"Now take your little buddy and get the hell out of here."
Joe was beginning to gain consciousness. Stuart grabbed his shirt, and the two of them staggered away.
Quickly.
Very quickly.
Quinn watched them run.
Amateurs. Could spot them from a mile away.
"Holy shit, Quinn," a voice said from his right. "I thought you were going to wait in the car."
He looked over. Matthew Barkley had emerged from the restaurant carrying a large bag filled with fast food. Quinn breathed in and with his newly heightened vampires senses could immediately tell it was two
Whoppers with cheese and an order of fries. The smell of solid food made him feel a little queasy. Some vamps, like the two he'd saved, could still eat solid food. Unfortunately, he wasn't one of them.
"I needed to stretch my legs," he said.
"Were those hunters?"
"They were trying to be."
"You kicked their asses?"
Quinn shrugged.
"Nice." Barkley nodded. "Good to see you're not a big fan of your old buddies. I guess that makes total sense."
The vampires approached.
"Thank you so much for saving us!" the female said. "We didn't know what to do. How can we ever thank you?"
Quinn didn't look at them. "You can start by staying the hell away from me."
"But we—"
"Go away," Quinn snarled.
They glanced at each other and then turned and ran in the opposite direction from the hunters.
Barkley had started to eat one of his Whoppers. He chewed thoughtfully and swallowed before speaking. "And you don't like vamps, either. That actually doesn't make sense. You're okay with werewolves, though, right?"
"Don't worry, I'm not going to run you off, too."
"Good to know. You ready to leave, or what? We need to put in a couple hundred more miles before we can grab some sleep."
Quinn's heart was beating hard in his chest. He felt a little ill, actually. Cold and clammy. "I need a minute. I'll be right back."
"I'll be in the car. Eating a great deal of food."
Quinn made his way to the public washroom in the restaurant to splash some cold water on his face. He clutched the side of the sink until his knuckles whitened.
Keep it together, he told himself.
Christ. Two months as a vampire and it wasn't getting any easier. When was it going to get easier?
Soon. Very soon.
He touched his pocket to feel the reassuring outline of the letter and immediately felt his heartbeat come back down to the normal rate for a thirty-year-old freshly made vamp.The letter . The only thing from his father's many possessions that he'd cared about after the old man died.
The letter was going to lead him directly to his answer.
Solve all of his problems.
He had to be patient. Just a little while longer.
As far as he was aware, nobody alive knew about it. Not one soul. His father had spent a good part of his adult life—the part that wasn't concerned with hunting down and killing vampires—in his search for the Eye . Quinn thought he knew why his father had never been able to find it. The timing was all wrong.
But now it was right. And the Eye would be Quinn's.
Then none of this would matter anymore. He could fix this mess he'd gotten himself into, once and for all.
He looked up into the mirror, which reflected nothing but the washroom behind him. When he bared his teeth, he couldn't even see the fangs he knew were there.
With one smash of his fist, he shattered the mirror.
The door opened. A young kid in a Burger King uniform poked his head in. "Everything okay in here, mister?"
Quinn growled at him.
The kid gave an uneasy smile as he assessed the damage. "Never mind." The door closed.
Quinn took a deep breath and closed his tired eyes.
Not much longer and he wouldn't have to be a monster anymore.
Janie Parker was going to die.
Accepting it, she thought,really is half the battle .
Also, drinking four vodka martinis before it's going to happen helps. A bit.
"He'll see you now," a voice announced.
She nodded. Okay. Show time.