“What happened with Gideon?” His voice was tense. “Did he hurt you?”
“You know, it’s funny. He’s never laid a finger on me. Well, not in the way you might think.”
“What does that mean?”
“He wanted some of my blood tonight. Thought it would ease his pain. I gave it to him.”
His eyes narrowed. “And did it work?”
“Surprisingly, yes.”
“And then what did he do? Threaten you further? Remind you of his power over you right now?”
“Not so much.” I shrugged. “Then, if you really want to know, he kissed me.”
“He did what?”
The sharp, louder reply took me by surprise, and I glanced at the man who stood in the shadows. I had no idea why I was sharing all this with him. Call it cheap therapy. “What can I say? I guess I’m irresistible when I’m bleeding.”
He swore under his breath. “Perhaps I’ll kill him right now.”
I looked at him strangely. “What do you care what happened? He didn’t hurt me.”
“You…” He cut off whatever he was about to say. “It sounds as if you’re defending his actions. I thought that you were distraught over what happened, but now I’m sensing that you might not mind such attention.”
“You’re sensing that, are you?” I said dryly.
“Maybe you enjoyed it.”
I glared at him. “Maybe I did. And maybe that’s why I’m upset.”
“Interesting.” The word was very cold.
“Glad you think so.”
“I have heard that you like receiving the romantic attentions of handsome vampire hunters.”
My face burned at that. “You heard that, did you? Gee, I wonder where?”
“To me, that seems a bit… what is the word?”
“Stupid?” I finished for him. “I believe you called me that the other night in the alley. You were right then and you’re probably very right now.”
His lips curved. “I think I prefer the term ‘naïve.’ ”
“Thank you for your opinion.”
His gaze fixed on me so intently that I felt scorched by it. “Do you think Gideon is another hunter you can help redeem?”
“You never know.”
He shook his head. “As I said… naïve. And entirely self-absorbed. You have a hard time seeing this situation objectively.”
I glared at this mask-wearing man, my anxiety from before now nicely replaced by a swell of anger. “For your information, Gideon actually wants to kill you, now that you’ve popped up again after a century of being who-knows-where. He wants me to lead him to you in return for a grimoire that will help break my curse. But I haven’t told him anything about you.”
“You don’t know anything about me other than the fact I’m here to protect someone who seems to actively shun any potential protection.”
I deflated a bit at that. “I’m sorry. I know you’re trying to help, really. If it wasn’t for you, I would have hurt that fledgling the other night in the alley—maybe even killed her.”
“Nothing happened.”
“Only thanks to you.” I crossed my arms over my chest, feeling exposed by my multitude of weaknesses and mistakes. It was time for me to head back home to George’s and chalk this day up as another craptastic one. I touched my gold chain. “I’m worried I’m not going to find a way to get rid of my curse. And one day I’ll lose control and end up really hurting someone if there’s no one there to stop me. And now Gideon seems to hold my only answer.”
He was silent for a moment. “There are ways to find the strength to fight back against the thirst.”
I raised my eyebrows. “You sound like you speak from personal experience.”
He turned away and I thought that was it, he’d just vanish into the darkness. But he stopped. “I believe there is great strength inside you, Sarah. You simply need to believe that as well.”
There was something about the way he said my name—something in the quiet rasp of his voice that suddenly struck an odd sense of familiarity inside of me.
I moved toward him just as he was about to walk away and grabbed his arm. “Hey, wait a minute—”
He turned slightly. For a split second I could see his face up close, aside from the mask.
His mouth, his chin and jaw line, and his eyes. I was now close enough to also catch the briefest scent of his spicy and strangely familiar cologne.
“Go home,” he said roughly, and then he quickly walked away from me.
I’d been walking around in a fog with blinders on the other two times I’d seen him. Even tonight I’d been too preoccupied by what had happened with Gideon to really register anything specific. He’d tried to stay just out of sight. He’d tried to disguise his voice around me.
I figured that was just part of the mysterious Red Devil deal. But it wasn’t. Not completely. He was doing it so I wouldn’t figure out who he really was.
But now I knew. The truth of who the Red Devil actually was suddenly hit me in the face like a tidal wave.
It was Thierry.
H oly mother of crap.
Thierry was the Red Devil.
In a daze, I made my way back to George’s, let myself in, and shakily fired up the Internet.
I had an unreliable old laptop Amy had lent me and I must admit that the wireless connection was borrowed from the neighbors—“stolen” is such an unpleasant term, isn’t it?—but it worked and I had to do some research. Every minute I was away from the Red
Devil I questioned what I’d seen. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I’d dropped some LSD and not realized it. Maybe I was tired, or projecting… or completely insane. I had been feeling more than my share of loopy after seeing Gideon, after all.