Travis turned in his chair and tapped the computer screen. “It just got even worse.”
“How can it be worse than humans working for Soulless vamps?” Colin asked.
“When they have a kidnap list.” Travis met Campbell’s gaze. “And Olivia DaCosta’s on it.”
* * *
After Campbell left at dawn, Olivia continued staring out the window, still unable to process everything he’d told her. It had to be a trick, some ploy that would lead to her demise. Part of her mind kept asking what had gotten into her, why she’d spent the wee hours talking to a vampire. And not just any vampire, but the one who’d come within a moment of killing her. Dead, gone, forever.
But another part, what Mindy would call her softy tendency, had wanted to talk to him, had seen beyond the beast to the man he’d once been. The man who still seemed to reside, at least partially, inside the vampire. She shook her head to try to knock loose her common sense. Why was she having such a hard time remembering he was a killer? Wasn’t he?
She leaned her head back against the wall, wishing she could just go back to the way she’d thought the past two years. That vampires were animals, that nothing of the people they’d been remained. That belief was simpler, with no complications. Maybe it was too much to wish anything was that black-and-white, no matter how much she wanted it to be.
She’d lost track of how long she’d talked to Campbell, but her brain was still whirling with questions. What had his life been like before his turning? She knew he’d been a cop, but what had he done in his spare time? Did he have a family? Had he been married? She squirmed with discomfort over how much the thought of him having a wife out there somewhere bothered her.
She shook her head again, halfway convinced she’d lost her sanity somewhere in the course of the past couple of days. Maybe the shock of a vampire attack had scared her more than she realized. Was this some sort of weird post-traumatic stress? Stockholm syndrome?
In an effort to push away the crazy thought that she could be attracted to a vampire of all things, she shifted her legs off the window seat to the floor. Though she dreaded the thought of another day on her feet, she had no choice. But when she stood, pain shot up her leg. She squeezed her eyes against tears as she realized her ankle hurt worse than the day before. When she lifted her pajama leg, she saw how swollen her ankle was.
“Great,” she muttered, then hobbled toward the shower. Through sheer force of will she managed to get showered, dressed and down the stairs. After retrieving her cell phone from where Campbell had left it outside the front door, she collapsed onto a stool in the kitchen. She was still sitting there recuperating when Mindy arrived.
“What’s wrong?” Mindy asked as she came to stand in front of Olivia.
“My ankle is killing me.” She lifted her pant leg.
“Well, no wonder. It looks like a melon. You need to be off that foot.”
“Not really an option.”
Mindy pulled out her mutinous look.
“You’re going to run the diner all by yourself?” Olivia asked.
“It’s possible.”
Olivia rolled her eyes. “I’ll sit while I’m at the grill, okay?”
“And keep the foot elevated and iced.”
Olivia gave her best friend a crisp salute.
While Mindy prepped an ice pack, Olivia dragged the stool to the grill and started the morning prep. Mindy placed a chair next to the stool for Olivia’s leg and taped the ice pack around Olivia’s ankle.
“Damn, that’s cold,” Olivia said.
“Thus the name ice pack.”
“Smartass.”
“Better than being a dumbass.”
Olivia sighed and started placing strips of bacon on the grill.
“How did you sleep last night?” Mindy asked as she brought eggs, sausage and thick slices of bread to Olivia.
“Surprisingly well. I think my body finally just shut down.” She wasn’t about to tell Mindy about the nightmare or the talk with Campbell. Mindy had enough nightmares of her own when it came to vampires. Even thinking of Campbell in a remotely positive light felt like a betrayal of her friend.
“Good. You pushed yourself too much yesterday.”
“I needed to.” She didn’t have to explain about needing to work to occupy her mind after a traumatic event. Mindy had personal knowledge of that tactic.
Mindy simply nodded and headed to the dining room to unlock the front door.
As Olivia cooked, the phone rang. She flipped omelets while reaching for the receiver on the wall.
“Comfort Food Diner,” she said as she cracked more eggs.
“Olivia?”
She fumbled and dropped an egg on the floor and cursed. That voice. She hadn’t expected to hear that deep, sexy rumble during daylight hours. But she guessed as long as Campbell was underground or safely protected from the sunlight, he could talk freely. It wasn’t as if he was ensconced in a coffin somewhere. Even in this crazy new world, that piece of fiction was too goofy to be believed.
But why was he calling her now? She couldn’t handle this, not so soon. Not with Mindy nearby. Not when her own thoughts about him were as scrambled as the eggs she was dishing up.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yes. You...just surprised me.” She wished he’d stop sounding so concerned, so damned human.
Mindy gave her a curious look as she stepped up to the pickup window, but Olivia waved her away, irrationally afraid the fact she was talking to a vampire would be written across her face.
“Listen, do you have a gun?” he asked.
“What?”
“A gun?” he repeated.
“Uh, yeah.” She pictured the Glock in her nightstand. It hadn’t been out since she’d last gone to the shooting range a year ago. “Why?”
“Because my kind are not your only concern now.”
“I feel as if I’m getting more lost by the moment here.” And they might as well start prepping her room in the nearest mental ward.
She listened to what sounded like him pulling out a chair and sitting down.
“Travis intercepted some information that indicates the Nefari is employing humans to do their bidding during the daylight hours.”
“The Nefari?” Did vampires have their own freakish language?
“Basically the vampire equivalent of the Mob.”
Olivia focused on a spot on the grill and took a couple of deep breaths. She didn’t know which part of Campbell’s words surprised her more, that there were humans who would willingly work for vampires or that there was a vampire Mafia. Wasn’t there a band by that name at one time?
“Olivia?”
“Yeah, still here.”
“This means you’re not safe, even in your own home. Even during the daytime at the restaurant.”
She did her best to keep a sudden rush of anxiety at bay. “The world has been a dangerous place for a while now.”
“But it’s never had humans kidnapping other humans for the vampire black market,” he said.
A chill went down her back, but she quickly reined in her fear. She was tired of being afraid. “I’m always careful, but I don’t want to live looking over my shoulder all the time. That’s not living at all.”
“Neither is being chained up in a feeding den.”
There went that chill down her back again, accompanied by some stomach churning thrown in for good measure. She hugged herself against the image his words brought to mind. If he and his team hadn’t arrived when they had, she might be living it right now, chained up as if she were an animal and slowly going insane. She hated the idea that no place, no time of day, was safe from the vampire threat anymore.
“Do you know who these people are? What they look like?”
“Not yet. We’ll get to the bottom of this, though. When I find out who is behind this, you won’t have to worry about them anymore.”
She envisioned him taking the culprit and ripping him apart, and i
t oddly didn’t bother her. Though she wouldn’t be inviting him in for a nightcap, her gut instinct told her he was a good guy, good vampire, whatever.
“Take every precaution you can,” he said. “And if someone or something looks suspicious and it’s daylight, call the NYPD. If it’s night, call me.”
Despite the gravity of the situation he was describing, she smiled a little at his tone. It was easy to see why he was in charge of his team, but it wasn’t the commanding edge that got to her. It was how he sounded every inch the protector.
Vampire, vampire, vampire. She shouldn’t even be talking to him. But should she be denying the protection he offered as long as he was no threat to her? Yes, her instinct screamed. He’s a vampire!
This man, this vampire, had her feeling a bit like a teenage girl who’d just been noticed by the hottest boy in school. But teenage girls were ruled more by emotion and hormones than common sense, weren’t they? She was a grown woman now, one who lived in a dangerous world where common sense was often the dividing line between life and death.
“Campbell?”
“Yeah.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“You’re at a greater risk because of your blood type.”
“Me and everyone else in the city with AB-negative. Are you calling all of them, too?”
He hesitated before speaking. “There’s a list of targets, and your name is on it along with a few others in your neighborhood. Those vampires who were trying to take you, that was no random attack. And if vampires can’t get you at night, whoever is behind this is going to try again with human lackeys during the day.”
Cold dread settled in Olivia’s stomach. “I’d thank you for warning me, but I’m kind of wishing for an ignorance-is-bliss moment right now,” she said, trying to make light of a situation that held not one iota of light.
“I’m sorry.”
“I think maybe you’ve apologized to me enough already.”
He didn’t respond for several seconds, ones in which she realized she was close to burning the omelets. “Crap!” She scooped them onto plates and refused to make eye contact with Mindy when she zipped by to pick them up.
“I’ve caught you at a bad time, haven’t I?” he asked.
“Just the busy morning rush. And I’m not paying attention.”
“I distract you that much?” His voice held some teasing she knew was meant to lessen her tension, but it also had the effect of making her skin warm all over. Did the man have any idea how sexy his voice was? A vision of him naked, rolling around with her in tangled sheets, caused her body to tingle in interesting places. Thank goodness vampires didn’t have the ability to read minds. At least she hoped they didn’t.
“You could say that.” Damn, she’d said that out loud while wishing he was still human. She wished she could recall the words because they were definitely the least wise ones she’d uttered in a long time. This was not the time to be playing with fire, even if it had been a long time since she’d felt these kinds of sexual sparks. She let herself fantasize about what it’d be like to take Campbell to bed if he didn’t pose such a threat to her.
“Be careful,” he said, his voice deepening more. He sounded...aroused. And that sent a thrill through her. A very unwise thrill but a thrill nonetheless.
“Why?” Hell, why couldn’t she shut up?
“Because as much as I’d love to go there with you, it’s not safe. For either of us.”
He’d love to go there with her? Lord, their conversation had taken an unexpected and way-too-honest-for-comfort turn. She let her breath out slowly, wondering what had possessed her. “I know. I’m sorry.”
“No need to be sorry. It’s my fault.” He sighed, and something about it sounded so forlorn. “Listen, I’ll let you get back to work. Just be careful. You might not want to be delivering meals, at least until we can round up these lowlifes.”
“Right now I don’t have the means anyway.”
After they both hung up, Olivia couldn’t stop thinking about him. She’d never been the kind of person who wanted to live dangerously, so her attraction to Campbell didn’t make the first bit of sense. But how could she see him and not be attracted? The man was sex on two very long legs.
“Okay, I’m dying to know,” Mindy said from where she now stood at the entrance to the kitchen. “Who is he?”
“Who?”
Mindy crossed her arms and lifted her eyebrow. “Don’t play that game with me. I know what a woman looks like when she’s thinking about doing naughty things with a man.”
“I’m not thinking about doing naughty things with a man.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“It’s true.”
“Then what are you thinking about that has you smiling like a fool and nearly burning half a dozen omelets?”
Olivia looked her best friend in the eye and knew she should keep her crazy feelings to herself. After all, Mindy loathed vampires and with good reason. They’d killed her mother and sister, and she’d had to see the horrible result to identify their bodies. Olivia’s nerves fired at what Mindy might think of her if she told her the truth. Would she think she’d gone bonkers? Well, that was an obvious yes. What she couldn’t handle was if Mindy felt betrayed.
But she and Mindy had always had an open and honest friendship, hanging on to each other even more when the virus and the subsequent emergence of vampires had robbed them of those closest to them. What if Mindy had no idea good vampires were real? Could she possibly believe that after what the vamps had done to her family? Once you saw that kind of viciousness, could you ever look beyond it? How could Olivia expect her to?
“I’m afraid to tell you.”
“Afraid? Good grief, do you have a kinky side I don’t know about?”
Olivia stared at her friend, not knowing how to answer that question. For a moment she considered shooing Mindy back into the dining room and avoiding the admission altogether. But she wasn’t used to holding things in. And maybe Mindy could talk some sense into her.
With a deep breath, she met Mindy’s eyes. “I’m thinking about doing naughty things with a vampire.”
Chapter 6
Mindy’s eyes went wide and her mouth dropped partially open before she spoke again. The color drained from her face. “Are you crazy? Did they do something to you? Please don’t tell me they have mind-control abilities, because that will just take the world to a new level of hellish.”
Olivia dropped her gaze toward the floor for a moment. She’d known telling Mindy was a bad idea. Why hadn’t she listened to her common sense screaming at her?
She lifted her head but turned her attention back to the grill, where she flipped a few slices of bacon. “Never mind. Pretend I didn’t say anything.”
“Oh, no, you don’t.” Mindy moved to stand next to Olivia, propping her hip against the edge of the metal countertop adjacent to the grill. “You can’t drop that bombshell, then not tell me what is going on. Seriously, did they do something to you?”
Olivia sighed and wished with all her might she’d kept her mouth shut. “No, I’m pretty sure they don’t have mind-control abilities. Even in the world we now live in, that’s a bit too unrealistic.”
“Is it?”
Olivia met Mindy’s gaze. “I think if they had that ability, they would have used it to calm me down when I was freaking the hell out.”
Mindy considered that tidbit for a moment before giving a curt nod. “So, then, what is going on? You know they’re monsters.”
Olivia eyed the front door when a young couple came in. They looked like tourists. Though the city might never recover to the point where it was a tourist mecca again, amazingly people were beginning to trickle back in. The economy, including her own personal one, sure could use their dollars.
“Customers,” she said to Mindy.
Mindy didn’t even glance through the order window. “They can wait.” This wasn’t the fun, joking Mindy Olivia normally spent her
days with. In her place was the hard, cold Mindy from the days after her family was killed. The Mindy who’d wanted nothing more than to go on a merciless vampire-killing spree.
“It’s nothing really. Just crazy thoughts brought on by too much stress.”
“I’ve never heard of attraction being caused by stress. Insanity maybe.”
Olivia shook her head. “I’m sorry I said anything.”
Mindy gripped Olivia’s arm, forcing Olivia to look at her. “Out with it. I’m not letting this go until I know what made you say it in the first place.”
Olivia sighed, trying to figure a way out of this conversation. “You don’t have anything to worry about, okay? One of them was just good-looking, enough that if he still had a pulse, I might be interested. But he doesn’t, so that’s the end of that.”
“Is it?”
“Of course. Why would you ask that?” Because you’re acting nuts, Olivia.
“Because I’ve been trying to get you to even look at another guy for months. Not once have you been receptive until now when it will get you killed.”
“I’m not going to act on the attraction. I’m not a fool.” She had to convince Mindy of that even if she wasn’t so sure herself.
Remembering the long phone conversation she’d had with Campbell the night before and feeling like a teen lying to her mom, Olivia couldn’t meet Mindy’s eyes anymore and returned her attention to removing the bacon from the grill.
“What are you not telling me?” When Olivia didn’t immediately answer, Mindy pressed. “Liv?”
“I...I talked to him on the phone.”
“You talked on the phone, with a vampire?” The volume of Mindy’s voice went up with each word.
Olivia motioned for her to be quiet. “Keep it down. I don’t need to lose what little business I have. And speaking of which, that couple has been waiting long enough.” She motioned toward the dining room, where the newcomers had taken seats at a window table behind Jane’s.
Mindy looked about to protest, but instead she stalked into the dining room, not happy in the least. And Olivia couldn’t blame her. Despite her assertion otherwise, Olivia knew she was ten kinds a fool.
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