Dead Until Dark

arms to his chest while I worked on the silver wrapped around his legs. His ankles had fared better since the Drainers hadn’t troubled to pull up his jeans’ legs and put the silver against his bare skin.
    “I’m sorry I didn’t get here faster,” I said apologetically. “You’ll feel better in a minute, right? Do you want me to leave?”
    “No.”
    That made me feel pretty good until he added, “They might come back, and I can’t fight yet.” His cool voice was uneven, but I couldn’t exactly say I’d heard him panting.
    I made a sour face at him, and while he was recovering, I took a few precautions. I sat with my back to him, giving him some privacy. I know how unpleasant it is to be stared at when you’re hurting. I hunkered down on the pavement, keeping watch on the parking lot. Several cars left, and others came in, but none came down to our end by the woods. By the movement of the air around me, I knew when the vampire had sat up.
    He didn’t speak right away. I turned my head to the left to look at him. He was closer than I’d thought. His big dark eyes looked into mine. His fangs had retracted; I was a little disappointed about that.
    “Thank you,” he said stiffly.
    So he wasn’t thrilled about being rescued by a woman. Typical guy.
    Since he was being so ungracious, I felt I could do something rude, too, and I listened to him, opening my mind completely.
    And I heard . . . nothing.
    “Oh,” I said, hearing the shock in my own voice, hardly knowing what I was saying. “I can’t hear you .”
    “Thank you!” the vampire said, moving his lips exaggeratedly.
    “No, no . . . I can hear you speak, but . . .” and in my excitement, I did something I ordinarily would never do, because it was pushy, and personal, and revealed I was disabled. I turned fully to him and put my hands on both sides of his white face, and I looked at him intently. I focused with all my energy. Nothing . It was like having to listen to the radio all the time, to stations you didn’t get to select, and then suddenly tuning in to a wavelength you couldn’t receive.
    It was heaven.
    His eyes were getting wider and darker, though he was holding absolutely still.
    “Oh, excuse me,” I said with a gasp of embarrassment. I snatched my hands away and resumed staring at the parking lot. I began babbling about Mack and Denise, all the time thinking how marvelous it would be to have a companion I could not hear unless he chose to speak out loud. How beautiful his silence was.
    “. . . so I figured I better come out here to see how you were,” I concluded, and had no idea what I’d been saying.
    “You came out here to rescue me. It was brave,” he said in a voice so seductive it would have shivered DeeAnne right out of her red nylon panties.
    “Now you cut that out,” I said tartly, coming right down to earth with a thud.
    He looked astonished for a whole second before his face returned to its white smoothness.
    “Aren’t you afraid to be alone with a hungry vampire?” he asked, something arch and yet dangerous running beneath the words.
    “Nope.”
    “Are you assuming that since you came to my rescue that you’re safe, that I harbor an ounce of sentimental feeling after all these years? Vampires often turn on those who trust them. We don’t have human values, you know.”
    “A lot of humans turn on those who trust them,” I pointed out. I can be practical. “I’m not a total fool.” I held out my arm and turned my neck. While he’d been recovering, I’d been wrapping the Rats’ chains around my neck and arms.
    He shivered visibly.
    “But there’s a juicy artery in your groin,” he said after a pause to regroup, his voice as slithery as a snake on a slide.
    “Don’t you talk dirty,” I told him. “I won’t listen to that.”
    Once again we looked at each other in silence. I was afraid I’d never see him again; after all, his first visit to Merlotte’s hadn’t exactly been a success. So I was trying to absorb every detail I could; I would treasure this encounter and rehash it for a long, long time. It was rare, a prize. I wanted to touch his skin again. I couldn’t remember how it felt. But that would be going beyond some boundary of manners, and also maybe start him going on the seductive crap again.
    “Would you like to drink the blood they collected?” he asked unexpectedly. “It would be a way for me to show my gratitude.” He gestured at the stoppered vials lying on the