She was about to leave when a man with a belly that would make Santa Claus jealous received his change and stepped away from the counter. With him out of the way, she spotted Dante sitting at a high-top table in the back corner of the building.
When his chocolate eyes landed on her, everything around her slowed until the world faded and all she saw was him. There were no customers or tables anymore; there was only them. A single heartbeat pulsed in her ears, and with unfailing certainty, she knew it was his.
This same thing happened the first time he walked into Addy’s, but it was stronger this time. Her breath eased out as all her anxiety vanished. She probably looked like a foolish idiot, but she couldn’t stop herself from beaming at him.
Dante felt as if someone kicked him in the chest when Cassidy’s beautiful face broke into a grin that lit the shop more than the overhead lights. His body’s visceral reaction to her made him feel like a horny teen all over again.
He grasped his coffee cup and pulled it closer as if that would somehow calm him; it didn’t. It had been years since he drank coffee, but he didn’t want to stand out when he entered the place, so he ordered a cup.
Now, he was glad he had it as he took a sip of the bitter liquid and tried not to eye fuck her while she glided through the crowd. He didn’t think she had any idea of her effect over him, and every other man, as she didn’t acknowledge the heads turning as she walked by.
Up until she entered the place, it was a bad day. Paris canceled on him and rescheduled for tomorrow, but without her lead to follow, he didn’t have much to work on all day. Which meant he spent a good portion of his day fantasizing about the woman coming toward him.
As she neared, Dante got himself under control enough to rise and pull out the chair across from him. When he glared at the men still watching her, they ducked their heads and turned away.
“Thank you,” Cassidy said as she settled on the chair.
He almost closed his eyes and inhaled deeply when her sweet scent drifted up to him. Instead, he stepped away from her. “You’re welcome.”
He settled in the chair across from her and, reclaiming his coffee cup, grasped it in both hands as he held it before him.
“You still like coffee?” she asked.
“I haven’t had it in years,” he admitted. “I was trying to blend in.”
Cassidy refrained from telling him that he would stand out wherever he went. There weren’t many men as handsome as him. He could easily grace the cover of any magazine, but seeking that kind of attention as a vampire was a horrible idea.
That was why she would never live her dream of standing in front of a sold-out stadium and entertaining thousands. The idea of seeing Dante again caused her palms to sweat when she entered, but the idea of standing in front of all those people calmed her.
But then, music had always been her escape from reality. When she was little and her mom sang to her, she would close her eyes and let the words envelop her in a cocoon of love. As she got older, music and singing became the one thing all her own—the one thing her siblings couldn’t do or try to take from her.
When she was still too little to have found her voice, she was drawn to the living room while her uncle Doug played the piano. Dragging her ratty yellow blanket behind her, she’d wander into the room and stand beside the bench where he sat. Often, he’d break off in the middle of a song, pick her up, and set her beside him. Sitting there, she’d watch in fascination as his fingers flew across the keys, creating the most beautiful sounds.
As she grew, he stopped having to lift her onto the bench, but she would still crawl up to sit beside him. When she was still too young to know the words, she hummed the tune of whatever he played until, one day, she found her voice. And for years, he accompanied every song she sang.
Until the day he died. It had been almost six years since Doug’s death, but she still felt the sharp knife of it twisting in her heart. Every time someone else played the piano for her, she recalled his loss and missed his smile.
He’d taken her innate love of music and nurtured it into a passion. She wouldn’t be this good of a singer or love it as much as she did if Doug hadn’t been there to guide her for so many years.
After his death, she stopped singing for a time. He was her teacher, her accompaniment, and her rock. He was her friend as well as her adopted uncle, and though she loved all the Stooges, she was closest to Doug. He was the one she relied on the most, the one she spent the most time with, and the one who refused to let her be mediocre.
She didn’t know how to be a great singer with a broken heart. But not singing broke her heart almost as much as Doug’s death. It took her nearly a year to realize that giving up singing was the last thing Doug would want her to do.
He’d be heartbroken if he learned she’d given up her passion because of him. If there was an afterlife, then he was watching her, and she couldn’t bring herself to disappoint him. It took a couple of years for her to stop feeling like she was betraying Doug every time she stood beside a piano someone else played.
When Dante set his coffee down on the table, he drew Cassidy from her melancholy reverie. “Are you ready to track down some vampires?” she asked.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to come with me.”
Now that he was seeing her again, Dante didn’t want to part from her, but he had a feeling they might end up in some shitty places, and he couldn’t get her involved in that.
“Do you think I’ll get in the way of your investigation?”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go into these places,” he said. “I have no idea what I could be walking into.”
Cassidy almost rolled her eyes. “I’ve got enough overprotective men in my life. I’m not a fragile little girl; I can handle myself. Besides, if Kyle can go into these clubs, then so can I.”
“There’s a big difference between you and Kyle.”
Cassidy didn’t speak as she waited for him to continue.
When the silence stretched on, Dante realized she would have made an excellent detective. Many suspects would have squirmed beneath her unrelenting stare.
“And what is that?” Cassidy finally asked.
“You’re a whole lot prettier than Kyle.”
Cassidy struggled to keep herself from blushing as his words sent a rush of pleasure through her. He thought she was pretty. And then she scolded herself for being an idiot. She refused to be kept out of this just because she was a woman.
“If you don’t think I’ll get in your way, then I’m going with you,” she said. “I can help you avoid Savages, and you’re better off having someone who can watch your back than to go in there blind.”
Dante drummed his fingers on the table as he studied the set of her jaw. Beautiful and stubborn, it was a deadly combination, but it intrigued him.
“Okay,” he said. “But at the first sign of danger, we are out of there. I’ll return on my own.”
Cassidy didn’t argue or point out that she was a pureblooded vampire who was probably faster and stronger than him. She was stronger and faster than Kyle since reaching maturity on March seventh, the day of their twenty-first birthday. Kyle was pissed when she finished aging before him; she found it hilarious.
“Then we should go,” she said as she rose from her chair. “We have to find the place.”
Chapter Nine
The back seat of the taxi was more cramped than Cassidy would have guessed before they climbed into the cab. Dante sat a few inches away, but his warm body heated hers until she had to resist tugging at her collar to cool off. His leather scent was subtle, but the coconut air freshener hanging from one of the vents was not.
Between the stifling car and the overwhelming odor, she wanted out of the taxi so bad she was eyeing the door handle. Why had breathing become so difficult?
She glanced over at Dante and almost scowled when she saw him focused on the passing scenery. Apparently, she was the only one experiencing any
difficulties. She had to resist punching him in the arm; it was his fault the car felt so stifling, and he was utterly oblivious to it.
Dante kept his focus on the passing scenery as he tried to ignore the tantalizing scent of cherries. If he looked at Cassidy, he’d move closer, and then the driver was sure to get a whole lot more than he bargained for when he picked them up.
As much as he craved knowing what her lips tasted like, and what she would sound like as he took possession of her, he didn’t think giving the driver a show and most likely causing the man to crash into a pole was the best way to start their night. So, he kept his attention focused on the scenery he didn’t quite see; it was safer that way.
Cassidy turned to stare out the window as they passed people and buildings. She wouldn’t think about the man sitting beside her; she would not think about the fact they were so close she could lower her hand from her lap and touch his.
The idea of such a tantalizing possibility made her breath catch, and she tugged at the collar of her jacket. Maybe this was a bad idea. She hadn’t stopped to think about what she was getting herself involved in when she volunteered to help him.
Maybe going into one of these clubs and spending more time around Dante wasn’t the best idea, but she couldn’t let him go alone. If something happened to him… Cassidy bit her lip and closed her eyes. She barely knew the man, but the idea of something happening to him caused her stomach to twist into knots.
For all Cassidy knew, he might not be a killer, but he could be a complete asshole. However, she didn’t think that was true. He seemed nice, and total assholes didn’t spend their lives hunting down missing people for their loved ones. As a human, he had to work to support himself, but as a vampire, he could skate by on his abilities; he’d chosen not to do that.
No, he wasn’t an asshole. Still, it wasn’t like her to take off with a stranger. Her family didn’t know where she was, but she could handle herself. If he turned out to be a prick, then it would suck for her if he was her mate, but she’d kick the crap out of him if he tried anything.
When Dante shifted beside her, she glanced over at him. He’d removed Julie’s picture from his pocket and was staring at it with a look of steely determination. She didn’t see how anyone so determined to reunite a family could be an asshole.
Cassidy glanced at the smiling blue eyes of the pretty girl in the picture. She didn’t know why Julie got tangled up in whatever mess she had, but she was too young and too mortal to understand some things weren’t pretend. There were some vampires out there who would love nothing more than to destroy an innocent girl.
“Here we are,” the driver said in a thick Boston accent as he pulled to the side of the road.
“Thank you,” Dante said.
Leaning forward, he handed the man money for the fare as Cassidy opened her door. He almost grabbed her back, but she was already out of the car. Dante didn’t bother with his change as he slid across the seat and stepped out to stand beside her on the busy Dorchester street.
The setting sun created waves of color across the twilit sky, but he couldn’t see where the sun touched the horizon as buildings blocked his view. In front of them was a brick building with a brand-new, purple awning proclaiming it as Lavender Moon in black lettering.
A sign for tarot reading hung in one of the tinted, plate glass windows beside the large, wooden door. On the other plate glass window was a sign for tattoos. No chunks of brick were missing from the building, and the door had a fresh coat of black paint on it. He had no idea what to expect from the place, but the owner took pride in their business.
“What is this place?” he asked.
“I’m not entirely sure,” Cassidy admitted. “When I asked Kyle about how he found the parties, he told me he went to Lavender Moon in Dorchester and asked for Opal.”
Dante had seen how overprotective Kyle was of his sister; he couldn’t picture him spilling all these details to her. “Why did he tell you this?”
“He was a little drunk when he got home, and I might have decided it was a good time to learn all I could about the clubs he visited. Of course, he never expected me to go looking for Opal, but he did reveal a little bit too much.”
“When was the last time Kyle came here?”
“I’m not sure. It was a couple of months ago when he came home drunk and told me about finding Opal.”
“So Opal should still be here,” Dante said.
The door opened, and a wave of incense billowed out as a young woman emerged with a brown paper bag in hand. “Oh,” she breathed when she saw them standing only a foot away.
“Sorry,” Dante apologized as he stepped out of her way.
The woman smiled at him before glancing at Cassidy and hurrying away. Cassidy watched her go before glancing at Dante. He didn’t notice when the woman almost walked into a pole because she turned to look back at him. Was that because he was so used to the attention, or because he really didn’t notice it?
“Are you ready to go in?” he asked.
“Yes.”
Dante opened the door and stepped aside to let her enter first. He scanned the busy street before following Cassidy into the store. The door slid closed behind them and clicked into place. Inside, the smell of incense and herbs was nearly overwhelming, and he resisted using his hand to cover his nose.
The dim, overhead lights shone off the jars of incense, stones, and crystals lining the freestanding shelves creating an aisle toward the front of the store. Directly in front of them was a glass countertop with a cash register on top of it.
Above the register, a variety of different colored glass balls dangled from the ceiling. They caught and reflected the light across the chestnut, hardwood floor. On the small tables speckled throughout the store were books, decorative holders of burning incense, crystal skulls, and more candles than a one-hundred-year-old’s birthday cake. An assortment of magical goods also lined the shelves along the walls.
Dante rested his hand on Cassidy’s elbow and guided her toward the register. When they were almost to the counter, he spotted another doorway that opened into a room full of racks of clothes and more bookshelves. One of the shelves had a sign for tattoos and a finger pointing toward a set of stairs leading to the second floor.
From behind the counter, a woman rose and set a couple of books on top of it. Her gray hair hung in a thick braid over her left shoulder; the flame from the candle at the end of the counter danced in her gray eyes. He knew instantly she was a vampire, one who was changed later in life.
Unease flashed through her eyes before the lines around her eyes and mouth crinkled and she smiled at them. “Can I help you?”
“Yes.” Cassidy stopped in front of the counter. “We’re looking for Opal.”
“I’m Opal.”
Cassidy hoped her drunken brother hadn’t gotten everything mixed up in his head when he told her about the clubs and Opal. “We’re looking for a party.”
Opal’s smile vanished. “I might be able to help you. Who sent you?”
“Kyle.”
“Ah,” the woman said. “I know Kyle.”
The way she said it, Cassidy didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Unsure of what to say, Cassidy didn’t speak as Opal bent down again. She rose to set another stack of books on the counter.
“My parties aren’t the same as they used to be,” Opal said as she tapped a finger on one of the books. “There’s only one party in town now.”
“Why’s that?” Dante asked.
“You know why,” Opal said.
He didn’t know why, but he didn’t think interrogating the woman was the best way to get his answers. He needed to know where that party was, and if something caused her to shut down her other parties, there was no way she wanted them snooping around.
“It’s a hundred dollars to party now,” Opal said. “Per person.”
“That’s one hell of a party,” Dante said.
The woman smiled at him. “It’s
the best one in town. Are you in or out?”
“In,” Cassidy said, though she had no idea how she was going to replace the one hundred dollars in her bank account. “Do you take credit cards?”
Opal blinked at her before laughing. “Honey, I may be a vampire, but I don’t want the IRS crawling up my ass. I got a good thing going here, and I plan on sticking around for another five years. It’s cash only.”
“No problem,” Dante said. Cassidy started to reach into her pocket when he rested his hand over hers. “I’ve got it.”
She opened her mouth to protest before deciding this was not the place to do it. Dante slid two hundred-dollar bills across the counter to Opal, and she snatched them up. She hit a button on the register, and it popped open. Lifting the cash drawer out, she slipped the money underneath and pulled out a red envelope.
“Here’s the address. Have fun, but if you cause any problems, you’ll be removed, I’ll be notified, and you and Kyle will be barred for life.”
Cassidy didn’t consider it much of a threat, but her brother would be pissed.
Dante took the red envelope from Opal. “Understood, and thank you.”
He followed Cassidy out the door. On the sidewalk, he led her away from the entrance and leaned against the brick wall of a small convenience store.
“I’ll pay you back,” Cassidy told him.
“No, you won’t. Julie’s mother gave me money to cover my expenses while I’m searching for her daughter.”
“She shouldn’t have to pay mine.”
“Consider yourself a hired associate.”
“But that’s not fair. The woman has lost her daughter and—”
“And it’s okay,” Dante assured her with a smile. “I give back most of the money people pay me, especially to those who can’t afford it. Whatever I don’t use to cover my expenses and to pay a couple of bills will go back to Mrs. Abbott.”
“You give the money back?”
“As much as I can. Some of the people who hire me have nothing, but they also don’t trust someone willing to do something for nothing. I can’t say I blame them.”
Relentless (Vampire Awakenings Book 11) Page 5