Free The Fangover by Erin McCarthy, Kathy Love Page B

drink and trying to understand what was happening to her.
    “Grey Goose and tonic. With extra lime,” she told the bartender. “Actually make that a double. Please.”
    From the corner of her eye, she saw Cort raise an eyebrow, but then he said, “I’ll have the same.”
    “And the bird?” the bartender asked, eyeing the parrot dubiously.
    “You heard him,” Cort said. “Jack and Coke.”
    “Jack and Coke,” the bird repeated.
    The bartender shrugged as if that was a fairly reasonable request and left to fix their drinks. As soon as he was out of earshot, Cort turned toward Katie.
    “I think we need to talk, don’t you?”
    She didn’t answer, not even sure where to start. Instead, she studied the gold band on her finger. This was just way too freaking surreal.
    “Come on, Katie. Talk to me. What are you thinking?”
    She decided to just go with the truth. “I don’t even know where to start.”
    Cort chuckled, although she could tell it was more out of awkwardness than actual amusement. “I have to agree with you on that one.”
    She didn’t say anything for a moment more, trying to decide which of the zillion questions whirring in her head was the most important.
    She sucked in a calming breath, then met Cort’s gaze directly.
    He watched her with those sleepy, sexy eyes of his, and for a moment, she was lost.
    God, what a cliché. What was her damned problem? She had just found out some of the strangest, most traumatic, and frankly most insane things she could imagine, and yet she still managed to find herself distracted by his gorgeous eyes.
    Wait. He was a vampire. Didn’t vampires control people with their gazes? Hypnotized them or something? Was that what he’d been doing to her? Was he doing it now?
    “Stop it!”
    Cort looked around, clearly figuring she must be talking to someone else. When he realized no one else was around, aside from the bird, which stared at them with beady eyes while bobbing his head, Cort’s gaze locked with hers again.
    Her insides leapt. He was doing something.
    “Stop doing that with your eyes.”
    “Doing what?”
    “Making them look that way. Hypnotizing me, or whatever your kind does,” she said.
    “What? I’m not doing anything. These are just my eyes.”
    She opened her mouth to tell him that couldn’t possibly be true, that no regular gaze could affect her so, but before she could get the words out, the bartender returned with their drinks. They all, bird included, reached for their drinks, but before Katie or Cort could even get the glasses to their lips, someone shouted behind them.
    “You two!”
    Both of them turned to see who this man was yelling at.
    A short, stocky man with chest hair curling out from the collar of his silky shirt barged toward them. And he was clearly not happy.
    “I thought I told you two that I did not want you or that damned bird back in my bar,” the man yelled, his voice thick with a Cajun accent.
    Cort immediately stood, towering over the other man, but that didn’t seem to intimidate the short guy.
    “Listen, buddy, I’ve never even been in here . . .” Cort stopped. “Wait, we were here last night?”
    “That’s what I said. And you will never be here again. Go.” The man gestured wildly toward the door, revealing sweat stains under his arms despite the cool weather. “And take that evil creature.
Now.
”
    The parrot squawked loudly in seeming protest.
    Cort still didn’t move, except to shoot the bird a warning look. The parrot returned its attention back to its drink, pecking at one of the ice cubes.
    “Listen,” Cort said, his voice calm and even, “I’m sorry about whatever happened last night, but we honestly don’t remember it. Could you tell us what happened? Please.”
    The man’s angry grimace didn’t ease at Cort’s remorseful apology. “My wife sure as hell won’t ever forget what happened.”
    Just then, as if his words had conjured her, a woman, a very, very buxom woman with