by Rose Pressey
Was I the only one without this vampire radar? It looked as if it was something that would come in handy as of late.
“Maybe it was your little playmate from the graveyard.” I smirked.
“Don’t you think I can sense him? We are…” She cut off her words.
They were what?
Before I had a chance to ask, she spoke up. “Come on. Let's get out of here before this vampire shows up. I don't know who it is.” She motioned for us to hurry.
As we turned to walk out the door, a man appeared. He was tall with short black hair, high cheekbones, sharp green eyes, a muscular body, and he looked as if he wanted to eat us alive with his stare. I stopped in my tracks.
Chapter Eighteen
How to Date a Vampire, Rule #18:
Forget that vacation to Bora Bora. Your new vampire lover will much prefer somewhere less sunny.
“Quinton. What are you doing here?” Sophie asked with surprise.
“Oh, great. Another vampire.” I rolled my eyes.
Just what we needed. How many vampires were around anyway? Didn’t they have anything better to do than harass werewolves and their boyfriends?
“Sophie.” He nodded.
“This is my case, Quinton.” Sophie folded her arms in front of her chest.
“I'm aware,” he said as he walked across the threshold.
“Then what are you doing here?” she asked in a sharp voice.
“I came to check up on you.” He walked around the room, taking in every detail.
“Did Sergio send you?”
“I came on my own.” He picked up an empty meat package that set on the top of the garbage. He looked to Jack, then placed the trash back.
“I don’t think Sergio will like that,” Sophie huffed.
Jack moved toward the kitchen entrance, blocking the stranger from entering the kitchen again. “Look, I don't know who you people are, but you’re in my apartment, and I'd like answers. You keep mentioning names of people and we don't know who the hell they are or who you are.”
“I was just taking them to the French Market,” Sophie said without acknowledging Jack’s statement.
It was as if we weren’t even there. They didn't acknowledge our presence. We were insignificant as far as they were concerned.
Finally, Quinton looked to Jack. “Don’t worry, Mr. Chandler, we won’t take up much of your time. But the incident that happened at Ms. Cruz’s family home needs to be discussed. We’d like to apologize formally for what happened.”
“Listen, don’t worry about it. I don’t need an apology. We’ll just forget about it and everyone can go back to their lives. I’m fine. No harm done.” He tried to smile, but the attempt was weak, and not very convincing.
“I’m afraid we can’t do that,” Quinton said. “My name is Quinton Arlington, by the way.” He held out his hand and Jack reluctantly shook it.
“Ms. Cruz.” He stepped in front of me. “I’m sure you can understand how important it is for us to make this wrong a right?” He nodded waiting for me to nod along with him.
I stared into his eyes. The next thing I knew, I was nodding along with him. What the hell? He had charmed me into doing that. Being manipulated was not cool. And I’d fallen for it so easy. Shame on me.
I had to admit I knew it was the right thing to do even though I didn’t trust them. The only way to get the answers I needed was to go straight to the source. I needed to know what was going to happen to Jack. But what if they wanted to drain Jack? What if they wanted to drain me? If they did something to me, my father would declare war against them and I didn't want to drag my parents into this mess. Although Uncle Ernie hadn't seemed to mind dragging everyone into this chaos.
When I did find Uncle Ernie, he’d be sorry he ever got involved with the vampires. You couldn’t just go around messing with these paranormal creatures and expect everything to turn out peachy.
I sighed. “I guess we should go with them, Jack.”
“Can I talk with you privately for just a minute, Rylie?” Jack gestured toward the other side of the room.
I nodded. “Sure.”
“If you’ll excuse us,” Jack said as he walked with me across the room. “Rylie, they’re taking us to the same people who we were fighting with at your parents, no?”
“Well, yes, it does appear that way.”
Jack nodded. “I know I said we should go with them, but do you really think we should go? They wanted to kill you and your parents.”
Jack was right. I wanted to go to the source and find out what they wanted, but he didn’t need to be around them.
“So we need to have a plan to get away from them. They’re not going to want us out of their sight.”
He paused, then looked over his shoulder at the couple.
“Are you two finished chatting?” Quinton asked.
Jack looked back at me. “Okay. We’ll have to run from them and pray that we can get away. That’s the only way.”
I nodded. “But they’re fast. I think they’ll be able to keep up with us.”
“We’ll just have to give them the slip.”
Yeah, it wasn’t that easy, but I didn’t want to burst his escape-plan bubble. I guess it was our only shot though. We’d have to try. The vampires would probably know every move we made. They had that mental connection thing going on, although it seemed that some vampires were less good at tracking than the others since Sophie didn’t know that Quinton was the vampire she’d sensed.
We made our way out of the apartment and down the stairs. I was thankful Jennifer had stepped out of the apartment and not gotten in the middle of this latest debacle. Once we reached the sidewalk, Quinton and Sophie insisted that they’d walk behind us, just like I knew they would. Jack reached out and grabbed my hand. I didn’t know what he had in mind for the ultimate getaway plan. When we reached the alleyway next to our building, Jack squeezed my hand and I knew that was my signal.
“Aw, look at the lovebirds,” Sophie said from behind us.
I darted to my right and Jack followed. I kicked it into high gear, running faster than I ever had. My stomach hurt, my feet hurt—everything hurt. I panted and gasped for more air. Surprisingly, Jack was keeping up with my pace. His new vampire status must have really added speed, but he looked as if he was struggling just as much as I was. I knew if we were going to get away from those two bloodsuckers following us, we’d have to pull some tough maneuvers.
We cut to the left and around a building. If we made enough turns, and moved through the people on the sidewalks, I felt confident we’d lose them. Of course, if they used any special vampire skills that I was unaware of, this whole scheme would all be for nothing. I had to admit I hadn’t been very confident when we first dreamed up this plan, but when I glanced over my shoulder and didn’t spot either one, I felt a tiny bit of relief.
Running through the streets with my boyfriend, trying to escape vampires, wasn’t something I’d planned on happening. Running from werewolves, sure, I’d gotten used to that idea, but the vampires hadn’t even crossed my mind.
We had repeatedly glanced over our shoulders to see if they were following us. For the first couple minutes we were in an all-out sprint with the two vampires hot on our trail, but when I looked over my shoulder this time, all I saw was a crowd.
“They aren’t there.” I panted.
Jack glanced over his shoulder. “Do you really think we lost them?”
We slowed our pace as we continued to weave through the crowd.
“I sure hope so. I don’t think my lungs can handle much more. We should duck inside somewhere with a large crowd. Maybe then we can lose them for good.”
Jack nodded and reached for my hand. “Sounds like a plan.”
Up ahead was a little jazz bar. Music spilled out onto the street and people came in and out the door. We hurried in and the dimly lit space was a welcome reprieve. With so many people, there was no way our pursuers could find us in there, was there?
“W
hy don’t we hide over there in the corner behind that group of people? They’ll never think to look for us there,” Jack said, still holding my hand.
He pulled me through the group and I loved feeling his hand meshed with mine. It felt so right. We slipped up to a little table in the back of the bar and sat down. No one noticed us and I was thankful.
After a couple minutes, a waitress slipped over. “Can I get you anything?”
Jack looked at me. Drinking seemed like a great idea at the moment.
“A glass of white wine, please,” I said.
“Make that two.” Jack smiled.
This had to be one of the weirdest evenings I’d ever spent. Now we were in this romantic setting, sipping wine, when just a few minutes ago we were running for our lives. Something told me the relaxation wouldn’t last long. The vampires were on the hunt for us and wouldn’t stop until they found us.
“So what do we do next?” Jack asked.
“I don’t know.” I bit my bottom lip. “We can’t go home. They’ll definitely be looking for us there.”
“You’re right, they will,” he said.
I knew I didn’t want to roam the streets again like I had during the last full moon. That was no fun, although it would be a heck of a lot better with Jack by my side.
Jack continued, “Maybe we should just hang out here for a little while, then we can go to a hotel for the night until we figure out what to do.”
A hotel with Jack? My heart thumbed a little harder at the mere thought.
“That sounds like a good plan.” I couldn’t hide my smile.
He probably could read my mind and wondered why I was thinking of sex at a time like this. I am only human, er, werewolf, but whatever. I couldn’t turn off the hormones when Jack smiled at me that way.
“Don’t you think we should call your pack police again? Or do the vampires have police? Maybe they’d like to know what this gang is up to.”
Jack was so sweet. But I knew from experience if you wanted something done right, you had to do it yourself. “I don’t know about the vampire police, but I suppose I could try the pack police again. They didn’t seem really interested the first time around. Unless a vampire rips one of our heads off, I doubt they will take a threat seriously. They’d just ask us what they want us to do about it. I mean, sure the vampires are after us, but they haven’t technically threatened us, I guess.”
He nodded. “You’re right about that.”
“Well, like I said, maybe in the light of day, things will seem better.”
The light of day. Would Jack’s sensitivity to light worsen, or would it improve? I didn’t want to be a night owl for life. I was more of a morning person, something that drove Jennifer crazy, but I couldn’t help it.
Jack and I sipped on our wine. My head began to swim. One glass of wine usually made me tipsy. My lack of food didn’t make the matter any better. We watched the crowd, hoping not to see any signs of Sophie or this Quinton guy. And what had happened to the other vampire, Nelson from the graveyard? Where was he? That was one face I didn’t want to run into in the crowd.
With each passing minute, I moved a little closer to Jack. He touched his hand to mine and traced the outline with his finger. It sent a tingle through my body. I wanted to get out of there and some place alone with Jack, but the thought made me anxious like a girl with a crush. I stared at his lips, and he leaned over and placed his mouth on mine. I tasted the wine and my head began to swim even more. I needed to take a deep breath before I hyperventilated or something.
Maybe we shouldn’t have let our guard down, but it was hard not to with the mood lighting and the soft music, not to mention the wine giving me that soft tingling feeling. Of course, that wasn’t the main thing that was unleashing that feeling. Sitting next to Jack made my stomach dance and my heart flutter.
I took a sip of my wine. Jack moved in closer to me. Any closer and I’d be sitting on his lap. That wasn’t a bad thing.
“So you want to tell me more about this whole ‘male dancing’ thing you did?” I asked.
He’d shared this little tidbit with me on our first date. I’d wanted to hear the whole story ever since. He took another drink, probably trying to stall. I didn’t move my gaze.
Jack cleared his throat, then said, “Basically, I served drinks while wearing Speedos. Like I said, it paid for my college.”
Good thing I didn’t have my mouth full of wine. I would have spit it out across the table.
“Are you serious? So you had women stuffing dollars down your pants?”
“It was a very awkward time for me.”
I giggled. “I bet. But it helped you with college, so that’s a good thing.”
“Yes, it wasn’t so bad, I guess. I wouldn’t want to do it again. Don’t tell me you haven’t had an embarrassing job.”
“Okay, I won’t tell you.”
He laughed. “Well, let’s hear it. What did you do?”
He almost looked a little nervous waiting to hear my story.
I took a deep breath, then said, “When I was in college I worked part time at a Mexican restaurant. I had to wear this giant taco costume and stand out by the street with a sign to attract customers.”
“A werewolf in a taco costume?” A smile twisted his lips with the question.
“Well, I wasn’t in werewolf form at the time.”
He laughed. I thought I saw tears form in the corner of his eyes. He continued laughing, but at least it had slowed to a soft snicker instead of an all-out, belly-shaking laugh. All the while, all I could think about was a giant hairy taco. That gave a whole new meaning to ‘hair in your food.’
“In my defense, I needed money to buy books. What can I say?”
He grinned.
“Hey, I didn’t laugh that hard at your Speedo story,” I said.
It was time for a topic change.
“You’re too cute.” Jack drank the last of his wine and placed the glass on the table. “Maybe we should get going?”
I took another sip, then said, “That’s a good idea. We can hide away in the hotel until the morning.”
Things always looked better in the morning. Did I sound a little eager about the prospect of being along with Jack? Oh well, it was hard to hide the truth. I stood and Jack walked behind me, helping steering me through the crowd with a soft hand to my elbow. My stomach danced along with the music as we made our way across the room. Thoughts of spending the night alone with Jack was almost more than I could handle. All I could think about was Jack in that Speedo. Okay, Jack minus the Speedo was really my thoughts. I just prayed he didn’t have visions of me in that taco costume running through his head all night. Note to self: make sure my mother destroyed those photos.
We stepped into the night air. No vampires in sight. But just in case they popped back up, we hurried down the street, making our way toward the hotel. After a few more turns, and doubling back to throw them off our scent, we made it to the Maison Dupuy Hotel.
“We can stay here,” Jack said. “I don’t think they’ll find us here.”
It looked good to me. It was much better than hiding out in an alleyway behind a couple of disgusting trashcans like I had the last time I was on the run. We passed through the hotel courtyard, the flicker of the gas lamps leading our way. I tried to slow down when we passed a couple sitting at a café table. They gave us a strange look. I smiled, nodded, and then I picked up the pace again.
We maneuvered around the bubbling fountain in the middle of the courtyard. The water splashed my leg as I zigzagged past. Water flowed from the hands of what appeared to be cherubs riding dolphins. Maybe the cherubs were riding seahorses? Whatever. There was no time to internally debate the décor.
Jack opened the door to the main entrance and I rushed through as he followed on my heels. A couple of people at the front desk looked up, startled by our abrupt entrance. I stood fidgeting from foot to foot and scanning the area while Jack spoke with the front desk clerks.
/> After Jack secured our room for the night, we made our way down the hall and into the room. When I stepped inside, an instant relief came over me. I let out a deep breath.
A small sofa and chair sat at the far end of the room. It was a surprisingly large space, done in shades of soft yellow, greens and white. A floor to ceiling gold-framed mirror hung on the wall opposite the bed.
The room was cozy and comforting, which was just what I needed. A bouquet of mixed flowers set on the table in front of the windows, releasing a sweet aroma around the room. The mahogany headboard and matching night tables had a carved scrolled pattern on the front. The room was small, but nicely decorated, our own little safe haven. Alone with Jack. The thought made my stomach tingle.
Despite the danger, I was thankful for a bit of alone time with him. If only we could have a romantic evening. I doubted that would happen, though. How could we be romantic with this fiasco hanging over our heads?
The room had a large bed covered with a big white down comforter and many thick pillows. A soft yellow color covered the walls and taupe-colored draperies with a slight white scroll pattern running through them flanked the windows.
As Jack looked around the room, I opened the French doors that gave way to the wrought-iron balcony, and stepped outside. A horse-drawn carriage made its way past the hotel. The clop-clop of the horse reverberated throughout the street as a couple canoodled in the back of the carriage. They looked so happy, not a care in the world other than their love for one another. The fall air had cooled down to a pleasant temperature instead of the heat-stroke-waiting-to-happen temperatures of summer.
It felt as if I could see the entire French Quarter from up there. But if I could see all of the area, could everyone see me? I needed to hide out in case the vampires were looking for us. What was I saying, in case? Of course they were looking for us. I stepped back inside the room just as Jack was coming out to join me.
“We shouldn’t be out there in case they pass down the street.” I gestured with a tilt of my head.
“You’re right. Good point.”
We stepped back inside. Jack shut and locked the doors. He reached out and grasped my hands in his.
