by Kathy Love
Ha! Here we go. Now he was going to suggest she undress or something equally rude and offensive. She shivered, another tingle shimmying over her flesh.
He simply held the plain white towel out to her.
“Here you go. And help yourself to anything you want.”
He grabbed a towel for himself and headed toward the door.
“Wait,” she said more sharply than she intended, her voice echoing off the tile. He paused and turned back to her, arching an eyebrow.
“Aren’t-aren’t you going to fire me?” she asked, her voice now much softer, and irritatingly to herself, a little shaky.
Sebastian shook his head. “No. Accidents happen.” He offered her another smile and left the room.
Wilhelmina remained motionless, the towel held loosely in her hand. She couldn’t believe it. He wasn’t going to fire her. Her plans for him and Carfax Abbey weren’t thwarted.
She wondered why she didn’t feel more pleased.
CHAPTER 3
“Oh my God! What happened?”
Wilhelmina stepped into her apartment and dropped her purse on the floor. She brushed her still damp hair from her face, and toed off her wet shoes before answering her roommate, Lizzie.
Lizzie sat on the sofa, a huge platter of nachos balanced on her lap. Her long legs curled under her, her glossy amber hair loose around her shoulders. As usual, she looked lovely, making Wilhelmina all the more aware of her drowned-rat impersonation.
“Well,” she stated, “I set off a sprinkler.”
Lizzie set the nachos on the coffee table and leaned forward, excitement lighting her pale blue eyes. “You did?” Then she paused. “Wait, a sprinkler?”
Wilhelmina nodded and held up a single finger.
“Why? What happened?”
Wilhelmina flopped into a chair that took up a majority of one corner of the small room. She ignored the fact that her dress was dampening the chenille cushions.
“Apparently when you light a fire under a sprinkler only that sprinkler goes off, not all of them.”
“Well, they all go off in the movies.”
“I know,” Wilhelmina agreed, still disgruntled about the whole fiasco and her trust in cinematic truth. “And, unfortunately, it gets worse.”
Lizzie paused, a nacho dripping with cheese and meat halfway to her mouth.
“Not only did I set off only the one sprinkler, but I slipped and fell into the water. In front of him.”
“Oh no.” But Wilhelmina couldn’t help noticing that Lizzie didn’t seem surprised.
Then Lizzie’s pale eyes lit up. “Super-Fang’s back?”
Wilhelmina frowned at the nickname Lizzie had given Sebastian. Granted she didn’t know his real name or the name of the club. Only registered members knew that information. Which, given how dangerous Sebastian was, seemed a little self-defeating. Not to mention Lizzie could probably hold her own with the vampire. Still, she had the feeling her roommate wasn’t taking Wilhelmina’s mission seriously.
“Yes, he returned to deal with the police investigation on the accusation that Carfax Abbey was serving minors.”
“That was a good one,” Lizzie said. “I thought that one would work.”
Wilhelmina nodded. So had she. She sighed. “So all my sabotage attempts have managed to do so far is lure the nefarious vampire back to his club to witness me falling in the small flood I created.” She sighed. “That ought to stop his evil ways.”
Lizzie shook her head, giving her a sympathetic smile. She popped the nacho into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully.
Wilhelmina watched her, wishing she could drown her sorrows with a little binge-eating.
“Well, it sounds like you made a good attempt,” Lizzie said as she munched another nacho, and then she uncurled from the sofa, her impossibly long legs elegant even in jeans. “And he didn’t fire you.”
She picked up the platter and headed toward the kitchen before she spun back to her. “He didn’t fire you, did he?”
“No,” Wilhelmina said, still unsure how she felt about that surprising fact.
“That’s good, right?” Lizzie gave her an encouraging smile and disappeared into the kitchen. Wilhelmina closed her eyes and let her head fall against the back of the chair.
She appreciated Lizzie’s support especially since she knew her new roommate thought that Wilhelmina’s involvement with the Society was a bit out there. But her sympathetic smiles only managed to make Wilhelmina feel more like a failure.
She knew Lizzie was only being supportive because she was a friend. She never asked for many details, although she had tried to help with sabotage ideas. Lizzie seemed to like the idea of that, even though Lizzie thought most of the work the Society of Preternaturals did was silly. She wasn’t for the integration of preternatural creatures. She wanted a cure for them. That was where her energy was focused. Her research.
But until, or even if, a cure was found, Wilhelmina felt that she had to help mortals any way she could. Even if it meant sabotaging one preternatural hotspot at a time.
Wilhelmina shivered, even though her bloodless skin didn’t register the coldness of her damp clothing as it would have if she were human. But she’d been shivering since she’d gotten wet, since she’d…
An image of Carfax Abbey’s owner appeared behind her closed lids. In some ways, he’d been exactly what she imagined, and in others… in others, he’d been very different. Like his unexpected reaction to the water damage. He’d handled the whole debacle with an easygoing amusement that she hadn’t expected in an arrogant, dissolute, and wicked vampire. He’d even helped mop up the water himself. Although he had still looked every inch the decadent vampire doing it.
That was another reaction she hadn’t anticipated-her fascination with his physical appearance. She’d encountered many beautiful vampires in her existence, and she’d been fully prepared for Sebastian’s good looks. Or at least she’d thought so. And still she’d found herself watching him throughout the remainder of her shift, which he’d actually cut short, sending her home because she didn’t have any other dry clothes to put on. She hadn’t expected that from the infamous vampire either. Consideration.
She opened her eyes. She couldn’t let his laid-back manner fool her. That was part of his charm, part of his lure, used to disguise the monster underneath.
“So what about the club owner?” Lizzie called from the kitchen. “Was he all that the Society had made him out to be?”
Wilhelmina frowned. Sometimes she really hated Lizzie’s animalistic ability to guess her train of thought. Wilhelmina didn’t want anyone picking up the feelings stirring inside her at the moment. Surprising notions about how intriguing she’d found the owner.
No, no, no! She only found him interesting because he was her opponent, her nemesis. She was wise to study him. And she was equally as wise to remember that he was beautiful and mesmerizing in just the same way a flame was to a moth.
Let’s face it, the moth never made out well in that attraction. She knew that firsthand.
“Well?” Lizzie asked again as she re-entered the room, a large glass of iced tea in one hand and three packages of Twinkies in the other.
Wilhelmina shook her head. If Lizzie were human, she’d weigh three hundred pounds. But then, if she were human, she wouldn’t have an enormous appetite. Lycanthropes really could pack it away.
Lizzie sank onto the sofa and arched a dark brow at Wilhelmina. “So? What was Super-Fang like?”
Wilhelmina frowned, another image of Sebastian appearing in her head. His golden eyes and lopsided smile.
“Dangerous. Very, very dangerous.”
Lizzie nodded as she took a large bite of her snack cake. “So what’s the next plan of attack?”
Wilhelmina sighed, and for just a moment, she considered putting an end to this crazy idea. But she couldn’t let herself do that. She believed in what she was doing. She just needed to remain determined. She would see Carfax Abbey closed down. Unfortunately, she’d used her t
wo best plans, and they’d both failed.
“I don’t know,” she finally admitted.
“What about the idea to empty all the vodka and gin bottles and fill them with water?”
Wilhelmina winced. Had she actually thought that would stop the club’s business?
“No. That won’t work.”
“You could also replace all the whiskey and bourbon with tea,” Lizzie said, raising the glass of amber-colored liquid to demonstrate before taking a sip.
“I don’t think that would do much, except cost him some money.”
“Probably not,” Lizzie agreed, then she smiled slyly. “But it would be sort of fun.”
“What if I put something in the beer that would make the human patrons sick?” Wilhelmina suggested.
Lizzie shook her head. “No. Food poisoning is a dicey proposition. Humans are fragile, and you wouldn’t want to mortally injure the ones you’re trying to save.”
Wilhelmina nodded. That was true.
They both fell silent as they considered other possibilities.
“You know,” Lizzie finally said, “I’d just go into the club before it’s opened and burn the place to the ground. That would certainly stop him.”
Wilhelmina shook her head. Lizzie had been right when she’d said that Wilhelmina didn’t want to hurt anyone. She didn’t. She wanted to stop what happened at the club, but she didn’t want to do anything that would truly hurt someone. She wasn’t a radical who believed that sometimes violence was the means to an end. Although some of the members of the Society did feel that way. She just wanted mortals to be safe from sadistic, self-serving vampires. She wished there had been someone out there who’d done the same for her.
“Okay,” Lizzie agreed, “no burning to the ground. Let me think.” She ripped open another package of Twinkies.
Wilhelmina watched her, trying to think of something that would cause the club to be closed down for longer than an evening. Fire was out. Water damage was out-too much fire needed. Tampering with the liquor, ineffectual. Food poisoning-too dangerous. What did that leave?
“I’ve got it,” Wilhelmina said, suddenly. “Health inspectors.”
Lizzie nodded, looking impressed. “Yes, that could work. If you did it right.”
Wilhelmina grinned. Oh, she’d do it right. This time her plan would definitely work.
Sebastian strode through the nightclub, nodding to several of the club’s employees as he passed. They were busy with their sidework, getting ready for another hectic night. He scanned the large room for dark hair and black-rimmed glasses, but didn’t see either. The new waitress wasn’t in yet, or maybe it was her night off. Or better yet, maybe she’d quit.
“Where’s the new girl?” he asked Nadine, keeping his voice casual as he slid onto a bar stool.
Nadine glanced at him, then picked up a bundle of napkins. “She’ll be in any minute.”
“So what’s the deal with her?”
Nadine didn’t look up from where she crouched behind the bar, restocking the shelves. “What do you mean?”
“She’s-odd.”
Nadine rose, crumpled up the empty wrapper from the napkins and tossed it down the bar into a gray plastic trash can.
“She is,” Nadine agreed. “But she’s harmless.”
“When she’s not starting fires in the backroom, that is.”
“That was an accident.”
Sebastian nodded, but knew he didn’t look convinced. There had been something about the new waitress’s behavior that still didn’t seem right to him. It was almost as if she’d been disappointed when he’d assured her the rest of the nightclub was fine. And then in his apartment, she’d been downright afraid of him.
He supposed he could chalk up her fear to the fact that she’d fully expected to be fired, which many other business owners would have done. He wondered why he hadn’t.
“You said that she needs this position,” Sebastian said. “Why? What’s her story?”
Nadine ladled maraschino cherries from a large jar into a metal serving tray. “I don’t know much about her. She’s pretty quiet.”
“Then how do you know-” Sebastian started, but his head bartender silenced him with a sharp flash of her dark eyes.
“I just get the vibe that she needs this job,” she stated. “There’s something… desperate about her.”
Sebastian couldn’t disagree with that. At the very least, there was something desperately strange about her. He started to say so when Nadine’s next comment stopped him.
“She seems lost.”
Sebastian paused. Hadn’t that been what he’d sensed about her, too? He just hadn’t been able to label it as Nadine had. But there was something anxious and almost lost about her. She was unlike any vampire he’d encountered, and running this club, he’d met many. He had to admit that she made him curious.
And other than being a little accident-prone, she was obviously not dangerous. In fact, aside from her strangeness, she was rather unexceptionable. Another peculiar trait for a vampiress. Vampires were nothing if not noticeable. She wasn’t.
Except when wet, he amended. She’d definitely been noticeable then. The image of her sitting in that puddle, dress hiked up to the tops of her pale thighs, appeared in his mind again.
He gritted his teeth, annoyed with himself. He wasn’t irritated with himself for noticing. After all, that’s what he did. He always noticed women. It was the fact that the image was still so clear in his mind, and kept replaying. He’d seen far more provocative displays of skin from far more beautiful women, yet something about-what was her name?
Wilhelmina.
He grimaced. But something about Wilhelmina had captured his attention. Again and again over the course of last evening, and again tonight.
He’d obviously been depriving himself. Time with his holier-than-thou brothers really did cramp his style. And last night, the sprinkler incident had put a damper (no pun intended) on his plans. By the time he was finished cleaning up the backroom, he’d decided just to head up to his apartment to relax. Alone. He’d been too preoccupied: with who could have called the cops about serving minors, and then as much as he hated to admit it, Wilhelmina. He’d thought about her more than the damned cops.
He sighed, turning his thoughts to the threesome of women he’d turned away. That had been stupid. He wouldn’t still feel so uneasy if he’d spent last night feeding his hunger and burned off his extra tension with them. Maybe they’d be back tonight and he could make up for his bad behavior. They would forgive him. Women always did.
Again, the new waitress popped into his head. Except for her, maybe. She definitely didn’t respond to him like most women, whether vampiress or female human. Even Nadine was more receptive to his charm-and Nadine was one tough she-wolf.
Nadine’s a wolf, understanding dawning on him. That had to be why Nadine was championing the weird waitress. Wolves were protective by nature.
“Nadine, I appreciate your decision, but I’m not sure she’s cut out for a job here. I mean look at Greta.” He gestured to the leggy blonde, leaning on the end of the bar chatting with Crystal, a curvy brunette. “And Crystal. Our cocktail waitresses are part of the allure of the place. They are supposed to be a draw for the patrons.”
“Give her a chance. This is where she needs to be,” Nadine said, certainty in her husky voice.
Sebastian studied his right-hand woman and friend. Finally, he nodded. Nadine was a good judge of character, another trait of werewolves. Animal instincts and all that. And he’d trusted her for years with all his hiring. It didn’t make much sense to question her now.
Still, while there was something that intrigued him about the vampiress, there was something that made him uncomfortable as well. His gut told him he should bypass Nadine’s opinion and give the little waitress her walking papers.
“Hi, Wilhelmina,” he heard Greta greet the waitress in question.
Sebastian glanced down the bar to see her rush into th
e club. Her hair was again knotted in that peculiar, messy, hornlike hairstyle and her black plastic-framed glasses slipped down to the tip of her nose. She scurried in a graceless way, the large knapsack on her back causing her to stoop forward, making her look like a hunchback.
“Hi,” she murmured to the blonde as she hurried past.
As she approached, she hesitated slightly when her eyes met his. Then as she started forward again, the toe of her left foot caught on one of the nearly nonexistent grooves in the marble flooring. She tripped forward but managed to catch herself on the back of a bar stool before she fell.
Sebastian started to stand to make sure she was okay, but before he could rise, she scampered past him toward the employee lounge.
“Wilhelmina,” he called, turning his bar stool in her direction.
He’d expected her to be reluctant to speak to him, but instead she spun to face him.
“Y-yes,” she said, her gaze darting from him to Nadine and then back to him again.
“Are you okay?” he asked. As in his apartment, he got the vibration that she was scared.
“Yes,” she said quickly. “I–I just need to call my roommate before my shift starts. I–I forgot to tell her-something.”
Just then her knapsack shifted, and she reached a hand to one of the straps to secure it. She backed away from them. “I, um, I need to make that call.”
She continued to back away a few more steps, then turned and literally fled into the small lounge.
Sebastian glanced at Nadine. “I hope you are right about her.”
Nadine gave him a bemused look that stated she currently had her doubts as well. “Me too.”
CHAPTER 4
Wilhelmina rushed into the employee lounge, a relieved sigh escaping her as she saw the room was empty. Thank God. She started to sag back against the wall, her heart pounding and her knees weak. But at the last moment, just as her back would have connected, squeezing the backpack between herself and the wallboard, she caught herself.
Pushing straight, she reached for the straps of the pack and eased it off her shoulders. She placed the large sack on the floor, watching as the nylon rippled and undulated like a living thing. Of course, the creatures inside were alive. And judging from the squeaks and clawing, they were also more than a little upset. The woman at the pet store had looked a little upset, too, when Wilhelmina had asked to buy all of their rats, and then had stuck them in her knapsack. Oh well. This had to be done.
