Hunting My Vampire (Immortal Vampire #3)

Chapter 19

Kaya

“How are you feeling?” the nurse asked me, as she held a glass of water to my mouth.

Terrible, I wanted to say. Like shit. Like death warmed over.

The doctor had already been by to see me and told me how lucky I was to be alive. He said that the X-rays showed no lasting damage. He was upbeat and told me I could go home soon, that I was recovering very well, but I didn’t feel well at all.

I was struggling to talk and to think clearly. This was on account of all the medications they’d been giving me. At least, that was what they told me. They were weaning me off the sedatives now and seemed ready for me to go.

During visitor’s hours, Fuzz stopped by with Princess, who brought me a Coke and some candy. She was eyeing me carefully and I felt awful for upsetting her like that.

I was furious with myself.

I’d known someone was after me but I let myself be distracted by a man.

I was no better than the silliest, dumbest high school girl doodling pink hearts on her pencil case. I was the worst kind of fool; someone who should know better but chose to ignore her common sense.

I knew I shouldn’t have gone away but I let Jack talk me into it. All he wanted to do was to spend money, flash his wealth around and fuck me when he felt like it. I was disgusted with myself. I’d let myself be taken in by his charms, by the way he’d made me feel, knowing full well that as a vampire, he could make himself irresistible to women.

The following morning, when the doctor told me I could go home, I didn’t call anyone to pick me up. I got up slowly, getting used to the feeling of my limbs feeling a bit like jelly, all wobbly and unstable. This was because of the head injury and would eventually go back to normal, the doctor assured me.

As I gathered my things, I spotted a familiar face in the corridor. I went out and recognized Jack’s head henchman, Zoran.

“What are you doing here?” I asked crossly.

“Making sure you’re safe,” he said.

“Bit late for that, don’t you think?” I shot back.

He had the decency to look a bit abashed.

“Go home,” I told him. “Tell your master I don’t need anything from him anymore.”

It was over between us. I had come to my senses and seen the light. Whatever. I wanted nothing to do with him anymore.

I went straight to bed, sleeping until Princess was dropped off in the evening, bringing some of Tina’s macaroni and cheese with her.

“How are you feeling?” she asked, her eyes big with concern.

“Much better, pumpkin,” I said, ruffling her hair. “What do you say, we watch some TV and eat popcorn?”

She nodded eagerly. We hadn’t done that in a while. The last couple of weeks I had spent all my free time with Jack, even when he was with me at my house we would do activities with Princess. I hadn’t spent much time alone with the little girl. I felt a stab of guilt.

My phone buzzed. Messages from Jack. I ignored them and pushed my phone away.

“How are you feeling about your mom coming home?” I asked.

Princess did a sort of shrug and I knew she must have been thinking of all the previous times she’d come back, trying to make things work.

The little girl looked at me. “Is being a grown-up hard?” she asked me suddenly.

The question took me by surprise.

I found myself nodding. “Yeah, it is rather,” I said. “Harder than we even realize.”

She pulled a sad face. “But you know your mom loves you, as do I and Tina. Even when we make mistakes, we love you.”

She didn’t react and I knew that it seemed like empty words. What did love mean anyway when it wasn’t enough to keep your mom home and your friends safe?I didn’t have an answer to that question but I did have ice cream and I knew that could fix a lot of problems, so I made sure to give her a big bowl of caramel crunch and was rewarded by her smile.

I knew Jack would drop by and not long after Princess had fallen asleep, I felt his presence outside. I opened the front door and went out to meet him, even though it was freezing outside.

“How are you?” he asked, rushing forward to take me in his arms.

I stepped back and held up my hands.

“No,” I said, quickly, hating how my heart was beating.

“No more.”

I could see hurt in his eyes.

“Why?”

“I’m not willing to die for love,” I said sarcastically. “We have too many enemies, too many people wishing us harm. Not to mention, the world of difference between us.”

He stepped forward, his voice cajoling. “But our difference is what makes this work, it is what makes us so great together.”

I looked at him, sadly. “We are not great together. We have great sex, that’s it, but I’m not willing to die for sex. I told you people were after me and you insisted I was seeing things. Before that, you almost lost your job because you weren’t paying attention. You could’ve ruined your business!”

“I don’t care about any of that!” he said, the power in his voice scaring me a little.

“But I do!”

He seemed to hear me.

“I thought I could do this, but it is too much. This is the third time I have come close to dying. I won’t be so lucky next time. I need to figure out what I’m doing with the rest of my life. I need to find out who killed my parents and why someone is trying to kill me.”

“You can’t do that alone,” he said.

I gave a harsh laugh. “I was alone for years. But my senses have become dull, I’m slower than I ever was before. I just need to get back into shape.”

“Let me help you,” he insisted. “I think I know who is behind this attack.”

“Who?”

“I’m not sure yet but I’m close to finding out.”

I shook my head.

“I don’t want to do this,” I said, suddenly tired. “I can’t be with you. It’s too much. My head hurts and things have changed.”

There was pain in his eyes but it affected me less that I thought it would.

“I need to rest,” I said and went inside.

I went into Princess’s room and lay down next to her on the bed.

Pearl would soon come home and then Princess would be able to live with her again. I would miss having the little girl around but a part of me was also looking forward to being on my own again, responsible for no-one but myself.

I could feel Jack out there, watching the house. Watching me.

He wasn’t the kind of person who would take well to rejection but he would get used to it. I wasn’t going to change my mind.

What he wanted was an idea of me. Not who I really was.

The real me was not a girl who wore high heels and dresses and flew in private jets to fancy restaurants for clam linguini. The real me could be bitchy and mean and liked to arm wrestle men in bars and win.

I stayed home for a few days, then went into work.

“Should you be here?” Fuzz asked me anxiously when I showed up one morning.

“I can’t hang about the house anymore,” I told him. “I’ll wash cars, anything.”

I cleaned out the workshop and helped him re-spray a little Ford that had been done over for an 18th birthday present.

The thought gave me a lump in my throat.

My 18th birthday had passed without any kind of celebration. Nobody knew when my birthday was but such was my life. I had never allowed myself to get all teary-eyed about it. I had been marked by tragedy, it had made me hard and tough.

I had liked being like that. Being alone was part of the territory.

Love wasn’t for everyone, certainly not for me. But there was some sadness about the end of the relationship and Fuzz picked up on it.

“You liked that bloodsucker, huh?” he asked with a small smile on his face.

I shrugged. “I like dogs too; doesn’t mean I have to get me one.”

He grinned. “You’ll get over him,” he said.

“Probably,” I answered, keeping my voice light.

“Been a lot of them around, lately,” he said, telling me about seeing vampires around the workshop.

“Were they asking after me?” I asked.

He shrugged. “They’d came in, looked around, I don’t know. Maybe.”

I didn’t want to go away and leave Princess but if I was in danger, then perhaps leaving town was a good idea, for her sake as well.

I thought about it and mentioned it to Fuzz.

“Maybe you should,” he agreed. “Take the heat off you. Even if it is only for a week or two.”

“What about you?” I said. “Can you handle being without me?”

He punched my shoulder. “Please, who do you think was doing the work around here while you were away?”

I arranged for someone to come in and help Tina with Princess while I was away. Then I packed a bag and told nobody where I was going. Not even Fuzz.

I wanted to get as far away from vampires as I possibly could.