The rapid plink plink plink of the water hitting the sink played timpani in the background as he spoke, simultaneously distracting yet grounding her. Once or twice as he spoke, she almost broke eye contact to look back down at the sink. It was like an itch that begged to be scratched. Despite of – or maybe even because of – his words, she wanted to wash away the drops of her blood still staining the ceramic there. It would be a form of hiding. Of course, even she could see that would be overlooking the bigger problem of her arm and the cloth doing an insufficient job of hiding it. Nor did she really want to draw his attention back to her injury. The distraction took the sting out of the validity of some of his points. Yes, she was here alone. No, there wasn’t really anyone here she knew let alone trusted. Trust seemed a really foolish thing to do right now, and it wasn’t easy for her even on her best days. Sunshine wasn’t sure she should try to trust a guy who only a few minutes ago looked as though he were deciding whether or not to have her for dinner. Her mind hazily wandered, wondering what dish would go best with her frazzled and frayed self but stopped before she could scare herself silly. Besides, the water was still running and Sam was still talking.
Reluctantly, she conceded a little, “I know my demons, and I know the guys in the black hats. Vampires have no qualms about lording their power and presence over victims. In fact,” Sunshine’s hand from her wounded arm crossed her chest to rub at the scar on her collarbone. It wasn’t far from an open casket death arrangement, but it was the best she could do without dropping the bloody washcloth. “In fact they tend to prefer it. I could get into speculative psychology on the point,” she said with a small ghost of a smile, “but now’s not the time and you might be right. Once the bad guy gets the upper hand, movies and experience would tell us his next stage is monologuing.” Of course, if Sam was a demon or vampire and this was all some kind of sick and twisted game for him, they wouldn’t have gotten that far yet. No, that wouldn’t come until she’d let down her defenses, let him see her arm, and then…. Ugh. That was stupid. It was the kind of thinking that was getting people hurt and even killed out there. If he were a vampire, he wouldn’t be hiding it. He’d be pinning her down and tormenting her until every last drop of her blood ran sweet with adrenaline just for him.
Sunshine paused.
She looked at Sam. She felt her pulse beat, her arm throb, heard the water splash. It was as though time slowed for a moment for her to decide. She took a deep breath. “I want to trust you. I want to be able to trust someone.” Her voice quivered on the word, betraying just how badly she needed to have that right now. “But I can’t when you keep looking at my arm like that. I don’t know who or what you are, Sam. To be honest, I really couldn’t give a damn if your eyes are black, red, fuchsia, or chartreuse. Some of the good guys of my world turn skegging blue when they hold their breath. Lunatic kali blue. And sprout a third eye and a sixth finger on each hand. It takes a little getting used to,” it had the first time Pat had shown her, “but they don’t scare me. Not like this.”
Of course, he could be human. And if he was human, he was taking a risk. He still thought she could be… “You’re worried I’m a demon. Fine. I’ll do whatever test you want. Hell, I’m at least 75% sure I’m not. So go crazy, let’s run every test. But until I’ve got my arm bandaged or you can manage to go over a minute without staring at it, I’d rather you stay on your side of the room and I stay on mine.” The hand on her bad arm dropped to finally splash the sink clean.