by Carly Fall
“I know it’s here—I looked it up online,” she added.
“Come in,” he relented.
He stepped to the side, and she entered, her gaze flittering all over the kitchen and living room. He should have cleaned up the pile of dirty clothes lying on the floor.
“Do you want some coffee?” he asked.
“Sure,” she said after a moment of hesitation. “Have you seen my phone?”
“Nope,” he answered while he pulled down the filters and bag of java.
As he ran the water, she tossed the cushions on the couch and glanced around further.
He picked up his own phone. “What’s the number? I’ll call it, and you can track it down that way.”
She narrowed her gaze at him and he grinned. Their thoughts must have been traveling on the same wavelength—he’d have her number, and apparently, she didn’t like that idea.
However, she recited the digits, and a moment later, that horrible shrill sounded throughout the apartment.
“It’s somewhere down the hall,” he said.
She disappeared for a moment, then came out holding it. “It must have fallen out of my pocket when I showered. I found it behind the bathroom door.”
As she glanced toward the entry, he realized he didn’t want her to leave. Despite their lack of trust, he did like her, and maybe if they spent some time together, they’d be able to find confidence in each other and work together. He decided to approach this new opportunity with baby steps, as well as be nicer than he should.
“Can I make you some breakfast?” he asked.
Her gaze raked over him again. “So, you cook, as well?”
He shrugged, finding that he liked her staring at his bare chest with such approval, but wondered if there was a motive behind the appreciative look.
“I’m no chef, but I do okay.”
“What are you making?” she asked.
“Denver omelets.”
She sighed and walked over to the stool she’d sat in last night. “Those are my favorites.”
He questioned whether she actually meant it or if it was another lie, and decided to take it as the truth. “Then you’ll stay?”
“I guess so, but this wouldn’t be breakfast. It would be classified as a late lunch.”
“Brunch?”
She shook her head. “No, brunch is between breakfast and lunch, hence the two names put together, equaling brunch.”
“So, what’s this meal called?”
As she furrowed her brow, he couldn’t help but smile. She looked so damn cute when she was in thought.
“I don’t know. Maybe linner?”
He chuckled as he turned and pulled all the ingredients out of the refrigerator. “Works for me.”
They remained silent as he sliced the vegetables and ham.
“Is that coffee ready?” she asked.
Shit. He’d forgotten about the brew, and he definitely needed a cup, as well. “Oh, yeah. Sorry about that.”
He poured her a mug, and she cradled it in her hands as she blew on it. Finally, she took a sip. “This is good, Connor.”
After getting himself a cup, he nodded. “Glad you like it.”
As he worked, he realized their time together today was so much different than last night. The silence between them wasn’t uncomfortable in the least bit, and thank God, the bickering and accusations hadn’t continued.
“I’m sorry I was so difficult last night,” she said.
He flipped the omelet. “Yeah, we didn’t get along too well. I was an ass, too.”
“I didn’t say I was an ass. I said I was sorry for being difficult.”
“Whatever,” he said with a chuckle as he glanced at her over his shoulder. “Neither of us was on our best behavior.”
“No, our problem is that we don’t trust each other. It has nothing to do with behavior.”
He turned back to the stove. She was right, and he knew it.
He guessed the fight had occurred because of the adrenaline, the late night, or rather, early morning hour, and the fact that both had information on vampires, which seemed ridiculous to even consider.
“Maybe we should try again,” she ventured.
He met her dark gaze and saw hope. He wanted answers to his questions, and verification of his assumptions, but he still didn’t feel comfortable telling her what he knew.
However, sometimes, a person had to take a leap of faith and place trust in someone they didn’t really know. Usually, trust had to be earned, and neither of them had done anything to earn the other’s. That came with getting to know someone and building a relationship. With people going missing and him feeling confident that the vampires were responsible, they really didn’t have time to shoot the shit and become friends.
She sighed. “Or maybe not.”
He shook his head. “No, I think we should. I think we can help each other, but we have to be honest and not hold anything back.”
As he said it, he cringed internally. Guilt. He hated the feeling, but he’d always been a truthful guy to his core. If he told the truth, he didn’t have to worry about keeping track of the lies.
However, he couldn’t tell her about Operation Underworld, but he also guessed she had a few secrets she wouldn’t be revealing, either.
“I agree.”
He plated both omelets and walked around to the bar. He took the stool next to her and set her food before her.
“This looks amazing,” she murmured as she picked up her fork.
“Good. Let’s eat, and then let’s talk. No holding back. Let’s trust each other.”
She nodded. “That’s hard for me to do.”
He chuckled as she dug in. Apparently, she hadn’t lied about liking Denver omelets, and maybe that was a sign they were off to a good start, but he still remained a little leery.
“It ain’t easy for me, either, sweetheart.”
12
They once again took their places on his couch, each sipping on another cup of coffee. Sami had obviously been hoping he’d say yes to them trying to work together, as she had brought a bunch of papers with her. After finishing their meal, she’d gone down to her car to get them, and now sat with them on her lap.
“I’ll go first,” she said, and took a deep breath. “You ask, I’ll answer, then I expect the same.”
He nodded as guilt washed through him. “Okay. First, you pretty much admitted last night that vampire exist. Can you verify that?”
“Yes. They exist.”
Relief swept through him, and he exhaled a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding. It seemed like she would be playing straight this time.
“In my limited experience,” he continued, “vampires have special abilities, like putting people in a trance state. Those people in the truck last night weren’t totally conscious. They also do it when they are feeding on humans.”
“That’s correct. Some vampires do have special abilities like that.”
A small tingle went down his spine as excitement tore through him. Finally, he was getting the answers to the questions he’d pondered over for a year!
“They obviously need human blood to live.”
“Yes.”
“It also seems like there are good vampires and bad. For instance, I noticed that a lot of the night shift at the hospital were vampires, and they were good, decent people who truly wanted to help me get better. But, I’ve also witnessed a murder by one, and I don’t think those guys last night had good intentions by loading those people into a truck while under their spell, or whatever you want to call it.”
“True. Just like any race, there are those who live among the human population without issues, and there are those who cause many problems. What were you doing at the hospital?”
He sat forward and placed his elbows on his knees, remembering what Dedou had written in her note about how to kill vampires. “Just a second. I’ll answer that in a minute. They can’t be out in the sun, right?”
; She pursed her lips together and furrowed her brow, as if she were unsure on how to answer the question. “It depends, but most of the time, no.”
“How long have vampires been around? How long do they live? Is it forever, like in the books and movies?”
“Vampires have been around as long as humans, and typically live to about a thousand years old. Now it’s my turn.”
Leaning against the cushions, he angled his body toward her. “Okay, shoot.”
“How can you tell someone is a vampire?”
Taking a deep breath, he began his tale. “I used to be a marine. I specialized in explosives. I was a member of the recon division, and my unit was in the Guatemala jungle, gathering intelligence on a drug kingpin. We got caught up in an explosion that affected all of us differently, giving each of us a supernatural ability.”
She gazed at him like he was crazy, and he didn’t blame her. He’d questioned his own sanity for a long time.
“Like what?” she asked.
“Well, one guy is completely blind, but sees visions of what will happen in the future when he stands in front of a mirror. Another can start fires with his mind, while one guy can kill people by thinking about it. Me, I woke up from the explosion with the ability to see vampires.”
“How? How can you tell?”
“I see a red glow around people. At first, I thought I’d had my brain knocked around in the jungle. I got thrown pretty far when everything went down. But then, I noticed the way the people with the glow acted just a little bit different. I saw doctors and nurses feeding on people in the hospital, but they didn’t seem to want to hurt anyone. And if I hadn’t been paying attention to the people with the red around them, I never would have noticed.”
“So, what exactly do you see?”
He shrugged. “I guess it’s like an aura. It hovers just above their skin. When they feed, it gets brighter, so I always assumed that vampires who have a light glow were hungry.”
She stared at him a moment, then rubbed her palm over her pretty face with a sigh.
It felt liberating to share his ability, and she didn’t seem like she thought he was totally crazy. If she did think him unstable, she’d better take a look in the mirror because she’d just admitted that vampires existed, and she seemed to know a lot about them.
“How are you so educated on the subject of vampires?” he asked.
She stared at him a beat, but didn’t answer his question.
Finally, she spoke, her voice soft. “Do you see anything around me?”
Confusion tore through him. He’d just finished telling her that he saw a glow around vampires. “Of course not. I only see it around vampires.”
She nodded and turned her head, staring at the television for a long moment.
His gut clenched. Why would she be asking him that? Unless …
“Am I supposed to see something around you?”
With a sigh, she met his stare. “I’m part vampire, so I would assume so.”
* * *
The room remained shrouded in silence for a long moment as he processed the information, and more questions flew through his mind. Why couldn’t he see an aura around her? Why could she walk in the sun? Did she drink blood?
The last question repulsed him a bit, but also fascinated him, and he again wondered what it would be like to be someone’s buffet.
“Oh, Connor. I don’t understand how you came into this ability, but you have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into.”
That didn’t sound very good.
“Why can’t I see a glow around you?”
She stood and crossed her arms over her chest. As she paced the room, he remained quiet. Finally, she faced him and spoke. “I had no intention of telling you everything, but I think I have to now.”
So much for honesty and trust, but then he remembered that he had no plans of giving away all of his cards with her, either. She couldn’t know about Operation Underworld.
“You probably don’t see anything around me because my vampire heritage is minimal. I’m about ninety percent human.”
Holy shit. If she were part human, that meant that vampires and humans had gotten together and done the dirty deed.
“So, you’re telling me that … humans and vampires …”
“Yes. They’ve been doing it since the beginning of time. I have no idea why you see this aura around some vampires, but not others. The only thing I can guess is that the purer the blood of the vampire, the more pronounced the glow is.”
He stared at her, unable to believe what he heard. According to Sami, there were different ‘purities’ of vampires, but he supposed the human race wasn’t any different. Someone may call themselves a Norwegian, but a hard look at their DNA would point to not only Norwegian heritage, but many others, as well. He doubted there was a person alive who could claim to be ‘pure’ in their DNA, but it sounded like the vampire population couldn’t say the same. Of course, they lived longer, so that accounted for something, and he wondered about her theory. He wracked his brain trying to find another reason why he saw an aura around some vampires, but not others, like Sami. He couldn’t come up with anything, and frankly, her hypothesis made as much sense as anything.
And … holy shit! He had an actual vampire in his living room, and he had just made her an omelet. This life just kept becoming more and more crazy, and he reminded himself that anything normal had been tossed out long ago.
She held her hands out to the sides. “I can be out in the sun, I can do everything a human can do. It’s like I am a human, except for this small part of me.”
Shock continued to tie his tongue and make him feel as though his brain would explode. “Do you … d-drink blood?”
“I can go without it, but it makes me stronger, so yes, I do feed.”
Oh, hell. He squirmed at that comment as he thought about her fangs sinking into him as he’d seen done to others many, many times, but pressed on with his questions.
“How often?”
“I don’t know … maybe once a year? Maybe twice if I’m stressed. It’s like getting a vitamin infusion for me.”
He placed his head in his hands. Sweet Jesus. Never in a million years would he have pegged her as a bloodsucker. Yet, here they were.
“What did you mean when you said I have no idea what I’ve gotten myself into?” he asked.
She sat down beside him and gently placed her hand on his arm, causing him to flinch. He turned to her, realizing a vampire had just touched him for the first time.
As she pulled her hand away, a pained look washed over her face. “I’m sorry I startled you.”
He stared at her, wondering if she could do any of that mind control stuff, and if she thought about snacking on him. He studied her mouth, looking for any signs of fangs, but saw none.
She cleared her throat, and the hurt on her features disappeared. “Within our race, there is a police force of sorts that makes sure our kind stays in line. I’m part of that.”
The vampire police? Oh, jeez. It sounded so far out there, but they had already crossed out of the boundaries of normal and into … paranormal. His mind reeled as she continued.
“Although we’ve been on this Earth just as long as you, we understand that it’s your world. We live in a sort of sub-culture that you aren’t aware of, and we’re fine with that. We don’t want trouble. So, when one of our kind, or in this case, many of our kind, get out of line, we have to stop them.”
“So, those guys were trouble last night, right?”
She nodded. “I’ve been working the case for a few months now. Humans are disappearing, and we aren’t sure why or what’s being done with them. We have a couple of ideas based on our past history, but nothing concrete.”
His stomach flipped with excitement as a new energy infused him. He’d been right—they had been working toward the same goal. Hell, they were working on the same damn case. They could definitely work together in harmony.
“Like what? W
hat do you think has been done with them?”
“Like slavery,” she said with a sigh.
“Human slavery?”
“Yes. Some of the eldest vampires have always believed that we should take over the humans as a race and make this our world. In the past, they’ve put humans into slavery to build castles and to serve them, as is the way they believe it should be.”
“What’s stopping all of you?”
“We’re part human,” she said with a shrug. “Most of our population is at least a little bit human. We have mixed families. What’s the point of trying to overthrow our loved ones?”
He couldn’t argue with that.
“How many of you are there?” he asked.
She shook her head. “I don’t know. We’re all over the world, in every culture. We don’t try to keep count like your race does.”
They stared at each other a long moment, then he asked, “So what was your plan last night? What did I screw up?”
A grin tilted her lips. “I was going to disable the driver and drive the truck to follow the rest of the vampires to see where they were taking everyone. I wanted to find out what they were up to, and bring the information to my superiors. We could then take the necessary steps to prevent them from continuing. I would have stopped the disappearances around here.”
“And been the big hero,” he added.
She grinned as she tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “Something like that.”
He chuckled. Yeah, he’d definitely screwed that one up for her. “Sorry about that.”
“It’s okay. I was getting my ass kicked, anyway.”
“You looked like you know how to fight.”
“I do, but those vampires were older than me, and had much more pure blood in them, which makes them stronger. I shouldn’t have gone at it alone, and you most likely saved my life.”
“You’re welcome,” he said with a grin.
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, thank you, but that leads me to the next question. Why are you here? Based on the look of this apartment, you haven’t been around town very long. And, what was the deal with that knife?”