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Surrounded by humans and vampires alike, I waited for Jacqueline as close as I could get to the chaos surrounding the tree. When I arrived, I texted her with my location, but there’d been no response and now, thirty minutes later, there was still no sign of her.
Punctuality was her favorite thing, and this was twice now she’d been late for a meeting with me.
Yesterday, however, she had an excuse. I’d forgotten it was the date of her father’s death—an oversight I wouldn’t allow to happen twice. Had today’s grief become too overwhelming for her? Had she decided not to carry on her father’s favorite tradition?
Maybe it was too painful.
Or… maybe she didn’t want to share something so sacred with me after all.
Fuck.
Tilting my head back, I looked up at the massive tree and breathed deeply, hoping to catch the scent of her on the air even with all these people around. It was a long shot, but I tried nonetheless.
I’d been here plenty of times, but Ricci family tradition dictated visiting during that first week of January because the old man hated crowds.
If he could see it now.
I shook my head at the thought of my father seeing today’s New York. So much had changed since his passing. He wouldn’t even recognize midtown.
He’d hate it here.
We were different in that sense. As the times changed, I changed with them. I enjoyed progress and didn't fight against change.
I checked the time on my phone again. She was twenty minutes late now. I pulled up her number and sent a quick text: Where r u?
After a few minutes, when she still didn’t respond or appear out of nowhere in the crowd, I hopped up onto the wall of a fountain, ignoring the shouts of a security guard nearby, and scanned the sea of people for the only one that mattered.
By half past ten, as I watched the crowds disperse and the skating rink personnel begin ushering people out, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. She wouldn’t flake on me. Not without a text. She’d been ghosted herself in the past and I knew her well enough to know she wouldn’t turn around and treat someone with that same level of disrespect.
With a grunt of frustration—at the situation and at myself for waiting so long to go find my girl—I jumped down off the fountain’s wall, gave the red-faced security guard a toothy, fang-filled grin, and hurried toward the car.
That little fuck Gannon could have returned, caught her by surprise, used their past connection to weasel himself inside her house, then…
“Goddammit!” I punched a wall as I approached my SUV, wincing as the cement cracked loudly in the night, but I didn’t look back to assess the damage. I jumped in the car, turned the ignition, then threw it into drive and headed toward Fiorino’s with my heart in my throat.
Why didn’t I pick her up?
Some fucking first date this was.
I raced through traffic, running red lights and dodging cars on my way toward the village.
When I reached the back of the shop, the car was barely in park before I jumped out of it and raced to the stairs leading to her apartment, but then the wind changed and I froze.
The scent of her blood was overwhelming.
My fangs extruded and the hunger burst to life within me even though I’d hit the bank before our date tonight. I fought through the bloodlust as it burned through my veins and clouded my thoughts, then finally pushed it down to a tolerable level so I could think.
Jacqueline was bleeding. Where?
I looked up at the apartment. The lights were on, but there was no movement within. Swiveling my head toward the butcher shop, I inhaled deeply and cursed under my breath, then charged toward the door. It pushed open easily, unlocked, and I raced inside, stopping as I came upon her body.
“No,” I yelled as I knelt beside her. “Jacqueline!” In the span of a few seconds, my brain caught up to two sounds: her heartbeat was one, and I exhaled with relief.
Her quiet crying was the other.
“Oh, fuck, Jacqueline,” I said as I nudged her to look up at me.
When she lifted her head, a roar tore from my chest at the sight of her face.
