Skin Trade

“Agreed.” He gestured me forward. I walked wide around him, and we sort of circled each other until we got to the corner of the building. All I had to do was walk around the corner, and a few yards away were Edward and all the rest. A cluster of cars whirred by on the street, oblivious to what we were doing. It was almost startling to see the cars and know there were people just over there, as if we’d been in some little pocket world of our own for the last few minutes.

One thing I noticed in the circling dance we were doing was that Truth’s gun in its belt holster showed without the leather jacket. The black T-shirt wasn’t long enough or wide enough to hide the gun.

Did he have a carry permit for this state? I didn’t know, but I did know that being a big guy all in black, flashing a gun, could make some eager cop stop him. Being a vampire would not help him when it happened.

I took off the leather jacket and held it out toward him.

He shook his head. “I told you, I don’t feel the cold like you do.”

“It’s to hide your gun,” I said, “I’d rather not have you stopped by a cop for brandishing.”

He almost touched the gun at his back, but stopped himself in midmotion. He took his jacket, being careful not to touch me while we made the exchange. That let me know that the fact that I was still spooked showed. Oh, well.

He took the jacket and slipped it on. He hugged the leather around him. I thought he was cold for a moment, then realized he was smelling the coat. Smelling me on it. Again, it was more a shapeshifter gesture than a vampire one. I stared at him in the stronger light of the streetlights, and he looked rosy cheeked and healthy. If I hadn’t known what I was looking at, even I might have said human. What the fuck?

I stood on the sidewalk and asked, “Did your bloodline have any other superpowers?”

“We could pass for human, even to witches.”

“Anything else?” I asked.

“A few, why?”

“Nothing. I’ll see you tomorrow night.”

“Aren’t you pla

“I wouldn’t count on it.”

“I feel torn, Anita. I should be by your side, guarding you, yet I must let you go into danger without me. It seems backward.”

“It’s my job, Truth.”

He nodded. “I will await you at the hotel. I hope you get home before dawn.” He turned and said over his shoulder, “You’re still bleeding.”

I looked down to find blood trickling down my hand to drip on the sidewalk. I put pressure on the wound and held it up. How had I not felt that?

“How are you going to explain the wound?”

“I’ll think of something. Now go, Truth, just go.”

Classical music played, a little high-pitched but recognizable as Beethoven. Truth reached into his jacket pocket and drew out his cell phone. He answered with, “Yes.”

I waved good-bye and started for the corner.

Truth called, “Anita, it’s for you.”

I stopped and looked back at him. “Who is it?”

“Your marshal friend, Ted Forrester.”

I went back to him, taking the phone he was holding out to me. “Ted, I’m just around the corner from you.”

“I don’t think so,” he said. I heard noises.

“Are you in your car?”

“We got a call out.”

“What’s happened now?”

“Club invaded by vampires. They let some of the customers go but kept all the dancers. The released hostages described a vampire that fits the holy water scars that you described on Vittorio.”

“Shit,” I said.

“You said he’d up the body count tonight, Anita. You were right.”

“Believe me, Edward, I didn’t want to be right on this one.”

“I’ll give you the address.”

“Is there anyone home to drive me?” I asked.

“It was an all hands, Anita.”

“Shit.”

“Don’t you have transport?”

“Yeah, Truth is still here. I’ll let him bring me to you.”

“Make sure he sets you down well behind the police barriers. I wouldn’t want the uniforms on the barriers to see a vampire flying with a woman in his arms tonight.”

“I understand.”

“We’re here, but I can’t wait for you, Anita. They sent the ear of one of the dancers out with the customers they released. The vampires are threatening to send the rest of the dancer out, a piece at a time.”

“I will be there ASAP, Edward.” But I was talking to empty air. He’d hung up.

“Fuck,” I said, and put a lot of feeling into it.

“I heard most of it. What’s the address?”

I told him. He asked for his phone back, and did some things on the screen. I peered at the screen and found a little map. He studied it for a few minutes, then said, “I’ve got it. Are you ready?”

“I can’t feed you again this soon, Truth.”

“I feel fine, Anita; trust me, I won’t need to be fed when we land.”

I just had to take his word for it. I let him pick me up again, and I had to keep pressure on the wrist bite instead of holding on to him. I was hoping if I kept pressure on it, the bleeding would stop before we landed. If it did, it would be the only thing that had gone right tonight.

61

I TUCKED MYSELF in against Truth’s body as hard as I could without being able to hold on to him, but finally I couldn’t stand it anymore. I stopped pressing on my wrist and wrapped my arms around his neck. I held on and buried my face against him. He felt warm now, warm with my blood, my energy. There was a pulse in his neck to move against my cheek as if the beat of his heart were calling to me.

The bend of his neck smelled clean, fresh, like clean sheets that had been dried outdoors in the wind and sun. It was almost like his skin held a hint of all the sunlit days that he would never see again.

I felt something change in the way Truth held me. It made me move my face so I could see. There were flashing lights and a lot of cops down below, but not too close. Truth took us down on the far side of a darkened strip mall. He had to run a little to take up momentum, but it was smoother than the last landing. Either he was getting in practice, or he just felt better.

He stepped into the thicker shadows by the darkened store and looked up the street toward all those flashing lights.

“The police barricades are just up ahead.”

“You can put me down now,” I said.

I got a flash of his smile in the dimness. He put me down without a word. “Are you still bleeding?”

I looked at my hand and found the blood drying. “No.”

“Good.”

We stood there for a moment awkwardly. There was a tension like you get on a first date, where you don’t know if you should kiss or just hug. This was wrong; I’d never felt like this around him before. He leaned down toward me, and I stepped back. “I’m sorry, Truth. I don’t know what’s happening, but I don’t think it’s voluntary on either of our parts.”

He stood straight, looking at me, his face still mostly in shadow. “You think I’m bespelled by you.”

I shrugged.

“But it’s not just me, Anita; you feel the pull, too.”

I remembered something Jean-Claude had told me once. “A lot of Belle’s line of vampire powers cut both ways, and it only cuts as deep as the vampire is willing to be cut.”

“Then you must be willing to be cut to the heart,” he said.

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I hid behind work. “I have to go. You have to go.” I shook my head. “Go, Truth, just go, be somewhere else.”

One moment he was there in the shadows; the next he was skyward, blowing my hair across my face.

I turned toward the crowd and the police barriers. I’d have to get through all that before the uniforms would let me through to talk to SWAT. I wanted to find Edward, not for police work or practical reasons, but because I needed a friend. I needed a friend who didn’t want to fuck me or fall in love with me. I needed someone who didn’t want anything from me. The list was getting smaller every night.