"So far, we're totally striking out," Alicia said.
She wasn't whining. Not yet, anyway. Amber knew it wouldn't be long, though, before Alicia insisted they go back to the hotel and call it a night. The list she'd found on the Net of the best clubs in the city was apparently outdated. She glanced down at the printout in her hand, and then out the window at what looked like an office building, and not a nice one, either.
The cabdriver, a dark-skinned man with brown eyes and lashes to die for, glanced back at the girls. "This the place?" he asked.
"I don't think so," Alicia said.
"Let's go look. Maybe the club's in the basement or something."
Amber reached for the door.
"Your friend is right," the driver said. He had the sexiest accent, Amber thought. She wondered how old he was. He didn't look a day over twenty. "This place...no good for you."
Amber sighed, glancing up and down the street. She could have argued with him but decided against it. Instead she just handed the man some cash and opened her door.
"Amber!"
"I just want to check."
The driver sighed, shaking his head. "I wait here."
"Fine."
"I'm waiting with him," Alicia pointed out unnecessarily.
Amber thought that was a good idea. God forbid something should scurry in the shadows and give her timid sisterlike friend heart failure. She walked along the sidewalk, located a stairway that led downward and saw a door at the bottom. Beyond the door there was light. She supposed there could be a club down there. The address was right.
She had taken two steps down before three young toughs stepped out of the stairwell at the bottom, looking up at her.
"Mmm, mmm, mmm," one said, looking her up and down, stepping up the stairs toward her. "You come here lookin' for me?''
She tilted her head to one side. "In your dreams, maybe. I'm looking for a club called The Iron Mill. You know it?"
The young men exchanged glances. She heard them clearly, their minds a clutter of thoughts, all along the same lines. The club had closed several years ago.
"Sure, honey. You found it. It's right through these doors. Come on, I'll walk you down there."
She smiled slowly. "Nice try." Shaking her head, she turned to go back up the stairs. The three shot up the stairs, two flanking her. The leader, the guy she'd been talking with, came up right behind her, slid his arms around her waist, one hand cupping her crotch, another, one of her breasts, and jerked her back against him.
"Don't be walking away from me, bitch. That's rude. I just wanna get to know you."
Amber's heart was in her throat, but she kept her voice level. "Yeah? Okay, then, if you insist."
"That's better," he said, nuzzling her neck as he spoke the words.
"Not for you, it isn't." She slid her hand up to cup his head, then bent low and jerked him hard, driving her elbow behind her into his ribs for good measure.
He flipped over the top of her, landing on his back on the sidewalk. The two on either side of her grabbed her arms. So she used her feet, kicking the one on the left first, catching him in the groin and sending him stumbling right back down those stairs. A spinning back-kick upside the head floored the one on the right. The one on the ground in front of her started to get up, so she pressed her foot to his throat. "Don't even move."
He nodded as much as he could, sucking air through his pinched windpipe.
She took the foot off and stepped over him, toward the waiting cab.
And there was Alicia, halfway between the cab and the stairway, a broken bottle in her hand. Shy, timid, easily frightened Alicia, white as a sheet, with eyes so round Amber thought she could have fallen into them. She'd been about to jump into the fray.
Amber smiled. "You're the best, you know that?"
"Are you okay?" Alicia asked. Her voice was shaking.
"Sure I am." She took the bottle, tossed it toward the nearby Dumpster, where Alicia had, no doubt, found it in the first place, then looked past her.
The cabdriver was still inside, tucking something shiny and metallic back underneath his seat. The cutie had a gun, and while he hadn't leaped to her defense, Amber thought he wouldn't have let her get killed, either. She was listening to his thoughts when she sensed someone watching them.
She turned, looking back down the street.
There was a tall man getting into a dark-colored car. He was familiar, but she wasn't certain why.
"Who is that?" Alicia asked.
"I don't know. He seems...I'm sure I've seen him before."
Alicia frowned. "Do you think he was rushing over here to help?"
"That was my first impression."
"Mine, too," Alicia said. "Hmm, people always say New Yorkers never do stuff like that. You know, get involved. Try to help someone out."
"Maybe people are wrong."
"Maybe."
The guy in the black car drove on by them. His windows were tinted, so she still couldn't see his face.
Alicia opened the cab door and got in. She picked up the printout, which had fallen to the floor, and handed it over the back seat to the driver as Amber got in. "We want to go to a decent dance club in a nice area. Can you recommend one?''
"You haven't had enough excitement for one night, even now, eh?" He gave a nod. "Lock your doors." Then he perused the list, muttering, "Closed, out of business, full of hookers, drug den, closed- ah, this one. This one is good."
Amber locked her door and watched the three guys helping each other to their feet and limping away, their backs to the cab.
Alicia took the list from the driver. "Star-Crossed?"
"That's the one. They have loud music, many kids, much dancing. And it's uptown. Safe for you. I take you there now?"
Amber took the list from Alicia, found the club near the bottom. "Sure, why not?"
Will parked around the next corner, in a spot where he would see the taxi when it left. It was a one-way street, so it would have to pass by him. He left the car running, put it in Park, and then sat there mentally replaying what he had just witnessed.
The girl fought like a commando.
He closed his eyes, gave his head a shake. He'd pulled over, seen her get out of the taxi, and thought she didn't have the common sense of a ten-year-old to be poking around the way she was, in the places she was. Then the young thugs were on her, and Will was out of the car, heading over there as fast as his limp would allow, fully intending to break some heads. He was afraid for the girl, angry at the punks. But part of his mind was thinking about how angry her father would be if he let anything happen to her. That wasn't any part of his reason for keeping her safe-he had more honor than that. His mission was reason enough. Always had been. But for the first time it occurred to him that he had got himself into a rather dicey situation here. Should he fail, he doubted Amber's vampire relatives would rest until they made him pay.
Until that moment, he hadn't considered that, mostly because failure was beyond the scope of his imagination. He'd never yet failed in a mission. Then again, this was the first job he'd undertaken since the injury. He wasn't the same man he'd been before.
He'd been halfway to the girl when she'd sprung into action. Within a heartbeat, all three of her assailants were on the ground, and she was standing on the throat of one of them.
Now that he had a minute to process it, he reviewed what he had seen. The flips, the elbow, the kicks. Her form, ease, confidence. She'd obviously had some martial arts training. Lots of it, maybe. Her father had said she was stronger than ordinary girls. So maybe her poking around in dangerous parts of the city wasn't as much stupidity as it was confidence that she could handle anything that might come up.
That kind of confidence, Will knew, could get a person killed.
The cab drove by, and Will put the car into gear and followed. This girl was going to be even more trouble than he'd feared.
"Okay, okay. Once again, I'm forced to admit you were right," Alicia said as she and Amber wound their way through the club. "This place is great! And to think it was only a couple of blocks from our hotel the whole time."
Amber's senses were on full alert. She felt... something. Something besides the powerful bass beat echoing in her chest. The band was loud. Not great, not bad. Definitely loud. The people lining the dance floor seemed to like them well enough. And there were plenty, so many bodies gyrating in the place that you couldn't walk through without brushing up against strangers. The red and green strobe lights gave an otherworldly effect to the place. But Amber didn't think it was the lighting or the loud music or the bodies of strangers giving her the odd sensation in her belly.
"Let's dance!" Alicia said, for once losing her shyness. She tugged on Amber's hand, until they created a spot for themselves amid the crowd, and they began to dance.
Amber told herself to relax. Her parents had gotten to her, in spite of her certainty that they were nuts. Oh, she loved them. She loved them with everything in her. But she had to show them that she was grown up now, strong and sure of herself, and perfectly capable of surviving a week without them hovering over her. Maybe once she proved to them that the world would not come to a bloody, brutal end the moment she spent a night on her own, they would ease off a little bit. She knew they loved her, but they were smothering her.
So why was she undermining herself now by getting all nervous and jerky? Probably the fact that, for the first time in her life, she was without her mom and dad's protective wings wrapped around her was making her feel vulnerable. Heck, she should have expected it.
Like the guy in the room next to theirs in the hotel. He seemed like a perfectly okay guy. Just because she couldn't read him very well, that didn't mean he was up to no good. Some people were naturally guarded. Most didn't even know it. And just because the guy in the car earlier had looked similar to him, didn't mean it was the same guy. It was dark outside, and he wasn't near a streetlight. She could see in the dark better than a mortal, but nowhere near as well as a vamp.
And whatever she was sensing here, now, was different. It wasn't him. It wasn't a threat, exactly, it was...
She stopped dancing, her eyes scanning the crowded room.
Alicia stopped, too, searching Amber's face. "What's wrong?"
"There's a vampire here."
"Shit." Alicia looked around the room, too. "What are you getting, Amber?"
"Old. Powerful. Female, I think."
"Jesus, Amber, we should get out of here."
Amber glanced at Alicia, saw the fear in her eyes. "I really don't think we have to worry."
"Yes, we do. Look, Amber, you may be half-vamp, but I'm not. We both know they aren't all like the ones we know. Some are rogues. Some are... killers. How many times has your dad told us never to go anywhere near a strange vampire?"
Sighing, Amber nodded, once again scanning the room and seeing no vampire. She must be staying out of sight. "Fine. We'll go back to the hotel and call it a night, okay?"
Alicia sighed her relief, and the two turned to make their way to the exit-only to bump into the broad, solid chest of a tall, dark man, who walked with the help of a cane.
Amber looked up, into his face, and she knew suddenly. He was the same man who was in the suite next to theirs. He was the same man she'd glimpsed at the concert last night, and the same man who'd been on the street when those thugs had attacked her.
He was following them.
She held Alicia's hand, squeezed it and glanced at her, a single message in her eyes. My parents were right.
Sarafina was unsure this new place she had found was going to work any better than the three she'd already dismissed. The lights flashed too much, and the music was a bit too loud. Ah, but it was full of life. Full of youth. That part of it was perfect. Perhaps she could work on the minds of the management, convince them to make a few changes and-
Her thoughts came to an abrupt halt as she sensed someone near. Her head came up, eyes scanning the crowd, particularly those nearest the door.
Two girls. One of whom was not quite mortal.
Sarafina squinted, focusing her senses on the child. But the signals were confused and messy. The girl smelled human, but not precisely. She emanated vibrations like a vampire, but not exactly. She bore the antigen-or something very much like it.
What was she?
A moment later, the man came in behind the two. The owner of the voice in her head. Willem Stone.
How the hell had he found her here?
Sarafina gathered her things, ready to find a rear exit and slip away. But she realized that he wasn't looking for her. No, his attention was riveted on the girls who'd entered just before him. And in a moment he bumped into them as they tried to leave, making every effort to make the collision appear accidental.
What was he up to?
I know you're here, vampire. I need your help!
The words rang clearly in Sarafina's mind, the message sent by one accustomed to communicating mentally. She knew, instinctively, it came from the girl with the hair that looked as if it had been rinsed in blood to achieve its deep burgundy highlights.
Smiling slowly, Sarafina relaxed in her seat. Well, now, this night might prove amusing after all. Why should I help you, little girl?
She watched the child's face as she opened her mind to receive her answer-assuming, of course, the child was talented enough to have received her reply.
This man is following me. I think he might be DPI.
Sarafina frowned. How would this child know about the DPI? True, the organization itself was no more. But there were survivors, rogue agents who sought to carry on its work. She knew that only too well. But Willem? Never.
What would they want with you?
She felt the girl struggle with her decision, wondering how much to tell, how much to trust this stranger. Sarafina still didn't know what to make of the creature, what she was. She probed and sought, but the child had guards around her thoughts. And then, quite suddenly, the blocks fell away. As if the girl had let her guard down deliberately to allow Sarafina to read her.
Fina caught her breath. My God, this child was the one she'd come to believe was only a legend. Half vampire, half human. A result of the DPI's experiments long ago, and the only one of her kind in existence.
Go outside, child. If he follows you, I'll follow him. And I promise you'll have no more need to worry about his intentions.
She felt the girl's confirmation, saw her grab her mortal friend's hand and the two went out the door.
Sarafina watched Willem, her heart wrenching painfully. Could he be working with the vampire hunters? If so, did that mean he had been working with them all along? He didn't follow the girls. Instead he limped to the bar, ordered a drink and waited for it to arrive. Sarafina relaxed. God, but she did not want to believe this man could be evil or mean to do harm to her kind. More than that, she didn't want to believe everything he had been to her had been a lie- some kind of mental trick implanted in her mind by those bastards.
Will received the drink, tipped it to his lips and swallowed it whole. Then he got to his feet and went out the door.
Sarafina's disappointment weighed heavy on her heart. But she knew what had to be done.
She crossed the room easily and exited the bar behind him.
Will followed the two girls from a distance. He wasn't overly worried about losing them at this point. He'd dropped the pen into Amber's little handbag when he'd bumped into them so he could track them now if he needed to. Still, he preferred to keep them in sight. If they got too far ahead, something might happen faster than Will could catch up to prevent it.
A fact that ticked him off, because for just a second, back in that club, he'd been sure he was going to turn around and see Sarafina. He hadn't seen her. Hadn't heard her voice, exactly. It was more like a feeling. He sensed her. And now he wondered if it had been wishful thinking on his part, or if, had he searched that club, he would have found her sitting in a corner somewhere, writing in that velvet-covered book of hers.
It didn't matter. He didn't have time to find out, not now. The girls were in sight, just a few yards ahead of him, walking rapidly toward the hotel, visible now two blocks ahead and across the street.
Amber glanced back over her shoulder, but very quickly. Almost as if she knew he was following and didn't want him to know she knew it.
What the hell was up with that?
A touch, featherlight, whispered across his nape, and a voice said, "What's your hurry, Willem?"
He jumped, because for the life of him he hadn't heard her approach. And he was too well trained not to. But then he reminded himself what Sarafina was and decided all his training was probably worthless. God, it was good to hear that voice. It sent warm, fluid pleasure seeping into his limbs.
He stopped walking, turned but only halfway, keeping the girls in his line of vision. "I thought I felt you in that club."
Her brows rose, and she smiled. "Did you?" she asked. "Then why did you leave?"
His gaze shifted in the direction of the girls, who were a block ahead now. "I assumed you didn't want me bothering you,'' he told her. ' 'I went back to that other bar...several times. But you never showed. My guess was you just didn't want me to find you."
"You've found me now."
"Unfortunately now is...not a real good time." The girls were crossing the street. Soon they would be safely inside the hotel, inside their room. And he would be inside his. Alone.
"I've been thinking about you," she told him, stepping a little closer, sliding a hand up his chest. "I wanted to see you again."
He couldn't take her to his room, he told himself. She would see the damn equipment, or hear it, or-
Oh, God, look at those eyes, he thought, when his got trapped in them. Dark and so full of need. Hunger. He couldn't look away. And then he didn't want to. He dropped his cane to the sidewalk, slid his arms around her waist and pulled her against him. And then he kissed her. And it was as if a dam broke. He hadn't been with a woman since before his capture. He'd doubted himself, felt less than a man because of the injuries. But when her mouth parted and her body pressed against his, he forgot all his doubts.
By the time he could stop himself from feeding at her mouth and lift his head for a breath, his heart was hammering, and he was so hard it was painful. But he couldn't-dammit, not tonight. The girls...
"My knees are shaking," she whispered. "Just hold me. Hold me, Willem."
He pulled her close, and she nestled her head on his shoulder, in the crook of his neck. He threaded his fingers in her hair and massaged her there. "I can't do this tonight, Sarafina. God, you don't know how bad I want to, but, I-"
"Shhhhhh." She pressed a finger to his lips. "Don't worry. Let Sarafina take care of everything." When she spoke, her moist lips moved against the skin of his neck, and it made him so hot he thought he was going to go into meltdown.
And then he felt her teeth. There was no warning. She just opened her mouth and bit down, hard, stabbing deep into his throat. He jerked and tried to pull away, and he was strong, despite his leg, but she held on. Biting down harder, and sucking, and the pain jolted through him, and then it sizzled and changed into pleasure. Her mouth. Her tongue. Her teeth embedded deep in his flesh. God, it was good. She was drinking him, and he was loving it, whispering to her to take him, take all of him, to drink her fill.
And then he was fading, falling. He didn't feel the sidewalk when he landed. He didn't feel any pain, or heat or cold, or much of anything at all except this haze of pleasure.
A car pulled up beside the curb. A man got out, and dragged him into the back seat. Sarafina got in beside him, and the other man climbed behind the wheel, and then the car was moving.
Sarafina stroked his face, his hair. "I couldn't drain you. No, not you-even though..." She sighed, started over. "I need to know everything you've been up to, Willem. And you'll tell me, won't you, precious?" She drew her hand to her lips, pierced her palm with an incisor, and then pressed it flat against his mouth.
Blood, her blood, welled and touched his lips, his tongue. A jolt of heat and an orgasmic shudder ripped through his entire body, and he grabbed for that hand, held it to him, lapped at the tiny amount of fluid, shivering in pleasure with every taste.
Then she drew her hand away. "Yes," she whispered. "You'll tell me all about it. This connection between us. How you found me. And why you were following those two girls. Won't you, my precious one?"