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"Just think of your poor mother dying in front of you," he adds. "Think of the vampire who did it, who took her from you and ruined your life. Use thatanger."
I shake my head and stare at thedagger.
"Ican't."
"Come on Eve. Just do it." He slaps me, his hand meeting my cheek with a sharp smack, my head jerking away. I wasn't expecting it and it hurts and makes memad.
His face is dark, his brows furrowed. "I said I'd have to get rough if you don't take thisseriously."
"You want me to stab your heart withthis?"
He nods. "Do it once, and you'll remember the feeling, you'll know almost how much force you need to use. You'll know how to do it with a stake. Now, come on, vampire hunter. Pretend that's a stake and stabme."
"But it will hurtyou…"
He shrugs. "In eight hundred years, it's happened a half-dozen times. I'm tough, Eve. It'll kill me for a moment, disable me for about five minutes, and I'll bleed but I'll heal or I wouldn't let you do it. Go ahead. Do it. Just remember to take the blade out immediately, or it'll take longer for me torecover."
I just stand there, unmoving, a sense of horror going through me. Then he attacks me, slapping me, shoving me, getting in my face so that I stumble back and almost trip. I fall into fight trance without trying, and it's like I'm no longer in the same time dimension heis.
I have the dagger in him, exactly where it's supposed to go before he can even move and I know the blade has done its job. He groans, his face contorting and he falls against me. I try to hold him up with my body but he's too heavy. He slides to hisknees.
"Take it out," he manages to hiss between grittedteeth.
"Oh, God, Michel," I cry out when I come out of fight trance and pull the blade out. He slips onto his front, his face smacking against the mat, his eyes closed, and I struggle to turn him over onto his back. I touch his wound, pressing on it to stop the flow of blood, his skin slick withit.
About three minutes pass before his eyelids flutter and in that time, I almost run upstairs to find Ed. When he opens those blue eyes and grimaces, I kiss him, my tears welling up because I killed him, even if only for a few minutes. He just lies there, breathing heavily. Finally, he struggles to situp.
"Jesus Christ that hurts," he hisses through grittedteeth.
"I'm sorry," I say, my voice breaking. "But you wanted meto."
"Don't worry," he says, cracking a tiny smile. "You did it perfectly. But remember," he says and tries to sit up straighter. "You have to use more force with a stake. A metal weapon is always easier to use but won't kill the vampire. Only wood will and only if it's directly in theheart."
My hands are bloodied and I wipe the tears off my cheeks with the backs of myhands.
"It's OK," he says and brushes my cheek with his fingers. "See? I'm almost all better and it's only been a fewminutes."
I shake my head, my throatconstricting.
"All this time, I've fantasized about killing vampires – you know, really doing it. Especially the vampire who killed my mother. I never thought about what it meant to actually do it. I don't know," I say and glance away from him. "I don't know if I can do this. I wanted to do research. I wanted to use my mind to find a cure or a poison. Not actually have to stakevampires."
"Hopefully, you won't have to. Hopefully," he says and takes my chin in his hand and turns my face back to him. "You'll spend your time looking at evidence and maybe now and then, reading a vampire to see their last kill and you won't have to ever stake one. But at least now you know youcan."
He leans in and kisses me tenderly, his lips soft against mine and I just melt into him, my hands on hischest.
"Come and wash up." He stands up, only a bit hesitant, one hand over hischest.
"Are you sure you're OK?" I reach out and touch his chest where the only sign of a stab wound is a thin red seam and blood that spilled down his chest to hisbelly.
"All better." He pokes at the wound. "Just a bit tender. Now come with me and let's get you cleaned up. We're going to Franklin Park to look forvampires."
I hesitate. "What?"
He walks off the mats towards the lockerroom.
"I'm going to take you out so you can see vampires at night. See where they go, what they do. There's quite a few in town and you can bet some will be at the park, looking for willing blood whores. It's illegal but it's not grounds for prosecution. The blood whores need the money and so it's more of a nuisance. The Council mostly looks the otherway."
"Will I be indanger?"
