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“Go ahead,” he said. “It’ll hurt, but you ain’t gonna do anythin’ but piss me off an’ we both know that.”
I jabbed the barrel in his direction. “I swear to God, I’ll do it! Step off and let them go, or I’m gonna put one between your eyes.”
He shrugged.Shrugged.How crazy was this bastard?
“Like I said, you ain’t gonna do anythin’ but piss me off, an’ as soon as you’re off-footed, I’m gonna ride you to the ground an’ make you regret every crossin’ paths with me.”
“What part of ‘shoot you between the eyes’ don’t you get, moron?” I demanded. “You will die.”
“No, I won’t.” This time he chuckled. “Vampires are immortal, sweetheart. That means you can hurt us, but we ain’t gonna die. You should know that by now.”
I just stared at him, waiting for the punchline. But his face remained serene, and it sent a chill up my spine. He reallywasinsane. How many stunts had he pulled that convinced him of his own immortality?And furthermore, was there a chance he was… right? Was I immortal?
“Don’t buy into your own press,” I said quietly, still not convinced. This could just be a play on his part to get me to drop the gun. “We’re tough, but we’re not immortal. If I destroy your brain, you’re done, Arnie. Don’t pass go, don’t collect two hundred. Done as in you’re dead as a doornail.”
His expression didn’t shift. He didn’t believe me. Oh, holy hell.This just went to show you that you could have all the brains in the world and still come to breathtakingly stupid conclusions.
“Hands behind your head. Last chance.”
Arnie ignored me. Instead, he crouched, calves bunching before he left the ground. I caught him mid-arc, squeezing the trigger. The shot echoed off the surrounding trees and Arnie fell to the ground, blood pooling around his head, expression still confident, even as the light left his eyes.
So much for the immortal vampire.
***
Jeanie and the kids were dehydrated but otherwise given a clean bill of health. Any cuts or bruises they’d sustained during captivity had healed before we managed to get them out of the house. Slim Jim was right. Arnie had rigged the front door with a shotgun in case someone was stupid enough to approach from that direction. That meant we had to escort the kids and Jeanie to the attic and have them jump one by one into my waiting arms below. The kids had looked so shaken, I’d been tempted to kick Arnie’s corpse out of spite.
Even curmudgeonly Dorcas hadn’t been able to deny the family a hot meal when we staggered into the diner. I’d pulled Jeanie aside while Sicily saw to her kids, luring them away with the promise of a Nerf fight. Anything to get their mind off the horror of what Arnie had done to all of them.
Jeanie seemed reluctant to let the kids out of her sight, even to eat. She’d transformed into some kind of siren-like creature with pale hair and silver scales. Her eyes were too large to belong in her humanoid face, and she had her own pair of needle teeth. She managed to look very pretty in spite of the grime that coated her from head to toe. She picked at the fish on her plate with little interest.
“Not hungry?” I guessed.
Her shoulders twitched. “I don’t know. I’m not sure what to feel. It’s finally over. It feels like the moment you surface from a nightmare.”
“Confusing and scary, even though you know you’re okay?”
She nodded and looked up at me. “Exactly like that.” Then she paused a moment and breathed out real slow. “I should say thank you for what you did for us—everything you did for us. I didn’t before, and I’m sorry.”
I reached across the table to squeeze her hand. “I understand. And you’re welcome.”
“So, what did you want to talk to me about?” she asked, looking as though she needed something to take her mind away from wherever it currently was. “You seem to be keeping me from joinin’ my husband, so I assume it’s not a friendly chat?”
I winced. I hadn’t expected her to be this perceptive. Just because she was stepping out on her husband didn’t make her an idiot, just a woman with poor judgement.
“It’s not,” I admitted. “And this isn’t a great time to say this, but I have to do it before you settle back into your old life… well, yournewold life,” I finished with a smile.
She raised a slim, shimmering brow, and her fishy eyes went flat. “What’s on your mind?”
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “You should send your kids home, but I don’t think you should follow them.”
Jeanie’s hands formed bony claws around her side of the table, clutching it so hard it creaked. Thank goodness Dorcas was deaf, or she’d have automatically docked my pay after hearing the abuse heaped on one of her tables.Even if it wasn’t my fault. That’s just how Dorcas was.
“What?”
“I said I think you should send your kids to stay with Ethan for a while. They need someplace quiet and calm and reliable, and you can’t provide that right now.”
“You think it’s my fault all this happened?”
