Talons by Karolyn Cairns Page B

her at
all. She didn’t let strange men nearly have sex with
her.
    “ What is happening to me,
Dave?” she asked hoarsely, her hand going to her mouth, eyes filled
with fear and mortification.
    Dave looked uneasy. “I’ll explain it
all to you on the way. We have to go.”
    “ I can’t just go!” Vivvie
said again as she snapped out of it. “I have to work! I have a life
here, if you haven’t noticed, Dave!”
    “ Oh, I have noticed,
Vivian,” he said, shrugging. “We both know it’s going nowhere for
you. Go pack your things.”
    Vivvie glared at him. “And if I
refuse?”
    Dave looked delighted. “Then you get to
sit in the back and I don’t have to smell you all the way to
Denver.”
    “ I’ll go to my dad’s!” she
insisted again. “
    “ Vivian, they know
everything about you,” he said and shook his head at her continued
denial. “Compliments of your roommate, they’re very much in your
life. They know where you work, where your parents live. You can’t
hide from them. They will find you by your scent.”
    “ I could run to my aunt’s in
Minnesota! They won’t find me there,” Vivvie cried in
desperation.
    “ They would find you, kill
your aunt, and take you,” he replied brutally as she flinched. “You
do your family no favor by dragging them into this, as well as the
people you work with. They almost killed the black man the other
night. They meant to take you then. I was there.”
    His mentioning Salem made her tense to
know her friend was at risk.
    “ What’s in Denver?” she
asked in a scared tone, afraid to ask.
    “ We have a place there,” he
explained. “It’s where we live, and where you will live. You can’t
stay here anymore. Your nature will expose us all. Eli ordered me
to kill you. Be lucky you’re cat bait instead.”
    “ My nature?” she gasped in
confusion. “What are you talking about?”
    “ You’re turning into one of
us, Vivian,” he answered her with impatience. “The change can’t be
stopped. Had I got to you the night you were bitten, I might have
stopped it, but you wouldn’t have a hand now either.”
    Vivvie gaped at his words, but he went
on.
    “ It’s the only way to stop
the spread, look at it like cancer,” he said unmindful of her
horrified reaction to his cutting off her hand.
    “ What am I going to turn
into?” she asked in despair, feeling her heart clench at his
look.
    “ You will see.” He looked
away, his face growing sad. “Hurry up and pack what you can. We
must be out of Florida before nightfall.”

Chapter
Five
    Vivvie went to her room in a daze. She
hurriedly changed out of her bathing suit for jeans and a tee
shirt, grabbing her warmest hoodie. She removed two large suitcases
from her closet. Tossing everything she could stuff into them, she
sat upon them to zip the suitcases shut.
    Vivvie put her wet hair into a ponytail
and packed up all the essentials in her bathroom. Knowing she
couldn’t return made her hasten to grab her pictures, Dina’s
laptop, MP3 player, and all her favorite CD’s.
    Dave arrived in her room and took the
suitcases while she carried the rest down. He looked at the laptop
and shook his head.
    “ You can’t take that,” he
said flatly.
    “ But why, it’s brand new? I
can’t just leave it,” Vivvie protested.
    “ The IP address and the air
card, that’s why. It’s registered. The FBI will track it right to
you.”
    Vivvie set the laptop on the kitchen
table, disgusted. “What a waste!”
    “ I’ll give you my old one.
It’s better than that piece of shit,” Dave promised with a look of
impatience. “Vivian, you don’t want to hear this, but I’m doing you
a favor. I could have killed you or let them have you.”
    “ Why didn’t you, then?” she
seethed at him, tears filling her gaze, still shocked by all he
said.
    “ I don’t know, maybe I like
you,” he countered and his golden eyes glowed, making her stomach
start to seize up. “Or maybe I know Ryken does.”
    “ Who