Jason is screaming and clutching at my hands with his own. I turn toward the girl, show her the beast, let her see and feel the full fury of my anger.
That gets her moving. She grabs her clothes and runs out.
I would have let her get dressed.
Now that she’s gone, I turn my attention to Jason.
“Where is Simone Tremaine?”
He gasps and continues to snatch at my hands, finally croaking, “I don’t know who you’re talking about.”
I put my face close to his, lap at the blood on his ruined cheek. Whisper, “Think about it, Jason. The woman you’ve been turning girls for. The woman who bleeds them to death. Where is she?”
I release my grip on his neck enough to allow him to speak.
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“Wrong answer. Guess I have to use a little more persuasion. You like to fuck?” I tighten my hold on his neck with one hand and grab his balls with the other. They’re slick with sweat and sticky with the girl’s sex. I can barely restrain a gag reflex.
But I manage. My fingers tighten and squeeze. “Better think fast, Jason.”
Jason flies into a full-blown panic. His legs flail, his face reddens and his breath comes in short, rasping gasps.
And I’m not even squeezing hard yet.
“Please. Stop.”
The hammering of his heart thunders in my ears. I’m afraid he’s going to have a heart attack. Reluctantly, I relent.
I release him and he falls to the floor, curling into a fetal position, using one hand to cover his head and the other his genitals. I give him a second to catch his breath, then haul his ass up and throw him on the bed.
“I’m not going to waste any more time with you. Get your pants on. We’re going to see a friend of mine. Between us, I’m sure we’ll find a way to loosen your tongue.”
Jason looks up at me but makes no move to get up.
“Did you hear me? I said get dressed.”
His eyes have morphed back into a human’s and his fangs retracted until they no longer peek through his lips. The expression on his face is pure terror. “I can’t go outside.”
“You can and will.” I grab his arm, give it a shake. “Unless you want me to carry you out naked and throw you into the trunk of my car, you’ll get moving now.”
“I can’t.” He pulls away and scoots himself back until he’s huddled against the headboard. “I’m a vampire.”
“I don’t know what you are,” I say. “But if it’s vampire, you can and will go outside. One way or the other.”
His eyes dart to the door. “The sun. I can’t go outside from sunrise to sunset.”
“Get with the program, moron. Vampires adapted to the sun centuries ago.” I pull the curtains back. The rain has stopped and a weak sun peaks through storm-tossed clouds. I hold out my hand and expose it to the light. “See? No problem. Now quit stalling.”
He makes no move to comply. I’m done fucking around. I reach across the bed and yank him to his feet. “Don’t say I didn’t give you the chance to ride in front.”
He struggles against me, but his strength is no match for my own. I snatch up a pair of jeans from a nearby chair and thrust them at him.
“You can put these on in the trunk.”
He’s yelling at me to stop, but I ignore him. I’ll take him to the park and work on him there. I’ll bring Williams the syringe. Maybe if he has that analyzed, it will be a clue to Burke’s whereabouts.
At the doorway, I give Jason a shove that propels him through the door and into the daylight.
He stumbles once, and turns toward me. His hands fly to his face, letting the jeans fall. His eyes have turned again. It ’s the last thing I notice before his body explodes like a camera flash in a burst of white-hot light.
CHAPTER 36
THE SMELL OF SULFUR DRIFTS ON A GUST OF WIND. A smell and a pile of ash. It’s all that’s left of Jason Shelton.
Reflexively, I jump back. Even seeing what happened, I can ’t wrap my head around it. I stare at the crumpled pair of jeans that a moment ago was clutched in Jason’s hands.
Jason said he was a vampire. Yet I had no connection with him psychically. He was certainly not as strong as any other vampire I ’ve come in contact with. The girls he turned for Burke seem to have no powers, either. Now this. Will the same thing happen to them if they step into the sun?
God. I’d better warn Rose.
I step gingerly around the spot where Jason stood. I’d have killed him in a heartbeat once I got Burke’s whereabouts from him. But this is the second vampire immo lation I’ve seen in two days. Ortiz’ death was horrible enough but I understood it. This is completely beyond my comprehension.
My hand shakes when I try to fit the key in the Jag’s ignition. I don’t know whether to call Rose or Williams first. I do decide to wait until I’m away from the apartment to do it. I pull over on a side street a mile away.
The sight of Jason spontaneously combusting the moment he stepped into daylight has my heart pounding.
What was he? A vampire subspecies?
I pull the paper Williams gave me yesterday with Rose ’s address on it. He’d also jotted a phone number and I punch it into my cell phone. Rose picks up on the second ring. Her “hello” resonates with worry and ratchets my own anxiety up a notch.
“Rose, this is Anna. What’s wrong?”
Her voice is shaking. “I don’t know what’s happening. They’re dying, Anna. Three this morning. I thought they were all getting stronger.”
“Which three?” I’m thinking of Rebecca and how she clutched at my hand.
“Three of the weaker. We had a steady supply of hosts for them. They were feeding. But something happened. They grew weaker instead of stronger. Then, this morning, they started dying.”
A picture of Jason bursting into flame flashes through my head. “How, Rose? How did they die?”
Rose’s breath catches. “I don’t know. They were feeding. Then they just stopped. It was as if their hearts gave out. They were alive one minute and dead the next. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Different from Jason. Because they weren’t exposed directly to sunlight? I remember the room and the large windows.
“I’ll come over. But I have to talk to Williams first. Rose, don’t let them go outside. And keep the curtains pulled. Better yet, take them all to the back room.”
“Why?”
“They’re not like us. I don’t know why, but they can’t be exposed to daylight.”
“That makes no sense.” But her tone is halting.
“Trust me. None of this makes sense. Just please, keep it dark.”
She draws a quick, sharp breath. “God, Anna. The curtains are open now. The ones who died were in the living room—closest to the windows.”
She clicks off without saying good-bye.
I don’t have to guess why.
WILLIAMS IS UNCHARACTERISTICALLY QUIET WHEN I call him next to fill him in on the events of the morning. He has no explanation for what happened to Jason or how daylight could have affected the girls who died. I tell him about the syringe I found in Jason’s apartment.
Maybe whatever Jason used to sedate the girls after he changed them is the reason for their weaknesses. Williams agrees to meet me at the park. He’s with Brooke now but says he can be there within fifteen minutes. I ask him to have the witches try another locator spell, and he says that he will. With Ortiz’ death, he never got around to asking them yesterday. His voice is heavy with guilt.
I should care that he forgot. Should rail at him for forgetting Culebra. But he had other things on his mind.
Ortiz.
A rare moment of compassion stills my tongue and I hang up without rancor.