Part 6 (2/2)

”When you want to come back-” she raised her hand as I started to speak. ”When you want to come back, call me. You belong here, Amber. You don't know it yet, but your body does.”

I shook my head. ”I'm not into pain, or the-”

She interrupted me. ”It's not really about pain. It's about pa.s.sion. And I sense you need pa.s.sion like a woman in the desert needs water. Trust me...as I find I trust you.” She stood up and drained her gla.s.s. ”As to your task. What I can, I will do. I would take it as a personal favor if you escorted Valerie home tonight. I think she may be too scared to go home on her own. She will meet you in the lobby. There may be something she can say which will help you in your search.”

I stood and drained my gla.s.s too. Time to go, and I couldn't waste it.

She escorted me as far as the door to her office. She held it open and I walked through.

”Au revoir, Amber,” she said.

My French just about extended to knowing that meant until we met again.

I wasn't as sure about a lot of what else she'd said, but I wanted to talk to Valerie anyway and she was waiting in the lobby, as Domine had told me she would be.

”Domine says I can trust you. She said I can leave now and you'll drive me home.” The strange European accent had disappeared, replaced with mid-western. She could barely look me in the eye. She kept her chin down, her face turned to one side.

I nodded.

”You're...” she hesitated, unwilling to say it. ”Can I really trust you?”

”I'm not like them, Valerie. I can't prove it, but I won't hurt you. And I'll try to make sure no one else does either. I just need to ask you a few questions.”

She looked up tentatively. Face on, her eyes looked bruised with worry. Slowly, the tension in her shoulders eased.

”Let me change first. It won't take me a minute.”

Before she could move away, I took hold of her chin and gently lifted her jaw up. Her breath caught, but she held still. I slipped a finger into the ruff around her neck and eased the material away from her skin. About halfway down her neck, there were fang marks on both sides.

”We really do need to talk, don't we?” I said. ”I'll get the car and pick you up outside.”

Chapter 8.

We didn't talk in the car. For my part, I was letting it sink in. She was the only other person I'd met who'd been bitten and survived. It gave me a peculiar sense of kins.h.i.+p with her.

I was also taking time trying to work out my strategy. I needed to rea.s.sure her, so I had to appear to know exactly what I was talking about while getting every sc.r.a.p of information out of her. And my thoughts were constantly being shocked back to realizing that I had the first evidence the colonel had sent me to find.

There were vampires in America. Right here in Denver.

And very good at remaining hidden.

To be that, it was surely unthinkable that they'd casually bite someone and then let her go. So what was the deal here? Were they trying to turn her? Or had they been panicked into making a mistake? If it was a mistake, were they going to come back and fix the problem?

And what would that mean-being taken away or being killed?

I had to work this out for Valerie as well as for the colonel.

She lived on Colorado Boulevard, up near City Park.

We pulled up outside an apartment building that made me think Club Agonia paid better than the Denver PD.

She sat, looking intently at the building, making no move to get out.

”Hey,” I said, startling her.

”Oh. Sorry. I'm kinda scared.”

”It's okay, I'm coming in with you anyway.”

”Thanks.” She flashed a tight smile and we got out of the car. We must have been an odd sight walking across to the door, Valerie in her jeans and puffy jacket and me in my floaty vampire cloak. It was a shame there was no mist.

Inside, she offered me coffee. I accepted and she walked into a small kitchen area, turning lights on.

”Can I use your bathroom?” I asked. ”I want to take the face off.”

That got a nervous laugh and a wave down the corridor.

Valerie's apartment was a surprise. I'd expected somewhere scruffy, gloomy and full of angst. Instead, she'd decorated in light pastels and put up real paintings on all the walls, mainly of penguins in funny poses. Everything was spotlessly clean and tidy.

I scrubbed my vampire face away.

A cat greeted me as I came back out, demanding attention loudly.

”I can hear you're meeting Mr. Leo Pardner, the owner of the apartment,” Valerie said from the kitchen. ”Leo for short. He normally doesn't talk to strangers.”

I scratched his ears and he shed hairs on my cloak, buzzing with pleasure.

”Are the penguins your work?” I called out as the coffee machine spluttered to a halt.

”Yeah. I've never seen one really. We watch a lot of wildlife on TV where I come from.”

”They're good paintings.”

She smiled as she came into the living room with two mugs.

We sat on the sofa and Leo claimed the s.p.a.ce between us, which was fine by me.

”Valerie-”

”It's not really Valerie. It's just boring, odd, plain old Valery Hawks from nowhere North Platte, Nebraska.” Her name lost the tone at the end when she said it.

I smiled. ”Everyone has to come from somewhere. Can't be that bad.”

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