His expression turned serious. “I heard about what happened at The Tea Hobbit. I’m sorry that happened to you.” He casually looked over my arms and the bit of really pale leg I was showing. “It looks like you’re all healed up. Did they catch whoever shot the magic bullets?”
I slumped into my seat. “No. Draven and Mesmer both searched, but they couldn’t find anyone. Draven’s guys are still working on it.” I nodded at the car behind me where Mesmer was handling the curves in the town car even better than Montblanc. “And you can see that I have security. Everything will be fine.”
Montblanc nodded, looking preoccupied.
We crossed the bridge over the cove and the air outside changed to balmy and tropical.
My hand trailed outside my window collecting humidity, and the vista changed to a tropical paradise. “Oh my gosh! It’s like a tropical island! I thought it was a little strange to be doing a luau in the cool, Pacific Northwest temperatures!”
Montblanc nodded. “Yep. Witches spelled the island for one of the original members of the town who settled here. Not much is known about him, but he obviously favored the tropical heat and wanted a more lush landscape.”
“Does it get tropical rains here too?”
“Yes. Monsoon season is from mid-July through September, and it can get fifteen inches of rain a day in some places on the island.”
I was completely fascinated as I stared out the window. We drove down a quiet, well-maintained road that had banana and papaya trees, birds of paradise, ferns, and tons of orchid trees. It smelled incredible, and the warmth soothed my chilled skin.
I saw monkeys playing in the trees, eating bananas, and macaws, kingfishers, and toucans swooping and fluttering through the lush trees.
We made a turn and drove down a less maintained road that truncated at a lazy river, and what I assumed was the place for the luau. It had a stage to one side with a bunch of tables set up for the dinner. A long bench to one side was being attended to by numerous employees, setting out a ton of what looked like both sweet and savory dishes. I could smell pork roasting, but couldn’t see where it was coming from. I’d read online that they had an underground oven called an imu that they roasted the pig in.
It smelledsoooogood!
Montblanc grabbed my hand as we exited his car and we were set upon by a couple of pretty ladies with lovely brown skin and long, dark hair. They both wore a long, tropical skirt, and a bikini top, and one of them smiled at Montblanc like he was a dessert that she was just dying to try. They placed real flower leis over our heads and gave us a cheerful and bubbly welcome as we moved past them.
My eyes tried to take everything in. There was a ton of what looked like traditional island arts and crafts set up in booths around the area. I was at a booth that featured precious metal, wide bracelets with beautiful scrollwork and flowers etched into them when I heard Mesmer’s car pull up.
I looked over just as the women with the leis accosted him. He looked uncomfortable and blushed as he ducked down so they could place the lei around his wide neck.
I snickered and shook my head. Poor Mesmer. He didn’t know what to do with attention from females.
I went back to my shopping but turned back around as a motorcycle pulled up behind Mesmer. My jaw nearly dropped when the person riding it took off their helmet.
My boss was getting off the bright blue motorcycle that looked like it could drive straight up a mountain and had probably cost a few million dollars, and did something with a wave of his hand so the ladies with the leis didn’t see him. They looked around in confusion for a moment, but then shrugged and moved on to the new arrivals.
I glared at him, wondering what the heck he was doing on my date, and then squinted as it became quickly clear that in addition to the ladies not being able to see him, no one else could see him either.
Vampire mojo.
I excused myself from Montblanc for a moment and hurried over to Draven as he checked out a booth selling authentic island grandfather clocks with beautiful teak wood and intricate carvings.
“What are you doing here?” I hissed, hunching my shoulders as the people surrounding us glared at me. I knew what it looked like. Like I was hissing at them. But it couldn’t be helped. My boss was crashing my date!
He looked up at me, startled. “You can see me?”
Obviously I could. “Of course I can see you!”
He looked at me for maybe a solid minute before he shook his head. “You shouldn’t be able to.” He sounded dumfounded that I could see past his vampire mojo.
I gestured to the group of people still glaring daggers at me. “I mean, obviously not everyone can, but I saw you pull up just now. What are you doing here?”
He nibbled on his lip as he, no doubt, tried to contrive a brilliant reason for crashing my date on the spot.
Finally, he sighed. “I wasn’t comfortable with you leaving the villa without me here. Even with Mesmer.”
I felt a rising sense of panic. I was dating, in part, to stymie my feelings for my boss. There was no way to do that if he insisted on crashing all my dates. “Are you telling me you will be coming on allmy future dates as well? But you vetted him. Extensively! He passed. And eventhatwas extremely intrusive. If this keeps up, I’ll never go on another date again. No one’s going to want to pass the background check!”
I knew, deep down, that my safety was more important than a solid social life, but the supernaturals of Moonhaven Cove were so much easier for my empathic senses to be around. I had never been able to date before. I hadn’t wanted to because of how non-paranormals felt to me—chaotic and painful. But now I could date! And Ineededto date so I could get over my boss and keep my job!
