After Hours (VAMPIRES PART 1)

Chapter 34

LISA

Minnie.

Minnie.

Minnie.

She stands in front of me, the closest she's been since she turned. The balcony sways under my feet. My body freezes, flashes of the night my sister was turned race through my head. Her teeth sinking into my neck, darkness growing over my vision. My whole body cold.

Someone screaming my name.

Someone grabbing me. Someone feeding me.

"Lisa. LISA?" Roseanne's squeezing my arm, wafting her wrist in front of me, the stench of iron in the air.

I snap back to attention, gripping her wrist. She yanks it away, taking her blood with her.

"Where did you go?" she says.

"Flashbacks, I... I keep getting flashbacks of that night."

Minnie's eyes well, "I am so sorry, Lisa. I didn't even know who I was when I... when I..."

"When you attacked me?" I say.

She drags her eyes away from me. "Yeah, when I attacked you. I was mid-transition, but now... I'd never. I hope you realise that I'd never ever do it again."

She steps forward, her arms open, but I shrink back, hold my palm out to stop her. "Not yet," I say. "I'm not ready yet."

I remain standing, preferring to be able to escape fast if I need to. Roseanne sits in one of the balcony's velvet armchairs.

"Okay, okay, I understand that," Minnie says and pushes her blonde hair behind her ears. While her eyes are brown like mine, they're a different shade, and tonight they're closer to yellow. It makes her alien to me. Her porcelain skin, she was always young-looking but she holds an impossible permanence in her features now, as if she's sculpted from marble instead of the squishy little sister she used to be.

My throat clogs.

This is pointless.

"What could you possibly say to make this better, Minnie? You're a vampire, and I'm a hunter."

"Yes, and by the looks of it, you're in love with a vampire too."

My mouth falls open. How is it only your fucking siblings can talk to you like this?

"I have n—" I say but she speeds across the balcony and slaps her hand over my mouth. I freeze, my body rigid and hard. Her palm is cool where it used to be warm, but her skin still smells like her, and it makes my stomach ache and my eyes sting. Fuck, I've missed her. I flinch against her touch, but she doesn't let go, she also doesn't try to hug me. She just stays, holding her hand to my mouth until I stop trembling.

And when I do, she says. "Don't even try and deny it. But that's not why I wanted to talk to you."

I drag her hand off my mouth. "Yeah? And what do you have to say that's going to make up for this?"

She puts her hands on her hips. "Roseanne saved my life, Lisa. You need to stop being shitty with her."

"She TURNED you, Minnie."

But Minnie shakes her head at me, her eyes full of pity. "I was going to die."

"Yes, because she drained you." I stab an accusing finger at Roseanne and all the rage I used to feel bubbles back into my body. I start shaking, my heart hammers in my chest so hard it aches. And once again, I'm not sure if I want to stake Roseanne or fall into her arms. I wipe a hand over my face trying to remove the cocktail of confusion, but it won't pass.