“Put it away,” I snapped back.
“Let go.”
“Put it away.”
The light from her sword—if my eyes could have watered, they would have. They would have been streaming by now. As it was, I couldn't see out of that eye at all.
“You're not leaving until you tell me what you did.”
“Put me down or I'll—”
“What? Kill me? Like you killed Sinclair?”
“I didn't kill him! I wouldn't do that to you!”
“No, you just suggested I leave him forever.”
“For your sake!”
“No, for yours. It's hard to pretend to be Miss Goody Goody of the universe if your sister is the queen of the vampires, isn't it?”
“You know what you're doing is wrong.”
“Says the girl with a temper-?powered sword.”
“I don't mean to lose my temper.”
“Did you lose your temper with Sinclair?”
“No!”
“How about Antonia and Garrett? You nearly beat Garrett to death once. Did he piss you off again? Did you dispatch him with your handy-?dandy sword, get rid of Antonia, and then lie yourself black in the face?”
“I don't lie!”
Ah. There we go. Her eyes were shifting from blue to poison green. Her blond hair was growing red streaks. She was losing her temper. She wasn't Laura, daughter of a pastor. She was the Devil's Own, and she was in my kitchen with a weapon that could kill me.
Excellent. “Fess up, Red. What'd you do?”
“I did nothing. Let me go or I'll—”
“Kill me?”
“Let me go,” she hissed. “Let me go or I'll kill you, and never mind if I'm sorry after.”
“Are you really going to stick me with that thing? Kill your only sister? Orphan Babyjon. . . twice in one week?”
'All that and more if you don't let me go now let me go let go of me right now, Vampire Queen, right now!”
“What'd you do, Laura?”
“Let go of me!” she screamed, and behind me, the window over the sink shattered.
“Whoa. New trick. Nice one, devil's daughter. Any other new stuff you want to share with the class?”
She was silent for a long moment, and I suddenly felt silly, hoisting my little sister by the neck a good foot off the ground, trying to avoid the sword pointing at my eye. Was this what happened when things went wrong all at once? You couldn't trust anybody?
“I see what you're doing. It won't work. Put me down, please.”
Her eyes were blue again, the red fading to blond. The sword disappeared in a flash. No, it didn't work. If she had done something, it likely would have come out when she was her other self, her darker self. When she was in a temper, she lost her mind. She wasn't sly, like her mother. Just red-?rage pissed. Too pissed to lie.
But now she was calm again. Careful again. Now she could lie.
I put her down.
“Really, Betsy,” she fumed, straightening out her mussed shirt. “What would Jesus do?”
“Turn you into loaves and fishes?”
“I've had about enough of your blasphemy.” She started for the door, puffing her bangs out of her face as she stomped past me.
“You're a lot more interesting when you're pissed!” I yelled after her.
“Go to hell! And I mean that as a literal invitation.”
“Where do you think I am right now?” I cried, but the slamming of the front door (damn, she must have really booked down that long foyer) was my only answer.
Chapter 27
I didn't want to do it. In fact, I could think of about a thousand things I'd rather do, including having a root canal without anesthesia.
I resisted it as long as I could. Well, I resisted it for about ten minutes after I had the idea. But this could be considered “the beginning.”
It was also right around the time Nick would have realized I was a vampire, and that we had stomped all over his brain with big black boots. But Nick wasn't the only one we'd vampire mojoed and regretted it, after.
One phone call to Tina, who was in the middle of trying to cross the border into Switzerland, was all it took. This was a surprise. Not that she had the info. Frankly, I had no idea Switzerland was anywhere near France.
“Isn't that, like, way farther north? Like by Greenland?”
“My queen, how may I be of service?” Tina replied, sounding harassed.
“I need Jon Delk's home address.”
Long pause.
“Tina? Stupid cell phones. . .”
“My queen, what good would that information do you? As you have promised not to leave the house until I return.”
“Every day is another pint of Sinclair's blood, Tina, assuming he's still alive at all.” I could actually feel her wince through the phone. “Delk's old job was killing vampires, and he hates Sinclair more than anyone I know. It's worth paying a visit to the family farm, don't you think?”
Another pause, this one shorter. Then: “Bring Laura.”
“Sure,” I lied. Damn. I was getting good at lying through my fangs. I'd make it up to Tina once she got back.
“And please call me the minute you find out anything,” Tina was saying. “Or don't find out anything. It's an excellent idea, Majesty. I just wish I was there to run the errand for you.”
“You've got your hands full already, sunshine. Now hit me with the address, please.”
“I've text messaged it to your phone while we've been talking.”
“Sneaky and efficient. That's my girl.”
“Majesty, it's kind of you to pretend I'm actually being of assistance.”
“Stop that,” I ordered. “There's no point in beating yourself up. You had an important job to do, and you did it. Who could have predicted all this?”
“Someone,” she said, “my age with my IQ.”
“Whoever did this took him out from under my nose. Did all this shit right in front of me, and I didn't even notice. Whatever's happened. . . well, it's on me, that's all. Not you.”
“Kind,” she replied, “but untrue. Take all care, Majesty. How I adore thee.”
“What?”
“N-?nothing.”
Awkward!
As we hung up, I found myself wondering about the mysterious Tina. How had she turned into a vampire? Who had done it, and why, and where were they now? I had no answers here, only her unabashed devotion. In fact, the only person I knew less about was my recently vamoosed fiance.
How was it that these two vampires, who seemed to care so much about me, had remained so mysterious about their pasts?
Well, wondering wasn't getting me any closer to finding Sinclair. After some digging (I was always
