Stakeout (Aurora Sky (18 page)

The next morning, I woke up to the sound of Dante
singing Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines.” I pulled my head inside my
sleeping bag like a turtle. Even through the layer of down, I could
hear him.

The smell of coffee lifted my mood
considerably.

I unzipped my sleeping bag in slow motion and
swung my legs down to the cold floor.

Dante stopped humming. “Oh, great, you’re up.
So, I was thinking why don’t you and I strategize? We aren’t
getting anywhere with this stakeout.”

I leaned forward to put on my knee-high
socks. “That’s the point of a stakeout,” I said with my head bent.
“You don’t go anywhere. You stay put and watch.” I was beginning to
wonder if Dante had A.D.D. God, I needed coffee.

As though reading my mind, Dante walked over
and handed me a mug. He held his own cup a couple feet in front of
me with a dopey sort of faraway look on his face. At least he
wasn’t leering at me in my stockings, panties and T-shirt.

After swallowing loudly, Dante said, “Buck’s
just gonna go to work... again. Harper, I’m about to expire from
boredom. Come on, you enjoy engaging with the enemy. Let’s confront
this sucker.”

I set my mug in my lap. “What exactly is your
plan, Dante?”

“I just want to talk to him, feel him out,
that’s all.”

“Right, that’s all.” I rolled my eyes.
“You’re not going to try and kill or poison him?”

Dante slowly grinned. “It’s his own fault if
he bites me.”

I took a quick sip of coffee. Ah, that did
the trick. “I have a better idea. Since you’re so insistent on
meeting Buck, you can pose as my vampire boyfriend and then we
don’t have to worry about anyone biting you.”

The floorboards creaked when Dante did a
little jump. “Undercover as a biter. I love it! Never tried that
one before.”

“Are you sure you’re up for this? Sure you’re
ready to act like one of those “things”?

Dante grinned. “Do I get to bite anyone?”

“Yeah. Me.”

Dante’s brows lifted. “Sure you’re ready to
be bit by a human?”

“I’m ready for anything.”

“Good.”

While Dante and his dog did their thing outside, I
finished getting dressed. After that, we had an entire afternoon to
kill. Somehow, we ended up at the movie theater. Buck wasn’t going
anywhere. Dante’s dog stayed behind in the warm cabin. We came back
with dinner, ate, and headed to the A&P shortly before
nine.

“Okay, here we go,” Dante said, gripping the
steering wheel inside his Jeep and doing the push up move once
more.

“We can go inside right before he finishes
work or jump—I mean, bump into him when he gets off.”

“Let’s go in,” I said.

“Right, right,” Dante replied, nodding. “Cut
him off before he has a chance to flee.”

“Sure.”

Tonight the ice fog had cleared, but it was
so dark I still couldn’t see anything beyond the black wall until
we reached town and civilization. Dante parked five spots down from
Buck. He turned the ignition off and gave his face a good stare in
the review mirror, turning his head from side to side, and tilting
his chin down.

“Everything look okay?” I asked.

Dante rubbed his chin, eyes focused on his
reflection in the mirror. “I don’t look like a blood sucker.”

“You’ll be fine,” I said.

“I’ll be better than fine.” Dante flashed me
a smile before reaching for his door handle. “Let’s do this.”

“I’m ready.”

Working with Dante was sorta like diving off
a plane without a parachute, but he had so much confidence I
trusted there’d be a net below to catch us. I was a woman of
action, myself. This was going to work.

The cold provided extra incentive—driving us
inside despite any qualms. Dante held the glass door open for me,
and I hustled into the A&P. I felt a moment’s panic when I
looked around the convenience store and didn’t spot Buck behind any
of the registers. Then he emerged from a backroom, coat draped over
one arm.

“See you next week, man,” Buck called out to
a bearded guy reading a comic book at the front register.

Buck was probably around twenty-three when he
stopped aging. He had thick hair like Dante and good skin that held
color even in winter, not your typical pasty-skinned Alaskan or
vampire. Vamps like Buck broke stereotypes.

A nervous flutter entered my throat in the
seconds before Buck would have to pass us and notice me. When his
eyes met mine, he stopped moving. His lips formed a question
mark.

“Noel? What are you doing in Fairbanks?”

“Buck? Oh my gosh. I never thought I’d run
into you up here.”

I slipped my hand around Dante’s arm.

“My boyfriend wanted to show me his
hometown.”

Buck looked from me to Dante, quickly
sticking out his hand. “Hey, man, I’m Buck.”

Dante didn’t hesitate to pump Buck’s hand.
That was a relief. I didn’t know if he’d want to shake hands with a
vampire, but I supposed he’d do anything in the line of duty—even
play nice with his enemies.

“Dante.”

“How long have you two been going out?”

I opened my mouth, but Dante beat me. “A
week.”

I would have given us at least two, but no
matter.

Buck nodded a couple times. “And you’re
already taking a trip out of town. You move quickly.”

Dante smirked. “Well, life’s short... at
least for Noel.”

Buck glanced at the clerk up front and leaned
in. “But not you?”

Dante’s smile widened. “Who wouldn’t want to
see this mug walking around forever?”

Buck mirrored Dante’s grin. “Cool. I’m
actually new to this.”

Dante slapped Buck on the shoulder. “Welcome
to the club. If you ever need pointers I make a great mentor.”

I clenched my teeth together to keep from
staring at my partner agape. Dante teach a vamp to be a vamp? That
would be the day.

“Awesome, thanks man,” Buck said. “You seem
really chill. A lot of these undead dudes come off reserved, you
know what I mean?”

Dante stretched. “That’s because most of them
were counts in a former life, and they’re still walking around with
a stake up their ass.”

Buck snorted and laughed. He glanced quickly
at his co-worker.

“Listen, you guys should come over to my
place. Do you like pizza and beer?”

“Do bears shit in the woods?” Dante
returned.

“Then follow me. I’m in the rusty pickup out
front.”

After Dante and I got back inside the Jeep he
said, “This guy’s not bad for a vampire.”

“I told you Buck was harmless.”

“We’ll see.”

“The only thing you’re going to see is Buck
drinking beer. He’s new. Biting and drinking blood still feel
unnatural to him. It’s not like he’s assigned a real mentor to
teach him the ABC’s of eternal life.”

“How do you know all this?” Dante asked.

“I make it a point to know about everyone who
walks through the doors of the palace. You take pride in your job,
I take pride in mine.”

“I’m beginning to see that.” Dante eased out
of the parking lot, following Buck into the street. “So, they
really don’t get any kind of master vampire instructor? Doesn’t
seem fair.”

I pressed my lips together. I didn’t even
know how to begin to comment on that one. Dante almost sounded
sincere.

Buck wasn’t much for speed, which meant Dante
had to drive slowly. He tapped his finger on the wheel and hummed a
tune I couldn’t make out.

“When do I bite you?” Dante asked suddenly.
He slid to a stop, three inches behind Buck at a red light. “Before
dinner? After dinner? During dinner?” His eyes widened. “There
really will be pizza, right? That wasn’t code for something else?
Like the pizza boy being dinner.”

“What?”

Dante puffed. “They made a meal out of one in
Anchorage, or did you forget already?”

“Of course not. Don’t worry. We’ll be eating
pizza.”

“Good, because that would be going one step
too far.”

Who knew there was such a thing as
one step too far
for Dante? I’d say that
was a good thing.

“And biting and sucking my blood isn’t?” I
teased.

Dante grinned in response. He groaned at the
next stoplight we came to.

“This guy drives like he has all the time in
the world.”

Dante turned sideways, goofy grin on his
face. Probably thought he was hilarious. I didn’t take the bait. My
attention turned to my lower legs, kicking up and down in the foot
space between my chair and the dashboard.

“Nervous?” Dante asked.

“No,” I said.

He shrugged. “It’s okay to be nervous. Keeps
the blood pumping.”

I turned my head toward him. “Wait. Are
you
nervous?”

Dante’s face lit up with his smile. “Of
course I’m nervous! I have no idea what to expect tonight and I
love it!”

It felt good to laugh. Dante had been right.
All this waiting around got underneath my skin. Eating pizza and
drinking beer inside Buck’s cozy cabin sounded a heck of a lot
better than watching him from the window in the freezing cold.

I’d suspected from the start that we were on
a fool’s mission, but Melcher ordered it and he’d want some kind of
report. We weren’t learning anything freezing our butts off in the
Jeep.

Soon, we were back on Duck Pond Lane driving
directly up to Buck’s cabin.

Buck jumped out of his rig and waved us
forward.

Dante parked and rubbed his hands together.
“Here we go.”

We exited the vehicle together and followed
Buck up to the cabin.

Buck kicked snow off his boots beside the
front door. “Come on in.”

I stomped twice outside the door before
following Buck inside.

Buck turned an overhead light on then added a
couple logs to the fireplace. Only smoldering ash remained of the
last one. It began taking life again with the fresh wood.

“I called my girlfriend from the truck. She’s
picking up an extra pizza.”

“Thanks, man,” Dante said.

“My pleasure, that’s really cool we ran into
each other.” Buck looked at me. “I’ll give you my number, so you
can call next time you’re in town.”

“Cool.” I didn’t know about Dante, but I felt
like a bit of an ass lying and spying on the most generous and
chill vampire I’d ever come into contact with.

“I’ll get us some beers,” Buck said.

While Buck headed into the kitchen, I did a
quick perusal of the place. Most of the furniture, like the cabin,
was made of wood. The room was relatively sparse, but cozy. There
was a well-worn couch in front of the fire, which was more than
what we had at our base camp cabin.

There weren’t any curtains on the windows.
Not like they were needed in the pitch-black middle of winter on a
cabin in the woods. Still, I wouldn’t like that fish bowl feeling.
It gave me the impression that eyes were watching me from outside.
It wasn’t the most farfetched idea—Dante and I had done it two
nights ago.