Second Chances
"Drink, drink, drink!" the crowd chanted as he downed his fifth beer in a minute. Once he slammed the glass onto the bar top, a cheer went up and a few buds clapped him on the back.
"Another!" his friend cried, but he waved it off.
"I have to meet Stephanie in half an hour. Besides, it's too early yet to party so hard," he slapped a fifty on the bar, to pay for his and his friends drinks, with an excellent tip left over.
"What happened to that hottie, Nikki?"
"Keep up, man. That was last week. This week he's into dominating redheads," another friend laughed. "You know he goes through women like a normal guy goes through toilet paper. He has more sex in a week than you do in a year."
"At least I get some on a regular basis," he said defensively.
"You're married, it doesn't count."
"Yeah," he leaned back against the bar, "But I've seen his wife, and God damn it, if she isn't drop dead gorgeous. I'd love to take her to Jamaica for a weekend, just to see those tan lines." His friend elbowed him to say hands off, "Hey, I don't date married women," he said defensively, "Well, there was that one time, but she was a lying bitch."
"Yeah, just a mention of commitment makes him break out in hives," one of his friends laughed.
He laughed along with him, throwing his head back, allowing the laugh to take over his body. Once the merriment had subsided, he checked his watch. "It's been fun, but I've gotta go. Can't be late," he said, pushing himself away from the bar.
"Yeah, it would ruin the O'Connor reputation."
"Where ya taking her?"
"It's a secret," he said, walking away. Liam O'Connor cut an impressive swath through the crowd in his khaki slacks and navy sports coat. With light brown hair that looked impressive with his deep, soulful eyes and his killer smile, he could have any woman he wanted, and generally did. The tabloids threw his name around like a baseball, making wild accusations about him and his 'conquests' as they called them.
He didn't see it the way they did. Nine out of ten girls he dated and broke it off with after a few dates went away amicable. There were the few that thought sex was more than just a good time, and was to be taken seriously, but the expensive gifts he lavished on them didn't hurt. He had dated his share of women who wanted him for his money, he usually saw right through them. But as long as he got what he wanted out of the deal…and he usually did.
Women adored him and men were jealous, he couldn't help it. Only son to a mega-millionaire, he had gone to the best schools, and he didn't have to work to keep up with his lavish lifestyle. Not that he didn't, he owned a small, private investigations office because he liked the challenge of it, enjoyed the mind work, and even the leg work that went along with the job. And he had a strict billing policy; those that could, paid oodles that went to whatever charity he fancied at the time, and those that couldn't, didn't. Most of the time he worked for free, and that was fine with him, not wanting to take someone's well-earned cash when it could be used to pay for a child's education, or to support a family. Many would think he didn't get a lot of business, but the lesser fortunate were drawn to his penetrating eyes and his listening skills, and the rich and famous would rather have their matters dealt with discretely by one of their own rather than the police and have a chance of the media getting wind. With his good looks and free wallet, he was welcomed to the most exclusive parties and clubs without thought, and yet he still had college buds that hanged out at the local bar, where he was also welcome.
She was in LA on a mission. There had been a rash of millionaires winding up dead. It had started in Switzerland, and she had taken the case to get her mind off her broken heart. But now that she had followed what she believed to be an undead murderess across the globe to LA, it was getting mighty hard not to focus on her heart.
LA was where it all began, after all. LA was where she had first gotten the gig that led her to be what she was, and what she wasn't. It was also the city where she had run after she had sent him to hell, and where he ran to escape her, and where he had died. She hadn't been to LA since.
But here she was, sitting at a café, waiting for the leading suspect to make an appearance. She had paid off the limo driver that was taking the fine lady out tonight, but she needed to see her, make sure that she was really the one. She'd give up following her until after she left the restaurant with her date, stake outs just weren't her thing, too much waiting and sitting and down time for her taste. Too much time to think about all the things wrong in her life. She'd stay in the area, but she knew the suspect enough to know her pattern. This was the third date, so the guy would be found dead in the morning if she didn't do something. This would be the tenth victim, and she really hated it when the death toll got to the double digits. This time, she was one step ahead, instead of one behind. She'd get the bitch tonight, then go back to England to sulk. Or maybe she'd take a vacation. She always wanted to go to see the castles in the Loire Valley, in the upper part of France. She had heard as a girl, when she went through her princess phase, that some of the castles, like Usse, were the models for the Cinderella Castle. Or maybe she'd go to Disney World, she had never been there…
A movement caught her eye, and she looked to see the woman coming out of her rented apartment, wearing a dress that left little to the imagination. Three-inch heels with laces that ran up to her knees were the only things until about three inches from the woman's hip, where the 'dress' began. Her dark olive cleavage bulged from the corset like top that looked to be a size too small. She had to wonder if she had had to break a few ribs to get the thing on. An inch of skin showed between the laces until well below her navel.
"Dressed to kill," she smirked at her own joke, leaving her table with a twenty in the center. She kept her eyes on the woman, knowing without a doubt she was the killer. Her outfit screamed predator. But she pulled it off spectacularly.
She slipped behind the wheel of her yellow bug as the limo pulled away from the curb. She waited a moment, before slipping into traffic a few cars behind the limo. She followed them to a posh restaurant she couldn't ever afford. She parked her car across the street and disappeared into the darkness of the alley.
An hour later her phone vibrated and she headed back to her car to see the woman and her date get into the limo, no doubt headed to a club. They ended up at a chic club she wasn't sure she could afford the cover charge to. She wasn't exactly dressed for clubbing anyway.
She parked her car nearby, motioned to the limo driver her thanks, before slipping into the alley. There was probably very few vampires prowling a club of this…monetary status, but even vampires could be gold diggers. She didn't know when it would happen, but she knew this would be the place. She'd gone through the other cases over and over. Three dates, either on a Friday-Saturday-Friday or Friday-Saturday-Wednesday if she was feeling antsy or needed the cash. This was a Friday-Saturday-Friday deal, so she wasn't planning on leaving that night, and she wasn't on a tight budget, and she hadn't caught on that she was being watched.
It was two hours, and obviously plenty of alcohol later that the suspect and the victim stumbled out of the band entrance. She didn't want to reveal herself until she was certain the woman was a vampire, though her gut and spine were screaming at her that this was no normal chick. She thought it odd, her spine had never reacted to a normal vampire before, but she pushed the thought aside as the date stumbled and fell to the alley floor. She moved in, knowing the vampire wasn't as drunk as she appeared. It was simple enough staking. She was about to leave when the man groaned, standing on shaky legs.
"Where'd Steph go?" he asked, looking at her curiously.
She stuffed the stake into her purse, "That woman? She left, muttering something about some flashy drunk."
"This is all too familiar." She looked at him like he was crazy, wondering just what he meant by that comment. "Getting drunk and meeting a beautiful blonde in an alley. Are you here to save me?" he asked, before he tripped again and passed out.
She looked around, she really didn't want to deal with him, but she couldn't just leave him. That would defeat the purpose of getting rid of 'Steph'. She sighed, throwing one of his arms around her shoulder and dragged him to her car.
