Haven (14 page)

“Of course.” His blue eyes hit me with a heated gaze. He donned his sunglasses just as the wind decided to tousle his wavy brown hair.

I had to remind myself to breathe.

Seven

Alexander drove onto Sacramento Street heading east. “I’m hungry. Want to grab a bite?”

Hungry? Bite? I considered him warily. “Sure.”

“You eat meat? There’s a place on the Embarcadero. Serves a great steak-frites. Among other
things.”

“Sounds good.” I relaxed. Food for me,
other things
for him. The perfect location choice for a date with a vampire. The thought of watching him drink blood didn’t faze me. I’d been there, seen that with Jonas and crew when I was a kid.

“How’s your head?”

I touched my hair. “Fine. Not even a twinge.”

“Your memory?”

I studied his profile. Was he probing? “All there. Like a packed file cabinet.”

“Ah.”

“Want to hear something funny? From my repertoire of recovered memories?”

He nodded. “Hit me.”

“Thomas used to read me bedtime stories when I was little. His favorite was the Disney version of
Alice in Wonderland
. He also played dolls with me. It was the only way I’d agree to go to bed.”

Alexander laughed. “No way.”

“Way,” I grinned.

“And Jonas?”

“Ha, what you see is what you get on that one. Cranky. Gloomy. But fiercely protective. I always felt safe with him.”

“Really?”

I massaged my wrist. “Yeah. I know. Funny to admit that after the other night.”

“So, you care about them.”

My hand stilled at his careful tone. He is probing. “Of course.”

“Even though they’re...” His fingers squeezed the steering wheel.

“Bossy bullies?” I teased, trying to keep it light. But I knew what he wanted. “Yeah, I love the bastards. Alive or undead is irrelevant.”

Alexander relaxed his grip.

“That’s not to say they don’t have some mega apologizing and explaining to do. Boarding school sucked.”

He chuckled and we fell into a comfortable silence. The car sped through the Broadway tunnel, past North Beach and onto the Embarcadero, heading toward Pier 39. Before we neared that glossy tourist attraction with its many shops and restaurants, the car pulled into a drive I would’ve missed in the dense fog.

A dark, hulking building took shape in the gloom. It looked more like a gutted factory or serial killer’s hangout than an eatery. A red-alert knot in my stomach replaced my happy, first-date glow.

The car crawled through the pitted, gravel parking lot. A few others peppered the foggy world, and several motorcycles lined the building. We stopped in a spot overlooking the water. Boats bobbed in the gray bay, barely visible in the fog. Late afternoon seemed more like evening.

A dark, sinister evening.

My fingers delved into my coat pocket for the phone. Should I text the boys for an extraction? Mark and Ren were likely tracking me on GPS and lurking nearby, given their protective ways.

Call it a day or stay and play?

Alexander removed the sunglasses he didn’t need in this gloomy weather and winked. “Don’t worry, it’s not as bad as it looks from the outside.”

I melted. Stay and play. I exited the car. The smell of barbeque blew past on the wind. “Is that...?”

Alexander joined me, hand extended. “Steak. Fresh off the grill. C’mon.”

I hesitated, remembering the pleasure and extreme pain of our touch.

He wiggled his fingers. “I think you’ll be okay now.”

I bit my lip to suppress an embarrassing giggle. Warmth washed over my cheeks, yet again. Blushing again, dammit. I need to stuff my inner teenager back in her box.
I squelched the giggles. “Why are you so sure?”

“Call it a hunch. C’mon.”

I shook my head at his proffered hand, caught between eagerness and anxiety. The wind gusted again, bringing with it another tangy whiff of food. My stomach growled.

His lips curled up at the sound. “Ready now?”

I took his hand. We didn’t explode. Nor did our crazy, magnetic attraction overwhelm me with feral need. Oh, I wanted him, but for the moment it seemed my higher functioning was in control, keeping us safe from a public sex frenzy. We could experience a sweet, first date.
Yay.

He drew me along the side of the building toward the back. I savored his fingers curled through mine.
I want to touch way more than his hand.
My pulse sped up, but I kept a tight leash on my lust. I glanced at him through a curtain of hair blown across my face by the breeze. Another wink. He knew. I suspected he felt the same.

We rounded the building’s corner and entered a spacious, modern patio overlooking the water. Bistro tables and tall black chrome heat lamps occupied most of the space. A long bank of fancy grills lined the far side, manned by a burly man in a black muscle T-shirt and black jeans. He gazed in our direction and slapped down the steak he held with grill tongs. Some patrons looked our way, but most ignored us.

Alexander squeezed my hand. “Inside or out?”

I studied the warehouse with its gray tinted windows and enormous, open metal doors. Tables and booths, a bar, a small stage with darkened hallways on either side. Pendant lights suspended from thick chains poked through a drop ceiling of black mesh metal. The room was empty, save a half dozen men hunched over the bar.

“Inside,” I replied.

We strolled to the bar. The bartender observed our approach. The bald vampire, burly like the grill guy and garbed in similar black clothing, struck me as familiar, but my mind couldn’t place him. I wasn’t in the mood to ask. I just wanted to be alone with Alexander.

“Hey, Roland,” Alexander greeted the other vampire.

“Hey, yourself,” Roland the bartender replied, his unblinking, dark eyes fixed on me. I caught a flare of recognition in their depths. “What would you like?”

“House red,” Alexander replied. “You?” A little flash of power curled between our palms as he spoke, arousing me. My knees wobbled. I blinked up at him.
Want to devour his mouth with mine.
My stomach rumbled again.
Focus.

“Um-uh,” I stammered. “
Steak-frites
sounds good. Grill smells great. And rare, please. I like my steak juicy, the bloodier the better.”

My rambling earned me a raised eyebrow from Alexander and the attention of the vampires at the bar. They had to be the motorcycle owners. Their identical skull-embossed leather jackets screamed Biker Gang.

The vampire nearest me, a lanky and gaunt man, stared at me with scorching silver eyes. I swallowed, snapped my attention to his buzz-cut platinum hair, and managed to add, “A large glass of Cabernet, please. Very large.”

Biker Buzzcut threw back his head and laughed, scrunching the lightning bolt tattoo on his cheek.

All six vampires swiveled back to their drinks.

Alexander led me to a curved booth by the stage. I took a spot against the wall with a view of the room, particularly those bikers. Alexander joined me, also facing the room. Though we no longer touched, my hands tingled with that strange, pins-and-needles power.

I wiggled my fingers. “What’s that?”

Roland the bartender arrived in a whoosh of air, delivering my napkin-wrapped silverware and a glass of red wine filled to the brim, along with a ruby red decanter and matching glass for Alexander. He departed just as quickly.

“Power.” Alexander poured himself some blood. He swirled it, scented it then took a sip followed by a long drink.

He was drinking blood like a fine wine.
As I’d suspected in the car, thanks to my childhood memories, the act seemed perfectly normal.

I picked up my glass and took a big swallow. Smooth and dry. A good Cab. “I don’t understand. What am I supposed to do with the power? Is it yours?”

He gave me a heart-stopping smile. “No. Your hand, your power. And nothing. For now.”

Our eyes locked, his full of wicked promise. I sipped my wine and reminded myself I was here to eat.
Food
.

My phone rang and I dug it out of my coat. The tingling energy in my hands disappeared as abruptly as it had arrived. Blocked ID on the screen. I ignored the call.

Answer the phone, cara mia,
a familiar voice ordered.

My eyes darted around the room. “Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

“Nothing, I guess.”
Go away, Thomas, I’m busy!

Rispondi al telefono, Carina. Or we do this in your head
.

I grabbed my temples. “Ow. That hurt.”

Alexander scowled, scanning the restaurant for trouble.

My cell phone rang again and this time I answered it. “What do you want, Thomas?”

“Put Alex on the phone, please.”

“What? No hey,
cara mia
, sorry for chewing on your arm the other night and putting you in a coma. How ya feeling? All better now?” My voice dripped with sarcasm.

He ignored my crankiness. “Now, child.”

“Don’t call me child.” I waved the phone at Alexander then put it on the table in speaker-mode. “He wants to talk to you.” And I wanted to hear what Thomas intended to say to my date.

“You were told to collect her and bring her directly here. Come now.”

Alexander swirled the blood in his glass. “We’re having dinner. We’ll stop by later.”

“You will come now.” Thomas’s voice pervaded the room. Biker Buzzcut’s back snapped straight and he swiveled his stool in our direction. Roland said something to him and he frowned in response, silver eyes locked on me. Foreboding frolicked up and down my spine.

“She needs food, Thomas. She’s human, or do you only remember that when it’s convenient?”

“Insolent Youngling.” The room’s temperature dropped. How did Thomas do that over the phone? I shivered and rubbed my arms.

Biker Buzzcut shot to his feet. His gang followed suit, making me regret my rebellious decision to do speaker-phone. I unrolled my napkin and grasped the steak knife. Alexander eyed the knife and followed my stare. His lips curled in a snarl.

My food arrived at the end of a huge muscled arm covered in serious ink from shoulder to wrist. The vampire grill meister. “Uh,
Zio
Tommy, gotta go, my food is here.” I ended the call and slid the phone into my coat pocket.

The aromas of fried potatoes and grilled meat teased my nose and rumbled my stomach, but I didn’t dig in due to that pesky problem brewing across the room. The grill meister zoomed over to Biker Buzzcut. Roland, too, invaded the biker’s space. Alexander flashed to his feet and stood guard in front of our table. My hand clenched
my knife so hard the handle dug into my palm.

But the vampires did nothing at all. Two brick-wall good guys and one equally
tall but skinny-as-hell bad guy poised like statues by the bar. The seconds passed. Energy skittered across my skin, this time from Alexander. My hands tingled again, the power stronger this time. And hot.

Carina, va bene? You feel strange.
Thomas again.

Si, just starving,
I lied.
You can feel me? Ew!

Of course. And you are lying. What is happening?

Nothing much.

Alexander slid into the booth. The bar area had emptied, vampires gone. I eased my death grip on the knife.

Cara mia.

I pointed at my head and mouthed ‘
Thomas’
for Alexander’s benefit
.
“We’re fine, Thomas, just eating, okay? Geez, give us a break already. Trying to have a date, here.”

Alexander lips curled in a sexy grin.

No reply
from Thomas.

“I think he’s gone.” Let’s keep it that way. I extracted a technique from Faith’s groovy bag of tricks. To keep telepaths, psychics, and hopefully
mind-chatting vampires out of one’s head, construct a mental block. I pictured a locked door in an endless wall of stone. Guess we’d find out soon enough if it worked.

My inner groovy moment took mere seconds. “What’s up with the blond biker dude?”

Alexander surveyed the empty bar. “I don’t know.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

Interesting. “You’re not fully in their game are you?”

“What do you mean?”

I snagged a fry from my plate. “I mean, you might hang out with Thomas and crew but you’re out of the loop. I am, too, clearly, though I guess bite night was step one in my return to the in-crowd.” I plopped the fry in my mouth.

His gaze targeted my lips. “What’s your point?”

“My point is those vampires didn’t pay much attention to us until they heard Thomas on speaker phone. Then suddenly, we’re the center of their universe. I don’t like it. Something is going on and we need to find out what it is before it sneaks up and bites us on the ass. Like it almost did a minute ago.”

Alexander drained his glass and refilled it. “Fair enough. You eat. I’ll tell you what little I know.”

~ * ~

“Yum,” I moaned around my first bite of the steak, grilled to perfection. I devoured it, sopping up every last drop of its juice with the thin cut fries. The prickly power in my hands subsided as I ate.

Alexander watched me from start to finish, amused and pleased.

I plopped the last juice-drenched fry in my mouth and washed it down with a swig of wine. I was fuzzy from the Cabernet and happily full of steak with one goal now. Cuddle up to my hot friend and play with his hair. Groovy problems be damned.

“You look better,” he observed, distracting me from my tipsy musings.

“Better than what?”

“Than before. At the clinic.”

Right, the clinic.
“Why did you do it?”