Page 80 of Night of the Vampire
A few seconds later he came walking out from behind the curtain with his hands full of scented candles. "Yeah?"
"How would you like to be promoted to manager of the store?"
Chapter 26
Kenya
It was almost surreal to be back at The Purple Fang.
I finished adding in the night's totals, backed up the file, and shut down the computer. It had been a little slower than usual tonight, but I was kind of glad. I hadn’t mentioned it to the guys, but I still wasn’t feeling quite back to normal after my little jaunt to the threshold of death’s door.
I shut off the computer, turned off the lights, locked the office door, and went out into the club. It was quiet. The guys had already gone home. Checking my watch, I only then realized how late it was. Another hour and my skin would feel that prickling sensation it always did with the upcoming sunrise.
Retrieving my coat from behind the bar, I shoved my arms into the sleeves and shrugged it on, pulling my hair out from underneath the collar. With one last look around, I turned off all of the lights except one behind the bar, got my bag—large enough to hold my laptop—and walked to the front door.
Once again, my mind strayed to the night the witches saved me. I didn’t remember much. Just a bunch of faces looking down at me, a lot of chanting, and the pain of somebody trying to rip out my insides. It still surprised me that I walked away from that night completely intact. Yet, every once in a while, I lifted my shirt in front of a mirror to make sure that was, indeed, true.
I didn’t remember who all had been there other than Killian.
And one other.
The one who had reached inside of me and pulled the spell from my ailing body, his magic as dark as my rotting insides.
Locking the door behind me, I dropped the keys in my bag and looked up.
As though I’d conjured him up from within my mind, he stood across the street, leaning casually against a light post. Dressed in jeans and boots and a fitted pine-green jacket, he seemed completely out of place amongst the broken glass, discarded cups, and other trash that always littered Bourbon Street at the end of a Saturday night.
When he saw me there, he straightened to his full height—a good foot taller than me. Although he appeared to be alone, I smelled no fear as his eyes caught mine.
Tentatively, he lifted one hand in greeting. Quickly, I searched up and down the street, making sure no one had seen him there. But the street was empty.
I waved him over and unlocked the door to the club again to bring him inside, standing back as he jogged across the street and slipped inside.
“What are you doing here, Alex?” I asked him. The words came out a little harsher than I wanted. But if anyone found out he was here alone, without the high priestesses knowledge…
“I just wanted to check on you. See how you were doing.”
“Oh.” Hiding my surprise, I set my bag down on the nearest tabletop. I wanted my movements to be unhampered, just in case I had to fight. Witches and vampires kept our distance from each other, and for good reason, except for the few and far between times when we had to bang out new rules in order to reside within the same city in peace. So, him being here like this, it wasn’t normal.
Plus, there was something dangerous about this one. More so than the others.
“I’m feeling okay,” I told him. “I think.”
“That’s good. You look good.”
I’d just fed a few hours before, but I didn’t mention that fact. It was a touchy subject. “Alex, you shouldn’t be here.”
His eyes, dark as pitch, roamed over my face as one side of his mouth lifted in something of a smirk. “It’s all right,” was all he said.
I shook my head. “No. No, it’s not ‘all right’. Not at all. You’re not supposed to be in this part of town without permission.”
“Are you going to do something about it?”
The challenge in his voice, though slight, was hard to miss. “No,” I told him. Not because I was frightened of him, although I was, but because he had saved my life. And I seriously doubted he would go through all of that trouble just to come here now and finish me off.
Unless he had been the one to cast the spell over me. And only healed me because the rest of his coven had been there as witnesses.
But why would he have done that? Killian and Lizzy told me no one had known the magic inside of me or how to heal it until Alex had stepped up. He could just as easily have pretended not to know and no one would’ve been the wiser.
