Stakes & Stilettos - Michelle Rowen [37]
The doors creaked open and Claire and Reggie joined us. Behind them was George.
“I’m so sorry!” I managed. “George, I don’t know what happened in there. I didn’t mean to hurt you!”
“It’s fine,” Thierry said.
“It’s fine?” George held a hand up to his neck. “She bit me! In public! I am traumatized!”
Claire approached, with a frown, and studied me. “I take it you don’t normally bite a lot of necks?”
“I’ve never bitten anyone before. Ever. I have a total no-bite policy.” My bottom lip wobbled. I felt ill. “It’s never even occurred to me before, but it’s like I couldn’t control it. I didn’t even plan to do it until it just happened.”
“This witch in the washroom,” Thierry said. “She did something to you. Perhaps it was a spell to make you attack a human and create a scene to ruin the reunion. You didn’t. There is no harm done.”
“No harm done?” George protested. “Hello? Vampire with a neck wound over here!”
Thierry stroked a tear away from my cheek and then pulled me against him. “It is fine, Sarah. It’s over.”
I buried my face in his black shirt, breathed in the light scent of his cologne, and slowly began to feel normal again. That had been so incredibly strange. Nothing like that had ever happened to me before.
Although, I suppose that wasn’t exactly true. The day after I was sired, when I still thought that nothing was wrong, my boss at the time had cut her finger during a meeting with me. I’d temporarily lost my mind and attacked her finger to suck the blood off it. She fired me thinking I was a finger-sucking freak. My fledgling vampire tendencies had kicked in and I couldn’t control them. A very unfortunate situation.
But that had been the only time anything remotely like this had ever happened. At least, until tonight.
Talk about a wake-up call.
“She wanted revenge,” I said. “Stacy did. And I guess that’s what she was saying in Latin. For me to bite somebody. I’m so embarrassed.”
“Nobody noticed anything strange,” Reggie said. “There were other people making out on the dance floor, and they figured you and Jim-Bob were just doing the same.”
“Jim-Bob is not happy!” George exclaimed.
I pulled away from Thierry to tentatively approach George. “Is it bad?”
He pulled his hand away from his neck and I cringed when I saw the raw-looking, dark-red bite marks. “Bad enough, but it’ll heal.”
“I’m sorry. Seriously. I never would have done that if I wasn’t all screwed up by the glitter spell.”
He nodded. “I thought you looked sparklier than normal.”
“So you forgive me?”
“Of course I do. Just warn me if you’re going to go for the jugular again, okay?”
The thought made me feel sick to my stomach. “I didn’t exactly plan to do that. Other than feeling a bit overheated, there was no warning at all.”
“That’s not very comforting.”
“I think we should leave,” Thierry said.
I nodded. “I think that’s a good idea. Can’t go back in there. They think I’ve just compromised Jim-Bob’s integrity.”
“So you’re feeling okay?” Claire asked.
I concentrated. Other than my elevated heart rate and an overall feeling of weirdness, I felt fine. “Yeah, I’m okay.”
She pulled pen and paper out of her purse and scribbled something on the paper. “If you need me, you can reach me here.”
I squinted at the name and number. “What is this, a motel?”
“My basement apartment was recently condemned due to a minor demonic outbreak, so I’ve been staying with Reggie there. Call me if there’s anything I can do to help you. Hell, call me if you want to hang out sometime. Niagara Falls isn’t that far away.”
“Thanks, Claire.” I gave her a quick hug.
Reggie nodded at me. “Great meeting you, Sarah. And just for the record, you can bite my neck any time.”
“Reggie,” Claire said sharply.
He blinked. “Uh… I didn’t mean anything by it.”
She smiled tightly. “We’re going back inside now.”
“We can leave for Toronto right now,” Thierry said. “There’s no reason to stay, and it’s still early.”
I shook my head. “No, let’s go back to the motel and get