Copyright 1996 by Anne Fraser and M.J. Gardner

Chapter 1

The flash of colored lights off a mirrored disco ball assaulted Jake as he walked into the anthropology/archeology departments' combined faculty party, "Dig It, 96". Trying once again to dump their stuffy image, he thought with a grin. The brief public fascination with archeology, fostered by the Indiana Jones movies, had worn off when people discovered just what hard, dirty, unrewarding work it usually was. Few people find lost arks. Archeologists get excited over potsherds; anthropologists get excited over finding how the pot was used. Or about stories the pictures on the pot tell, if your specialty is folklore.

The party was also a kick in the teeth to the U of T's budget restraints, cutbacks and layoffs. Never mind that departments were being axed, downsized and amalgamated, that the libraries were crumbling under the pressure of lost staff, that somehow the university president still managed to live rent-free in a Rosedale mansion while the rest of the community were being forced out of their apartments by the repeal of rent control... it was time to party.

"Heh, I know who the real Rosedale vampire is," Jake muttered to himself, thinking of the unpopular president.

In fact, a vampire was missing from the party, Jake thought, eyes scanning the room for a familiar figure. No sign of a handsome man with wavy black hair, teal blue eyes, designer clothes... and fangs. Professor Adrian Talbot was not there. Since he belonged to both the Anthro and Eng Lit departments, it was odd that he wasn't at the party. Jake frowned slightly, then decided that maybe he was relieved. Adrian's feelings for him were making him increasingly uncomfortable.

"Just because I saved his life..." Jake sighed, knowing full well that the situation was more complicated than that.

The pounding music drew him to the dance floor, and he happily danced with a couple female classmates and his thesis advisor -- who kidded him that this was the first she'd seen of him in some time. Jake blushed and kidded her right back that he didn't need advice on his thesis anymore -- just time to actually write it.

"You didn't bring Grace with you," Claudia said, hunting around for Jake's steady girlfriend.

"She had to go home because her mother's sick," Jake moped. "I really wanted her to come with me tonight."

"I hope it's nothing serious with her mother."

"Oh, it never is. Her mother is one of these types who's always sick, but never is."

Claudia nodded her understanding, and grinned. "And where's your friend the hunk?"

"Max?" Jake deliberately misunderstood her. "He's studying, of course. I think he gets to dissect something tomorrow."

His advisor snorted. "If you think that I think that Max is a 'hunk', you underestimate my taste. I meant that dish Prof. Talbot."

"I dunno. I thought he'd be here." Another scan of the room. No Talbot. No vampires allowed tonight, Jake thought. And wondered why he got a very brief niggle at his new senses.... He dismissed it.

As the music rested between CDs, he and Claudia stopped dancing. A wave of perfume and cigarette smoke made Jake feel suddenly and unexpectedly dizzy. Thirst made his throat scratchy, and he found himself staring at the pulse in Claudia's neck.

Shit.

"I have to get something to drink," he said. "Can I get you anything?"

"No, thanks. I see a couple other of my grads that I need to go ride herd on. We'll hook up for another dance later, if you like."

"'Kay." Jake nodded to her and made his way to the refreshment table.

He skidded to a stop in his tracks when he saw a woman hobbling along on one crutch, her plump, short frame obviously having suffered some damage. A large bandage covered her left elbow, revealed by her T-shirt, and she walked as if both knees and hips hurt. When she hobbled closer to Jake, he could see that her right ankle was neatly wrapped in a tensor bandage. It was the friendly library technician he often talked vampires with -- what was her name?

"What the heck happened to you?" he blurted out.

She grimaced, balancing unsteadily on the crutch. "Turned my ankle on some rough pavement and met the sidewalk," she replied.

"Then I guess your ankle's now vampiric," Jake couldn't help saying. "Seeing as how you turned it."

She regarded him with dancing hazel eyes. "You're bloody lucky I'm on this crutch."

"But you shouldn't be at a party," Jake continued, with concern. "You should be home resting, with that foot propped up. What are you doing here?"

"A very brief cameo," she replied, and hobbled off.

Jake turned and watched her limp away. Was that the tug he'd felt at his psyche? That one of his friends was hurt? He shook it off. He wasn't going to think about vampires tonight. Adrian's absence made that a lot easier. And he wasn't going to think about Grace and her hypochondriac mother either. He was just going to be a human and have a good time.

The punch looked really good. It wasn't until Jake was pouring himself a cup of it from the stainless steel ladle that he realized it was because it was blood red; the fruity scent wasn't really that inviting. He must have made a face because a voice said, "Not what you wanted?"

He looked up and from across the table a pair of almond-shaped brown eyes met his. For a minute he was speechless. The girl looked up coyly at him from under long dark lashes. Jake had never known what the expression "bedroom eyes" meant till now.

"Uh, no, just wasn't what I was expecting," he answered.

"Looks like sangria to me. My name's Evelyn."

Her voice was soft and low. It made him think of that chocolate bar commercial where the image of liquid chocolate fills the screen.

"I have a girlfriend," he blurted out.

The girl raised her eyebrows slightly, amusement playing around the corners of her mouth. Jake was embarrassed, felt even more foolish when he realized he was blushing.

"Well, then, I'll just have some punch," said Evelyn, holding up a plastic cup.

"Oh, sure." He filled it for her.

"You're a football player?" she asked, eyeing his jacket.

"Yeah. You don't like football players?" he asked, when he saw the corners of her mouth turn down. Why did he care, anyway? he asked himself. He had a girlfriend.

"I haven't had very good relationships with them in the past."

"Are you with Anthro or Arch?"

"I'm with the band," she answered, sipping her punch.

"The band? Oh!" It was a joke. Ha ha. She delivered it with such a straight face that Jake almost turned to look for a live band. That really would have blown the budget.

"You're an anthropologist?" she asked, reading his jacket again. "You like to dig up the dead?"

It might have struck Jake as a weird thing to say, but he was just staring into those dreamy eyes. "Folklore is my specialty, actually."

"Hm. Why don't we sit down."

"Uh..." Jake stalled. These people knew him and knew Grace. He couldn't be seen sitting with this girl.

Why not? he asked himself. He'd just danced with three other women, and hadn't worried about anyone misconstruing that. Well, said a little voice in his mind, because that was innocent, and this....

Evelyn was still waiting for an answer. She looked around the room suddenly, then leaned towards Jake and whispered, "Your girlfriend isn't here, is she?"

"No, it's not that--."

"Well, then," she said imperiously and turned away from him to lead the way to the back of the room where the conference tables had been pushed back and covered with paper tablecloths to mask their academic personalities.

Jake followed her to a seat. She looked just as good from the back as from the front. No visible panty lines, no nylons. Oh, my, he thought.

"So are you in Archeology?" He didn't know every Anthro student, but she didn't look familiar.

She smiled. "I just like to crash parties."

"No, seriously. Are you a student?"

"No." She took another sip of punch. The level in the cup didn't seem to have dropped from where Jake had filled it to.

"Are you here with somebody?"

She looked up at him coyly again. "Maybe you."

"Come on, tell me how you got here."

"You haven't even told me your name," she countered.

"Jake, Jake Fowler."

"So good to meet you, Jake," she purred.

Feeling his blood pressure (and a couple of other things) rise considerably, Jake stared into his plastic cup. Thirst still made his throat raw, his tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth. That was thirst, wasn't it? Shit. This was a damned attractive woman. A little darker than T'Beth and much sexier, though T'Beth would probably gut him for saying so....

Did he have to keep thinking about goddam vampires? And why did his mouth feel kind of funny? He took another swig of punch and grimaced. Ugh, too sweet.

"Poor Jake, that punch doesn't seem to be doing you much good."

He nodded, wondering what his exotic new acquaintance must taste like. Taste? And when had she moved so close, so that her silky skin was right next to his? Holy shit, she was coming on to him....

"What's your name?" he asked to relieve some of the pressure, and also because he suddenly wanted to be sure that it wasn't "Helga" or "Pollyana." Or, God help him, "Grace".

"Evelyn," she answered with a low, soft laugh. "Remember? I told you back at the punch bowl."

"Evelyn." Jake managed to keep from squeaking, but it was a near thing. He realized that he wanted her quite badly. A psychoanalyst would have a field day with him -- his girlfriend gone for less than 48 hours, and he wanted to jump the first beautiful woman he saw. Probably he just wanted to reestablish his heterosexuality firmly in his own mind after stray thoughts of Adrian.... Oh, no, it wasn't that at all. Evelyn's sexy voice and doe eyes were causing all sorts of exciting reactions.

Some joker flipped a new CD onto the player and the sounds of Hootie and the Blowfish filled the room, greeted with catcalls, flung paper plates, and a few game people trying to dance to it. Violence probably wasn't too far off, a number of students were drunk enough to take umbrage at the choice of music. Jake snapped out of his testosterone fantasies long enough to slip his hand into Evelyn's.

"Come on," he told her, "someone will call the campus cops, and you'd better not stick around if you crashed the party."

Most women would either have objected to being manhandled in this fashion, protested that they could handle themselves, or fluttered eyelashes and murmured something like, "Oh, you're so forceful!" Evelyn simply left her hand in Jake's and said, "Sure."

They fled from the Earth Sciences building where the party was being held and walked up the nearly-deserted street together.

"Um, can I walk you home?" Jake asked.

Evelyn smiled. "You've already rescued me once. It's my turn. Let me walk you home." She saw him hesitate. "Or is someone there?"

"No, my roomie's pulling an all-nighter in the med library," Jake replied. His throat was really dry.

"Well, then...? Lead the way."

Jake swallowed, but protested no more. He was a very healthy male, and this was the most attractive woman he'd seen in a long time. If she wanted to walk him home--and stay a while when they got there -- then fidelity to Grace only went so far.

It wasn't until they got into his room, with all its little mementos of Grace, that Jake really felt guilty. And somehow that only made him want Evelyn more. Sex wouldn't be as much fun if it wasn't naughty, an old girlfriend had once told him.

Evelyn gave him a gentle push so that he sat on the foot of the bed. She was too short to kiss him otherwise. She regarded him curiously, as if she wasn't sure if this was a wise thing to do. Jake slid his hands up her back, looking for bra hooks. No bra.

"Are you willing to pay for your pleasure?" she asked, her silky voice marred by a sudden, strange speech impediment.

"Pay for-- Shit!" Jake saw her fangs and that gleam in her eye. He stood up. Evelyn was thrown backwards but did not fall.

"Not another vampire?!"

"Another vampire?" she echoed. Her teeth were retracted now. Then suddenly her eyes widened.

Jake's fangs had descended just a little bit. He could taste his own blood, tinny and salty. He grimaced with pain.

"But you're a mortal!" insisted Evelyn.

As if to punctuate her sentence the door suddenly crashed open. Both Jake and Evelyn jumped back as splinters flew from the the jamb. A dark-haired vampire leapt the room, fangs barred in a snarl, teal eyes glowing, and for a minute the three of them just stared at each other.