Desire After Dark. Amanda Ashley

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СКАЧАТЬ that her parents had enjoyed, to raise some kids, to live out her life with a man who would love her as long as they lived.

      “You should give Arnie another chance,” Mrs. Heath said, patting her hand. “He’s a fine young man.”

      Vicki rolled her eyes. Was everyone in town determined to see her married to Arnie Hall?

      “You’ll never find a better man.”

      “Maybe not,” Vicki said, thinking of Antonio. “Then again, I might.”

      “Why, Victoria Lynn,” Mrs. Heath said, her eyes twinkling, “have you found a beau you’re not telling anyone about?”

      “Now, Mrs. Heath, you know if that were true, you’d be the first one to know.”

      Mrs. Heath beamed at her. “You’re such a sweet girl. You should have a family and a man to take care of you.”

      Sharlene had deserved to have a family, too, Vicki thought with a sigh. She had seen Ron at the gas station earlier. He had forced a smile when he waved at her. When she went to pay for her gas, Fred Black had told her that Ron had quit his job and was moving to Amarillo. She couldn’t blame him. There were too many bad memories for him here. She seemed to recall that he had some family in Texas.

      “Can I get your some more lemonade, dear?”

      “No, thank you.”

      They chatted for a few more minutes and then Vicki gave Mrs. Heath a quick hug and took her leave.

      Vicki spent the rest of the day dusting and vacuuming and doing her laundry, her mind filled with thoughts of the bounty hunter and Antonio and unblinking yellow eyes.

      She was glad when it was finally time to get ready for work. Hopefully, the diner would have a crowd tonight and she would be too busy to think of grieving parents or howling wolves or dynamite kisses.

      The bounty hunter was having dinner when she arrived. Steak again, she noted in passing. He was a real meat-and-potatoes kind of guy, she thought with a grin. Not bad looking, either. She wondered how long he was going to be in town and who the mysterious man with the yellow eyes was and if the hunter was any closer to finding him. It was still hard to believe that there was a killer on the loose in their sleepy little town.

      She approached Tom Duncan’s table when he pushed his plate away. “Can I get you anything else?”

      He looked up, seeming surprised to see her. “Hi. What happened to Gladys?”

      “Her shift ends at six. Can I get you some dessert?”

      “I don’t know. You got any apple pie?”

      “Best in town.”

      “How about bringing me a big slice and a cup of coffee?”

      “Sure. You want ice cream with that?”

      “Why not? You only live once, right? Might as well enjoy the good things while you can.”

      Vicki thought about how true that was as she cut him an extra-large slice of pie and added a double scoop of ice cream. Picking up the coffeepot and the plate, she carried both back to table number four.

      He murmured his thanks as she placed the plate in front of him, then refilled his coffee cup.

      He took a bite of pie and smiled his approval. “You’re right, it is good.”

      With a nod, she moved away from the table.

      Tom Duncan glanced around the diner, noting that he was the only one eating alone. Everywhere he looked there were couples on dates or families enjoying a night out together. Even Ramsey had found a mate.

      Well, he was tired of being alone, he thought irritably. Even vampire hunters deserved a night off.

      His gaze settled on Vicki as she cleared a nearby table. She was a pretty thing. He’d checked earlier, noting that she didn’t wear any rings.

      While waiting for her to bring him his bill, he looked around the diner again. It looked like something out of the fifties, with its black and white tile floor. There was a long counter lined with stools covered in red vinyl. There was a jukebox in one corner that played all the old fifties hits. He’d noted that Elvis was a big favorite. There were old movie posters on the walls. Again, Elvis was prominently featured. There were booths along two of the walls; round tables covered with red-checked cloths stood in the center of the floor.

      When she returned to see if there was anything else he wanted, Duncan took his courage in hand and blurted, “I don’t suppose there’s any chance you’d like to go out with me one of these nights?”

      Vicki started to say no, then thought how nice it would be if she could tell Mrs. Heath that she’d had a date. “I might. What did you have in mind?”

      “Dinner and a movie? Just dinner? Just a movie? I’m easy.”

      “I’m off on Sundays and Mondays.” She slid his bill under the salt shaker.

      “How about Sunday night? I could pick you up about what, five? Six?”

      “Six is good.” Tearing a page out of her pad, she wrote her address and phone number on the back and handed it to him.

      He looked at it briefly, then folded the paper in half and put it in his shirt pocket. “Sunday at six,” he said with a smile. “Of course, I’ll probably see you before then.”

      With a nod, she went to clear table two.

      Duncan whistled softly as he left the diner. It was too nice an evening to go back to the hotel. Instead, he took a walk about the town. It wasn’t a big place but it seemed prosperous enough. The people were friendly. They nodded to him or called a greeting as he passed by. It was the kind of place that reminded him of the old days, when most towns and cities were small and people didn’t bother to lock their doors and everybody knew everybody else’s business. A nice town where people expected to die of old age surrounded by friends and family, not dragged into the woods to be dinner for a hungry fiend.

      He clenched his hands into tight fists as he felt his anger and his hatred rise within him. Vampires. They had been the bane of mankind since time began. The Undead could be found in every civilization known to man as far back as recorded time. Every culture had its own account of vampires, whether they were the tales of the vukodlak in Croatia or the lupi manari of Italy.

      And just as there had always been vampires, there had always been vampire hunters. For centuries, all the firstborn males in Duncan’s family had been hunters. Duncan knew his family was something of a rarity. Most hunters never married. Wives and children could all too easily become victims, pawns in a never-ending war between good and evil. He knew that being a hunter wasn’t something that was passed from father to son in other parts of the world. Being a vampire hunter wasn’t inherited. Rather, it was a calling that might come to anyone, like being a priest.

      Edward Ramsey was the only hunter Duncan had ever known who had been turned into the very thing he had once hated and hunted. He tried to imagine what it would be like if he, himself, were suddenly turned. How had Ramsey reconciled what he had been to what he had become? What was it СКАЧАТЬ