The only guy he’d ever liked was Lewis Guthrie, but because he seemed like a good guy, Maya kept turning him down. After she vanished, Lewis became the main suspect as he disappeared the same day. But then, the police finally hunted him down and cleared him.
When Kyle and Dante continued to stare at each other, Cassidy pushed her glass across the bar toward her brother. Kyle ignored her until she lifted the glass and tapped him on the arm with it; he finally shifted his attention to her.
“I’d like some water, please,” she said.
Kyle took her glass but didn’t move.
Cassidy huffed out a breath and focused on Dante again. “We’re both twenty-one, and you?”
Dante glanced around the crowded bar to make sure no one could overhear him before he shifted his attention back to Cassidy. They were both a lot younger than he would have guessed given the aura of power they emitted and the wisdom in Cassidy’s eyes. She was young, but she knew a lot more about this world than many others her age.
“I was twenty-eight when I was turned,” he said. “That was ten years ago. Your parents are really—” He pitched his voice a lot lower. “—vampires?”
Cassidy smiled as she rested an elbow on the bar and leaned against it. “They are. What about yours? Do they know about you?”
“They both died before I turned.”
Cassidy managed to suppress a wince as she kicked herself for that question. “I’m sorry.”
“It was years ago, but thank you.”
“Kyle!” a woman called down the bar and waved at him. “I’d love another drink when you get the chance.”
“And I’d like another water,” Cassidy reminded him.
Her twin glanced at her before shooting Dante a warning look.
“I’d like another whiskey sour too, please,” Dante said.
“Hmm,” Kyle grunted.
Reluctantly, he turned away and smiled as he strode toward the woman with their glasses in hand. The woman beamed at Kyle and leaned across the bar. Unwilling to see the exchange, Cassidy focused on Dante again.
She admired his olive skin and the black stubble lining his chiseled jaw. That stubble would be rough against her palm and face if she rose on her toes to touch and kiss him. What would it be like to nibble on his full bottom lip before flicking her tongue against that stiff upper lip while she ran her hands—
Cassidy jerked herself from her fantasy and focused on the bar as she tried to suppress the heat burning its way up her neck and into her cheeks. She took a deep breath to try to calm her racing heart and telltale blush. Looking for a way to distract herself, and him, from her red face, she latched onto another question.
“What was it like being a police officer?”
Dante studied the pretty flush in her cheeks as she kept her attention riveted on the bar. “Interesting and at times depressing and scary but rewarding. I loved my job; I was doing good in the world and protecting people. I planned to become a detective and had passed the test when I was turned, and plans changed. I figured, hanging out around a bunch of police and detectives wasn’t the best way to keep my secret.”
Cassidy chuckled. “Probably not. Were you a Boston cop?”
“Yes.”
“I bet you saw some really sad things.”
The sorrowful tone of her voice made him question what she’d experienced in her life. His sudden urge to protect her from anything bad surprised him, but it was impossible in this world. Still, he wanted to draw her close and shelter her from the worst of this world.
“Do you think this girl you’re looking for is hanging around bars in Boston?” Cassidy asked.
“I’m not sure. She got herself messed up with a group of kids who like to pretend they’re vampires before she vanished.”
“Stupid kids,” she muttered.
“I checked out three vamp bars, but no one has seen her at any of them.”
“Just the three?”
