Bitten by Darkness (6 page)

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“You
kissed him.” Sienna's mother's voice contained equal parts shock and amusement.

Sienna
toyed with the spoon. Her tea was cold. She debated calling the waiter and
ordering fresh hot water, but a glance at her mother's face told her that she'd
better cough up the details or else. She sighed. At least they were alone out
here on the deck. No other diners would hear the humiliating details of her
mother's interrogation.

“Sienna…”
her mother warned, growing impatient. Not for the first time Sienna wondered
how her mother managed to guilt her into talking. She didn’t
look
intimidating: heart-shaped face,
blonde hair just going silver at the temples, clear blue eyes. She looked much
younger than her sixty-years, courtesy of their weird genetics. Sienna’s face
still looked like a teenager’s, though she supposed she’d be grateful for it in
a few decades.

“Yes,
yes. Okay. I kissed him.” Sienna sipped her tea, wishing she had more cookies
to crumble, but she'd eaten all of them. Her mother had a few left, but she'd
smack Sienna's hand if she tried to swipe one of them.

The café
where they sat was a quaint eatery on the main street of their little town. A
shoe store sat to their left, but the café had an outside patio on the opposite
side tucked between the buildings of the strip mall. A quick breeze blew
through the tables set up on the rough wood decking and she had to grab her
napkin before it flew away the way she wished she could. The sky was purpling
into that gorgeous autumn twilight that she loved so well.

“You
don't do that,” her mother said, sipping her tea placidly. “You never kiss
men.” She paused and smiled over the golden rim of the cup. “I'm kind of
impressed, actually.”

Sienna
grimaced. “Yeah, well. I kind of think I lost my mind.”

“Was he
any good?”

Sienna
blushed hotly.
“Mom!”

Her
mother laughed. “Oh come on, you haven't even told me what he looks like,
except that he's tall.”

Sienna
sighed again, aggravated. “He has black hair.
Really gorgeous
grey eyes.
And he has an attitude I could really do without.”

“An attitude?”

“He was
nice enough at first. But after he'd shown me exactly two rooms in his mansion,
the kitchen and the foyer, he went all spooky and weird. Like I'd stepped on
his puppy or something,” Sienna explained.

“Was this
before or after the kiss?”

“Right after.
It was like night and day. He copped an attitude and
walked out on me.
Didn't even see me to the door.”
She
frowned. Her mother had been bugging her for details since she'd told her about
the mansion, but now that she'd given in and described what happened, her mom
was staring over her shoulder, mouth quirked in a half smile.

“I'm
sorry I left you like that,” a deep voice said directly behind her.

Sienna
whirled around in her chair, almost tipping it over. Jasper!
Damn him
,
she thought as she felt her fair skin heat up. He caught the wrought-iron chair
and steadied it. His fingers brushed hotly against her bare shoulder.
Why
didn't I wear a sweater?
She shivered in her tank top.

“You
heard,” she said flatly.

He
shrugged and pulled out a spare chair. “I could hardly help it. Your voice has
a peculiar piercing quality when you're pissed.”

Sienna
narrowed her eyes at him. He dared talk about
her
attitude?
After that frustrating display in
his house?

He
settled himself and reached a hand over the table to her mother. “I'm Jasper
Librae
.”

Her
mother smiled at him, the traitor.
“Violet Lange.
I'm
very pleased to me you.” She shook his hand.

“I assure
you, I'm not usually so boorish. Your daughter has a gift for exaggeration.” He
winked at Sienna as he stole one of her mother's cookies.

Her
mother didn't even blink. Sienna sat back in her chair, disgruntled. She wanted
a cookie. She wanted Jasper to go away. She eyed the man: wind-tousled hair,
black button-down shirt. A glint of silver glittered at his neck. His grey eyes
twinkled as he set the sugary pastry on Sienna’s plate. She wanted to kiss him
again.

“She
always did tend toward fantastic stories,” her mother said serenely. A waiter
came and Jasper blithely ordered tea for himself. After a look at Sienna's cup,
he also ordered more hot water for her.

“Oh
please, I did not, mother. And I wasn't exaggerating. Jasper was a jerk,” Sienna
retorted. She didn't know whether to be angry with him for ordering for her or
grateful. She hated cold tea.

He
sighed. “She's right. I behaved … badly.” He turned those gorgeous eyes on her
and Sienna huffed. He looked pathetic, though how he managed that expression on
his face was a mystery. The strong planes of his jaw were lightly
stubbled
. She wanted to scratch at him. Or run her fingers
through his hair. Ugh. The mood swings were giving her whiplash. How did he do
that to her?

“Yeah,
whatever,” she finally said, flapping a hand at him.

Her
mother ignored her. “She told me you were able to scare away Linda's attacker.”
She sipped her tea, turning her penetrating gaze on Jasper, thank goodness,
instead of Sienna.

He
shrugged. “Those kinds of men tend to run when someone bigger comes along.”

Sienna's
mother picked up her last cookie and chewed thoughtfully.
What is she up to?
Sienna wondered. She knew her mother. Nothing got past her. The woman was
practically psychic.

“Some
monsters don't care about bigger monsters. They're too irrational to calculate
the odds.” Her mother tapped a fingernail against her spoon, looking
expectantly at Jasper.

Sienna
bit her tongue.
Now is not the time to interrupt. She's on your side and
she's got him squirming.
Sort of.

Jasper
tilted his head and smiled wryly. “Yes, well. I'm quite a bit bigger and
badder
than most. Even the most irrational monster has an
instinct for survival.”

What the
hell were they talking about? Sienna suddenly felt as though they'd taken the
less-traveled road and left her behind at the intersection. She picked up the
cookie he stole for her from her mother and chewed it as she mulled over the
implications, but before she could come to a conclusion, Jasper gave her mother
an indecipherable look, then turned to Sienna.

“I do
want to apologize for storming out on you the other day. Something you said
reminded me of my brother and I quite lost my sense of hospitality. He died a
long time ago and the suddenness of the memory startled me. Even so, I acted
terribly. Forgive me?” His face was serious.

Sienna
eyed him speculatively. Should she forgive him so easily? She wanted to. He was
the first man she ever truly liked, though that thought scared her more than
she liked to admit. She thought about her father's abandonment and how her
parents’ divorce had hurt her. “Don't worry about it. I understand,” she
finally said, uncomfortable. Her mother undoubtedly knew precisely what she was
thinking.

Thankfully,
the waiter brought the fresh tea and another plate of scones for them,
derailing the awkward conversation. Sienna dove for a chocolate cookie, not
even blushing when both her mother and Jasper rolled their eyes at her.

Halfway
through the fudgy deliciousness, she realized that Jasper wasn't eating. He
sipped at his tea, barely wetting his lips. “Aren't you going to have any?”

He
grinned. “I ate earlier. I ordered them for you.”

She
stopped chewing mid-bite. He'd ordered for her again? She hated that.
Hated it.
I'm an adult. I don't need some guy ordering food
for me
, she thought meanly, angry with him all over again. She debated
tossing the scone back down on the plate out of sheer stubbornness, but decided
irritation was too lame a reason to waste chocolate.

Her
mother laughed. “Oh, you can be quite charming when you want to, can't you?”

Jasper
smirked. Sienna's temper heated even more. Her mother thought that was
charming? “He's, like, the opposite of charming.” She glared at him.

“Oh come
now, I apologized. How can you be angry with me?” He reached over and pulled
her hand toward him, kissing the back of her fingers just as the last rays of
the sun fell below the horizon, like some Prince Charming. His palm was warm.
When he touched his mouth to her skin, a bolt of lust shot straight through her
spine. She remembered what those lips tasted like.

She
snatched her hand back, fighting the urge to smack his smug, gorgeous face.
Even in the low light of the café's
tiki
torches his
eyes gleamed. “You didn't even ask me if I wanted more cookies.”

“I saw
you eyeing your mother's crumbs. I was afraid of what might happen if you
didn't get some more sustenance in you.” He cocked his head and a lock of his
dark hair fell over his eyes. He reached up to brush it away, smirking.

She
growled. She couldn't help it. He
was
charming, just like her mother
said.
And a jerk.

He
laughed. She shot her mother a look that said,
See? He's impossible
, but
her mother had stuffed half a scone in her mouth and was busy chewing.
Yeah,
right
, Sienna thought.
You did that so you wouldn't laugh in my face,
mother
. She was outnumbered. She sighed and let go of her bitchiness. It
was
kind of funny. And she
did
want more scones.

She was
just about to grab another when a black-clad hand came down on her shoulder,
hard. She didn't even have time to flinch before Jasper shot up out of his
chair and swung a fist over her head. Belatedly, Sienna ducked, spilling her
tea. Her mother gasped, then dove for the ground, pulling her daughter with
her.

“Mom?
What the hell?” Sienna rolled, trying to see what was happening. Her mother had
a death-grip on her arm.

Jasper
grunted. Sienna peeked out from behind the table just in time to see him grab
one of the iron chairs and shove it at the attacker's face. The metal hit the
man's skull with a wet thud, but it didn't stop him.

“Sienna!
Stay down,” Jasper yelled.

Her
mother yanked on her leg and Sienna fell to the worn decking of the café's
patio. “Let me go,” she hissed.

“Jasper
knows what he's doing,” her mother replied, not easing her grip one iota.

Sienna
struggled, but when the man shoved the café table to the side, the screeching
of the iron against the wood convinced her to stay down. The edge of one of the
legs hit her shoulder and she gasped.
“Jasper.
I have
to help him. He's going to get hurt,” she said through clenched teeth. Her
shoulder ached, but she still wanted to do something. Jasper had the man by the
neck. “Mom—”

“You're
strong, but not that strong. Not as strong as him,” her mother
said,
voice thin and panicked.

Sienna
let her pull her back, up against the potted evergreen at the edge of the deck.
The man stomped on Jasper's feet but it didn’t do much to dislodge him. As she
watched, he grimaced and tightened his arms. The crack of the attacker's neck
was loud and disturbing. Sienna blinked, wondering once again why she wasn’t
freaking out. She was worried, yes, but not really frightened, the same as she
was when she’d found Linda standing over the dead girl in the woods. Jasper
grunted when the broken neck didn’t seem to stop the man.
No, the vampire.
An ordinary man would be dead by now
,
she thought, grimacing. She refused to look away. She and her mom were trapped
between the back wall of the building and the violent struggle. The creature
didn't die and Jasper didn't let go, which was just wrong.

“Why
isn't he going down?” she muttered, easing her mother behind her a slight bit.

“He's a
monster,” her mother whispered harshly.

Sienna
stilled. Her mother never sounded like that.
Never.
Except for that one time when she'd explained that monsters were real, that
vampires truly existed, and that Sienna had the blood of an alien race in her
body. “It’s a vampire,” she said aloud, forcing air past suddenly tight lungs.
She was worried for Jasper,
yeah, that’s
right
, she told herself. What had happened to her calm?

Violet
nodded.

Jasper
glanced at them, face shuttered. The monster struggled, arms ripping at
Jasper's hair. Sienna clearly saw the elongated incisors, their sharp points
glittering in the low light.

“Jesus,”
she breathed. She reached into her purse, which had somehow, miraculously,
fallen down to the ground with them, and extracted the knife she always had
with her. Without a word she flipped it open, eyed Jasper's position and the
vampire's struggles,
then
threw it. It landed in the
creature's chest with a thick pop, the pearl handle gleaming weirdly. Jasper
bared his teeth—
a smile?
a
growl?
—then pulled
it out and sliced the vampire's throat.