Colin shook his head then returned his attention to the ESPN announcers as they commented on the latest Knicks game with the Magic. “Oh, nasty!” he said when they showed a replay of a particularly awesome dunk by the Knicks’ newest player, Deangelo Bruce. “Damn, did you see that? Pretty good for a human.”
The professional sports world was just now getting back on its wobbly feet after the dying from the Bokor virus had ended, though all of its games had to be played early in the day on the weekends, when people could actually attend. It made for fewer games and a shorter season, but at least it was another step toward humanity returning to normal. A new normal necessitated by the fact that vampires roamed the night.
Campbell was usually right there watching with Colin, making outrageous bets, but tonight all he could think about was Olivia. He’d always loved that name, and it suited her. When he’d seen her again after feeding, this time without the red haze of bloodlust half blinding him, the sight of her had stunned him. He’d thought she was beautiful, but he hadn’t been prepared for just how gorgeous she was.
Wide blue eyes. Wavy blond hair that seemed infused with the sun he’d never see again. A body that was made to be held by a man’s hands, that could give his body endless pleasure. And though he might no longer have a heartbeat, some things hadn’t changed from when he did. His hands itched with the desire to explore all those luscious curves and that soft flesh. Her scent she’d left behind on his jacket revealed she smelled like flowers, a deliciously feminine scent. His mouth watered with the need to taste her—not her blood but her skin.
Campbell shook his head and sank into his chair to hide what fantasies of her were doing to his body. He picked up the reports from the Bronx and Queens to give them a closer look. The typical harassment crap perpetrated by pond-scum vamps, real pain-in-the-ass stuff. One vamp dispatched to the great nothingness beyond for killing a woman forced outside because her home was on fire. An all-vamp melee outside one of the Bronx blood banks when the blood supply started running low.
The Caribbean was looking good right about now.
Colin clicked off the TV and sauntered over. “Team 2 found a vamp close to turning a homeless guy. They gave him a good beating to get the message across. Too bad we couldn’t stake the bastard, but the guy he was feeding on will recover.”
“Good. Last thing we need is another hungry vampire roaming the city.” Not for the first time, Campbell wished he could roll back time. And if he couldn’t recapture his human life, he’d at least like to go back to before the pandemic, to when there had been enough humans and enough blood to go around. To when vampires had just been fiction to most of the world.
Travis strode into the living area from his own room, one of several personal living spaces located along the sides of the main living-and-work area. “I might have something worse than one more vamp looking for a vein.”
“I’m afraid to ask,” Campbell said as he leaned back in his leather chair and propped his booted feet on the corner of the desk. He rubbed his temples, wishing he still had the luxury of sinking into the blessed oblivion of sleep.
“I’ve been tracking some online chatter, and it’s looking as if the black market has some new recruits.”
“That’s nothing new,” Colin said.
“It is when those recruits are human.”
Colin swore. Campbell agreed with every air-scorching word.
“Are you sure?” Campbell asked.
“Almost certain. I hacked into a couple of phone calls that were suspicious. And I talked to Mickey over in Jersey, and he’s been hearing rumblings of the same thing.”
Colin cursed again. “So the night isn’t enough for them anymore? They have to stake their claim on the daylight, too. Greedy bastards.”
Campbell sat in silence. When he’d attacked Olivia, he’d thought that would be the worst moment of his week. He’d been wrong. This was so much worse. Huge.
They all looked at each other, the awful truth of what this meant sinking in and landing with a cold, awful thud.
Even the daylight wouldn’t be safe for humans anymore.
Campbell’s gut squeezed.
Olivia wasn’t safe.
Travis’s phone beeped with a text. After reading it, he slipped into his desk chair and started typing on his computer keyboard. A feeling of unexplained dread came over Campbell.
Travis turned in his chair and tapped the computer screen. “It just got even worse.”
“How can it be worse than humans working for Soulless vamps?” Colin asked.
“When they have a kidnap list.” Travis met Campbell’s gaze. “And Olivia DaCosta’s on it.”
* * *
After Campbell left at dawn, Olivia continued staring out the window, still unable to process everything he’d told her. It had to be a trick, some ploy that would lead to her demise. Part of her mind kept asking what had gotten into her, why she’d spent the wee hours talking to a vampire. And not just any vampire, but the one who’d come within a moment of killing her. Dead, gone, forever.
But another part, what Mindy would call her softy tendency, had wanted to talk to him, had seen beyond the beast to the man he’d once been. The man who still seemed to reside, at least partially, inside the vampire. She shook her head to try to knock loose her common sense. Why was she having such a hard time remembering he was a killer? Wasn’t he?
She leaned her head back against the wall, wishing she could just go back to the way she’d thought the past two years. That vampires were animals, that nothing of the people they’d been remained. That belief was simpler, with no complications. Maybe it was too much to wish anything was that black-and-white, no matter how much she wanted it to be.
She’d lost track of how long she’d talked to Campbell, but her brain was still whirling with questions. What had his life been like before his turning? She knew he’d been a cop, but what had he done in his spare time? Did he have a family? Had he been married? She squirmed with discomfort over how much the thought of him having a wife out there somewhere bothered her.
She shook her head again, halfway convinced she’d lost her sanity somewhere in the course of the past couple of days. Maybe the shock of a vampire attack had scared her more than she realized. Was this some sort of weird post-traumatic stress? Stockholm syndrome?
In an effort to push away the crazy thought that she could be attracted to a vampire of all things, she shifted her legs off the window seat to the floor. Though she dreaded the thought of another day on her feet, she had no choice. But when she stood, pain shot up her leg. She squeezed her eyes against tears as she realized her ankle hurt worse than the day before. When she lifted her pajama leg, she saw how swollen her ankle was.
“Great,” she muttered, then hobbled toward the shower. Through sheer force of will she managed to get showered, dressed and down the stairs. After retrieving her cell phone from where Campbell had left it outside the front door, she collapsed onto a stool in the kitchen. She was still sitting there recuperating when Mindy arrived.
“What’s wrong?” Mindy asked as she came to stand in front of Olivia.
“My ankle is killing me.” She lifted her pant leg.
“Well, no wonder. It looks like a melon. You need to be off that foot.”
“Not really an option.”
Mindy pulled out her mutinous look.
“You’re going to run the diner all by yourself?” Olivia asked.
“It’s possible.”
Olivia rolled her eyes. “I’ll sit while I’m at the grill, okay?”
“And keep the foot elevated and iced.”
Olivia gave her best friend a crisp salute.
While Mindy prepped an ice pack, Olivia dragged the stool to the grill and started the morning prep. Mindy placed a chair next to the stool for Olivia’s leg and taped the ice pack around Olivia’s ankle.
“Damn, that’s cold,” Olivia said.
“Thus the name ice pack.”
“Smartass.”
