EPISODE FOURTEEN – BROKEN PROMISES

     I realize I promised to go along with Sterling’s demands if he saved her, if he changed Patience—no more stalling, no more dragging my feet.

     But let’s be honest. It’s all a bunch of bullshit anyway.

     For one thing, he was lying. Not that I expected anything close to honesty, but he probably had my friend, Camilla Thornton, locked in some remote pit, starving for her next pint of blood, as weak as a newly hatched bird, and forcing her to write letters to me to make it seem like they were the good guys.

     Amateurs, why do they always assume women are stupid?

     I slipped out of my soaking wet clothes and tossed them onto the floor next to Patience’s damp mess. She was still lying on the bed, tapping her front canines and wondering why they didn’t just shoot out of her skull as she demanded, when there was a knock at the door.

     I squeezed a few drops of icy water from the ends of my hair and strolled over to the door, swinging it open.

     Sterling Pool stood there, his face shifting from miserable goat to something else and back again. Only his eyes stayed fixed on all the soft, rounded parts of my body.

     Silence.

     I stood there, completely naked, without a glimmer of shame, and why should I? Nothing wrong with my body, nothing wrong with my being naked. I had shed the constraints of shame decades ago.

     “Did you need something?” I finally said, resting my hand on the smooth curve of my hip.

     Sterling’s eyes met mine. He brushed a stray hair behind his ear and cleared his throat.

     “We need to move now. We’ve wasted enough time here. The Collective will be sending scouts to find us.” His gaze drifted south. “And I don’t want to be here when they arrive. Get dressed.”

     He spun around, and Patience burst into laughter, causing Sterling to pause briefly at the top of the stairs before continuing down.

     “I’ll be waiting in the car!” he called out. “Hurry up!”

     “He’s in love,” Patience said, staring at me from head to toe. “And who could blame him? You would have made a killing as a stripper. We could have called you Candy Cane, one sweet lick and you’re hooked.”

     I pulled a clean set of clothes from my bag and began to dress—jeans, a black cashmere sweater, and black lace undergarments.

     “Don’t be ridiculous. More importantly, I made a deal with Sterling that if he saved you, I would go without any more screwing around,” I said, looking back at her. “And I think I’m about to break my deal.”

     Patience popped up like a Jack-in-the-Box and clapped her hands together.

     “Are we going to kill him?” she asked, a wide grin forming along her lips.

     “No,” I said. “It’s tough and messy, actually, to kill another vampire. But I do think we should make a clean exit before he starts to get wise.”

     “Well, can I at least bite him?” Patience asked, tapping her teeth again. “After all, he bit me.”

     “Why on earth would you want to bite him?”

     “I just want to try it out, you know, get used to it. I bet he wouldn’t mind. I could make it worth his while.” She wiggled her hips. “He isn’t entirely unattractive.”

     “I think Sterling has more on his mind than getting either of us into bed. Besides, I have a few more pints of blood in the fridge; you can have all but one, I need it for someone else.”

     Patience flopped back onto the bed and huffed.

     “But I feel amazing,” she said. “If you know what I mean? I haven’t felt like jumping someone’s bones in ages.”

     “A failing liver will do that to you,” I said, running a brush through my hair and slipping into my leather jacket.

     “You’re wrong, you know, about Sterling, I mean. I don’t think he has anything else on his mind,” Patience said. “He’s a guy. Guys only think about sex. It’s a damn good thing too, or I’d have died of starvation ages ago.”

     Patience watched me for a moment, and I could sense a question start to form on her lips.

     “What?” I asked.

     “How are we going to get your friend back?” she asked.

     I sat next to her on the bed. She was smaller than I was, maybe by two inches, with a lighter bone structure, but I hoped that Patience would be able to hold her own in the days ahead.

     “I’m going to have to take her back,” I said.

     “I want to help you. Just tell me what to do, and I’ll do it,” Patience said, her eyes wide.  

     “Then get your shoes on. First, I need to see if we are still being followed and by whom,” I said, moving toward the window and pushing it open. The wind whipped in, bringing with it flecks of snow. I tilted my face toward the moon and closed my eyes, trying to catch a scent. Nothing came.

     “We’re being followed?” She asked, slipping her feet into her spare set of boots and coming to stand next to me by the window. “How do I miss everything?”

     “They’ve been on our tail since we left my condo. I’m not sure if they are on our side, or Sterling’s.” I slipped my legs through the open window and stood on the porch roof that juts out from the side of the house.

     Patience stuck her head out the window and watched me.

     “Holy shit, you’re gonna fly, aren’t you?” she asked, her body now halfway out of the window, watching me.

     “I am, but I need you to stay here. If Sterling comes back, I’m sure you could think of something to do to keep him occupied,” I said. “Just don’t let him know I’m gone.”

     “I can think of a few things,” Patience said. “I’d still rather bite him, but I have a few other tricks that could keep him busy for at least twenty minutes, give or take.”

     “I’m sure you do,” I said, and walked off the roof and into the surrounding darkness.

     The SUV wasn’t hard to locate. It was parked at the end of the only road leading to my house, the only way in or out, pulled to the side and partly hidden behind a thick row of evergreens.

     I crouched down from my perch in a nearby oak and watched.

     The engine was off. The windows were clear, not fogged with the heat of human breath.

     Either our visitor was missing or not of the breathing variety.

     There was only one way to find out who it was, and I didn’t have the luxury of time. I jumped from my perch, settled behind them in the dark, adjusted my jacket’s collar, and approached the driver’s side window.

     Before I could rap on the glass, the window slid open.

     “Candy,” he said. “Imagine meeting you here.”

     I stood there for a minute, not believing my eyes, my mind performing the kind of emotional gymnastics never seen before.

     “Kendrick, what the hell are you doing here?”