He nodded, his gaze intent upon her face as he waited for her reaction.

She took a deep breath. "Well, I guess nothing on the menu will tempt you, then."

"Only you."

The look in his eyes, the husky longing in his voice, made her knees go weak.

Reluctantly, she went to wait on her other customers.

He sat in the booth the rest of the evening, one arm across the back, toying with a cup of coffee that he never drank.

Gus grumbled a bit about that until Vicki told him that Antonio was there to see her safely home.

When Bobbie Sue heard that, she took Vicki aside and asked her if she had lost her mind.

"He's a vampire," Bobbie Sue said, glancing around to make sure no one overheard her. "A vampire, Vicki. And Tom, well, he hunts them, you know, and… "

"And what?"

"He's going to kill him or destroy him or whatever it is he does."

"What? Why? Antonio hasn't done anything to anyone."

"Vicki, read my lips. He's a vampire. They kill people and drink their blood."

"No." Vicki looked over at the booth where Antonio was sitting. In spite of what she had just said, she couldn't dismiss the truth of Bobbie Sue's words. Hadn't Antonio himself told her just that night that he drank blood? Where else was he going to get it, if not from… from people he killed? So he wasn't responsible for killing Sharlene and the others. That didn't mean he hadn't killed others, only that he hadn't been caught.

It was all she could think about during the remainder of her shift. She served platters of steak and shrimp and bowls of soup and all she could think about was Antonio and how many people he must have killed to survive as long as he had.

He was waiting for her outside when the diner closed. Without a word, he walked her to her car, waited while she unlocked the door and got behind the wheel.

"Get in," she said. "We need to talk."

The ride home seemed longer than usual. His presence in the car was almost overwhelming. Never had she been so aware of how very male he was. He exuded strength and power and a sense of invincibility that was both reassuring and frightening.

When she pulled into the driveway, he got out of the car first. As he had before, he scanned the yard and the trees beyond before he opened the door for her.

Inside the house, she closed and locked the front door, then went into the living room and sat down. He followed her, still silent. He didn't sit down, simply stood there, waiting, as if he knew what was coming.

"You drink blood," she said. "Where do you get it?"

He grunted softly. "What you want to know is how many people I have killed."

"Yes."

Antonio paced the length of the room, then came to stand in front of her once again. "I am not like Dimitri Falco. I do not kill for pleasure. I have killed in the past. I do not deny it I have killed to preserve my existence. I have killed to defend myself, but never without cause."

"But you have to kill to live, don't you? How often? Every night? Once a week?" Even if he only needed sustenance once a year, he would have killed over six hundred people.

"There is no need for me to take life, Victoria. I can take what I need without killing. I have been a vampire for a very long time. My need for blood grows less with each passing year, though my desire for it has not changed."

"Tom Duncan intends to kill you."

Battista lifted one brow. "Indeed?"

Vicki nodded. "Bobbie Sue told me."

He made a sound deep in his throat. It sounded almost like a growl.

"Can he? Kill you?"

"I am already dead, but he can destroy me, though he will have to find me first."

She didn't find that very comforting. Of course, Duncan hadn't been able to locate Falco thus far, though she prayed that would soon change. Hopefully, Duncan would never find Antonio's resting place, wherever that might be.

"Did you think about what I said last night?" Battista asked.

"Are you kidding? I haven't been able to think of anything else."

"What have you decided?"

"I want you in my life." She hadn't known what her answer was going to be until that moment. Now, hearing the words, they felt right. "So, I guess we're going steady." Using such an outdated term made her cheeks grow hot.

"Going steady." He repeated the words, his tone faintly amused, as he sat down beside her. "You are sure? You have no doubts?"

"Oh, I have a lot of doubts, but I'm not listening to them."

He smiled at her.

Was he pleased with her answer, she wondered, or just amused?

He leaned toward her and she knew he was going to kiss her. She put her hand against his chest, staying him.

"There's just one more thing. You're not planning to drink my blood, are you?"

He glanced briefly at her throat. "Only if you want me to."

"No worries, then," she said, confident that even if she lived to be a hundred, she would never ask him to do anything so inherently repugnant.

Chapter 20

Vicki woke with a smile the next morning. She was going steady. With a vampire.

A look at the clock showed that it was already past noon. She never slept this late.

Clutching a pillow to her chest, she laughed out loud. She had only been going steady with Antonio for one night and already her life was changing, but she supposed that was to be expected. After all, it was obvious that if she wanted to spend time with Antonio, she was going to have to adjust her hours to his, since he couldn't adjust his to hers.

The diner closed at midnight on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and at one A.M.

on Friday and Saturday. That meant that she had from closing time until dawn to spend with Antonio on the nights she worked. Sundays and Mondays, when she was off, they would have more time together.

Filled with a rush of nervous energy, she dressed and ate a quick breakfast, then cleaned the house from top to bottom, excited at the prospect of seeing him again that evening. If Antonio had been a normal, mortal man, she would have planned an intimate candlelit dinner, baked a seven-layer chocolate cake, bought a bottle of vintage wine.

But that was out of the question. Maybe she could find a bottle of blood somewhere…

She grimaced at the thought, only then remembering that he had never really answered her question of where and how he fed. If he didn't kill to survive, did he just prey on unsuspecting women? She shook her head. If that were the case, the papers would be filled with stories of women who had been preyed upon, and the tabloids would be shrieking that there was a vampire running amok. Maybe there were people who offered to let him drink their blood, people like Goths who were really into the whole vampire scene.

She knew she shouldn't be wondering about such things, but she couldn't help it. There was so much she didn't know. Maybe he could give her a list of dos and don'ts for people dating the Undead.

Laughing at the thought, she went into the bathroom to take a shower and get dressed for work.

Antonio was waiting for her when she left the house that evening. The surge of pleasure she felt at seeing him again made her knees go weak. It wasn't fair for him to have such a devastating effect on her senses.

She smiled as she hurried down the stairs. "Hi."

"Hi."

She laughed out loud. "What? No 'good evening' a la Dracula?"

"I thought I would try to make my speech more contemporary."

"Oh."

Her heartbeat ramped into overdrive as he bent his head to kiss her. When he would have let her go, she wrapped her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss.

His body responded instantly and before she knew what was happening, he had her backed up against the porch, his body pressed intimately against hers as his hands began a slow exploration of her body.

That quickly, she was on fire for him. Feeling as though she could never be close enough, she pressed herself against him. A soft moan rose in her throat as she ground her hips against his.

Lifting his head, he looked deep into her eyes. " Victoria … " Her name was a low groan on his lips.

"Wow."

"Wow?" He arched one brow, his dark eyes alight with amusement.

It was a good thing she had to go to work, she thought. It was the only thing that kept her from taking him by the hand and leading him back into the house and up the stairs into her bedroom. And into her bed.

"Maybe we can take up where we left off later?" she suggested.

"It would be my pleasure to do so."

She was smiling again. "And mine." She handed him the keys to her car. "Why don't you drive?"

"As you wish."

Ever the gentleman, he opened the door for her, then got into the car.

Vicki sat back in her seat, content to do nothing more than look at him. Every time he glanced her way, her insides turned to mush. She had never felt this way about a man.

It amazed her that she felt so strongly about him after only a few weeks. In some ways, she felt as if she had known him forever. Forever, she thought.

He would live forever, while she would not. She shook the depressing thought from her mind. She wouldn't think about that now.

He glanced over at her. "Is something wrong?"

Knowing he had noticed her staring at him brought a rush of heat to her face. "No, why?"

"I find you very attractive also."

"Thank you."

"I feel you still have questions you would like to ask me."

"Well, maybe one or two. Like, why do always wear black and… Well, you never did tell me how you satisfy your hunger or your thirst or whatever you call it."

"When I feel the urge to feed, I call someone to me and take what I need."

"You mean you hypnotize them?"

"Yes. And when I have satisfied the craving, I wipe the memory from their mind. As for wearing black… It blends with the night." He looked at her and grinned. "And it looks good on me."