Bloodlust - Helen Harper Page 0,4

yeah. I stepped around her, careful this time to avoid touching her in any way. The two vamps up ahead had their arms folded and were staring at me expressionlessly. I was tempted to just shove them out of the way, but they moved to the side at the last second and allowed me to pass by without comment. Knowing that they, along with rest of the restaurant, were watching my departure, I forced a casually confident swagger into my step. I reminded myself not to forget to breathe and reached out for the door handle leading back to the outside world. Unfortunately for me, just before I could wrench it open, someone pushed it from the other side, and the edge of the door smacked right into my face, scraping against my nose and cheekbone, and sending involuntary tears springing into my eyes.

“Oh, I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry!” The blurry image of a waiter began to come into focus. Judging by the panic in his voice, he was worried about exactly what I was going to do to him for daring to try to open the door at the same time as me. Mack Smith, more monster than the monsters.

I tried not to show I was in pain and exhaled audibly in annoyance. “Don’t worry about it.” Then I stepped past him, and back out into the real world.

Chapter Two

My eyes were still smarting by the time I emerged into the daylight. A small hard knot of frustration had settled deep into my stomach. Talking about what everyone else was doing was all very well and good, but it was about time I actually starting doing something. However, until there was some kind of concrete information to work with, it appeared there was very little for me to actually do. I’d given everyone on the council tasks to undertake; it appeared that all I had to do was to wait until something came out from the fruits of their labour. It didn’t suit me. I didn’t want to spend too much time dwelling on what the vamp had offered, nor did I have any desire to wallow in misery about the things I couldn’t change, such as my utter failure with Corrigan. And hanging around waiting for the inevitable problems that my transformation lesson with Tom was going to highlight wasn’t particularly appealing either. Patience was clearly not my forte.

I could go back to Clava Books and help out there for a few hours. Certainly the ongoing bickering between Mrs. Alcoon and Slim would provide some entertainment, but after having to listen to the mages, shifters and faeries argue for the last hour or so, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to cope with any more of that. I’d asked the pair of them to see what they could dig up about necromancers, on the off-chance any of the books the pair of them had access to could provide some clues as to Endor’s whereabouts. After what was already two full days of digging, however, they’d not found anything yet, and I didn’t really expect much would have changed in the last twenty-four hours.

I decided instead to try and clear the cobwebs from my head and go for a wander around to Balud’s little shop. He’d been tasked with trying to find a weapon that might help defeat Endor. I could surmise by his absence at this morning’s meeting that he’d come up short thus far, but at least it gave me some sort of vague purpose.

The sun was high in the sky and blazing down with the full heat of summer. Dappled shadows danced across the pavement with each passerby, and the streets were busy with the glowing faces of contented tourists. None of it was making me feel particularly happy. I strode along, taking elongated steps in order to reach my destination as quickly as possible. I resolutely refused to get out of anyone’s way. The determination must have been visible on my face because virtually everyone maneuvered themselves out of my path. At one point, a sullen looking teenager seemed intent on playing chicken, heading straight for me and clearly refusing to get out of my way. When he was barely two feet from me, however, something in my face made him change his mind, and he hopped to my left with an elaborately heavy sigh. I knew I was being an idiot, but if I could control nothing else in my life then I