Page 106 of Road Trip with a Vampire
I thought of the host at that chicken restaurant, of the guy at that bowling alley. What had Peter done to make them freak out so badly when they’d seen him? I still didn’t think I wanted to know.
“Murder is not a regular part of my work,” he reiterated as if he could read my thoughts. “I’m much better with my hands and with solving mechanical problems than I am at killing. Which is why my stock in trade has become solving unsolvable riddles, disabling alarm systems, fixing irreparably broken pocket watches…” He looked away again. “And cracking uncrackable safes.”
I bristled at the reference to our current situation.
“Couldn’t you have just stayed being an engineer?” It was a ridiculous question, and I knew that. Vampires couldn’t hold down human jobs for myriad reasons. But if I was going to forgive him, I needed to hear that he’d been driven to this life out of necessity rather than because he was drawn to it for other nefarious reasons.
He shook his head miserably. “I wanted to. At first, though, the newborn bloodlust made holding any job impossible. Afterthat passed, I’d been out of work for several years and had blown through my meager inheritance from my parents. No engineering firm would have hired me even if I’d applied. If I’d had any skill with words, perhaps I could have done freelance writing under a nom du plum, but…” He snorted. “Zelda, I tried it. My writing wasatrocious. Just awful. Especially my poetry.”
I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing at the idea of Peter, the man who could fix a table and hotwire a car, writing a poem.
“Well, poems are difficult,” I said as diplomatically as I could.
“I did get good with swords. And knives,” he continued. “I had a lot of time on my hands to learn new skills. One thing eventually led to another, and I attracted the attention of rich vampires who needed…er,shady workdone. A lot of the offers I got were intellectually stimulating, but it didn’t much matter. I was out of options. And money.” He paused and looked away. “Immortality with no savings is terrifying.”
“I know,” I said. I knew all too well. I was comfortable now, but only after centuries of work and the beauty of compounding interest. There had been many hungry years along the way.
“It didn’t take long for my reputation as a skilled fang for hire to grow. The work was easy. A lot of it was even fun.” His eyes were sad when they found mine again. “The job for you was supposed to be easy, too.”
I stared into my now-empty mug, unable to look at him when I asked the question that had been burning me up all evening. “And whatwasthat job, exactly?”
A long pause before Peter cleared his throat. “Fly to Chicago. Crack a safe for a group of vampires who had way more money than sense. Get paid an exorbitant sum. Go home. Easy as pie.” He shook his head. “Of course, nothing went according to plan.”
“Your job wasn’t to kill me?” I had to know.
“No,” he said emphatically. “That was never part of the arrangement. You have to believe me.”
“Then how did you end up in California?” This was the part that still didn’t add up. “If you were paid to crack my safe in Chicago, why did you tell Reggie you wanted to go to California?”
Peter shifted in his seat uncomfortably, eyes dropping to the floor. “When I was trying to get into your safe, I went to your website to search for clues. I saw your pictures. Saw how fierce and strong you are. How beautiful.” He offered me a sad, bashful smile. “I visited more than strictly necessary, if I’m being honest. I was so captivated. It’s not surprising that when I woke with no memories, you were still top of mind. Even when I didn’t know my own name, some part of me still wanted to find you.”
The look he gave me was so full of misery and desire, I had to set my mug down or risk dropping it. Whatever I’d expected him to say, it hadn’t been that.
What did Idowith this?
“The truth is…” he continued, rubbing at the back of his neck. “The truth is, I think I started falling for you even before I met you.”
His words lodged themselves in my heart, warm and bright. An emotion I didn’t recognize flooded me at the pain in his voice.
I couldn’t handle this right now, after everything that had happened.
“You know, I’d forgotten all about the safe until today,” I said in a wobbly voice that wasn’t quite my own. I needed to shift things back to safer ground. Right now. “It was nothing but an elaborate practical joke.”
Something like a smile touched the corners of his lips. “Really?”
I nodded. “It had a whoopee cushion inside and some of myfanciest spell work on the outside. And that was it. Reggie and I made up stories about it just to see if we could get people to zap their eyebrows off trying to break in.”
“Huh.” He shook his head. “Well, I kept my eyebrows. But lost my memories. After I’d tried literally everything else to get into that safe, I tried some nonsense spell The Collective assured me would disarm the wards. All that happened was I got blasted across the room and hit my head on the floor. Thenpoof.” He threw up his hands. “I woke without a single memory in my head. If it hadn’t been for John Richardson’s red plaid pocket square, I’d probably still be in the same position.” He shook his head. “You have no idea how much I hate that stupid thing.”
“I can imagine,” I said. “A lot of vampires have terrible fashion sense.” Peter didn’t, though. His T-shirts and jeans always looked gorgeous on him and let him fit in wherever he went. It was likely intentional, I thought wryly. Wearing clothes that helped him blend in was probably part of his job description.
Before I could dwell on the uncomfortable truth that I’d been thirsting over a fang for hire’s work attire for weeks, I checked my phone to see how much was left of his twenty minutes. My heart skipped a strange, uncomfortable beat when I saw that the time I’d promised him was almost up.
Before I could tell him that, he asked, very quietly, “Do you believe me?”
I set my phone down and looked at him.
Yes, I thought. I believed him. For many reasons, not the least of which was the way he was looking at me right now. Like he was hanging on my every word. Like a negative answer to that question might end him. But how did we get past this? I could, and had, forgiven a lot of people for a lot of things. I didn’t think I could forgive this. No matter how much I might want to.
