Sonia surveyed her surroundings with interest, noting how different the place looked when it was almost empty. The music speakers were silent and only the muted sounds of the staff preparing for the night disturbed the quiet. Inhibitions was really quite a large, cavernous room without all the people filling it. Tables and booths were polished to a gleam and the floor was free of any debris. A female employee with a clipboard checked liquor bottles, all the while casting inquisitive glances in Sonia’s direction.
Smoke and mirrors. The club would seem so intimate, so captivating with the music pumping and the myriad lights shining on the patrons, spotlighting them on the dance floor and giving them privacy in the darker corners. The whole thing was an illusion. Right now, the club resembled the warehouse it was, later on it would be alive with people who wanted to party and dance and delve into the dark sides of their fantasies.
She rubbed her hands up and down her arms, suddenly chilled. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know what went on here, which was surprising considering some of the places she’d been in her lifetime. A cemetery at midnight didn’t bother her half as much as Inhibitions did. Of course, all the inhabitants of the cemetery she’d visited had been quite dead and she couldn’t say that about the inhabitants of the club.
She was actually quite surprised she’d been allowed inside Inhibitions, which didn’t open for another half hour yet. She checked her watch. Make that twenty-eight minutes. She’d learned that they opened promptly at six, but knew the place wouldn’t really be hopping until much later. This would be her best time to talk to Damek, if he was here.
The rather large, intimidating bouncer who’d escorted her from the premises last night had let her in his evening, telling her to wait while he checked to see if the boss was in. Either Damek was here or he wasn’t. Shouldn’t the bouncer know for sure?
He probably did. The question really was would Damek be in for her or would he send her away again?
She was determined to meet him one way or another. Sonia chewed on her bottom lip, knowing she was bordering on obsession with her need to meet this guy. She’d done a lot of research today, but could find nothing on the man himself, nothing but a very poor picture that really didn’t show much at all.
It was as if he were a ghost, living in the shadows. That piqued her interest and made her believe she was on the right track. No paranormal creature wanted the general public to be able to find out anything about him.
The research on the event last fall had intrigued her as well. Several men had been murdered and the police had decided it was gang related and the men killed had been mauled by pit bulls. Sonia wondered about that and knew she was going to check out Wicker Park and the surrounding area for any signs of werewolves actually living in the city. That would be rare. They tended to stick to rural, wooded areas where there was less human occupation and more open spaces in which to run.
A stirring in the air made the hair at her nape stand on end. Her gaze was drawn to the dark hallway beyond the bar, the one down which the giant, leather-clad bouncer had disappeared. She swallowed hard as a man appeared.
He was shorter than the bouncer, but he was still tall, about six feet, give or take an inch or so. He was wearing a suit that screamed money and his gait was smooth and fluid as he moved toward her.
The light from the bar shone on him and Sonia felt every bit of blood drain from her face. It couldn’t be. It was impossible.
The man she’d been trying to see, the man she thought might be a vampire was the man from her dream.
Chapter Five
Damek stared at her and she was unable to pull her gaze away. Her bottom lip quivered as she returned his stare. “You,” she whispered, her voice trembling.
He stopped a few feet from her and inclined his head. “You wished to see me, Ms. Agostino.”
She shook her head and he arched a dark brow at her. Sonia wanted to smack him, which shocked her to her core. She’d never been a violent person, never had the urge to hit anyone because of how they made her feel.
Sonia felt as though he’d stripped her naked and seen deep inside her to her darkest fantasies and deepest hopes. Then reality settled in. The sun hadn’t gone down yet. Damek couldn’t be a vampire.
And how had her instincts been so off? They’d started buzzing the first time she’d seen an article on Inhibitions and had eventually led her here to Chicago. She’d been so sure that Damek would end her lifelong search to find a vampire.
Disappointment ate at her, making her stomach ache. She hadn’t realized just how desperately she’d wanted him to be one.
“Sonia?” The way he said her name, with the hint of a European accent, made her heart clench.
He was beside her in a moment, his strong arm around her waist as he led her toward the hallway and whatever lay beyond. She went without protest, even though her research was a bust. There was something about Damek, something dark and compelling, something that made her want to be next to him.
She almost snorted aloud. Of course she wanted to be next to him, the guy had featured prominently in her erotic dream last night. And that was totally impossible. She’d never met him before. There’s no way she’d have forgotten him.
He was even more dynamic in person than in her dream. He was only a few inches taller than her but he seemed much larger. An aura of power surrounded him, making her second guess her earlier assessment. Maybe he wasn’t a vampire, but he was definitely something out of the ordinary, maybe a mage or a shapeshifter of some kind.
A sense of relief hit her. Her instincts weren’t defective. They were still working as well as they always had. She’d simply misread them and allowed her own wants and desires to cloud them. Desires. Not a good word to use after last night. Time to be rational and clinical about Damek. She took a good look, studying him now that her initial shock had faded.
The suit he wore hadn’t come off any rack but had been tailored to fit his lean form to perfection. She knew that because it looked too much like the suits her brother Stefano wore, and he was very particular about his clothes. Damek’s shirt was black silk and he wore a Rolex on his left wrist. Shoulder-length black hair was pulled away from his face and tied neatly at his nape with a leather thong. His features were strong, his skin pale. Masculine strength seemed to leak from his pores, permeating the air around him.
“Where are we going?” she finally thought to ask. Really, she had to get a grip on herself. Dream or no dream, she was here to get answers.
The corners of his mouth turned up in amusement. “My lair.” His low voice made her nipples tighten and an ache began to pulse low in her belly. She dug in her heels to stop herself from going any farther. What in the hell was she doing, going off with a man she didn’t even know? She should stay in the main part of the club where it was better lit and there were more people around.
Damek halted beside her, his arm still around her back and his hand pressed against her side, not pressuring her to continue. “I did not mean to frighten you.” His black eyes grew darker even as shadows seemed to creep across the floor toward them. “My office, Ms. Agostino. I thought you’d prefer to talk there. Alison will bring coffee.”
Now she just felt stupid, and she hated feeling that way. “Of course.” Damek was a businessman, not a killer. Heck, he wasn’t even a vampire. In all the reading and research she’d done, she’d never heard of one able to be up and around before the sun set, even if he was inside.
She swallowed her disappointment once again and pulled away from him, taking the final steps to his office on her own. Really, she was acting like a ninny. Her brothers would laugh their asses off if they could see the way she was acting around Damek, and all because of some stupid dream she’d had. Maybe she’d seen a picture of him somewhere in her research but just didn’t remember it.