Pixie Dust (Karli Lane #1) (11 page)

I pressed play. “Karli, it’s Vance. We need to talk. Call me.”

I ignored his message and decided that I needed some retail therapy. I called Erica to invite her along and she agreed to meet me at the mall in an hour.

“Hey Eri!” I shouted as soon as I saw her in the parking lot.

“Hey K! You ready to go buy some slutty lingerie and hooker shoes?” Erica was
always
ready to buy slutty lingerie and hooker shoes. Oh well, I figured. Why the hell not? This could be fun.

While we were trying on some lacy things she asked, “Have you figured out what you’re going to do about Vance?”

“No, not yet.” I answered. “ I really don’t want to think about it though. I just want to shop.”

“Sounds good to me!” She said. “ Hey doesn’t this bra make my boobs look great? I think I’m going to buy it!”

Two hours, four new bras, and a pair of shoes later, Erica and I said our goodbyes while standing next to her car. “Make sure you say hello to that big beautiful vampire for me tonight!” She yelled out the window of her yellow Camero as she was pulling away.

“I will.” I called. “Have a good night off!”

************************

I arrived to work about ten minutes before six. Leo was already set up at his table. I was relieving Kendra so I went to check in with her. “How’s business?” I asked.

“Pretty steady.” She replied. She pulled me down low, pretending like she was getting her purse. “You’re never going to believe what happened earlier!”

“What?” I whispered.

“Well, the new boss, Leo, invited me up to his room to go over all the security details before I came in today. He’s staying in the penthouse, which is amazing by the way! Anyway, Mr. Gorgeous over there was flirting with me shamelessly the whole time!”

“I think you may have misinterpreted his intentions Kendra. I think he’s just a flirty guy in general.”

“I’d hate to burst your bubble Karli, but he invited me up to his suite for lunch tomorrow. Can you believe it? Omigod, I have to go buy new lingerie!”

“Oh. Well I hope you two have a great time then. That’s really exciting.” I said.
Really exciting my ass!
Why would he invite
her
out to lunch? Why am I so upset by this? Who cares if he’s dating one of the girls? I checked my phone really quick before stowing my purse away. Shit! Two more voicemails from Vance. He’s persistent, you’ve gotta give him that.

*******************

Thankfully, we were swamped all night so my shift went by really fast. I let everyone except Leo out through the gate and locked it behind them. “It’ll be just a few minutes before I’m ready to go.” I called out to him. 

“Take your time.” He said. “Hey, would you mind grabbing me a scotch while I wait?”

“Sure, no prob.” I said as I was grabbing a rocks glass from the shelf. I turned around to place it on the bar but tripped over a mat and dropped it instead. “Shit!” I screamed.

“Is everything okay?” Leo asked.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine, don’t worry about me.” The glass shattered into several large pieces. While I was picking them up, I accidentally sliced my hand.  “Fuck!” I yelled as blood was squirting up from my palm. Damn, that hurt! I grabbed a towel and applied pressure as Leo ran over to see what happened. It was pretty hard to ignore the fact that his fangs were in full effect.

“Let me see it.” He reached for my hand but I resisted. He grabbed it forcefully and loosened the towel. Another shot of blood came out. Oh God! This is so not good!  “It looks like you nicked an artery. This isn’t good Karli.” No shit Sherlock! Ya think? I’m alone with a vampire while a bloody geyser is coming out of my hand! 

“Look, you have two options.” He said. “I can take you to the hospital to get stitches. It will probably take a while to heal though which will make doing your job very difficult.”

“What’s my other option?” I asked.

“I can seal it shut with my saliva.” He answered.

“What?”

“My saliva can heal your wound. There are enzymes in it that can instantly repair any damage to your hand as if it never happened.”

“Um, I think I’ll take the first option.” I’ll get Erica to perform a healing spell later to speed up my recovery.

“Karli, don’t be ridiculous. I can heal you. What’s the big deal? I’m a vampire, I drink blood. So what? I would have never thought you’d be so squeamish.”

“I’m not. It’s just---”

“It’s just what?” He asked. “Why won’t you let me heal you?”
Oh I don’t know, maybe because I’m afraid you’ll drain me dry?

“Leo, I’ll be fine.” As soon as I get away from your gigantic fangs.

“Give me your hand Karli.” He demanded. When I didn’t comply he grabbed it anyway. He leaned forward and I immediately tensed up. “Relax, Karli. Look at me. There’s nothing to be afraid of.” I looked into his eyes and felt an instant calmness wash over me. Hmm, that’s weird. “That’s a good girl.” He cooed. “Keep looking at me.”

I sat there in silence, as I watched him slowly lick the blood from my hand. “Ooh.” I said, surprising myself. This felt
really
good.

He gave me a knowing grin as he finished. He pulled back and said, “Look, good as new.”

I inspected my hand. “Wow. That’s it? You’re done? That was pretty uh…amazing.”

He licked his lips and gave me a big smile. “Yes, it was pretty amazing.” He agreed. “Your blood is like nothing I’ve ever tasted before. It’s sweet, very different from what I expected. What an
exquisite
elixir.” Oh crap! Now I really screwed up. I tried pulling my hand away but he turned it over and placed a kiss in the center of my palm before letting go.

“Why don’t you let me finish cleaning up this mess?” He offered. “We can leave as soon as I’m through.”

“Okay.”

Leo swept up the glass while I gathered my things. He lifted the gate and gestured for me to pass while he locked up. “It’s late.” He said. “I should probably walk you to your car since everyone else left.”

“Um, no that’s okay. I’ll be fine.”

“No Karli, I insist.”

He offered his arm and I accepted it out of courtesy. I started fumbling for my keys as soon as we got to my car. I don’t know what the hell just happened back at the bar, but I knew that I needed to get out of here fast.

 “Thanks for uh, fixing my hand back there.” I said.

“Trust me, the pleasure was all mine.” I started turning away but he stopped me. He leaned into me and cupped my cheek with his right hand. He then dipped his head and gave me the softest, most sensual kiss on the lips. Dazed, I said nothing as he pulled back with a smile. “Good night, Karli.” He said, as I stood there speechless.

He stepped back and watched me while I got into my car and started the ignition. He gave me a little wave as I pulled out of my parking spot. I returned the gesture and hit the gas pedal. I looked for him in my rear view mirror and saw him laughing as I drove away.
What the hell am I doing? Oh this is bad. Really, really bad!

Chapter 10

*****************

I woke up the next morning in a great mood. I was so thankful to have the next three days off; I really needed some time to myself to figure my life out. My phone rang, disrupting my solitude. It was Vance calling, again. I let it go to voicemail and got into the shower. After some coffee, I decided to listen to it, even though I already knew it would say something to the effect of, ‘Karli, we need to talk. Blah, blah, blah.’

I pressed play. “Karli. It’s Vance.
Again
. I’m going to come over there if you don’t call me back. Call me.” Yeah, too bad I won’t buzz you in if you do!

Putting Vance in the back of my mind, I decided to go lay by the pool. After squeezing into my teeniest white string bikini, I headed out to the small, fenced in area on the West end of my apartment complex. I covered my skin with tanning oil, put my ear buds in, and pressed play on my iPod, hoping Jack Johnson could sing my worries away. I was just about to flip over about an hour later when someone rudely blocked my sun. I opened my eyes to glare at the offender only to find Vance standing over me, wearing a white t-shirt and dark blue board shorts. He sat down on the lounge chair next to me and pulled out my ear buds.

“Hey, what the hell? What are you doing here?” I asked.

“You know why I’m here.” He replied sharply. “You won’t return my calls, so I decided to come over. It’s a lot harder to ignore me in person.”

“Watch me.” I said as I flipped over.

“Fine, I can wait as long as you want.” He pulled off his t-shirt and reclined in the chair.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” I said.

“Afraid not.” He replied.

“Fine, whatever. Stay there as long as you’d like.” I put my ear buds back in place and put my head down.

We laid there in silence for about an hour. I was sick of playing this game so I stood up to go inside. Vance did the same. “Where do you think you’re going?” I asked.

“I don’t know. Where are
we
going?” He replied.

“Ugh! You’re impossible!” I yelled as I started stomping down the sidewalk towards my building.

“I can be just as stubborn as you can.” He shouted.

I unlocked the back door to my building and tried closing it behind me. To my dismay, Vance caught it and was hot on my trail. I ran up two flights of stairs and down the hall to my apartment door. When I stuck my key in the door I said, “You can’t possibly think I’m going to let you inside? You can’t just walk into someone’s house uninvited you know.”

“Watch me.” He said, throwing my words back in my face.

I turned the doorknob and he pushed it wide open, forcing his way in. “You can’t do this! I’ll call the cops.” I cried.

“I
am
the cops, sweetheart.” He said. “I’m just here trying to get some more information for the investigation.”

“You are such a liar!” I screamed. “This has nothing to do with that and you know it. Why do you insist on pressing the issue?”

“Why do you insist on fighting me?”

“I’m taking a shower!” I yelled.  I locked myself in the bathroom and turned on the shower. I took off my bikini, stepped under the spray and stayed in there until the water started to run cold. While drying off, I realized that I didn’t have any clothes in here. Goddammit! Wrapping the towel around my body, I crept out of the bathroom. I caught a glimpse of Vance in my kitchen, helping himself to my last Corona. Bastard!