Rylie Cruz 2 - How to Date a Vampire (12 page)

“Ms. Cruz.” He stepped in front of me. “I’m
sure you can understand how important it is for us to make this
wrong a right?” He nodded waiting for me to nod along with him.

I stared into his eyes. The next thing I
knew, I was nodding along with him. What the hell? He had charmed
me into doing that. Being manipulated was not cool. And I’d fallen
for it so easy. Shame on me.

I had to admit I knew it was the right thing
to do even though I didn’t trust them. The only way to get the
answers I needed was to go straight to the source. I needed to know
what was going to happen to Jack. But what if they wanted to drain
Jack? What if they wanted to drain me? If they did something to me,
my father would declare war against them and I didn't want to drag
my parents into this mess. Although Uncle Ernie hadn't seemed to
mind dragging everyone into this chaos.

When I did find Uncle Ernie, he’d be sorry
he ever got involved with the vampires. You couldn’t just go around
messing with these paranormal creatures and expect everything to
turn out peachy.

I sighed. “I guess we should go with them,
Jack.”

“Can I talk with you privately for just a
minute, Rylie?” Jack gestured toward the other side of the
room.

I nodded. “Sure.”

“If you’ll excuse us,” Jack said as he
walked with me across the room. “Rylie, they’re taking us to the
same people who we were fighting with at your parents, no?”

“Well, yes, it does appear that way.”

Jack nodded. “I know I said we should go
with them, but do you really think we should go? They wanted to
kill you and your parents.”

Jack was right. I wanted to go to the source
and find out what they wanted, but he didn’t need to be around
them.

“So we need to have a plan to get away from
them. They’re not going to want us out of their sight.”

He paused, then looked over his shoulder at
the couple.

“Are you two finished chatting?” Quinton
asked.

Jack looked back at me. “Okay. We’ll have to
run from them and pray that we can get away. That’s the only
way.”

I nodded. “But they’re fast. I think they’ll
be able to keep up with us.”

“We’ll just have to give them the slip.”

Yeah, it wasn’t that easy, but I didn’t want
to burst his escape-plan bubble. I guess it was our only shot
though. We’d have to try. The vampires would probably know every
move we made. They had that mental connection thing going on,
although it seemed that some vampires were less good at tracking
than the others since Sophie didn’t know that Quinton was the
vampire she’d sensed.

We made our way out of the apartment and
down the stairs. I was thankful Jennifer had stepped out of the
apartment and not gotten in the middle of this latest debacle. Once
we reached the sidewalk, Quinton and Sophie insisted that they’d
walk behind us, just like I knew they would. Jack reached out and
grabbed my hand. I didn’t know what he had in mind for the ultimate
getaway plan. When we reached the alleyway next to our building,
Jack squeezed my hand and I knew that was my signal.

“Aw, look at the lovebirds,” Sophie said
from behind us.

I darted to my right and Jack followed. I
kicked it into high gear, running faster than I ever had. My
stomach hurt, my feet hurt—everything hurt. I panted and gasped for
more air. Surprisingly, Jack was keeping up with my pace. His new
vampire status must have really added speed, but he looked as if he
was struggling just as much as I was. I knew if we were going to
get away from those two bloodsuckers following us, we’d have to
pull some tough maneuvers.

We cut to the left and around a building. If
we made enough turns, and moved through the people on the
sidewalks, I felt confident we’d lose them. Of course, if they used
any special vampire skills that I was unaware of, this whole scheme
would all be for nothing. I had to admit I hadn’t been very
confident when we first dreamed up this plan, but when I glanced
over my shoulder and didn’t spot either one, I felt a tiny bit of
relief.

Running through the streets with my
boyfriend, trying to escape vampires, wasn’t something I’d planned
on happening. Running from werewolves, sure, I’d gotten used to
that idea, but the vampires hadn’t even crossed my mind.

We had repeatedly glanced over our shoulders
to see if they were following us. For the first couple minutes we
were in an all-out sprint with the two vampires hot on our trail,
but when I looked over my shoulder this time, all I saw was a
crowd.

“They aren’t there.” I panted.

Jack glanced over his shoulder. “Do you
really think we lost them?”

We slowed our pace as we continued to weave
through the crowd.

“I sure hope so. I don’t think my lungs can
handle much more. We should duck inside somewhere with a large
crowd. Maybe then we can lose them for good.”

Jack nodded and reached for my hand. “Sounds
like a plan.”

Up ahead was a little jazz bar. Music
spilled out onto the street and people came in and out the door. We
hurried in and the dimly lit space was a welcome reprieve. With so
many people, there was no way our pursuers could find us in there,
was there?

“Why don’t we hide over there in the corner
behind that group of people? They’ll never think to look for us
there,” Jack said, still holding my hand.

He pulled me through the group and I loved
feeling his hand meshed with mine. It felt so right. We slipped up
to a little table in the back of the bar and sat down. No one
noticed us and I was thankful.

After a couple minutes, a waitress slipped
over. “Can I get you anything?”

Jack looked at me. Drinking seemed like a
great idea at the moment.

“A glass of white wine, please,” I said.

“Make that two.” Jack smiled.

This had to be one of the weirdest evenings
I’d ever spent. Now we were in this romantic setting, sipping wine,
when just a few minutes ago we were running for our lives.
Something told me the relaxation wouldn’t last long. The vampires
were on the hunt for us and wouldn’t stop until they found us.

“So what do we do next?” Jack asked.

“I don’t know.” I bit my bottom lip. “We
can’t go home. They’ll definitely be looking for us there.”

“You’re right, they will,” he said.

I knew I didn’t want to roam the streets
again like I had during the last full moon. That was no fun,
although it would be a heck of a lot better with Jack by my
side.

Jack continued, “Maybe we should just hang
out here for a little while, then we can go to a hotel for the
night until we figure out what to do.”

A hotel with Jack? My heart thumbed a little
harder at the mere thought.

“That sounds like a good plan.” I couldn’t
hide my smile.

He probably could read my mind and wondered
why I was thinking of sex at a time like this. I am only human, er,
werewolf, but whatever. I couldn’t turn off the hormones when Jack
smiled at me that way.

“Don’t you think we should call your pack
police again? Or do the vampires have police? Maybe they’d like to
know what this gang is up to.”

Jack was so sweet. But I knew from
experience if you wanted something done right, you had to do it
yourself. “I don’t know about the vampire police, but I suppose I
could try the pack police again. They didn’t seem really interested
the first time around. Unless a vampire rips one of our heads off,
I doubt they will take a threat seriously. They’d just ask us what
they want us to do about it. I mean, sure the vampires are after
us, but they haven’t technically threatened us, I guess.”

He nodded. “You’re right about that.”

“Well, like I said, maybe in the light of
day, things will seem better.”

The light of day. Would Jack’s sensitivity
to light worsen, or would it improve? I didn’t want to be a night
owl for life. I was more of a morning person, something that drove
Jennifer crazy, but I couldn’t help it.

Jack and I sipped on our wine. My head began
to swim. One glass of wine usually made me tipsy. My lack of food
didn’t make the matter any better. We watched the crowd, hoping not
to see any signs of Sophie or this Quinton guy. And what had
happened to the other vampire, Nelson from the graveyard? Where was
he? That was one face I didn’t want to run into in the crowd.

With each passing minute, I moved a little
closer to Jack. He touched his hand to mine and traced the outline
with his finger. It sent a tingle through my body. I wanted to get
out of there and some place alone with Jack, but the thought made
me anxious like a girl with a crush. I stared at his lips, and he
leaned over and placed his mouth on mine. I tasted the wine and my
head began to swim even more. I needed to take a deep breath before
I hyperventilated or something.

Maybe we shouldn’t have let our guard down,
but it was hard not to with the mood lighting and the soft music,
not to mention the wine giving me that soft tingling feeling. Of
course, that wasn’t the main thing that was unleashing that
feeling. Sitting next to Jack made my stomach dance and my heart
flutter.

I took a sip of my wine. Jack moved in
closer to me. Any closer and I’d be sitting on his lap. That wasn’t
a bad thing.

“So you want to tell me more about this
whole ‘male dancing’ thing you did?” I asked.

He’d shared this little tidbit with me on
our first date. I’d wanted to hear the whole story ever since. He
took another drink, probably trying to stall. I didn’t move my
gaze.

Jack cleared his throat, then said,
“Basically, I served drinks while wearing Speedos. Like I said, it
paid for my college.”

Good thing I didn’t have my mouth full of
wine. I would have spit it out across the table.

“Are you serious? So you had women stuffing
dollars down your pants?”

“It was a very awkward time for me.”

I giggled. “I bet. But it helped you with
college, so that’s a good thing.”

“Yes, it wasn’t so bad, I guess. I wouldn’t
want to do it again. Don’t tell me you haven’t had an embarrassing
job.”

“Okay, I won’t tell you.”

He laughed. “Well, let’s hear it. What did
you do?”

He almost looked a little nervous waiting to
hear my story.

I took a deep breath, then said, “When I was
in college I worked part time at a Mexican restaurant. I had to
wear this giant taco costume and stand out by the street with a
sign to attract customers.”

“A werewolf in a taco costume?” A smile
twisted his lips with the question.

“Well, I wasn’t in werewolf form at the
time.”

He laughed. I thought I saw tears form in
the corner of his eyes. He continued laughing, but at least it had
slowed to a soft snicker instead of an all-out, belly-shaking
laugh. All the while, all I could think about was a giant hairy
taco. That gave a whole new meaning to ‘hair in your food.’

“In my defense, I needed money to buy books.
What can I say?”

He grinned.

“Hey, I didn’t laugh that hard at your
Speedo story,” I said.

It was time for a topic change.

“You’re too cute.” Jack drank the last of
his wine and placed the glass on the table. “Maybe we should get
going?”

I took another sip, then said, “That’s a
good idea. We can hide away in the hotel until the morning.”

Things always looked better in the morning.
Did I sound a little eager about the prospect of being along with
Jack? Oh well, it was hard to hide the truth. I stood and Jack
walked behind me, helping steering me through the crowd with a soft
hand to my elbow. My stomach danced along with the music as we made
our way across the room. Thoughts of spending the night alone with
Jack was almost more than I could handle. All I could think about
was Jack in that Speedo. Okay, Jack minus the Speedo was really my
thoughts. I just prayed he didn’t have visions of me in that taco
costume running through his head all night. Note to self: make sure
my mother destroyed those photos.

We stepped into the night air. No vampires
in sight. But just in case they popped back up, we hurried down the
street, making our way toward the hotel. After a few more turns,
and doubling back to throw them off our scent, we made it to the
Maison Dupuy Hotel.

“We can stay here,” Jack said. “I don’t
think they’ll find us here.”

It looked good to me. It was much better
than hiding out in an alleyway behind a couple of disgusting
trashcans like I had the last time I was on the run. We passed
through the hotel courtyard, the flicker of the gas lamps leading
our way. I tried to slow down when we passed a couple sitting at a
café table. They gave us a strange look. I smiled, nodded, and then
I picked up the pace again.

We maneuvered around the bubbling fountain
in the middle of the courtyard. The water splashed my leg as I
zigzagged past. Water flowed from the hands of what appeared to be
cherubs riding dolphins. Maybe the cherubs were riding seahorses?
Whatever. There was no time to internally debate the décor.

Jack opened the door to the main entrance
and I rushed through as he followed on my heels. A couple of people
at the front desk looked up, startled by our abrupt entrance. I
stood fidgeting from foot to foot and scanning the area while Jack
spoke with the front desk clerks.

After Jack secured our room for the night,
we made our way down the hall and into the room. When I stepped
inside, an instant relief came over me. I let out a deep
breath.

A small sofa and chair sat at the far end of
the room. It was a surprisingly large space, done in shades of soft
yellow, greens and white. A floor to ceiling gold-framed mirror
hung on the wall opposite the bed.

The room was cozy and
comforting, which was just what I needed. A bouquet of mixed
flowers set on the table in front of the windows, releasing a sweet
aroma around the room. The mahogany headboard and matching night
tables had a carved scrolled pattern on the front.
The room
was small, but nicely decorated, our own little safe haven. Alone
with Jack. The thought made my stomach tingle.