Читать книгу Kissed by a Vampire - Caridad Pineiro - Страница 8

The call came in the late afternoon on his office line, well after the DEA psychologist had cleared him for duty. The relief from the outcome of his visit to the shrink that morning was disturbed by the sound of his ex-colleague’s troubled voice.

“Garcia. Heard you were back from leave,” Dan McAnn said, striving for an upbeat tone but failing miserably.

“Back and ready to head undercover again.”

“Good to hear,” Dan said, but then an awkward pause filled the air.

Alex leaned forward and tightly gripped the phone, his head hunched downward as he contemplated the reason for his old friend’s call. Dan had retired a few years earlier after the stress of the job and family problems had created one too many issues at the office, including troubles with Dan hitting the bottle way more often than could be tolerated.

“Is everything okay, Dan? Do you need anything?” His inflection was conciliatory since Dan had been a good agent at one time and Alex had liked him on a personal level.

Another pause came on the line followed by a heartfelt sigh. “I’m okay. Got a great job as a security guard over on Star Island.”

“Must be rough hobnobbing with the rich and famous,” he teased, grateful to hear that his life seemed back on track.

“It’s my kid, Alex. She’s been missing for almost a week.”

He reclined in his chair, now understanding the reason Dan was calling. “I guess you went to the police, but they don’t want to do anything.”

Dan let out an abrupt exhale. “You know that Andrea and I … She’s been a problem child. Some drugs. Ran away right before I … retired.”

Alex was well aware of the problems. Talk around the office had been that Dan’s daughter had been the major reason he’d started drinking heavily and missing work. More than once Dan had run out of the office to deal with one of Andrea’s scrapes with the law.

“Local law enforcement thinks she ran away again, and won’t investigate,” Alex surmised.

“Last time, Andrea was only gone for a couple of nights and she left a note about leaving. Took some things with her.”

“And this time is different?” Alex prompted while reaching for a pad of paper and pen.

“She’s been going to AA with me and we’ve both been sober for over a year. Andrea is really trying to keep her act together. But a friend asked her to go to a club—the Widget.”

Alex had visited the nightclub last night. It was also where he had seen—and then lost sight of—that very fascinating woman.

“We’ve had our eye on the place for some time.”

“Her friends say she met a man there. Went off with him into one of the private gaming rooms and never came back out.”

“Can her friends provide a description of the man?”

When Dan replied affirmatively, Alex continued. “Can you give me their names and numbers?”

“You’re willing to help me find Andrea?” Dan asked, surprised happiness lightening the timbre of his voice.

“I can’t make any promises, but I’ll ask around. See what I can find out. Check with the local LEOs, as well.”

“Thank you, Alex. You can’t imagine what this means to me.”

But Alex could imagine what losing someone so special did mean. He had lost someone dear twice in his lifetime now and he had survived.

But barely.

And somewhere along the way, he had lost pieces of his heart and soul. It would be a long time before he opened himself up to more of that kind of heartbreak, he thought.

As he took down the information from Dan, it occurred to him that fate might just be finding ways for him to get his life moving forward once again.

First there had been that sexy woman from last night, and now he had a worthwhile case to investigate. Maybe a combination of both would help drive away the demons and nightmares that plagued him.

With renewed purpose, Alex dialed the number for the first name that Dan had given him.

From her oceanfront suite in the Park Central Hotel, Stacia peered past the edges of the thick blackout curtains she had asked the hotel to install. Considering that some of their patrons spent the night partying and the day sleeping, it wasn’t such an unusual request.

But unlike the party animals nestled in their beds after their nightlong binges, she was up and about after only a short daytime rest, her elder powers giving her stamina beyond that of other vampires. It was a double-edged sword since what did one do with all that energy and wakefulness if one couldn’t go out in the sun?

Especially the strong Miami sun. Stacia stayed at the window as long as she could before the strength of the afternoon rays on her skin became more than she could bear.

It had been another gorgeous late-spring day beyond the curtains. The cerulean of the ocean bright beneath a cloudless sky. A sweet ocean breeze rustling the deep green fronds of the palms through Lummus Park.

There had been hundreds of bodies on the beach, soaking up the daylight. She imagined the heat of their skin from the punishing rays. Imagined how such a sun-toasted body pressed to hers would take away the chill from her skin. Fantasized about sinking her teeth into that heated flesh and savoring sun-warmed blood.

A shiver of need danced through her at the thought, tightening her insides. Demanding that she find satisfaction. But the solar rays were still too strong for her to venture outside.

Satisfaction would have to come in some other way.

She strode to the small refrigerator tucked into the entertainment center in the room. Inside were the half a dozen or so blood bags she had obtained from the local hospital a few nights earlier. It hadn’t taken much effort. With her elder power, she had slipped past hospital security with an implanted suggestion, found the blood bank and helped herself to some fresh O neg.

Removing the blood from the fridge, the chill of the plastic was a taunting reminder of how this snack was second best to those solar worshippers outside and of how cold she was.

Blood bag in hand, Stacia walked to the bathroom and eyed the tub. Decided a nice long soak would go a long way to eliminating the nip in her body. She filled the tub with water as hot as her undead flesh could stand and added a packet of bath salts that the hotel had left for guests. When the bath was ready, she returned to the room, slit open the top of the blood bag and poured a hefty portion into one of the wineglasses from the mini-bar. Some blood remained in the bag, and rather than waste it, Stacia quickly drained the container dry.

The energy of that small bit of blood surged through her body, awakening it.

Awakening needs of various kinds.

She sipped the blood in the glass as she strolled back to the claw-foot tub and placed her beverage on a small, filigreed stand. Whirls of steam rose from the water as Stacia slipped off her robe and then eased into the roomy tub.

The heat enveloped her, but it was a poor substitute for a lover’s embrace. That would have to wait until tonight’s encounter.

Maybe she would run across the handsome man from last night. The one who had seemed so interested in her. The intense look on his face had stayed with her long after she had lost sight of him in the crowd and then left the club.

For a few moments she let herself imagine how that intensity might feel directed toward her. How his long, lithe body, so much bigger than hers, would surround her and how he might lift her up against him with those muscled arms. Take her to her bed and fill her night with pleasure.

With a sigh, she reluctantly eased her arm out of the warmth of the water to grab her glass. Took a bracing gulp of the blood, which sent a wave of energy crashing through her insides.

Stacia gasped from the force of it, and as she sucked in a steadying breath, the scents from the baths slipped into her consciousness.

Eucalyptus.

Orange blossoms like those on the potted trees tucked into the niches of the walls in her family’s bath.

Memories assailed her of those baths, driving away the pleasant daydream about her mystery man.

The scents recalled the times she had shared the baths with her family. With Hadrian, when she had turned him, centuries after she had lost her life and her innocence.

Lost both of them in those waters.

With her hand shaking from the blood’s life force running through her veins, she brought the glass to her lips and took another deep gulp, nearly emptying it. She placed the drink back on the stand and eased beneath the water’s edge, the temperature of the liquid feeling almost cool now that the vampire’s heat surged through her body.

The desire stirred by the blood became unbearable, and as Stacia slipped her hand down between her thighs to satisfy that desire, the warm wetness and scents of the water transported her back to that fateful day.

Rome, nearly 2,000 years earlier

“Stop it, Cassius.” Stacia giggled as she dodged her intended’s amorous advances along their moonlit stroll. They had been walking for close to an hour, through the Forum and then back to her family’s home near the Tiber.

Cassius grabbed hold of her hand and dragged her into the shadows by the door to the building holding the baths in her home. “The ceremony is tomorrow, beloved.”

Tomorrow being the day her father would place her hand in Cassius’s, turning over control of her to her intended along with the substantial dowry her father, a senator, was bestowing upon them to start their married life together.

Not that Stacia would be controlled.

At seventeen she was past the age when most of her friends had been married. Wiser than them, she thought as she snared Cassius’s hand as he slipped it beneath the edge of her sleeveless tunic and pressed his body to hers. The obvious proof of his desire butted against the softness of her belly.

“Cassius,” she warned again, but her beloved would not be dissuaded.

He inched closer and bent his head, bringing his lips to her neck. He dropped a line of kisses up to the shell of her ear where he whispered, “I have something I want to show you.”

Stacia shivered as he tugged on her earlobe, desire awakening despite her better sense. There was something different about Cassius lately. In the past few weeks, ever since he had spent time with some new friends out in the country, he had been …

Sexier.

More demanding.

Infinitely darker, with a dangerous air he had not possessed before.

He must have sensed she was weakening, since he reached down, cupped her breast and unerringly found the tip, rotating it between his fingers and dragging a strangled moan from her.

“You are so beautiful. Let me show you how beautiful, my wife,” he said huskily, the low tones of his voice strumming alive greater need within her.

“Wife now, is it?” she teased and pulled on a longish lock of his dark hair to draw him away.

“Tonight you are my wife. Tomorrow is only a matter of ceremony, no?” He smiled, his deep brown eyes glowing with a strange new light, the paleness of his skin a startling contrast to the darkness of his jet-black hair.

Had his skin always been that bloodless or was it an illusion from the moonlight? she wondered for a moment before he tightened his fingers on her breast, creating a sympathetic tug between her legs. The pull of desire was so intense she had to close her eyes against the strength of it, which just caused Cassius to chuckle.

“Do not deny yourself, Stacia. You are a woman of immense passion. I can show you great pleasure tonight. The kind of pleasure we will share forever, my wife.”

Forever, she thought, imagining the life she would be starting with Cassius come the morning. Eager to begin a new phase since she had gotten bored with the mundane tasks of helping her mother run their household. It was long past time that she should have a home of her own and a husband to warm her bed.

“Show me,” she said, and he chuckled once more, grasped her hand and led her into the baths.

Stacia dragged herself away from the painful memories of her once-beloved Cassius.

As something wet trickled down the side of her face, she brushed it away, but was surprised as she encountered the salt of her tears and not the bathwater.

Dashing away the tears, she rose from the bath and dressed quickly, needing to leave before the reminiscences brought more pain and disillusionment. She had no desire to let those emotions cloud the bright Miami days she had escaped Manhattan to enjoy.

As she dressed and shot one last look in the mirror, imagining how she might appear, another image pulled at her memory. The vision of her tall, handsome Latino—the one she had connected with briefly at the club the night before.

Yet again it occurred to her that there had been something familiar about his face, much as his expression had given away that there had been something recognizable about her. As she finally left her hotel room and escaped into the night, she tried time and again to place the man, but each attempt failed.

The identity of her mystery man would have to wait until later. It wasn’t as if she didn’t have an eternity of nights to find him, although she hoped it wouldn’t take her too long.

Something about him whispered to her that he might be able to fill the nights that loomed before her, eternal and empty.

Predictably boring.

Recalling the determined glitter in his eyes, she decided that the handsome Latino would be anything but boring.

Because of that, Stacia hastened her pace, eager for the night to begin.