“Honey, you’ve got to be careful.” Rusty gave her a concerned, grandfatherly look.
She patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. There will be no more coming downstairs without turning on the light.” She felt bad for lying to him, but she didn’t want to get into the real story with everyone who strolled into the diner throughout the day. Not many people lived to tell the tale of being attacked by vampires, and she wasn’t interested in becoming the neighborhood celebrity.
She retreated to the kitchen and was glad to see Mindy had finished accepting the delivery and could take over the waitressing duties.
“For the record, I slipped and fell down the stairs last night,” she said quietly to Mindy so no one in the dining room could hear.
“I work for a klutz. Got it.”
Olivia stuck her tongue out at Mindy, grateful to her friend for setting aside her venomous hatred for vampires and instead acting as normal as possible. If she could fill her day with normality, maybe she could convince herself that the approaching night would be normal, too.
* * *
By the time she closed the diner and convinced Mindy to go home, Olivia was too tired for the long soak in the tub. Fatigue won over fear and she fell asleep almost the moment she crawled into bed, the light of dusk still illuminating her bedroom.
When she woke from a nightmare, her heart hammering, it was full dark, and panic surged through her at the memory of the vampire’s teeth ripping out her throat. She lifted her hand to find her throat intact. She jumped from the bed, crying out when she put weight on her ankle. She blinked against tears but made herself walk through the apartment to make sure she was still alone and all the windows and doors were still locked. She knew a vampire couldn’t be inside, but it still made her feel better to double-check.
She turned on the living room light and glanced at the clock. It read five minutes after four. She’d slept for ten much-needed hours. She made herself a cup of coffee and sank into the soft cushions of the couch to drink it.
The phone rang, causing her to jump and yelp in alarm. She placed her hand over her racing heart, wondering how much fear it could handle before it ceased to function. Phone calls at this time of night were never about anything good. She checked the caller ID and was shocked to see her cell number on the display. On the third ring, she picked up. “Hello.”
“This is Campbell Raines.”
Even more fear slammed into Olivia at the sound of that familiar voice. He knew her phone number. Did he know her name, too?
With her heart trying to beat a retreat in the opposite direction, she looked toward the window. Somehow she knew he was out there. How else would he know she’d be awake now?
“Olivia?”
Guess that answered that question. “How do you know my name?”
“I have your phone and a pretty good hacker on my team.”
Her heart rate, which had only just begun to calm down, ratcheted up again. Bolstered by the fact she was safely inside and needing to not show her fear to him, she said, “Yeah, that doesn’t sound stalkerish at all.”
“Not my intent. I just need to talk to you.”
She hesitated, not sure she wanted the answer to her next question. “You’re outside, aren’t you?”
“Yes. But you know I can’t get to you, so you’re safe.”
Then why didn’t she feel safe? A pane of glass seemed like such an insubstantial barrier for a being with that much strength. She’d felt that barely restrained strength a hairbreadth from snuffing out her life, and later pressing her next to him as he pulled her to safety. And yet a human bent on crime could more easily pass through that pane of glass than a vampire.
Olivia stood and limped slowly toward the window. Somehow she knew imagining him out there would be worse than actually seeing him. When she looked out, there he was staring up at her from the sidewalk. He waved and even smiled a bit awkwardly, as if he didn’t do it often.
“Why—” Her voice broke, and she had to swallow against the invading dryness. “Why are you here?”
“To apologize for last night.”
“That seems out of character.” Well, hadn’t she suddenly grown ballsy?
“Suppose I deserve that,” he said. “Sometimes I get so wrapped up in the task at hand that I can be a jackass.” He paused, as if this whole apology thing was a foreign language he was stumbling through. “I shouldn’t have dragged you into that den. You’d already been through enough.”
She’d heard stories about good vampires, but the vamps had always frightened her so much that she couldn’t quite believe them. Now she wondered, especially if there was some sort of vampire police force patrolling the nights. This one, this Campbell Raines, really did seem as though he regretted attacking her.
Of course, it could all be a ploy to win her trust, to lull her into making a deadly move. That thought didn’t ring true, though, not after he’d taken a pretty good beating in order to save her life. She couldn’t believe she was giving a vampire credit for anything positive, but the truth was the truth.
And since he’d fed, he seemed in control, much more human than when he’d been staring down at her with those awful red eyes.
“You and your friends—are you V Force?”
Even with the distance between them, she thought he looked surprised that she’d heard of V Force. Of course, she wasn’t going to tell him that she’d only heard the term within the past day.
“Yeah. How did you know about that?”
“I own a diner. You hear things.” She took a shaky step forward and sat on the window seat before her legs totally gave out and dumped her on the floor. When she took the weight off her ankle, it throbbed worse than when she’d been walking. In fact, she felt as if she’d been body-slammed repeatedly. “Well, that explains a few things, I guess.”
“The fact that a truckful of vamps dragged you around the city without killing you?”
“That and the whole black commando look you all have going.” She motioned toward his clothing. Gone was the bare chest, and she wasn’t quite sure if she was grateful or not.
He glanced down at his black boots, cargo pants, tee and flak vest. It struck her that they suited him, his dark hair, angular features and muscular build. When he looked back up at her, he was also wearing a crooked grin that was thankfully fang-free. And it made him oh-so-damn sexy.
That thought startled her enough that she squeezed the decorative pillow next to her.
“But there’s not a cape in sight,” he said.
She laughed at the unexpected joke. For a moment she feared she’d finally gone crazy. But then came the stunning realization that his comment had in fact alleviated more fear than her continually telling herself she was safe as long as she stayed inside.
“What’s with the vest? Part of the look?”
He reached toward his waist and pulled a wooden stake from his belt. “So I don’t get one of these to the chest and go poof.”
She realized how little she really knew about vampires, what was fact and what fiction. The past two years had been a blur of work and grief. She didn’t have time to think about vampires. She guessed a part of her wanted to pretend they didn’t exist, and as long as she stayed indoors at night, she didn’t have to think about them too much. Until last night.
“Is that what happens? You really go poof?”
He replaced the stake in its slot. “No. For whatever reason, wood in the heart is poisonous to vampires and we die in seconds.”
“You don’t know why?”
He shook his head. “I’m still working my way through the history, trying to figure out what’s true and what’s a load of crap.”
“So you were turned recently?”
“About five years before the virus hit.”