Sleeping With the Entity (3 page)

“Anything strange about her?”

“Aside from the baking-tin thing, she always wins at Scrabble. I think she cheats even though she says she doesn’t.”

“Besides that?”

“She has a kick-ass memory. Almost as good as that actress who used to be on the TV show
Taxi.
”

“What else?”

“Sometimes she knows what you’re going to say before you say it.”

“She has ESP?”

“I guess. She’s no good at guessing Lotto ticket numbers or winning horses at the track, though.”

Nick knew that Gordon had a gambling problem and had racked up debts, which made him an easy mark for working outside the legalities and regulations involved with running a funeral home. Even if he did sometimes wonder about things, he never asked questions, and that wasn’t entirely due to his being compelled. It also was due to the fact that he didn’t want to know because money was coming in. He didn’t want to rock the boat even if he didn’t know exactly what kind of boat it was. It was a lucrative one, and that’s all that mattered.

If Daniella really did have telepathic abilities, Nick was willing to bet that she wouldn’t help her brother further his gambling addiction. The fact that she didn’t accurately predict the numbers or the horse names didn’t mean she couldn’t do it. It could mean she
wouldn’t
do it.

“That’s all for now,” Nick said. “You will not remember this conversation at all, Gordon. You won’t remember me asking about your sister. Do you understand?”

Gordon nodded, blinked, and then said, “We are fully booked for funerals all this week. Business is booming.”

“I’m happy for you.” A successful mortuary was the lifeblood of the vamps in Vamptown. There were other vampire clusters in the city that had their own ways of obtaining blood. Some had an “in” at the blood bank or a hospital. Others had darker ways of satisfying their hunger.

Mind compulsion kept Gordon and his talented embalmer Phil Phelps in line. Nick didn’t need to know all the gory details. He left that to Doc Boomer, who assured everyone that there was no mixing of embalming fluids with the blood drainage. If that meant an adjustment in procedures, so be it. Vamptown had been flourishing lately, having successfully dealt with two of the most challenging aspects of life as a vampire—blood and daylight.

Daniella had the potential to put all that at risk. Nick needed to figure out what made her different, and he needed to do it fast.

*   *   *

Daniella stared at her surroundings with equal parts delight and dismay. The Heavenly Cupcakes grand opening was only ten days away. There was no way she’d be ready in time, was there?

“Stay calm,” she ordered herself. Saying the words out loud made her feel better somehow.

Turning on her iPad, she chose “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” from her music files. As the cheerful
Spamalot
song filled the space, she reminded herself of the things that had gone right. For one thing, her father owned the building, which featured an empty storefront and a one-bedroom apartment upstairs, and was letting her have it rent-free for one year. He also allowed her to remodel the dingy space and even recommended a great contractor.

She’d kept the art deco architectural details, like the decorative moldings, from the 1920s when this building and most on the rest of the block had been built. She’d brightened the walls with subtle blush-pink paint and added black-framed prints of angels she’d collected over the years. The combination of the dramatic black against the pale pink provided a feeling of both class and welcoming warmth. She could have gone for the more traditional look of hot pink and black from the 1950s diner era but had preferred this more restrained ambience.

Daniella had transformed the back into a dream bakery with a huge stainless worktable, an industrial-sized oven, a commercial fridge and freezer, and a pantry with carefully labeled storage bins for the dry goods like flour and sugar. Her pink KitchenAid handheld mixer and huge mixing bowls were stored on wire racks.

The
Spamalot
song repeated. Now that she thought about it, her shop wasn’t in dire straits after all. Yes, the pair of cupcake wrought-iron wall sconce light fixtures still had to be installed, but that should be done by tomorrow. And yes, the glass display cases for her trays of cupcakes were the wrong size and had to be sent back, but the vendor assured her the correct ones would be delivered tomorrow. Meanwhile, she really needed to focus on hiring some part-time help. She’d been trying for the past month without much success. Without
any
success, really.

Lost in thought, Daniella sat at one of the marble-topped tables facing the window while she scanned the list on her iPad. It vaguely seeped into her consciousness that the light was diminishing outside as darkness fell. She glanced out the window and saw a lone figure standing on the sidewalk. The hair on the back of her neck stood up. Someone was watching her. She couldn’t see their face in the shadows, but she felt their presence.

She raced to the security system panel and punched in a series of numbers, hoping she was hitting the right buttons. Putting her hand on the front doorknob, she felt it turn. Her heart raced. The door opened, and she faced her stalker.

Chapter Three

“I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist,” Daniella said with a big smile. “Come in!” Daniella pulled Nick into her shop before he could protest. He was looking at her rather strangely. Was that suspicion she saw reflected in his stormy gray eyes, or something else?

“I wouldn’t be able to resist? Explain,” he said curtly.

“Seeing my store. It was the flyer I left for you, wasn’t it? The one with the drawings of what I planned to do with the store. You had to see the finished product yourself. Not that the renovation is completely finished yet, obviously.” She waved her hand at the sawhorses reserving the area where the glass display cases would be. “But the space has great bones.”

Daniella cheerfully chose to ignore the way Nick was glaring at her as if he wanted to break a few of her bones and continued. “I admit the place doesn’t have the gorgeous examples of art deco that other buildings like Chicago’s Board of Trade has, but I like to think that it’s special in its own charming way.”

“No moose heads or plastic mackerels for you, right?”

“Right.”

Nick stared deep into her eyes. “You don’t want to open your store here.” He was using what she’d labeled his hypnotic voice.

She widened her eyes and stared right back at him. “Why do you keep saying that?” she said in exasperation. “Of course I want to open my store here. Duh. That’s why I renovated the space.”

“Duh?” He appeared somewhat at a loss at her response.

“Yeah, duh. Look at that crown molding. Isn’t that cool? The brick buildings all along this block were built in the 1920s. That was an exciting time. The Roaring Twenties with flappers dancing the Charleston and men bootlegging alcohol during Prohibition.”

“How do
you
know it was exciting?” His suspicious look was back.

“I can read. And I like reading about history. Do you?”

“Do I what?” he said.

“Like history? Like the 1920s?”

“Sure. It’s almost as if I’ve lived through it,” he said drily.

She nodded. “I know.”

“You do?”

“Yes. I mean if these walls could only talk. Well, maybe not these
exact
walls, since we had to put in new wallboard and remove what was here before. The space has been empty for a while.”

“I know.”

“As the head of the local business association, I’d think you’d be happy to see it being utilized.” She tilted her head to study him a moment. “Unless you’re afraid that I’m going to ‘girlie’ up the block by adding my classy shop? I mean, you’ve got a bar next to a tattoo parlor next to a dental clinic.”

“My point exactly. Not really the clientele you’d be wanting.”

“My father owns this building and he’s giving it to me rent-free for a year. I can’t afford to go anywhere else.”

“You can’t afford to stay here, either,” he muttered. Or was it a growl?

“My dad tells me this isn’t a high crime area,” she said.

The corner of Nick’s mouth lifted slightly in what was probably his version of a smile. “You could say we’ve taken a bite out of crime.”

“Well, that’s a good thing, right? Even so, I have a serious security system installed.” She pointed to the panel on the wall.

“No security system is infallible.”

“This one is pretty darn close,” she said. “Or so the sales rep assured me. Why? Do you know about security systems? Have you heard something bad about this one?”

Daniella didn’t even realize she’d reached out to touch Nick’s arm until her fingers started humming. Her hand was on his arm where he’d rolled up the sleeves of his black shirt. Her bare skin was on his bare skin, and the result was startling. If she had an internal security system, it would be blaring alarms and flashing lights.

As far as first touches went, this one was incredibly intense and powerful. Her eyes lifted from her hand to his face. Was he feeling it, too?

His eyes darkened as he stared at her as if trying to reach the innermost workings of her mind. She felt drawn to him. He moved closer.

Fearing her heart might jump out of her chest, she stepped back. Okay, she obviously didn’t really think her heart would literally do something like that, but her entire body felt strange. She’d never experienced this before. She didn’t even know how to label or describe it.

Maybe she was coming down with something? Not that she had time to get sick. Maybe it was just exhaustion and excitement? Yes, she was going to go with that explanation. It beat the chance that she was attracted to Nick.

“What does your ESP tell you about opening your store?” he asked her.

“My what?”

“Your ESP. Your brother mentioned something about you having a talent in that area.”

“When did you speak to my brother?”

Nick shrugged.

She wasn’t about to let him off the hook. He couldn’t bring up a subject like that without her following up. “That’s not an answer.”

“Naturally, as fellow business owners, Gordon and I talk from time to time.”

“About me?”

“Your name may have come up briefly in one of our conversations,” he said.

“I don’t have ESP,” she said.

“You don’t get feelings about certain things?”

“I definitely have the feeling that you didn’t come here to look at the things I’m planning for this space. You came here to try to talk me out of opening my shop again.”

The corner of his mouth lifted. “So you do have ESP.”

“Oh please. A two-year-old could figure it out.”

“Figure what out?”

“That you don’t approve of me,” she said. “No big deal. I’m not sure I approve of you, either.”

“Why not?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” she said sarcastically. “Maybe the fact that you’ve been so outspoken in your disapproval of me.”

“Not you.”

“Right. Not me. Just my store’s location,” she said.

“It’s not personal. It’s business.”

“Yeah, for you and Donald Trump maybe. But for me, my shop is
very
personal. I’ve thought through every little detail. For example, I looked through dozens and dozens of cherub designs before picking this one for my logo for Heavenly Cupcakes.” She held up one of the flyers for her grand opening.

Nick was not impressed. “It looks like a fat baby who has eaten too many cupcakes.”

She was as upset as if he’d insulted her own child. “It does not!”

“It does to me.”

“Which just goes to show what you know,” she muttered. “You’re clearly no expert regarding angels.”

“You’ve got that right.”

She doubted Nick had an angelic bone in his body. “Well, I’m happy with the way my logo looks. I spent weeks selecting the font. I love the way I’ve decorated my shop with some art deco touches. Chicago is one of the most art-deco-influenced cities in the world. I can’t believe you’re not interested in highlighting those aspects in your own building.”

“Believe it,” he said curtly.

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re a real Debbie Downer?”

“No.”

“Well, maybe the correct term would be Donnie Downer since you’re not a female.”

“I’m having a hard time keeping up with your scatterbrained conversation.”

“Scatterbrained?” She put her hands on her hips. “Who are you calling a scatterbrain?”

“You. Obviously.” He frowned at her as if she were a few cupcakes short of a dozen before adding, “Duh.”

She cracked up.

His frown deepened. “What’s so funny?”

“You are.” She grinned at him. “There was just something about the way you said duh.”

“I don’t appreciate being laughed at,” he said coldly.

“And I don’t appreciate being called a scatterbrain, so I guess we’re even.”

“We’ll never be even,” he said.

“Why not? Because you’re a man and I’m a woman?”

Because I’m a vamp and you’re not
. The words were on the tip of Nick’s tongue, but he held them back. This was another first for him. He’d never been the least bit tempted to reveal his secret before. Yet here he was with her, on the verge of doing something stupid.

Was she some sort of witch whose touch melted his brain and sent his undead body into overdrive? She’d put her hand on his arm and gotten to him with a simple touch. He refused to acknowledge that she might have rattled him. He refused to give her that power. But he knew he’d hidden his reaction well.

She appeared rattled by the physical contact as well. Good. That meant he could get to her. Nick took that discovery with him as he abruptly made his departure. He’d sensed her rapid heartbeat in a way that made him hunger for her. Next time he approached her, he’d be better prepared … and fed.

*   *   *

Daniella began the next morning with her plan to win over the neighboring businesses. She wasn’t going to waste her time trying to convince Nick any longer. Instead she’d go directly to the other entrepreneurs on her block. Nick’s abrupt exit last night was a clear indication that the man had no intention of siding with her. He also had no manners.