The music and laughter behind me subsided into an icy silence broken by twin steps crunching on grainy snow and the chiming of a car. 'Do you want me to call someone?' I heard a man ask as an uncomfortably cold draft made me shiver.
'No. I think all she needs is some air. If she isn't right by the time we get there, I'll call Ivy.'
'Well, take it easy, boss,' the first voice said.
I felt a drop, and then the cold of a leather seat pressed against my cheek. Sighing, I snuggled deeper under the blanket that smelled of Kisten and leather. My fingers were humming, and I could hear my heartbeat and feel my blood moving. Even the thump of the door closing did nothing to stir me. The sudden roar of the engine was soothing, and as the car's motion pushed me into oblivion, I could have sworn I heard monks singing.
Twelve
The familiar rumble of driving over railroad tracks woke me, and my hand shot out to grab the handle before the door could jiggle open. My eyelids flashed apart when my knuckles smacked into the unfamiliar door. Oh yeah. I wasn't in Nick's truck; I was in Kisten's Corvette.
I froze, slumped and staring at the door with Kisten's leather coat draped over me like a blanket. Kisten took a slow breath, and the volume of the music dropped. He knew I was awake. My face warmed, and I wished I could pretend I was still passed out.
Depressed, I sat up and put Kisten's long coat on the best I could in the tight confines of the car. I wouldn't look at him, gazing out the window to try to place where in the Hollows we were. The streets were busy, and the clock on the dash said it was nearing two. I had passed out like a drunk in front of a fair slice of Cincinnati's upper-middle-class vampires, high on their pheromones. They must have thought I was a weak-willed, skinny witch who couldn't hold her own.
Kisten shifted in his seat as he eased to a halt at a light. 'Welcome back,' he said softly.
Lips pressed tight, I subtly felt my neck to make sure everything was the way I'd left it. 'How long was I out?' I asked. This is going to do wonders for my reputation.
Kisten moved the gearshift out and back into first. 'You didn't pass out. You fell asleep.' The light changed and he inched up on the car in front of us to bully it into moving. 'Passing out implies a lack of restraint. Falling asleep is what you do when you're tired.' He glanced at me as we went through the intersection. 'Everyone gets tired.'
'No one falls asleep in a dance club,' I said. 'I passed out.' My mind sifted through the memories, clear as holy water instead of mercifully blurred, and my face flamed. Sugared, he had called it. I had been blood-sugared. I wanted to go home. I wanted to go home, crawl into the priest hole the pixies had found in the belfry stairway, and just die.
Kisten was silent, the tensing of his body while he drove telling me he was going to say something as soon as he double-checked it against his patronizing meter. 'I'm sorry,' he said, surprising me, but the admission of guilt fed my anger instead of pacifying it. 'I was an ass for taking you into Piscary's before finding out if witches could get blood-sugared. It never occurred to me.' His jaw clenched. 'And it's not as bad as you think.'
'Yeah, right,' I muttered, hand searching under the seat until I found my clasp purse. 'I bet it's halfway across the city by now. 'Hey, anybody want to go over to Morgan's tonight and watch her get sugared? All it takes is enough of us having fun and down she goes! Whoo hoo!' '
Kisten's attention was riveted on the road. 'It wasn't like that. And there were over two hundred vamps in there, a good portion undead.'
'And that's supposed to make me feel better?'
Motions stiff, he pulled his phone from a pocket, punched a button, and handed it to me.
'Yeah?' I questioned into the phone, almost snarling. 'Who is this?'
'Rachel? God, are you okay? I swear I'll kill him for taking you into Piscary's. He said you got sugared. Did he bite you?'
'Ivy!' I stammered, then glared at Kisten. 'You told Ivy? Thanks a hell of a lot. Want to call my mom next?'
'Like Ivy wouldn't find out?' he said. 'I wanted her to hear it from me. And I was worried about you,' he added, stopping my next outburst.
'Did he bite you!' Ivy said, jerking my attention from his last words. 'Did he?'
I turned back to the phone. 'No,' I said, feeling my neck. Though I don't know why. I was such an idiot.
'Come home,' she said, and my anger shifted to rebellion. 'If someone bit you, I could tell. Come home so I can smell you.'
A sound of disgust came from me. 'I'm not coming home so you can smell me! Everyone there was really nice about it. And it felt good to let go for five stinking minutes.' I scowled at Kisten, seeing why he had given me Ivy to talk to. The manipulative bastard smiled. How could I stay angry with him when I was defending him?
'You got blood-sugared in five minutes?' Ivy sounded horrified.
'Yeah,' I said dryly. 'Maybe you ought to try it. Go sit and soak up the pheromones at Piscary's. They might not let you in, though. You might kill everyone else's buzz.'
Her breath caught, and I immediately wished I could take it back. Shit. 'Ivy…I'm sorry,' I said quickly. 'I shouldn't have said that.'
'Let me talk to Kisten,' came her soft voice.
I licked my lips, feeling like dirt. 'Sure.'
Fingers cold, I handed the phone to him. His unreadable eyes met mine for a flash. He listened for a moment, muttered something I didn't catch, then ended the call. I watched him for any hint of his mood as he tucked the little silver phone away behind his wool coat.
'Blood-sugared?' I questioned, thinking I ought to know what happened. 'You want to tell me what that is exactly?'
His hands shifted on the wheel and he took a more relaxed position. The come-and-go flashes from the streetlights made eerie shadows on him. 'It's a mild depressant,' he said, 'that vampires kick out when they're sated and relaxed. Sort of like an afterglow? It came as a surprise the first time a few of the newest undead got sugared shortly after Piscary's went to an all-vamp clientele. It did them a world of good, so I took out the tables upstairs and put in a light show and DJ. Made it into a dance club. Everyone got sugared after that.'
He hesitated as we made a sharp turn into an enormous parking lot down by the riverfront. Piles of snow rose six feet up at the edges. 'It's a natural high,' he said as he down-shifted and drove slowly to the small cluster of cars parked by a large brightly lit boat at the dock. 'Legal, too. Everyone likes it, and they've started self-policing themselves, kicking out anyone who comes in looking for a quick bleed and protecting the ones who come in hurting and fall asleep like you did. It's making a difference, too. Go ask that FIB captain of yours. Violent crimes being perpetrated by single young vamps have dropped.'
'No kidding,' I said, thinking it sounded like an informal vampire support group. Maybe Ivy should go. Nah. She'd ruin it for everyone else.
'You wouldn't have been so receptive if you hadn't needed it so much,' he said, parking at the outskirts.
'Oh, so it is my fault,' I said dryly.
'Don't,' he said, his words harsh as he yanked the parking brake up. 'I let you yell at me once already tonight. Don't try to flip this back on me. The more you need it, the harder it hits you is all. That's why no one thought anything less of you—and maybe they think a little more.'
Taken aback, I made an apologetic face. 'Sorry.' I kinda liked that he was too smart to be manipulated by wicked female logic. It made things more interesting. Slowly he relaxed, turning off the heater and the softly playing disc.
'You were hurting inside,' he said as he took the singing monk CD out and put it in its case. 'From Nick. I've watched you hurt since you drew on that line through him and he got scared. And they got a kick out of seeing you unwind.' He smiled with a distant look. 'It made them feel good that the big bad witch who beat up Piscary trusted them. Trust is a feeling we don't get very often, Rachel. Living vampires lust after it almost as much as blood. That's why Ivy is ready to kill anyone who threatens your friendship with her.'
