to gauge how your guest’s investigation was progressing. And she was just so, mmm, accommodating.”
My mouth dropped open. What had this freak done with my little sister? When had he had time to see her? Had he fed from her? Had he hurt her? Taken advantage of her? Hot, boiling rage bubbled up in my throat, freeing my tongue enough to let me say, “I’m going to kill you. A lot.”
His grin seemed to stretch even wider at my slurred words. “There’s no need to be rude, sweet thing. Especially since we’re going to be spending so much time together after my employer takes care of your Calix. You and Gigi are going to be a sort of bonus, you see. I was afraid, after you stumbled onto the grow operation, that I’d lost you. I didn’t want to lock you in that shed with him, but I couldn’t risk him making it to the Council before I’d had a chance to collect from my employer. It pained me, the thought of wasting your blood in such a stupid, pointless manner. Leaving before I was sure that he’d finished the job was a mistake, but I just couldn’t bear to listen to you being destroyed. I would have made do with just Gigi, but … but it’s all worked out for the best, hasn’t it? You and Gigi and your delicious blood are just the sort of treat I deserve for a job well done. And when I’ve tired of feeding from you—though I can’t imagine that will happen anytime soon—I’ll turn you. And then we’ll be together forever, one big, happy family.”
The leering, dreamy quality to his voice gave me an idea of the bonding activities he had planned for that happy family. That thought was sobering enough. I pinched my arm, letting the pain bring me into some sort of focus. I shook my head and tried to concentrate on the words he was speaking, rather than his voice. “When I kill you, it’s going to involve injuries to your crotch.”
He chuckled and pinched my cheek, as if I were a charming toddler. “Well, I would love to hear about any plans you have for that particular area of my body, but my employer is eager to see you. I strung him along for weeks, lying about my progress. I wanted him to be desperate for the information about Mr. Calix. I wanted him to pay top dollar. So giving him hints was quite profitable. And Gigi proved to be so amusing I wanted it to last and last.”
He was doing something extra now; there was a musical quality to his voice. My head drooped, a heavy bloom on a weak stem. My chin touched my chest under its weight.
“Now,” he said, patting my head, “if you would wait here, I need to retrieve Mr. Calix’s files. You don’t move from this spot, do you understand? If you move or make a noise, I will be very, very upset. You wouldn’t want that, would you?”
I shook my head. It didn’t seem like such an unreasonable request, really, sitting at my own kitchen table. I smiled and folded my hands in my lap, as still as stone as he moved up the stairs. The farther he moved away, the clearer my head became, but the strange numb weight kept my arms in my lap.
I heard a car pull up outside. I wanted to call out a warning to Gigi, to spring up from the chair and run out to her, but I couldn’t move. My fingers wouldn’t even twitch. If I moved, the world would end. The ceiling would come crashing down on my head. I couldn’t even draw the breath to squeak. I just sat there, my hands clamped together.
I heard Gigi clomp through the front door. “Iris, is everything OK? Why is the living room all messy?”
I looked up, unable to produce any sounds beyond heavy breathing. I had to stand, had to get up. I had to tell Gigi to get out. Lifting my arms to put my hands against the table took all of my strength. I imagined all of my energy gathering in my palms, pushing against the scarred pine surface.
“Iris, are you all right?”
“Geeeee,” I whispered, my eyes pleading with her. Run. Leave, run away, and never come back. Her pale, frightened face swam in front of mine.
I heard footsteps on the stairs. I couldn’t even turn my head to see the vampire boy trotting into the kitchen. He dropped Cal’s laptop bag and a box of files on the table.
“Gigi?” he said, giving her a charming lopsided grin.
“John!” she cried, shooting a significant look at me. “Um, what are you doing here?”
Oh, right, my sister had been dating our burglar. Behind my back. The last tendrils of fog seemed to clear from my head. I narrowed my eyes at her and demanded, “Gigi, who is this?”
She blanched and looked down at the hands twisting in her lap. “Um …”
“Spill it,” I ground out.
“That’s John,” she said, giving a nervous little chuckle. “He’s sort of my boyfriend.”
“I thought … Ben?” I mumbled.
