Then, his arm around me, he turned to face the other vampires.
“This has all been very entertaining,” Liam said. His voice was as cool as if Janella wasn’t giving him a truly intimate massage there on the couch. He hadn’t troubled himself to budge during the whole incident. He had newly visible tattoos I could never in this world have imagined. I was sick to my stomach. “But I think we should be driving back to Monroe. We have to have a little talk with Jerry when he wakes up, right, Malcolm?”
Malcolm heaved the unconscious Jerry over his shoulder and nodded at Liam. Diane looked disappointed.
“But fellas,” she protested. “We haven’t found out how this little gal knew.”
The two male vampires simultaneously switched their gaze to me. Quite casually, Liam took a second off to reach a climax. Yep, vampires could do it, all right. After a little sigh of completion, he said, “Thanks, Janella. That’s a good question, Malcolm. As usual, our Diane has cut to the quick.” And the three visiting vampires laughed as if that was a very good joke, but I thought it was a scary one.
“You can’t speak yet, can you, sweetheart?” Bill gave my shoulder a squeeze as he asked, as if I couldn’t get the hint.
I shook my head.
“I could probably make her talk,” Diane offered.
“Diane, you forget,” Bill said gently.
“Oh, yeah. She’s yours,” Diane said. But she didn’t sound cowed or convinced.
“We’ll have to visit some other time,” Bill said, and his voice made it clear the others had to leave or fight him.
Liam stood, zipped up his pants, gestured to his human woman. “Out, Janella, we’re being evicted.” The tattoos rippled across his heavy arms as he stretched. Janella ran her hands along his ribs as if she just couldn’t get enough of him, and he swatted her away as lightly as if she’d been a fly. She looked vexed, but not mortified as I would have been. This was not new treatment for Janella.
Malcolm picked up Jerry and carried him out the front door without a word. If drinking from Jerry had given him the virus, Malcolm was not yet impaired. Diane went last, slinging a purse over her shoulder and casting a bright-eyed glance behind her.
“I’ll leave you two lovebirds on your own, then. It’s been fun, honey,” she said lightly, and she slammed the door behind her.
The minute I heard the car start up outside, I fainted.
I’d never done so in my life, and I hoped never to again, but I felt I had some excuse.
I seemed to spend a lot of time around Bill unconscious. That was a crucial thought, and I knew it deserved a lot of pondering, but not just at that moment. When I came to, everything I’d seen and heard rushed back, and I gagged for real. Immediately Bill bent me over the edge of the couch. But I managed to keep my food down, maybe because there wasn’t much in my stomach.
“Do vampires act like that?” I whispered. My throat was sore and bruised where Jerry had squeezed it. “They were horrible.”
“I tried to catch you at the bar when I found out you weren’t at home,” Bill said. His voice was empty. “But you’d left.”
Though I knew it wouldn’t help a thing, I began crying. I was sure Jerry was dead by now, and I felt I should have done something about that, but I couldn’t have kept silent when he was about to infect Bill. So many things about this short episode had upset me so deeply that I didn’t know where to begin being upset. In maybe fifteen minutes I’d been in fear of my life, in fear for Bill’s life （well—existence）， made to witness sex acts that should be strictly private, seen my potential sweetie in the throes of blood lust （emphasis on lust）， and nearly been choked to death by a diseased hustler.
On second thought, I gave myself full permission to cry. I sat up and wept and mopped my face with a handkerchief Bill handed me. My curiosity about why a vampire would need a handkerchief was just a little flicker of normality, drenched by the flood of my nervous tears.
Bill had enough sense not to put his arms around me. He sat on the floor, and had the grace to keep his eyes averted while I mopped myself dry.
“When vampires live in nests,” he said suddenly, “they often become more cruel because they egg each other on. They see others like themselves constantly, and so they are reminded of how far from being human they are. They become laws unto themselves. Vampires like me, who live alone, are a little better reminded of their former humanity.”
I listened to his soft voice, going slowly through his thoughts as he made an attempt to explain the unexplainable to me.