topping me a good four or five inches, also dressed in black. He wasn't particularly handsome, and he was certainly more conventionally dressed than the first, but there was something about him that held my gaze.
'There's Dominic now,' Arielle said happily.
'What?' Roxy asked, her head swiveling around quickly. 'Where? Oh my God, is that him, the guy in the cape? God almighty!'
I sat silent in my chair, my head reeling with the sudden absence of sound, my skin prickling with anticipation.
'Yes, that's him,' Arielle confirmed. Tanya rose and started for the two men. My gaze went back to the first man. He had waited until all eyes were on him, then plucked the black cape from his shoulders, tossing it onto a coat tree before turning to smile at everyone in the room. His canines were elongated, pointed, and looked very sharp.
And they were as phony as he was, I was as sure of that as I was of my own name. Surer. Which meant, if I wasn't going mad and I hadn't been given any drugs… My eyes turned to the tall man standing in the shadow of the doorway. His face was set in grim lines, all harsh angles and planes, his eyes a curious light brown color—amber, I'd guess, although it was difficult to be sure all the way across the room. But what captivated me was the aura of quiet power and confidence that he seemed to wear as naturally as he wore his dark leather jacket and black jeans.
'Who is the second man? Is that the other owner?' Roxy asked in an excited whisper that barely penetrated the tangle of my thoughts.
'No, Milos is away on business. He has many ventures. GothFaire is just one of them. That's Raphael. Dominic hired him after Le Havre. He's in charge of our security.'
The man named Raphael watched with an unmoving face as Tanya greeted his employer. Slowly he moved forward, nodding his head when the bartender called out a greeting, accepting a large glass of beer.
'You can just get stuffed, because I'm not listening to you,' I muttered to the voice.
'What? Did you say something?' Roxy asked.
'No.'
She cocked an eyebrow at me, but quickly turned back to the two men who were dominating the room with their very presence. Or rather one man; Dominic was clearly not up to Raphael's snuff.
'So, this Raphael… is he a vampire, too?' Roxy asked Arielle.
Arielle worried her beer stein. 'I'm not sure. I don't think he is, but he moves very quietly, and sometimes I have the feeling he is watching me…'
Was he or wasn't he? Only his hairdresser knows for sure. I smiled a grim little smile at my feeble joke, and tried to decide once and for all if I was A) going mad, B) having a hallucinogenic experience, or C) in the presence of something I didn't believe existed, but given my experiences of the evening, who was I to make any sort of assessment of what was real and what wasn't? I glanced back at Raphael. He was leaning against the wall next to a tall potted palm, nodding his head as the bartender chattered away. When the man moved off for a minute to fill an order, Raphael shifted, accidentally spilling half his beer into the plant. I thinned my lips. No one likes a soused vampire!
'Oh, God, he's sooo gorgeous! I just knew they'd look like that! Joy, are you looking at him?'
I mumbled that I was. Dominic and Tanya were still playing to the crowd, she simpering as he pawed her in a manner I'm sure he thought was shocking and erotic, but was really only faintly tawdry as he nibbled with those doctored teeth on her long white neck, generally hamming it up. I dismissed them as uninspiring and focused my attention on the man who had moved farther along the bar to resume his conversation with the bartender. Raphael had taken off his jacket, and the long line of his back held me spellbound as he leaned forward to speak in the bartender's ear. Like Dominic, he was also in black, but on him it looked elegant and intriguing and…
'Virile,' I breathed.
'You can say that again,' Roxy agreed, her eyes on Dominic.
Everyone's attention was on the show Dominic and Tanya were presenting as he suddenly whirled her into a waltz around the room, his skin paper-white in comparison to the black of his pants and silk shirt, carelessly unbuttoned to expose half his chest.
'Probably uses pancake as well. And shaves his chest,' I said softly.
'You think?' Roxy asked, her eyes alight as the couple swept past us, Dominic's teeth bared for full effect. She gave a lustful sigh. 'It sure does look good on him. I wonder if Miranda couldn't have got the Goddess's messages mixed up, and I was supposed to find a Dark One as my perfect man. I could go for a man like that!'
It was on the tip of my tongue to say Dominic wasn't even as remotely intriguing as his companion, let alone a vampire, but as my eyes turned back to Raphael, I was stunned to find him watching me. He held a drink nonchalantly in one hand, his head still bent to the bartender, but his strangely colored eyes were on me. Our gazes met and locked. Instantly I was swamped with emotion: rage, stifled but still an awesome force to deal with; loneliness, such great loneliness that tears came to my eyes in sympathetic response; and finally despair, great waves of it that rolled over me and sucked me under. Almost as soon as the emotion washed over me, it was gone, leaving me feeling curiously bereft if extremely confused.
'Oh, God, I'm in trouble, serious trouble,' I moaned, dragging my eyes away from the man who was everything Miranda warned, and so much more. My skin tingled and burned where it was exposed, as if just his gaze had the power to scorch me.
'What's wrong? You feeling faint again?' Roxy studied me with a worried eye.
I shook my head. 'No. Just suffering delusional episodes. Nothing to write home about.'
She frowned. 'What are you babbling about now? Are you feeling OK or aren't you? If you want me to help you up to your room, just let me know.'
'I'm fine,' I reassured her and flashed Arielle what was bound to be a frighteningly insane smile. 'Maybe just a bit tired, but OK. Just ignore me while I have my breakdown.'
She leaned back against her chair and gave me a 'wait till I get you later' look. Her attention was quickly pulled to other, more interesting things when Dominic strutted over with Tanya on his arm. I wanted to turn my head to see if Raphael was coming our way, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I didn't need any more episodes of the sympathetic whatever-it-was I felt around him.
'Roxy,' I leaned across the table and hissed through my teeth as Dominic made a production of sweeping Tanya's chair with (what else) a black handkerchief.
'Huh?' She turned reluctantly to look at me. 'What?'
'Is he heading this way?'
Her eyes wandered over to Dominic, who had turned to answer a question from someone at a nearby table.
'No, not him, the other one. The big one.' I almost said
Roxy's gaze swept the room, then settled on me. 'Why do you ask?'
I tried to shrug, but my skin still felt burned. 'No particular reason.'
'He's tall.'
'So?'
'You're tall, too.'
'Did you take
She grinned. 'I was just asking. I thought maybe you might have a thing for him.'
Me? With a possible bloodsucking monster? 'Not on your tintype, Nelly! I don't even know the guy!'
