Out of the Night (Harlequin Nocturne)

by Trish Milburn

  He stepped into his room, shoved off his jacket, which still held the woman’s feminine scent, and pulled a clean T-shirt over his head. “Find anything at the den?” he asked as he came back into the main room.

  “Squat,” Colin said, leaning back in his desk chair. “Though Travis is trying to figure out who owns the building.”

  “That ought to be easy enough,” Campbell said.

  Travis looked up from his computer. “You’d think, right? But someone went to a lot of trouble to hide the owner’s identity. The deed says PMG Inc., but that company doesn’t seem to exist.” Travis’s computer dinged and he looked at the screen. “Looks like this phone belongs to an Olivia DaCosta.”

  When he read the address of the Comfort Food Diner, Campbell realized he now had a name to go with the beautiful face. And he had a sneaking suspicion that was going to make her even more difficult to forget.

  * * *

  Olivia kept waiting to wake up. But no matter how much she paced across her apartment on her twisted ankle, winced at the pain in her back or pinched herself, nothing changed. She really had been attacked by vampires and then been saved by the same species. A bubble of hysterical laughter threatened, but she tamped it down. If she was going crazy, she didn’t want to acknowledge it quite yet.

  She noticed the light blinking on her phone and hit the play button.

  “Olivia, I just got your message. I was in the shower. Please call me as soon as you get this,” Mindy’s concerned voice said. “I called your cell, but you didn’t answer.”

  When the machine beeped and the next message started, it was Mindy again, sounding even more scared this time. “Come on, Liv, call me. I’m freaking out here.”

  As Olivia made her way through the messages, they were all from her best friend, each one growing more frantic than the last. Her cell phone was who knew where. She’d lost it sometime between calling Mindy and the cascade of horrible events that followed. She picked up her cordless phone and dialed Mindy’s number.

  “Liv?” Mindy sounded on the verge of tears, very unusual for her.

  “Yeah, it’s me.”

  “Oh, thank God. You had me scared to death. What happened? How did you get home?”

  Olivia let out a long breath. “You’re never going to believe it.”

  “Try me. I’ve imagined just about everything waiting here by this phone, praying you were alive.”

  Olivia pressed her palm against her forehead as she continued to pace the floor of her living room, unable to sit still even though she ought to have her foot propped up on a cushion and ice packs on all the cuts and bruises. “Someone stole my car, and I got attacked as soon as the sun set.”

  Mindy gasped. “Attacked?”

  Olivia heard the unasked question. “I wasn’t bitten. Nearly, but I’ve still got a heartbeat.”

  “Were you able to get inside a safe building?”

  “No. I couldn’t find anyone willing to open their door.”

  Mindy cursed under her breath. “This new world has turned us into hardhearted bastards.”

  While there were still good people in the world, Mindy’s assessment held enough truth that Olivia didn’t contradict her.

  “You know I don’t believe in miracles, so how did you get away?” Mindy asked.

  “This is the part you’re not going to believe.” She paused, thinking again about how crazy the truth was going to sound to her friend. “Vampires.”

  “Vampires?” There was no missing Mindy’s disgust.

  “Yeah, this black armored truck rolled up, and the next thing I knew, these commando-type vampires were fighting the other ones.”

  Mindy was quiet for several seconds. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  Olivia didn’t blame Mindy for sounding skeptical. She wouldn’t believe it either if it hadn’t happened to her. Part of her didn’t believe it despite that fact.

  The details of the rest of the night flowed out of Olivia, faster with each word. It felt as if she were draining her body of poison.

  “Wait, let me get this straight,” Mindy said, interrupting the flow. “The big vampire who attacked and almost killed you, he’s the one who later pulled you to safety?”

  “Yes.” Olivia realized she was on the verge of sounding hysterical. “It’s all insane but one hundred percent true. And when I finally thought he was going to bring me home—” Her voice broke, and tears leaked out of her eyes to roll down her cheeks.

  “What is it?” Mindy sounded worried, as if she wanted to help but was afraid to hear more.

  “Never mind.” She shouldn’t be talking about this with Mindy, reminding her of how vile vampires were when she needed no reminding.

  “No, it’s okay.”

  Olivia took a deep, shaky breath. “He took me back to that blood den, made me go inside. Oh, Mindy, it was beyond horrible. It was like a castle dungeon and a slave ship all rolled into one. Chains.” She sniffed and wiped at her tears. “They had them chained to the walls. My God, the smells.” She felt as if she might throw up again at the mere memory.

  “Don’t think about it anymore. Try to push it from your mind.”

  Was that what Mindy had to tell herself each morning to survive the loss of her family? Olivia didn’t think she’d ever forget that place if she scrubbed her brain with bleach.

  “I know none of this makes any sense, but after that I swear he dropped me off at my front door and didn’t leave until I was safely inside.”

  Mindy was quiet so long that Olivia wasn’t sure she was still on the other end of the line. Finally, she spoke. “Had to be V Force. No other explanation.”

  “V Force?”

  “Vampire cops, if you believe in such a thing. I’ve heard they attempt to keep the vamp population in line, but I always figured it was a myth or some propaganda put out to make the little humans feel better.”

  Well, didn’t this night just get weirder by the moment? “Damn fine job they’re doing.” Although they had saved her life, more than once.

  Olivia spent the next few minutes answering more of Mindy’s questions before the simple act of talking became too taxing.

  “Listen, I’m exhausted. We’ll talk more in the morning, okay?”

  “Sure. You deserve a good night’s rest.”

  But when Olivia ended the phone call, she wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to sleep again. It’d been two hours since Campbell had brought her home, and she still couldn’t calm down. Trying to focus her mind on anything but vampires, she planned the next day’s restaurant menus, then the ones for the rest of the week. She followed that with a full inventory of the stock room. When sleep still seemed to be nowhere on the horizon, she even tried watching TV. Nothing stopped the anxiety that pulsed throughout her mind and body.

  She desperately wanted to take a shower but couldn’t make herself do it even though she knew no vampire could get inside without her inviting him in. Somehow fiction had managed to get that tidbit of lore right. The limitation didn’t make sense, but it didn’t make it any less true. She found she couldn’t even force herself to change clothes, afraid to leave herself vulnerable for even a moment.

  Though she was more exhausted than she could ever remember being, sleep would not come. She lay in bed and stared at the ceiling, her muscles tensed, ready to fight for her life yet again.

  When daylight began to edge into her world again, she finally relaxed. But now she was faced with an entire day of work. If she were the only one who depended on the diner’s income, she’d be tempted to stay closed for the day despite her need for the incoming cash. But Mindy’s livelihood was tied to the diner, too, so Olivia dragged herself out of bed.

  When she stood, she was careful about putting weight on her injured ankle until she was sure it would support her. She was surprised to find it felt better than it had when she’d gone to bed. Evidently having it propped up during the long hours of the night had helped.

  However, her back felt as if someone had h
it her in the spine with a cannonball. Straightening her back brought tears to her eyes. She blinked them away, and when she could see clearly again, she eyed her bathroom door. Nothing sounded better in that moment than a long hot shower. With a full day of work in front of her, she needed something to help her get through it.

  She winced her way to the bathroom. Her foot remembered it was injured and started throbbing in a rhythm opposite that of her back, a tennis match of pain. The idea of spending the entire day in bed beckoned to her, but she couldn’t leave Mindy alone to handle the diner all day. She might not have the crowds she once did, but she needed to keep the customers who did come in happy so they’d return.

  Besides, she needed to stay busy so she’d stop thinking about how she’d barely cheated death the night before.

  She flipped on the bathroom light and caught sight of herself. In addition to her twisted ankle and sore back, more evidence of her nearmiss with death stared back at her. A bruise and cut on her cheek and assorted scrapes she didn’t remember sustaining.

  Olivia shook her head again and started removing her clothes. Instead of tossing them in the laundry basket, however, they went straight into the trash can. Despite some rips and stains, they were salvageable. But she didn’t want any unnecessary reminders of how close she’d come to dying.

  When she turned her back toward the mirror, she nearly gasped. The entire middle of her back was a massive bruise, the darkest part marking where she’d hit the rim of the fire hydrant’s cap.

  “That gives new meaning to That’ll leave a mark,” she said to her reflection. Considering a vampire’s strength, she was lucky she hadn’t broken her back.

  Shoving all the could-have-beens from her mind, she turned on the shower and stepped under the flow of water. Her thoughts drifted to Jeremy and the familiar pang squeezed her heart. He’d been gone two years and she still missed him every day. The sorrow wasn’t constant anymore, but she couldn’t go out among the city’s homeless without thinking of him. She’d wonder what he would have said to a homeless man who needed medical attention but had no money, what he’d think of her efforts to carry on his legacy, and how he would have reacted to the news that vampires were real and not anything like Kate Beckinsale in the Underworld movies.

  That last thought made her smile. She remembered dumping an entire bowl of popcorn over his head when he’d gone on and on about how Kate did nice things for skintight leather. He’d laughed, she’d pretended to pout, and his tickling of her ribs led to a very nice lovemaking session on her couch as one of the movies played in the background.

  Though the memory made her miss him even more, she was glad she could now look back and mainly remember the good times. In the months after his death, all she could think about were those horrible days of watching him die while she sat next to him. She’d hated herself for being one of the minority who were immune to the superdisease scientists had warned about for years.

  A new kind of guilt swamped her as she rotated under the spray. Despite everything that had happened the night before, she couldn’t deny the big vampire was attractive. At least he would be if he had a pulse. She’d loved Jeremy with all her heart and had intended to spend the rest of her life with him. It just seemed wrong to even be noticing another man so soon. Two years might seem like a long time to some, but it felt as if it had passed in the blink of an eye. Even telling herself the big guy wasn’t really a man didn’t help. Actually, it made her feel worse, as if her attraction to him was an even bigger betrayal of Jeremy’s memory.

  She stuck her face under the full force of the water, trying to wash away all the thoughts doing the dance of confusion in her head. Wanting to get downstairs before Mindy showed up for the day, she turned off the water and went about getting ready the way she did every morning. After yesterday she needed a boatload of normal today.

  But as she started pulling bacon and eggs from the refrigerator a few minutes later, she realized every movement was going to be a reminder of her close calls. She popped a couple of ibuprofen and told herself that if she could just get through the day, she’d treat herself to a long hot soak in the tub with a good book and some relaxing music playing. And then an incredibly long night of sleep. She wasn’t getting anywhere near outside once the sun started to set.

  Her heart went out to all the homeless she wouldn’t be able to help today. Hopefully the “I find stuff” vampire really would come through on locating her car before it got stripped down for parts. And if it didn’t turn up soon, she’d have to figure out another way to resume the food deliveries. She could probably pick up another car on the cheap, but it wasn’t as if she had much extra cash sitting around.

  Mindy Kemp burst through the back door of the diner shortly after sunrise, her dark corkscrew curls highlighted with magenta streaks bouncing. She raced straight for Olivia and pulled her into a powerful hug. “I’m so glad to see you with my own eyes.”

  Olivia appreciated the gesture, but it made her cringe against the pain. She edged out of Mindy’s embrace.

  Mindy stepped back and examined Olivia’s face. “You look like crap.”

  Olivia swatted her with a potholder. “You try getting attacked by vampires and then not sleeping all night and see if you end up looking like Miss New York.”

  Mindy’s expression turned dark. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “Yes, considering. Though I feel as if I went a few rounds with a grizzly bear.”

  “I wish you could have killed the filthy bastards.”

  Olivia looked away and didn’t remind her friend that one of those “filthy bastards” had actually seen her safely home. It still didn’t make sense, and more than once as she’d lain awake she’d wondered if she’d imagined the entire thing. But each time she moved this morning, her battered body told her it hadn’t been a nightmare. At least not the kind you had while sleeping.

  They’d already gone through all the details the night before, so Mindy didn’t make her repeat them. “Don’t tell anyone, okay?” Olivia didn’t want any looks of pity or to have to answer a million questions.

  Mindy nodded. “Any word on your car?”

  “Not yet.”

  “What are you going to do about delivering the meals?” Mindy asked, knowing that would be uppermost in Olivia’s mind.

  “I don’t know.” Mindy, like many New Yorkers, didn’t have a car. And the subways had stopped running two years before, when it became widely known what really lurked down there in those tunnels. Now people walked, biked or drove everywhere, timing their commutes to minimize any chance of being stuck outside after dark. That meant shorter workdays and smaller paychecks, especially in the winter months. Life was leaner now, but everyone made do the best they could.

  Cabs still ran during the day, but the fares were so high that she couldn’t afford to have a cabby drive her all over the city and to wait for her as she delivered meals.

  “I’ll figure out something,” she said as she started cracking eggs into a mixing bowl. “But for now, we’re going to have hungry customers in a few minutes.”

  Like clockwork, old Rusty Tangier walked through the front door and hung his cap and coat on the hooks on the wall. Rusty was a creature of habit, a retired high school biology teacher who went for a walk every morning as soon as the vamps retreated. The walk always ended up at the diner, where he had two scrambled egg whites, whole-wheat toast and a cup of whatever fruit was on the menu for the day.

  “Morning, girlies,” he said with a wave of his newspaper.

  “Morning, Rusty,” Olivia and Mindy called back.

  They fell into the morning routine as more customers began to arrive. Olivia took a deep breath, thankful for the facade of normalcy even though deep down she wondered if her life would ever be the same again.

  When the weekly food delivery showed up, Mindy hurried to handle it. That left Olivia to take out the prepared meals to Rusty and Jane Farmer, another regular, who always sat by the window and wrote on
her laptop as she ate her breakfast.

  “Lordy, girl, what happened to you?” Rusty asked when she approached his table.

  Too late Olivia remembered the outward signs of her vamp encounter. She slid his plate in front of him as she tried to come up with a plausible story.

  “Stupidity, that’s what happened,” she said as she noticed Jane and a couple of other customers looking her way. “I slipped on the stairs last night and took a nasty tumble.”

  “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.