Awakened by Virna Depaul

Atlanta.”
    Barrett had never seen the city from this altitude. The helicopter was flying low, hundreds of feet beneath the few airplanes she’d seen on the way. What was the term? Under the radar. The words applied to Nick Maltese in more ways than one.
    “Are you landing at Hartsfield?” She supposed the busy commercial airport allowed some private craft to land on distant runways.
    Nick shook his head. “No. Changed my mind. Too chaotic, too many small planes coming in. I’m thinking New City. Over there. Toward the west.”
    He altered course, muttering a reply to the air-traffic controller’s radioed request for information. The staticy response faded out. Barrett looked ahead to the sprawling small city. Lit-up highways rolled toward it through empty-looking land.
    “Kind of amazing when you think that was rural a few years ago,” he muttered.
    Like Atlanta, it was composed of glass block buildings, but none were as tall as the ones in Georgia’s capital. Some were more concrete than glass, with a dusty, unfinished look made worse by the sickly orange glow of futuristic street lamps.
    Nick flew even lower, skirting the New City limits, heading for an airfield that seemed relatively quiet. He landed the helicopter and turned off the rotors, waiting for the thumping beat to die down.
    “They have some new hotels. We’ll get a suite,” he said without looking at her. “Two bedrooms, but I don’t want you too far … For your safety.”
    He sounded sincere and unswayable. Not that Barrett was going to argue with him. A suite would do just fine. Plus, since she’d taken her ID and smartphone with her but had left the rest in her car, he was going to have to foot the bill, though that had never been a problem for Nick. He was old school and had refused to let her pay for anything, even when she’d been the one to do the inviting. She would have to stop at the gift shop if there was one, buy a few things for the night. And—
    “Hey, you need to call about the rental car,” he reminded her in a matter-of-fact voice.
    She smiled at the way he’d echoed her thoughts. In many ways, they’d always operated on a similar wavelength. In others … “What should I say? Vampires playing with matches?”
    Nick snorted. “Just say it blew up. They’ll figure it was meth heads trying to steal it for a portable lab. Happens all over the country.”
    “Here? Whatever happened to gracious southern living?”
    “Somewhat endangered. But not dead.”
    Barrett belatedly remembered that his family had lived in North Carolina for generations. Once Nick had joined the army, he’d never looked back.
    “You ready?” he asked her. “How are you feeling?”
    “Not too bad.” Only like hell warmed over, she thought, just as he said, “Only like shit, right?”
    She stared at him, then shook her head and laughed. His expression relaxed until he, too, was smiling.
    “I could never pull one over on you, could I, Nick?”
    His smile disappeared and he lifted a hand as if to touch her face. He dropped it before making contact and turned back to the windshield. “I don’t know, Barrett. You tried so many times, I confess I lost count.” What could she say? He was right. She’d never dropped her defenses with him. Not completely. Not even in bed. The fact that he’d let her go so easily both justified that fact and probably explained it, as well.
    “We should be safe here. How about I buy you dinner and a drink before we start the heavy talk?”
    They were going to be discussing vampires and sex rings and failed promises while carefully avoiding the fact they’d seen each other naked. Saying they were going to have some heavy conversation was putting it mildly. That realization prompted her to say, “You’re on.”
    He grinned, almost as if she’d agreed to go on a date with him. It would be the weirdest damn date she’d ever been on. But then she and Nick had never actually dated. They’d been too hungry for