Read Vamp-Hire for Free Online Page B

turned back before stepping out. “Take however long you
need to get yourself together, okay?”
    Nick nodded, still trying to make sense of
what had happened. He watched them disappear around a corner and
sat on the bed.
    “Was I floating?” he said aloud. Assigning
words to the thing he’d just been doing didn’t make it make any
more sense. People didn’t float. “I’m not just people, am I?”
    He stood and was surprised at how steady he
was. Nick felt strong. He felt like had he wanted, he could have
run a mile, no sweat, maybe even three or four. He made a fist and
that felt strong too. If he punched a guy right now that guy would
be out cold.
    He wasn’t hungry, but it was a good idea to
eat something. Eating a balanced diet on a regular basis was good
therapy too. Nick’s duffle bag was by his feet and he dug out his
prescription, took the top off and dry-swallowed a pill. He wanted
to be in the kitchen right now and took a step toward the door—
    —And his thighs were colliding into the edge
of the dining room table, toppling the upper half of his body so he
had to slap his palms down to prevent a face plant.
    “Oh, hey,” Earl said in that general southern
twang. “That didn’t take long.” He seemed a little nervous for some
reason.
    Nick only nodded, afraid to try his voice. He
felt weak and on the verge of collapse. His thigh ached where he’d
been shot with the arrow. It was all he could do to slide a chair
out and fall into it.
    Earl stepped into the kitchen and a moment
later he and Lucky began parading out food. Biscuits came first and
as if the sight of them had activated his olfactory sense, the rich
smell of food came to him. A moment ago he hadn’t been hungry in
the slightest, now he was positively ravenous, though. Food, no
matter what it was, had always had a dull taste for as far back as
his brief memory could recall.
    Lucky set down eggs, sausage, and toast, all
on separate plates.
    “Not sure what you’d like, so we made you a
little of everything.”
    Earl came out with a pot of something whitish
that turned out to be grits and ladled it out into a bowl before
dropping a huge dollop of Shedd’s Spread in it.
    “Don’t know if you can have sugar or not,”
Earl said, gesturing to a little bowl within arm’s reach.
    “He’s not diabetic, Earl,” Lucky said.
    “Yeah, yeah. Speakin’ a’ which, you like
coffee? You like it black or…”
    “I don’t know,” Nick said. He was supposed to
limit his stimulants. Had he ever had coffee before? He nodded when
Lucky came back with a cup, steam wafting out of it.
    “Oh, I almost forgot…” Lucky held up a finger
as soon as he set the cup down and dashed back into the kitchen and
came out with a big plate piled high with bacon.
    Nick’s mouth watered.
    He grabbed several strips off the plate, half
hearing Lucky say something about not knowing if he liked it crispy
or soft. Nick gobbled the first three in seconds and was working on
the fourth when his taste buds went dead again. The bacon he was
chewing was like working on a mouthful of rubber. He looked at Earl
and Lucky, who were watching him expectantly, like he was about to
sprout a new head or give birth.
    “It’s very good,” he said and forced a
swallow. The food didn’t smell like food anymore. It smelled the
same, Nick supposed, but it didn’t have the same appeal to him. He
picked up the coffee and chugged down half of it.
    “Whoa, bud,” Earl said, “that’s still pipin’
hot!”
    Nick couldn’t tell if he had scalded himself.
He focused on packing away the bacon because they were watching him
like a couple of mother hens and he probably did need to eat. He
coupled the bacon with two slices of toast, generously smearing
grape jelly on them for show.
    How had he gotten here, though? Nick didn’t
want to think about it, he supposed he needed to, though. He’d felt
so strong a few minutes ago, like he could’ve fought a dozen men,
then poof, he was