Caught in Darkness (10 page)

Desperately wishing for another
customer to walk through the door, Veronica quietly replied, “I haven’t known
him very long, it’s not like I was hiding something. And he gave me keys.” As
soon as the words were out of her mouth she wished she had said something else.
Even she realized that that would require further questions from anyone who was
actually participating in a conversation.

“Keys?”
Nikki repeated, her hands stalling over the supplies for a beat as she turned
surprised, confused eyes toward Veronica. “He gave you keys to his place?” The
incredulity in her voice was tangible, and Veronica was amazed she hadn’t
spoken louder.

“No,” Veronica replied, feeling
strangely like she’d been backed into a corner. “They’re keys to my place.” Okay,
that definitely sounded worse. Oh, man. How was she supposed to talk her way
out of this one?

****

“He’s dead,” Robert stated
mechanically, eyes glued to his desk and somber frown curving his lips. “I’ve
got a man who works in the morgue, and he called me last night to let me know
that the body turned up on the North side of town.”

Seth scowled at the news, though he
couldn’t honestly say he was surprised. Robert’s friend had been missing since
sometime the previous Wednesday, which was nearly a week prior. And while
Robert was grieving his friend, Seth was focused on what the man’s death meant.
Things were escalating too quickly. It was possible that the friend had
actually been slain a couple of days before, but either way the list was
growing.

Three vampires had banded together
to turn on their Family, initially planning on robbing their Head and likely
fleeing. Then another vampire disappeared, before winding up dead. And,
sometime in between, at least one of the traitors had set his sights on a human
and ended up revealing himself in the process. If they kept up this behavior,
Seth was going to be forced to consider calling in reinforcements.

****

Amazingly, Veronica was fairly sure
she’d managed to convince Nikki that Seth had a friend who worked in a
locksmith company and, since she’d lost her keys, he’d offered to arrange the
replacement of her locks for her. Once she’d spun that story Nikki had reverted
to focusing on how, why, and when she had become ‘such good friends’ with Tall,
Dark, and Handsome. That had been simultaneously harder and easier to explain
away, and then Veronica was returning her attention to the new customer and it
took her a moment to gather herself.

Oh no. Really, she could only think
of one worse person to have to see on the other side of the register.

Standing before her and smiling
broadly was none other than Cliff (whose last name she still didn’t know). He
looked so proud of himself that it made her want to roll her eyes. Instead, she
managed a friendly smile and said, “Good morning.
Cliff,
right?”

He chuckled and nodded, replying,
“Right. Good morning, Veronica. I honestly didn’t realize you worked here, but
what a coincidence!”

“Coincidence?”
Why couldn’t there be a line of customers when she needed one?

“Yeah,” he began, “that new job I
was telling you about is just around the corner. I’ll have to make this my new
lunch-break stop.”

Lucky me.
Faking
another smile, Veronica said, “That is a coincidence.”

“It must be fate,” Cliff decided
with a small grin. “Say, how late do you work today?”

“Actually,” Veronica began, trying
not to dwell on anything he’d just said, “
my
friend is
picking me up in about twenty minutes.” Oh it was so hard not to add ‘boy’ in
front of ‘friend.’ And how juvenile am I feeling this morning?

“Ah, well, maybe next time, then,”
Cliff replied with a shrug. “I heard my parents are thinking about throwing a
‘thank you’ dinner soon…any chance you’ll be there?”

A pit was rapidly developing in her
stomach and Veronica refused to answer that question honestly. Instead, she
said, “Kind of hard to say, really. I work a lot of night shifts.”
Complete and utter lie.
She would need a fantastic excuse to
get out of a neighborhood dinner, especially a ‘thank you’ dinner thrown by the
family to the last dinner. Add to that the likelihood of Cliff, her mother’s
latest matchmaking attempt, being there, and she was very nearly guaranteed to
get sucked in. Although, if I could bring Seth….

Shaking her head, Veronica tugged
her smile back into place and said, “Anyway, what can I get you?”

Cliff hummed thoughtfully, stepping
back just slightly in order to study the menu listed overhead, and Veronica
wasn’t at all surprised when he finally asked, “What would you recommend?”

At least this was an answer she was
generally prepared for, so she put on her professional smile and launched into
a speech about two of their current seasonal specials. All the while she
couldn’t help but hope that Seth would show up early and wait inside for her,
even though she was sure he wouldn’t. She was just going to have to smile and
hope that Cliff wouldn’t insist on chatting her up for the rest of her shift.

Chapter Six

“What’s to stop him from coming
back?” Veronica asked skeptically as she stared up at the front of her house. The
sun was just beginning to set, which meant Seth needed to be going back out and
actively searching for Richards and the Wilson brothers. Veronica had felt
funny asking to stay another night in his condo when he so obviously preferred
to live alone and so she had requested he bring her home. Now that she was
standing in her front yard, however, she was having second thoughts. She would
probably be up all night, phone in one hand and pepper spray in the other, with
her eyes glued to the front door and her ears peeled for the sounds of someone
climbing in through a window.

“I wish I could give you a solid
answer on that,” Seth admitted, casting a frown toward the building before
returning his attention to her. “You could always stay another couple of nights
with me. I promise I won’t bite.”

She offered him a small smile in
acknowledgement of his attempt at humor. The vampire thing had become less
scary and increasingly real the more she’d learned about it—and she had learned
a fair amount that day, in her mind. Like: vampires didn’t burn up in the sun,
though it did still weaken them, and the hypnotism stories were all bogus,
thank goodness! Although that meant her attraction was genuine, which was both
reassuring and concerning all at the same time. She had also learned that
vampires didn’t need to drain a human every time they fed. That was the biggest
relief of all.

Forcing herself to stop reflecting
on everything Seth had told her that day while they’d been running
around,
Veronica took a deep breath and shook her head. “No,”
she insisted, “I need to stay here tonight, for my own sake. I’m not going to
let that guy scare me out of my house.”

Seth inclined his head, turning so
that the house was behind him and he was entirely facing her, and said, “If
you’re sure. But I still want you to call me if anything happens.”

Veronica was grinning now as she
said, “You’re officially on speed dial.”

His lips twitched. “Good.”

A moment passed, and it became
clear to Veronica that her mind had made a decision without her input as she
said, “I know you need to get going, but, before you do…let me say ‘thank
you’.” As she spoke she was moving forward until she had definitely invaded his
personal space, and she could see the confusion on his face despite the
sunglasses shielding his eyes. But by now she had figured out what she was
doing, and it sounded like a great idea to her.

Before she could change her mind,
Veronica leaned up and sealed her lips over his firmly. She didn’t care that
she wasn’t dating him. She didn’t care that she would likely never get to date
him. She didn’t care that he was a vampire or that for all she knew he could have
a harem of women waiting for him back in wherever-it-was-that-he-
came
-from. She didn’t even care that he would be leaving
town as soon as his job was done. She only cared that he was kissing her back.

His arms had locked around her,
holding her tightly to his chest as he took control of the kiss. One of his
hands was tangled in her loose blonde hair, the other curled over her hip, and
his tongue wasted no time in sweeping into her mouth. He was taking his time
mapping out the terrain of her mouth, stroking each surface in a way that made
her moan against his lips. Without even realizing it she had wound her own arms
around his shoulders and was clinging to him like a lifeline, her toes curling
in her shoes.

She wanted so desperately to return
the pleasure he was bringing her with his kiss, but by the time she was able to
process that desire he was pulling way, his chest heaving just as visibly as
hers.

“You don’t need to thank me,” Seth
declared, voice slightly uneven and heavier than usual. “But feel free to kiss
me whenever the mood strikes you.
Starting tomorrow.”

Veronica blinked at him, for a
moment thrown off by his words, until her brain finally caught up with her
ears.
“Right.
You still need to go.” She pulled in
another deep breath and smiled before adding, “Good luck.”

His delectable lips lifted and he
replied, “Good night.”

****

“What do you mean you lost your
keys?” Allison Drake demanded later that night. Veronica had called to make
sure that Allison’s ridiculously-busy schedule hadn’t changed and ruined their
plans for the next day, and while she had her on the phone she’d ended up
telling her about having a new spare key for her, too. It was entirely possible
that she hadn’t thought that part all the way through.

Cringing with guilt, Veronica
shifted on her couch and replied, “I mean they must’ve fallen out of my purse
while I was out yesterday. I had the locks changed today and so I’ve got a new
key for you.” It was also possible that she’d been hoping the call would, at
least briefly, distract her from sitting alone in her living room and wondering
if she’d find herself with any unwanted visitors. Only that part wasn’t going
so well at this point, either.

“You said that part already,”
Allison reminded. “Is there something you’re not telling me? Did something
happen?”

“Wow, Ali,” Veronica teased, “has
anyone ever told you that you’ve become a lot more paranoid since you started
those MD courses?”

“Ha
ha
,”
Allison replied, her tone indicating that she may very well be rolling her
eyes. “Don’t think I’m falling for that distraction-tactic, Veronica. What’s
going on?”

Now Veronica wasn’t sure what to
say. She couldn’t tell her friend the truth—not the details, anyway, and Ali
would insist she run straight to the police if she told her the non-detailed
version. This was a problem. She hadn’t counted on Allison pushing for answers
(not that she knew why, because that was exactly what Allison would do). The
longer she stalled, though, the worse the situation was going to become and she
knew it.

“I swear I will put down this
highlighter and drive over there right this minute if you don’t start talking,”
Allison threatened.

“You don’t have to do that,”
Veronica said quickly. She paused then before asking, “Are you seriously
studying while we’re talking?”

“Of course,” Allison replied, as if
it were the most obvious thing in the world. “Now stay on track for five
seconds, will you?”

Sighing, Veronica said, “Okay, so
there is more to the story than what I told you. And maybe I do know how I lost
my keys. But I can’t get into all of that right now, so I just need you to
trust me and not worry about it. The point is that I have new locks, new keys,
and tomorrow I can say the same for my car.”

“Wait, you mean you lost your car
keys, too?” Allison asked incredulously.

“Yes,” Veronica replied. “They were
in my purse, which I briefly lost, and when my purse was returned to me it was
sans key-ring and wallet.”

There was a moment of heavy silence
on the line, and Veronica knew that Allison’s genius brain was trying to solve
the blank spots in the story like a detective.

At length, Allison asked, “Do you
completely trust the person who returned your purse to you?”

“Yes,” Veronica repeated without
hesitation. It was almost frightening how much she trusted him.

“And when you say ‘lost’,” Allison
began, “do you mean lost as in forgotten in a public place or lost as in
stolen?”

Pulling her lip between her teeth
for a moment, Veronica hesitated. How much could she tell without saying too
much? At what point would Allison forget to trust her and somehow find a way to
drag her to the police station instead? Here’s hoping. “Stolen, but not in the
traditional sense. The only things that left my house are the keys and wallet.”

Again, a stretch
of silence.
Most likely Allison hadn’t considered that this event had
taken place inside Veronica’s private residence.

Before Allison could ask more
questions, Veronica added, “We’re pretty much at the ‘please trust me’ part,
Ali. I can’t say more, at least not right now, but I promise I’m fine and it’s
all going to be taken care of.”

Allison released a heavy breath,
clearly unhappy with Veronica’s insistence on keeping quiet on the subject, but
finally relented. “Okay. I’ll trust your judgment on this, at least for now. But
I want you to promise to tell me if this whatever-it-is gets out of hand. I’m
your friend, V. You can trust me, too.”

As the tension fled from her chest
(and the guilt eased in), Veronica smiled and leaned back into her couch. “I
know, and I do. Everything’s just really complicated, and it’s not entirely
about me. I’m sorry, Ali.”