Daysider

“Chloe, get me Garner. And then find me everything you can on the murders over on Duchesne Street and the victims.”

Chloe’s voice responded sarcastically. “Sure, boss. Will next week do?”

Jude punched off the intercom without responding. Apparently he was used to attitude from his assistant. He returned his attention to Caro.

“This thing you feel. Is it threatening? Is it getting stronger?”

“It’s certainly not fading,” she said finally. “I’ve been trying to ignore it, but I’m not succeeding.”

“And you first noticed it when you saw the man killed?”

She nodded. “It was almost as if some invisible eyes suddenly settled on me. Like a shift in the atmosphere. And once it fixed on me, it hasn’t gone away.” She sighed. “This is so hard to explain!”

“You’re doing just fine,” Jude said. “But you’re not sure it’s getting stronger?”

“It’s strong enough,” she retorted tartly. “Maybe it is intensifying. Thickening would be a good word. But I’m not really certain. Maybe it’s just eating away at me, this feeling of being watched all the time.”

“All right. I’d like you to stay here for a while if you can. I have someone coming who can...sense this thing, for lack of a better word. He might be able to tell us something.”

Considering her own psychic abilities, she had no trouble swallowing that line. But she was beginning to feel a bit amazed to have fallen in with people who seemed to accept these things.

How rare was that?

“I can stay for a while.”

“Good. Chloe can make you coffee or tea, and if you’re hungry, she can order you something to eat. In the meantime, just like you cops, we’re going to gather every bit of information we can.”

She hesitated, biting her lip. “I’m not sure I can afford you,” she admitted. Maybe she should have thought of that before coming here, but now there was no escaping it.

Before they went any further, she had to know how much of a hole this was going to place in her budget.

“Don’t let it concern you,” Jude said pleasantly. “I owe Pat a few favors. Let’s just call this one of them. She did send you here, after all.”

She couldn’t argue with that, because Pat must have had those favors on her mind. She knew what Caro made and wouldn’t have made a recommendation Caro couldn’t afford.

“Thank you.”

Jude waved her thanks away. “I’m glad to help.”

For the first time, Damien entered the conversation. His voice utterly lacked an accent, which surprised her in someone who came from Germany. Only reluctantly did she look at him again, but there was nothing hungry in the way he looked at her now. So she must have imagined it, right?

“Will you feel safe going home alone later?” he asked.

Good question. “I’ve been going home alone since it started.” And that was not much of an answer, even to her own ears. As a cop, she knew evasion when she heard it, even if it was her own.

“We’ll talk more about that later,” Jude said. Rising, he ushered her to his outer office.

“Chloe? Beverage, food, whatever Sergeant Hamilton would like.”

“Sure,” Chloe said. “I’ll just add it to the heap you just dumped on my desk.”

Jude just shook his head, sighed and disappeared back into his inner office, closing the door behind him.

“I can look after myself,” Caro said, trying not to sound irritable.

Chloe laughed. “That was for his benefit. I live to give him a hard time. I’m hungry, too, anyway. So let me pull out the delivery menus.”

* * *

Damien Keller was relieved when the door at last closed behind Caro Hamilton. He noticed all the things about her that an ordinary man would notice: her lithe but generous figure, her rich dark hair that might have been spun from the finest dark chocolate, her bright gray eyes. He even noticed the mantle of authority she wore despite her uncertainty. He liked strong, self-confident women.

But he was also a vampire and he noticed a great deal more: the scent of her blood, the beat of her pulse, the aromas that perfumed the air as her moods changed. Whether she knew it or not, would admit it or not, Caro was frightened.

That fear called to him as strongly as the richness of her blood or the throb of her heart. It added to the Hunger that had been born in him the instant he had been changed.

That Hunger was an almost irresistible pull, calling to him the way water called to a man after days in a desert. Compulsion. Need. Thirst.

With Caro, the compulsion was stronger than anytime in recent memory. It clouded his thoughts, preventing him from wondering why he Hungered so strongly for her.

He had long since learned to control it, but he didn’t like having to do so. Restless now with needs he could not assuage, he paced Jude’s inner office while Jude worked on his computer.

The winter nights were shortening. He had come here intending to stay only a short while, intending to return to Cologne the instant the rogue vampires had been eliminated.

They had been eliminated several months ago, and now his window of opportunity was shrinking.

He needed to get back home to where there were women who would gladly slake his Hunger and count themselves lucky. Caro had reminded him of the power of that need, and he yearned for those easy delights, delights which he had been denying himself ever since he had come to aid Jude.

Because Jude did not approve. Because Jude felt as if he must protect weakling humans.

Damien didn’t despise humans. He found them quite enjoyable in so many ways. They had gifts to offer he could find nowhere else. But he’d been here too long if one single woman could cause a reaction like this in him.

He wanted her. He wanted her entirely too much, yet she had barely crossed his path.

Already his mind was imagining ways he could take her to that paradise known only to vampires and their human lovers. But Jude would be furious, and as a guest in Jude’s city, he didn’t want to misbehave. Certain courtesies overruled need, or they would all become the monsters they were entirely capable of being.

“Damien?”

He turned toward Jude and saw wisdom looking back at him from golden eyes so like his own. “She got to you.”

“It’s been a while,” he said frankly.

Jude laughed shortly. “I remember what it’s like.”

But of course, Jude had wed a human. Worse, he’d claimed her, making the human his mate in a way that no vampire could escape except through his own death. Damien had always counted himself fortunate never to have tasted that particular obsession, and Jude’s current happiness gave him no cause to change his mind. Claiming had always struck him as insane.

“I’m thinking it’s time to return to Cologne.”

Jude cocked his head. “Missing your harem?”

Damien snorted. “They are not that at all. Just a handful with whom I share delightful moments of passion.”

“Food,” Jude said bluntly.

“They are that, too,” Damien agreed. “Contented food.” Unlike some others of his kind, he had absolutely no qualms about what he was: a predator who hunted with sex as his lure. It wasn’t as if he killed his lovely little humans.

“Well, if you must, go.” Jude shrugged. “I’ve enjoyed your company. So has Terri.

She likes your stories. I’ll get Creed to help me with this case. Or Luc.”

Damien hesitated. There was still that delightful morsel in the next room, and she had awakened him as he had not felt awakened in a very long time. A mystery, one which he thought he might enjoy solving. And perhaps, as was always possible, she might come to him freely enough that Jude would not object.