Out of the Night

her brain with chips, dip and snack cakes—enough salt and sugar to freak out every cardiologist in Manhattan.

“I’ll be out in a minute.”

When she heard Mindy walk away from the door, Olivia sank back into the cooling water for a moment to let the rest of her scrambled thoughts sort themselves out between reality and dream. And then between the parts of the dream she liked and the part that was pure terror. Maybe it was her subconscious reminding her that no matter how nice Campbell seemed, no matter how attractive, he was still basically a killing machine.

But that kiss. She had no idea if that was how it would really feel, but it made for a mighty fine dream kiss. She lifted her hand out of the water and touched her lips, realized just how much she missed being held, being made to feel desirable and loved.

“Oh, Jeremy,” she whispered. “Why did you have to leave me?”

She pushed thoughts of Jeremy and Campbell away as she got out of the tub, toweled off and put on her most comfortable cotton pajamas. If the bath didn’t set her troubled mind at ease, maybe a night of TV and junk food would do the trick. She walked out to find Mindy had baked a sausage pizza and some mozzarella cheese sticks, held a bag of barbecue potato chips in her hands and by the smell of things had a pan of brownies in the oven.

“How long was I in there?” Olivia asked.

Mindy shrugged. “Awhile.”

Olivia swiped a slice of pizza and a soda and headed for the couch. The buzzer went off on the stove, sending Mindy toward the kitchen to retrieve the brownies.

“Turn on something,” Mindy said. “It’s too damn quiet in here.”

Olivia flipped channels until she found Leap Year just starting, then sat back to enjoy her pizza. It was so good to have something escapist to watch again instead of the nonstop news coverage during the virus outbreak and the revelation of the vampire threat. Worse had been when so many media people died that TV broadcasts were intermittent. Gradually, on-air time had returned to a normal schedule with something other than all gloom all the time.

Mindy slid the pan of wonderful-smelling brownies onto the coffee table and sat down with her own plate of pizza.

They ate in what could only be called a tense silence. Olivia cursed herself for revealing anything about Campbell and ruining the friendly ease between her and Mindy.

“You didn’t have to babysit me tonight,” Olivia said.

“You’re in danger and already injured. Of course I had to stay.”

“Had to?”

“You know what I mean.”

Olivia was afraid she did. She’d committed the one unforgivable sin—thinking anything remotely positive about a vampire.

Mindy motioned toward Olivia’s ankle. “How’s it feeling?”

“Better.”

They fell into silence again and watched some more of the movie. Olivia set her plate on the coffee table, her appetite gone. She stopped paying attention to the movie even though it was one of her favorites. Instead she started thinking about how to protect herself against the latest threat. “Min, when my ankle heals, will you teach me self-defense?”

Mindy had taken karate, Tae Kwon Do, kickboxing and who knew how many other classes meant to ensure she was never an easy target. She nodded. “Good idea, on one condition.”

“What?”

Mindy turned toward her and met her gaze. “You promise me you’ll never talk to this vampire again.”

Olivia hesitated a moment but realized this was for the best—for her relationship with her best friend, not to mention her own safety and sanity. She nodded. “I promise.” Why did those words feel wrong?

“One other thing.”

“What?”

“Find someone to date, someone with a heartbeat.”

Olivia shook her head. “I’m too busy for a relationship. I have the restaurant to run, and I’ve got to figure out a way to start delivering meals again.”

“If you’ve got time to talk to a vampire on the phone, you’ve got time for a relationship.”

“I don’t think I’m ready.”

“It’s been two years. You know I loved Jeremy, but he’s gone. And if the past few years have taught us anything, it’s that we don’t know how much time we have.”

“We never knew that.”

“No, but doesn’t the distant possibility of heart disease or being hit by a crazy-ass cabdriver seem so minor now compared to global pandemics and vampires?”

She had a very good point. Still, it was a huge step to move from being in mourning to trying to find romantic happiness again. She wasn’t sure she was ready or able to take it.

“Well, I obviously have time to think about it with no viable prospects on the horizon. And what about you? I don’t see you pairing up.”

“Oh, honey, I’ve been looking. Just haven’t found the right guy yet.”

“And what would Mr. Right look like to you?”

“I’ll know when I see him.” Mindy sounded surprisingly serious in her answer.

The phone rang, startling Olivia and causing Mindy’s jaw to tense. Olivia forced herself not to say anything as Mindy answered.

“No. This is Mindy, her best friend. Who is this?”

Olivia knew it was Campbell even without hearing his voice.

“She doesn’t want to talk to you, so don’t ever call back. And if you show up here, I will find a way to stake your ass deader than dead.” Mindy slammed down the phone. “There, that takes care of your vampire-caller problem.”

Olivia forced herself to nod and return her attention to the movie. She tried not to focus on how much she wanted to call Campbell back and apologize. This was for the best. Then why didn’t it feel like it?

Chapter 8

To cover more ground and to make the most of the night hours at their disposal, Campbell and his team split up. Sophia, Billy, Len and Colin worked on getting more information on Jennifer Watson and beating the streets for anything else about humans working for vampires. Kaja, Travis and he headed for Dan’s Carpets. He needed the work to occupy his mind so he’d stop thinking about how Olivia didn’t want to talk to him. Hell, it shouldn’t be a surprise. Just showed she had more sense than he did.

No surprise, Dan’s Carpets was closed up tight for the night, but there was no sign of any human captives on the property.

“This not being able to break down doors and have a look around sure makes things difficult,” Kaja said.

Travis laughed.

“What?”

“Sorry. It’s just funny thinking of a skinny little model kicking down doors.”

“Models are tougher than you think. They have to be. Didn’t you see Kill Bill?”

Travis retreated into his laptop as Campbell pulled out of the parking lot and headed for Little Italy. After a lot of key punching, Travis cursed.

“That doesn’t sound like good news,” Kaja said from where she was touching up her fingernail polish in the back of the truck.

“Looks as if the delivery van used to kidnap Jennifer Watson had been reported stolen two days