The Reluctant Vampire (13 page)

Drina shook her head. “I don’t know. It sounds exciting enough. Truth be told, my life wasn’t nearly as exciting as it sounds in the recounting. I mean titles like gladiator, pirate, and madam sound exciting I suppose, but in reality they were just another day in the life. Being a gladiator was hot, sweaty, bloody labor, hacking away at other gladiators. Being a pirate wasn’t much different than being a sailor. It was night after night of hauling rope, raising sails, and steering into a storm with the occasional battle to get the blood going. And as a madam, I mostly greeted the men at the door like a Wal-Mart greeter, reading their minds as they entered the establishment to be sure they had no nefarious plans. Then I sat about, reading or playing cards until the evening ended, and the men left. The only excitement that occurred there was when the occasional fellow got too rough, or tried to make one of the girls do something she didn’t want to. And then that was a momentary adrenaline rush as I saw them off the premises.”

She shrugged wryly. “If I’ve learned anything in all my years, it’s that nothing is as exciting or glamorous as it sounds. I suspect if you read the minds of movie stars and rock stars, you’d probably find their lives were a daily grind with the occasional fan frenzy to scare the crap out of them and get the blood going.”

Harper smiled. “You’re surprisingly sensible for one who has been so rebellious most of her life.”

Drina shrugged. “We all live and learn.”

Harper nodded, and glanced around as the car slowed. “We’re here.”

Drina leaned forward, stretching her upper body in front of his to peer curiously out the window at the very uninteresting building they were stopping in front of.

“Nondescript like our clubs in Europe,” she commented, placing her hand on his shoulder as if to keep her balance.

“Yes,” Harper agreed, sounding a tad husky.

She turned her head and smiled at him, close enough to kiss, as she said, “I suppose it’s to avoid attracting mortals.”

“Yes,” he repeated, this time in barely more than a whisper. His head began to move forward, and Drina moved her own head closer, and then they both froze as the front door slammed shut. Harper glanced past her to the now-vacant driver’s seat, then out the side window, and sighed. “Right, we’re here.”

Drina straightened as the driver opened the door on Harper’s side. She then followed him out of the car and into the cold night. Harper paused long enough to give instructions to his driver before hustling her to the door of the Night Club.

A wave of heat and sound hit them as they entered and Drina peered around curiously, not at all surprised to find it looked like any club in any city. They were in a large room with shadowed booths around the edge of a lit dance floor. Loud music blared from all corners. Harper started to lead her to one of the few empty booths, but she caught his arm and leaned up to ask, “Is there a lounge area? Somewhere quieter, where we can talk when not dancing?”

Nodding, he changed direction at once and led her to a set of swinging doors. They pushed through into another room, this one wholly made up of tables and booths and much quieter once the doors swung shut behind them. They chose a booth along the wall.

Sliding into one side, Drina smiled as she shrugged out of her coat. “We can always go in there to dance as we like, but it will be easier to talk in here when we want a break.”

“Smart thinking,” Harper said, hanging his own coat from a hook at the end of the booth. He then took her coat to hang it beside his.

He slid in across from her, murmuring an apology as his feet nudged hers, then glanced around as a waitress appeared. He smiled at her, but then glanced to Drina, and asked, “Do you know what you want? Or would you like to check the menu?”

For answer, she picked up a narrow menu in a holder at the end of the table and opened it, saying, “It’s probably better to see what they have in case the selection isn’t the same as in Spain or the names are different.”

Harper nodded and turned to the waitress, but she was already slipping away, saying, “I’ll give you a minute.”

Drina laid the menu on the table and turned it sideways so they could both see it. They each leaned forward, head to head to look it over, but then a beeping came from Harper’s coat. Frowning, he straightened and reached in the pocket to retrieve his phone.

Drina politely pretended she couldn’t hear what he was saying, not that there was much to hear. He said, “Hello,” listened briefly, and then sighed, and said, “I did wonder about that. All right. Well, there’s nothing we can do about it.” Another silence followed, and then he said, “I’m not sure. I’ll have to call you back on that.”

Drina glanced at him in question as he hung up, and Harper grimaced.

“It seems it’s officially a blizzard out there,” he announced apologetically. “That was my pilot saying they’ve shut down the airport and are advising people to stay off the highways. He thinks they’ll be closing those soon too, but whatever the case, it isn’t safe to take the helicopter back to Port Henry tonight.”

Drina stared at him blankly for a minute, and then reached for her own phone.

“We can try driving back tonight, but we’d have to leave right away if you want to give it a go,” Harper said, as she began to punch in the number for Casey Cottage. “Otherwise, we aren’t leaving until tomorrow sometime, and then only if the storm lets up.”

Drina bit her lip and nodded to acknowledge his words, then stilled as the phone picked up on the other end.

“Drina?” Mirabeau said by way of greeting.

“Yes, I—”

“Listen, a big storm hit here an hour or so after you guys left. They just shut down the 401 from London to Woodstock, and I suspect the rest of the highway will soon follow. I’m thinking it probably isn’t safe for you guys to fly. You two better not try to come back tonight.”

“What about Stephanie?” Drina asked with a frown. “I’m supposed to sleep—”

“She’s sound asleep on the sofa with the TV on. We’ll leave her there for now. If she wakes up and wants to go to bed, I’ll go up with her. It’s not a problem. Although, that probably isn’t even necessary tonight. Leonius isn’t in the area, and she isn’t likely to try running away in a blizzard, especially with them shutting down the highways. Even if she managed to slip away, there aren’t any buses running to take her anywhere.”

“Right,” Drina murmured. “I guess it’s best we not try coming back then.”

“Definitely,” Mirabeau assured her. “Don’t worry. Everything is good. You and Harper just get a hotel room or something and stay in the city until this clears.”

“I have an apartment here in the city. We can stay there,” Harper announced, apparently having caught the gist of the conversation. He punched a stream of numbers into his phone and turned it toward her so she could read from the small screen. “This is the number, give it to her and tell her to call if there are any problems.”

Drina read off the numbers to Mirabeau, passed along the message, and then echoed her good night and hung up.

“Well,” she murmured.

“Yes,” Harper said.

They stared at each other for a moment, and then Drina caught movement behind his head, and glanced past Harper to see the waitress slowly making her way along the row of booths, taking orders as she moved in their general direction.

“Well,” she said again, turning her gaze to the menu, “let’s see what we have here.”

She ran her eyes slowly down the list of available blood blends, murmuring each aloud as she went, and then paused as she reached—“Sweet Ecstasy.”

“It’s a dose of blood from someone who’s taken the drug ecstasy,” Harper murmured. “The impact on immortals is supposed to be pretty powerful. They say it’s like immortal Spanish fly.”

Drina smiled. “I know. Beth swears by it. She says it’s reawakened her flagging interest in sex and that she has the best sex ever on it.”

Harper’s eyebrows rose. “Does she?”

“Yeah.” Drina chuckled, her gaze dropping back to the menu as she admitted, “She’s always pestering me to try it, and I’ve always kind of wanted to, but I’ve never been with anyone I liked and trusted enough to try it with.” She glanced up and met his gaze, and added, “Until now.”

Harper stared back silently, their gazes locked until a shift in air drew their attention to the fact that someone was standing at the end of the table. He didn’t even glance over to ensure it was the waitress, but simply growled, “Two Sweet Ecstasies.”

“Okie dokie,” the waitress said cheerfully, and slipped away.

The silence drew out for a minute, and then Drina said abruptly, “Let’s dance.”

She didn’t wait for a response, but promptly slid out of the booth and started back toward the door to the dance section of the club. She didn’t have to glance around to see if Harper was following. Drina could feel the heat coming off his body and pouring along her back. The man was practically on her heels and stayed there all the way into the next room and onto the crowded dance floor.

The music was a dance mix, fast and pulsing, the rapid heartbeat of a lover. Drina let it flow through her, allowing her body to move as it would to the sound. She knew Harper was right there with her but didn’t even look at him. Instead, she closed her eyes and moved. When the music slowed three songs later, and he caught her hand to pull her into his arms, she went willingly. The instant electricity between them told her they wouldn’t need any Sweet Ecstasy, but she hadn’t expected they would. Still, when she spotted their waitress moving through the room toward them with a tray holding two drinks, she waved at the woman and smiled as she approached.

“They were going warm,” the waitress explained, pausing beside them.

“You’re a gem. I was getting thirsty,” Drina said with a grin. She then grabbed her drink and downed it in one go as Harper reached for his own drink.

“Another?” their waitress asked with a wicked grin as Drina lowered the now-empty glass.

“Oh definitely,” she said on a laugh as she set the empty glass back on the tray.

“Make it two,” Harper suggested, and then quickly downed his own and replaced it on the tray.

“You got it,” the woman said cheerfully, and swung away.

Smiling, Drina slid her hands around Harper’s neck as he drew her back into his arms.

“Stephanie was wrong about you not dancing since ‘Gone-With-the-Wind-dresses’ were in fashion,” Harper said with amusement as she shifted against his body to the slower beat. “You know how to move to modern music.”

“Beth and I often hit the clubs with some of the other hunters after work. It’s good for blowing off steam,” she admitted, and then said, “You don’t do so bad yourself. You’re disproving that old saying about white men not being able to dance.”

Harper chuckled. “I don’t know about that.”

“I do,” she assured him, and then deliberately moved close enough that their hips met, and added, “Beth says that’s a sure sign that a man is good in bed. Are you good in bed, Harper?”

Harper’s laughter caught in his throat, and his eyes flared silver-green. Then he caught her by the back of her head and kissed her. It was no slow, gentle melding of mouths, but as if their earlier embrace had never been interrupted, and they were just continuing that. His mouth was hungry, hot, and hard, devouring rather than exploring, demanding with no sign of tentativeness. He wanted her, bad, and didn’t care who knew.

It wasn’t the Sweet Ecstasy. That couldn’t possibly have kicked in yet, Drina knew. She tightened her arms around his neck, meeting his need with her own, and moaned into his mouth when his hands slid up her sides to the level of her breasts. He didn’t grab them as he had outside the restaurant, but kept them at her sides, allowing just his thumbs to feather along the sides of her breasts and then under them in a tantalizing caress that had her nipples hardening with hope that they could feel that touch. They didn’t. Instead, his thumbs slid back up again in another mostly innocent caress to join his fingers at her sides. Harper wasn’t so far gone down the road of need that he’d forgotten where they were, she realized, half-relieved and half-disappointed.

Her disappointment was mitigated a great deal when his leg slid between both of hers, and he dropped one hand down to press her bottom forward so that his thigh rubbed against her with every step. He didn’t remove his hand at once but let it dip lower, curving it briefly under her bottom and letting his fingers brush lightly between her legs in a caress that had her breath hitching in her throat. It was the swiftest of touches, and then his hand slid back up to her waist, but it was effective. The blood now roared in her ears, the strobing lights suddenly seemed blinding, and she was abruptly weak in the knees and sagging against him, flat out riding his thigh, which only intensified everything.

Drina didn’t realize the music had changed again until Harper broke their kiss and spun her away from him. Sound came crashing back, and she blinked her eyes open to see the others moving to the more frenetic beat. Harper drew her back then, not turning her to face him but pulling her up against his chest so that her bottom now pressed into his groin. He slid his arms around her waist, one atop the other directly below her breasts, and bent his head to her ear to whisper, “You’re trembling. Are you cold?”

The words were soft and teasing, and he nipped at her ear as he said them. Then he let one hand drift down over her stomach to her pelvis, where he pressed gently, and murmured, “Shall I warm you?”

Drina couldn’t have responded had she wanted. He was still moving them to the music, which was good because if he’d stopped, she would have simply stood there like an idiot. But while she was sure anyone looking would simply see two people dancing, it didn’t feel like dancing. It felt like foreplay.

“Our waitress is coming with our drinks. Shall we go sit down?” he asked by her ear, and Drina nodded at once, hoping she would regain some equilibrium if he wasn’t holding her.

Harper shifted his hold, not releasing her but moving her into his side so that his arm was around her back, and he could usher her off the dance floor.

Drina spotted their waitress almost at once. She’d come to a halt halfway between the doors to the lounge and the dance floor, but now turned and moved back to the doors, leaving them to follow. By the time they pressed through the swinging doors, she was setting their drinks on their table and melting away.