“Mack Quaid, Knight of the First Order.”
Holy hellfire. Mack really did send me a vampire. I was going to throttle him. Better yet, I would introduce him to my new friend Trio. I’d teach her how to fetch a ball first and then let the dog loose on Mack.
“What’s your name?” the vampire asked, smooth and soft, like he was lulling me to sleep after an intense and exhausting session of bedroom activity.
“You first.”
His mouth twitched. “Lincoln.”
“London.”
He grunted. “London? Interesting choice.”
“My mother was a history buff. She liked to say the past is full of warning signs. It’s helpful to read them.”
“Wise woman. And you’re a Knight of Boudica?”
How much had Mack told him about me? “Does it matter?”
“I asked for the best.”
“If you want the best, there are more official channels you could’ve taken.”
Ignoring me, he nodded to George. “Care for a drink before we begin?”
“Water for me, thank you.”
George knew what to serve me. Even if someone ordered me a vodka tonic, I was to be given a glass of water. A woman couldn’t be too careful and I was always careful. Then again, a man like Lincoln could make a girl throw caution to the wind. Too bad he was a vampire.
A server appeared with a glass of water for me and another whisky for my client. She lingered for a moment, her gaze fixed on him as though hoping for some kind of acknowledgement.
“That will be all,” he finally said. The dismissal was firm, like the hint of muscle that strained beneath his cloak.
The server’s mouth turned down at the corners and she scuttled away.
What was she hoping for? A brief moment of plug and play on the table?
“Why don’t you tell me what you want?” The sooner I extracted the information, the sooner I could get out of here and far away from him. The close proximity to a vampire was making me deeply uncomfortable. And my primal reaction to him didn’t help.
His finger circled the rim of the glass. “I need you to recover something for me.”
I leaned against the back of the booth. “I’ll need a little more information than ‘something.’”
“Do you treat all your clients with the same kind of irreverence or am I special?”
Special didn’t even begin to cover it. “As you can imagine, I can’t track something without knowing what it is. At the very least, I need a description and where you last saw it. You know, the basics.”
What could a vampire possibly need someone like me to track? They had the best knights at their disposal. Official ones like Mack, yet the vampire was seated across from me in need of my help. Something didn’t add up.
His penetrating gaze unsettled me. “You seem…uncomfortable. Is anything the matter? If it’s the location, we can meet elsewhere. I was told this was your preferred meeting place.” He surveyed the room. “Rather clandestine.”
I had a bad habit of wearing my feelings on my face. I hid my species, yet I couldn’t hide my dismay or suspicion. You’d think after thirty years, I’d be better at that.
I tore my gaze away and snapped to attention.
Whatever the job was, I couldn’t do it. I avoided vampires at all costs and now here I was, sharing a table with one of the deadly bloodsuckers.
No thanks.
I slipped out of the booth and rose to my feet. “Sorry. Mack was mistaken. I don’t have room in the schedule.”
He looked at me with a mixture of curiosity and…respect?
“I think what you really mean to say is you won’t work for a vampire.”
“I couldn’t possibly say that.”
His mouth split in an amused grin. “Only because you’re worried about repercussions, not because it isn’t true.”
“I’m sorry I wasted your time, but you’ll have to find someone else.”
Lightning-fast, he reached out and grabbed my hand. The movement was so swift and unexpected that I nearly drew my dagger on instinct. I was relieved to have exercised self-control. Pulling a weapon on a vampire in a public place was madness.
“And what if I don’t want anyone else?” he asked in a low voice that promised so much more than a paycheck.
Nice try, sexy beast, but no dice. I extracted my hand from his firm grip. “As I said, my dance card is currently full. You’ll have to seek another partner.”
There was nothing else I could say that wouldn’t get me in water hot enough to boil my skin, so I exercised the only option left to me.
I walked out.
3
I left Hole just as the streetlights dimmed to indicate nighttime. I headed straight for the headquarters of the Knights of the First Order. Despite the hour, I knew Mack would be there and he had a lot of explaining to do. He didn’t know my secret, of course, but he knew how our banner felt about vampires. Before the Eternal Night began, no one knew vampires even existed. They still lived in the shadows—until those shadows extended across the globe and became the norm. Humans weren’t designed to live in a world without sunlight, but vampires were. The rise of vampires prompted shapeshifters and magic users to emerge from hiding as well, but their abilities proved no match for the strength of bloodsuckers in a sunless world. Humans were pushed toward the bottom of the food chain, forced to register as potential blood donors at government tribute centers. Under House Lewis, the system was set up as a lottery, much like jury duty.