Moonlight Calls (Demon's Call Series Book 1) (9 page)

I heard a scuff
of sound and cracked an eyelid, finding a pair of worn work boots in my field
of vision.  I brought my head up slowly, guiltily giving myself time to enjoy
the view.  He had on soft, well-worn jeans over his boots and although they
weren’t tight, they did show off his body nicely.  Above that, a worn black
t-shirt clung to his torso like a second skin.
Yummy.

I licked my lips
involuntarily and continued to look up.  My eyes lighted on a chiseled face
with full lips and a wide mouth.  He had an aristocratic nose that was just a
touch too long, and a smidge crooked, and eyes that were the most startling
shade of green.  My gaze lingered on the eyes.  They seemed familiar somehow. 
I blushed yet again as I realized that he was silently laughing at me while he
patiently waited for me to finish ogling him.  I glared at him, and the
expression immediately left his face to be replaced by one of innocent
questioning.  He hadn’t even spoken yet and I could tell he was a cocky
bastard.

I closed my eyes
briefly when he asked, “Could you show me where the restroom is?” in a deep,
rough bass that went right through me like a tingling jolt of electricity.

I stood up and
motioned him to follow, not trusting myself to open my mouth at that moment. 
God knows what idiotic thing I would babble.  I was that flustered.  Men like
him don’t speak to women like me.  It just doesn’t happen.  I led him into the
hospital in silence and pointed him toward the restrooms, though God knows he
could have found them himself.  They were right inside the door and clearly
labeled.

 I started to
walk past him to return to work, but he stopped me with a big hand on my arm. 
I glanced down at his hand.  His aura was bright, pulsating almost.  I could
tell, somehow, that he wasn’t a vampire… but he was
very
red.  The
feeling I got from him was like the men who had helped me at the mall, but
much, much more intense.  His aura was easier to discern than any I’d seen so
far.  It seemed to radiate into me where he touched me.  If Ailis was right,
this new ability to see auras was just a manifestation of my growing “powers.” 
Why some people had auras and others didn’t was a mystery to me.  I couldn’t
seem to find any absolute rules, I mean, vampires had auras, and humans
didn’t.  But every once in a while I would find people like him who I didn’t
think fit into either category.  Maybe they were the
other
 supernatural
creatures Ailis had mentioned?

“Thank you,” he
said in that bedroom voice of his.  “May I ask one more favor?”  He had a bit
of an accent, I thought.

I took a tight
rein on the part of my mind that wanted to wonder exactly what favor he could
need in the bathroom and said, “Sure, but make it quick.  I need to get back to
work.” 
Good lord.

 He smiled and
let go of my arm to tug suggestively at a curl that had escaped my ponytail,
his fingers lightly brushing my neck.  “Please be more careful of strangers.”

I stared up at
him, and up, and up.  He was huge, pushing seven feet tall.  I felt dwarfed,
and way outclassed, as he loomed over me.  Strange little ripples of sensation
started in my stomach, and I had to clear my throat before responding.  Even
then, my voice came out all husky. “I’ll try to do that.”  I all but sighed.

He stopped
toying with my hair and stepped away with a wink.  “I think someone is looking
for you.”

 He disappeared
into the men’s room and I let out a ragged breath, returning to reality.  My
return to that land was heralded by a painful blush that I could feel creeping
up from my chest.  I nearly jumped when my boss came trudging around the corner
at the end of the hall.  She hadn’t earned the nickname
the dragon
for
nothing.  I could almost see steam coming out of her nose as she glared at me. 

“Aren’t you supposed
to be doing rounds right now?”

I took a deep
breath and tried to get a grip.  “Headed there now,” I said, pushing into
motion.  The CNA’s typically did rounds after lunch to help patients get
cleaned up and use the restroom.  Even though I wasn’t one of the ones that
usually needed reminding to do my job, the dragon wouldn’t miss an opportunity
to put me in my place.

The blush was
still obvious when I finally made my way upstairs to the nurses’ station,
earning me curious looks from everyone around me.  My headache had eased for a
time, only to come rushing back with a vengeance.

I made my way
through the rest of my day in a haze much like the one that had taken up my
morning.  But this time I wasn’t worrying about my weird life.  Instead, I
spent the afternoon fantasizing about Mr. green-eyes.  It had been a while
since I’d dated.  I felt I was entitled to my daydreams.  It wasn’t like I was
ever going to see him again, and I seriously doubted my ability to engage in
another relationship.  Ever.  But his little warning was bothering me, now that
my head had cleared and I had time to register what he’d said.

It was a bit of
a shock to the system when I left for the day and found the deliveryman leaning
against the bumper of my car.  When I saw him I fumbled and dropped my keys.  I
heard a deep chuckle as I bent to retrieve them.  My steps slowed as I walked
the rest of the way to my car in confusion, waiting for the candid camera crew
to show themselves.

 “It’s about
time you finally arrived,” he said laughingly.  He glanced at his watch. “I’ve
been waiting for you for twenty minutes.”  He leaned back and crossed his arms
in mock reprimand.  He looked to be in his early thirties, a bit older than me,
as if that mattered. His voice carried a faint, unrecognizable accent and I
noticed that his phrasing was a bit formal, as if English wasn’t his native
language.  I could listen to it forever.  Instead, I braced myself and tried
not to drool.

“And just how
did you know what time I got off work?”  I asked warily.  It would be just my
luck if he turned out to be some kind of stalker.  Or maybe I was wrong about
the whole aura thing and he was one of Ailis’s kind after all.

He smiled
smugly.  “I just asked one of the other ladies before I left.  She was happy to
oblige.”

Amanda had still
been hanging around the nurse’s station chatting when I’d come back in from my
little trip outdoors.  Her “have a great night,” had been just a little too
cheery for a woman who had just finished a fourteen hour shift. 

She’d tried to
set me up with one guy after another since Kyle left.  I could just imagine her
face when Mr. Tall-dark-and-sexy had asked for me.  I was going to kill her for
giving information about me to strange men- just as soon as I remembered what I
was so angry about. The gorgeous giant stood and stretched.  He towered over me
and I craned my head backwards to look up at his face.

“I was wondering
if you would like to go out to dinner.”  He said.  “We don’t know each other
well, but I would like to change that.”  He looked into my eyes and I wanted to
purr.

Instead I pulled
out the tone of voice I used on stubborn patients and said “I don’t even know
your name, sir.  What makes you think I would go on a date with you?”  I made a
shooing gesture with my keys, hoping to push him out of the way.

“
Sir?”
 
He put a hand to his chest in mock pain and laughed softly.  “That hurt.”  He
stepped closer and I felt a tingling in my stomach.  Good God- was I that
desperate?

“Christian,” he
said seriously.  “My name is Christian.  Please let me take you out tonight?”

I closed my eyes
and fought a losing battle with the inner part of me that wanted to stop all of
this foolishness and get naked
now.
 I opened my eyes and saw those deep
green eyes staring down at me.

“Fine,” I said,
resigned.  I obligingly gave him my phone number.  I have no self-control.

*****

After Christian
deigned to remove his beautiful butt from my bumper, I headed home.  Once I was
in my car and safely away from temptation, common sense returned.  What the
hell was I thinking, agreeing to go to dinner with a strange man that I’d only
met today?  My relationships in the past had all started out with amazing
sexual attraction, only to end in a giant mess when they inevitably crashed and
burned.  This would be no different.  But hey, the man was a
god
.  It
would be worth the crash.  If he didn’t turn out to be a serial killer.

 I imagined
telling Ailis.  She would die.  Again.  That thought put my guard up.  I was
sick of her controlling my every move. 
Well
, I thought bitchily,
I’ll
show her I am in charge of my own life.
  Truth be told, I was still pissed
at her for not being what she had seemed, my reactions to her were making me
crazy, and Mr. Green-eyes was a wonderful way to distract myself from the
weirdness that had become my life.  Damn it all!  I was going to go out tonight
and I was damn well going to enjoy myself.  And I was going to completely
forget that my roommate was a vampire and I supposedly had some sort of
powers
that made me a target for the monsters.

When I got home
I took a long hot bath.  Feeling much restored, I checked the messages on my
cell phone.  There was a message from Christian reminding me that he would be
picking me up at seven.  I closed my eyes and shuddered at the sound of his
voice.  Yep I really needed to get out more.

 I returned to
my bedroom and tried to figure out what in the world to wear.  I had no idea
where we were going for dinner.  I wanted to look nice, but not be
overdressed.  I mean, he was a deliveryman, after all.  It wasn’t like we were
going to some ritzy French restaurant.  I finally decided on a clingy black
sweater and a red silk skirt that swirled around my knees playfully as I
walked.  Feeling utterly wicked I slipped on Ailis’s tall, high-heeled leather
boots.

I agonized over
my unruly mass of brown curls before finally arranging them into a lose pile
atop my head the same way Ailis had the night  she’d ruined my world view. 
Oh,
the irony.
Returning to the kitchen, I scooted a barstool up to the counter
and looked at the letter Ailis had left for me while I was at work.  It said
that she would be home around eight tonight and that we would talk then.  I
made a face at the note.  As if I had nothing better to do than sit around and
wait for her like a good pet.  Choosing a red pen from the coffee cup near the
phone, I jotted my reply on the bottom of her note:

Ailis-

 Going out on a
date tonight.  Don’t wait up. 

           
Love,

Mya.

I grinned
mischievously.  Squinting, I drew little fangs off the bottom of the “o” in
love
. 
Put
that in your pipe and smoke it
.  Yeah, I was still pissed off about
the whole vampire thing, as if she could help it. I’m petty like that.  And I
really didn’t like being told to wait around until she got home as if I was
just expected to follow her every command.  It must be a vampire thing.  I’m
sure humans weren’t expected to have little personality quirks like…oh, I don’t
know…
free will.

I heard a car
pull into the driveway and hastily checked my make-up and grabbed my purse
before answering the door. Christian stood on the steps looking delicious.  He
was wearing expensive-looking gray sweater that brought out his gorgeous green
eyes.  Quite a bit different than his deliveryman get-up.  He smiled and held out
a dozen blood-red roses.  I took them from him silently, not trusting myself to
speak.  It had been a very long time since a man had treated me like a woman. 
I gestured for him to come inside while I went to the kitchen and put the
flowers in some water, and get a grip on my raging hormones.

When I returned,
he was in the living room gazing intently at the family pictures on the wall. 
His face had taken on an expression of seriousness that I hadn’t seen there
before.  When he sensed my entrance his face relaxed again into its usual
knowing smirk.  I thought maybe that attitude of his was all for show.  I kind
of liked the way he looked when he didn’t know I was watching.  He came to me
and took one of my hands in his, gazing intently into my eyes while he teased a
loose curl with his other hand.

“Are you ready?”

I drank in that
deep sexy voice.  I wanted to ask
ready for what
, but I refrained.  What
was it about him?  I dropped his hand and stepped away, picking up my purse as
I headed for the door.  A sliver of unease flashed through my head at the
memory of how easily I reacted to Ailis’s vampire hormones.  I squelched the thought
before I could go there.  I didn’t want to think about monsters that shouldn’t
even exist.  I would pretend he was only a man.  Though part of me knew better.

 He escorted me
outside and I arched an eyebrow in silent surprise when I saw the shiny S.U.V.
sitting in my driveway.  It was a blocky model, with darkly tinted windows and
all the accessories that said this car wasn’t just for city driving.  I’m not
much of a car person, but even I know what the Mercedes emblem looks like.  As
he opened the door and tucked me into the leather interior, I shook off the
feeling of wrongness.  The deliveryman drove a Mercedes?  Right.