by Devon, Cat
“They can be. I’m not.”
“Yes, I noticed that.” She slowly dropped her hand from his chest. “What about sunshine? I thought daylight is deadly for vampires.”
“It can be deadly for humans, too. You’ve heard of skin cancer, right?”
“But I thought vampires couldn’t be exposed at all to sunlight.”
“Most can’t. I can.”
“How?”
“That’s my secret.”
The questions hit her fast and furious. “Where do you live? In a coffin?”
“No. I live in a loft. And no, I don’t hang upside down from the rafters in case you were wondering.”
“I wasn’t.”
Nick sighed. “You still think you’re in a coma, don’t you?”
“You never answered my question earlier. Can you read my mind?”
“Not yours, no.”
“But you can read other people’s minds? What about the person who tried to run me down? Could you read their mind?”
“That wasn’t a person. That was a vampire.”
“A vampire tried to run me down?” She frowned in confusion. This coma was getting complicated. “How many vampires are there out there?”
“Trying to run you down? I’m not sure,” he said. “One for sure.”
“So there’s only one other vampire aside from you in Chicago?”
“That would not be an accurate assessment.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “How many vampires are there in Chicago?”
“We don’t do a census or anything, but there are probably a few hundred.”
“I’m only asking you all this because none of this is real. I’m in a coma right now.”
“I’m positive you’re not in a coma.” He reached for his cell phone.
Like he’d know. Which option was less terrifying? The one where she was in a coma, or the one with him as a vampire? She couldn’t pick. They both sucked. Okay, maybe not the best thing to think of when dealing with a possible vampire.
If she was in a coma, she might be on life support. What if someone pulled the plug. What if she died?
What if she wasn’t in a coma? Then what?
“What are you doing?” she demanded. Fear and panic were starting to catch up with her once more. It was possible that she was alone with a vampire. One who had just saved her life, granted. But still a vampire.
Could it be true? How else could she explain his wound magically healing over? And his freaky fast speed?
“Coma, coma, coma,” she muttered.
“I’m calling in reinforcements,” Nick said.
Which meant what? That a bunch of vampires would be camping out in her living room? Were they even called a bunch or was there some special term to refer to a group of vampires? A gaggle? A flock? A coven?
Maybe he was calling in medical help?
A second later there was a knock at her door. How had someone gotten past the buzzer entrance downstairs?
“Relax. It’s just Pat,” Nick said, opening the door for him.
The sight of the tattoo shop owner was strangely reassuring. “Come in.”
“What’s going on?” Pat asked with Zenlike calmness.
Daniella pointed to Nick. “He thinks he’s a vampire,” she said with hyena-like hysteria. “And I think I’m in a coma.”
“An outsider vamp in a Hummer just tried to run Daniella over while she was on her Vespa,” Nick said.
“I saw it on the surveillance screen,” Pat said.
A second later Bruce stood outside her still-open apartment door. “My partner is more empathetic than I am,” Pat said. “May he come in?”
As soon as Daniella nodded, Bruce came to squat beside her and pat her hand reassuringly. “Some people are offended when they find out what we are.”
“I’m not,” she assured him. “I’ve got several friends who are gay.”
“Yes, but do you have other friends who are vampires?” Bruce said.
Her eyes widened. “You’re saying you think Nick is a vampire?” she whispered.
“We’re all vampires, honey.” Bruce said.
“I’m not,” she said.
“No, you’re not,” Bruce said gently. “But we are.”
Her rational brain refused to compute what he was saying, yet her instincts told her that he was speaking the truth. Mere minutes ago she’d seen a bloody gaping wound on Nick’s left flank and she’d seen it miraculously heal. The good news was that she was not in a coma. The bad news was everything else.
“You’re all vampires? How is that even possible?” she said unsteadily.
“It’s a long story.”
“How did that happen? Did Nick bite you? Did he turn you into vampires?” she said.
“No,” Bruce said. “And we didn’t turn him into a vampire, either.”
It was too much to comprehend and believe. Only yesterday her biggest problem was which flavor cupcake to choose as the weekly special. Now she had a pack of vampires in her living room. Not to mention one Hummer-driving vampire who wanted to flatten her and her Vespa like a pair of pancakes.
Oh my God, ohmygod, omg, omg omg. This was real after all.
She couldn’t let them see her fear. Couldn’t let them know she was panicking. She didn’t even realize she was hyperventilating until Pat handed her a small paper bag from her kitchen counter. “Breathe into it.”
She did.
“I realize it’s a lot to take in,” Bruce said. His gaze was so kind and understanding as he continued to squat beside her. “Would you like me to make you some tea?”
She shook her head and removed the bag from her mouth and nose. “I’d like you all to leave.” She just wanted them gone so she could figure things out—like whether she should check herself into the nearest psychiatric ward.
“We can’t do that,” Nick said. “Someone is trying to hurt you.”
“You mean some vampire,” she said.
He nodded.
“Why?”
“That’s what we’re trying to figure out. We know that you are immune to mind compulsion—”
“Hold on a minute,” she interrupted him, belatedly removing her hand from Bruce’s comforting hold. She moved so quickly that he fell back onto his butt.
“Vamps can be klutzy, too,” he said cheerfully as he got up.
Daniella returned her attention to Nick. “What do you mean I’m immune to mind compulsion?”
“Exactly what I said.”
“You can compel people to do things? Things they don’t want to do?”
“Yes,” Nick said.
“Not that we do that,” Bruce hurriedly inserted. “Not very often. Not if we can possibly avoid it. Only in dire emergencies.”
“Is that why you told me not to open my shop the first time we met?” she asked Nick. “You were trying your mind compulsion thing on me?”
“Yes,” Nick admitted. “But it didn’t work.”
“It didn’t work when I tried it, either,” Pat said.
“Same here,” Bruce said.
She stared at the three of them, at a total loss for words. The fact that they were vampires wasn’t weird enough? Now she learned they’d tried to compel her? “What else have you tried to do to me?”
“Nothing.”
Daniella pointed to Nick again. “You tried getting me into bed with you.”
“You responded out of your own free will and your own desire. I didn’t make you do anything,” Nick said.
“Would you two rather be alone?” Bruce asked.
“No,” she said.
“We have to figure out why you are different,” Nick said.
“Listen, dude, I’m not the one who is different. You three are. And not because you’re gay,” she hurriedly assured Bruce.
“Understood.” Bruce nodded. “It’s the vampire thing.”
“That’s right,” she said.
“Everyone is after you because you are the only human we know of w
ho’s immune to vamp compulsion,” Nick said.
“So they want to kill me?’ she said.
“They were trying to take you.”
She frowned, not understanding what Nick meant. “Take me?”
“Abduct you.”
“By running me over?” she said.
“They don’t have much experience with abductions,” Bruce said. “Unlike aliens from outer space. Abduction is their specialty.”
“There’s no such thing as space aliens,” Pat said. “You can’t believe anything you read in those tabloids.”
Daniella couldn’t believe she was sitting here listening to a bunch of vampires discuss the reality of alien abductions. Talk about falling down a rabbit hole. What was next? An appearance by the Cheshire cat?
Vampires were dangerous. Even vampires who had kind eyes like Bruce. And especially sexy vampires like Nick who made her want to have sex with him despite not being able to manipulate her mind.
“Daniella needs a bodyguard,” Nick said.
“And I suppose you’re going to say that you’re the man for the job?” she said.
“No, I’m telling you that I’m the vamp for the job.”
“No, you’re not,” she instantly said. “Why can’t Bruce be my bodyguard? Doesn’t he have the same vampire skills you have?” Okay, now she knew she was losing it, talking about vampire bodyguarding skills.
“Bruce used to be a circus clown. I used to be a warrior,” Nick said.
“He still has the heart of a warrior,” Pat said. “Nick is definitely the one who should take care of you.”
“I thought vampires didn’t have hearts,” she said.
“It was just an expression,” Pat said.
“We’re not here to talk about a vampire’s anatomy,” Nick said. “I can satisfy your curiosity on that subject later.”
Nick made it sound like Daniella was talking dirty. Vampires might not have hearts but she sure did, and hers was just about leaping out of her chest. Why did she want to rip off his clothes and have her way with him? The first time she met him, she didn’t even find him attractive.
Okay, she’d known objectively that he was physically attractive back then, but he hadn’t done it for her personally. Not in a big way. Not in a humongous way. Now he did. What was that about? What had he done to her?
“Can Nick do stuff that I don’t know about?” she asked Pat. “I mean you say that I can’t be compelled, but what else could he do?”
“She wants to know if I can make her want to have sex with me,” Nick translated.
“I’m not sure how to answer that question,” Pat began.
“I knew it!” she said.
“Wait.” Pat held up his hand. “He has no vampire skills or supernatural skills to do that. But Nick has always been popular with the opposite sex.”
“Was he that way before he became a vampire?” she asked.
“Yes,” Nick said with what she considered to be a smirk.
“I didn’t know him back then,” Pat said.
“How long ago was back then?” Daniella asked.
“Don’t you know it’s rude to ask someone about their age?” Nick said.
“I didn’t know if that rule applies to vampires, too,” she said.
“It does.”
“I’d just say that we all look good for our age,” Bruce inserted. “Vampires don’t age once we are turned.” He cleared his throat. “We’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone about any of this.”
“Screw that,” Nick growled, showing her his angry face. “You are forbidden from telling anyone else or there will be hell to pay.”
“No one would believe you anyway,” Pat pointed out. “We’d use mind compulsion on them. You don’t want to put others at risk, do you?”
She shook her head. “Don’t tell my brother about the accident. He’ll tell my dad, who’ll just worry or try to cut his trip short. He hasn’t had a vacation since my mom died and I don’t want to do anything to ruin it.”
“That’s noble of you,” Bruce said.
The truth was that Daniella wanted to tell her dad that a vampire in a Hummer tried to ram her. She could only imagine what his response would be. What would he say? Don’t worry, honey. It’ll be okay? That might have worked when she was a kid and skinned her knee after falling off her bike, but she doubted its effectiveness regarding vampires living next door. Or maybe living wasn’t the right way to put it. Existing next door? Sucking blood next door?
“Don’t worry, we won’t tell your brother.” Bruce’s reassuring tone was similar to her dad’s, but her father didn’t have fangs.
“Right,” Nick said. His voice held no reassurance whatsoever. Instead it held the promise of an impending threat. “We won’t tell your brother and you won’t tell anyone about what you’ve learned today.”
“You mean about the vampire thing. I understand.” Daniella nodded to emphasize that point. “I get it. I won’t say anything.”
“To make sure of that, we will need some insurance,” Nick said.
Daniella didn’t like the sound of that. “What kind of insurance?”
“Your brother.”
“What about him?”
“Swear on your brother’s life that you won’t reveal our secret to anyone, and that includes your family and friends.”
“Swear on his life? Or what? You’ll kill him? Turn him into a vampire?”
“No,” Nick said. “I’ll compel him to gamble until he loses everything. It wouldn’t be difficult to do. He gambles already and wants to do more.”
“How do you know?”
“I read his mind.”
“Why would you do that?” Her mouth dropped open as realization hit. “OMG. Vampires, funeral home, blood. What are you doing with the funeral home?”
“It’s better you don’t know,” Nick said.
“Better for who?”
“For whom,” Nick corrected her. “Better for us all.”
“Not for me. Not for my family,” she said. “The Evergreen Funeral Home has been in the family since my grandfather’s time. Have you been messing with it since then?”
“No,” Pat said. “It’s been more recent than that.”
“How recent?” she demanded.
“The past dozen years.”
“Since my mother died.” Her heart froze as she stared at them in horror. “Oh my God! You killed her!”
Chapter Thirteen
Daniella leapt from her chair and frantically looked around her apartment. Vampires. She was surrounded by vampires who had lulled her into a false sense of security and may have killed her mother. How stupid was she to let down her guard?
Where was a silver crucifix when you needed one? Wait. She had a sterling-silver tea strainer in the kitchen that she’d gotten at an antiques shop on a trip to London. Maybe that would do?
The problem was, she had to get past three vamps to get to the kitchen. And they moved faster than she could. Much faster. She couldn’t believe how fast Nick had raced to save her from getting mowed down by that Hummer.
“Calm down,” Nick said. Sure, now he used his reassuring voice. “We had nothing to do with your mother’s death.”
“Right.” She stood swaying just a bit from fear and adrenaline. “Like you’d admit it if you did.”
“She has a point,” Bruce said.
Nick glared at him. “Not helping.”
“I never saw you around the neighborhood twelve years ago,” she said to Nick. “Why is that?”
“Because I didn’t live here then. I was in Boston.”
“And I was in Florida,” Bruce said.
She focused her attention on Pat. “You were here then.”
Pat nodded. “True.”
“Then it was you.” She pointed an accusing finger at him, hoping he didn’t notice the slight tremble. “What did you do to her?”
“Nothing.”
Daniella needed to protect herself. Who knew what these v
ampires might do? What about a wooden stick? Or a stake? How big did a stick have to be to earn the description of a stake? She had a wooden yardstick in the closet. Would that work?
“Calm down,” Nick repeated.
“Do not try to compel me,” she growled.
“I already told you that you can’t be compelled,” Nick reminded her. “None of us can compel you.”
“Good thing, too,” she said.
“Although being able to compel you would make life more convenient for us,” Bruce said. “Not that the world is all about us,” he hurriedly added, given her acidic glare at him.
“You’re freaking out for no reason,” Nick told her.
“Right,” she scoffed. “Discovering your neighbors are vampires is no big deal.”
“How do we convince you that vampires had nothing to do with your mother’s death?” Pat said.
“A lie detector test,” she said.
“We don’t exactly have a normal pulse,” Pat said.
“Of course you don’t,” she said. “You drink blood. Blood that you steal from my family’s funeral home.”
“We don’t steal it. We pay good money for it,” Bruce said before clapping his hand to his mouth. “That wasn’t a secret, was it?”
“No.” Pat gave his partner a smile.
“So how can I be sure a vampire is telling the truth?” Daniella demanded.
“By trusting us,” Nick said.
“Like that’s going to happen. I could have you swear on a Bible or something.” She paused, unsure of the protocol. Weren’t religious objects a problem for vampires? “Okay, maybe not a good choice.”
“You want us to swear on a copy of Twilight?” Nick mocked her.
“I want to pretend none of this ever happened,” she said.
“I could make that happen if only I could compel you,” Nick said.
“Not gonna happen, Count Chocula,” she shot back.
“Let’s be logical here,” Nick said.
“By all means,” she said sarcastically. “Let’s logically examine why vampires may have killed my mother.”
“You’re basing that accusation on what? The fact that I lived in the neighborhood and I’m a vampire?” Pat said. “Did she die under unusual circumstances?”
“She was killed in a car accident involving a drunk driver.”
“Look at me.” Nick turned her to face him. “Trust your instincts. I’m telling you the truth when I tell you that no vampire had anything to do with your mother’s death. I’m sorry for your loss, but it was a human who caused that accident.”