The Calling - Desire Calls Part 16

"T his will definitely add to your tab," Foley said.

Silence reigned for a moment as they took in the condition of the room. Blood had splattered against two of the walls and stained a rather large section of the cement floor. The blood-beginning to turn rusty-colored as it dried-also smeared the skin of the two women shackled to the thick iron posts of the bed.After a quick nip of Diego's attacker to insure her forgetfulness, Stacia and he had secured the one to avoid her waking and getting bloodthirsty again, while Stacia fed him yet a third time to strengthen him. Even now, his skin felt raw and the dull ache in his side reminded him that he was still not healed completely.

Foley rushed to the women and checked their pulses. Seemingly satisfied that they would be fine, he jabbed a finger in Diego's direction. "Look at this mess. Who's going to pay to clean it up?"

At that, Stacia made a tsking sound. She mimicked choking Foley, and suddenly he clutched at his throat, struggling for air.

"You should learn to respect your elders."

Diego placed his hand on her arm. "Please let him go. He knows he need not worry about whether I will take care of payment."

Stacia tossed Foley against the doorjamb with barely a flicker of her hand. "Go. Diego and I have some unfinished business."

"There's no need for you to linger, Stacia. I will have a gla.s.s or two from Foley's stash."

He sensed her pique at his dismissal. Had he been anyone else, he suspected Stacia would have drained him dry and watched with glee as his body shriveled to dust. But they had a long history, and in a way that not even the oldest of vampires could understand, were friends. Of course, as his elder, and a vampire with no desire to keep her humanity, Stacia might rather think of them as friends with feeding privileges.

Just as she had allowed him to feed from her tonight, if she required it, he would return the favor without hesitation.

I know, she broadcast into his head. With a sad smile, she waved and surged from the room in a blur of motion, leaving him to face Diana and Ryder, who were waiting at the bar.

The two of them took seats on either side of him, shutting him off from the inquiring eyes. Clearly, the action in the special rooms had garnered attention, maybe too much, which was likely why Foley had called Ryder and Diana to come down. While the Blood Bank liked to cater to a certain clientele, it also relied on the inherent disbelief in creatures such as vampires, hence why even here there was one rule-don't drain the humans. The bodies were just too hard to hide.

Thankfully, a vampire's bite brought forgetfulness, as well, eliminating the short-term memory of those who chose to make themselves willing snacks.

Hunching over to further avoid the limelight, Diego regretted the movement as agony erupted across the muscles in his back. Pain too similar to what he had experienced five hundred years earlier.

But you wanted the pain, the voice in his head reminded him. You wanted the punishment for not being human. For not being able to love the mortal.

"Diego." Diana covered his hand with hers gently. Slightly chilly, her touch sent an unusual tingle of vamp power through him. One that said Ryder had bitten her more than he should have.

"Tell us what happened. When Foley called us-"

"Foley needs to mind his own business." Diego waved for one of the vamp bartenders to bring over a gla.s.s.

"He heard the noises in the back. When Stacia went in-"

"She saved me. Not that it matters much. She sensed I needed help, and came when one of you mortal types got a little too eager."

Diana obviously didn't fail to hear the disdain in his voice for those of her kind. "Ms. Escobar has obviously p.i.s.sed you off in a major way. Why don't you tell us how and whether we're still supposed to help?"

The waiter placed the winegla.s.s filled with blood before Diego and he chugged it down.

"The lady is dying. That's what humans do. That's what women do. They die. Like Esperanza did. Like Ramona and Diana will,"

he snarled, las.h.i.+ng out in anger and pain.

He never saw the fist that knocked him out cold.

She hadn't slept well.

The smell of him had clung to her skin and her sheets. A shower and change of bedding hadn't helped.

Every time she closed her eyes, images of his vampire face invaded.

Diego was a vampire. A living-although some wouldn't consider it living, his being undead and all-breathing, bloodsucking vampire. She didn't want to think that the last place his fangs had been were right at her neck.

Only he hadn't bitten her.

No, he'd made love to her amazingly. She still felt a slight tenderness between her legs as she sat in the hard plastic chair outside Melissa Danvers's office.

Dr. Melissa Danvers. Sister-in-law to FBI Agent Diana Reyes. Diana who was Diego's friend. Was Melissa Diego's friend, also?

It made Ramona wonder whether Diana and Ryder were vampires, too. They all had a similar pale look about them.

Or maybe it was her imagination working overtime again, the same way it had at every creak she had heard the night before as she'd lain in bed, trying to sleep.

Melissa's nurse and a.s.sistant, Sara, came down the hall, her sneakered feet squeaking on the s.h.i.+ny tiles of the hospital corridor.

She lifted the file in her hand and said, "I've got the new lab results here. Why don't you come with me?"

Sara opened the door to Melissa's office, ushered Ramona in and then left, closing the door behind her.

"How are you this morning? You look tired," Melissa said as she opened the file Sara had deposited on her desk, and began to flip through the papers.

"I am tired. I didn't sleep much."

Melissa frowned as she peered at the test results. "I'm a.s.suming the lack of sleep has something to do with needing my sister-in- law's help."

"Dead cell phone battery was too lame an excuse, huh?" Ramona quipped, trying to appear unruffled. She quickly perused Melissa's desktop, noting the framed photos, one of which included Diana and Ryder. Another had a shot of Melissa, a baby and a man who bore a striking resemblance to Diana, although he had a tanned and smiling face.

"I met them last night. A mutual friend, Diego Rivera, thought Diana could help me with a problem I was having," she explained, waiting for Melissa to jump in and offer more information. But she didn't. Instead, Melissa buried her head in the file, so Ramona pressed on.

"Diego revealed his true self to me last night. Kinda scary."

The papers rattled in Melissa's hand and she slowly lowered them. "You know he's a vampire?" "That's what he told me he was. Of course, it was easy to believe, what with the glowing eyes and immense white fangs."

With a deep sigh, the doctor leaned back in her chair. "I was pretty freaked myself the first time I saw it."

"Diana and Ryder. They're just like Diego, right?"

Melissa chuckled harshly. "Some criminals might think my sister-in-law is one scary b.i.t.c.h, but she's totally human."

"But Ryder is a vampire?" Ramona waved her hand, urging the young doctor to explain.

With another deep sigh, Melissa leaned forward in her chair and laced her fingers together over the file. "I am...or at least I was...Ryder's keeper."

Ramona had never heard the term before, so Melissa explained. "A keeper is a human who takes care of a vampire's needs, like getting blood. He or she also protects the vampire when he's not awake, and takes care of other mundane tasks."

"But you're not his keeper anymore?"

"When my daughter, Mariel, was born, Ryder released me from that obligation. But how do you stop caring for someone who's like family? Who you've known your whole life?"

Melissa's anguish touched Ramona, reminding her that the reality of Diego's existence had consequences that reached beyond her. It impacted on other lives, and sometimes not in a good way.

"You don't stop caring," she said, a slightly dazed tone in her voice that the doctor immediately seized upon.

"You still have feelings for Diego."

Did she? For so many years Ramona had been attracted to him. It had been purely physical at first, but then she had discovered his honor and his caring spirit. She had come to enjoy his wit and ability to appreciate the art he so pa.s.sionately championed at his gallery.

Last night, at the height of their desire, she had even thought for a moment that she might love him. That she could imagine spending the rest of her life with him. Her probably short life, she thought, and gestured to the file on Melissa's desk-the main reason she was sitting there today. Not that she hadn't appreciated the enlightening discussion about Melissa's family and friends.

"What do the tests say?"

Melissa rubbed one hand across the top of the file and met her gaze head-on. "That we need to be more aggressive. Are you prepared to do that?"

Ramona thought of the danger to her mother, which needed to be resolved. Of the painting of Diego, sitting only partially completed in her loft. Last, but definitely not least, she thought of Diego and the harsh way last night had ended. She knew she had to make some things right between them before...

"Si, I'm prepared to do that. Just tell me what I need to do."

Chapter 15.

W hen she called the gallery, the receptionist mentioned that Diego wouldn't be in until late that afternoon.

Ramona hadn't thought his hours odd before. Nor had she taken his leaving so early the other morning as anything other than the actions of a busy man. Now his pattern took on new meaning.Horror movie lore said that vampires and sunlight didn't mix. Obviously not accurate, since Diego seemed able to be out during certain daylight hours.

As she sat on her stool in front of her easel, the early afternoon light spilled in through the skylights, flooding the loft with warm golden rays. She picked up some oil paint with her brush and laid it on the canvas, recreating the light and shadows of Diego's body. As she did so, she realized his flesh would never experience that luminous glow.

Where was he now? Tucked into a coffin somewhere by his keeper?

A knock came at her door.

She carefully put down her brush and palette and walked to the door, where she peered through the peephole.

Diana Reyes sans vampire escort.

Ramona rolled open the door and the agent took that as an invitation to enter. She glanced around, then walked over to the painting of Diego in the altogether. "Impressive," she said.

Hard to deny, Ramona thought as she joined her before the easel. "Yes, he is quite handsome."

Diana stifled a chuckle. "I was talking about your painting. Not the subject matter."

Heat swept up her neck and across her cheeks, but she restrained herself from covering her face with her paint-smudged hands.

Drawing a calming breath, she eased onto her stool and picked up her brushes and palette, intending to use her painting as a s.h.i.+eld. "As you can see, I'm busy."

"Too busy to hear what I've got on van Winter so far?"

Ramona paused with the brush halfway to the canvas. "I wasn't sure you were really going to help me."

"Got some coffee? I didn't get my Starbucks fix this morning."

Neither had she. After taking the new drugs Melissa had prescribed, she'd found her stomach too unsettled for much of anything, especially coffee. A nice cafe con leche might be just the thing right now, however.

"Sure," she said, once again putting away her supplies.

Diana followed her to the kitchen, taking a stool by the island as Ramona made the coffee.

Looking over her shoulder as she got out some mugs, she asked, "Sugar?"

"As much as is humanly possible."

Diana's comment dragged a smile to Ramona's lips. "A woman after my own heart."

"In more ways than you can imagine," she stated.

Ramona finished making the hot drinks, brought them over and placed one before Diana. "How do you figure?"

"You're in love with Diego. I know how hard it can be to love a vampire."

"He told you about last night?"

Diana nodded, and when she reached for the coffee, Ramona noticed the large bruise across the other woman's knuckles.

"Occupational hazard?" The FBI agent's smile widened into a satisfied grin. "Nah. I just needed to remind someone about his manners."

Ramona didn't ask for details, opting to turn the discussion to the business between them. After taking a bracing sip of her coffee, she said, "I'm surprised that you're still willing to help, considering that you know what happened between Diego and me."

With a shrug, Diana said, "Friends don't desert friends."

"Diego isn't my friend anymore."

"But Melissa is." The agent took a sip and winced at the heat of the coffee.

"I don't want Melissa involved in what's going on with van Winter."

"I don't, either. Van Winter is dangerous," Diana said.