Page 4 of Even Vampires Bleed
“You’re going to be okay for a second if I go talk to her?” I ask Léandre.
I don’t get to leave him though, because Angie is coming this way, and crashes with her arms around him.
“I got your message.” I hear her mutter against his neck as she holds him like her life depends on it.
“He died two days ago.” His answer is muffled, but I hear him all the same. No wonder he looked so lost.
If I remember correctly, the message he sent Angie throughThe Hunchback of Notre Damespecial book, I think he said his father was poisoned. It would make sense that it’s who he is referring to when he says, “He died.” He lost his father earlier, and then his best friend got married. From the look of it, he hasn’t been sleeping for longer than that. Even his clothes look like they were slept in, and who would fault him? He’s still here, functioning to the best of his ability even if his world is falling apart.
I’m just wondering if they buried him already, because his father is Gabriel, and no announcement of him passing on to the next life has been aired in the media. We would know. They’ll need to select the next Gabriel as soon as the story breaks.
Angie finally releases him and looks him in the eyes, at arm’s length and with hands on his shoulders.
“I need to know what he did to you,” she says softly.
What? There’s more? For freaking sake, how much can a man withstand before he breaks altogether?
Léandre doesn’t answer immediately, but then he pushes his golden brown hair from behind his ear, and there we can all see what looks like a small capsule under his skin.
“What does it do?” I ask before Angie.
Léandre looks at me, and I see all the turmoil boiling inside of him with that single glance.
He hasn’t said a word yet, and I already know I’m going to hate it.
“It’s a neurotransmitter. If Michaël presses the button on his holo, all I’ve ever known will be wiped out from my memory. My life will disappear in smoke.”
“Can’t we remove it?” Angie asks.
I’m so glad she asked because I feel like my tongue has turned to lead, and I’m not sure I could talk. Something inside my chest squeezes, and I’m seconds away from reaching for Angie or Léandre, but I stay where I am, my emotions overflowing at their best.
“The person who installed it said it would detonate if we remove it before it’s neutralised,” Léandre says with a small voice. “I didn’t have someone to double check, so I didn’t touch it.”
How long has he been wearing this? I wouldn’t sleep either, if I knew that my brain could go boom if I accidentally scratched that little capsule.
I don’t want to ask, and it feels like Angie doesn’t either, but Léandre gives usthe answer, anyway.
“He had it installed on the day you left. I already had it on when I told you goodbye. We might soon have to meet in this next life we’ve talked about so often,” he says with a chuckle, but it has no warmth in it and feels empty.
I don’t know what he means until I hear Angie answer him and then my heart breaks altogether.
“In this life or the next,” she says as she bends his head to touch their foreheads.
I don’t know this man, but I’m already crying.
4
Cassiopé
It turns out Léandre decides to get drunk after announcing all of that. He also decides everyone should get drunk with him.
The whole afternoon has a last night on Earth vibe, and while it’s not really my thing, I’m playing along.
Léandre makes us play that weird game that he calls “truth or dare” and says that people used to play it around the beginning of the millennium.
He read that in a book.
It’s so freaking stupid, but he managed to get everyone to play—even Elhyor and my father. Well, I was dared to make my dad play, so maybe that’s on me.
