Guilty Pleasures   ::   Гамильтон Лорел

I stared athim, and for the first time I looked him in the eyes and felt nothing. Nothing but emptiness.

“My word of honor that you will leave this place in safety. Put the knife away.”

It took me three tries to slide the knife into its sheath, my hands were trembling so badly. Jean-Claude smiled at me, tight-lipped. “Now, we will get off this stage.” He helped me stand. I would have fallen if his arm hadn't caught me. He kept a tight grip on my left hand; the lace on his sleeve brushed my skin. The lace wasn't soft at all.

Jean-Claude held his other hand out to Aubrey. I tried to pull away, and he whispered, “No fear, I will protect you, I swear it.”

I believed him, I don't know why, maybe because I had no one else to believe. He led Aubrey and me to the front of the stage. His rich voice caressed the crowd. “We hope you enjoyed our little melodrama. It was very realistic, wasn't it?”

The audience shifted uncomfortably, fear plain in their faces.

He smiled out at them and dropped Aubrey's hand. He unbuttoned my sleeve and pushed it back, exposing the burn scar. The cross was dark against my skin. The audience was silent, still not understanding. Jean-Claude pulled the lace away from his chest, exposing his own cross-shaped burn.

There was a moment of stunned silence, then applause thundered around the room. Screams and shouts, and whistles roared around us.

They thought I was a vampire, and it had all been an act. I stared at Jean-Claude's smiling face and the matching scars: his chest, my arm.

Jean-Claude's hand pulled me down into a bow. As the applause finally began to fade, Jean-Claude whispered, “We need to talk, Anita. Your friend Catherine's life depends on your actions.”

I met his eyes and said, “I killed the things that gave me this scar.”

He smiled broadly, showing just a hint of fang. “What a lovely coincidence. So did I”



7

Jean-Claude led us through the curtains at the back of the stage. Another vampire stripper was waiting to go on. He was dressed like a gladiator, complete with metal breastplate and short sword. “Talk about an act that's hard to follow. Shit.” He jerked the curtain open and stalked through.

Catherine came through, her face so pale her freckles stood out like brown ink spots. I wondered if I looked as pale? Naw. I didn't have the skin tone for it.

“My God, are you all right?” she asked.

I stepped carefully over a line of cables that snaked across the backstage floor and leaned against the wall.