Chapter 15
T he sun was setting when I walked up to the café outside my hotel like a woman on a mission. I stood at the edge of the gate, surveying every seat at every table. It was after ten in the evening, and I was shocked at how many groups of people still sat, ate, and smoked. I swallowed my heartbeat, growling in frustration when the one person I searched for was nowhere to be found. People milled around their lives, oblivious to my plight.
I thought about stomping around the streets, yelling, “here, vampire!” until I found one. Surely, it couldn’t be that hard. They seemed to grow on trees in this damned city.
I could attempt to text Willa or Sophie, but I had a feeling their loyalty to Addie would override everything else—even if I could manage to get one of them to see things the way I did.
I would give anything. Do anything.
I practically leaped in front of the blonde server who had offered her wrist to the vampire the day before. She jolted to a stop with wide eyes, and my gaze darted down to her bandaged wrist—as if confirming that what I’d seen had been real. It was. Vampires were real, and I was going to become one. The server said something in French, probably asking what my problem was.
I shook my head. “I don’t speak French.”
Annoyed, the server tried to step around me.
I gripped her arm. “I’m looking for Simon.”
She tilted her head.
“Simon,” I cried, squeezing her harder. “The vampire. Do you know where I can find him?”
“Simon lives in that building,” someone said in broken English. I turned to greet one of the other servers. He pointed to the brown building across the street with the wrought iron balconies and gray rooftop. “Top floor.”
“Thank you,” I blurted, suddenly feeling stupid. Of course, I should have tried the apartment building; I was there last night. “Uh, merci .”
I rushed away from them without waiting for the crosswalk to turn green. I skidded out of the way of two cars, yelping and calling out half-hearted apologies. Horns blared behind me, but I paid no attention to them. Shoving my way into the building, I raced up the stairs.
I had to do this.
I needed this.
I made it to the top of the stairs. My stomach sank when I took in the long hallway of doors. I didn’t remember which one I’d come out of last night when Simon let me leave. It had been dark, and I’d been so worried he would follow me that I kept my eyes straight forward and bolted out of the building without paying too much attention to my surroundings. I contemplated whether it was the third one on the left, but I wasn’t confident enough to try.
I didn’t have to, though, because the fourth door on the left opened a moment later, and Simon stepped out.
Simon was different from the other vampires I knew. Addie, Holland, Willa, and the rest of them were my friends first, vampires second. Simon was all vampire; I knew nothing about him other than the fact that he was a vampire.
That was enough.
His green eyes found me like he expected to see me there, though curiosity flashed on his face. He leaned against the door frame, waiting.
Rolling my shoulders back, I nodded to myself and crossed the hallway. I stopped in front of Simon, close enough to smell his cologne.
“Fancy seeing you again,” he drawled in a thick French accent, his lip quirking up in a smirk.
“I need your help,” I blurted.
“How can I help you, Lucinda?”
I held his gaze evenly and firmly. “I need you to make me a vampire.”