"Seeing someone?"
He passed a puzzled look to his friend. "No."
"Gay?"
His jaw dropped. "Excuse me?"
"Cassandra!" Michelle snapped.
She ignored both of them and held tight to Michelle's hand as her friend tried to run away. "You like women, yes?"
"Yes," he said, sounding offended.
"Good, because my friend Michelle here thinks you're exceptionally cute and she'd like to meet you." She pulled Michelle between them. "Michelle, this is…"
He smiled as he met Michelle's stunned gaze. "Tom Cody."
"Tom Cody," Cassandra repeated. "Tom, this is Michelle."
"Hi," he said, extending his hand to her.
From Michelle's expression, Cassandra could tell her friend wasn't sure if she should strangle her or thank her.
"Hi," Michelle said, shaking his hand.
Assured that they were semi-compatible and that he didn't bite on the first date, Cassandra left them and headed back to Brenda and Kat, both of whom had their mouths hanging wide open as they stared at her in disbelief.
"I can't believe you just did that to her," Kat said as soon as Cassandra rejoined them. "She's going to kill you later."
Brenda cringed. "If you ever do that to me, I will kill you."
Kat draped an arm over Brenda's shoulders and gave her an affectionate hug. "You can yell at her all you want to, hon, but I can't let you kill her."
Brenda laughed at Kat's comment, not knowing that Kat spoke from her heart. She was Cassandra's covert bodyguard and had been with her for five years now. A record. Most of Cassandra's bodyguards had a job expectancy of about eight months.
They either ended up dead or quitting the minute they caught a look at exactly who and what was after her. To their way of thinking, not even the exorbitant amount of money her father paid them to keep her alive was worth the risk.
But not Kat. She had more tenacity and chutzpah than anyone Cassandra had ever met. Not to mention the fact that Kat was the only woman Cassandra had ever known who was actually taller than her. At six feet four, and stunningly beautiful, Kat made quite an entrance everywhere she went. Her blond hair hung just past her shoulders and she had eyes so green they didn't look real.
"You know," Brenda said to Cassandra as she watched Tom and Michelle talking and laughing. "I would give anything to have your confidence. Do you ever doubt yourself?"
Cassandra answered truthfully."All the time."
"You never show it."
That's because, unlike her companions, there was more than just a slim chance Cassandra might only have another eight months left to live. She couldn't afford to be scared or timid of life. Her motto was to grab everything by both hands, and run with it.
Then again, she'd been running all her life. Running from those who would kill her if they had a chance. But most of all, she'd been running from her destiny, hoping that somehow, some way, she could avert the inevitable.
Even though she'd traveled the world since she was six years old, she was no closer to discovering the truth about her heritage than her mother had been before her.
Still, with every day that dawned, she was hopeful. Hopeful that someone would tell her that her life didn't have to end on her twenty-seventh birthday. Hopeful that she would be able to stay someplace for more than a few months or even days.
"Hub-ba!" Brenda said, her eyes wide as she looked toward the entrance. "I think I just found our cookies! And ladies, there are three of them."
Laughing at her awed tone, Cassandra turned around to see three incredibly sexy men entering the club. They were all well over six feet in height, golden in skin and hair, and drop-dead gorgeous.
Her laughter died instantly as she felt a horrible, stinging tingle run through her. It was a sensation she was all too familiar with. And it was one that branded terror into her heart.
Dressed in expensive sweaters, jeans, and ski jackets, the three men scanned the bar's occupants like the deadly predators they were. Cassandra trembled. The people in the bar had no idea how much danger they were in.
None of them.
Oh, dear God…
"Hey, Cass," Brenda said. "Go introduce me to them."
Cassandra shook her head as she made eye contact with Kat to warn her. She tried to herd Brenda away from the men and out of their dark, hungry sight. "They're bad news, Bren. Really bad news."
The one virtue of being half Apollite was her ability to spot others of her mother's kind. And something in her gut told her the men walking through the crowd, scanning women with seductive smiles, were no longer simple Apollites.
They were Daimons—a vicious breed of Apollite who chose to prolong their short lives by killing humans and stealing their souls. Their unique, powerful Daimon charisma and their hunger for souls bled from every pore of their bodies. They were here for victims.
Cassandra swallowed her panic. She had to find some way to get out of here before they got too close to her and discovered who she really was.