He started working on her bindings. "I should get you to a hospital."
"After we find Malcolm."
He stopped untying her and straightened up, giving her a grim look. "Faker."
"I wasn't faking. Untie me."
"I'm not just anybody you can play to get what you want, Janie."
"If you don't untie me, I'm going to start to scream."
"Go ahead." He pulled a cell phone—hercell phone—out of his pocket. "Now, let's start again. What's
Lenny's number?"
She glared at him, but he just looked back at her expectantly with his finger on the number pad.
"It's on speed dial,Braniac ."
He pressed a few buttons, then took the phone to Janie and held it to her ear.
Lenny answered after three rings.
"Janie? Is that you?"
"Yeah, it's me."
"Everything okay?"
"Best day of my life."
"What's the word?"
She glared up at Quinn. "The word is that you can let Barkley go now."
"Let him go? So you have the Eye?"
"Not yet."
"And you want me to let him go?"
"That's what I said."
"He's been sleeping for an hour. He's just waking up now. Turned back into human form. If you ask me,
looks like he can't control his lycanthropy."
"I don't really care. Let him go."
"If you say so."
"I do." She glanced at Quinn, who nodded.
"What about the Eye?"
"Forget it. It's gone." Her voice cracked on the words. "I don't know if it's even retrievable anymore."
"What?" he exclaimed. "The Boss is going to be furious."
"Yeah. I know. I'll take the blame."
"He'll hurt you if you take the blame." He paused and let out a long breath. "There's got to be a solution."
"Where are you?" she asked.
"InPhoenix . There's a motel here called theSleepytime Inn. I'm in room three."
"I'll meet you there later."
She nodded at Quinn that the call was over. He closed the phone and put it to the side. She shut her eyes and tried to think. The ropes burned, and she was now in an even fouler mood than before. The moment Quinn let her go, she was going to stake him with the nearest piece of sharp wood she could find. She didn't even care if it was imitation. He was so dead.
Quinn studied Janie. Her eyes were closed, and she didn't look happy. But at least she looked alive.
She'd never have any idea how damn close she'd come to being his first official snack as a vampire.
He felt a twinge of pain in the pit of his stomach, and it took him back to the day he was changed nearly two months ago. He'd been bled nearly dry and contaminated with the venom in a vampire's fangs that will change one from human to vampire. The shorter the bite, the less venom is passed. The longer the bite, the more blood that's drained—well, it made a sick, twisted kind of sense. He'd been infected with vampirism. Typically the vampire "sire" would then give the fledgling some of his or her own blood to counterbalance the venom. Live through that andwhammo , welcome toVampireCity . Don't get enough blood or get none at all, as was his case, and you will die a slow and painful death.
The stomach cramps were the first sign. Then the pain crawled through the rest of your body until you could barely function. Your only thought then is to drink blood. From anywhere or anybody. And it didn't really matter how you got it.
At the time he'd gone in search of his hunter friends. He'd wanted to die, because becoming the thing he'd always hunted, the thing he'd always assumed was evil, was worse to him than being dead. But then he'd run into Sarah, the same woman he'd tried to kill twice, and she wouldn't let him die. She'd dragged him, literally, to see her boyfriend whose blood was strong enough to get him through to the next day and beyond. It had been so strong that he'd gotten a fast-forward on many vampire traits. He'd lost his reflection quicker than normal. He needed less blood on a daily basis than a fledgling who would have ingested normal strength blood. His fangs grew almost immediately. He also knew he had the master vampire to thank for his increased strength. All these things could take months, if not years, for the regular, run-of-the-mill vamp to experience.
Yeah, he was so lucky. Right.
The ache in his stomach left as soon as it had arrived, and he decided to ignore it for a while longer. He didn't feel so hot, though. He hated to admit it, but he'd have to seek out a vampire bar soon. He couldn't go much longer without some of the red stuff.
Just the thought of it made his mouth water. How could he be so disgusted and so hungered by the same thing?
The screwed-up dichotomy of his life.
Ever since being turned, he'd felt like a freak of nature. Those hunters back at the Burger King the other night had thought him just another bloodsucking freak.
He had to agree with them on that point.
And that's what he saw when he looked into Janie's eyes. She hated what he was. And he didn't blame her in the least.
He'd thought Janie was just a bitch. A bitch with a wicked body and a mouth he wanted to explore intimately. He'd thought she was cold as ice and willing to kill at the drop of a hat for whoever paid her the biggest dollar.