He grinned. “Bring it.”
He looked so smug, so sure I couldn’t do anything to hurt him that it bugged me enough to give me the gumption to approach him again. I curled my right hand into a fist and punched him in his left shoulder.
I frowned. “You didn’t even defend yourself.”
He laughed. “Against that? I’m not teaching self-defense against puppies today. You’re going to have to hit me harder than that.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
He laughed harder. “Don’t worry, you won’t.”
I threw another punch and he caught it in his hand, then twisted my arm around against my back.
“See? Easy as that,” he said into my ear.
“But I have yet to unveil the wrath of Sarah. You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
He let go of me. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen the wrath of Sarah. You’re way too easygoing. Even with all the trouble you’ve currently gotten yourself into. At least that’s how you appear.”
“Appearances are highly deceiving,” I told him. “I am very stressed out right now. I just have a talent for hiding it. You obviously don’t know me very well.”
“Oh, I think I know you better than you might think.”
I put my hands on my hips. “Is that so?”
“Yeah, that’s so.”
“Like what? Name something you know about me.”
He studied me for a moment. “You can forgive really stupid mistakes.”
“For example?”
“Me being a vampire hunter when we first met. Trying to kill you.” His expression grew serious. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am about that. I . . . I was a different person back then.”
I shook my head. “You weren’t different. You were you, only a little less educated in the way things actually are.”
“That’s a nice way to put that I was a complete idiot.” He pulled a chair out and sat down heavily.
“What am I going to do to make up for all the things I was responsible for?”
“You just need to put it behind you.”
He looked up at me, his eyes moist. “I don’t even understand how I could do it. Looking back, I see that it was wrong. But I truly believed . . . I believed that I was doing the right thing.”
I went to the fridge and grabbed a couple more beers and brought them out. I put a hand on Quinn’s shoulder. “Look, the way I figure it you have two choices. You can either dwell on the shitty past you’ve had and you can pretty much curl up and die, or you can move on with your life.”
“Is there a third choice?”
I twisted the cap off my beer and took a sip. “Yeah, you can get off your lazy ex-hunter ass and show me how to beat your old friends up.”
He laughed. “So you’re saying I should just forget about my past.”
“No, I’m not saying that at all. You were a hunter. Now you see that you were wrong. You have a chance to make a difference because your view on the subject is clearer than anybody else’s could ever be. I have total faith that you’re going to find the vamp responsible for the murders. There’s no doubt in my mind about that. And no, you can’t take back what you did . . . I’m not even saying that you should try to. Just use the rest of your life in a way that is positive.” I stopped talking for a moment. “Do I sound a little bit like Anthony Robbins?”
“A little bit.”
I shrugged. “I guess I must have bought some positive pants yesterday during my shopping spree.”
“They suit you.”
“Yeah. Well, I guess when the night is at its darkest, the sun starts to rise.” I blinked. “Somebody stop me.”
He eyed my neck. “So are you going to tell me what happened to your neck or should I just go ahead and guess?”
I touched the offending mark. “It was an accident.”
“An accident,” he repeated. “You just fell on his fangs, did you?”
“Don’t you read romance novels? Biting is a sign of true love.”
He shook his head. “What do you see in that guy?”
The question took me by surprise. “What?”
He stood up. “Thierry. What do you see in him, anyhow? I don’t get it. Where is he? Why isn’t he here right now? He should be teaching you how to look after yourself, not me.”
“He’s busy.”
“Yeah, he’s busy.” He shook his head. “Even without my suspicions, that guy is a self-righteous,
overbearing, pompous dickhead.”
I felt myself tense up. “You don’t know him.”
“And you do? Don’t tell me that the two of you have a damn thing in common.”
“We both enjoyAmerican Idol . The man is a serious Clay Aiken fan.”
He snorted. “I think I get it. You justthink you’re in love with him. He’s this dark alpha jerk with his black cape and mysterious past. A romantic fantasy that you’ve convinced yourself is real.”
“Alpha jerk?”
He swore under his breath. “You think you’re supposed to fall for the tortured guy who lives in the shadows. But you’ve been with him for two months now, Sarah, has he come out of the shadows for you yet?”
“Quinn, I don’t want to talk about this.”