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“Are Jeanie and the kids alive?” I asked.
“Sure. Killin’ them defeats the whole purpose.”
I turned around slowly, arms still behind my head, and got my first look at Arnold Gray. He was... normal. Completely and utterly human-looking. He wasn’t even hairless like Boone. He had a chiseled face, dark hair, and a generous mouth. He’d been frozen in place with an attractive amount of stubble, and only a few lines gathered at the corner of his hazel eyes. In short, he was... well, Arnie was handsome. Sicily probably would have used a word like ‘hot’ or ‘yummy’, but I wouldn’t go that far. I’d go with ‘distinguished’. He looked like he belonged in a dean’s office, not a madman with a hair-trigger temper and more brains than was good for him.
Then again, did evil really have a look? A homely man could be just as heinous as a handsome one.
Arnie flashed me a self-satisfied smile when he caught me examining his face. His teeth were perfectly straight, white, and incredibly human. Was there a chance we had another Boone on our hands? A human man who was just very hard to kill? So far as I could tell, he didn’t have any animal attributes at all.
“Like what you see, Miss Twila?” he asked, and there was a touch of laughter in his voice.
“Not really,” I said coldly.
“Pity,” he answered, looking me up and down. “Because you’re a mighty fine lookin’ woman, if I do say so.”
“How do you know my name?”
He shrugged. “This is a small county.”
I narrowed my eyes at him to show I didn’t buy it. “You live in Devil’s Run an’ I don’t get there much.”
“Let’s just say I knew you by reputation at first,” he said with another shrug. “Then I decided to send my loyal hound to observe you. I wanted to see if the rumors were true.”
“Which rumors?”
“That you’re a vampire,” he answered like I should have been aware of what the rumors were. “That your daughter somehow escaped the Fog. That your people were trying to come after people like me, just because we don’t want to fall in line with your little fantasy world.”
His tone set my teeth on edge, and my gums ached. I didn’t usually think about taking a chunk out of humans, but I was ready to make an exception for Arnold Gray. My teeth always tried to punch through my gums when I got this scared or pissed off and now was no different.
“What fantasy world is that?” I asked.
“That everything is business as usual,” he chuckled. “Need I remind you that we ain’t human anymore, Miss Twila. We’re monsters and that means the rules don’t apply to us.”
“You don’t appear to be a monster.”
He chuckled. “Looks can be deceivin’.”
“What are you?”
He shook his head then. “You think I’m that dumb that I’m gonna admit as much to you? So you can use that information against me?” I wasn’t given the opportunity to comment as he continued. “Point is—we’re much stronger now than we ever were before. So, screw society, we’re above the rules now. We should take what we want. I did.”
“And how’s that working out for you, huh?” I asked, glaring at him. “I notice you haven’t gotten Jeanie to run away with you. In fact… she’s still trying to get back to her husband, isn’t that right? That’s why you had to board up the windows to this place. She tried to squeeze through them, I’ll bet.”
Arnold’s jaw flexed stubbornly. “She just needs more time to see things my way. She’s gonna come ‘round, eventually.”
I took a step forward as he talked. If I could just get in close enough, I could wrench the gun from his hand or, failing that, foul his shot. It wouldn’t take much effort to snap his wrist and from there it would be child’s play. I was a vampire, and he was a human—or, at least, he appeared human—but if what he said was true, he was a shifter of sorts. Even if that was the case, even if he might be fast and tough, I was faster and tougher. Like Dean had said—vampires were pretty much at the top of the food chain.
Arnie caught my movement and adjusted his aim, eyes going flat. “Move again an’ I’m gonna have no choice but to shoot you. It’s not gonna kill you, but it will make my point. Pain convinces everyone in the end.”
Okay, that did it. I was officially done with this prick.
In the distance, I heard Dean, Mason, Bud, and Ol’ Ned clearing the treeline. They were talking at normal volume, which was as good as a shout in the quiet of this little clearing.At least to my hearing. As to Arnie’s? I didn’t know.
Arnie gave me a chilly smile. “Don’t call out to them, Miss. I’ll shoot you an’ then you can watch me kill the rest. Your pet humans will go first an’ then I’ll put down the old men.”
My teeth punched through my gums and my lips pulled away from them in instinct, flashing my recurved fangs. Sicily said they had more in common with snake teeth than the traditional vampire of lore. Something about allowing snakes to swallow their prey whole. In my case, I imagined that meant if I latched on, the prey wouldn’t be able to move until I let them up or they died. If Arnie laid a finger on any of my friends, he was a dead man.
“What’s wrong, Arnie?” I asked, tone high and mocking. I had to buy the boys some time.
