I swore, if I got out of this in one piece, I was only wearing Nikes on my feet from now on. Sensible footwear was my promise to the powers that be. I hung a left. Directly in front of me was a set of revolving doors leading to the lower level of a downtown business tower. I swung through them and then grabbed the door to stop it in midmotion. I’d planned it just right. Quinn didn’t have a chance to stop and whacked his face against the clean glass, falling backward with a surprised yelp.
He yelled my name as if that would be enough to slow me down. I didn’t even pause. I passed through another set of doors. Unfortunately, this time they weren’t the revolving kind. The tunnels went on and on, and most looked exactly the same. I was near the exit to Dundas Street now. I passed a store that had a really nice dress on a mannequin in the front window. I instinctively made a mental note of where I saw it and kept running. I could hear Quinn behind me, getting even closer. His breathing was labored. I sneaked a quick peek behind me and almost panicked when I saw the stake in his right hand. He wasn’t playing around. If he caught up to me, he would kill me, no doubt about it. The hallway coming up on my left had a sign reading UNDER CONSTRUCTION. I hurdled over the hazard tape and immediately regretted it. Only twenty feet ahead the hall was blocked off. Dead end. Well, what the hell had I thought “under construction” meant?
I ran as far as I could.
Quinn appeared as he turned the corner. He looked straight at me, panting hard, and shook his head.
“Nice try.”
Surprisingly enough, I wasn’t winded at all. Physical endurance. Mark that down as another perk to being a vampire. Unfortunately, since I was about to die, it didn’t really matter.
“Why don’t we go grab a coffee and talk about this?” I said. “My treat.”
“I like that you never give up. I almost wish I could say yes.”
He was still moving toward me and made no move to put the stake away.
“Forget coffee.” I felt myself start to panic again. I had to keep him talking. “Let’s have a few more tequilas. We were having such a good time last night, weren’t we?”
He paused. “Yeah, we were.”
“We had a connection, don’t you think?” I tried to keep eye contact with him, but that stake in his hand was extremely distracting.
“Are you saying that we should put aside our differences and be friends?”
I nodded crazily. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“Tempting,” he said slowly. “But no. I know what I have to do here, whether I want to or not. Sorry, but it’s time to say good-bye.”
I pressed up against the wall and let out a short, frightened scream. He took another step closer to me and raised the stake. I looked into his blue eyes. He didn’t look maniacal like White-teeth had. Quinn was taking no pleasure from this. He felt like it was his duty. His job. Clean up the garbage, no matter how bad it stank. I didn’t like being compared to garbage, but then again, it was my own analogy.
I stared at him with wide eyes. “Don’t do this.”
“I’m sorry, Sarah.”
A dark shape tackled Quinn from the side. He went down hard, and the stake clattered away from him. I gasped. What the hell just happened?
Somebody had Quinn pinned down on the floor, raising his arms above his head and straddling his body. The man turned to look at me. He was middle-aged with a beer belly and a full beard. He wore an expensive-looking dark gray business suit.
“Are you okay?” he asked me.
I struggled to find my voice. “Barely.”
“You’re lucky we were nearby.”
Quinn fought against the man, but the impact with the floor had knocked the wind out of him. “Let me up. This is no concern of yours.”
The man glared down at him. “It’s definitely my concern when someone messes with the master’s new girlfriend.”
The master’s new what?
Another man came running around the corner. “Dan! There you are. What the hell happened?”
Just what I was wondering.
Dan stopped Quinn’s struggles with a quick bash of the back of his head against the hard floor.
“Vampire killer,” Dan told him. “Picking on a fledgling in the middle of a Saturday afternoon. No damn respect.”
“Monsters,” Quinn moaned. “You’re all monsters.”
“Actually, I’m a lawyer,” Dan said. “So I’ve been called worse.”
I was surprised. “Oh? You’re not a vampire?”
Dan glanced up at me. “Yeah, I’m a vampire, too. But being a lawyer pays the bills. Can’t let all that schooling go to waste, after all.”
Dan’s friend came closer. He touched my arm and I flinched.
“You sure you’re okay?”
“I will be. Eventually, anyhow.” I nodded down at Quinn. “What are you going to do with him?”
“Don’t worry yourself about that.”
The way he said it was filled with menace. “Don’t worry yourself about that” translated into “we’re going to chop him into tiny red pieces and flush him down the nearest toilet.” But maybe that was just my interpretation. I hoped so, anyhow. I looked at the friend. He flashed his sharp fangs at me in what he probably thought passed for a friendly smile. The fangs seemed longer than they had a moment ago. “Yeah, you’d better be on your way now, sweetheart.”
My stomach sank. Shit. They were going to kill him. I wanted to feel nothing. After all, Quinn had tried to kill me twice, and I didn’t even want to know what other damage he’d done since arriving in Toronto. But I guess that’s what separated us. Even after what he’d tried to do to me, I didn’t want him to get hurt. I just wanted him to leave me alone.
“This should send the hunters a clear message.” Dan was talking to Quinn. “You and your friends hunted down my wife last week. We were newlyweds.”
“Tough shit,” Quinn spat. “I’m sure the bitch deserved it.”
A deep growl emanated from Dan’s throat.
I felt sick. I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to help Quinn. But even if I did, then what? Could I fool myself into believing that he’d forgive me for what he saw as an obvious tragic flaw? No. He’d just try to kill me again. He seemed the stubborn type. Dan’s friend got down on his knees beside the other vampire, grabbed the top of Quinn’s head, and twisted it so his neck was fully exposed. Then I heard it—the sound that wound haunt me. The sound of fangs sinking into soft flesh and tissue. The sound of Quinn’s short scream of pain and terror. I clasped my hand to my mouth. Why hadn’t he begged for his life? Why did he have to taunt them, rub in the fact that he was directly or indirectly responsible for whatever had happened to Dan’s wife?
Dan looked up at me. His eyes were so dark they seemed fully black. His lips were curled back over his fangs. His mouth was bloody. I took a shaky step backward.
“Get lost,” he said and then turned back to Quinn.
Not thinking anymore, I turned and ran away from them. Out of the hallway that was under construction. Away, far away from what I’d just witnessed. I wanted to block it out of my mind. Forget what I’d seen, but it was burned into my brain like a horrific Polaroid photo.
Pushing the door to the nearest public washroom open, I ran to a stall and tried to throw up, but there was nothing in my stomach to purge. I was empty.
I went to the faucet and splashed cold water on my face, then looked up into the large mirror. There was something in my eyes—a wildness, a deep fear—I’d never seen before, and I didn’t like it at all. And there was something else, something not right about my reflection. I stared for a couple of moments until I figured out what it was. The door to the stall directly behind me. I could see it. I blinked and focused. Yes. Ever so slightly, I was able to see through my reflection to what was behind me. Even the graffiti on the door: “Joanna loves Tony.” My stomach sank even farther. But that wasn’t supposed to happen yet. Not yet. I still had a reflection, but it had already started to fade.