I shook my head. “No, I left my job when I left Chicago. I’m just here trying to get answers onmyown.”
“Tell me about your colleagues,” he said, sympathetically. “I doubt I’ll be able to do anything to help, but you never know. I do have some good connections inthecity.”
I thought about that for a moment, and figured it wouldn’t hurt to have another set of eyes on the problem, so to speak. I sat in silence as I organized my thoughts in my mind, and took another few bites of my glorious steak as I pondered. “There were five of them, plus me. Three men and two women, and they disappeared two months ago when we were here investigating something… for a client.” I paused before the word ‘client’, and hoped that I’d given enough that hewouldn’tpry.
James’ eyes widened when I told him that last bit, but he quickly shook it off and his surprised expression was replaced again with concern. Wow, I didn’t realize he’d be so affected by mystory.
“So, your five colleagues. Do you have any idea where they are?” He looked incredibly concerned, his eyebrows furrowed as he gazed deeply intomyeyes.
I thought I sensed a trace of anger in his eyes, but it was hard to tell why. “Wow, I didn’t think you’d take such an interest in this. Thank you for your concern. Really, it makes me feel better about how I’ve been feeling these past fewmonths.”
James reached across the table and took my hand in his. “I’m here for you, Charlie. I want to help. Tell me more about these colleagues of yours. Are you any closer to finding out where they are? Are the even stillalive?”
I savoured the feeling of my hand in his but then pulled it back. As much as I like touching him, I still had the rest of my stake to eat, and by the tight knot forming in my stomach and the gurgling noises that kept coming from it, I was determined to finish my stake. “Really, I know nothing. I haven’t been able to find a single thing and I know people are still working on it back in Chicago, but I can’t help but feel that there’s more I candohere.”
“Who is working on it back in Chicago? Morecolleagues?”
I paused for a moment and then shook my head. “No, no more colleagues.” My brain was running a mile a minute as I tried to come up with an explanation. I wanted to be honest with him, but for some reason I felt that admitting that I worked for the police back home might be a bit of a turn off. “I just meant, I’m sure some sort of authorities are looking out for them. Their families must be concerned, and I bet the city has their best people on it. I wouldn’t know, being here this whole time.” I took the last bite of my stake as I closed my eyes. I chewed and swallowed the last bite of the delicious meat. I licked the juices from my lips savouring taste, and heard an even louder growl coming for mystomach.
James’s eyes grew wide again as he looked down at my stomach and a backup at my eyes. “Are you okay?” Right then my skin suddenly felt cold and clammy, and I had a feeling my body was about to let me down. “Excuse me,” I said quickly. I pushed myself off the my chair and ran through the dining hall towards the back room where I’d seen a sign for thewasher.
I pushed the door open as I ran into the first stall, and threw up the entire contents of my meal. My stomach clenched tightly in knots as I wiped away the sweat on my eyebrow after being sick multipletimes.
I held my hair back with one hand and used the other to prop myself up on the back edge of the toilet. When I knew the contents of my stomach had been completely emptied, I wiped my mouth, flushed the toilet, and made my way shakily tothesink.
I splashed cold water on my face and swished water to my mouth to get rid of the discussing taste of vomit. I looked at myself in the mirror, my body shaking and my skin was pale and clammy. Serves me right for eating so much for fuckingstake.
My stomach rumbled again and I couldn’t help but feel absolutely starving. I craved more stake, that taste of the blood dripping through my teeth as I chewed in the juices running down my throat. I never felt so hungry in my life and as I watched myself in the mirror, I splashed cold water on my face and wondered just what the hell was going on with my body. There was absolutely no way I could still be hungry after that meal, and after being so violently ill. What was going on withmybody?
My body then froze and I snapped my head up to stare back at myself in the mirror again. I narrowed my eyes as I realized exactly what the hell wasgoingon.
“Get. The. Fuck. Out. Of.My.Head!”
My body shook as I responded to the hunger that didn’t even belong to me. I wasn’t craving stake, I was craving blood. That wasn’t my own craving, it wasErik’s.
I could feel the tug of the mental connection between the two of us, but he didn’t answer. My mind felt weak and exhausted, but the sensation was overwhelmed by the desperate need for blood. Erik was hungry and he was passing it on to me. I glared at myself in the mirror hoping beyond anything that he could see or feel how angry I was at him. “You keep your disgusting fucking bloodsucking habits out of my mind, and out of my body, you hear me?” My fingers were digging into the edge of the countertop and my knuckles grew white. I was shaking still, but now it was more from anger than frombeingill.
When Erik didn’t answer, I rolled my eyes and splashed water on my face. I needed to go back to Erik and give him another fucking stern talking to. This was getting absolutely ridiculous, and if this is what our link was going to result two, I had to put a stop to it. It was one thing to be in my mind, following me everywhere I went. It was another to make me crave blood like a disgusting, murderousbloodsucker.
Some people did sympathize with the vampires, but after seeing the devastation and death that they leave in their wake wherever they go, added to the number of deaths in the investigations back home in Chicago, I had no sympathy from the monsters. They were cold-blooded murderers that relied on human blood to sustain themselves. At least shifters can eat normal food, and didn’t rely on other people’s life energy to stay alive. Not that the vampires were really alive inanyway.
I closed my eyes and delved deep into my mind to see if I could get any sense of what Erik was feeling right now. Any sense of remorse or apology. I sensed nothing but pain, weakness, andhunger.
An entirely new knot was forming in my stomach as I realized he was probably out hunting or something, looking for his next human meal. The idea made me even sicker as I ran back to the toilet throw up again. There was nothing left in my stomach, which made the experience all the moreunpleasant.
After a few minutes, there is a knock on the bathroom door, and the waitress steppedinside.
“Excuse me, Miss? Mr. James asked me to come check on you. Iseverythingokay?”
I wet my mouth and turned to look at her and offered her a half smile and shrugged. “Yeah, sorry. Just feeling alittlesick.”
With a hand raised to her mouth, she looked shocked. “It’s not the food, is it? Oh my gosh, I have to go getthechef.”
I raised my hand and stepped forward, and told her, “No, it’s not the food. I’ve had a bug all week. Please, don’t say anything to either of them. I don’t want to ruin my date after everything that he’s done for metonight.”
The waitress looked concerned and nodded, and in turn swiftly walked out of thebathroom.
I let out a sigh that I apparently didn’t know I was holding, and walked back to the sink to splash more water on my face and trying get rid of the taste of vomit in mymouth.
