“I saw you kill a man,” I said insistently.
Even as I said it, something felt really wrong. There was a tightness in my stomach and an emptiness. Whatever it was he had in the cup at the end of the table was calling to me. It was saying drink me, drink me, drink me. The thought of putting a bullet in his head or arresting him was quickly overwhelmed by my sudden desire to drink whatever was in the cup.
“Xavier Santiago’s been dead for hundreds and hundreds of years.” The white-haired man began ladling stew into a wooden bowl.
“No. No, he’s not,” I insisted “He was biting my neck and... and...- and sucking my blood” My words caught in my mouth because this guy was telling me that Xavier was dead, but he’d been moving. He had survived his arm being torn off for weeks and then he had fed on me.
He. Fed. On. Me.
The memory struck me head on like a truck.
“What the fuck was he?” I asked, my voice a hoarse whisper.
“A vampire.” The guy shrugged like it was obvious.
I took a step back from him, my gun slightly unsteady. “Are you one?”
He grimaced and looked for a moment like he was about to spit on the ground in disgust. “My name is Antonio Lago. No. I’m not a vampire.”
The pounding in my ears grew louder. Whatever was in the cup was distracting me. I slowly lowered the gun and found myself walking over, insistent on smelling it. The scent of copper made my mouth salivate. I wanted it so badly. “What is in the cup?” I tried to keep the gun trained on the back of Antonio’s head but we both knew my attention was elsewhere.
“Senorita, unless you have a silver bullet in your gun, it is not going to do a damn bit of good against me.” He sat down and began spooning stew into his mouth.
Silver bullet?
Blood sucking?
I started laughing. I couldn’t help it. The situation was preposterous. “You’ve got to be kidding me. You think you’re a werewolf and the other guy was a Vampire? Maybe I should take you to the lunatic asylum instead of prison.”
“Just sit down and have a drink.” He motioned to the cup. “You should be feeling pretty weak and confused by now. You need to feed.”
I sniffed at the cup. As soon as I scooped the cup up, I realized exactly what was in it.
Blood.
My glands swelled causing my mouth to fall open. I wanted it so badly that I was no longer training the gun on Antonio. It was pointing down at my foot. My other hand grabbed the cup and before I could stop myself, I was choking back the blood in big heavy draughts, desperate for the nutrients it would provide.
I slammed the tin down on the table. I wiped the blood from my mouth and stared at him in shock. “What the fuck is going on?” I insisted.
The blood flowed through my body. I could feel it spreading out into my veins. A flush of pink deepened the color of my skin, turning it from its usual pasty white.
I stared at Antonio. His silver hair was cut short, his tan skin appeared bronze in the golden evening light, and the angular planes of his face left me with no doubt he had a mix of Native American and Hispanic blood in him. His ice blue eyes made him drop dead gorgeous.
And I felt a deep repulsion to him.
I raised the gun again. This guy was way too massive for me to take down alone. If he put up a fuss, I’d be toast and he looked like the kind of guy who would put up a fuss.
“Put your hands up. You’re under arrest.”
He shook his head and smiled at me. I snarled, curling my lip as I fired the gun into his leg.
Chapter 3
“What the fuck!” he exclaimed, falling back in his chair and grabbing his leg.
“I told you, I’m taking you in,” I glared, rounding on my stack of clothing and grabbing the handcuffs.
