Romancing The Dead by Tate Hallaway Read Free Book Online Page B

should try calling him again,” the club president helpfully suggested. When the door swung open, we all turned expectantly. The young woman who ducked in smiled apologetically when she noticed all the attention focused on her.
    Sebastian hated being late. He thought tardiness was a social affront. When we went places together, we were often the first to arrive. I remembered when he’d miscalculated the time it would take to negotiate the traffic to Hal’s house and we’d resolutely sat in the car so we wouldn’t be twenty minutes early for the holiday party.
    Even if Mátyás was right and Sebastian was with a ghoul, he’d still find a way to make it here on time. This wasn’t like him. Something was really wrong.
    “He’s not coming,” I said, and somehow I knew it was true.
    Despite my pronouncement, the club president fussed and fretted until almost thirty minutes past the hour before calling the engagement off. I stayed to help fold up chairs, still hopeful that Sebastian might show. Mátyás hung around to gloat, though I noticed him surreptitiously checking his cell a couple of times, so he might have been a bit worried himself.
    “She must be something else,” Mátyás said from where he leaned against the wall near the stack of folding chairs.
    “Who?”
    “The ghoul,” Mátyás said, sounding a bit disappointed that I missed the point of his clever barb.
    “Give me your phone,” I said.
    “I’ve already tried him. He’s still not answering.”
    I raised an eyebrow, surprised he confessed to being worried. “I want to call a taxi. I’m going home. Maybe . . .” I was going to say that maybe I’d see him later, but I didn’t like the implication that he might be gone for good. “He’d go there.”
    “I’ll give you a ride.”
    I put my finger in my ear and wiggled it. I swore Mátyás just offered to take me home. He rolled his eyes. “Seriously. Come on. My Jaguar has got to be more comfortable than a cab.”
    Go into a car with him? After he and his cronies tried to kill me? When he had left me for dead? I looked at him, his hair falling in front of his eyes and his tailored suit covering his teenage lanky fram. He looked like a kid. “Are you sure you’re even legal to drive?”
    “A hundred and fifty years plus,” he said with a wry smile and a jingle of his keys. After the cool of the University Club, outside felt like a sauna. Despite the setting sun, heat waves shimmered on the asphalt as we walked to Mátyás’s brand-new, jet-black Jag. Despite having a boyfriend who was very into vehicles, I didn’t normally understand the appeal of all that steel and such. This car, however, looked cool. It was low and predatory and dangerously fast. He caught me admiring his car and let slip an I-can-tell-you-think-it’s-sexy grin. I grimaced in return, annoyed that he noticed me checking out his ride.
    Mátyás beeped the doors open. My butt clenched when I slid onto the painfully hot leather seat. The air conditioner brought the smell of new car. I jiggled my legs until I stopped sticking to the seat. Mátyás watched me out of the corner of his eye as his did all the usual preparations to drive.
    I said what I sensed he wanted to hear, but I gave it to him dry and uninterested. “Yeah, yeah. It’s a cool car.” It was true anyway. Even the dashboard looked spiffy and space-age. It must have cost a fortune. I wondered where Mátyás got the money for something this expensive. Then, the scrapes on my leg twitched and I remembered the Vatican agents. Had he gotten paid to betray his father? “Thirty silver pieces buys a lot these days, eh?”
    Our uneasy truce shattered. He shot me a bitter look and flipped on the CD player with his knuckle. The thrash of speed -metal guitar filled the interior, killing any attempt at conversation. Suited me fine. I only wished I had my cell phone so I could check to see if there were any messages from Sebastian.
    Where could he be?
    Goddess, I