“I’m not stepping aside,” Xandra snapped. “And my judgment isn’t compromised.”
“I sure hope not.” Alix glanced up. “Because here comes your date.”
“We’ll talk later.”
Standing up, Xandra turned to meet her date. The smile froze on her face.
Striding across the dance floor, his blond hair glittering under the lights, came Dante. At her stunned expression, his smile widened. He reached out and grasped her hand, bringing it up to her lips.
The brush of his cool lips against her skin rippled down her spine. How could a man set off such a reaction with so brief a touch? Then annoyance set in. She tried to pull her hand from his, but he held on. Amusement glinted in those amber eyes. She wanted to wipe that smug expression off his face.
“You must be Lisa,” he said in that golden voice.
From out of the corner of her eye Xandra saw Alix staring raptly at Dante. “You know exactly who I am.”
Alix was watching them both warily now.
“Alix,” she said, motioning to the man beside her. “I’d like you to meet Dante Nolastname.”
Chapter Three
Dante turned that melt-you-in-your-boots expression on Alix. To Xandra’s horror it looked like her friend was buying his obvious act. Grasping her hand, he bowed over it, just like he had with Xandra. He settled the same light kiss on the back of her hand and said, “Charmed.”
So smooth, so old-world, so out of place with his worn leather jacket. As he pulled away, he reached into his pocket and produced a very modern-looking business card and handed it to Alix. Taking the card numbly, her friend stared back at him as though he was a golden god suddenly fallen to earth.
Xandra cleared her throat. Alix lurched back to her senses. “Nice you meet you, Dante.” She arched a blonde eyebrow in Xandra’s direction. Xandra glared back. “I’d love to stay and talk,” Alix said quickly, “but I’ve got club business to attend to.” Still staring back over her shoulder at them, she disappeared into the back room.
Xandra turned to Dante. “How dare you!”
“Why so outraged, Lisa?” He placed a hand over his heart, feigning chagrin. “You placed a personal ad. I answered it. You’re just mad I saw through your charade.” He slid into Alix’s seat.
“It’s not a charade.” Xandra forced herself to project her habitual cool demeanor. He had her frazzled. Damned if she’d let him know it. She took a sip of red wine and stared at him levelly. “Okay, so how did you figure it out?”
Dante stole a sip of Alix’s abandoned martini. “I had a chat with George.”
“Didn’t know you two knew each other.”
“It’s my business to know who’s who in the vampire community.” He gave her a mocking glance. “Poor guy. I think he actually liked you.”
“What’s not to like?” She refused to let Dante under her skin. That he’d actually traced her back to George disturbed her more than she wanted to admit.
“I’d say nothing, if that’s really what you were about.”
“And who says I’m not?”
“Come on, Lisa.” He used her alias to mock her. “We both know that’s not the case.”
Xandra took another sip of wine and gazed blandly at him over the rim of her glass.
“You’ve been out with a different vampire—a prominent member of the vampire community—every night. Sometimes two in one night.”
“So?”
“So I want to know why.”
Somehow she had to convince Dante of her innocence, to throw him off the trail. “And what if there’s nothing more to it? What if I’m just a girl who has a thing for vampires?” She batted her eyelashes at him coyly. “You know, like tall, dark and handsome…” She let the sentence trail off.
“And dead?” he supplied. He made the word a threat.
“There are vamps who’d object to that.”
“There are,” he agreed.
It almost seemed like he personally objected to the word. Xandra filed that tidbit of information to deal with later. Whatever made Dante Nolastname tick, she couldn’t spare the time to investigate it. She pushed her glass of wine aside and stood to leave. “And we’ve had this conversation before, Dante. There isn’t anything illegal about dating vampires. Since you have no grounds to arrest me, I’ll be going.”
He pushed her glass of wine back toward her. “Not so fast. You promised me a date.”
“I don’t date policemen.”
At that he looked doubly offended. “Why not?”
“I told you, I have a thing for vampires.”
Dante seemed on the verge of saying something. Then, thinking better of it, he took another sip of Alix’s martini. “Whatever, but seeing as you’re here and I’m here and neither of us has had dinner, you could oblige me.”
“I could,” she countered. “But I won’t.” Oh, if only the circumstances were different. If he hadn’t shown up at her apartment and threatened her, if she hadn’t had nightmares about him. If this golden man had simply met her at the Pit as an Internet date, she might have been tempted to explore whether he could make the rest of her body feel as good as he’d made her hand feel after a simple brush of his lips.
Gazing into those amber eyes, she saw the flames of his anger rising. Anger he rapidly suppressed. And his voice was cool when he said, “Don’t give me a reason to detain you, Ms. Wheeler.”
Well, at least he’d dropped the pretense that they were on a date. They were all business now. “You don’t have a reason to detain me.”
“I could easily find one.”
“On what grounds?”
“On the grounds that you’re stalking members of the community I serve.”
“Stalking?” Her voice rose. She looked around, but the hubbub in the Pit covered her outburst. She gave Dante her best hostile glare and said quietly, “You’re the one stalking me.”
“I’m sure I could…convince George to testify otherwise.”
“George is too much of a gentleman to participate in such a scheme.”
“Agreed. But he might be convinced to act in an ungentlemanly fashion if he knew how many of his peers you’ve been scoping out.”
Poor George. He was a nice guy. Someone Alix might really like. Under other circumstances, she might try to persuade Alix to give up her no-vamps policy for him. “Leave George out of this.”
“That’s exactly what I’m trying to do, Ms. Wheeler. Protect innocent people.”
He put the emphasis on the word people, daring her to jump in and insist vampires weren’t. Xandra let it pass.
A sudden idea occurred to her. Maybe she should go out with him. It was getting late, too late to arrange something else for the evening, even with a vampire. She wore several concealed weapons, as she did on all her dates, so she was well prepared for anything. Experience had taught her to be. And at least she’d be able to tell Jeremy she’d been on duty all night. Dante would spend the evening interrogating her, but there was no reason she couldn’t do the same. She finished her wine, resolving to drink soda for the rest of the night. “Shall we?”
As they walked out onto the street, she gave Dante her best smile. The one she’d perfected over the years. The one that held all the pain inside. “Where are we having dinner?”
“I know of a nice little place. We’ll take my car.”
“Oh, right.” Xandra shot him a wry grin. “Like that’s going to happen.” She motioned to the fleet car she’d borrowed for the night. She’d claimed engine problems and traded the car she’d been driving in for another. The last thing she wanted was for Jeremy to know her cover was compromised. Dante had found her anyway. Again she wished for her bright yellow Hummer. Encased in its abundance of metal, she felt invulnerable. “Lead on, I’ll follow you in my own car.” She’d have to come up with an excuse to trade this car in as well, she thought with a sigh.
With a smirk, Dante folded his tall frame into a sleek Miata. Gunmetal green, she noted with humor.
The color suited him, even if the tiny frame was deceiving. He revved the engine and took off, obviously enjoying the chase.
Xandra followed him, half expecting him to lead her off to some secluded place where he could use the solitude to intimidate her. After a few minutes of driving, he pulled up in front of a quaint little out-of-the-way restaurant. Xandra peered through the windows as they crossed the sidewalk. Red gingham tablecloths looked cheery in the candlelight. It was, as Dante had promised, “a nice little place”.
The owner greeted Dante like a brother and gave them the restaurant’s best table. What now? She wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d sprung some sort of trap on her. Instead, he’d delivered a romantic date, just as she’d planned—but with someone other than him.
Dante ordered a bottle of red wine and the waiter arrived with two glasses.
Xandra placed her hand over the wineglass. “None for me thanks.”
“Red wine is good for the heart.” Dante’s mischievous smile was back, but an indeterminable emotion stirred in his amber eyes.
“So the studies say, but I’m driving. I’d hate for you to use that as your excuse to detain me.”
“One glass would hardly throw you over the legal limit,” Dante pointed out.
“And damned if I’ll give you an excuse,” she answered sweetly.
He nodded his head and took a sip of his own wine. “Always good to see our good citizens drinking responsibly.”
Xandra took a drink of water. “Thank you, Officer.”
The food was surprisingly good. Not that Xandra ever met a pasta dish she didn’t like. The tomato sauce was sufficiently garlicky to keep an entire army of vampires away. Garlic didn’t actually harm vampires, but she’d never known one who liked to be in close proximity to the herb.
Her host ate sparingly, seeming to prefer sipping wine to actually ingesting food. His golden eyes caught the candlelight briefly and glowed. But then he turned his head and that odd effect was lost. She knew from the previous night that he could move with preternatural speed. Or had that just been a hallucination caused by her overtired mind? His blond hair spilled down over the neckline of his T-shirt. Against the dark material, his skin looked pale. Then again, black made a lot of blonds look pale.
He was wearing the same diamond earring and medallion he’d had on the night before. She’d never been attracted to men who wore jewelry, but on him it looked masculine. Was she attracted to Dante? Really attracted to him in a visceral, weak-in-the-knees kind of way?
Xandra squelched the answer to that question. It didn’t matter that he could melt her insides with one of those golden glances. She would not notice the way his muscular shoulders strained the material of his clothing. According to Jeremy’s files he was a police officer on special assignment. Just the fact that he had a dossier in Jeremy’s hidden files meant there was far more to Dante than he’d told her. Not to mention that he was interfering with her investigation.
But…that didn’t mean she couldn’t admire him from afar. Or pretend to be interested in him while they interrogated each other over dinner. As long as her heart didn’t get involved, she added mentally and resumed the study of her date.
His leather jacket hung from the back of the chair where he’d slung it. He leaned back, creasing the leather further, one arm resting casually over the chair, and swirled the wine in his glass. His second glass, she noted.
“Sooo.” Dante looked calm, lazy even. She could imagine him interrogating the toughest cases, feigning relaxation while they sweated and spilled their guts. “What’s behind this vampire fascination of yours? Is it the eternal youth?”
Xandra tried to radiate a cool calmness to match his lazy smile. “No, I have no interest in living forever. The amount of taxes alone that I’d pay is enough to give me nightmares.”
At the word “nightmares” his eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly. Most people wouldn’t have caught it, but she’d also been trained in the art of interrogation and she noted his heightened interest.
She caught a hint of movement over Dante’s shoulder. The couple seated at the table behind them got up to leave. She almost smiled, but then she recognized the gray-haired older man. A well-known organized crime kingpin, Mack Saunders. And she’d bet the stunningly beautiful woman with him was a vampire. Not that any of it was really her concern, but she thought it only good business to know who the city’s organized crime figures were. They had their own dossier in Jeremy’s private files.
Turned out Dante wasn’t the only one who favored this restaurant. It seemed to have an impressive clientele.
Dante noted her increased interest in the table behind him. He moved his head slightly, just enough to scrutinize the couple. Xandra could tell he also recognized the man at the table as well as his attractive date, because he frowned. Obviously, he had stronger opinions about the man and his date than she did.
The couple spoke to the owner on their way out. From the warmth with which he bade them farewell, it seemed they knew each other well. The older man paused, his hand on the door handle. Xandra turned to ask Dante what he knew about them, but he’d focused his attention on something out on the street. His entire body radiated tension, as if he listened intently to something only he could hear.
She stared through the glass doors at the street beyond. For a moment, she saw nothing but darkness. Then the darkness moved.
Her hand went to the small of her back, where she kept the tiny pistol loaded with wood-tipped bullets. She kept it hidden under the table, but Dante noted the small movement and held up his hand for restraint. They froze in that tableau for half a heartbeat while the shadows crawled like lizards up the sides of the walls.
Vampires.
Xandra flexed her knees, rising to a half crouch in spite of Dante’s warning.
The restaurant door exploded inward. Shards of glass shot through the small room like a multitude of knives. One imbedded in the table between Dante and Xandra.
As one, they leapt from their seats. Dimly she heard her chair clatter to the floor behind her. Dante had almost reached Saunders when a flurry of taloned hands reached inside and yanked the underworld boss out into the street. The woman with him gave up the pretense of trying to be human. With a shriek she opened her mouth wider than should have been possible, revealing a gleaming pair of fangs. Turning red-rimmed eyes on her date’s attackers, she hissed in challenge.
Xandra raced toward the doorway. She practically tumbled over the owner, who was bleeding from a myriad of cuts. Dante had already cleared the threshold hot in pursuit of the vampires and their captive.
For a moment, they hesitated, as if Dante’s presence somehow threw a new complication into their plans. Vampires crawled up the brick walls. They hung above the street, dangling their prey. Red eyes glinted in the darkness. They bared yellow teeth and hissed in warning.
Recognition shot through her. She’d bet they were from the same hive that had attacked her. Their matted hair and ragged filthy clothes gave them away.
“Freeze!” Dante strode into the street. Flipping out his badge, he held it up to the moonlight. The vampires milled about in an odd sideways shuffle, still clinging to the walls above. They didn’t seem inclined to give up their prey.
Behind her the restaurant owner groaned. Still brandishing her gun, Xandra groped in her pocket for her cell phone. She dialed 911 to request an ambulance for the owner and then called Jeremy.
His drowsy voice sounded infinitely angry at being awoken.
“Jeremy, it’s me.” She was the only one of his employees who’d dare call him at home. “I don’t have time for questions, but I need you to authorize a team for a skirmish already in progress at—” she glanced up at the street sign, “—King and Seventh.”
A string of curses crackled through the cell phone’s tiny speaker. “Wheeler, I specifically told you to stay off active duty until—”
“I was on a date!” she hollered into the phone.
“All ri
ght, I’m putting the order through,” Jeremy said. As she flipped her phone shut, she heard him yelling, “And this time I order you to wait for backup!”
“Didn’t hear you.” She drew the silver-plated knife from her boot and raced off down the street after Dante.
She felt a whoosh of air as the mobster’s date rushed by her, shrieking her challenge. She didn’t look so pretty now with her lips curled back from her razor-sharp teeth and her midnight black hair whipping out behind her like wings.
Dante turned. He’d drawn his own gun this time. Xandra wondered if the bullets in it were wood-tipped. “Stay back,” he ordered the female vampire.
That lapse of attention was all the vampires needed. Hauling the screaming mob boss by the neck, they dragged him up the brickwork toward the roof.
Ignoring Dante’s warning, the she-vamp hurled herself at the wall, tearing the skintight dress she’d been wearing. With yellow talons, she dug into the masonry and began crawling after them.
Xandra reached Dante. His eyes flickered in her direction, warning her against rash moves. Should she jump into the fray and risk exposing herself? Dante knew far more about her than he should. She didn’t want to risk exposing the department if he hadn’t already discovered whom exactly she worked for. And Jeremy had ordered her to wait for his team.
“I told you to stay back!” Dante hollered at the vampire intent on rescuing her boyfriend. She snarled at him in defiance.
Torn between an officer of the law and another of their kind, the feral vamps decided to get on with business. Until now Saunders hadn’t uttered so much as a sound, but a trail of his blood dribbled across the sidewalk and gleamed blackly in the darkness against the brick. Obviously, he’d been hit by the flying glass. The scent of so much blood nearby inflamed the vampires. They hauled him up on the low roof, like a pack of hyenas dragging their prey into the bushes.
His scream shattered the silence.
Dante moved so quickly, Xandra could barely follow him. One moment he was standing in the street, and in the next blink he’d scaled the drainpipe and was striding across the rooftop after the feral vamps.
Feral Passion Page 4