Jessica raised both the flashlight and stake in one hand. She flicked on the light and jumped out of the shadows. “Stop it right there!!” she shouted.
The man and woman screeched and leapt away from one another. They whirled and stared at Jessica with their mouths hanging open. There were no fangs or blood anywhere that Lucy could see. For a minute, the man seemed incapable of forming a coherent sentence and just stood there, murmuring a string of curse words and rubbing his face, but the woman frowned and settled her hands on her hips.
“Who are you?” she demanded of Jessica. “A cop or something? ’Cause there’s nothing going on back here. We’re just…two consenting adults, you know?”
“Y-yeah,” the man finally managed, trying to tuck his shirttail back into his pants as he staggered out from behind the garbage bags, “that money I gave her was just…I was paying back a loan…”
The woman slapped his shoulder and told him to shut up.
Uh-oh, Lucy thought, her cheeks starting to flame. They hadn’t stumbled onto a vampire attack at all. This was…well, this was something else. Catching the mortified look on Dara’s face, she could see she was thinking the same thing.
The only person who didn’t seem rattled or embarrassed at all by the situation was Jessica. Dropping the stake back into her purse, she raised the flashlight higher and aimed it into the man’s eyes.
“You sure?” she demanded. “Nothing funny going on out here?”
The man held up his hands and angled his face away, shaking his head.
Jessica swung the flashlight beam at the woman, who squinted and repeated the same stuttering denials.
“Huh,” Jessica said. “Alright. Well, consider this your warning. But if I ever catch the two of you around here again…”
“You won’t, officer, you won’t.” The woman was already scrambling toward the mouth of the alley. The man was right at her heels and, in a flash, they’d disappeared around a corner.
Jessica let out a breath. She rejoined her friends, still cringing against the wall. “Well crap,” she said, dropping the flashlight back into her purse. “That was a bust. I’m not sure whether to be disappointed or relieved.” Before Lucy could agree with her, something blocked out the moon. All three women looked up in surprise and watched as it descended toward them: a shadowy, humanoid figure with its long arms extended and its legs coiled like a frog’s.
What the-? Even as Lucy tried to make sense of what she was seeing, the strange, hulking vision dropped into the alleyway right beside them. It landed soundlessly and straightened up...up and up, to an imposing height. Lucy shrank back against the wall, beginning to quake in her shoes even before the shadow reached out its gargantuan hands and intoned in a rasping voice, “Jessicaaa…”
◆◆◆
“What the-?” Jessica spun around, yanking the stake back out of her purse.
“Calm yourself, Jessica,” the bear-like shadow commanded, holding up its paws. Then it cleared its throat and spoke more normally. “It is only me.”
Jessica froze, staring at the shadow. Which was really, Lucy now saw, a rather tall and striking young man in a dark sweatshirt, with the hood pulled up over his head. “Nathan!” Jessica cried, lowering the stake. “Were you up on the roof? Good grief. What are you doing here?”
Nathan! Lucy thought, her heart thumping wildly. Jessica’s vampire neighbor!
No wonder her friend had described him as ‘otherworldly’. Even in the moonlight, Lucy could see he had beautiful eyes, the irises so dark blue they looked almost violet. His bone structure was all sharp edges and symmetry, his lips masculine and yet silky-looking and sensual. His shoulders were broad, his legs long and well-muscled. He was easily one of the handsomest men Lucy had ever laid eyes on.
He seemed pretty steamed, though, his expression turning thunderous as he threw back his hood with gloved hands.
“Me?” he demanded. “What about you?” He stared at each of them—and at the weapons in their grips—incredulously. “Just what do you think you are doing?”
“Hunting the vampire I told you about, duh,” Jessica responded.
Nathan glanced back over his shoulder, in the direction the man and woman had just disappeared. He said, “That was not a vampire.”
“No, that was just some hooker and her john,” Jessica admitted despondently.
Nathan gave her an odd look. “No, I do not believe they were.”
“Huh?” Jessica’s face crinkled in confusion.
“I heard them conversing just before you arrived here,” he explained, “and it seems they were a married couple. Out on a date.”
“A date?” Jessica was dumbfounded. “Behind the Dumpster?”
“A role-playing date,” he clarified, and shot her a wry look. “But do not feel bad, Jessica. I imagine your sudden arrival and portrayal of a policeperson only made it all the more exciting for them. I assume they are off somewhere…finishing the game, as we speak.”
Jessica stared at him, her mouth slightly agape. She swallowed hard and said, “Okay, I hate to sound judgy, ’cause to each their own, but…Ew.” She shook herself. “And, whatever, the vampire is still out here somewhere, right?”
“Perhaps,” Nathan said. “And if she makes an appearance, you and your friends will not want to be anywhere in the vicinity. Not unless each of you has a death wish. You should leave now.”
“No way,” Jessica said. “We’re staying until this bloodsucking floozy comes out of hiding. We’ve got to kill her.”
At that, Nathan ripped the stake out of Jessica’s hand and stared at it. “What is this?” he demanded.
“A wooden stake, what else?” she replied testily. Then, with a note of uncertainty, “Please tell me those work on vampires. That it’s not just some B.S. myth?”
“They do work, actually,” he acknowledged, twisting the stake and examining it in the moonlight. “Did you make this yourself?”
Jessica snorted softly. “Of course I did. Where would I get a wooden stake? Amazon?”
Lucy frowned and said, “Actually, Jess,
