Greywalker - Kat Richardson [67]
“You do seem more real than most people have in a while. So what happened just now?”
“When I touched you, I . . . fell in.”
“Whoa. That’s pretty weird.”
“It’s not a lot weirder than being a vampire.”
His head bobbed as he thought about it.
“So what’s your story?” I asked.
“Um, well . . . can I skip over some of the details?”
“Sure. For now.” I leaned back against the desk and crossed my arms. I could feel the molded edge digging into my butt, but I wasn’t about to move.
“Yeah, OK. See, I was down here in the Square a lot a while back, trying to help out a friend.”
“Your sister, Sarah?”
He hesitated to confirm or deny.
“She told me about it. She said she’d been some kind of possession for a while. A guy named Edward kept her as a toy.”
He closed his eyes and looked tired. “Yeah.” His lids rose, but he didn’t refocus on me. “I finally got ahold of Edward, and I tried a lot of things to get him to give Sarah up, but he wouldn’t.” His voice was starting to growl and resonate. “He was so damned amused about it. I was ready to smash his face in. I couldn’t have done it, but I wanted to. I got pissed off and asked him what would induce him to let Sarah go. And the son of a bitch said me!”
My stomach did a flip. I put my palm out toward him. “Calm down a little, Cam. You don’t need to boil the atmosphere.”
He glared at me, then slumped a bit and took a couple of deep breaths. “I didn’t mean to get so wound up, but it really wound me up at the time. Anyhow, I was kind of creeped out about it. But I had to help Sarah. It was like she was fading a bit more every time we met.
“Anyhow, I—I said he could have me.” Cameron looked down at his hands. “I didn’t know he was a vampire. I thought he just wanted to have sex with me. I didn’t know he wanted to . . . make me.”
Now he looked up. His eyes glimmered. “I thought he was just some kind of kink and I figured I stood a better chance of holding him off than Sarah did. I’m not hung up about sex, so I didn’t think it would be a big deal. I figured he’d find me boring after a while and let me go. But that’s not how it went.
“At first it was just sort of weird. . . . I don’t really want to discuss that part.” He tucked his head sideways and looked at me with a grimace.
“OK. Go on with the part you do want to tell,” I encouraged.
“Anyhow, so . . . Edward’s a vampire and now I’m a vampire.”
“Why isn’t Sarah a vampire, too?”
“I don’t know. I think he was having a lot more fun just sort of playing with her. Or maybe he doesn’t like girls. I don’t know.”
“And then what happened? Why did Edward dump you?”
He tilted his head back and stared at the ceiling. “Oh, I pissed him off. I had a meltdown, got nasty, lost my temper, and he tossed me out and told me to fend for myself. I’ve tried to get some help, but I don’t know who to turn to besides Edward, and he won’t even look at me. I mean he literally doesn’t see me. I’m really in a mess. There are other vampires around town, but I think Edward is a big man in the local community and he’s got them all scared or something. I’ve been cut out, I guess. It’s kind of scary. I could get killed just because of the things I don’t know, but I don’t know how to learn them. There is no Vampirism for Dummies handbook. I tried reading the folklore sections in the library but most of that tells you how to destroy a vampire, not how to be one.”
He lay back in the chair for a few more seconds, still. Then he jerked upright and stared at me. “You could help me!”
“Me? I don’t know even half as much about vampires as you do.”
“You could be my . . . my intermediary. You’re a neutral party. Maybe some of the others will talk to you. You could talk to Edward.”
“I don’t think th—,” I started.
Cameron jumped up. “Yes! You could do it. You don’t need to be a vampire expert. I could point out some of the people