Part 2 (1/2)

Bad tummy.

”When's the last time you had a date?” I blurted, desperate to ignore the lewd and lascivious thoughts that suddenly rushed through my head. ”Because if you need one, I would be more than happy to help.” He grinned and reality zapped me. ”That is, I could find you someone,” I rushed on. ”A nice female demon. Someone you could take home to Papa.”

”I seriously doubt he'd go for that.” His cell phone chose that moment to beep and he s.h.i.+fted his attention to the display. ”I've got to go. Mo and I are working a case in the Bronx and he just spotted our subject.” His gaze collided with mine and his eyes smoldered again for a split second. ”Will you be all right?”

”Why wouldn't I be?” I shrugged. ”You said yourself, it's probably nothing.”

”I could drop you off at home on my way out.”

And I'd sit next to him in the backseat of a cab? As it was, I had the crazy urge to strip naked and haul him into the nearest storage closet. A dark, cramped backseat would surely send me over the edge into nympho-land.

My legs shook and I felt the wetness between my thighs. I stiffened at the realization. I knew why I was having such an intense physical reaction to him (he was a s.e.xual demon, after all), but it didn't make it any less startling.

Get thee behind me, s.l.u.t.

I licked my lips and gathered my strength. ”Thanks, but no thanks.” I couldn't help l.u.s.ting after him, but I could keep from acting on that l.u.s.t.

Think Ty.

Think monogamy.

Think happily ever after.

Think.

”You go on,” I told him. ”I still need to pack up a few things here.”

He stared at me long and hard, his eyes dark and hot and oh, so dreamy, but I held my ground.

”Suit yourself,” he finally said. I watched him disappear (thankyouthankyouthankyou) into the elevator. The doors whooshed shut, and just like that the strange sensations subsided.

I spent the next hour watching Ash's men bag and tag. Finally, they gave the go-ahead for Nina to have the sofa moved to a storage closet to await disposal. They spent a few more minutes questioning the waitstaff and then they left. Nina had a new sofa brought up from storage and soon the sitting area looked as picture perfect as when I'd first walked in that evening.

There wasn't a trace of Esther left behind.

The realization made my eyes water and I blinked frantically.

Ash was probably right. It was probably nothing. Just a great big misunderstanding.

That's what I told myself as I grabbed the last of my things and loaded them into a box.

The problem was, deep in my heart I didn't actually believe it.

I was not going to cry.

Because I'm, of course, a bada.s.s vampire and BAVs did not cry unless a) they were on the sharp, pointy end of a stake, b) they were being burned alive by overzealous villagers or c) they ruined a pair of high dollar Zac Posen booties while chasing an extra from The Exorcist (hey, confession is good for the soul, right?).

A missing client/friend didn't score waterworks.

Unless it was the client/friend who'd stuck with me through not one but twenty-nine failed dates (thirty if you count tonight's bloodbath). Despite Esther's long list of losers, she'd kept trying. Hoping. Believing.

In me and in her sucky social life.

I wiped at a big fat tear that squeezed past my eyelashes, picked up my box and headed down the elevator. The concierge helped me outside and flagged down a cab. I loaded my stuff into the backseat and climbed in.

I know, I know. I was Super Vamp. I could leap tall buildings in a single bound. Listen in on every conversation for a three block radius. Sniff out a one-of-a-kind Donna Karan bag from a mile away. I should just do the pink fuzzy bat gig and save a few bucks, right?

Unfortunately, I had a bad habit of losing things during the metamorphosis and I was decked out in all my faves tonight.

Besides, a bat toting a box of name tags and a credit card machine? How inconspicuous was that?

”Where to?” The female cabbie eyed me in the mirror. Her name was Evelyn and she lived in Brooklyn. She had four kids, ten dogs and twenty-two hamsters. She'd had twenty-three but just last night she'd had to flush one because one of her labs had tried to use it for a chew toy.

A mental picture hit me and my stomach pitched.

Sometimes being a highly sensitive Super V wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

”Take a left at the corner and head east.” I gave her my address before settling back into the seat and pulling out my cell phone.

I had three texts and two voice mails. I punched in my mailbox code and waited for Ty's frantic Are you all right?

Instead, my mother's exasperated, ”What's the point of having a cell phone if you don't answer it?” blared in my ear.

Before I could hit the DELETE b.u.t.ton, she rushed on, ”Then again, what's the point of having a premium fertility rating if you're just going to waste it on a human woman who has no hope in the universe of giving birth to an heir to carry on the sacred Marchette name.”

O-kay.

”Obviously, said human has discovered that she can still give birth thanks to your brother 's premium born vampire sperm, which can fertilize any egg. But without two vampire chromosomes to make it a pure blood, the child is obviously doomed to be inferior.”

In layman's terms? Human.

”I swear,” she added, ”I would slit both my wrists if I thought it would put me out of my misery. But the last time I did that, your father thought I was trying to seduce him with a snack. We ended up having s.e.x on my imported Belgian rug.”

I so didn't need to know that.

”Needless to say, I couldn't find a dry cleaner in Connecticut who would touch it. I ended up s.h.i.+pping it to a filthy expensive preservatory.” She heaved a sigh. ”Never again. If your brother thinks I'm ruining another rug just because he has this crazy idea that he's going to give me a human grandchild, then he's sorely mistaken. I'm not going to stand by and let him sully our family's name. I mean, really. What will everyone say?”

Everyone meaning the card-carrying members of the Connecticut Huntress Club. Also known as the local 101 for snotty, pretentious, born female vampires.

My mother had been the refreshments chairwoman for the past three de cades. She pa.s.sed out gla.s.ses of AB-and O+ along with a primo sales pitch to hook me up with available sons, nephews, grandsons, great nephews, great grandsons, uncles, cousins, friends of cousins, friends of friends of cousins-namely any born male vamp with a p.e.n.i.s, a fertility rating and a bank account.

Gee, thanks Ma.

”I simply won't let it happen,” she declared. ”We've never ever had an actual human in our family tree until now.”

Three words-Great-uncle Peter.

”Oh, wait. There is Peter. Last I heard, he was still shacking up with that c.o.c.ktail waitress from Vegas. But we all know he hasn't been right in the head since he bit that priest back during the Crusades. And as crazy as he is, he still hasn't gone so far as to marry the woman. Last I'd heard they were barely sharing an email account. It's that Mandy, I tell you. She's bewitching your poor brother until he can't even think for himself ...” Beep.