Sex and the Single Vampire (6 page)

“You’re probably going to think this is very strange of
me, but I wonder if I could talk to you for a few minutes?”

I blinked and dragged my gaze off Dante’s tortured eyes to look at the woman standing next to me. She was a few inches taller than me, and had pleasant eyes and an aura of friendliness that I could feel without dropping my guards.

“Um …” I said, still feeling more than a little bit dazed. I mentally shook my head and gathered my wits. Summoners were in control at all times. To be out of control was a dangerous thing; it opened the Summoner up to all sorts of horrible eventualities. I couldn’t let a little thing like a meeting with … My eyes drifted back to where Dante was sitting. He was watching me even as the woman before him prattled on about how much she loved his books. I took a deep breath and turned back to the woman, who was also watching me closely. I had at least a thousand questions to ask about Dante; his groupies were likely to be a good place to start. “Sure, I can spare a few minutes.”

The woman smiled, warmth glowing around her like a halo. “Good. Rox?”

“Right with you,” the smaller woman said, grabbing my arm. “Let’s go to the espresso stand. I don’t know about anyone else, but I could sure use a latte right about now. It’s hard work, hunting Beloveds.”

I peeked at her out of the corner of my eye. She must have noticed, because she grinned and tugged me forward until I was frog-marched between the two of them, feeling like nothing so much as a prisoner being escorted to a cell.

The tall one stopped after a few steps and glanced down at my leg. “I’m sorry; I’ll walk slower.”

I shrugged off her concern and limped forward. “It’s okay. My leg doesn’t like it if I stand around too much.”

“So what’s with the shades?” the smaller woman asked as she walked next to me. “You got an eye condition or you just like to look cool?”

“Roxy! Don’t be so rude! You’ll have to forgive her,” the pregnant woman said as we stopped before the in-store latte stand. “She was dropped on her head when she was a baby. Several times, as a matter of fact. Two double tall skinny lattes, and … what would you like?”

“Americano,” I said, wondering just what sort of man attracted such strange groupies. And was that his baby the tall one was carrying? More important, why did I want so much for it not to be his?

She gave the order. “And I’ll take one of those lemon muffins, and that piece of pastry with the cherries on it, and … um … that mocha brownie.” She turned to us. “Do either of you want anything?”

“You’re going to explode if you eat all that,” the smaller woman said with a pointed frown at the pregnant belly. I shook my head, then allowed myself to be herded over to a nearby table.

“I expect you’re a bit curious about this,” the tall one said, giving me a reassuring smile. “First off, I’m Joy, this is my friend Roxy, and you are …?”

“Allie. Allegra Telford.”

“You’re American, too?”

“Yes.” I squirmed a bit uncomfortably in my chair, wanting for some reason to go back to Dante so I could stare at him a bit more.

“Cool,” Roxy said. “The big question, of course, is do you believe in vampires?”

“Roxy!”

She turned to her outraged friend. “What? It’s important!”

“Yes, but you don’t just blurt it out like that! You work
up to these things cautiously, carefully. Most people get all weirded out if you start talking about vampires and Dark Ones and all that. You have to approach the subject with kid gloves. I’m sorry, Allie; she has no delicacy or tact.”

Delicacy? About the paranormal? Around me? Laughter burbled up inside of me until I couldn’t keep it in any longer. I whooped until my eyes streamed, forcing me to grab a napkin and mop up under my glasses. Both women stared at me as if I had a ghost of a three-legged cat standing on my head.

“Sorry, it just struck me funny. What you said. In answer to your questions, Roxy, yes, I have an eye condition, although it’s not sensitivity, if that’s what you were thinking. If you really want to see, I’ll show you, but most people find my eyes … unnerving. And I’m not weirded out by stuff like vampires, Joy, although I have to admit I’ve never seen any proof that they exist. You don’t happen to know what a Summoner is, by any chance?”

Both women shook their heads, then Roxy, on my left, leaned in close and squinted to see in behind my glasses. I rolled my eye toward her. “Oooh, cool, you have really light eyes. What is that, gray? Silver? Yeah, it’s a bit strange to have eyes the color of a full moon with a dark ring around the outer edge, but I don’t see what’s so unnerving about them.”

Joy, on my other side, tipped her head to look in the right side of my glasses, then frowned. “She doesn’t have light eyes, you idiot! They’re kind of a hazely gold with patches of a darker brown. That’s interesting how the color varies within your iris. Still, I have to agree with Rox—it’s different, but hardly unnerving.”

I sighed and made sure no one was near, then pulled my glasses off. Both women gasped.

“Oh, that is so totally cool! Your eyes are two different
colors! Are those contacts?” Roxy asked, leaning close to peer at my eyes.

“No.”

“You were born like that? Very cool!”

I couldn’t help but smile at her. She was the only person I’d ever met who thought my eyes weren’t creepy. “It’s a condition called heterochromia irides. It’s fairly rare, and most cases don’t have the extreme variation in eye color that I have, but it’s not, as some people believe, a sign that I’m marked by the devil.”

“Well, of course not,” Joy said. “Personally, I like the effect. It makes you look … unique.”

I snorted. “Unique, that’s a nice way of saying it. The silver eye would be bad enough by itself, but coupled with the dark eye …” I shrugged and put my glasses back on. “Most people get nervous around me when I’m not wearing my glasses.”

Roxy peered in the side of my glasses again until Joy smacked her arm and told her to behave. “It’s unusual, Allie, but not unnerving. Don’t feel like you have to hide your eyes from us.”

“So what’s a Summoner?” Roxy changed the subject abruptly as the waitress brought our drinks and Joy’s food.

I chewed on my lip for a moment. Something was bothering me; some vague sense of unease was growing. I took a long look at the two women next to me, but the feeling wasn’t coming from them.

“A Summoner has the power to talk to ghosts.” I turned my head to scan the people in the espresso area, my gaze moving beyond to the line of people visible waiting for Dante to sign their books. The line was smaller now, just twenty or so people left, but something nagged at me, pulled at my mind as if I were missing something important.

“Cool!” Roxy breathed. “And you’re one? You can talk to ghosts? Do you use a Ouija board or something?”

“Wait a minute,” Joy said, her brow furrowed as she tapped out a tattoo on the tabletop. “I think I read something about that in one of Christian’s books … isn’t a Summoner someone who can raise the dead?”

I gave the line one last worried look, then turned back to shake my head at Joy. “Not really, no. We can only call those spirits who are already present, tied to a location, not ones who have passed on to another existence. But once we call them, they stay bound to us until we release them. Summoners are used primarily in cases of hauntings that trouble the living, poltergeists and the like. The spirit is Summoned, then Released to move on to where they were meant to go.”

“We? So you’re a Summoner?” Roxy asked, her eyes big.

I nodded.

“Wow. Can anyone do it? I mean, is it a matter of just a few magic words and voilà, you got yourself the ghost of Great-Grandpa Joe?”

“Don’t be so flippant, Roxy; this is a serious matter. If Allie is Christian’s—” She stopped and gave me a toothy smile. “Well, regardless, I’m sure she is uniquely qualified to do what she’s doing.”

“Oh.” Roxy eyed me. “Yeah. I see what you mean.”

“I don’t,” I replied, looking from her to Joy. “I take it Christian is C. J. Dante?”

Both nodded at me.

“Would either of you happen to know if he’s riddled with at least a hundred cuts on his torso, arms, and legs?”

As if they were in unison, both their mouths dropped open in surprise.

I sighed. “I’ll take that as a no. Right. So what does Christian have to do with me, other than—” It was my turn to stop in the middle of sentence.

“Other than what?” Roxy asked, just as I knew she
would. “Have you met him before? He never told us he met you, and I think he would, don’t you, Joy?”

“Yes,” she said, her dark eyes considering me as she munched on a lemon muffin. She licked crumbs from her lips and glanced at Roxy. “Christian is a very dear friend of ours. We promised last year to help him find … someone.”

“Someone? Like a blind date?”

Roxy snorted.

“Not quite,” Joy said, popping another piece of muffin in her mouth.

I didn’t believe her. She was trying to match Christian up with someone; I could feel her concern about him. Still, that had nothing to do with me, nothing unless it turned out he really was in that inn last night, and then I had a few questions for him, questions like what on earth he was doing cutting himself up like that, and who were the people he was waiting for, and how did he get rid of everything so quickly without me seeing him…. Suddenly the word
vampire
echoed in my head. I blinked. “He’s a vampire?”

“Shhh!” both women shushed me, looking around to see if anyone was within hearing distance. Only one person was, and I unguarded my mind a moment to see if she believed what she heard. She didn’t.

“You’re kidding, right? I realize that he’s a bit … well … intense, but a you-know-what?” They both looked back at me with serious, unblinking eyes. I shook my head, glancing again at the line before turning back to the two women next to me. “Ladies, the world of the supernatural is my business. I’m a Summoner; I work for an international organization that investigates paranormal activities in an attempt to prove and explain them. I know about ghosts, poltergeists, demons, both minor and major—”

“Demons?” Roxy asked. “You mean there are really
such things as demons? Holy cow!” She turned to her friend. “Bet you five bucks our ninth grade algebra teacher was a demon.”

Joy ignored the interruption. So did I. The feeling of doom was growing, creeping up on me, making me restless with the need to be doing something. I gnawed my lip for a moment, scanning everyone left in the book line, but without unguarding myself—something I didn’t want to do with Christian sitting over there thinking who knew what—I couldn’t pinpoint the source of my concern. I took a deep breath and returned to what I was saying. “I know witches and wizards, have sat in a Wiccan circle, and seen things that would make most people pee their pants.”

“So’ve we,” Roxy said with a grin. Joy frowned at her.

“But I’ve never, ever seen a vampire. Nor have I ever heard of anyone mention seeing one. There are just some things like were-whatevers and vampires and the Loch Ness Monster that have more basis in myth than reality. I realize your friend is a bit unusual, and heaven only knows what he’s told you, but I can assure you that he’s not …”

The skin on my back tightened uncomfortably as my head was flooded with strong emotion. I jumped up from the table and ran toward the line of people, my leg stiff and sore and slowing me down so I didn’t think I was going to make it in time. I saw the gun even before Christian did, and shouted out a warning. The bookstore employee standing next to the customer grabbed her, turning her so that the gun was pointed away from Christian … directly at me.

I tried to make my body move sideways down one of the aisles, tried to stop my headlong rush right at the madwoman who had intended to shoot Christian, but I
was too slow. Her finger tightened on the trigger even as the bookstore employee struggled with her. Just before the bullet exploded through me, there was a rush of air, and suddenly I was lying on my back in an aisle between two rows of bookshelves, my breath knocked out by the heavy body lying on top of me. I blinked and stared up into the eyes peering down at me.

“You have mismatched eyes,” Christian said, almost against my lips. “You have the Sight.”

I was suddenly filled with the overwhelming desire to tip my chin up enough to taste his mouth, but instead I pulled a hand free and felt my face. My glasses had been knocked off when I was pushed aside.

“How did you do that?” I asked, extremely aware of his body resting against mine. His hair had come loose from its ponytail, flowing around our heads like a silken curtain. “How did you move faster than a bullet? Your name isn’t really Clark Kent, is it?”

He frowned. All sorts of spots on my body started tingling, especially the parts of me that were pressed against parts of him. “I believe a better question is how long you knew that woman was intending to shoot me?”

“Oh, my God, are you two all right?” It was Joy, standing at our feet.

“Are you implying I had something to do with that?” I ignored her question to ask him. “Because if you are, you can just think again. In case you’ve forgotten, I tried to help you.”

His eyes narrowed. “The store manager would have noticed the woman in time, even without you yelling in such a very convenient manner.”

“Christian? Allie? Are either of you hurt?”

“Oh! I like that! I go out of my way to save you—twice—and you act like it’s all my fault. What an ingrate!”

“Twice? Ingrate?” His breath fanned out over my face, combining with that smooth voice to drive me nigh on mad with the desire to grab his head and kiss him despite the horrible things his delectable lips were uttering.

“You seem to be talking, so I’m going to assume you’re both all right, but really, Christian, it might be better if you were to help Allie up. There’s a bit of a crowd gathering.”

“Twice,” I said with emphasis, ignoring the fires starting all over my body at his touch. “The first time was last night, when you were bleeding all over the place, making me think you were a ghost.”

“I never made you think—”

“Are they okay? What are they doing? Why is Christian lying on Allie?”