“Must’ve been a hell of a meeting,” she remarked. “Why does it seem like your place is empty except for a few visitors?”
“Most people don’t like living with their boss.” He eyed her sparse setup for dinner. “I know of a takeout place open morning, day, and night.”
And that’s how she ended up getting Chinese takeout with a vampire coven master, who shared that about twenty other vampires shared the mansion with him. “It’s a protected area, according to the Deveaux Accords. So, any sick or wounded come and go as well,” he added. She watched him in fascination as he wielded a pair of chopsticks with ease.
“Have you any interest in vampire law and politics?” he asked.
“Maybe when my head isn’t exploding with all the other vampire facts I’m still trying to remember.” She felt the edge of a headache coming on.
“A different topic then. Perhaps I can take you to see the city properly tomorrow? I couldn’t help but admire Petra’s handiwork.” His gaze drifted over her.
She felt a blush start to settle on her cheeks. “Do you think anyone would see me and think of the news?” she asked.
“I seriously doubt it. So, is it a date?”
She paused a beat too long, wondering if he meant date like…well, an actual date. Just the two of them. Did she know him well enough?
Isn’t that the point of a date? she thought.
“It’s okay if you don’t want to. Just an offer,” he said as she sat there paralyzed by the offer and her own indecision.
“No…I mean, yes, I’d like to go with you,” she stammered. Oh yes, silky smooth. Really impressing this guy.
Regardless, Alex beamed. “Tomorrow then. You won’t regret it.”
Chapter 16
Alex
ALEX REALIZED THE next night that two successful nights of dream walking lulled him into a false sense of his own abilities. He didn’t hook into anyone’s dreams in particular and woke with the scent of burning corn in his nostrils. As he shook off the cobwebs, he wasn’t sure if he’d stepped foot in another’s dreams or just experienced his own nightmare, spurred on by seeing Mary Ann’s face again after all these years.
He was being paranoid. Violet, Cossette, Atlantis. Strange times were throwing him off his game.
Violet likely wasn’t awake yet, so he settled in the front foyer to wait with a steaming mug of tea. Though he’d taken care of any pressing needs with his coven and investment business, early evening was when most new problems were dropped at his lap. Instead, his favorite Italian duo arrived, Julian and Armando. They were both dressed in black and concealing their weapons, perfect for shadowing him and Violet tonight.
“Hey boss!” Armando sat across from him while Julian remained standing, cracking his neck. “It’s nice to see you. I mean, like, you, not a lion or a cat or something.”
“Nice to see you too,” he chuckled.
“So what are you two gonna do? Are you really laying the charm thick on the missus or…?”
“I’m not sure yet.” He took another sip, aware of Julian’s frown over the rim of his mug. Following his date tonight was really a waste of resources when it came to his head enforcer, but Alex wanted to give him an easy night’s work. Julian so rarely took time off for himself, even when he needed it most.
“You hardly know this girl,” Julian said.
“Isn’t that the point of a date, man? Get to know someone, see if you’re compatible. See if it goes somewhere else.” Armando waggled his brow.
Julian’s forehead wrinkled. “Never do that again.”
Alex bit down on his lip to keep a laugh from escaping. “Sorry, man. I’ll just be uptight about everything,” Armando replied, sticking his nose in the air. “I’ll tell women my uncle prohibits any fun.”
“That’s not true.” Julian rolled his eyes. “You have enough fun for the both of us.”
“Can I get you lads some tea while we wait?” Alex spoke up when Armando opened his mouth, knowing they could go on like this for hours.
“When is this supposed to get started?” Julian asked, glancing at his watch.
“I didn’t set a time. Figured we were all patient men. It takes women an eternity to get ready after all.” But as if his words jinxed it, he heard footsteps on the stairs. They all turned to watch her descent.
While Petra had made her over, Violet’s natural beauty made her new look work. Her hair was a light platinum, layers cut to frame her face and soften her features. She wore a dove gray skirt that billowed to mid-calf, complimenting a button-up lavender blouse and strappy sandals of the same hue.
Stopping short when she spotted Julian, she audibly swallowed. Alex got to his feet quickly to put an arm around her. “You look lovely this evening,” he said. “These two are some of my closest friends. This is Julian, or Bloodhound, depending on who you ask.”
“That’s, um, quite a nickname,” she remarked, her dainty hand swallowed up by Julian’s meaty palm. Alex could see why he was intimidating, being nearly six and a half feet of muscle with the no-nonsense expression of a solider.
“Just call me Julian.” He softened his usually cool tone. “A pleasure to meet you at last. You’ve made quite the splash amongst the coven.”
Armando offered his hand next with a big smile. “Hi, pretty lady. I’m Armando. No nicknames here unless you want to give me one.”
“This dynamic duo will be shadowing us tonight. For your protection,” he said, seeing her brief smile to Armando fade with concern.
“Will something happen that I need protecting from?” she asked.
“No, just another vampire thing. I would rather focus on you instead of always looking over my shoulder. Shall we go?” He offered his arm.
“I…yes. Let’s go,” she said, letting him escort her outside with a thoughtful twist to her lips. He took her past the gate of his manor, symbolically leaving the protected zone for his coven and taking a wary look around.
He knew how it must look to her—that she was unsafe. She seemed tense as she mirrored him, seeing only the evening and a pair of cars waiting for them. He led her to the first while Julian and Armando got into the second, ready to follow. The tension left her shoulders as they were alone again.
“Is it really necessary to have two of your men follow us? I feel like a teenager on her first date again,” she remarked.
“Think of them less as an escort because they’re not here to be our purity police.” He snickered at the thought since Armando would encourage them while Julian would do the exact opposite. “I really just want to give you my full attention.”
She blushed a lovely gray shade, reminiscent of her clothing. Though her contacts now hid the otherworldly eyes and made them appear a shiny blue, small things like that gave away her true nature. “Okay. I’ll trust the process,” she said. “What are we doing, by the way?”
“Well, you’ve never been to New York City before, right?” He smiled when she shook her head. “Luckily for us, the city never sleeps. Or so they say. I wanted to show you some of my favorite haunts. Maybe get to know you better.”
“That sounds like fun.” She smiled over at him, though her nose was mostly pointed toward the windshield, gawking as they entered the traffic of the city proper. “No vampy stuff today, okay?”
“No vampy stuff,” he agreed.
“Will you tell me more about you?” she asked, turning a curious glance his way.
“I thought you said no vampy stuff.”
She let out an unladylike snort of amusement. “Okay, in moderation.”
“In moderation, hmm…” He’d lived such a long life that he was at a loss for what she’d actually find interesting. “Well, I’m almost five hundred. You lose track of time except for about three notable birthdays, and five hundred is one of them.”
Completely serious, she turned to him and said, “You’re younger than I thought.”
Taken off guard, he sputtered a laugh. “I’ll take that as a compliment, thank
you. Everyone wants to be younger than they look.”
“Don’t say that to someone who had a baby face through college,” she said.
“I’ve had a baby face since I was past forty.” For the first time since they met, she laughed clearly. Progress, he thought.
Again, said his inner beast, purring at the back of his mind like a content cat. It stirred and yawned. He’d thought it in a coma, having not heard its simple input since their first night dream walking together. But it liked Violet, which was also good.
Nothing canned a possible partner faster than that little bud of instincts and id at the back of his mind screaming or hissing in dislike. Those women were invariably incompatible in several ways. He didn’t know how the inner beast could tell, but sometimes, it was smarter than him, born of his shapeshifting magic.
“Anyway, I figure I should start at the beginning, and you tell me if I’m boring you,” he said. “I’m from England. A pseudo-noble, so to speak. Neither of my parents were nobility, but they put on the airs and had the money from my father’s various business ventures. He taught me how to survive in our dark world. I got into investments a little later in my life. When you have nothing but time, it pays off big dividends eventually.”
“Thus the mansion?”
He nodded. “I try not to bring attention to myself or the coven, so I don’t throw money around. But I’m a dragon atop a hoard compared to most people, even most vampires. So, if I spoil you a bit, that’s where it comes from.” He caught the sparkle of understanding in her eyes.
“You actually paid for my clothes, huh?”
“And gladly, too. Petra did well by you.” He winked.
She glanced down at her blouse, rubbing one of its little buttons. “Well, thank you. I’m not used to owning something like this. If there’s anything I can do to pay you back…”
“You saved my life,” he said, reaching over to give her hand a brief squeeze. “I still owe you.” If they were getting more into the “vampy stuff,” as she called it, he would explain that no sane vampire outside of his coven would’ve lifted a finger to help him. That she, as a mortal, was able to do so and endure Kim Cox because of him meant a lot more than he could express.
She seemed at a loss for a few moments. “So, your parents. Are they still around?”
“Ah, no. They’re long gone,” he said, shrugging when she started to give him a look of sympathy. “When you’re immortal, it’s inevitable. My father’s coven fell the night he died. I ended up travelling Europe with my two dearest friends, Sam and Melanie, and picked up Julian along the way before we all came to America. The New World.”
He smiled wistfully for those days, when their little group was simple. “We settled in Massachusetts before coming to New York, growing all the while.”
“When did you meet Luke?” she asked, gazing at him keenly.
“We first fit in with a village of Native Americans when we came to America. Luke was my lifemate’s brother.” Despite how fresh Mary Ann’s face was in his mind’s eye, hundreds of years had passed since he’d last held her.
“Your one and only? The other half of your soul?” She echoed his first explanation from their dream together. He considered her words for a moment, wondering if her unconscious mind remembered their conversation. Glancing at her out of the corner of his eye, he realized she was simply smiling wistfully for the romantic ideal of a perfect soulmate.
“A sweet woman. But long gone.” He’d already done his mourning, except in those long moments between sleep and wakefulness, missing the warmth of another by his side. Two hundred years had passed since he lost her, and he’d been with other women since. No one was quite as perfect, but such was life.
He parked his car, spotting Julian circling around to give them lead time. Putting an arm around her casually, he walked her to the line for the first place she needed to see and watched her look around and then up.
“Is that the Empire State Building?” she asked. As a landmark, it was no coven’s territory, thus free for them to visit without him playing any politics.
“Did you know it’s open late for night owls such as ourselves? One can’t visit the city without stopping here.”
A giddy little smile crossed her face. “What a cool idea.”
Chapter 17
Violet
SHE UNDERSTOOD HIS desire to have someone watching their backs as soon as they were in the observatory overlooking New York City’s lights. Alex murmured for her ears only, narrating how this skyline had changed over time.
It was amazing to her that he’d been around since before the city had a skyline. He wore his years with the grace of a well-traveled statesman. She appreciated this side of him so much more than the vampire coven master trying to teach her a great deal of insider knowledge within a couple days.
They window shopped together afterward, each enjoying a hotdog from a street vendor. How she’d laughed when he got a smear of mustard at the corner of his mouth.
He wasn’t perfect, just like her. She couldn’t explain how a bit of mustard had put her so much more at ease. “You ever go to Broadway?” she asked as they blended with the crowd, naming the other attraction she was dying to see now that she was here.
“Dancing cats or something?” he teased.
“Two kinds of people.” She tisked as she shook her head.
“In that case, yes, I love Broadway. Hamilton was particularly delightful.” He smiled just wide enough not to show fangs. “I wasn’t so interested in those events when they actually happened, but I enjoyed seeing them play out like a rap battle.”
Her mouth dropped open. “You’ve seen it live?”
“You haven’t? Sounds like I know where to take you on a later date.”
She quizzed his Broadway knowledge to see if he was pulling her leg, and it sounded like he’d really been to the plays she wanted to see. “I’m really going to take you, I promise,” he said, holding his hands up with a laugh as she asked about the minutiae she could remember.
“Well, if you promise.” She felt ready to glow with the idea, hoping it was soon.
That was the moment the voice came back, the one from her dreams. “He’s wonderful.”
Violet sucked in a breath, taking a glance around for anyone who could’ve spoken. She nearly bumped into a stranger as she wiped clammy palms on her skirt. “All good there?” Alex asked, putting a steadying arm around her.
“Just, uh, excited,” she blurted.
How exactly was she to explain it otherwise—some creepy voice had just complimented him in her head, as if someone were watching her. Maybe she should mention it, but it didn’t seem like a good idea while Alex was smiling down at her with such warm regard.
First date rule: don’t imply that you might be hearing voices.
Still, she asked, “How do you talk to someone else in their head?”
He glanced around at the crowd. “It’s called telepathy. It is an important skill. I suppose we could practice for a bit.” He drew her over to an unclaimed bench. As their gazes met, his voice filled her head. “The first time is always the hardest. You project your thoughts outward, like you’re speaking, but in your head. It’s easiest to do when you’re making eye contact with your recipient.”
“Like this?” she sent back, pretending she was speaking the words aloud.
His face went slack with astonishment. “Yes…just like that.” Shaking his head, he added out loud, “Showoff. That took me weeks to figure out.”
He coaxed her back to window shopping. “The harder trick is talking to someone across any distance longer than a room or while not looking at them,” he added. “I swear, you’re a better vampire than me if you get this on the first try.”
She spent several minutes studiously not looking at him, but that did not come as naturally. “I guess it’s easier to look at you because I know where I’m sending my words?” she remarked, giving up with the beginnings of a headache pressing at her forehead.
“Exactly,” he said, smiling over at her. “There’s tricks to it. I’ll teach you later, maybe over dinner?”
“That’s a good idea.” Her belly was on the verge of rumbling in complaint.
“I know just the place,” he said, leading her in a new direction. Perfectly willing to let him pick the place, she still stopped short as she spotted a sign outside a quaint diner that was open late.
“‘Not eating here would be a missed steak,’” she read aloud, nudging Alex with a grin.
He glanced from the sign to her. “Yes, that’s what it says.”
“Get it? Missed steak,” she giggled. “We have to eat here.”
He covered his face with a hand. “Oh no. You’re a punster.”
“Only when others enjoy it. Mostly, I get your reaction.” She gestured to him with a smile. “Finding someone with my sense of humor is a painful pun-dertaking.”
“Right, so we’re eating here?” he asked, muffling a groan with his palm.
“Yup!”
The restaurant was a traditional greasy spoon with cracked upholstery booths and checkerboard tablecloths. It was the type of place to specialize in burgers…but she got the steak.
While they waited, he taught her more tricks for telepathy without eye contact, showing off with mental speech while studying the ingredient list of ketchup. He handed her the bottle for her own practice. “Eugh, there’s a lot of sugar in this,” she remarked.
“Second round, first try. I’m really impressed,” he replied, though when she looked up at him, his expression was pinched with a troubled frown. “Too easy. Further proof that you’re a vampiress without a taste for blood.”
“Hey, I’m not looking a gift horse in the mouth.” Now, at least, she was ready if that voice from her dreams returned. If it wasn’t a person setting out to mess with her.
He ate a small meal compared to her full dinner, really only picking at it. Knowing he didn’t need food like her was a strange feeling when combined with the social guilt of eating while the other party abstains. “It’s all right. I just need a different type of meal,” he said, noticing her eyeing his plate.
Dream Walker: Blood Legacy Series Book 1 Page 9