The Bloody Mary Diet: The Detective Adele Series Book 1 (6 page)

When I look over Trevor is looking at me and smiling.  He must be reading my mind.  That needs to stop but first I have t
o go inside and see every closet and floor board and the cellar and attic and anything else the house might have because I think it is majik and there is only one way to be sure.  I have to snoop every square inch.

Food can wait. 

I jump out of the car before Trevor can and almost make it to the front door first.  This has never happened before.  Trevor is off his game.  Good to know.

Trevor has always been overly indulgent of me and this is no exception.  We tour the entire house from cellar to attic and all the closets and even two secret rooms.  Who has secret rooms?
It is amazing. This may be my only real date ever but it will also probably be my best.  We haven’t even eaten.

When I am done examining every square inch of his personal space Trevor asks if I am
hungry.  I am starving.  Being nosy is hard work and really takes it out of a girl. Trevor takes me to a kitchen that is so amazing I might even want to learn to cook. Probably not but maybe. He pulls out a pot of soup and some fresh bread that his staff had made that morning.  It is a lobster bisque with an artisan hard loaf sourdough bread.  He sets the pan on the stove and begins to heat it slowly. It is heaven. I grab a bar stool by the kitchen island to watch.

As the soup heats up Trevor moves behind me.  I have
known him all of my life and he has never really made me nervous.  Tonight things are starting to change. Suddenly I am very aware of his presence.  He puts his hands on my shoulders and slides them up to my neck.  My whole being is thrown into an oven.  It is scorching hot and very nearly overwhelming. I don’t want to pull away but I don’t think I can take anymore.  He slides his thumbs under the sweet heart neckline of my sweater and begins to massage my shoulders. 

I am having trouble breathing.  Not because of anything he is doing but
just because of him. The fact that he is here, touching me. I feel his strongest emotion and he feels mine. We are creating a positive feedback loop that may or may not affect him but I am going to lose it. I arch my back to press my hips into him while I reach up to grab his hair.  I tilt my head to the side to offer up my neck. Then Trevor steps back.

“What the fuck?  What was that? I have never felt anything like that. Ever.”

Trevor just smiles. I conceder picking up the soup pan and smacking him in the head with it.  But then I would go hungry.

He must be reading my mind again because he goes back to the other side of the island to stir the soup and this time he turns the handle away from me.  Whatever.  I can turn anything into a weapon if properly motivated and that just about motivated me. To do what I
can’t really say.

Trevor finally speaks up.  “
That, as you call it was me, and how I feel about you.  And how I think you might feel about me if you gave us a chance.  I have been watching you for four years now and I have never felt the way I feel for you with any other woman. Not in centuries. I want to give “that”, as you so succinctly put it, a chance.”

“Oh”

“Oh?  I declare my undead love to Catherine the Great, the only woman I have ever loved and she says, “Oh?” You wound me.”

He is smiling the whole time and I know damn well he is not in the least bit wounded but I am at a loss for words.  I always thou
ght he was just perpetually a 23 year old dude and therefore perpetually horny.  It was me or Jan because we are the only two women at the office and Jan, while awesome, owns fifty cats. One for each birthday to be replaced as needed and she probably would benefit from some mental health services.  As in inpatient. Maybe even court ordered. I am kidding, about the cats, not the mental health services. She really only has about five but for a werewolf that is five more than normal.

Jan is actually very hot but completely crazy and trust me, I know crazy.

“I am a perpetually 23 year old man and “horny” as you so charmingly put it but that is not the issue here.  There are literally thousands of women who would be happy to help me with that.  But I don’t have feelings for them.  I love you, Cate. And I want you to give me a chance.”

“Stop reading my mind.  It is rude. Why are you drop
ping this on me all of a sudden?  We have never even been on a date.  I have never been on any dates.  It’s not that I am adverse to giving you a chance, you are incredibly good looking, as you obviously know, and smart and funny. But you scare the living shit out of me and I don’t know why would you like me anyway.  You know Gran and Auntie Charles and Molly.  There is every chance that I will end up every bit as crazy as them and probably worse.  Vampires mate for life. As in eternity. Who wants to be tied to an alcoholic mental patient for all eternity? It would not be fair.  I would never do that to you. Ever. You are too good for that. I am too kind for that.”

Trevor continues to stare at me and stir the soup.  Did I mention that vampires are patient?  They are also very calm and they don’t have to blink. Ever.  To be stared at by a vampire is to want to climb under the kitchen island in you very s
hort skirt and stay there. Trevor finally answers as I am about to climb down. Close call, almost too close.

“That is exactly why I am telling you now.  Yesterday you used your
service weapon to kill two doors.  The only reason I did not have to take you to jail was that you were sober.  You are falling apart in front of me and I can’t stand it.  They put you on the force when you were 19 because they needed to use your gift.  No one cares if you burn out and go crazy because of the things they show you. No one else even sees the big picture.  You have seen murder through the eyes of a hundred victims.  No one can handle that long term.  No one ever has.  You have lasted longer on this job then most and you are slipping fast.  You drink too much, you are not safe and you are getting worse.”

“Is this my formal work evaluation or are you just trying to get into my pants?  Please don’t sugar coat it
, I can take it.  I am good at what I do. In fact I am probably the best at what I do and I make a difference.  If you think I am going to quit my job and stay home with Gran and slip into a quiet alcoholism you are out of your God damn mind. What I do matters.”

“What you do does matter. It matters very much. But so do you and at the rate you are going you will not be able to do it much longer.  There will not be enough of you left.  I
can’t let that happen.  I love you Cate, and I want a chance to see if you can love me. I doesn’t mean that you have to stop, we just have to change things. Scale back. Do whatever it takes to keep you whole and healthy and around for a very long time. I plan to need you for a very, very long time.”

So much for the 23
and horny theory. “Okay. Your right. I know you are right but what do we do? How can I change enough to make me not crazy? To see if we can be real together and normal enough to try? I am so afraid that I am genetically predisposed to self destruct that I don’t know what to do.”

“We will do it together. I can take some of the weight just because of what I am and you can share it because of what you are. We are a perfect match if you think about it. We can work together to figure out what we can do. The sky is the limit.  Just give me a chance.”

I stop to think about it but I know he is right. I always have. “I am all yours but remember you asked for it.”

Trevor gives me the biggest smile I have ever seen on him and holly
crap.  He is showing fang.  He is so hot.  I mean really, really hot. Something about him is just magnetic and I am all cheap metal. It is an irresistible pull. As in, I couldn’t resist if I wanted to and I don’t think I will ever want to.

“I have be
en thinking about you for years, Cate. I will never forget. I intend to have you beside me to remind me anyway.”

Trevor makes me a bowl of soup and brings over the bread.  I ask what he is going to have and he just smiles. Oh…Oh!

Chapter 7: Dating, Really, Really Fast

Trevor
and I had an amazing time tonight and by the time he drops me off Gran and Auntie Charles are dead asleep on the couch.  Trevor kisses me on the front step and I am glad that he pulls away because I would not have.  I would have done him on the front porch with the light on and we have a very bright porch light.

Did I ment
ion that this was my first date?  If I didn’t I will now. That was my first date and my first kiss and if Trevor had not had more restraint them me it might have been my first time. It’s probably poor form to lose your “V Card” on your gran’s front porch anyway.

Trevor is a first for me in a lot of ways. He is the first man who has actually known me that has still been interested for starters. He is the first person outside of my immediate family that I remember at all. I have always been told t
hat I was pretty. I am about 5’2” 110lbs. with long wavy light brown hair and big blue eyes. Really cute boobs and nice legs too. But none of that ever outweighed the weirdness that is my family. You can’t date anyone if your family is too weird to meet them and I live with Gran. She is completely bat shit crazy and I am on the fast track to join her. It’s the job. You can never unsee the stuff you have seen and eventually you get one you can’t handle or they just all add up. One way or another you end up nuts. Even Auntie Charles is nuts just from being a seer. Too many lives and deaths in one head. No one can take it in the long run.

When I was growing up I had plenty of attention from guys my age right up until the
y stopped by the house and met Gran or Auntie Charles or Molly (our dead housekeeper who doesn’t want to leave but is kind of scary if you are not used to her and none of the guys ever were.)  It usually only took one visit and any chance of a date was gone along with the young man I had been interested in.  I was even stood up for senior prom.  As a joke. Apparently someone hadn’t seen “Carry”.

Long story short by freshman year I was ignored or laughed at by everyone. Anyone too stupid to not be afraid of me made fun of me.  I was called “Crazy
Cattie”.  It doesn’t even rhyme but like I said the smart ones were scared. So I have always just settled for being worshipped from afar by guys who did not know me.

This whole Trevor thing is totally new and out of my range of experience.  He is smart, good looking, knows me and likes me. That is a combination I have never seen before. 

I really like him too.

We are going out again
tomorrow. I better get some sleep.

Chapter 8: Home Alone

This morning I have decided that cutting the phone wire was the best thing I have ever done.  Gran is asleep.  I am sober and I am going to be on time. 

Auntie Charles is taking Gran to a coven retreat tonight and they are going to be gone for a whole 10 days to Ireland! As in a whole different country that is not our living room. I have never been alone before, never. This is awesome.

I am on the front step dressed
, sober and on time when Trevor pulls up.  He does not need to be proud of me because I am proud enough for both of us. I float down the steps and he grabs me for a kiss before he opens my door.  I have a boyfriend and he really likes me even though he knows me. Go figure.

I ride to the station in a total state of confused bliss as Trevor tells me about the research he has done on the first
potential vic that met our profile, Christine Vale. She disappeared in 1998 before social media required young people to record and post every time they ate breakfast or farted. The only info he had found on Ms. Vale was from an old roommate and it wasn’t a lot but it was more than enough.  Christine was pretty but a bit of a loner, she did not tend to date, and kept to herself.  The last semester she spent at St. Agnes she was in Professor McNeil’s anatomy and physiology class and they spent a lot of time together outside of class.  The old roommate suspected they were having an affair. Still not enough for a search warrant but we have our guy.  It is just a matter of time and I can feel it.

Trevor’s expression changed as I was thinking.  I pictured Newt Gingrich naked bending over while peering over his shoulder provocatively. Trevor made a choking noise.  That’s right vampire boy, read away.  I’ll do C
arl Rove next. Try and stop me.

Trevor speaks up as I step out of the car.
“As your friend I would like to be kept in the loop regarding where you will be.  You look just as much like her any of the other victims and she might be gunning for you.”

“I will.
Yesterday was scary. Do you think the fashion tragedy is our girl?” I ask.

Trevor pauses a moment and then drops the big bomb. “The 1998
disappearance.  She was a witch.  Daughter of the leader of the Boston coven.  She had some trouble on the east coast and they sent her here.  It pretty much split her family.  She disappeared over Christmas and it was not reported by her friends or her family.  No one was expecting her so no one noticed when she was gone. They didn’t even searched her apartment until she was six weeks late on her rent.”

That has to be one of the saddest things I have ever heard.

I am holding his hand and he kisses me on the check.  I feel it to my toes. I wonder when and how we will tell the rest of the station that we are dating. I didn’t need to worry.  When I open the door my office is jammed with pink balloons and streamers. Every flat surface is covered in roses and a banner crosses the whole room that reads: CATE, WILL YOU MARRY ME!?!  LOVE TREVOR