The light from the candle flickered against his face. “When I eradicate the curse, you won’t be a vampire anymore.”
Okay. I guess that’s exactly what he was saying.
My cure. This was it.
Holy crap.
In the beginning, adjusting to vampire life was so traumatic for me that I’d latched on to the rumor that there was a cure. The journey had led me to a whole heap of trouble, but didn’t result in anything but disappointment when I learned there was no real cure for vampirism. Once you were infected, that’s just the way it was.
Forever fanged.
But this wasn’t a cure. It was an eradication. A completely clean slate, an erasing of everything that had happened to me. Along with getting rid of my curse, I would become human again.
No more worrying about getting staked by an overzealous hunter. No more pointy teeth.
No more drinking blood to survive.
I’d get my reflection back. I could eat solid food. I’d have the chance to live a normal life and not need to fret about finding a vampires-only club to hang out at that served my favorite blood type.
“This is great, Sarah,” George said. “I know it’s what you’ve wanted all along.”
Of course it was.
This was seriously too good to be true. Which meant only one thing.
“What’s the catch?” I asked.
The Darkness’s eyes were still closed. “The catch?”
“I go through with this and it removes my curse and my inner vamp.”
“And six months of your life.”
Then it dawned on me. “My memories will be gone, won’t they? Everything that’s happened to me in the past six months.”
“That’s right.”
My heart sank down to my toes. It was one thing to come here looking for the solution for my nightwalker curse. The cure for vampirism was a gift with purchase. But losing my memories of everything that had happened to me as well?
Including everyone I’d met. Everything I’d experienced. Everything that had changed me, for better or worse, into the person I was today?
And aside from that fact, if Gideon found out that I’d played deal or no deal with Goth-
boy to get rid of the part of me that he was counting on to cure his own problems—and I no longer even remembered who he was in the first place…
He probably wouldn’t take that news very well. Call it a hunch.
He wouldn’t be trying to give me jewelry then. He’d be following through with his threats—whether or not I remembered who he was or why he was doing it.
Rock and a hard place. My new sucktastic address.
“Listen… Darkness—”
“It’s The Darkness.”
“Whatever. Can we adjust this? Any way we can just lose the curse, and maybe come back later for the other stuff if I happen to have a change of heart?”
His eyes snapped open. I drew in a breath and grabbed George’s hand when I saw that his eyes, even the whites, were fully dark red. I guess he really was a wizard after all. Normal eyes didn’t do that. Obviously.
“You’re joking, right?” he snapped.
“Uh… no. I’m not.”
“Look, lady, this is a one-shot deal. You pay me, I do the eradication. You leave. Besides, this sort of black magic doesn’t usually work in a browse-now-pay-later way. It’s already assessed you. If you don’t do it now, you’re tainted.”
“Tainted?”
“Yeah. Which means if I try this again, there’s a good chance the demonic power I’m channeling might mess me up. Badly. We’re talking a lobotomy and a whole lot of drooling. Even if you weren’t tainted, my mom and me are moving to Germany and we’re not coming back. I’m just lucky she’s letting me stay to see the Death Suck concert. After that, it’s all over.”
“Maybe you should go for it, Sarah,” George said. “What’s the difference of a few memories for something this major?”
“Speak up soon.” The Darkness’s voice was even less friendly than it had been before.
“Because the moment this candle goes out, the deal is off.”
George squeezed my hand. “You can get rid of your curse. Poof. Gone. That alone is worth it, don’t you think? Don’t you want to forget all this and be normal again?”
He didn’t know the reason I was stalling. He thought the idea of losing my memories was my only reason for hesitating.
Every possible scenario raced through my mind like a bat out of hell. My head ached. I really wished I could think of another solution, but there wasn’t one. Not today. Not tomorrow. Possibly, not ever again.
“I guess normal—” My voice sounded as strained as I felt “—doesn’t live here anymore.”
I blew out the candle.
The Darkness, otherwise known as the Germany-bound Death Suck fanboy Steven
Kendall, pitched a hissy fit when I asked for the thousand-dollar retainer back. We left without it. George pulled his car away from the curb just as the wizard’s mother drove up to the house.
That wasn’t very much fun. To say the least.
I was disappointed. It was as if a piece of chocolate cake—cake that could solve all of my problems—had been dangled deliciously in front of my face a moment before I was reminded I was one of the vampires who couldn’t eat solid food.
Wiping away six months of my memories was a much heavier price than two thousand dollars. At least money could be paid back.
Forget about six months. It was the last three months that had contained some of the worst moments of my life. But they’d also had some of the best.