Chapter 7 #3
My guilty heart pumped way too fast, and for a moment, I worried I’d be giving away dangerous secrets.
It made sense for my heart to race when discussing Derrick, so I hoped Virgil didn’t notice my guilt.
How was I supposed to answer, though? The quiet room was buzzing with activity again as the staff had begun cleaning up.
The band left towards the back with their heavy instrument cases. We were among the last few guests.
“I couldn’t help but wonder if he was involved,” I said, my voice too small. I nearly choked at the change in Virgil’s eyes. He had to have noticed the thick ropes of tension tonight.
“I think we’re on the same page,” he said, and I relaxed my tensed shoulders. “He’s old, Fallon. A man like that…well, he wasn’t drinking from cows.”
That’s what Lazaro had told me himself. “Right. Probably not one to drink ranchers dry, either?”
Virgil’s frown was pained. “But that doesn’t rule out his involvement.” He didn’t sound convinced, however. Something flashed in his mind, and he took my shoulders. “Just don’t try anything with him, okay? Don’t try to contact him. I’m still on the case. I promise.”
I gave a tight smile. Still on the case, and it was progressing as well as any other vampire murders did with the Cibola PD — not at all. I nodded anyway. “I think we’ve overstayed our welcome.”
I imagined I felt much the way marathon finishers did once we made it out that door.
My feet were exhausted, my brain was mush, and I couldn’t wait to wash off my makeup and slip out of my dress.
I had to wait for Virgil to shake a few more hands and thank the organizers of this event once again before we could finally leave.
The air outside was stagnant, the city quieter now that it was so late.
Virgil spoke with the valet about contacting our driver, then returned to my side, smoothing his palms over my bare arms and shoulders, a gesture that had me looking up at him with a melty smile.
As nice as it was to just give into the dull buzz of my exhausted brain, I couldn’t help but ask the question that had been on my mind all night.
“What did he want with you?”
Virgil’s jaw tightened, and he let out a heavy sigh. “If I’m picking apart the subtext and innuendo of it all, I think Mr. Reyes was strongly discouraging me from pursuing politics.”
“Did he threaten you?” I probably gave away too much with that being my first question.
“Oh, no, nothing so direct. He very nearly seemed to care about the same issues that I do.”
“Then?”
Virgil had struggled with his decision to go into politics, but I’d never seen him this hesitant about it all.
Whatever Lazaro had said to him was heavier than even his own self-doubts.
“He believes that a vampire going into politics will have a pushback greater than what I could ever hope to achieve.”
I scoffed. “Well, that’s no reason to not try to make the world a better place.”
“I’m just trying to make the city better at this rate.” His chuckle was thin. He was really giving thought to Lazaro’s power play.
Before I could give Virgil more of my thoughts on Lazaro, the SUV was there to sweep us away, and the screaming in my feet was louder even than the anger in my head.
This discussion could wait, especially with a driver in the same vehicle as us, but that didn’t stop my mind from mulling it over the entire way to Virgil’s home.
As we approached his neighborhood, he took my hand.
His own was shaking, and I’d been too absorbed in my own thoughts to notice how nervous he was. He moved in close to my ear.
“Want to come in for a drink, and I can take you home later?” His shy laugh tickled my neck.
I cursed Lazaro again for having stolen away the focus for the night.
Virgil had told me he loved me. Now he was inviting me over — to stay the night?
I did a replay of the evening to consider if I’d missed out on cues that we were heading in this direction, but we pulled in front of Virgil’s house. Time was up. I had to make a decision.
“Sure,” I said. “I’d like that.” My belly felt as sparkly as Virgil’s eyes looked.
We thanked the driver again, and Virgil offered his hand to help me out of the SUV.
My feet ached again the second they had my full weight on them, and I nearly considered asking Virgil to throw me over his shoulder and carry me.
He had vampire strength, after all. I went for the more appropriate option of holding onto his strong arm for dear life as we made our way up the path to his door, my heart picking up its pace as we went.
My brain dunked into a pool of worried thoughts about what tonight meant.
There were probably questions and concerns I should have raised, and when those started to enter my mind, Virgil sensed my apprehension.
“Fallon,” he said, turning to me in the warm glow of his front porch.
“We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.
I know I threw a lot on you tonight. I meant what I said, though.
I do love you, and I think you’re magnificent and special and one of the best things that’s ever happened to me.
But I’m a patient man. Even against the temptation of the most gorgeous girl in green I’ve ever seen.
” He tucked a loose piece of hair behind my ear.
Oh great, I thought, was I supposed to have a little speech prepared for this moment?
I shouldn’t have felt such panic when my mind went blank.
What was I supposed to say? This didn’t used to be so difficult.
Not with Derrick, and sure as hell not with Fenton, though that was a different situation altogether.
Should I have been thinking about exes when being invited in to sleep over for the first time with my current boyfriend?
This was ridiculous. Too many seconds had passed again, and I feared he was going to think I was an idiot.
The concern on his face was darkening. Then, it changed like a light turned off. I had only a split second to notice it before his hands were on my waist, spinning me around to the other side of his body.
A predatory growl shot a shudder up my spine.
I’d been only inches away from a lunging pair of fangs attached to a wall of muscle, and now that vampire collided with Virgil.
The two men went down in an uncoordinated pile, but the attacker was able to roll onto his feet. Those famished red eyes landed on me.
I backed away on shaking heels, and my hands searched helplessly for stakes I didn’t have.
I hadn’t brought any with me. I couldn’t.
We had to get through security at a vampire gala, where even a wooden pencil would have gotten me banned.
Now I was unarmed and dressed inappropriately, and a huge, angry vampire was launching himself at me again.
“Fallon!”
I heard my name in stereo, all around me.
My right heel plunged into the grass beside the walkway, sending me even more off-kilter as I blocked the vampire’s attack.
My left foot attempted a recovery, but my torso was too confined to twist how I needed to parry and throw the vamp off me, and so his full weight sent me backwards to the ground.
I threw an elbow up to block the fangs coming for my neck, but I was rewarded only with a painful jerk in my shoulder as my arm twisted towards my body under the man’s weight. I flinched in preparation for the inevitable pain of a bite to the neck.