I almost got my ass completely fined by the sun. By sunlight.
But sunlight didn't bother me. Not much, anyhow. Sure, I was a little more sensitive to it and it made me feel like taking a nap after being out in it for too long. But this? This wasn't right. To say the very least.
If I'd been out there any longer I had no doubt that it would have killed me.
"Wh… what's a nightwalker?" I asked him.
"Pardon me?"
"Stacy… she mentioned something in passing last night. I didn't even pay any attention to it. But she asked me if I knew what a nightwalker was. She said I should ask you."
He hesitated. "A nightwalker is a type of vampire that existed a long time ago. One that has more of the common, mythic traits associated with vampirism. It is due to this rare form of vampire that we have so many misconceptions about what we truly are. But nightwalkers no longer exist." His expression was unreadable. "What else did she say?"
I thought back to the strange conversation I'd had with her after she told me she knew I was a vampire. I'd assured her that I was nice and normal and not a monster.
And she wanted revenge.
Oh, shit.
"She cursed me, didn't she?" I said. "Maybe to be one of these nightwalker things?"
"I believe she cursed you, but since we don't know that you have any more symptoms, we can't jump to any conclusions. It does seem as though she is drawing on common vampiric myths in whatever she's done to you, though."
"And now I can't go outside." After the blazing heat of the outdoors—and being that it was actually minus-ten Celcius in February that wasn't a good sign at all—what else was wrong with me? "Am I going to be stuck here until the sun goes down?"
I glanced around the room, which now felt like a badly decorated prison cell.
"We must go back to the city."
"You go." My voice was shaky. "I'll stay here."
"No, I won't leave you here like this. We'll return to Toronto and then we'll locate the witch and have her break the curse. It's as simple as that." He sounded so calm and confident that I wanted to believe him.
He stood with his back against the door. He didn't attempt to come any closer to me. I couldn't say that I blamed him much after what had happened last night. Or maybe he was afraid that I'd go supernova and spontaneously combust.
I take it back. This was definitely worse than being turned into a toad.
I sat on the edge of the unmade bed. "But how can I drive back to Toronto with you?
Your car is covered in windows. I'll be like a microwaveable bag of popcorn in there."
He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "It's simple. We will put you in the trunk."
My eyes widened. "Are you serious?"
"No. I was attempting humor again to help lessen the gravity of this situation."
I blinked at him. "Don't quit your day job."
He approached and stroked the side of my face gently. "Don't worry, Sarah. There's a simple answer to this. We'll find the witch. I'm confident that I'll be able to convince her to help."
I felt the weight of those words. Yeah, Thierry had a way of making things happen when he wanted to. Master vampires could be very convincing.
"So that's the plan?" I asked. "Find Stacy? What if you can't find her?"
"I will find her. When we return to the city our first stop will be Barry's. He's lived through a curse before. He may be of assistance to us in this matter."
Thierry made another call on his cell phone, and I called my parents from the motel phone to say good-bye. They were vaguely apologetic for their reaction to Thierry yesterday, feeling that they might have overreacted, but they just wanted me to "be happy." I assured them I was happy, and I said it with as much conviction as I could muster. It seemed to work. Luckily, they didn't ask for us to stop by on our way out of town, which was good because I didn't want to have to tell them that they'd be answering the door to a great big ball of fire.
Half an hour later, Thierry's solution to our trip back to the city arrived. A rented cube van. So, wrapped very tightly in the tacky paisley comforter from the bed, I ran to the back of the van and threw myself inside. The door slammed shut and I was plunged into darkness. I felt the vehicle start moving and I counted down the minutes until we got back to Toronto.
The front door was open and waiting for me at Amy and Barry's place. I could see it from the back of the van.
"As quickly as possible," Thierry said tightly.
With blanket in place I headed with him directly for the door. Amy was there, and she beckoned to me with a wave of her arm. She looked concerned. Possibly because of the ugly stolen comforter I had wrapped around me like a large paisley cocoon. The inside of their house looked so dark, so cool and inviting, that I couldn't wait to get inside. Even under the protection of the comforter, I could feel the sun reaching for me with its fiery fingers of death.
When I reached the doorway I didn't slow down. Which was rather unfortunate because at the threshold it felt as if I'd just walked directly into a plate-glass window. I slammed into the barrier and fell backward. Thierry caught me before I hit the ground.
"What the hell?" I said out loud, feeling bruised and shaken, not to mention charbroiled.
Barry appeared next to his wife. He was a full foot shorter than her and Amy wasn't exactly an Amazon. He wore a small blue business suit and had his arms crossed and he studied me for a moment.
I was getting warmer in my cocoon by the second.
"Yes, it does appear to be some sort of curse," he said.
And then he smiled at me. Smiled! At me!
That little rat bastard. From almost the moment we met he'd rubbed me the wrong way.
They always talk about love at first sight. They never mention seething dislike at first sight. I'd tried to like him. Really, I had. And the fact that my best friend had fallen head-over-four-inch-heels for the creep, been sired into a life of fangs and immortality, and married him within a couple of days of meeting him didn't exactly help the situation.
He seethingly disliked me, too. Something to do with me corrupting Thierry and making life more difficult for everyone involved.
Whatever.
I forced myself not to panic. "I can't come inside. What am I supposed to do now?"
Amy was wringing her hands together. "I'll go get the fire extinguisher. Just in case!"
"No, that won't be necessary." Barry sighed. "I invite you into my home, Sarah Dearly."
I glanced at Thierry. His expression was tight and he nodded.
I tried walking through the open door again, braced for any resistance, but there was none. Thierry closed the door behind me.