She turned away, but he grabbed her arm. He had to stop her—to convince her to say nothing. His secret couldn't be revealed. "Please, Elizabeth. Listen to me—"
She wrenched away from him, then turned and ran out of the room and down the stairs of the inn. Thierry thundered after her. She opened the front doors and ran out onto the street—Where there were five hunters waiting. Thierry halted his steps and watched in horror as they grabbed her, pulling back her lips to see her fangs.
"Our information was half right about this place, but it's a female not a male. She is one of the monsters."
The others roared their appreciation before a stake was plunged into the beautiful actress's heart. She hadn't even made a sound of protest. She'd already been weakened by loss of blood and was too stunned by the sight of the hunters to scream.
Thierry's knees gave out and he collapsed, shaking, to the ground.
It was his fault. The death of his friend's wife was on his hands.
All his fault.
He felt certain as he stared out at her body, lying in the middle of the street as the hunters departed, that he would never recover from this.
The Red Devil died that day as well.
In the park, after the Red Devil had disappeared, Thierry grabbed my hand and practically dragged me back to Haven.
"We must talk," he said. He didn't sound happy.
We entered the club and I glanced at George, Amy, and Barry, who all took a step back from us as we passed them on the way to Thierry's office. Even the patrons in the club glanced up in our direction with wariness in their gazes. Butch sat at a table holding a wet cloth up to his head.
I was a jumble of emotions, but the slamming of the office door helped me snap back to the present. I looked up. Thierry's gaze was filled with anger.
"Why would you go out there all alone? After everything that has happened to you? You could have been killed."
I crossed my arms. "George was with me."
"You'll excuse me if that does not fill me with confidence." His expression slowly began to soften a little around the edges. "Sarah, why must you continually tempt fate?"
I blinked back tears. "I had to meet Stacy. I had no other choice."
"There are always other choices."
"She called and I met her to apologize. She's thinking about breaking the curse, but it doesn't sound all that positive."
He was silent for a moment. "I'm very sorry."
"She confirmed that the curse was to make me into a nightwalker."
His expression was grim. "Yes, I have suspected that for some time now."
I felt so frustrated that I wanted to scream. "Are you going to kill me if I don't get cured from this?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Stacy told me that there used to be a bunch of night-walkers and you helped the hunters kill them all. Is that the truth?" It sounded so horrible as I said it I almost wanted to take it back. Why would I believe anything that witch told me?
"You aren't truly a nightwalker" he said simply and quietly.
"I have the symptoms."
"It doesn't matter. You are currently cursed. That is all. It doesn't change you from who you were originally."
"So are you trying to say that she was lying about the nightwalkers?"
"The nightwalkers were indiscriminate killers," Thierry said. "Focused on feeding and violence. They were an unfortunate by-product of vampirism—a rare mutation of the vampire virus that fortunately no longer exists. There weren't that many with this affliction. A few hundred at the most."
"The Red Devil told me that they had objects to make them able to go out during the day."
"The Red Devil told you that, did he?" There was a borderline mocking tone to Thierry's words I didn't particularly care for. "Then it must be the truth. He seems very trustworthy for you to be meeting him in parks without my knowledge."
"I didn't meet him there. He just showed up."
"He is an impostor." His expression darkened.
"You're right."
His eyebrows went up. "You're agreeing with me? This is a switch."
I crossed my arms. "He's human. I could tell when I got close enough."
"Human?" He seemed surprised. "I didn't expect that. But I do know that he's dangerous.
Did he give you any indication what his plans include?"
"No."
"So he told you about this object a nightwalker can use."
"Maybe he was making it up." I absently touched my neck.
Thierry glanced at my throat, at the marks his fangs had left behind when we were literally necking earlier. "It's dangerous to be alone like this. For you."
"I'm feeling okay at the moment. The shots I did earlier must have helped with my… my hunger."
"I will be very careful and constantly vigilant of my own… hungers." His jaw was tight.
"The last thing I want to do is hurt you, Sarah."
"I know that."
"And you have no reason to fear that I would eliminate you because of these symptoms you now display. I don't look at you as a nightwalker. I am not proud of what I had to do in the past to get rid of the threat. Nightwalkers are mostly to blame for vampires' being considered monsters by hunters and humans alike. Of course there are vampires who are evil due to their destructive nature, but they have made the choice to be that way. The nightwalkers were all evil. I saw what they were capable of with my own eyes, Sarah. It was horrific."
"So you did what you did to save other people."