Page 18 of Kissed the Mark
I glanced up at the sky. The sun really wasrising. If Leandra burst into flames right here, though, she wouldalso be out of my hair. I exchanged a glance with Yuki in which sheconveyed to me a murderous intent that simply did not exist on myend.
“Let’s get you inside. I have something Ineed you to try for me.”
I nudged Leandra toward the door, wavinggoodbye to the server who had used my money for ill.
“I already looked at your flashcards for anhour and half!” she said as I shoved her up the stairs. “Theydidn’t do anything for me. I don’t know what half those thingsare.”
“You don’t know what half those things arebecause you didn’t have them in the 1920s in Europe. I was hopingsome recent technology would help you remember.”
“Then what’sthis?” she asked,picking one of my homemade index cards I’d intended to jog hermemory with off the floor. There was a giant grease splotch ofunknown origin on the card.
“That’s Yuki!” I exclaimed. The drawing wasa little crude, sure, but it wasn’tunrecognizable. “Ithought that would be an easy one for you. She used to like you,you know.” Yuki’s tail flicked in irritation and she stalked off tothe kitchen.
“Thought it was some kind of rat monster,”Leandra said, flopping onto the couch in an ungraceful pile. “Idon’t get why you care so much. I don’t even need my memories. I amcontent with the way I am now.”
“Did you not hear anything Patricia saidwhen she was over here? I’m going to be out of a job if I don’tturn you over in the same condition I found you!”
“What kind of job is ‘bounty hunter’ anyway?You can work with Jian. He seems nice. I will stop by for GeneralTso’s. What the hell is in that?” Cautiously, Leandra accepted thevial from me. She waved it under her nose and frowned. “Smells likeliquor.”
“Take it like a shot and pretend it is. It’ssupposed to help with your memory.”
She held it to her eye and looked through itlike a magnifying glass. “You’re sure nothing bad will happen to meif I drink it?”
“You might have extra clear sinuses, too.But the witch I bought it from said that it would help.”Please,help me.If Leandra with her memories was irritating, Leandrawithout her memories was a plantar wart that required surgicalintervention.
“Very well,” she said. “If these are my verylast words, just know that I had a very unpleasant time with youand you’re a bit obsessive about this memory thing.”
Leandra threw the vial back and wiped hermouth with the back of her hand. I stared at her expectantly.“Well? Do you feel any different?”
“Oh, yes,” she said, but she still had thatodd lilt to her voice and looked more like she was suffering fromindigestion than a revelation that she had remembered the lasthundred years of her life again. “I feel rather queer.”
I blinked, and then in Leandra’s place,there was a goose.
“Leandra?” I asked, looking around. Realityhad not settled in yet, leaving me only with shock. I wasexperiencing the five stages of grief in real time, and denialpassed quickly into anger as goose-Leandra bore her grotesquegoosey teeth at me.
The reality was this: I was now gazing uponthe world’s first, and probably only, vampire goose. And I wastotally fucked, because I couldn’t turn in a vampire goose to thevampire queen.
Chapter Ten
Beatrice NewellInconveniences a Priest
THE ANGER STAGE OF GRIEF only grew as the gooseversion of Leandra flocked all over my tiny apartment. Her webbedfeet slapped the floor, honks echoing off the walls. I chased her,hairs flying out of my braid and coming loose. “STOP!” I shouted,but goose-Leandra had other ideas. Yuki hissed at her when Leandragot too close and the goose pivoted, escaping to the bedroom.
“Can’t you catch her for me?” I asked Yukiin exasperation. Entirely unbothered, Yuki lifted a hind leg tobathe with her little gray tongue.
I went to the folding doors that held mywasher and dryer and extracted Yuki’s carrier from the top shelf.She didn’t often need vet visits—and, well, normal vets wouldprobably faint at the sight of her—but when I took her to the localnecromancer for check-ups, she knew where she was headed andrefused to use the leash. There was acrashfrom mybedroom—probably the bedside lamp. I stood at the door and watchedgoose-Leandra flap around, smashing into my dresser and upsettingmy nicely made bed. The lamp was indeed on the floor, light bulbshattered.
The wings would have to be stopped. I waiteduntil she paused, nibbling at her side like she’d upset some of herfeathers, and then clutched her wings in one hand. Goose-Leandramade a noise I was sure I’d never heard from any goose, somethingbetween a wail and a blood-curdling scream. She lashed out,piercing my left hand with surprisingly sharp teeth. I grabbed holdof her neck and lowered her into the carrier, quickly zipping itshut as she struck out with her neck and tried to escape.
My hand was bleeding, and not aninsubstantial amount, but at least she was put away. I huffed andpressed a paper towel to the wound. I had been injured way too manytimes recently for my liking.
I hesitated at the door at the bottom of thestairs, with my left hand wrapped but bleeding through itsmakeshift bandage, and a goose-Leandra that was fighting witheverything she had in the other. My real, subconscious thought hadbeen this: I would drop Leandra off at some pond with other geese,forget she ever existed, and skip town for some other supernaturalcommunity that would take me. That way I wouldn’t have to beaccountable for any of Leandra’s reactions before she’d gone andlost her memories and gotten herself turned into a goose,andI wouldn’t have to deal with the vampire queen atall.
“Will you turn into dust when I bring yououtside?” I asked her. She honked angrily in response. I didn’tknow if she still had her vampire powers and weaknesses—would shelive at the pond with a thirst for blood forever? Would she beeviscerated through the exposed netting of the carrier the secondwe left the premises?
Before I could consider the consequences ofa vampire goose’s existence, my phone rang.
I had almost forgotten that it still worked.I’d been charging it but the screen was nearly unreadable, it wasso cracked. I couldn’t see who the caller was but dragged myinjured hand across the bottom of the busted screen to answer thecall.
