La Vida Vampire

“Damn it, Cesca,” he said when I finished. “Those Covenant guys are no joke. They’re the KKK without the robes and hoods.”


Maggie raised a brow. “How do you know about the Covenant?”

Neil pushed off the sofa and paced. “I didn’t tell you this because I didn’t want to make you mad, but I went to one of their meetings. It was last August, a week after you found Cesca.”

Maggie shot to her bare feet. “You considered joining up with those creeps?”

“I was worried about protecting you. I wasn’t in the meeting fifteen minutes before I realized I didn’t belong.” He turned to me. “These guys, and the few women I saw, have a hit squad mentality. You may need to quit your job.”

“Why should she?” Maggie demanded.

“To protect the innocent,” I answered. Neil did a double take. “Yes, Neil, I’m not an idiot. I thought about other people getting hurt when Stony came after me tonight. But Mick, the guide I work with? He says that’s not the Covenant MO. They don’t want outsider witnesses.”

“They may make an exception for you. You’re not exactly a typical vampire.”

Maggie held up a hand. “Wait just a damn minute. Before you quit a job you worked your butt off to get, shouldn’t you see what the tour company has to say? You said a supervisor has already been informed, and they ’ll have the incident report in the morning. Your next shift is tomorrow, right? Then Thursday?”

I nodded. Maggie was like a general in the heat of battle when she got wound up. Even her dad, an officer and a gentleman who lives in town and has shown me his army ribbons and medals, calls her his warrior.

“Then give them time to consider before you take any action. You’re not at fault, and you sure as hell shouldn’t act like you are. And as far as these vigilantes go—” She stopped, took a breath, and speared Neil with a narrow-eyed glance. “We’ll get a restraining order, hire a bodyguard if we have to. I will not have my friends coerced or threatened, and that’s final.”

“Ma’am, yes, ma’am,” I said smartly, just like Radar might to Hot Lips.

She blinked, then grinned. “I went off, didn’t I?”

“Like a bomb,” Neil said.

“Well, injustice pisses me off. And the point remains that you don’t quit unless Old Coast Ghosts forces the issue. Which they won’t. Tourism is the lifeblood of this town, and you’ve been a transfusion for that company. The competition would snap you up in a minute, and the owners know it.”

I could’ve done without Maggie’s blood analogy, but she was probably right. In the ghost tour business, I was more an asset than a liability. So long as a patron didn’t get hurt.

And, hey, a bodyguard was a great idea. A hunk who’d be forced to spend lots of time with me? It had potential. A guy like George Clooney—

Maggie snapped her fingers in my face. “Earth to Cesca. What are you grinning about?”

“Doesn’t look like anything I want to hear,” Neil grumped. “Talk to you tomorrow, Mags.”

He leaned to kiss Maggie’s cheek, then paused when she tipped her head ever so slightly in my direction. He straightened and turned to me.

“Um, Fresca. Surf’s supposed to be flat tomorrow, but there’s a nor’easter coming. We could try the waves Thursday morning early. At Crescent,” he said, meaning Crescent Beach. “That is, if you’re interested.”

Wow, Neil was inviting me to surf with him? Maggie must’ve turned the poor man inside out in bed. “What time?”

“Dawn? Should be high tide, too.”

“Bitchin’, dude,” I said and gave him the hang loose sign.

He rolled his eyes but cracked a smile. “And, Fresca.”

“What?” I asked. “Don’t be late?”

“Keep your cell phone charged and on you in case you need it. You’ll be a hell of a surfer if you live long enough.”