Dark Wine at Midnight (A Hill Vampire Novel Book 1)

by Jenna Barwin

  He placed her bag on the luggage stand and stood there looking confused. “You’re mad at me? This is the mayor’s fault, not mine.”

  “Really? Then why didn’t you take my blood last night?” She popped the can’s top—loudly—and took a sip from her soda.

  He shifted his weight from one foot to the other and looked away. After a moment, he turned back to her. “I didn’t think you were ready for that commitment.”

  She slammed the can down on the coffee table and stood to face him. “Why didn’t you ask me? Or are you not ready?”

  His dark eyes flashed anger, turning solid black. “Shall I show you I am ready?”

  “Yes.”

  “You really have no fear of what I am, do you?”

  She crossed her arms. “You won’t change the topic that easily.”

  “Cerissa, once I take your blood, you cannot date others until I release you. Until I decide. Not you. I didn’t want to make the decision for you.”

  “Bullshit!” she exclaimed, not keeping her voice down. She didn’t care if the tourists in the room next door heard her.

  “Cerissa!”

  “If you truly want a relationship with me, it has to be as equals—you can’t own me.”

  Yeah, she’d had enough of that with the Protectors. They’d controlled her life from birth, without a concern for what she wanted. He had to understand she wasn’t going to take the same treatment from her boyfriend. No, she was not.

  “I didn’t mean I would own you,” he replied. “It is our way. I—”

  “Your way. I can’t live as a second-class citizen. If this relationship is going to work, that has to change.”

  “But the Covenant—”

  “I don’t give a damn about the Covenant. What needs to change is how you treat me. Now.” She took a step closer to him and jammed her finger into his chest, his muscle harder than she remembered it from last night. “Your Covenant is only a step better than those behind the vampire dominance movement.”

  “The what?”

  She turned away and covered her face with her hand. Oh shit. I really do need to get out of the spy business and back into the research lab.

  “Ah,” she began, turning to face him again. “There are rumors some vampires want to turn mortals into their slaves, keep them in herds—in other words, no more mates.”

  He shook his head. “Those rumors have been floating around for years. It won’t work—the idea never gains any traction. We love our mates too much to turn them into slaves.”

  “Not according to your Covenant.” She poked his hard chest one more time. “You act like you’re superior to the rest of us, but in truth, your rules are archaic, a throwback to a patriarchal era.”

  “I—” he began, but then abruptly stopped. “That’s just what Shayna said.”

  “Shayna?”

  “My friend’s wife.”

  She took his hand in hers. This was too important to leave it unsettled, and not just because she wanted back on the Hill. “If you’re truly ready for the next step, it will be by our rules, not theirs.”

  “Very well. Our rules. Then here is our first rule: I will save the taking of your blood for when I have you in my bed.”

  She stepped back. “Procrastinating again? I’m not allowed anywhere near your bed on the Hill.”

  He glanced at the hotel bed, and then at his watch.

  Why was he concerned about the time?

  “I have a proposal,” he said, a mischievous grin growing on his face. “Let’s go to the baseball game. I promised you a fun evening—I don’t want you to think I’m only interested in sex.”

  She smiled. She couldn’t help it. She ran her finger along his jaw line. “You’d rather go to a ballgame than make love?”

  “It’s not either/or,” he said, catching her finger and kissing it. “I plan on having both.”

  She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. Then she remembered—she’d worn her lenses because they were going to a public event. Oh well—Ari could edit it for her. She didn’t give a damn if Ari saw the video. She blinked and turned off the recorder, leaving her lenses set to monitor and warn her in case of any danger.

  Chapter 50

  Cerissa waited while Henry opened the car door for her. She had assumed another vampire was waiting in the lobby to give them privacy, someone who would satisfy the Rule of Two. When she learned he had no one with him, her gut tightened with concern. How could they attend the game without an escort?

  “Please get in,” he said. “It’ll be fine.”

  She slid into the Viper, and, after closing her door, he took something out the trunk of the car. She couldn’t see what he was doing. Then he got in behind the wheel. He now wore a black blazer over his button-down shirt.

  “What will the council do if they catch you?” she asked.

  He waved his hand. “This is my first offense. A fine, nothing more.”

  “But aren’t you making it worse by attending the baseball game? We don’t have to go. I can eat dinner at the hotel.”

  “I promised to take you to the baseball game, and I intend to keep my promise.”

  She eased back into her seat and looked out the car’s window as they gained speed on the main boulevard. He had more experience breaking rules than she did. Shouldn’t she trust his judgment?

  The stadium sat halfway between the Hill and Mordida’s international airport, less than a mile from her hotel. Five minutes later, Henry turned the car down the lane reserved for VIP parking. It was a short walk to the reserved seat entrance. The security guy looked in her purse, and then raised the metal detector wand to run it across her body, asking her to turn around. She now faced Henry, who winked at her and then looked past her shoulder. The wand dropped back to the guard’s side, and they passed through without any further searches.

  Why had Henry avoided the metal detector? The wand wouldn’t reveal he was a vampire. She shrugged to herself. Maybe the detection device was made with silver parts.

  Their seats were in the premium club section right behind home plate. Once they settled in, Henry glanced up at the luxury boxes above their heads, and she followed his gaze, not sure what he was looking for.

  She pushed her hair behind her ears, feeling the frizzies start to form in the damp night air. The crowd fell silent when the batter stepped up to the plate, the field awash in artificial light. The scoreboard read 0-0, bottom of the second inning. Minutes later, the crack of the bat sent the ball into the stands—a home run for the Bugles.

  Henry cheered like a kid. His face lit up, his fist pumping the air. He was enjoying himself, sharing something special with her. She tried to follow the action, to cheer and clap whenever he did, but watching him was more interesting than watching the game. He seemed suddenly younger, not like the serious Henry she saw on the Hill. When he booed the referee, she giggled. Jeez, when did I become so girly?

  * * *

  Henry focused his eyes on the game, but Cerissa’s accusations niggled at him. Was protecting mortals nothing more than a smoke screen for treating them as property? Father Matt had compared the Covenant to Jim Crow laws. Was he right? After all, a benevolent dictatorship was still a dictatorship.

  He scratched at the back of his head. The Covenant was designed to protect mortals. Vampires couldn’t be trusted not to harm mortals, not without strict rules. He couldn’t see a way around it. Not if they were going to keep the Hill safe.

  Yet tonight, he’d rebelled against those rules. An uneasy feeling rooted in his gut. How did he get trapped between securing the safety of his community and feeling like a prisoner inside his own walls?

  Cerissa squeezed his hand and he squeezed back, but he kept his vision focused on the field. He didn’t want his eyes revealing his thoughts.

  And what about my deal with Leopold? How will Cerissa react when she learns about it? His stomach lurched. She couldn’t learn he’d paid $1.2 million for her. If she found out he treated her like
chattel, she’d never become his mate. He had to tell her something—maybe he could tell part of the truth. But what about Leopold’s warning? Don’t ever lie to her.

  No, he had to be honest with her. He couldn’t build their relationship on a lie. Once they were back at the hotel, he’d tell her everything.

  * * *

  It was the bottom of the fourth inning. Cerissa’s stomach rumbled—an unfortunate side effect of pretending to be mortal. She hoped Henry hadn’t noticed.

  He looked over at her. “Would you like to order food from the server?” he asked. “I promised you dinner. Our seats include food service, or I can escort you to the concession stands.”

  So he had heard her stomach rumble. At least she could count on him to be gracious about such things. “I’d like to stretch my legs, if you don’t mind missing part of the game.”

  “The Forty Miners are up next. I can miss that.”

  She smirked. Henry took his team loyalty seriously. She climbed the steep stairs, glad to be out of the hard folding chair. Henry walked behind her. “I’d like to try a hot dog,” she said over her shoulder. “They’re the traditional food of baseball. I looked it up.”

  “Yes, hot dogs and peanuts.” He caught up with her and wrapped his hand around hers. They walked side by side across the sparsely occupied concourse in the direction of the nearest booth offering food.

  “Then I’d like to try both,” she said. They passed a few people carrying other food choices. Garlic was one of the only foods she couldn’t eat when around vampires. She missed it. “But I’ll skip the garlic fries—this time,” she added with a grin.

  “Indeed,” he said, a little menace in the humorless look he gave her.

  Teasing him was such fun. She leaned her head against his shoulder, enjoying their closeness as they walked across the breezeway to the food stands.

  “Stop right there,” a man ordered.

  Henry whirled around, shoving her behind him. Cerissa peeked over his shoulder to see two vampires, one man and one woman, armed with handguns.

  “What do you want?” Henry asked, producing a gun of his own.

  “You,” the man said. He had a military-style buzz haircut. Buzz motioned with the end of his gun. “Come with us and Leopold’s envoy can stay here, unharmed.”

  “Don’t,” Cerissa whispered. “It’s a trap.” She pressed up against his back and felt the hard outline of another gun under his blazer.

  “Perhaps it’s a trap, perhaps not,” the female vampire with bright red hair said. Cerissa’s eyes tracked her. Red slowly circled in on Henry’s left. “But if you don’t go with us, she’s dead right now.”

  No choice. Cerissa blinked her eyes. In the speed it took to think “how,” her lenses gave her what she needed: the muscle memory to handle a gun. With vampire-like speed, she grabbed the gun out of his back holster, chambered a round, and aimed the Glock at Red. The U-shaped sight made it easy to find her target.

  Red froze.

  “I do believe the odds have improved,” Henry said with a chuckle. “She’s an expert shot.”

  A bold bluff. A Watcher is forbidden from killing, but he doesn’t know that. Red’s gun was pointed directly at her. Stalemate. Now what?

  The sound of a gun slide being pulled back almost caused her to jump. To the side, Rolf, Jayden, and Tig were spread out—a large enough arc that they had clear shots at Red and Buzz, without Henry or her being in their path of fire.

  Tig pointed a large pistol at Buzz. “Freeze,” she ordered.

  “We’re not leaving unless Henry is with us,” Buzz said.

  “Then you’re not leaving,” Tig replied.

  A slight movement—Red’s gun swung to point at Henry. Fuck the rules. I can’t lose him. Cerissa squeezed the trigger on the Glock.

  Red’s gun went flying.

  A rapid fire of other guns followed. Henry’s body crashed into her, forcing them both to the ground. Her gun arm was trapped across her body, his weight pinning her down.

  “Henry!” she screamed, struggling to get free.

  “All clear,” Tig shouted.

  Cerissa finally pushed out from under him. “Henry!” she yelled, shaking his arm. “Talk to me.”

  Buzz was on the ground, a growing red splotch on his t-shirt. She ran her hands over the hole in Henry’s button-down shirt, looking for blood.

  “I’m okay,” Henry said, glancing at his chest. “But they ruined my favorite shirt.”

  She wasn’t taking his word. She pulled at the buttons on his shirt and found something hard underneath the fabric.

  “Stop.” His hand grasped her wrist and he sat up. “There is nothing you need do. I’m wearing an old-fashioned heart shield—leather bonded to steel. I never leave the Hill without it.”

  She watched as he dug his fingers into the hole and plucked out the squashed bullet. A whiff of burning flesh and he quickly dropped the bullet into Tig’s gloved hand. He shook his fingers the way a mortal did after touching something hot.

  Tig examined the bullet. “Silver. Small caliber, low velocity. I bet it’ll match the bullets the other shooters used.”

  Still kneeling, Cerissa threw her arms around Henry, hugging him tightly.

  “Are you okay?” he asked her.

  Her ears still rang from the gunfire, and the acrid smell of gunpowder caused her to rub her nose. Too much to process too quickly—Buzz and Red were on the ground, not moving, but mortals walked around them like an invisible force field kept them out. She gawked—she’d never seen the vampire ability to cast mass hypnosis demonstrated before.

  “Cerissa, are you okay?” he repeated.

  “I’ll be fine,” she finally said. “You’re okay—that’s all that matters.”

  He patted her back and let her go, standing up. He offered her a hand. “Is everyone else all right?” he asked.

  “We’re good,” Tig replied. “Jayden, please photograph and print those two before they mummify.”

  No bystanders were hurt. Not even a stray bullet in the breezeway wall. Cerissa took a good look at Red. Her own bullet had gone through Red’s gun wrist, but someone else put a bullet through Red’s heart. Henry stooped over to pick up a casing from his Beretta.

  “Good shooting, Henry,” Jayden said, as he leaned over the body. “Clean through the heart.”

  Tig snorted in disgust. “I would prefer having one alive.” She picked up Red’s arm, examining the wound in her wrist. “Good shot for a civilian, Cerissa. A vampire couldn’t have done better. When I saw your bullet hit her arm, I aimed for her heart.”

  “Um, er,” Cerissa stammered. She couldn’t let Tig suspect the truth. “Ah, I’m not that good. I was aiming for her chest too.”

  Tig raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Henry, we’ll need your help to carry the bodies out.”

  Cerissa wrapped her arms around herself, the gun still gripped in her hand. She felt cold, a little shaky, but relieved. She hadn’t killed Red. Would the Protectors have understood killing in self-defense of another? Not likely.

  Jayden squatted near Red’s body and pressed the dead vampire’s fingers against a small device. A short time later it dinged. “They aren’t in V-Trak.”

  “I’ll send their photos around the listserv,” Tig said. “We’ll see if any security chiefs recognize them.”

  Cerissa took a deep breath and let it out. Still holding the Glock at her side, she followed the group as they carried two dead vampires to the parking lot, leaving a trail of gray dust on the black asphalt. Where had these two assassins come from? Their fingernails had no ridges. They were both young vampires—very young. Was their maker waiting outside to help them?

  She didn’t care whether the Protectors would understand or not. She wasn’t letting go of her gun until she knew Henry was back on the Hill and safe.

  Chapter 51

  Henry stepped up into the back of the police van, hunched over, carrying the redhead’s legs. Rolf had the shoulders, and together, they eased
her into a body bag. Tig and Jayden slid the male into a black bag.

  Henry hurried out of the van to be at Cerissa’s side. She looked a little shell-shocked, her arms wrapped around herself, the gun still in her hand.

  “I’m sorry this happened,” he said, wrapping his arms around her again.

  She returned the hug, her gun pressed flat against his back. “It’s not your fault.”

  “Yes, it is. I should never have brought you here without a proper escort. After the previous attacks, I should have known better.”

  A hand gripped his arm, pulling him away from Cerissa before she could respond.

  “Step back,” Rolf demanded. “She’s not your mate.”

  He let go of Cerissa only because he didn’t want to drag her with him. But Rolf’s impudence wouldn’t remain unpunished. Henry spun around and slammed Rolf against the police van.

  “Funny way to thank me for saving your life,” Rolf said with a snarl.

  Tig slid her arm between them, pushing at his chest. “Okay, guys, break it up.”

  Henry took a step back, raising his hands. He didn’t want to make things worse by resisting the chief. “What do you mean you saved my life?”

  Rolf brushed his hands over his shirt, smoothing out the wrinkles where Henry had grabbed him. “You bought your tickets through our corporate account,” Rolf replied. “When two of the three were scanned in, the account notified me. I left the skybox to find out who was using them. I didn’t expect it to be you. When I saw you without an escort, I called Tig.”

  Rolf could have come to Henry, warned him to leave. Instead, he’d betrayed him by phoning the chief. “You’re not much of a friend,” Henry said with disgust.

  Rolf flipped his straight blonde hair to the side, brushing it out of his eyes. “Shit, Henry. I’m on the council. I had no choice. I couldn’t look the other way. Frédéric would know.”

  “Pitiful excuses,” Henry retorted.

  “This is not the place for this conversation,” Tig said. “Henry, you need to return to the Hill with us.”