Page 18 of Tell Me Why (Tell, The Detective #5)

He went to get the door for her, leaving her standing on her own while he did it, then lowered her down into it.

She looked over as he got into the driver’s seat.

“You got away,” she said, and he nodded.

“I did.”

“What then?”

“I went back to Isabella and Daryll,” he said, putting the car into reverse and turning in his seat to back down the long driveway.

“I told them that I’d find all of them, but only if Keon went after Silix first, the man running the place in Texas…

” He looked at her briefly, then put the car into drive and sat forward.

“You were in Texas, for the record. Keon launched his attack there first so that I could get you out without anyone raising an alarm that we were coming.”

“You got them all?” Tina asked, and Tell nodded.

“Yeah. Isabella pulled a very clever move and tricked Daryll into giving me the list of all of the men he was competing with. He hadn’t even given her that list, but from there it was just… legwork. So to speak.”

“The attack,” Tina said, putting her head back against the headrest. “It spooked him.”

“Isabella called it in,” Tell said. “I… didn’t see it coming. She made a move and it nearly got you killed, but it shook Daryll hard enough to get him to make a mistake. He’s probably dead, now.”

“I bet he’s not,” Tina murmured, and he glanced at her.

“No?” he asked. “You think he’s that much of a cockroach?”

“I think she actually loves him,” Tina said, smiling. “I bet she opened a window and let him out into the night.”

Tell was silent for a moment.

“I wouldn’t be surprised, actually,” he said.

“I couldn’t ever figure out how she was managing to manipulate him that masterfully, but…

if the feelings between them are real… He’d forgive her.

Keon would think that Daryll just figured it out from Isabella disappearing unexpectedly, but… You could be right.”

Tina closed her eyes. The rage of thirst, of gut-deep hunger was about to drive her insane. She was having trouble thinking about anything else, to the point that she thought she could hear the heartbeats of the humans living in the houses up and down Ginger’s little private street.

“I’m hungry,” Tina said.

“It’s a good sign,” Tell answered.

“I’ve never been so hungry,” she whispered. “You have to keep me off of Tony. Promise me.”

Tell was a bit stony for a moment, and she looked at him with effort.

“I want you to feed,” he said. “Even if you kill him, doing it.”

“He’s my friend,” Tina said. “I’d never forgive you if you let me hurt him.”

“I can live with that,” Tell said.

“Tell,” Tina warned.

“Your survival… has come to mean quite a lot to me,” Tell said. “I only say it because I’ve rejected doing it, but… you need to know that I find that I’m willing.”

“I don’t care what you’re willing to do,” Tina said. “I will not trade his life for mine, even if that’s what it means. But it doesn’t . Probably.”

“You don’t know that,” Tell said. “If not his, potentially someone’s. You may not find voluntary feeds.”

“After this,” Tina said, “if that’s still true, then I’ll try drinking fresh blood and… we’ll just see.”

He looked at her.

“I would rather put you in a room with a stranger and let you tear them apart than wait and see whether you’re going to be okay. And there , I do mean it.”

“Does Tony… know?” Tina asked.

“I warned him that you were deeply unwell,” Tell said. “He shouldn’t be completely off-guard at how you look. The bigger problem is how you smell .”

“What?” Tina asked.

“You won’t be attractive to him anymore. More likely, you’ll be putting off dead-meat compounds that will make the idea of letting you touch him a skin-crawling concept. No matter how prepared he is for your appearance, his body is going to react involuntarily, just as it always has.”

Tina closed her eyes.

If she could have salivated, she would have.

Her body was empty .

How had she not felt it before now?

It was so distracting.

“Don’t let me,” she said. “Please. If he… don’t let me overpower him just because I can.”

Tell looked at her with worried eyes.

“You haven’t got long, Tina. I don’t know if you know how close you are to the precipice.”

“We’ll figure out something else,” Tina said. “I won’t do that to a friend.”

“You would,” Tell murmured.

She would.

She could feel the upswell of willingness to attack Tell to make him loose her on him.

“You have to tell him,” she said. “What could happen.”

“He can’t understand,” Tell said. “He’s never been anything but in love with you.”

“Don’t let me hurt him,” Tina said.

“Bite him clean,” Tell said. “I think it… It’s possible that you won’t have… the powers you normally do, to bite him painlessly or have him heal after.”

Tina would have jolted if her muscles had been capable of it.

“Tell,” she said. “Then you’re asking me to risk his life, even just biting him.”

He sighed.

“I will bite him after you do. That should let him heal.”

“I can’t do that,” Tina said. “Not without warning him.”

“Tina, if you tell him the truth, if you warn him accurately, he cannot agree to it. I don’t care how much of a genuine relationship the two of you have, or how badly he wants to help you. The human body’s capacity for self-preservation is going to be too strong. And you will die.”

“I don’t care,” Tina said. “You will tell him, or… I won’t get out of the car.”

“You will,” Tell said, grim. “With or without me, you will.”

It was true.

She was desperate.

“I was afraid you wouldn’t want to feed,” he murmured.

“Please,” she said. “Please. You have to tell him. And then… I don’t want to live like this. Not like this .”

He looked at her.

“You would bet your very life on the strength of will of a young man that you’ve met half a dozen times in person?”

It was more than that, but not by much.

“If he didn’t exist, I would accept death,” Tina answered. “I will try fresh blood. I won’t give up. But I don’t want to be an animal. That is death. I died the day the Kaija bit me. I’m not happy about it, and I do want to live, but… please.”

There was a long pause, then he nodded.

“Very well,” he said. “I will do my best to explain it to him.”

She watched him to be sure that he meant it, but she couldn’t tell, either way.

They pulled into a very old, abandoned drive-in theater, the posts sticking up out of the ground like skeletons struggling to rise, and she saw Tony leaning against his car.

“Stop here,” she said through gritted teeth. “Stop now.”

Tell sighed and braked sharply, glancing at her once.

He looked like he had something to say, but he couldn’t figure out what it was, and then he got out and left her.

Tina pulled down the visor and opened the mirror, finding a pale and skeletal version of herself there. Her eyes were sunken and her eyelids gaping from them, and her lips were colorless.

She was the walking dead, already.

And she was feeling better than she had been.

She was almost certain that everything that was happening around her was real, and everything.

She looked at her arms, finding an interesting if morbid incoherency, there. Her skin was slack and pale, but she hadn’t lost muscle tone.

They had sucked the vitality out of her, but they’d preserved her meat.

She lifted her face to look out at Tony.

And she didn’t see her friend.

A man who had saved her life, who had been friendly to her amongst all of the others who had just wanted her for her appeal and her wealth.

Someone whose mind she respected and whose company she enjoyed.

No.

All she saw was a heartbeat with pink skin.

And suddenly her fingers were working and she was prepared and ready to dive out the door of the car and charge over to him.

And she knew, she knew without even looking at it too closely, that it would have been on all fours.

She held herself in check, but it was only just barely. If she thought for a moment that she could smell him, she was going to lose it.

Tell was pointing at her as he spoke to Tony, and Tina held herself in tight check, trying to listen, trying not to listen. Her hearing was poor, even for normal, and she couldn’t make out Tony’s voice.

For the best.

If she could hear him…

Her hands were gripping her knees.

And she was leaning out over them, just… watching.

It was unlike her and uncomfortable to find that thing there inside of her, but she’d known.

Tell was going to have to rip her off of him if she lost control, and… knowing it didn’t make it any easier to feel.

Tell walked back quietly to the car and opened her door.

“He understands,” he said. She looked up at him, and he nodded. “I give you my word.”

She eased herself up out of the car, letting Tell offer her a hand to get onto her feet, then she turned to face Tony where he was still standing next to his car.

She would not run.

She would walk.

She was a human being, not an animal, even if she was a vampire, and she would walk with self-control across the gravel parking lot.

“Geez, Tina,” he said as she got closer. “What happened to you? Tell said, but… Geez.”

She couldn’t answer him.

There was no possible way.

She could feel the way she was leering at him, and she saw him go stiff and lean away from her.

She couldn’t stop. She dashed at him and he put an arm up to protect himself, trying to climb the car to get away.

She was tearing at him with claws of fingers, gnashing at his neck as he feebly tried to fight her off, screaming.

And then Tell’s hand, stronger than she was in the way of a parent handling a toddler, was flat on her chest from over her shoulder. He tore her away and tossed her back, turning to stand over her as she landed on the ground and scrambled to go after Tony again.

She had to.

She had to.

She had to.

There was blood there, on her hands, on her face, in his veins, she could hear it, she could smell it, she could think of nothing else.

Tell was in the way, but it wasn’t going to stop her.

She would tear him to bits if she had to, to get to Tony.