I was proud I didn’t lisp once. Or spit on him. Talking around extra-large teeth had been difficult at first but I’d gotten the hang of it after a while.
“Please, not that. I’ll tell you but just don’t bite me.”
My grip didn’t loosen, but I did draw back a little and close my mouth gently around the fangs. They were pointy, indenting my lower lip. Usually I retracted them if I wanted to close my mouth. Otherwise I risked poking a hole in my lip.
“Hurry up. Our patience is growing thin,” Peter inserted. “Don’t try to draw either of us into a riddle again. You won’t like the consequences.”
I gave him a wry glance. He quirked one corner of his mouth as if acknowledging the fact that he sounded like a B movie villain.
“Ok. I wasn’t watching you. Not really.”
“Then what were you doing, because it seemed awfully like watching to me,” I said.
“I was hiding,” Demetri admitted. “I thought you were it and I was your next victim.”
“It?” How very descriptive. No wonder he thought we were it. Anybody could be it.
He looked at the two of us, it just dawning that we had no idea what he was talking about.
“You mean you haven’t heard? Everybody in the community is talking about it.”
“Talking about what?” Peter snapped. His frustration echoed mine.
“The creature. The one that has been paralyzing people all over town. When they finally wake up, they’re so convinced they need to be somewhere that they end up attacking anyone who gets in their way. Nobody has been able to find any of those who were able to run off after becoming unstuck. Whatever it was claimed three near here in the last week.”
That sounded an awful lot like what happened to Rick in Dahlia’s storeroom.
“Do you know what it is?”
Demetri shook his head. “No one does. You can’t ask any of the victims because they just start howling and throwing themselves against things.”
Shit. Peter and I shared a glance, for once on the same page. Neither of us liked an unknown spook running around town and using its mojo to paralyze and then summon its victims. It put our entire community at risk of discovery.
Not to mention it’s easier to fight something when you know its weaknesses. In this topsy, turvy shadow world, the simple logic behind the laws of physics and the world didn’t always apply. For instance putting three bullet holes in Liam’s chest had only been a slight annoyance to him. He didn’t even break stride. There was a possibility that this thing wouldn’t be phased by normal weapons either.
Seeing that the two of us were uneasy at his words, Demetri threw in some extra information, “It got my cousin last night. That’s why I’m here. To pick up his stuff.”
Using the grip I had on his collar, I pushed him down the stacks. “Show me.”
I wanted to see if he was telling the truth. If he was, there might be a clue if this thing had done something to Caroline.
We didn’t have far to go. His cousin had worked at the customer service desk three rooms down from the archive room.
Demetri held out a bag. “This is his book bag. I don’t think he had anything else.”
I took the bag and upended it on the table. Peter picked up a notebook and paged through it. Demetri took a step back.
“I wouldn’t if I was you,” Peter cautioned without looking up. “She’s a vampire. They’re faster than a sphinx.”
“She’s practically still got her milk teeth,” Demetri said scornfully. “I’ve heard of her. The clanless vampire, not even in her hundredth year. I doubt she could beat a medusa hopped up on snake venom.”
I gave him a charming smile, being sure to flash my fangs. “Want to bet your life on that?”
“I wouldn’t,” Peter said in a sing song voice. “She’s very motivated right now. I doubt you’d make it to the end of this table.”
Demetri eyed the table and then glanced at me. I gave him my at peace expression, the one that said I was ok with whichever choice he made.
He blanched. Maybe that expression didn’t say what I thought it said.
