kisses my forehead. “Trust me.”
I nod and follow him out to the car before remembering something. “Karsyn!” I shout.
He turns to me. “I shot the vampire in the head. Can you please check any speck of blood in case it’s his so we can run it for a DNA match?”
Karsyn nods. “Location?”
“Across from the dining table about five feet from the open basement door.”
“I’m on it,” he says as Brooks moves over to me.
“You okay?” Brooks asks as he reaches out to me, and I notice his sleeve is bloody.
I hold my hand out to him. “Did you get hurt?”
He looks confused as his hand hesitates. “No. Why?”
“Your sleeve is bloody.”
He twists his arm and looks at where the blood spots his sleeve. “Oh, I scraped my arm on the busted door trying to unjam it when we arrived. I’m fine,” he assures me.
“Okay,” I say as I rush to the car as Marcus starts it. As soon as I shut the door he begins driving, and I turn in my seat to watch Artie who’s still just staring. He’s not shaking or panting and that’s worrying to me. It’s clear he’s in shock after what happened and when a dog is in shock, it’s not a good thing.
A touch on my leg makes me jump. Startled, I look at Marcus’s hand before reaching out and taking it with my prosthesis. “I’m so sorry, Finn. I shouldn’t have left you. He knew we left. He was waiting for us to leave you alone.”
I stare at him in disbelief. “How can you even fathom apologizing? I did this. Claude and Artie are hurt because of me. Nothing you did caused this, Marcus! If you were here tonight, you could have been hurt just like him.” I start to pull my hand away, but he takes it and holds it close to himself.
“Knock it off. Stop beating yourself up over this. Did you call him over, Finn? Did you ask him to attack you? Of course you fucking didn’t. He’s a monster who wants to control what you’re doing. He honestly thinks he owns you. We both know if he wanted you, he would have taken you today. It’s clear that Claude might have slowed him down, but he couldn’t have stopped him.”
“He… he talked to me,” I say. “He said that he wanted me to leave the VRC because it was unsafe… it sounds like he was pissed about me getting shot because of it… it left a blemish on me. So he wants me to leave, but why do I have to fucking leave? Why do I have to do what he wants? What right does this fucking monster have to ruin and rule my life?” My voice is shaking as it rises, and I know I’m being selfish by even wanting to stay with the VRC. “So… all of this is my fucking fault for joining the VRC? The women who died? Perez? Tonight?”
Marcus squeezes my hand. “Finnigan. Please listen to me. This is not your fault. I feel fucking guilty about it, but I know it’s not my fault either. It’s his. It’s always been his and… tonight tensions are high. We’re upset; we’re thinking rashly. So let’s just worry about the here and now, and then we’ll go from there, okay?”
I nod and he lifts my hand to his lips before kissing it.
“I’m so glad you’re okay. I’m so sorry you went through that,” he says.
“Can you tell me what you did to Artie?”
He hesitates before nodding. “It’s not something I share because I honestly don’t know how or why. I mean, there’s clearly something in a vampire’s body or in their blood that allows them to heal quickly. I don’t know if it’s something that’s changing in me, but about twenty years ago Artemus got hit by a car. In a moment of desperation, I gave him some of my blood and it healed him—”
I stare at him in disbelief. “Twenty years ago? Don’t Irish wolfhounds live to be ten at the most because they’re such a large dog?”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe? Maybe? I like how you’re acting like you have no idea what’s going on when you… did you turn your dog into a vampire dog?” I ask.
“There’s no such thing as a vampire dog!” he says. “It just… heals him a little bit for some reason… and then he just stopped getting old. I honestly don’t know if he’ll never get old or if he’s just aging