Escaping Monsters - Rita Stradling Page 0,12

said. “The second is my downtown clinic, only a few streets over. If you don’t feel comfortable coming to our house, I’ll be at the clinic at seven-thirty tomorrow morning until five o’clock. As a veterinarian, I would recommend coming in sooner rather than later for that hand.” As I took the note, he said, “Your secret is safe with us. I can guarantee that.”

“Thank you.” I shoved the napkin into my back pocket. “Appreciate the gesture.”

Cradling my bloody palm, I headed deeper into the bar, beelining for the tall, pasty vampire named Clive. He leaned over the bar, smiling down at an older man who appeared mid-fifties and had what looked like a pair of horns nestled in his curly brown hair. Not having room in my thought process to contemplate the man’s horns, I held my bleeding hand between the pair. “Hi, Clive. Will you take the blood from a pre-existing cut as payment for a room?”

The vampire rose from his barstool in a fluid motion and his gaze narrowed in on my gash.

“Hmm... It looks to have torn several layers of tissue, though it’s not through any vital artery. Oh… your blood does smell like feral magic…” His dark eyes glowed as if illuminated by some inner flame as he licked his lips. Seeming to snap out of the trance, he glanced over to me and then over his shoulder toward the four werewolves who were still standing around the bar, watching us. His attention turned back to me, and the glow in his eyes had noticeably dimmed. Trading my blood for a room to stay in was probably one of the worst ideas I’d ever had, but vampire saliva cleaned and closed cuts instantly, and I needed a bed for the night. Win-win-win. And, I was out of options.

“Deal.” He reached for my cut, but I pulled my bloody wrist away.

“Room first, and it needs to have a working lock on the door. All locks must be operational from the inside, and there needs to be a deadbolt or something similar that can’t be unlocked from the outside.”

“All of our rooms have safety measures for the guests of that caliber,” he said. “We do not lock our guests in their rooms, on the contrary, we more often have issues with removing ones who do not keep up payment.”

“I have more terms here,” I said. “I’m only feeding you and only until this cut closes. I’m not an all-you-can-eat buffet for the vampires in town.”

“I agreed that it was a deal.” He rolled his head back on his neck and peered at me from down the length of his nose. “But you can’t press on your wound to stop the bleeding before we arrive at the hotel.”

“Oh, there will be bleeding. I have to dig glass out of my palm,” I said, holding the cut closer to him. “What time is check out?”

“Sunset tomorrow,” he said. “Or we can always come up with a further payment arrangement.”

“That won’t be necessary.” Sunset tomorrow was better than I expected. I could work with that.

“Do those werewolves know where your Inn is?” I asked with a nod back over my shoulder.

“Everyone knows where the Sanguine Inn is, it’s on the top of the hill, three blocks west.”

That wasn’t ideal if the alpha was lying about his feelings toward Kane. Kane had no shortage of enemies, but I didn’t know of a single one that wouldn’t hand me over in a heartbeat. On the other hand, this vampire Clive was clearly wary of the local pack, so he’d hopefully stick to the terms of our deal.

“Lead the way, vampire,” I gesture back to the door.

The werewolves hadn’t moved when I passed them. They just watched me in silence as I left to feed the hungry vampire.

Chapter Three

I blinked open my eyes, staring into the face of a massive gray cat. It crouched on my chest, squishing the oxygen from my lungs and watching me with its tail flicking back and forth. It took me a few seconds to recognize the beast as the one guarding the register at Cat’s 24-Hour Drugstore.

Moving very slowly, I pulled my camera from the nightstand, adjusted the lens, and snapped a photo of the glaring cat.

“How did you get in here, kitty?” I set my camera down and reached out to scratch the feline’s head, but the cat hissed, jumped off my chest and hurried off the bed, surprisingly agile for its size. It jumped up