Immortal Moon (6 page)

I reached up and kissed his cheek. “You know
what, you’re right. Everything would probably fall apart around
here if you took the night off.”

He wrapped his arms around me in a tight
hug. “Not with my Anya to keep things going.”

I held onto him for a moment, savoring the
feeling of safety and love that filled me when Pinky embraced me.
After a few minutes I pulled away. “Okay, if you guys don’t need
me, I’m going to the bathhouse down the street to soak in some
bubbles for about a gazillion hours.”

“Oh, thank goodness,” River said. “You
really reek.”

I stuck my tongue out at her, put my nose in
the air, and turned and walked out with as much dignity as I could
muster considering the fact that she was right. I stank.

***

I thought I was going to pass out from sheer
boredom. When Pinky had predicted a slow night he’d grossly
understated. At this pace, slow would be an incredible tempo
increase. Other than the five regulars in the back playing poker
and a young couple necking in a dark booth in the corner, the pub
was empty. Pinky was at a table teaching Farrah the differences
between the various alcoholic beverages we sold, pointing out the
ones which were brewed in-house. The only thing that saved me from
becoming comatose was my sister Fiona.

“So, when does Ian’s night class let out?” I
asked, hoping it wasn’t until dawn. If she left, I’d have to resort
to busywork like wiping down clean tables and sweeping the already
clean floor, just to stay awake.

“In a couple of hours. I was expecting to be
working tonight as well, but the raid we had planned was a bust. We
went to the camp we’d been tipped on and found the slavers had
skedaddled, if they even were slavers. It could have been a group
of traders or gypsies. My money’s on a band of merchants that
stopped overnight before heading into the city for market week. It
was a small campsite with evidence of only one wagon. Slavers would
have had several. There would have been wheel tracks
everywhere.”

“Unreliable informant? Was it one of yours?”
I asked, loving the conversation. I had gone through most of the
same training at the Academy as Fiona, but my Norm status kept me
from going into law enforcement in any capacity other than
administrative. I wasn’t the sit-behind-a-desk-all-day type, so I’d
come to work for Pinky instead. Having Fiona tell me about the
cases she was working on had always been a favorite part of my day.
I’d really missed it since she’d hooked up with Ian. I’d never seen
her so happy, though, so I couldn’t begrudge her the time she spent
with him. It just made me enjoy our conversations that much
more.

“No. It came from someone the City Guard had
arrested for assault. Apparently, he didn’t want to pay for
something he wanted at the market, and when the vendor took
exception to his merchandise walking away, the guy attacked the
vendor. He was trying to cut a deal for himself by saying he had
information on a band of slavers.”

I made a face. “I wouldn’t be surprised if
it had been some of his cohorts camping there.”

“Very likely, and they cut and run when he
was picked up. No matter. I’d much rather spend the evening
chatting with you, and then snuggling with Ian, than wrestling
sweaty slavers and doing paperwork.” She sipped her wine.

I took a sip of my own ale. “Glad to hear I
rate higher than sweaty slavers. That was a great visual, by the
way.”

Fiona grinned and opened her mouth to say
something, but our attention was pulled to the door when it opened.
A tall, dark-skinned vampire with a smooth, bald head and neatly
trimmed beard entered. He walked across the room in a sexy, smooth
stride.

“Luca,” I said, grinning and genuinely glad
to see my friend.

“Hi, Sweetness,” he said, and pulled me into
a tight hug.

His arms were warm and firm around me, and
he smelled incredible, yet there were no stirrings in the pit of my
stomach. This was a completely platonic hug.

“You changed that silly no vampire dating
rule yet so you and I can get sweaty later?” he asked, dropping a
light kiss on my cheek and letting me go.

“Not a chance,” I quipped, moving out of the
hug.

“Aww, come on, Baby Girl. Not even for me?
Not even just once?” He put his hand over his heart in mock
pain.

“Luca, you are the reason the rule exists in
the first place,” I teased, feeling a little twinge of guilt. I had
broken the rule before, yet was not even tempted to do it again. At
least, not with anyone new. Especially not with Luca.

My no-vampire-dating/sex rule had been born
more out of practicality than any aversion to the race. Though
everyone was welcome in Pinky’s, the majority of our regular
clientele were vampires. Not that I hadn’t ever dated someone I met
at the bar, but the rule made it easier to set boundaries. There
was another reason, too. Vampires, especially those that had been
around since before the Cataclysm, were odd creatures. Their
unnaturally long lives caused them to go one of two ways, either
chronically prone to one night stands, or lifetime monogamy.

Vampires could die, but there were no known
diseases or natural causes that could result in the death of a
vampire. And with their quick healing abilities, they were damned
hard to kill. In the vampire world, a lifetime commitment basically
lasted forever. Which meant a norm, like me, would have to be
infected with the N-V virus and undergo “the big change.” That was
something I wasn’t even remotely ready for. And since you never
knew exactly what type of vampire you were going to get, it was
better to stay away from them altogether.

I couldn’t even try to think about why I had
made an exception to the rule with Jarrett, but it could have been
because I knew up front he was a classic roamer. He and my sister
had been friends for more than half a decade and I hadn’t even met
him until six months ago. It seemed likely I’d never see him again.
Of course, that way of thinking had come back to bite me in the ass
this morning.

I should have foreseen that he’d roll
through town on occasion, and it should be okay. I was friends with
plenty of guys I’d once dated. Seeing Jarrett shouldn’t push my
libido into overdrive. The blame was on my lack of sex.

Surely once I got back in the dating game,
having him pop up once in a while wouldn’t keep playing havoc with
my sleep. I wouldn’t mind getting jazzed up over him if I weren’t
so positive that Jarrett Campbell was of the chronic, one-nighter
variety. He probably hadn’t spent more than one night with the same
woman in three hundred years. It was too bad. Though I wasn’t the
kind to wait around for a guy, I wouldn’t mind getting sweaty with
Jarrett again on occasion, if I were unattached when he was in
town

Luca Jensen, on the other hand, was another
case entirely. The sexy, umber-skinned vamp had the smooth talk and
charm of a bed-hopper, but there was something about him that made
me believe at his heart, he was the one-woman-vamp type. A norm
woman who got involved with him would have to be prepared to make
the big change. That was definitely not me.

Instead of a potential romantic partner,
Luca was one of my best friends. He knew my rule and respected it
and me. For him, flirting with me was safe because he knew no
matter what, we would stay platonic friends. As for me, I could
enjoy his company and get all the relentless flirting and
gratuitous ego stroking I wanted without any messy strings. It was
really a win/win.

“Mead?” I asked, walking around the bar.

“Whiskey.”

I shot him a glance. “Aren’t you on
shift?”

Luca was the head Med-Mage at City Hospital,
the government medical clinic that catered to Blades, City Guard,
and government personnel. He worked the night shift and usually
came in for a mead on his hour break. He only drank whiskey on his
nights off.

“I’ve been on shift since the start of my
shift last night. We had a full class of trainees fresh from the
Academy start their apprenticeships today. I spent the day in
orientation with them, and then assigned them to the med-mages
they’ll be shadowing for the next year before they can go to other
clinics in the city-state.”

I knew vampires could go long periods of
time without sleep, but I never really thought about how long.
Pinky slept at least a few hours every day. The idea of being awake
more than thirty-six hours exhausted me just thinking about it.
“You should be home getting some rest.”

He laughed. “Worried about me, Baby Girl?
Don’t be, I’m fine. I could have worked my full shift tonight, but
the jittery energy of first-day interns tends to get to me after so
many hours. I figured since I’m the boss, I could take off early
and come knock back a few before heading home to bed.”

I placed a shot glass in front of him and
poured whiskey into it. “Leave the bottle,” he said.

“Okay, but if you get so drunk you pass out
in the middle of the floor, I’m not moving you. You’ll wake up with
boot prints on your pretty face.”

He flashed a sexy grin. “Fair enough.”

Of course he wasn’t concerned. It would take
much more than one bottle of whiskey to make him drunk enough to
pass out. Vampire metabolism worked crazy fast on alcohol.

I kissed my palm and then blew it in Luca’s
direction. “You let me know if you need anything else,” I told him
with a wink, then went back to sit with Fiona.

“Sometimes I find it hard to believe the two
of you never hooked up,” Fiona said after I sat down.

I looked at her. “We’re just friends.
Besides, you know my vampire rule.”

She gave me an odd look. “Yeah, I know.”

There was no way in hell I was going to ask
her what that look meant.

We sat together quietly for a few minutes
before Fiona nodded to where Pinky and Farrah sat. Pinky had an
assortment of bottles on the table in front of him and was pointing
at each one while Farrah named them. “Those two seem to be doing
well together,” she said.

“Yeah, they get along pretty well. Pinky has
hit a level of “Dadness” I haven’t seen in a while. In addition to
teaching her the ropes around here, he’s helping her learn how to
control her telekinesis. It’s a lot like he was with us when we
were kids, despite the fact that she is almost the same age as
River.”

Fiona smiled. “I was really counting on
that. Farrah’s biological father is a real scuz. Another fine
example of wealth and power not equaling human decency.”

I laughed. “I thought you’d gotten over your
prejudice against the rich when you fell in love with the richest
man in the city-state.”

Fiona rolled her eyes. “I’m not prejudiced.
Trust me, my feelings about Senator Purcell are purely based on his
actions. Both he and Farrah’s mother are norms, and they treated
Farrah like her mage powers were a disease to be ashamed of. If
you’d heard the way he’d talked about her when she was missing. He
hadn’t even wanted us to look for her. Ugh.” She let out a snort of
disgust.

I’d known there had to be something wrong
with Farrah’s home life when she came to live at the pub after her
ordeal with the kidnapper Fiona had destroyed last year. I hadn’t
realized it had been that bad. My empathy and respect for Farrah
went up a notch. I knew what it was like to have parents who
detested who you were because you were different than them.

“That explains why she seems so surprised
and even upset when her powers get stronger. She probably had to
suppress them for years. I’ll never understand the pure evil
lurking inside some people. You were right to bring her here. Pinky
will help her heal.”
Like he did for me,
I thought, but
didn’t say it out loud.

“She was a bit of a brat before, from what I
could tell. On the road to real destruction. But I think that was
mostly due to her treatment at home. I had a feeling this would be
a good place for her.”

“Whatever she was like before, she’s
different now. She’s quiet, never complains, and works damned hard.
I’ve never seen this place shine like it does these days.” I made a
mental note to ask Farrah out for an afternoon of shopping and
lunch soon. Unlike my sisters, she seemed like she’d enjoy doing
girly things as much as I occasionally did.

“I’m glad you like her.” Fiona grinned. “Now
enough about her. I want to hear what’s been going on in your life,
little sister.”

I shook my head. “Not much. Just working
here and hanging out.”

“Not fighting?”

I rolled my eyes at my sister’s
not-so-subtle poke. “Why tell you something you already know? I
know you keep tabs with Pete. I’m doing as I promised. Only once a
week and no juiced-up opponents.”

“There are other fight-houses,” she
said.

“And you probably have at least one person
in each reporting to you. And you know I’m not stupid enough to do
the illegal fights. I’m not about to take on vampires or shifters.
I fight for exercise and to relieve tension, not because I have an
idiotic death wish.” I took a deep breath, gearing up to really go
on a tirade, when I saw the glint in Fiona’s eye and the smile
tugging at the corner of her mouth.

I clamped my mouth shut. She’d baited me and
I hadn’t fallen for it, I’d dove for it, head first. I grabbed my
bottle of ale from the bar, took a swig, and then waved the bottle
at her. “You are pure evil, you know that?”

Fiona stopped trying to hide her smile and
broke into peals of laughter. “But you are so easy.” She laughed so
hard she snorted.

“Pure fucking evil,” I murmured, taking
another drink.

After a few minutes Fiona’s laughter died
down. “I’m sorry, I just miss you, and I really need someone to
tease. Now that we are living together, it isn’t as much fun giving
Ian a hard time. He gets all sullen and pouty, and I have to be all
sweet and beg for makeup sex to make him feel all manly.”