"Valerian. An immortal."
"Cousin? Brother? What relation is he?" Greg asked.
Lissianna glanced at him with surprise. "None of the above. We aren't all related, Greg."
"Oh." He shrugged. "Well, I just assumed anyone in Toronto who was a vampire would be related."
Lissianna shook her head. "Toronto is popular among our kind."
Greg was silent as he digested that, then said, "I suppose it's the Path? It would make Toronto attractive to vampires. They could move around during daylight and--"
"Who do you think encouraged the Path's being made?" she asked. "They have something similar in Montreal, they call it the underground city. You'll find lots of our kind there, too."
"Oh." Greg sat back in his seat, appearing nonplussed. "Just how many of you are there?"
Lissianna shrugged and gave up watching the door, pretty sure that they'd lost Valerian. "I don't know exactly."
"More than a thousand?" Greg asked.
Lissianna opened her mouth to answer, then started and glanced sharply toward the movie screen as everyone in the audience jumped and several people screamed.
"It's a vampire movie," Greg said with amusement. "The twins would be annoyed at the very idea."
"Yes," Lissianna agreed, then frowned when he settled more comfortably in his seat. "Don't you want to leave?"
"And go where?" Greg asked. "We can't go to that friend of yours--"
"Debbie," Lissianna supplied. Debbie--her coworker from the shelter--had been the only person she'd been able to think of to go to for help, and while she'd been re-luctant to involve her, there had been nowhere else she could think to go. Greg had suggested going to his sister's home, but she'd rejected the possibility at once. Anyone in his family was out of the question; it would be the first place her mother and uncle would look. As were all her family and friends... at least her vampire friends. Debbie had seemed the only answer. She was a coworker, and they were friendly, but they weren't so close they went places together, or turned to each other when they needed a place to stay... so far anyway. However, Debbie worked the night shift as she did, and Lissianna knew she slept through the day. Lissianna was hoping that she'd be up by 4 p.m.
"We can't go to Debbie's for another couple of hours." He shrugged. "We may as well stay here and relax. It will kill an hour or so at least. And you can catch a nap."
It would also keep them out of the way of any other vamps they might otherwise run into, Lissianna realized, and relaxed back in her seat. She didn't really think she'd sleep, but just being able to relax for a bit would do her some good.
Chapter 15
Greg had brought his knee up and shifted sideways in his seat to watch Lissianna sleep when her eyes suddenly opened. She blinked at him sleepily, then peered around to see that the movie was over, the credits rolling on screen, and the movie theater half-empty. Her head turned slowly back to Greg, and she asked, "Why didn't you wake me?"
"You needed your sleep," he said simply.
Her eyebrows rose. "So... what? You were just going to leave me sleeping?"
Greg shrugged. "Until one of those guys with a flashlight threw us out."
"Ushers," Lissianna informed him. "That's what those guys with flashlights are called."
"Oh." He shrugged again, not really caring what they were called. Greg was more concerned with her. "How do you feel?"
Lissianna sat a little straighter in her seat and avoided his eyes, as she said, "No worse."
The answer just made him frown. He wasn't fooled by her choice of words. "No worse, means no better either, doesn't it?"
She simply glanced around the emptying theatre, neither agreeing, nor denying it.
"You need blood," Greg stated the obvious. "You're starting to look pale even here in the dark."
"Yes, well, you needn't worry unless I start to actually glow in the dark," she said lightly. When his eyes widened in alarm, she quickly added "I'm joking, Greg."
"Oh," he murmured, then stood to follow when she got up and began to lead the way out of the row of seats, then up the aisle.