"Jerry, she's not drinking." Not breathing either. Detached? Who the hell was I kidding? I couldn't just let another human die. Yep, another human. I may be an immortal with a liquid diet, but I'll never accept the fact that I'm not human too, damn it. Unfortunately, I'd made a big deal out of never wanting to turn anyone. So now it was amateur hour. Jeez, sometimes I can be so clueless. I should have at least learned the basics of this thing. In case of emergency. Like now.
"What else can I do?" I blinked back tears and told myself I'd have the meltdown later. The woman's neck was looking good. But with all that blood loss, she was knocking on Heaven's door and the Almighty was just about to roll out the welcome mat. Damn it, I had to save her.
"Force her, Glory. Pry open her lips and drip your blood down her throat. Once she swallows even a bit, she'll start to revive." Jerry's calm voice settled me down a little. Hell, of course he was calm. He wasn't here hip deep in blood with the Grim Reaper staring over his shoulder.
But I knew from experience that vamp blood is powerful stuff. I laid the phone in a dry spot on the concrete and went to work.
"Come on, honey. This is delicious high-octane vampire blood. One sip and your motor will be purring again." I glanced at Valdez. He'd pawed through the contents of her purse and stared down at a New York driver's license. "What's her name, Valdez? Maybe she'll respond to that."
He snorted and looked at me, his dark eyes gleaming in his furry face. "You're not going to believe it, Glory. Her name's Lucky."
Two
"Quit playing, I'm serious." Had she swallowed yet? I stroked her throat, desperate to coax down a drop.
"So am I. See for yourself." He nosed it over to me and I glanced at it. Lucky Carver. Hmm. I'd taken her for midthirties, max, but the DMV put her at close to fifty.
"Come on, Lucky. Live up to your name. Drink and you'll be good as new. No, better." Hey, the truth. Well, in a lot of ways. I pulled open her coat. High quality red cashmere sweater. Her whole outfit cost more than a year's worth of Fangtastic, my blood substitute of choice lately. The woman obviously had her priorities.
"I don't think she's gonna make it." Valdez pushed a tube of mascara across the concrete.
"I started this, I'll damn well finish it." I glanced at my cell phone, sure Jerry could hear me. He probably expected me to wimp out on this turning thing. He knew how against the whole concept I'd been for the last, oh, four centuries. Well, I'd fooled him recently when I'd finally developed some of my vamp powers. If I could pull this off, he'd be blown away. And blowing Jerry (hey, you know what I mean) is one of the things that keeps me going and going and . . .
"Lucky, you've got to drink or you'll miss the shoe sale at Nordstrom's. Boots half price." Aha! Her throat worked against my fingertips. Obviously I'd found the key to her will to live. A sigh, then another swallow until Lucky suddenly latched on to my wrist with both hands, sucking like my blood was liquid Godiva.
"Whoa, lady. Leave me enough to get upstairs, will you?" I pried my wrist from her grip and saw her cheeks had turned pink. Heartbeat had picked up, breathing too. Her eyelids fluttered, then I was staring down into hazel eyes with pretty flecks of gold, tattooed eyeliner setting off long dark lashes.
I could tell the moment the lady snapped to the reality of lying on cold concrete in a pool of her own blood with a dog and a blond, blue-eyed twentysomething hottie (me, of course) staring down at her. I grinned, pretty jazzed that I'd brought her back from the brink. Next thing I knew Lucky had a knife at my throat.
"Hey, I just saved your sorry butt." I used my vamp speed to jump out of reach. "How about a little gratitude, Lucky?"
"I saw your fangs. Listen, you blood-sucking bitch, you shoulda finished what you started because I'll see you staked out at high noon for this." She tried to sit up, then fell back.
" I didn't tear open your throat, lady. Did you hear me? I saved you." Lucky closed her eyes and gripped her knife. I could practically see the wheels turning when her eyes popped open again. "How do you know my name?"
I kicked her driver's license toward her. "I can read. You know, you look really good for a woman your age." Lucky gasped and tears filled her eyes. "You. Saw. My. Age?" She snatched up the license and stuffed it into her bra. "You tell anyone, anyone, and it'll be high noon on an anthill with a honey facial, vampire."
"Leave her here, Glory. Let her see who does what when the sun comes up." Valdez pressed against my leg and growled.
"You should be kissing Glory's feet, lady. You were on a slippery slope toward the hereafter when we found you." Lucky's mouth dropped open. "What kind of paranormal freak show is this? A vampire with a talking dog for a side-kick?" She finally managed to sit up. "Who did this?" She looked at the pool of blood, then down at her ruined coat. "You say you didn't-"
"No, I didn't. But some vampire did." My wrist was already healing, so I picked up her purse and stroked the supple tan leather.
"I'd say it was a clueless guy. No self-respecting female vamp would leave this treasure lying inches from blood spatter."
"You're right about that." Lucky looked around. "Where's Brittany?"
"Who?" I watched the woman slip her knife into her boot.
A knife in her boot. And the other knife still on the concrete next to her.
I brushed it with my foot. "This yours too?"
"Yeah. A lot of good it did me." She grabbed it, made a face, then wiped it on her coat. "I'd like to know where the hell Brittany is."
Brittany. Oookay. The name conjured up an image of a pop star with toothpick arms and lips that absorbed a gallon of lip gloss a week.
"We found you alone, bleeding out. Maybe your bud Brittany went somewhere to check her, um, lipstick. Unless she's vampire and decided to off her BFF."
"She's not my friend, she's my bodyguard. And a shifter not a vampire." Lucky bit her lip. "I trusted her. I didn't think-Aw shit." She rubbed her forehead, and a tear trickled down her cheek.
"I'm taking another look around. Just in case . . ." Valdez took off down the alley.
"You say a vampire tried to take me out? Guess I should have been carrying a stake in my other boot." I shuddered and put a hand over my heart. The word "stake" does that to me. "You don't seem surprised by the fact that vampires and dogs with special gifts"-I looked over to where Valdez circled another parked car-"even exist. And you have a shape-shifter for a bodyguard. Who or what are you?" I sniffed but all I smelled was that delicious blood congealing on the concrete.
"Human and don't you forget it." She had her knife out again. "My family's done business with vampires, shifters and weres for decades." She narrowed her gaze. "Give me my purse."
"Would it kill you to say 'please'?" I dangled the bag over a puddle. Not that I'd ever desecrate a work of art like that, but, as a threat, it worked like a charm.
"I'm . . . sorry." She glanced down at her ruined coat, then ran a hand over her throat, obviously surprised when it came away without fresh blood on it. "I'm still out of it, I guess. I don't remember a thing about the attack. One minute Brit and I are here talking about a call I got. Then . . ." She sighed and plucked that pack of tissues out of the mess. She went to work on cleaning her bloodstained hands. "You healed me?" She checked me out like I'd never have the goods to do such a thing. "Or did you have help?" Now she examined Valdez, who'd trotted up to stand next to me.
"I did it. Just one of my many talents." No way was I giving the V-man credit for this. Even if he had saved my life more than once. His gig as my bodyguard was payback to Jerry for something neither of them would discuss. It had been too long since my own change to remember how a brand-new vampire felt, and the lady had taken a pretty hard hit what with the ripped open throat and all. So her hands were shaking when she tossed the dirty tissues aside.
"My coat is ruined. I've been attacked by one vampire and another one knows how old I am." She sighed and rubbed her forehead. "I feel like shit and obviously look like it too."
I took pity and dropped her purse in her lap. "Hey, you're alive." Sort of.
"Uh, Glory. Blade's still on the phone." Valdez never took his eyes off Lucky when she picked up her knife again. She carefully wiped it on a tissue and closed it with a snap.
"Jerry!" I grabbed the phone. "Did you hear? I did it! I saved her life."
"Damn it, Glory. What took you so long?"
"Well, excuse me, but I was busy, what with the blood and the explanations." I watched Lucky rummage through her purse. Looking for another weapon? Valdez growled a warning and showed some teeth. I gave him an ear rub.
"She's awake? How does she look?"
"Pretty good, considering. Valdez and I are finished. We were just about to leave Miss Gratitude here and head upstairs."
"Finished?" Jerry chuckled. "Honey, you've barely started. Take your new vampire upstairs with you. You know how this works."
"Fortunately, since this is a new gig for me, no, I don't." I had a queasy feeling that I really didn't want to hear this.
"You made her, now you've got to show her the ropes."
Lucky reached for her wallet and picked up her scattered credit cards. When she had all her cards in a row, she muttered about a missing gold card then looked at me like maybe I'd taken it.
"Ropes?" Now I was pissed. "The only rope I want to show this ungrateful bitch is a noose for her scrawny neck." I picked up a tube of Mac's Russian Red and stuck it in my coat pocket.
"She's your responsibility, sweetheart. Sorry, but you owe it to her to take her on."