Blood Wager (Blood Destiny 1)

"Yeah, figures," I grumbled. "Gavin—the man that nothing bothers."

"Lissa, not everyone is your enemy."

"No? Point out somebody who isn't," I flung out an arm as I turned and stalked back to my bedroom.

I ran out of books to read on Sunday, so I took the keys to the Cadillac. Somebody had found it and driven it home. I didn't even ask or tell anybody where I was going, which meant there was the usual committee waiting on me when I got back.

"I went to Barnes and Noble. Vampires read. Get over it," I said, holding my bag of books up when I got out of the car. Fortunately, Phil wasn't a member of the welcoming party. I'd have thrown the hardcovers at his head if he'd been there. I wouldn't have missed, either. As it was, Gavin, Winkler, Davis and Glen were all there. Whitney had gone back to school—Gavin said that Todd had taken her to Austin while Sam had gone back to school in Corpus Christi. They were going to see each other on weekends until the end of the semester. Sam and Todd had been the bodyguards Winkler had assigned to Whitney, and that's how the two had gotten together in the first place. Winkler might be a genius, but that didn't prevent him from having blind spots. I thought about throwing books at him, too.

"What will make you not angry with us?" Winkler asked as I brushed past him, heading toward the guesthouse stairs.

"Nothing comes to mind," I said and ran up the steps.

Gavin told me later that Winkler decided to stay in Port Aransas for a while. He wanted to be closer to Whitney and Port A was a compromise. A crew drove all his equipment down on Tuesday afternoon, and then helped set it up for him in one of the extra bedrooms inside the house.

I also had a letter in the mail from Whitney. I found it on the kitchen table when I rose on Wednesday.

"Lissa," the letter began, "I am so sorry for what happened to you. My brother says you won't even talk to him now and Sam feels responsible. We were so afraid Will was going to send me off to Daryl Harper that we had to do something. I should have known better. I'm sorry.

Whitney"

I had to dig through several drawers in the guesthouse before I found paper and a pen to write an answer. "Whitney," I wrote back, "I would never have come after you if I hadn't been scared to death that your brother was going to kill somebody. I had no idea Phil would turn out to be more trigger happy than your brother. I can't say whether I appreciate it all that much or not. Don't worry about me. Study hard. I hope things work out well for you and Sam—Lissa."

"Here," I slapped the folded note in front of Winkler before I went to work. "You'd more than likely read it anyway before it got mailed so I'm saving you the trouble of steaming it open. Please see that it gets to your sister." My back ached a little as I walked the perimeter afterward. I didn't speak to Gavin at all while we worked and he barely looked at me when we passed one another. I saw Glen when he relieved us in the morning, but Phil wasn't anywhere around. I hadn't seen him since he shot me, and that was more than fine.

Winkler was sitting on the end of my bed when I woke Thursday night. "Very nice," I said angrily. "Just walk right in when I can't defend myself. Is this your way of making me feel special?"

"Lissa, I just came to apologize. For everything." Winkler picked at the comforter that I'd kicked to the foot of the bed. "No," he held up a hand, "I can't let you go. You're important. You've done more for me in the past few weeks than most people have during years of employment. I can't let that walk away, Lissa. I understand that an irresponsible vampire turned you and left you out in the cold. There's nothing I can do about that. What I can offer, though, is as much safety as I can during the day when you sleep. I always have guards around me, Lissa, and they'll guard you, too, just as you do me at night."

"And just how many of them do you intend to tell about what I am?" I demanded. "All of them? If so, you might as well stake me right now or cut off my head."

"Lissa, the only ones who know are the ones who are here now. Me, Phil, Glen, Davis and Gavin. That's it."

"Phil," I snorted. "Did he take shooting lessons from Dick Cheney?"

Winkler ducked his head to hide the smile. "Lissa, he's been reprimanded."

"That ought to improve our relationship," I said tartly.

"He's doing his best to stay out of your way," Winkler went on. "Lissa, we miss you. Glen, Davis and I. I can't speak for Phil."

"Yeah? I spoiled all his fun by living over it, I'm sure. Who dug the bullets out, by the way? I vaguely remember somebody digging around in my back. It wasn't a pleasant experience."

"Gavin did that," Winkler said, rising from my bed. "And he shouted at us the entire time." Winkler walked out of my bedroom.

"Fuck," I said and slid off the bed.

The waves were washing up just a few feet from where I sat on the beach, digging my toes into the sand during my break later. There was the barest sliver of moon overhead, but with my enhanced eyesight, I could see clearly. Gavin came to sit beside me.

"So," he said. "Care to tell me now about your life before?"

"Not really, no," I said, refusing to look at him.

"I can do research and find out for myself."

"No doubt," I snapped in irritation.

"Actually, I already did," he told me. "The Lissa is correct—you were Lissa Beth Workman, who disappeared on January fourth. Haven't been a vampire long, have you, Lissa Beth?"

"Nope. Died on the same day as my husband, but you probably know that already," I said. "Did you know I was a bar bet?"

"A bar bet?" Gavin didn't understand. Neither did I.

"Those two who turned me? I found the cocktail napkin they wrote the wager on in the cellar where I woke up. One was agreeing to pay a million pounds if I took less than nine days to turn. Isn't that great? Those two must have been a barrel of laughs. And now they're out there somewhere, searching for me so they can make me very, very, dead. Too bad they don't know Phil. So far he and the sun in a wheat field almost did me in."

"You were burned." He didn't make it a question.

"Yeah. I figure that if things become unbearable, that's my ticket out. I know how painful it is, now. And how quickly it can happen. I was able to dig into the ground and cover myself up in that field. Next time it'll be on purpose and I'll stand in the middle of a concrete road to do it. Poof." I fluttered my fingers.