Out of the Night (Harlequin Nocturne)

by Trish Milburn

  He sighed. “Yes, I’m abundantly aware. Not that it’s any of your business.”

  “Excuse me? It is my business if I end up having to stake you because you’ve killed her.”

  An icy chill went down Campbell’s spine. At Kaja’s words, a flash of Olivia cold and lifeless in his arms, blood trickling down from bite marks on her neck, hit him and turned his stomach. He didn’t have to imagine it. He’d seen it all too vividly before.

  “You okay, man?” Travis said.

  “Yeah.” Not in the slightest, but he would be as soon as he purged Olivia DaCosta from his thoughts.

  * * *

  Olivia’s exhaustion made her sleep so hard that Mindy had to wake her the next morning.

  “Come on, sleepyhead,” Mindy said. “You forgot to set your alarm.”

  Olivia blinked her eyes, trying to alleviate the ripped-from-sleep confusion. She looked at the clock, which did more to wake her up than Mindy’s words. “Good grief!” She threw off the covers and raced for the bathroom as fast as her healing but still-tender ankle would let her.

  “I’m going on downstairs, get things started,” Mindy said.

  “Okay, be down in a minute.”

  She flew through her toothbrushing, changed clothes and ran a brush through her hair before hurrying downstairs. Rusty was already out front when she hit the bottom step, so she veered toward the door to unlock it.

  “Is something wrong?” he asked as he stepped inside.

  “No, nothing. We just overslept this morning. Too many brownies last night and not enough setting of alarm clocks.”

  Rusty shook his head. “Girl, you can’t scare an old man like that.”

  “Well, if I see an old man, I’ll try not to scare him.”

  Rusty planted a kiss on her forehead and headed toward his usual table. “You’re good for my ego.”

  “We aim to please, serving up ego stroking with your bacon and eggs.”

  “You know, life is short and I’m feeling a bit adventurous today. I think I’ll have some French toast.”

  Olivia’s mouth dropped open. “Who are you and what have you done with Rusty?”

  He laughed. “Guess I’m just tired of the same thing day after day. Where’s the fun in that?”

  It hit Olivia that she could say the same about herself. Her days didn’t differ much from one another, unless, of course, you included a vampire attack and phone calls from a tall, sexy vampire who was so off-limits it was painful. She glanced at Mindy, hoping she couldn’t magically read her thoughts.

  As more of the morning regulars and a few new faces started arriving, Olivia headed to the kitchen to start another of her carbon-copy days. The sense of dissatisfaction surprised her. She loved her diner and the customers. Cooking for them made her happy. So why did she suddenly feel as though her life wasn’t complete?

  Because she was alone, surrounded by people but still alone. Except she hadn’t felt that way when she was talking to Campbell. Maybe Mindy had been right about staying with her the night before. Maybe she did need babysitting.

  She shook her head and focused her attention on filling orders.

  “Did you all see this?” Rusty asked as he thumped a story in that morning’s New York Times. “Leila Russell is reporting that she’s come across evidence that humans are working for vampires, that there have been kidnappings in the past week.”

  Olivia’s heart slammed against her rib cage and she had to grab the edge of the countertop to steady herself. She’d hoped that Campbell had been wrong, but having the same story in black and white, reported by a human journalist who covered the vampire beat, made it even more real. She resisted the very real urge to be sick.

  “Guess it was just a matter of time before some lowlife got that idea,” said Barney Bretton, a retired cop. “Bottom-feeders in every species.”

  “How could a person even think about working for one of those animals?” Barney’s wife, Cheryl, asked. “I can’t stomach the idea of even speaking to one, let alone going into business together. I hope they all get their heads chopped off.”

  Olivia jerked at the hatred in Cheryl’s voice and had to turn away. She went to the large walk-in freezer, where she couldn’t hear the continuing conversation. Once inside, she took slow, deep breaths.

  “You okay?”

  Olivia gasped and took an involuntary step backward before it clicked that it was only Mindy. “Yeah.” She grabbed a box. “Just needed some more cheese.”

  Mindy didn’t look convinced, but she didn’t press the point and left Olivia alone.

  Olivia took another moment to calm down, reminding herself that people had very good reasons to hate vampires. Two days ago she likely would have agreed wholeheartedly. Now her head hurt every time she wondered if the world actually had a lot more shades of gray instead of being all black-and-white when it came to vampires. Thankfully the dining room conversation had shifted to the more usual griping about politicians when she returned to the kitchen, and she fell into her normal rhythm as the morning progressed.

  When the breakfast crowd left and they found themselves in the morning lull, Mindy came into the kitchen and took off her apron. “The first rule of self-defense is to always be aware of your surroundings. Look people in the eye. If something feels wrong, don’t do it. I’m a firm believer in gut instinct.”

  Over the next hour, Mindy showed Olivia the location of pressure points, how to disable an attacker by kicking the side of his knee and how to make a fist and use the other hand to help make an elbow strike more effective.

  Olivia glanced at the clock. “I need to get started on the lunch prep.”

  “One more thing. Palm strikes to the nose can be effective because they’re painful and can knock your attacker off balance, giving you a chance to get away.” Mindy showed her how to hold her palm forward, bring back her arm then shove the heel of her hand up into someone’s nose. “You ram them with as much force as you can.”

  Olivia performed a few practice jabs, wondering if any of this would have the slightest effect on a vampire. Not that she planned to be in a situation to have to protect herself against a vampire again. But all of this was good to know because there were plenty of lowlife humans still walking the streets of New York.

  Now that Mindy had assumed the role of self-defense teacher, she went all in. Any downtime at the diner was spent practicing jabs and kicks. She even spent the next two nights at Olivia’s apartment, and they practiced until Olivia’s muscles were screaming from the atypical use. But it felt good to do something proactive to ensure her own safety. Mindy even found her practicing some moves when she got out of the shower the morning after their second night practice.

  “Addictive, isn’t it?” Mindy asked as she toweled her hair dry.

  “Yeah. Just call me Ninja Olivia.”

  Mindy snorted and walked toward the coffeepot as Olivia headed for her own shower.

  Around ten o’clock, right when they would normally be starting another self-defense session, two guys ambled through the front door and immediately set Olivia’s nerves on edge. They didn’t get many customers who weren’t locals, and these didn’t look like tourists either. Big, muscled, the type who looked as though they might work for vampires. As Mindy headed toward their table, Olivia wrapped her hand around one of her large kitchen knives. She didn’t take her eyes off them as Mindy took their orders then headed toward the kitchen.

  When Mindy saw Olivia’s grip on the knife, she whispered, “I see you got the same vibe I did.”

  Just then the bigger of the two met Olivia’s gaze, and her blood frosted. She swallowed hard. “What do they want?”

  “Two BLTs and coffee.”

  Olivia moved out of their view before speaking again. “Keep an eye on them.”

  Mindy nodded as she turned back toward the dining room.

  Olivia placed bacon on the grill with one hand while she reached for the phone with the other. When it rang, she jumped. She answered, b
ut it was a wrong number. She used the phone’s ring to cover up the fact she then dialed Campbell’s number.

  “Raines,” he answered.

  “Campbell, it’s Olivia DaCosta.”

  At first she thought he wasn’t going to respond. “Olivia.” His voice was toneless, distant, as if he didn’t know her. Not the time to worry about that now.

  “Listen, this may be nothing, but there are two big guys who just came in the diner and they’re giving Mindy and me a weird feeling. I know you can’t do anything, but—”

  “Don’t apologize. I’m glad you called me.” He didn’t sound glad. He sounded worried. And yes, odd timing, but that made her feel a warmth inside she hadn’t felt in a long time, the warmth of mattering to someone. “If you get too scared, call the police. Doesn’t matter if it’s a false alarm.”

  “Better safe than sorry, I know.”

  “Describe them to me,” he said.

  “They’re both tall, over six feet, though one is probably two to three inches taller than the other. Blue-collar dress. Jeans, work boots. One’s wearing a denim jacket and the other black leather. The taller one has dark curly hair, dark complexion.”

  “He look Italian?”

  “Maybe some, though I’d say not totally.”

  “What about the other one?”

  “Sandy hair, little scruffy. Looks maybe of Eastern European descent.”

  “What are they doing?”

  Olivia casually moved so she could glance through the pass-through window. “Just sitting there talking, waiting for their BLTs. But...”

  “But what?”

  “I don’t know if I’m just freaking myself out or what, but when one of them looked at me, I swear my blood went cold.”

  Campbell cursed, and she heard him moving around, as if he was pacing. “I hate this.”

  She knew he was talking about being trapped by the daylight. He didn’t have to say the words for her to know that if he could, he’d be there in a flash to stand between her and the two spooky dudes. Did that make sense? No. Did she feel the absolute truth of it? Yes.

  “It’s okay. Just talking helps.”

  He was quiet for a moment, and she wondered if she’d sounded as goofy to him as she did to herself. “I’m surprised.”

  “I’m sorry about the other night. I can’t believe I’m apologizing to a vampire, but there you go.”

  “Your friend is probably right. You shouldn’t be.”

  As she finished putting the sandwiches together, Mindy came back into the kitchen.

  “No, we already have a supplier,” Olivia said, unwilling to let Mindy know she’d broken her promise by calling Campbell. She wouldn’t be able to explain how just talking to him made her feel safer. She didn’t understand it herself.

  “What?” Campbell asked.

  “Sure, you can send us some material in case we ever decide to switch.”

  “Your friend is there and she doesn’t know you’re talking to me.”

  “That’s right.”

  Mindy grabbed the plates, but Olivia stopped her by grasping her wrist. “Wait.” She slid one of the smaller, less conspicuous knives out of the butcher block and into the pocket of Mindy’s apron. “Be careful,” she whispered. Mindy nodded then headed for the dining room.

  “What’s going on?” Campbell asked.

  “Mindy’s taking them their food,” she said softly so Mindy wouldn’t hear her.

  “She lost someone, didn’t she?”

  “How did you know that?” If what he said was true, he was a cop. Had he been running checks on her and Mindy?

  “I can always tell. There’s a hostility in human voices when they’ve lost someone to vamps. Otherwise, it’s usually just fear.”

  Olivia glanced toward the dining room to make sure Mindy was still out of hearing range. “Her mother and sister were drained and left on the front steps of their house the night before the announcement was made about vampires being real and to stay indoors at night.”

  Campbell cursed.

  “It was a horrible time for her. You won’t find anyone who hates vampires more.”

  “I don’t blame her.”

  Olivia watched as Mindy delivered the food to the guys and nothing out of the ordinary happened.

  “Everything okay?” Campbell asked.

  “Yeah, they’re just eating.”

  “I’ll stay on here as long as you want me to,” he said.

  “I appreciate it. I feel sort of silly.”

  “Don’t.”

  Needing to talk about something else until there was a reason to return to the topic of their unsettling customers, Olivia asked, “So, what were you doing before I called? Sleeping?”

  “I don’t require sleep anymore.”

  “Really?”

  “We rest, but no sleep.”

  “Wow, I could get so much done if I didn’t have to sleep,” she said, trying to relieve some of the tension knotting her muscles and making her nerves spark.

  “Trust me, I wish I could sleep. I miss it.”

  “You miss a lot of things, don’t you?”

  “What makes you say that?”

  Why had she? “Just a feeling. But I’m right, aren’t I?”

  “Yes.” He didn’t elaborate.

  She tried just letting his presence on the other end of the line be enough, but the silence started grating on her nerves. So she filled it with whatever questions came to mind. “Do you still have family?”

  “Some distant cousins. No one close.”

  “Oh.”

  “They didn’t die in the pandemic. I was an only child, and my parents died in a car crash when I was a kid. I grew up in foster care.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “It was a long time ago. What about you?”

  Was he really interested, or was Mindy right and he had some well-concealed ulterior motive? For the life of her, she couldn’t figure out what it might be. He’d had his chance to kill her several times and hadn’t.

  “Just my mom. She lives upstate with my uncle. He never married, and he’s glad to have someone cook for him.”

  “Your dad?”

  “Never knew him. He skipped out when I was still in diapers.”

  “Sorry.”

  She didn’t know why she laughed, but she did. “Aren’t we the tragic pair?”

  He made a sort of snuffing noise, the meaning of which she couldn’t identify. “I guess everyone has a tragic story now.”

  Wasn’t that the truth? She couldn’t think of a single pandemic survivor who hadn’t lost someone, either to the ravages of the disease or to the vampires who’d emerged in its wake. That last part sobered her.

  “Do any other humans know about the differences in vampires? For example, does our president talk to whoever is in charge of the Imperium?”

  “Maybe. That’s above my pay grade.”

  “I know what you said about if everyone fears vampires, it helps keep humans safe, but maybe the Imperium and world leaders could work together somehow for our mutual benefit.”

  “They did, on the blood banks.”

  “That’s one thing. There’s got to be something else.”

  “Let it go, Olivia. The world is what it is, no matter how much we wish we could change it.”

  Campbell fell silent again for several seconds, and she watched as the two guys ate their sandwiches slowly while Mindy took a to-go order from a bike messenger at the front counter.

  “What made you become a cop?” she asked, taking them down a different path.

  “In the blood, I guess. My dad and my grandfather were both with NYPD. Even though I lost them both when I was young, I never forgot that. What makes you run a diner?”

  “I like to cook. Take care of people, I guess.”

  “I can see that.”

  “How? You barely know me.”

  “I didn’t see anyone else out delivering meals to the homeless,” he said. “Most people are so wrapped up
in their own lives that they don’t even see them.”

  “That unfortunately is nothing new. And it’s why I need to get my car back, so I can start delivering meals again. The idea that people are out there hungry makes me sick.”

  “It’s too dangerous now,” Campbell said.

  “You’ll eventually catch whoever is working with the Soulless vampires.”

  “I’m glad you have so much faith in us, but I’m afraid that even when we shut down this particular operation, there’s just going to be another. That door’s been opened, and there’s always going to be someone to exploit it.”

  “That sounds so hopeless. How do you keep going out and fighting it every night?”

  “Because if we don’t, no one will. And because...” His words trailed off as if he’d forgotten what he was about to say. But when he started to speak again, Olivia thought maybe he’d just gotten lost in a memory. “We can all remember what it was like to be human, and we fight to allow as many people to keep that type of life as possible.”

  “So the vampires don’t run out of food.”

  “No. So at least someone can feel what it’s like to breathe, to feel their heart beat, to be warm.”

  Olivia didn’t have time to really soak in Campbell’s words, because one of the big guys suddenly scooted his chair back and stood as Mindy slid the bike messenger’s order slip through the window. Olivia’s eyes met Mindy’s and she saw her friend’s hand slide toward the knife in her pocket.

  Olivia must have made a sound of distress, because Campbell asked, “What’s happening?”

  “They’re standing.”

  “Do you have your gun?”

  “No, but I have a really big knife.”

  “I don’t want you that close to them,” he said. “They’ll be able to overpower you.”

  Olivia’s pulse skyrocketed as she considered she might have to fight these two brutes off with only a knife and her wits to save her. They looked at her again as they stepped up to the counter and paid. And then they simply left.

  “Olivia?” Campbell said on the other end of the line.

  “They just left.” She relaxed and Mindy visibly did the same. “I feel really dumb now for calling you.”

  “The danger might not be over. They could be checking out the lay of the land before coming back later.”