This man, this vampire, had her feeling a bit like a teenage girl who’d just been noticed by the hottest boy in school. But teenage girls were ruled more by emotion and hormones than common sense, weren’t they? She was a grown woman now, one who lived in a dangerous world where common sense was often the dividing line between life and death.
“Campbell?”
“Yeah.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“You’re at a greater risk because of your blood type.”
“Me and everyone else in the city with AB-negative. Are you calling all of them, too?”
He hesitated before speaking. “There’s a list of targets, and your name is on it along with a few others in your neighborhood. Those vampires who were trying to take you, that was no random attack. And if vampires can’t get you at night, whoever is behind this is going to try again with human lackeys during the day.”
Cold dread settled in Olivia’s stomach. “I’d thank you for warning me, but I’m kind of wishing for an ignorance-is-bliss moment right now,” she said, trying to make light of a situation that held not one iota of light.
“I’m sorry.”
“I think maybe you’ve apologized to me enough already.”
He didn’t respond for several seconds, ones in which she realized she was close to burning the omelets. “Crap!” She scooped them onto plates and refused to make eye contact with Mindy when she zipped by to pick them up.
“I’ve caught you at a bad time, haven’t I?” he asked.
“Just the busy morning rush. And I’m not paying attention.”
“I distract you that much?” His voice held some teasing she knew was meant to lessen her tension, but it also had the effect of making her skin warm all over. Did the man have any idea how sexy his voice was? A vision of him naked, rolling around with her in tangled sheets, caused her body to tingle in interesting places. Thank goodness vampires didn’t have the ability to read minds. At least she hoped they didn’t.
“You could say that.” Damn, she’d said that out loud while wishing he was still human. She wished she could recall the words because they were definitely the least wise ones she’d uttered in a long time. This was not the time to be playing with fire, even if it had been a long time since she’d felt these kinds of sexual sparks. She let herself fantasize about what it’d be like to take Campbell to bed if he didn’t pose such a threat to her.
“Be careful,” he said, his voice deepening more. He sounded...aroused. And that sent a thrill through her. A very unwise thrill but a thrill nonetheless.
“Why?” Hell, why couldn’t she shut up?
“Because as much as I’d love to go there with you, it’s not safe. For either of us.”
He’d love to go there with her? Lord, their conversation had taken an unexpected and way-too-honest-for-comfort turn. She let her breath out slowly, wondering what had possessed her. “I know. I’m sorry.”
“No need to be sorry. It’s my fault.” He sighed, and something about it sounded so forlorn. “Listen, I’ll let you get back to work. Just be careful. You might not want to be delivering meals, at least until we can round up these lowlifes.”
“Right now I don’t have the means anyway.”
After they both hung up, Olivia couldn’t stop thinking about him. She’d never been the kind of person who wanted to live dangerously, so her attraction to Campbell didn’t make the first bit of sense. But how could she see him and not be attracted? The man was sex on two very long legs.
“Okay, I’m dying to know,” Mindy said from where she now stood at the entrance to the kitchen. “Who is he?”
“Who?”
Mindy crossed her arms and lifted her eyebrow. “Don’t play that game with me. I know what a woman looks like when she’s thinking about doing naughty things with a man.”
“I’m not thinking about doing naughty things with a man.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“It’s true.”
“Then what are you thinking about that has you smiling like a fool and nearly burning half a dozen omelets?”
Olivia looked her best friend in the eye and knew she should keep her crazy feelings to herself. After all, Mindy loathed vampires and with good reason. They’d killed her mother and sister, and she’d had to see the horrible result to identify their bodies. Olivia’s nerves fired at what Mindy might think of her if she told her the truth. Would she think she’d gone bonkers? Well, that was an obvious yes. What she couldn’t handle was if Mindy felt betrayed.
But she and Mindy had always had an open and honest friendship, hanging on to each other even more when the virus and the subsequent emergence of vampires had robbed them of those closest to them. What if Mindy had no idea good vampires were real? Could she possibly believe that after what the vamps had done to her family? Once you saw that kind of viciousness, could you ever look beyond it? How could Olivia expect her to?
“I’m afraid to tell you.”
“Afraid? Good grief, do you have a kinky side I don’t know about?”
Olivia stared at her friend, not knowing how to answer that question. For a moment she considered shooing Mindy back into the dining room and avoiding the admission altogether. But she wasn’t used to holding things in. And maybe Mindy could talk some sense into her.
With a deep breath, she met Mindy’s eyes. “I’m thinking about doing naughty things with a vampire.”
Chapter 6
Mindy’s eyes went wide and her mouth dropped partially open before she spoke again. The color drained from her face. “Are you crazy? Did they do something to you? Please don’t tell me they have mind-control abilities, because that will just take the world to a new level of hellish.”
Olivia dropped her gaze toward the floor for a moment. She’d known telling Mindy was a bad idea. Why hadn’t she listened to her common sense screaming at her?
She lifted her head but turned her attention back to the grill, where she flipped a few slices of bacon. “Never mind. Pretend I didn’t say anything.”
“Oh, no, you don’t.” Mindy moved to stand next to Olivia, propping her hip against the edge of the metal countertop adjacent to the grill. “You can’t drop that bombshell, then not tell me what is going on. Seriously, did they do something to you?”
Olivia sighed and wished with all her might she’d kept her mouth shut. “No, I’m pretty sure they don’t have mind-control abilities. Even in the world we now live in, that’s a bit too unrealistic.”
“Is it?”
Olivia met Mindy’s gaze. “I think if they had that ability, they would have used it to calm me down when I was freaking the hell out.”
Mindy considered that tidbit for a moment before giving a curt nod. “So, then, what is going on? You know they’re monsters.”
Olivia eyed the front door when a young couple came in. They looked like tourists. Though the city might never recover to the point where it was a tourist mecca again, amazingly people were beginning to trickle back in. The economy, including her own personal one, sure could use their dollars.
“Customers,” she said to Mindy.
Mindy didn’t even glance through the order window. “They can wait.” This wasn’t the fun, joking Mindy Olivia normally spent her days with. In her place was the hard, cold Mindy from the days after her family was killed. The Mindy who’d wanted nothing more than to go on a merciless vampire-killing spree.
“It’s nothing really. Just crazy thoughts brought on by too much stress.”
“I’ve never heard of attraction being caused by stress. Insanity maybe.”