Desire After Dark (14 page)

Vicki woke with a smile the next morning. She was going steady. With a vampire.

A look at the clock showed that it was already past noon. She never slept this late. Clutching a pillow to her chest, she laughed out loud. She had only been going steady with Antonio for one night and already her life was changing, but she supposed that was to be expected. After all, it was obvious that if she wanted to spend time with Antonio, she was going to have to adjust her hours to his, since he couldn't adjust his to hers. The diner closed at midnight on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and at one A.M. on Friday and Saturday. That meant that she had from closing time until dawn to spend with Antonio on the nights she worked. Sundays and Mondays, when she was off, they would have more time together.

Filled with a rush of nervous energy, she dressed and ate a quick breakfast, then cleaned the house from top to bottom, excited at the prospect of seeing him again that evening. If Antonio had been a normal, mortal man, she would have planned an intimate candlelit dinner, baked a seven-layer chocolate cake, bought a bottle of vintage wine. But that was out of the question. Maybe she could find a bottle of blood somewhere…She grimaced at the thought, only then remembering that he had never really answered her question of where and how he fed. If he didn't kill to survive, did he just prey on unsuspecting women? She shook her head. If that were the case, the papers would be filled with stories of women who had been preyed upon, and the tabloids would be shrieking that there was a vampire running amok. Maybe there were people who offered to let him drink their blood, people like Goths who were really into the whole vampire scene.

She knew she shouldn't be wondering about such things, but she couldn't help it. There was so much she didn't know. Maybe he could give her a list of dos and don'ts for people dating the Undead.

Laughing at the thought, she went into the bathroom to take a shower and get dressed for work.

 

Antonio was waiting for her when she left the house that evening. The surge of pleasure she felt at seeing him again made her knees go weak. It wasn't fair for him to have such a devastating effect on her senses.

She smiled as she hurried down the stairs. “Hi.”

“Hi.”

She laughed out loud. “What? No ‘good evening' a la Dracula?”

“I thought I would try to make my speech more contemporary.”

“Oh.”

Her heartbeat ramped into overdrive as he bent his head to kiss her. When he would have let her go, she wrapped her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss.

His body responded instantly and before she knew what was happening, he had her backed up against the porch, his body pressed intimately against hers as his hands began a slow exploration of her body.

That quickly, she was on fire for him. Feeling as though she could never be close enough, she pressed herself against him. A soft moan rose in her throat as she ground her hips against his.

Lifting his head, he looked deep into her eyes. “Victoria…” Her name was a low groan on his lips.

“Wow.”

“Wow?” He arched one brow, his dark eyes alight with amusement.

It was a good thing she had to go to work, she thought. It was the only thing that kept her from taking him by the hand and leading him back into the house and up the stairs into her bedroom. And into her bed.

“Maybe we can take up where we left off later?” she suggested.

“It would be my pleasure to do so.”

She was smiling again. “And mine.” She handed him the keys to her car. “Why don't you drive?”

“As you wish.”

Ever the gentleman, he opened the door for her, then got into the car.

Vicki sat back in her seat, content to do nothing more than look at him. Every time he glanced her way, her insides turned to mush. She had never felt this way about a man. It amazed her that she felt so strongly about him after only a few weeks. In some ways, she felt as if she had known him forever. Forever, she thought. He would live forever, while she would not. She shook the depressing thought from her mind. She wouldn't think about that now.

He glanced over at her. “Is something wrong?”

Knowing he had noticed her staring at him brought a rush of heat to her face. “No, why?”

“I find you very attractive also.”

“Thank you.”

“I feel you still have questions you would like to ask me.”

“Well, maybe one or two. Like, why do always wear black and…Well, you never did tell me how you satisfy your hunger or your thirst or whatever you call it.”

“When I feel the urge to feed, I call someone to me and take what I need.”

“You mean you hypnotize them?”

“Yes. And when I have satisfied the craving, I wipe the memory from their mind. As for wearing black…It blends with the night.” He looked at her and grinned. “And it looks good on me.”

“It does that,” she agreed. She fell silent for a moment and then lifted one hand to her neck. “Have you ever hypnotized me?”

“No.”

“How can you drink…blood? Isn't it gross?”

He pulled into the diner's parking lot, found a space, and killed the engine. “It is normal for me to ingest blood, just as it is normal for you to eat and drink mortal food.”

“Are there a lot of vampires running around?”

“More than you might think.”

It was not a comforting thought.

Exiting the car, he opened the door for her, took her hand, and helped her out. He kept hold of her hand as he walked her to the back door.

“Will you be in later?” she asked.

“If you wish.”

“I do.”

“Then I shall be here.” He kissed her hand, then turned it over and kissed her palm. The touch of his lips sent a shiver of pleasure rocketing up her arm. “Till later, my sweet one.”

Antonio handed her the keys to the car, lifted a hand in farewell as she entered the building, then walked across the parking lot to the sidewalk. He had not fed in several days, and he dared not put it off any longer. Being with Victoria stirred more than his passion, and he had no wish to lose control in her presence and frighten her away, not now, when she was just beginning to trust him again.

With preternatural speed, he left Pear Blossom Creek. A short time later, he was strolling down Cottonwood's main thoroughfare. At this time of evening, the streets were crowded. He grinned inwardly, wondering what Victoria would say if she knew where he was and what he was doing. Wandering through the townspeople was like walking through a human buffet, trying to decide which dish to try. Most people thought all blood was the same and in some ways, perhaps it was. But to a vampire, no two mortals tasted alike.

He followed a pretty brunette for several blocks, inhaling her scent, whetting his appetite. When she reached an alleyway, he moved up beside her and drew her into the darkness, his mind easily overriding her objections. He took her in his arms, his mind speaking to hers, soothing her fears as he brushed the hair away from her neck, then lowered his head, his eyes closing in the sheer ecstasy of feeding.

With his hunger assuaged, he wiped his memory from her mind, then escorted the woman back to the sidewalk and vanished from her sight.

He walked until he found a bench under a tree in a small park. Sitting down, he gazed into the darkness. So many changes since he had been born. Once, people had walked or ridden beasts of burden wherever they wanted to go. Now they could go across the country in a matter of hours. Once, it had taken days for a letter to reach its destination. Now e-mail went across the world in a matter of moments. Machines now did many household tasks, giving women more free time than they had ever known. Books that had once been laboriously printed, one copy at a time by hand, were now turned out by the thousands.

Progress, he thought, it was a wonderful thing and yet, on occasion, he longed for the days of his youth, when every dawn had promised a new adventure.

With a shake of his head, he left the park. There was no point in thinking about the past. His parents, his brothers and sisters, everyone he had grown up with, the town where he was born, were long gone. It was a lonely life, being a vampire. To make friends with humans, to grow fond of them, meant that, inevitably, they went the way of all flesh, leaving you alone once again. If you kept yourself apart from humanity, the results were the same.

Which made him think of Victoria. For the first time in centuries, he had let himself care for a mortal. He was sorely afraid that this time, when the inevitable separation came, he would not be able to bear the loss, or the pain that was sure to follow.

He was nearing the end of the city limits when a faint cry of terror reached his ears, and with it the strong coppery scent of fresh blood.

Falco!

A thought took him to a deserted part of the city, where the vampire was savaging the throat of a young woman with curly red hair.

“Let her go!”

Falco lifted his head. His lips were smeared with crimson, his eyes blazed with the lust for blood. He hissed when he saw Battista.

“You want her?” Falco said with a snarl. “Take her!” Ripping a lock of hair from the girl's head, he hurled her body toward Battista; then, with a wave of his hand, the vampire disappeared into the night.

Battista looked down at the girl in his arms. She was as limp and lifeless as a rag doll. Blood oozed from the hideous wound in her throat. She couldn't have been more than twenty years old.

A howl of anger rose in Battista's throat as he cradled her body to his chest.

And that was how Duncan found him a few moments later.

Tom came up short when he saw the two people in the shadows. It was pure luck that he was in town. He had come here earlier in the day, searching for Falco's lair, and been about to call it a night when he'd heard an ungodly howl that had sent shivers down his spine. He knew that sound. He'd heard it often enough in his line of work.

He touched the cross at his throat for luck, then pulled his .38 out of one coat pocket and a bottle of holy water from the other.

“Put the girl down, easy like,” he demanded.

“Do not be a fool, Duncan.”

“Battista!” Tom took a step forward, his eyes narrowed. “I knew it. Put her down.”

“You know nothing.”

“I know you've killed your last innocent woman.”

“I did not kill her.”

“Yeah, right.”

“I am putting her down.” Antonio laid the girl's body gently on the sidewalk.

And Duncan went into action. Springing forward, he dumped holy water over the vampire's head, then fired his pistol, hoping to bring the vampire to his knees so that he could take his head.

Battista hissed as holy water splashed across his face and trickled down his neck, every drop burning into his skin like acid. The bullet struck him in the chest, but he recovered quickly. With a roar of pain and rage, he backhanded Duncan across the face.

The hunter reeled backward, momentarily stunned.

And Battista vanished into the darkness.

 

Vicki checked the clock on the wall, counting the minutes until it was time to go home. She had waited all evening for Antonio to come into the diner, and when he didn't show up, her imagination went into overdrive, coming up with all sorts of reasons for his absence. He had forgotten. He had left town. He had changed his mind about wanting to spend time with her. He had met someone else…

She cleared the last table, helped Bobbie Sue refill the salt and pepper shakers and replace the packets of cream and sugar substitutes, still hoping that Antonio would appear, until Gus came out of the kitchen to lock the front door.

“See ya tomorrow night, Bobbie,” he said cheerfully.

“Sure thing,” Bobbie Sue said. “Night, Gussie.”

He glowered at her.

“Come on, I'll walk the two of you out. Oh, don't forget to come in costume tomorrow night,” he reminded them. “It's Halloween.”

Halloween, Vicki thought. How could she have forgotten that when every house in town was decorated with ghosts and goblins and jack-o'-lanterns, and the windows of every business, including the diner, wished the world a happy Halloween?

Outside, she bade Gus and Bobbie Sue good night, then glanced around the parking lot, expecting Battista to be there to meet her, but there was no sign of him.

Remembering that he wasn't the only vampire in town, she quickly unlocked her car, got behind the wheel, and locked the door.

So, she thought as she drove home, where was he? She told herself not to worry, he had promised to look after her. What was it he had said?
I will be there if you need me.
Did that mean he was somewhere nearby, even now?

Tom Duncan was waiting for her on the porch when she got home.

“Hi,” she said. “Is something wrong?”