“I’ll be back in an hour,” he said without looking back at the rest of the team. He headed straight for Hell’s Kitchen and the Comfort Food Diner. The team could think what they wanted, but he needed to know Olivia was safe, see it with his own eyes.
The hardest part would be not caving in to the need to talk to her. Because if he started, he didn’t know if he could walk away. And he had work to do, work that would hopefully keep her and the rest of Manhattan’s human population safe from the very ugly side of his species.
* * *
It took a lot of effort, but Olivia finally got Mindy to go home. Once she was alone, however, she started jumping at every little sound, things that she wouldn’t have even noticed before. After rubbing the muscles she’d put through the ringer that afternoon with karate lessons in the diner’s kitchen, she tried to watch TV. But she kept worrying that the noise of it would prevent her from hearing if an intruder was climbing the stairs from the restaurant below. Seeing the report that Leila Russell had been abducted didn’t help.
“Dang it, DaCosta, stop driving yourself batty.”
Reading didn’t help with her anxiety, so she headed downstairs to check the door locks for what must have been the hundredth time. With that completed, she went to the diner’s fridge and stared at the contents. Lots of leftovers.
Needing to reclaim a semblance of power over her own life, she started pulling out pork loin and mashed potatoes, three-bean salad and chocolate pudding. Maybe assembling a few meals to take to Central Park the next day would settle her nerves.
It did feel good to think she could venture out and help people again. If she left Mindy in charge of the restaurant during the morning lull, she could either walk to the park or take a cab. She couldn’t afford to do the latter every day, but one day of feeding the hungry was better than none.
In the middle of scooping potatoes onto several paper plates, a chill skittered over Olivia’s skin. She got the distinct impression that someone was watching her. She spun with the serving spoon in her hand, as if that would do her any good as a weapon. As she moved slowly toward the butcher block, she scanned the darkness outside the front windows but saw nothing. But there was someone out there. She was as certain of that as she was her own name.
Her cell phone buzzed in her pocket, making her yelp and drop the potato-covered spoon on the floor. It slid far back underneath the metal prep table, but it was just going to have to stay there until morning. When she checked the display on her phone, she recognized Campbell’s number.
“Please tell me you’re outside,” she said when she answered after the third ring.
“Well, I have to say I’ve never heard that from a human before,” he said.
“Are you?”
“Yes. Are you okay?”
She let out a long breath. “You scared me half to death.”
“By calling you?”
“No. I felt someone watching me, and my hyped-up imagination was not being kind to me.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you.”
As she watched out the front window, Campbell stepped into view, though he remained partially shadowed. “Why are you here?”
“I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“A phone call would have done that.” She sounded snappish, and she realized it was because she was unable to tell him to stay away. And each time she talked to him, she betrayed Mindy even more.
“I believe I’m on the phone with you right now.”
“Pretty sure your phone will work from anywhere in Manhattan.”
He met her eyes, and even though he was several yards away, she felt their intensity. “Do you want me to go?”
“Then you want me to stay.”
She sighed in frustration. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
He smiled a little. “I’ll try not to get a big head from the enthusiasm.”
She laughed. “Who knew vampires had a sense of humor?”
“Oh, yes, we’re regular stand-up comedy material.”
“You could get your own late-night talk show and interview all your vamp friends. Hey, maybe your own network. VTV.”
“Somehow I don’t think we’d get very good ratings.”
“Vampires have TVs. I’ve seen them in the shop windows in the vampire shopping districts.”
“Have to have something to do all day.”
She thought about how TV and movies used to have a fascination with vampires. While she and everyone else knew they were no longer fiction, she realized there was a lot she didn’t know, more information the vampire world kept hidden in the name of self-preservation.
“You look as if you’re thinking hard,” he said.
“Just curious how much of the vampire lore is real and how much is a bunch of bunk.”
“What do you want to know?”
“I know stakes can kill you. What about crosses and holy water?”
“Crosses only affect the Soulless. They burn their skin, very painfully, from what I’ve witnessed. Holy water will burn them, too. And as you’ve seen, if any of us wear silver bracelets or cuffs soaked in holy water, it prevents our fangs from descending.”
“I feel the sudden need to wear a cross all the time and to go to St. Patrick’s for some holy water.”
“Not a bad idea,” he said. “Though those won’t help against the humans.”
A chill raced down her back.
“Do you think Leila Russell was taken by the same people who took that other girl?” she asked.
He shrugged. “We don’t know, but that’s the theory we’re working right now. Did you see any more of those two guys?”
“No. They just ate, freaked us out and left.”
“I still don’t like it.” He leaned against the post for the streetlight, which drew her attention to his long legs. “What are you still doing down in the restaurant? You’re too easily seen.”
She forced her attention up from where it was roaming over his body back to his eyes. “I tried going upstairs, but I kept spooking myself at every little sound. So I came down here to make some lunches to take to the park tomorrow.”
“Olivia.”
She held up her hand to halt his objection. “If it’s humans I have to worry about now, they could just as easily stroll in and get me here.”
“But it’d be easier to grab you on the street. The two women we know have been abducted have been grabbed outside.”
“I’ll be very careful. But, Campbell, there are people out there who are hungry, who don’t have homes, who the world has forgotten about. I can’t sit here and do nothing while that is going on when I could make a difference. Maybe it’s a small dent in the problem, but it’s something.”
“I’m not going to talk you out of this, am I?”
“No. It means too much to me.”
“Why?”
“I just told you.”
“I know, you care about the people. But it’s more than that. There’s caring, and then there’s passion.”
She turned her back on him and started wrapping the prepared plates with plastic wrap and placing them in the refrigerator. “Someone close to me started this program, someone who isn’t around to do it anymore.” She turned back to face him again. “Listen, I’m going upstairs. There’s a small balcony on the back side of the apartment. You’re welcome to sit out there if you’d like.”
“I need to get back to work and patrol the area.”
“Oh, okay.” She was surprised by how much she wanted him to stay, but she wasn’t about to admit that just
