Page 10 of Burn Falls

“Ten minutes on foot.”

“I drive for appearances.”

“Right. Well, you like BF, so why wouldn’t someone else?”

“I don’t know,” I sighed. “Someone winds up on my table with a vampire bite, I get suspicious. We don’t go around killing people.”

“Look, I’m about to go underground for the day. When I wake, I’ll call Peppe and see if he knows of anyone who wants to call Alaska home.”

After we left Chicago, a few years passed before we came across another vampire. Luckily, he wasn’t a part of Renzo’s mob. He was actually from Italy, and like Athan and I, he moved to keep up appearances. I hadn’t seen Giuseppe (or the nickname we use, Peppe) in seventy years, but somehow he and Athan had kept in touch.

“Do me one better and get your ass here. If it is the expansion, I’ll need your help.”

“Yeah, sure. I’ll catch a flight tomorrow night if it’s available.”

“I’ll see what I can find out in the meantime, too.”

“Was the victim anyone important?”

“It was O’Bannion. He owns the distillery.”

“Fuckin’ delicious whiskey.”

I chuckled. While food had no nutritional value to vampires, alcohol could get us drunk once we fed and got the blood pumping through our veins. “O’Bannion was found on the ground by his daughter in a pool of blood. We have him in recovery, but you know as well as I do that given what the daughter saw, he was being fed on.”

“You need to turn him.”

“I’m not fucking turning him,” I snapped.

“What will happen to his whiskey? I live off of three things: blood, pussy, and whiskey.”

I smiled. I did too. “There are other brands.”

“They taste like shit.”

“You know what shit tastes like?” I joked.

“Fuck no. All I’m saying is I prefer his whiskey. You need to save him.”

“I’m not turning him.”

“I will then.”

“Athan,” I scolded.

“Fine. When I get there, I’ll compel a worker to give me the recipe.”

“Can we focus on the other vampire killing innocent people in my fucking town first?”

“Yeah. I’ll call you when I’m on my way, and after I’ve made a few calls.”

Athan had called me the night before with no leads on who could be in my town and to let me know he was on his way. We planned to meet at the distillery once I finished my shift to see if there were any reason other than O’Bannion being attacked for a feeding. I still couldn’t get over the fact that he was attacked while there were other humans nearby because there was no way he didn’t know Calla was there. We could hear and smell humans from several yards away. Plus, we could track someone in a crowd by their perfume, deodorant or lack of. Every human had a unique scent. Calla’s was lemons and lavender.

O’Bannion was still in a coma, and Calla and her family had high hopes that he’d wake. I tried to tell them that he wouldn’t, but giving grieving family members bad news wasn’t always reciprocated correctly. I also tried to stay as far away from Calla as I could. There was something that made me want to compel her. Something that made me want to find out all her secrets. Especially her dirty ones.

When I did my checks on her father, I could feel her eyes on me. I could also hear her heart beat faster which only fueled my attraction toward her. I could easily put an end to their hope and get them out of my hospital where I wasn’t tempted by Calla and her curves, but something inside of me told me to keep her around. Maybe it was the fact I needed to find out more about the vamp that attacked her father. She was, after all, the only one who saw him.

When I got closer to the distillery, I saw Athan leaning against a street light. I’d known him a long time, and he was the only other vampire I trusted. He was like a brother to me, and we almost looked alike. We were both six-foot with the same finger-length brown hair, and black eyes, but where I was clean shaven, he had a light beard.