Now a ghost from my past was standing right in front of me, and I didn’t know what to do with him.
With this.
Why was he going through my things?
Hank stalked closer to me, and before I could think straight, he grabbed my throat and squeezed. Instantly, I slapped him hard, and he was so stunned that he loosened his grip on me. I didn’t kill him right then, but I should have. I wanted answers more than I wanted to murder my ex-boyfriend who happened to be a total cheat and a total liar and, apparently, a total weirdo.
“What do you want?” I yelled.
“People will hear you, love. Best keep your voice down,” he said. His words were sickly sweet. He spoke the way he always did, and I hated it. I hated how he talked to me like I was a child he had to calm down. He didn’t need to calm me. He didn’t need to placate me.
I resented the fact that he was trying.
“Fuck you,” I said. “Get out of my home. Get out of my life.”
“It’s not so simple,” he said.
“I’ll give you to the count of three,” I said.
“Or what?” He hissed. “Baby, you’re a vampire. I could knock a hole in your window and those rays of sunshine would stream in and burn you.”
I tried to keep my face straight and neutral. I coul
dn’t let him know that he was freaking me out.
“Who told you I’m a vampire?” I said.
“I have my sources.”
It wouldn’t have been Raven. She would never betray me that way. Who else knew, though? I hadn’t been in touch with anyone. Then again, maybe that was how he knew. I hadn’t been in touch with anyone.
“Nobody told you,” I said. “You’re guessing.”
“It’s a good guess,” he shrugged. “You show up at your place after days away. Your plants are dead. Your dirty laundry is still in the hamper. You weren’t planning to leave, but you did. Then you come back looking like this,” he gestured to me. “You’re not only a vampire, darling: you’re a fresh one.”
“Don’t call me darling.”
“I’ll call you whatever the fuck I want,” he said. “Because you’re exactly what I’ve been looking for.”
“What?”
“I needed a little something extra for tonight’s auction,” he said. “And you’re just the delicious dish my buyers will love.”
“Auction?”
“Don’t tell me you haven’t heard of vampire auctions?” He asked. “You were a hunter your entire life, Kim. You really didn’t know?”
“Know what?” I asked.
“You didn’t know that your roommates were hunting vampires and harvesting their organs?”
So, it was true.
Not that I had doubted Liam, but it was hard to believe. Hearing it from someone else, even someone I disliked, was still hard to hear, though.
Hank watched me carefully, and then he nodded slowly.
“He told you.”