CHAPTER 9

Tina mutters something else under her breath and it's enough for Luke to remove his hands from my waist. The minute his touch lifts, I wobble slightly, off-balance and feeling his absence. Luke and I have always been just friends but it's only recently that he's gotten a lot more, uh, touchy feely with me. At least I think he has. Sometimes I think I read way too much into everything.

"What did you say?" I ask Tina pointedly.

She gives us both a knowing smile. "Nothing. Well, Luke, now that you're here, I'll leave you two to it."

She picks up a fluffy pile of fake cobwebs on a nearby table and shoves them in his hands.

"Wait a minute," Luke says, attempting to give the cobwebs back. "This Halloween party was your idea."

"Yeah," I tell her. "You've only been talking about it every day for the last few months."

She raises her hands and gives us another smirk. "I'm wanted upstairs. Eric's calling." She taps her temple with her red polished fingernail as a way of telling us that his vampire voice is in her head, and then walks out of the club, the main doors swinging behind her.

Luke sighs and looks down at the cobwebs. "Why do I feel this was her plan all along? Beg Eric for a party and then leave the two of us to do it."

I grin at him. "Because they always leave the two of us to do everything."

"You got that right," he mumbles, running his hand over his jaw as he looks up at my decorations. "You know, you've been running this joint for a long time now, and this is the first time we've had a Halloween party. I'm actually surprised you've never suggested it before, being human and all."

"Maybe because every day is fucking Halloween when you live in a house full of vampires?" I point out.

He smirks, his dimples popping, and grabs the rest of the pumpkin garland from my hands. "Fair enough. At least let me take care of the tall stuff."

He goes to the wall on the other side of the door and reaches up with ease to pin another pumpkin up. I take a moment to admire his ass (as I always do, it's a feat of nature!), even though he must know I check him out all the livelong day. I don't even think I'm bashful about it anymore. Then again, bashful has never been my style.

"I have to say," he says, back still to me. "I might actually be looking forward to this. Already have my costume picked out."

I look at him in surprise. "What is it?"

"You're looking at it." He turns to face me, a wry smile on his lips as he gestures to himself. "I'm a vampire."

I raise my brow. "Oh, that's cheating. At least try to look like one."

Because, the thing is, Luke doesn't look like a vampire at all. Before I first came to Dark Eyes, I thought vampires were a myth. Even though I'd always been obsessed with the supernatural growing up, and I was eager to believe in ghosts and witches and shapeshifters, vampires seemed farfetched. And when I thought of vampires, I thought of them tall, skinny, pale, black greasy hair, red eyes. Maybe a cape. I definitely didn't think of the sparkly Twilight variety either. No, I went old school Bela Lugosi in my imagination. Super goth.

So, when I discovered that vampires do actually exist, I was shocked to find out that they weren't at all what I imagined them to be. Okay, so Eric "Eric" Stavig, the head honcho of the house, does look a little goth with his long black hair, pale skin and bright blue eyes, plus his flair for wearing black, dramatic clothing.

But Luke? Luke is built like a Mack Truck. He's super tall, with shoulders like mountains and arms the size of my leg (and I have thunder thighs). His skin may be pale (they don't get sun damage), but his hair is this shiny, thick, light brown that gleams bronze under certain lights, and his eyes are the color of autumn leaves, faded green kissed by gold.