Relentless (Vampire Awakenings #11) - Brenda K. Davies Page 0,7

“vamp” bars.

All they’d proven to be was a bunch of humans playing dress up and pretend. He hadn’t seen one other vamp at any of them. He also hadn’t seen Julie or run into anyone who knew her. He hadn’t held out much hope the bars would yield any results, but he didn’t have any other leads.

His attention shifted back to the stage as the last words faded away and the woman closed her eyes as she bent her head. When the audience erupted into applause, she lifted her head to beam at them.

Beneath the gentle light of the stage, she practically glowed as the cheers continued. Dante couldn’t recall ever encountering someone who radiated such life, vitality, and joy. He almost expected her to sprout a halo and wings. As a lapsed Catholic, such a thing would have brought him back into the fold.

Her midnight blue eyes found him again, and they twinkled in a way that reminded him of Christmas lights reflecting across a field of fresh snow. He didn’t think it was true, but he couldn’t help thinking her enchanting smile was just for him.

Then she turned back to the crowd and started singing “Three Little Birds.” By the time Dante started toward the bar, everyone in the crowd was singing with her.

She’s a vampire, he reminded himself as he threaded his way through the crowd and tables. He was aware that a lot of vampires weren’t vicious, murdering bastards, but he wasn’t sure what to make of her, or the vamp behind the bar.

Cassidy watched Dante glide across the floor toward Kyle. She almost shouted at him to stop, but she kept singing. Kyle wouldn’t hurt him, and she didn’t think he would try to harm Kyle, but her brother wouldn’t be welcoming.

Dante didn’t smell like a Savage, but Kyle didn’t like vamps hanging out here. And normally Cassidy didn’t either, but she didn’t want Dante to leave. She’d spent the past two weeks hoping he would come back so she could talk to him again, and now that he was finally here, she would make sure he stayed for a bit.

Cassidy’s unease grew when Kyle stared stone-faced at Dante when he stopped at the end of the bar. The women lining the bar in front of Kyle all turned to look at Dante. Cassidy often referred to the women as the resident cougars, and she could feel their interest as they discovered new prey to hunt.

A burst of jealousy buried Cassidy’s apprehension over what Kyle planned to do as lust exuded from the women. Her hand clenched around her mic as she struggled to find the inner peace singing usually brought her; it wasn’t working.

Dante rested his hands on the bar and stared at the bartender standing close to the other end. The man continued to stare at him for a minute before reluctantly stalking toward him. Brushed back from the angular planes of his face, the man’s hair was a wheat blond color, and his dark blue eyes glimmered with hostility.

“Can I help you with something?” the bartender asked as he stopped before Dante.

“I’d like a whiskey sour,” Dante said.

For a second, Dante thought he was going to refuse to make the drink, but then he turned and walked away. Unfortunately, what the man lacked in hospitality, the women sitting at the bar more than made up for as they edged closer.

One pretty woman with blonde hair and keen brown eyes rose from her chair and walked toward him. She left absolutely no doubt what she had in mind when she stopped before him, and her gaze leisurely perused him. Dante was familiar with brazen women, but he’d never encountered someone quite like her before.

“Howdy, stranger,” she greeted with a hint of a Southwest accent.

“Hey,” Dante replied before turning away.

He hadn’t come here to find someone to spend the night with—or… maybe he had. His gaze returned to the stage as the last notes of the song faded away. The woman sipped a glass of water while she spoke with the piano player. The man nodded, and she set her drink on a stool beside the piano.

Dante recognized the haunting notes of the “Sounds of Silence” before the woman started singing again. He leaned an elbow against the bar and turned back to the stage as her version took on a deeper, harsher timbre more like the Disturbed version than the Simon and Garfunkel one. He hadn’t expected her soothing tones to be able