Thirst (14 page)

“You can’t drive
for shit,” he mumbled under his breath as we left the
car.

“It’s been a while, okay?” My ex-boyfriend had
taught me, I hadn’t driven since. “Isn’t it a bit early for this?”
I asked, more to distract myself. Since I tasted Peter, his
cinnamon scent had overtaken my nostrils completely.

“Never too early
for a shot after being fed on,” he replied.

He knocked back
four shots then chased them with a beer.

“Feel better
yet?” I asked.

He glared at me.
“I’ve been bitten by a human, watched you go into a little vampiric
frenzy and almost kill someone, and then you licked me as if you
wanted to....” His cheeks flushed red. “And, apparently, there are
vampires and humans galore after us. What the fuck are we supposed
to do now?”

“Well, we could
get shit-faced drunk, or we could man up and deal with it,” I
snapped back.

“Option A it is,”
he said and ordered more shots. “Want one, Carl?”

“You can’t give
him alcohol!”

“Why not? Look at
the size of him, he can take it.”

“I dunno, it’s
like giving alcohol to a kid or something. Stop it!”

“You really need
to lighten up,” he said and downed another drink.

“What do we do
now?” I asked him, trying to get him focused on reality.

“We drink. And if
we’re smart, we forget all about things that go bump in the night.
Even if you’re one.”

“We have to do
something, Peter.”

“What we have to
do is face facts. Life is shit, and then you die. Some of us sooner
than others. And if you’re really unlucky, some psycho bitch will
bite a chunk out of your neck.”

I tried to get
him to focus—even catching him up on what Becca had said about the
experiments in Spain, but he brushed it off. Two hours of constant
moaning later, and he could barely stand. “That’s it, we’re going,”
I told him when he knocked a glass into my lap.

“Spoilsport,” he
muttered but followed me anyway. I hoped even he was fed up with
his whining. Carl held him up long enough to make it to the car
without toppling over.

“I’m driving, you
idiot,” I said, guiding him away from the driver’s seat. “Both of
you, in the back, now.” I felt like a harassed mother, something I
would never be. In the car, I drummed on the steering wheel. Peter
had lost it. He was supposed to be this big hunter or something,
and he couldn’t deal with having his shoulder licked by a
girl.

“My house,” Peter
said, slurring his words. “Safe.” He closed his eyes and was soon
snoring. It took me a long time to drive there. Not only did I get
slightly lost, I was pretty sure a car was following us. I wanted
to get it off our trail, so my driving became even more erratic.
Eventually it disappeared from the rear view mirror. I breathed a
sigh of relief and tried to remember where exactly Peter lived. I
wanted to be inside before anyone else came looking for me. I also
needed to work out how to make sure Carl and Peter stayed safe if
anything worse happened.

Both men were
asleep when I pulled into Peter’s driveway. I decided to work on
Peter first seeing as it was his house. I figured one of the keys
linked with his car keys would fit his front door. I struggled to
help him out of the car, but once he untangled his legs from under
the passenger seat, supporting him to his front door was fine. I
felt strong, part of the after effects of drinking Becca’s
blood.

One of the keys
fit into the door but no matter what I did, it wouldn’t
turn.

“Is there some
knack to this or what?”

He looked at me
blankly for a few seconds before pointing downward. A thin slot was
on the bottom of the door. “Card key. Wallet,” he mumbled and
gestured to the back pocket of his jeans. I tutted and reached into
his pocket, avoiding his eyes.

“Seriously
paranoid,” I muttered as I flipped open the wallet. I instantly
paused because the first thing I saw was a photo of a smiling
toddler with large hazel eyes, just like Peter’s.

Peter snapped the
wallet out of my hands and found the card key himself, his fingers
shaking. He bent down to feed it into the door but fell over. I
tried not to laugh as I helped him back up. He stumbled into me,
forcing me back against the door. This time I held his gaze and
listened when his heartbeat sped up. He smelled like stress and
alcohol. It was hardly romantic, but nobody told the butterflies in
my stomach. He brushed my hair from my face with a surprisingly
gentle touch.

“I don’t get it,”
he said. I waited for him to elaborate.

“Peter?” said a
woman’s voice in a quizzical tone.

Over his
shoulder, I saw a woman approach us. She was around thirty and
beautiful, with very defined features and short, glossy, chocolate
brown hair. Becca had been a fake, overly flirty piece of trash,
but this one was three steps above me on the ladder and provoked an
unfamiliar twitch of jealousy. Then I remembered the photo of the
cute kid in Peter’s wallet and put two and two together.

I side-stepped
and distanced myself from Peter automatically. The woman glanced at
me then back to Peter with the most disappointed look on her face.
She called his name again, but he blatantly ignored her. Mortified,
I figured my best bet was to move on quietly and leave them alone,
so I tried to slip away.

“Where are you
going?” Peter’s voice was cold and brash. I shuddered at the
unpleasantness of his tone.

“I’m going to get
Carl. Make our way home.”

“No, you’re not.
Go get him and come in.”

His abruptness
put my back up, but I knew he was right. We had to make some sort
of a plan before the vampires woke for the night. I always knew
when; that one point in time when they all collectively opened
their eyes. It was the moment I became more alive too.

The woman raised
an eyebrow. I glared at Peter before storming off.

“Wake up, Carl,”
I hissed, taking my frustration out on him. He took it mildly which
infuriated me even more. I twisted the cross in my fingers as we
hurried to the house. Night was going to come quicker than usual, I
could tell.

The alarm went
off as soon as I stepped past the hall door. I tensed, remembering
the last time, but Peter was busy muttering in the corner. The
sound stopped, and the crazy look on Peter’s face disappeared. I
shut the door behind me, wondering how long I was going to last
with his mood swings.

He led us into
the living room. The woman wasn’t there.

“Where’s your
girlfriend gone?” I asked.

“Who? Oh, her.
Home.”

He turned his
back on me and left the room, mumbling something about making a
phone call. When he returned, he vibrated with anger, but at least
he wasn’t as hopelessly drunk.

“Maybe you should
have a rest,” I suggested.

“Can’t. I spoke
to Eddie. He contacted Daimhín’s day assistant and told her he
could hand you over to her.”

“Day assistant?”
I asked.

“Yeah, someone
who does whatever needs to be done when she can’t,” Peter
said.

“Why would
someone want to work for a vampire?”

“Maybe she pays
well. Hey, Carl, why don’t you go fix yourself something to eat in
the kitchen.”

Carl pottered
off. “Thanks,” I said. “He needs to eat a lot, for a
human.”

“Whatever.”
Peter’s dismissive tone forced me to realise we were back to square
one. “Maximus is bound to turn up at Eddie’s place again, so let’s
hope Daimhín’s there when he does.”

“They should just
attack each other, right? Nobody else needs to get hurt?” I didn’t
want to risk a human life just to pit one set of vampires against
the other.

“Maybe, if we’re
lucky. Next problem is Arthur. You sure you want his help? Not
getting attached to old Carl there?”

“I want him to go
home,” I said, surprised Peter had to ask. “He won’t even tell me
where he lives, so I can let his family know he’s okay.”

“Aren’t you
sweet?”

“Get over
yourself, Peter Brannigan.” I had about enough of his sarcasm for
one day.

He held up his
hands and exhaled loudly. “Look, I’m sorry. I’m just pissed off
at... everything. Let’s forget it for now and concentrate on
staying alive, okay?”

I shrugged, upset
by his attitude, and worrying he wasn’t really contrite but was
merely saving his angst for later. He pulled out a drawer in his
desk and beckoned me over.

“You and Carl are
going to take some of these, just in case. We may need to use them
to take on Arthur. He’s kind of fascinated by you; I don’t think
we’ll need to threaten him. But just in case.”

“Who are you,
Buffy the Second Coming?” I said, running my hands over finely
sharpened stakes, silver handcuffs and what looked like bottles of
holy water.

“Hilarious. If we
work together, we should be able to take Arthur without anyone
getting hurt. Theoretically.”

He took out two
stakes, a couple of bottles of holy water, a pair of handcuffs and
a long, thick silver chain. “Keep these in your bag, give Carl some
holy water. It’s the only thing he can’t do something stupid
with.”

I stuffed the lot
into my bag. “Thanks.”

“I need some
sleep. Do what you want until I wake up. Then we’re off.” He turned
abruptly and headed up the stairs leaving me feeling cold. He had
sobered up once his girlfriend had shown up, but then his mood had
turned even sourer. I was sure he was in trouble because of my
problems, and he didn’t need any more.

I waited a few
minutes, thinking things through, then headed into the kitchen.
“You’re going to make yourself sick,” I told Carl. I sat down next
to him. “I’m going to need your help tonight. Bad people are coming
for us. Will you help me get one of them alone? He owes me a
favour.”

“Of
course.”

I gave him some
holy water and wrapped a long silver chain around his neck. “Keep
this on,” I warned him. “If anything gets a hankering for your
throat, this might put them off. And take this stake. I swear,
Carl, if you hurt yourself with that thing, I’ll kill you. Only use
it against a vampire if you really need to, okay? Can I rely on
you?”

He nodded,
turning the stake over in his hand.

“Hide it in your
sleeve or something. Like this.” I helped him and carried on,
suddenly feeling shy. “Carl, I know the real you is in there
somewhere, and I’m guessing you know a little of what’s going on. I
wanted to say, I’m sorry, okay? All of this mess is my fault, and
the only way I can fix it is by putting us in danger again. I don’t
know what else to do. It’ll be over soon. I promise.”

He was listening,
but I wasn’t sure he understood me exactly. I sighed and got to my
feet. I figured I had given Peter enough time to fall
asleep.

“Come on, we’re
going.”

“Is Peter
okay?”

“Yes, but he’s
staying here this time.” Carl nodded although he looked
disappointed. We left quietly, making sure the door was closed
securely behind us. I sniffed the air, scenting the faintest smell
of blood, then moved on quickly with Carl.

“
You
sure you don’t want to tell me where you live, Carl?”

“With
you.”

“Nah, I meant
before that. Where’s your family? I could let them know you’ll be
home soon.”

He ignored me. I
had a feeling he could resist the thrall in some ways.

The plan in my
head was clear. Do it all myself and stop the others from being
hurt. I couldn’t forget the horror in Peter’s eyes when he saw
Becca and me drinking blood. He had done enough. Carl didn’t even
know what he was getting into. It wasn’t fair to include him but I
had no choice. It was the only way I could break the
bond.

I figured it was
time to see Eddie. As soon as I walked into his bookshop, he knew.
He could tell exactly what I’d done. And it made him very happy.
The cold presence blew urgently against the back of my neck, but I
already knew I was signing a deal with the devil.

“You’re back,” he
said, not bothering to cover up his smugness. “And feeling better
than ever?”

“Not
exactly.”

“You did
feed?”

“I had no choice.
I didn’t do it because I’m bloodthirsty, okay?”

His eyes
softened. “It was the right thing to do. How can you help anyone if
you aren’t strong? There’s no shame in what you are, Ava. You
aren’t evil. You have gifts, and if you let yourself, you might do
some good in the world.”

“Good for the
world? Or good for you?” I wasn’t afraid of him anymore. My time
was running out, I hadn’t much to lose by pissing him
off.

“Maybe they’re
not mutually exclusive.”

“Yeah, right.
Look. You pretend you’re going to give me to Daimhín tonight. Becca
told us Maximus himself is coming for me too. Let them duke it out
while I get Arthur alone, so Carl can go home unharmed.”