Page 41 of Kissed the Mark
“I can’t believe this.” Leandra didn’t gofor her phone. “Did you really get me to fuck you so that Iwouldn’t know you met with Mateo?”
From the look on her face, it was arhetorical question. She already knew. I kept my mouth shut.
“Why? What were you doing with him? He’s amurderer,” she said.
Aren’t you all?I almost asked, butI’d murdered people too, even if they were part of my bountyhunting. “He called me and requested a meeting. I interrogated hima bit ago about the werewolf that came to town and changedMelanie.”
“I spent hours investigating him and dealingwith that slimy human to get results. I wish you had communicatedthis to me.”
“That’s bold,” I said, straightening myposture, “considering you haven’t communicated even half of thethings going on here withme.”
She took a deep breath. We glared at eachother.
Finally, Leandra said, “Mateo is the one whokilled the werewolf, Bill Dyer, and sucked him dry.”
I couldn’t help but gasp. “What?”
“Since we’re being honest with each other.”Leandra began pacing again, opening a closet door and shovingdresses into the suitcase. “Like I said, murderer.”
“I was investigating that too!” I nearlyshouted. A succulent on her desk shook in response to my anger.Control yourself, Olympia, before you get us all barbed with avery tiny cactus. “Why wouldn’t you tell me about that? Youplayed along like—”
“Okay, we get it. You didn’t tell me things,I didn’t tell you things, we boned each other as a distraction,blah, blah, blah. Did you tell Matt anything he could use againstme?”
“Why exactly would there be anything hecould use against you, Leandra?”
Leandra zipped the suitcase shut. “I don’tknow if we have time to stop at your place. Is there anything youneed from there or can you just do with some of my stuff?” Sherolled a second suitcase out of the closet.
“I don’t exactly think your dresses will fitme. And no, I don’t think I told him anything at all.”
“Good. What did he ask from you?”
“Same thing you did.” I watched her pack“my” suitcase with a very small shirt that would accommodate boobsabout three times as big as mine. Austria probably had clothingstores, at least. “He wanted me to talk to Melanie.”
The vampire’s eyes narrowed. She stoppedpacking. “Did you actually ask Melanie to meet with me?”
“No,” I admitted. “But to be fair, she wasreally well protected, and I didn’t think they would let hergo.”
“What did he want from her?” she asked. Icould tell she was processing that I’d chosen helping him over her,regardless of the expected outcome. Leaving the country together ona long plane ride was looking like a worse idea by the minute.
“Just to know what happened, I think. Well,and to see if she was angry enough to testify against you.”
She scoffed. “He knows what happened. Hekilled that werewolf. And she wouldn’t testify againstme. Ididn’t do anything!”
“But the werewolf turned her to save her?” Iasked. Things were happening too fast and my brain was having ahard time keeping up.
Leandra put another one of her books intothe suitcase she intended for me. “I suppose Yuki will be lonely,”she said. “Does she get lonely? I do so like that little cat.”
“I like her too. I don’t think she getslonely. She’s dead.”
“I’m dead, and I get lonely.”
“Leandra.”
“Okay, fine. That werewolf came here to tellour vampires that I was puttering about Chicago asking people tomake me immortal by bringing past me to the present.” She wasloading the suitcase furiously now. A sheaf of papers from one ofher desk drawers went in, crumpling severely under her angry grasp.“Bill met with Matt, specifically, and told him what I was up to.But Matt Rivera only cares about himself, so of course he didn’tshare that with anyone and hoped to leverage it against me asblackmail to keep me in line.” Leandra nicked herself on a piece ofpaper and stuck the injured finger in her mouth, sucking off theblood. “Dammit! The past me—golem me—attacked that girl. Now that Iknow Francesca made a fake version she thought was like me, I cansay that she’s a total idiot for giving that golem a very violentimpulse—I was really willing to chalk it up to new vampirism. Damnher!”
I did not want to be on the other end ofLeandra’s wrath, though that was seeming less likely as time wenton. “Okay, so, Francesca’s magic nearly killed that girl.”
“I was looking for the golem and, followingthe trail, found that Melanie girl. But the werewolf was trying toleave town that night and found her, too. She was fatally wounded,and it was the full moon, so we gave her a choice. He could changeher into a werewolf, and she would have a very high chance ofhealing under the full moon, but she would live a mortal life witha mortal lifespan and only be forced to be a wolf three days amonth.” She huffed, tossing the suitcase aside and upending itscontents in frustration. “Or she could exchange blood with me andbe a vampire all the time, and be immortal, but have a constantbloodlust that never goes away.” Leandra raised her gaze to mine,her chest bobbing with shallow breaths. “You know which she optedfor.”
