Out of the Night (Harlequin Nocturne) (6 page)

Of course, it could all be a ploy to win her trust, to lull her into making a deadly move. That thought didn’t ring true, though, not after he’d taken a pretty good beating in order to save her life. She couldn’t believe she was giving a vampire credit for anything positive, but the truth was the truth.

And since he’d fed, he seemed in control, much more human than when he’d been staring down at her with those awful red eyes.

“You and your friends—are you V Force?”

Even with the distance between them, she thought he looked surprised that she’d heard of V Force. Of course, she wasn’t going to tell him that she’d only heard the term within the past day.

“Yeah. How did you know about that?”

“I own a diner. You hear things.” She took a shaky step forward and sat on the window seat before her legs totally gave out and dumped her on the floor. When she took the weight off her ankle, it throbbed worse than when she’d been walking. In fact, she felt as if she’d been body-slammed repeatedly. “Well, that explains a few things, I guess.”

“The fact that a truckful of vamps dragged you around the city without killing you?”

“That and the whole black commando look you all have going.” She motioned toward his clothing. Gone was the bare chest, and she wasn’t quite sure if she was grateful or not.

He glanced down at his black boots, cargo pants, tee and flak vest. It struck her that they suited him, his dark hair, angular features and muscular build. When he looked back up at her, he was also wearing a crooked grin that was thankfully fang-free. And it made him oh-so-damn sexy.

That thought startled her enough that she squeezed the decorative pillow next to her.

“But there’s not a cape in sight,” he said.

She laughed at the unexpected joke. For a moment she feared she’d finally gone crazy. But then came the stunning realization that his comment had in fact alleviated more fear than her continually telling herself she was safe as long as she stayed inside.

“What’s with the vest? Part of the look?”

He reached toward his waist and pulled a wooden stake from his belt. “So I don’t get one of these to the chest and go poof.”

She realized how little she really knew about vampires, what was fact and what fiction. The past two years had been a blur of work and grief. She didn’t have time to think about vampires. She guessed a part of her wanted to pretend they didn’t exist, and as long as she stayed indoors at night, she didn’t have to think about them too much. Until last night.

“Is that what happens? You really go poof?”

He replaced the stake in its slot. “No. For whatever reason, wood in the heart is poisonous to vampires and we die in seconds.”

“You don’t know why?”

He shook his head. “I’m still working my way through the history, trying to figure out what’s true and what’s a load of crap.”

“So you were turned recently?”

“About five years before the virus hit.”

She’d swear she heard regret and loss in his response. Could vampires remember what it was like to be human? Did they miss it?

“What did you do back then, before?” She couldn’t stop asking questions. Odd as it might seem, talking to him was better than being alone in her quiet apartment with only her thoughts and overactive imagination.

He laughed a little. “One of New York’s Finest.”

She felt herself smile and was fully aware of how surreal it was that the man who’d made her smile had tried to kill her only a short time ago. “Couldn’t get away from it, huh?”

“Once a cop, always a cop, I guess.”

“You like it still?” The idea that vamps would even have laws or law enforcement boggled her mind.

“Gotta do something good with eternity.”

“And you’re the head honcho?”

“Of Team 1. We cover Manhattan along with one other team. There are different teams in the other boroughs, other cities.”

She stared at him for several ticks of the clock on her mantel. “So it’s true? There are good vampires and bad ones?”

He leaned back against a car parked at the curb.

“Yeah. Well, as good as a vampire can be, anyway.”

She shifted on the seat, leaning back against the wall. “What determines it? Free will like humans?”

“In a way. This is going to sound a bit woo-woo, something I would have laughed at before I was turned.”

“We live in a world full of woo-woo now.”

He nodded. “There are two kinds of vampires—Souled and Soulless. The Souled ones used to be good people and they brought that into their vampire lives. The Soulless were not so good—criminals, sociopaths, the kind of people we locked up. The Souled don’t like being vampires any more than humans like the fact that we exist. The Soulless thrive on being immortal and powerful.”

“So you believe we have souls?”

He shrugged. “It makes as much sense as anything else. Whatever the dividing line between good and evil is, it’s what separates vampires.”

Wow, she’d had no idea. She’d just assumed vamps were vamps, hungry and dangerous beasts one and all.

“Are the Souled vampires the ones who set up the deal with the blood banks?” She, like everyone else she knew, donated blood on a regular basis to help keep vampire attacks to a minimum.

“Yeah, at the direction of the Imperium, our ruling body. Humans might not believe it, but we have laws, too. For centuries vampires weren’t supposed to feed any more than necessary for survival. Since the Bokor virus, it’s been illegal to feed from humans at all. If they do and drain a human, they have to be eliminated.”

Olivia swallowed hard at the idea that she might have been drained the previous night.

“That means...” For some reason she couldn’t force the rest of her thought into words. Her eyes met Campbell’s and held.

“Yes. If I’d killed you, I’d be dead now, too. My team would have had no choice.” He paused for a moment. “And that’s as it should be.”

Something had shifted about her perception of Campbell in the past few minutes, because the idea that he would have been killed didn’t sit well. He was still a vampire, still deadly, and she was no less frightened of him. But as she stared down at him now, he seemed more like a man than a thirst-mad animal. He seemed...honorable.

But she didn’t fool herself. The only reason he seemed sane and rational at the moment was because he had pints of human blood working their way through his system. She tried not to gag at that mental image and shifted her thoughts in a safer direction.

“Why don’t we know about all this?” she asked. “Why don’t you tell the world about the differences in vampires instead of having everyone think you’re all evil?”

“Because it’s too dangerous. Even Souled vampires have to fight their need to kill. You know that firsthand.”

She shivered at the memory.

“It’s safer for humans if they’re frightened of all of us,” he said. “Besides, do you honestly think they’d believe it if we suddenly said some of us were good guys?”

She understood the logic, was surprised any vampire would spare a thought for the safety of humans.

“So V Force enforces your laws?”

“Yeah. Just think of us as a SWAT team with fangs.”

She laughed. When he wasn’t trying to attack her, he had a nice sense of humor.

“What about you?” he asked. “Why were you out so late?”

She hesitated, not sure she wanted to reveal too much personal information even if he did seem harmless at the moment. Still, he hadn’t tried to talk his way inside, had even told her how to kill a vamp. Not that she’d ever be fast or strong enough to do so, but it still showed some trust on his part.

“I take meals to the homeless. A lot of them hang out in the parks during the day. Some things haven’t changed since before the virus.”

“And you got your car stolen and were attacked by vampires for your trouble. Classic case of no good deed goes unpunished, huh?”

She couldn’t help smiling at him, at his echoing of the very thought she’d had. “I guess.”

A lull in the conversation had Olivia wondering what in the world she was doing having a friendly conversation with a vampire. And why it was so easy to talk to him.

A light came on in the apartment across the street—Dr. Stevens getting ready to go to work the moment the sun broke the eastern horizon.

“It’s almost daybreak,” she said, returning her gaze to Campbell. Twenty-four hours ago she couldn’t have imagined giving a vampire any sort of warning. Would have instead been thankful that the sun had wiped another monster from the face of the earth.

“I know. I can feel it.”

“You can?”

“Built-in self-preservation.” He glanced over his shoulder before catching her gaze again. “Remember that. Even more than humans, vampires are all about self-preservation and taking out threats to that. So don’t trust me or any other vampire. You were lucky last night. But luck can run out.”

“Apology accepted.” She wouldn’t say what had happened was okay, because it wasn’t. But she felt his sincerity down deep, too.

Campbell shoved away from the car. “Better get home before I turn into vamp barbecue. I’ll leave your phone by the front door. I’ve added my number into your contacts so you can text me the VIN for your car. We’ll let you know if we find it.”

“Thanks.” She watched as he gave her one last long look then headed back toward the center of Midtown. Even with darkness still hugging the street, she could appreciate the way he moved—all barely contained, graceful power. Why couldn’t he be human?

She hadn’t realized until that moment how lonely she was. She had a wonderful friend in Mindy, regulars at the diner, even her favorites among the homeless she helped each day. But none of those relationships reached the loneliest spot, the one that had started growing the day the virus had killed Jeremy. No one had tempted her to open up that part of herself again until tonight. And that man wasn’t even a person anymore. Was he? What had always been clear lines before seemed a little blurrier after her conversation with Campbell.

Olivia watched him grow smaller, and a tinge of nervousness edged into her. If he didn’t get off the street soon, the sun would kill him. Vamps had incredible speed to go with their strength. Why wasn’t he using it? But then she blinked and he was gone.

And though it defied logic, she felt even lonelier than before.

Chapter 5

C
ampbell pushed his supernatural speed for all it was worth to cover the blocks between Olivia’s apartment and Team 1’s headquarters, the sun’s deadly rays nipping at his heels as if they were the hounds of hell. When he finally reached home and ducked inside, he wasn’t smoking or sprouting flames but his backside was definitely beginning to get uncomfortably warm.

“Cutting it a little close, don’t you think?” Colin asked from where he lay sprawled out on the couch watching
SportsCenter.

Campbell did a quick survey of himself to make sure he wasn’t on fire. “Just took me longer to check on some things than I expected.”

Colin snorted. “And how was the lovely Miss DaCosta?”

Campbell didn’t answer. Instead he stalked to the other end of the large main living area, the rubber soles of his boots squeaking on the smoothly polished concrete floor. He rounded his desk and stared at the pile of paper work.

“You know, you’re welcome to help me out with all this anytime instead of being a couch potato.”

Colin spared him a raised-eyebrow glance. “Oh, no. I’ve done my time in that chair. You get paid the big bucks now.”

It was Campbell’s turn to snort. “Yeah, I think I’ll take my piles of cash and retire to the Caribbean.”

“Yeah, we’d go up like Roman candles in the Caribbean sun. It’d be the coolest Fourth of July ever!”

Campbell snorted again, then rifled through the previous night’s reports from all the New York V Force teams, looking to see if anything out of the ordinary caught his eye. “I’m sure there are still bikini-clad women on the beaches at night.”

Colin nodded. “You make an excellent point. I quit.”

Campbell laughed. “You’d miss us.”

“If there are babes in bikinis involved, I wouldn’t even remember who you all are.” Colin shifted to a sitting position on the end of the couch. “What’s the retirement age for a vampire, anyway?”

“Thirty years shy of forever.”

Campbell continued shuffling papers, also checking out reports from the New Jersey and Connecticut teams so he kept well informed about what was going on in the tri-state area.

And so he wouldn’t think about how beautiful Olivia looked in that window, like a golden-haired princess in a tower, as unobtainable as a walk on a sunny beach. He still couldn’t believe she’d even spoken to him after everything he’d put her through, let alone talked to him until nearly dawn.

“I don’t need to tell you she’s a bad idea,” Colin said.

Campbell looked across the room, realizing he’d stopped reading reports at some point and drifted into daydreaming about Olivia’s lips and how gorgeous she’d be with all that golden hair falling loose across her shoulders.

“You’re right. You don’t.” Colin didn’t know half of the reason why, and Campbell wasn’t about to share that dark part of his past.

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.”

“Better than being a dumbass.”

Olivia sighed and started placing strips of bacon on the grill.

“How did you sleep last night?” Mindy asked as she brought eggs, sausage and thick slices of bread to Olivia.

“Surprisingly well. I think my body finally just shut down.” She wasn’t about to tell Mindy about the nightmare or the talk with Campbell. Mindy had enough nightmares of her own when it came to vampires. Even thinking of Campbell in a remotely positive light felt like a betrayal of her friend.

“Good. You pushed yourself too much yesterday.”

“I needed to.” She didn’t have to explain about needing to work to occupy her mind after a traumatic event. Mindy had personal knowledge of that tactic.

Mindy simply nodded and headed to the dining room to unlock the front door.

As Olivia cooked, the phone rang. She flipped omelets while reaching for the receiver on the wall.

“Comfort Food Diner,” she said as she cracked more eggs.

“Olivia?”

She fumbled and dropped an egg on the floor and cursed. That voice. She hadn’t expected to hear that deep, sexy rumble during daylight hours. But she guessed as long as Campbell was underground or safely protected from the sunlight, he could talk freely. It wasn’t as if he was ensconced in a coffin somewhere. Even in this crazy new world, that piece of fiction was too goofy to be believed.

But why was he calling her now? She couldn’t handle this, not so soon. Not with Mindy nearby. Not when her own thoughts about him were as scrambled as the eggs she was dishing up.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yes. You...just surprised me.” She wished he’d stop sounding so concerned, so damned human.

Mindy gave her a curious look as she stepped up to the pickup window, but Olivia waved her away, irrationally afraid the fact she was talking to a vampire would be written across her face.

“Listen, do you have a gun?” he asked.

“What?”

“A gun?” he repeated.

“Uh, yeah.” She pictured the Glock in her nightstand. It hadn’t been out since she’d last gone to the shooting range a year ago. “Why?”

“Because my kind are not your only concern now.”

“I feel as if I’m getting more lost by the moment here.” And they might as well start prepping her room in the nearest mental ward.

She listened to what sounded like him pulling out a chair and sitting down.

“Travis intercepted some information that indicates the Nefari is employing humans to do their bidding during the daylight hours.”

“The Nefari?” Did vampires have their own freakish language?

“Basically the vampire equivalent of the Mob.”

Olivia focused on a spot on the grill and took a couple of deep breaths. She didn’t know which part of Campbell’s words surprised her more, that there were humans who would willingly work for vampires or that there was a vampire Mafia. Wasn’t there a band by that name at one time?

“Olivia?”

“Yeah, still here.”

“This means you’re not safe, even in your own home. Even during the daytime at the restaurant.”

She did her best to keep a sudden rush of anxiety at bay. “The world has been a dangerous place for a while now.”

“But it’s never had humans kidnapping other humans for the vampire black market,” he said.

A chill went down her back, but she quickly reined in her fear. She was tired of being afraid. “I’m always careful, but I don’t want to live looking over my shoulder all the time. That’s not living at all.”