Page 175 of Death is Familiar

“He’s not bitten,” I interjected. “He was helping me investigate the vamps.” Whatever was being held at my neck was lowered a fraction of an inch. I released my hold on the man’s arm to sign, “I’m fine. Trust me.”

Todd’s chin dragged across the ground, but still he bobbed his head.

“What do you mean?” The man tightened his grip.

Turning my head, I caught a glimpse of the yellow, orange, and blue capsule fisted against my neck. This was a first, I’d never been threatened with an autoinjector before. Good news was it was relatively harmless, unless he decided to pull off the blue cap.

“The vampires are trouble. They need to be dealt with.” I offered a piece of my past life to try and sell the authenticity. “We were trying to figure out how they worked so we could tear them apart from the inside.”

Our assailants exchanged dumbfounded looks, the woman eventually shouting, “She’s manipulating you, Hank! She kicked Terry and Mark in the balls then locked them in a closet!”

Oops. Apparently, I had a witness.

Even exhausted and restrained, Todd caught my eye, his question clear: Did I do what the woman claimed?

I offered a brief smile. Yep. “They weren’t vamps?”

The woman shook her head.

“Then what the hell were they doing cornering me upstairs?” I switched to offense.

“We are trying to save your life! Don’t you get that?” The woman was escalating, the man’s hold around my torso tightened. If we didn’t stop the spiraling soon, there would be no reasoning with either of them. “You were bit by a vampire at a fang ceremony. You’re going to turn into one of them if we don’t keep your heart beating!”

“My heart will keep beating just fine.”

“No, it won’t, the only way to stop the transformation is a steady stream of adrenaline. I’ve had success,” the man—Hank—explained. “Maeve here survived. She saw the light. It spoke to her, gave her a calling. You need the adrenaline. It will be the only way to save you and your little one.”

Panic flashed white hot across my vision and down my spine. “I wasn’t bitten.”

“You’re lying!”

“Why the hell would I lie about it if my life was on the line?” I was but that wasn’t the point. The point was they were deluding themselves into thinking vampires were real, and they were killing people with the cure.

“We saw the marks.”

“It’s fake. The bite’s not real.” Knowing I’d put myself in this position, Jack was going to have a field day. Once he found out, I doubted he would ever let me out of his sight again. “We thought everyone needed bite marks to get in.”

My convincing did nothing. They were sold on their narrative and there would be no changing their minds.

“She needs the first dose soon, Hank. She was bitten over an hour ago.” Todd worked to roll the woman over, but she rode him like a bucking bronco. “Her heart might stop if we wait any longer! You saved my life in minutes, minutes, Hank, it might already be too late for her!”

Hank thumbed the blue cap off—the autoinjector equivalent of disengaging the safety—and reared back his hand. And for a moment, I thought I wasn’t going to get out of this, that I was going to get stabbed in the neck with adrenaline.

I could take it. One dose of adrenaline. To the neck. Once he stabbed me, he’d have nothing to hold over my head. He wouldn’t be able to restock. I gritted my teeth, ready to grimace and bare it, when⁠—

“I’d think again,” Jezebel’s voice cooed from somewhere behind me. The rush of panic fizzled. Hank froze.

Though I couldn’t see her, I got the distinct impression Jezebel was threatening him with a sharp object to his throat. Yes, she’d saved me from a jab to the neck, but I was more content knowing she was alright.

As part of our plan, Jezebel was meant to break into the apothecary van while the staff were otherwise occupied looking for me. I was starting to worry my miscalculation had gotten her into hot water. I’d never been happier to be wrong.

“Nice of you to finally join us, Jez,” I teased, trying not to let the fear and fading surge of my own adrenaline shake my voice. Considering the capsule threatening my neck, I said, “Let me guess, they’ve got a stash of auto-injectors in there.”

“Van was chock-full of them.”

Todd made another attempt to dislodge the woman, but his body didn’t cooperate, and she dropped her weight into the center of his back. “She’s got a shoe to your throat, Hank. Not a knife.”

“It’s a stiletto.” Jez corrected. “It’s sharp enough to make you think twice about whatever you’re planning next.”