Chapter 17

Vampires Prefer Blonds

I’d had to ask Milly for directions to the park, but other than that I was good to go. I figured with Ira around there wouldn’t be any need to bring my armor or major weapons. There was always my boot knife, which I had made sure was in its proper place this time. I’d forgotten to strap it back on after my work-out, which was why I hadn’t had it at Holly’s. It wouldn’t do much good against four vampires, but if they were motivated enough to attack me with Ira on-scene every little bit would help.

I didn’t think that would happen, though. So far Zo had only pressed her luck when no one was around. Every time someone had stepped in, she’d given it up. Hopefully she stuck to that pattern. If not, well, I’d burn that bridge when I got to it.

The city park was pretty typical—big grassy area for sports, sandy pit with swings and equipment, and a place with trees and benches. Surrounding the whole thing was the bike path. I was surprised at the amount of kids still here with their parents. It was almost dark, but several tots and tykes still roamed the place. A few ladies were sitting at the benches, the parents, I assumed.

I got out of my car slowly, glancing around. Ira’s big boat wasn’t parked close by, but I was betting there was another parking lot on the other side. A little lost, I wandered out into the park a ways. I’d just stepped out of the way of a jogger when I heard Ira’s voice.

“Regan!”

He was walking toward me from the other side of the park. His t-shirt and jeans weren’t the ones he’d been wearing this morning, which made sense. There were lines of worry around his eyes that lessened as we got closer. I’d seen him just a few hours ago. It felt like weeks. That was a strange feeling, but I didn’t have time to dwell on it because he was wrapping his arms around me and pulling me tight against his chest. I was taken aback for a moment, even as my arms were automatically rising to smooth his back.

I took a breath to say something, and it caught as the smell of him hit me. It was similar to the icy-cold taste of his skin, only different. More alive somehow, if that made sense. It was probably common to all vampires, but there was something spicier floating over it that was uniquely Ira. I liked it. I didn’t know how I felt about that.

Despite myself, despite this uncharacteristic behavior and my mixed feelings about it, I was smiling as I pulled away to look up at him. It still gave me a small thrill that I had to look up at him.

“Hey,” he said, black eyes searching my face.

“Hey,” I replied softly.

There was an almost-shy half-smile on his face. “It seems like it’s been forever.”

“I was just thinking that,” I admitted.

His smile turned pleased. Though I couldn’t have said why, I dropped my eyes and ducked my head. We stood there for a moment, not saying anything.

A touch to my elbow guided my onto the bike path. I probably should have been annoyed at him leading me around like a Spanish lady, but I found myself not caring.

“So, tell me what happened with Zo,” he said, an amusing tinge of authority in his voice.

I took a breath. “There’s not much to tell. I went out to your mom’s, had a pie, we talked. Then she noticed Zo behind me through the windows, and I went outside to talk to her.” I shrugged. “Other than that not much happened.”

Disbelieving, Ira said, “She didn’t try to hurt you?”

“She wanted to, but somebody stepped in,” I said casually. “An Asian man in white. Zo seemed real reluctant to start anything with him.”

“Oh, that’s Jen. He’s a friend of my mom’s,” was Ira’s reply. “He hangs around, helps her out around the place.”

If by friend you mean bodyguard, I thought. Now that Ira had told me the Asian man’s name, I remembered Zo saying it. Stay out of this, Jen.

“Lucky for me he was there,” I said with not-entirely-feigned sincerity. “I couldn’t fight off Zo and her friends by myself.” Without a weapon, I added mentally.

Ira’s face darkened. “Describe them to me. In detail.”

I did. With my battle-focus enhanced memory there were a lot of details. When I was done Ira’s mouth was a grim line.

“It’s definitely Knox, Cam, and Trevor,” he said. “Which surprises me about Cam. Knox is a scheming sycophant, and Trevor’s dumb enough to be talked into anything. But Cam’s a good guy. I wouldn’t think he’d go for something like this.”

“Maybe he’s got a thing for Zo,” I said offhandedly.

Ira gave me a questioning look. “What makes you say that?”

“It’s just that I’ve noticed when a guy is acting differently there’s usually a woman involved somewhere.”

There was silence as Ira mulled that over. Well, silence except for the shrill shrieks of children in the background.

“You could be right,” he finally said. “He’s been dressing differently lately. Sexier.”

I poked him in the side. “Maybe you’ve got a thing for Cam.”

He shook his head, a grin forming. “Nah, he’s not my type.”

“And what is your type,” I asked playfully.

He leaned in close. “Blond.”

I schooled my face into passiveness. “Oh, yeah?”

He bent closer, and this time I couldn’t stop the shiver as he made his voice husky in my ear. “Yeah.”

A coy smile in place, I canted my head up at him. “Then what are we still doing here?”

The heat in his eyes was unmistakable. Until recently I hadn’t known vampire eyes could be that expressive.

“We could always get out of here,” Ira said.

I looked away, like I was thinking. “And where would we go?”

“Anywhere.” The heat had started to seep into his voice.

Looking into his eyes, I let a bit of my playful mask drop, let him see my own heat. “Seriously, where would we go?”

“There’s this overlook I know,” he said, not missing a beat. “Like the one on the ridge when you come into town, only better because the cops don’t patrol this one.”

It was kinda funny. We’d gone from discussing a potentially life-threatening situation to talking about sex, and the change in subject hadn’t seemed to jostle either of us. You’d think a transition like that would be awkward, but it wasn’t. Another thing I’d have to think about later.

“Where are you parked?” I asked. “I’ll drive around and follow you.”

“Or I could just drive you,” he said. “Unless you’re having a paranoid moment. Oh, my bad—cautious.”

“Yeah, making fun of me is real conducive to getting me in a car with you,” I groused. “Even if it wasn’t non-kosher.”

“Regan, come on,” he said. “I don’t wanna pressure you, but this would be so much easier. Whatever you’re afraid might happen, it won’t.”

He stepped closer, earnestness all but shining from his eyes. “I’m not gonna hurt you, won’t do anything you don’t want. Just trust me enough to drive you there and back.”

“Trust” thing aside, it was a bad idea. Not only was it against my personal policy, it was unsafe and stupid on several levels. Even if he hadn’t been a vampire, he still out weighed me. On the other hand, I felt more comfortable with Ira than probably any other guy I’d been with. However I felt about that, the offer sounded good. Really good.

“C’mon, Regan,” he said softly. “Just say okay.”

“Okay,” I said.

He grinned triumphantly, and I couldn’t do anything but grin back. I was about to throw all caution and good sense out the window in favor of getting in a car with a vampire and having him drive me to a secluded area. It violated every hunter’s code and every personal rule I followed. In a nutshell, it was quite possibly one of the worst ideas of my life. I should have cared. Did I?

Well...I was sure I’d feel terrible about it later.