Page 85 of Hallow Hill at Halloween: Part One
“Isn’t it obvious? I owe her a profound apology for the incident last night.” He seemed sincere and, to the point, was even wringing his hands.
“I’m more than certain that Rita doesn’t hold you responsible.”
“You don’t know anything of the kind.”
“I do. I know her. She has a very generous spirit. I, on the other hand, would like permission to wring your neck.”
“Granted. First, I must apologize to her. Please grant me entrance.”
Just as Keir opened his mouth to repeat his “no” more emphatically, a blood-curdling scream came from inside the house. Keir rushed to the bedroom. John David, equipped with the sort of vampire speed that enabled him to be virtually invisible, was close behind.
Rita was screaming. The dogs were so beside themselves, not knowing what to do, that they’d changed into their fraighound forms and were turning in circles howling.
Keir grabbed her by the shoulders and shook. She didn’t wake, but she did quiet. He gathered her seemingly lifeless form into his arms and held on for a moment. Fenn and Frey came to the bedside and repeatedly bumped Rita’s thigh with their noses.
“She’ll be fine, pups.” Keir wasn’t in the habit of talking to the dogs, but he knew Rita was. So, he did his best to reassure them.
He laid her back gently, arranging her body and the covers just so. He was so lost in the situation that he’d forgotten all about John David.
Until he spoke. “It’s all my fault, isn’t it?”
Keir stood and glared. “Your ridiculous self-pity isn’t helping, vampire. How could it possibly be your fault?”
John David pointed to the bed weakly. “She was fine before she came to the ball. Then Aofinne bit her. At least I think that’s what happened. I’m not sure what happened. I just know that, if I hadn’t been trying to help her… Addiction, you know?”
Lines formed on Keir’s brow. “Addiction? My wife won’t wake up and you want to chat about addiction?
John David looked at Rita. “She won’t wake up?”
That pushed Keir outside the bounds of emotional control. “NO! She WON’T or CAN’T wake up. What did you think was going on here? Fire drill?”
“I, uh… I guess I…”
“Go home,” Keir said. “And do not tell anybody about this. It’s two days until Samhain Court. It would be bad if people found out.”
“Of course,” John David said quietly, backing out of the bedroom.
“Wait a minute. You’re talking about blood addiction? You took in an addict, gave her a place to recover, and exposed my wife – myhumanwife – to your charity project?”
John David couldn’t help but notice that Keir had become eerily calm.
“I thought she was further along, that she could be trusted. And I owed her a favor from, ah, a long time ago.”
“No doubt. Get out,” Keir said.
John David straightened for a moment and seemed to gather his composure. “You’re not blameless, you know. If you hadn’t gone off chasing that werewolf like an undisciplined hound, you would’ve been there, and this would not have happened.”
Keir went stock still. He knew it was the truth. And he wanted to kill John David for speaking the words. Even setting aside the fact that Rita was the love he treasured above all else, he was made with one purpose in mind. Protect the magistrate. He wasn’t made to go chasing glysepherons. Or werewolves, unless they were a clear and present danger. No. He basically had one job. Protect the magistrate and he’d failed. Failed her.
When Keir didn’t react, the vampire crumpled into his former posture of guilt and looked like he was on the verge of tears. “Will she be… There must be something I can do? If this is because of the bite, I could…”
“You could what?” Being a predator by nature, John David had mad skills when it came to reading others. But the dullest person in the county could’ve accurately interpreted the messages Keir was broadcasting. He’d begun breathing heavily. His hair was growing, his pupils were changing shape, and his next two words sounded very growly. “Turn her?” he asked slowly. “Into a vampire?”
“I’m going.” Finally, John David chose to be smart and take up his cause another day.
Keir yelled after him. “Tell anybody what you know and you’ll have thrown your last party. Understand?”
The vampire was already outside the house, but his hearing was good enough to catch the gist. “I would never,” he said out loud even though no one else was in the lane.
Molly was behind the bar wearing her usual establishment proprietor smile. “What brings you in this fine day?”
Esme found social smiles difficult on the best of days and impossible in the midst of catastrophe. “Where’s Jeff?” she demanded.
Without missing a beat, Molly replied, “In the back looking after inventory.” She was unfazed by Esmerelda’s lack of social grace. They’d been neighbors for a very long time. She didn’t bother to invite Esme behind the scenes of her pub. She could see Esme was on a mission.
The moment Jeff looked up and saw Esme coming toward him, his boyish face took on harder lines, and he seemed to age twenty years. “What’s happened?” he said.