Free Stakeout (Aurora Sky by Nikki Jefford Page A

car
pulled away from the curb. I took their spot as soon as they
vacated it.
    I let myself into the palace. There was a
small gathering in the kitchen, but I didn’t see any sign of
Marcus. I glanced at the last place I’d seen Gavin, but he wasn’t
there. The living room was packed, the voices within louder than
the music. A couple going up the spiral staircase squeezed past a
couple coming down.
    I hadn’t noticed Gavin during my initial
scan, so I stepped further inside the living room.
    Hopefully he hadn’t gone home or
upstairs.
    A flash of red caught my eye when I looked
around the room a third time. Valerie. Red hair, red dress. Big
surprise. She was sitting in a guy’s lap on the couch. My first
thought was that it was Fane and that it was a good thing Aurora
had left early. Then Valerie moved back ever so slightly and I saw
that it wasn’t Fane, but Gavin taking the brunt of her ass. My
Gavin.
    My fingers curled. My stomach clenched into
one tight fist. I tasted bile. I felt rage. And still I couldn’t
believe it was true.
    That heinous bitch!
    Apparently I wasn’t the only person who felt
she’d stepped into an alternate universe. Maxine, a regular female
vamp at Marcus’s parties, honed in on Valerie as she entered the
room from the spiral staircase.
    “This is new,” Maxine said, tossing her
copper highlighted hair over one shoulder. “What happened to
Francesco?”
    Valerie did her own hair toss, one that sent
her tresses over her shoulders—like billowing boob curtains. “Fane
is old news. Emphasis on old . Gavin here
is nineteenth century. Barely old at all. Besides, he’s so much
better to look at.”
    Gavin beamed with pleasure. He gripped
Valerie’s hips and said, “You’re the most gorgeous thing I’ve
looked at in two centuries.”
    My heart dropped. All I’d ever gotten out of
Gavin was a “You look nice,” and he’d never looked at me the way he
stared at Valerie, as though he were a thirteen-year-old who’d
never seen breasts before.
    A gust of bitter wind reached my legs when
the front door opened. I turned in time to see Fane flick the butt
of his cigarette to the ground before stepping inside. He might
have gone unnoticed longer if other guests hadn’t seen him and
quieted in that way that attracts instant attention.
    Fane took languid steps across the stone
entrance, stopping at the lip of the living room. He glanced at
Valerie. I wish I could have looked as bored as Fane when he
noticed his ex-girlfriend in another vamp’s lap.
    Fane scratched his pale cheek. “Two exes in
one night. Marcus really knows how to throw a party.”
    Valerie sniggered. “Maybe you should have
stayed at home drinking tea with Joss.”
    Fane took another step inside the living
room. “There’s only one thing I like to drink.” His voice was
intimate, as though it were just he and Valerie having a private
conversation without the rest of us listening in. “Good thing Gavin
likes sharing.” Fane winked.
    Gavin wrapped an arm around Valerie and
glared at Fane. “She’s off limits.”
    Something inside me felt broken. Taken. He’d said I was taken. Now I’d been tossed
aside and replaced by ginger vamp bait.
    Fane looked around the room and chuckled.
“Just remember I had her first. But then, you always went for the
leftovers, Gavin. I guess that makes you more of a vulture than a
vampire.”
    The people standing around only looked mildly
interested in the male bravado on Valerie’s behalf.
    I was so disgusted I wanted to leave, but
it’s not like I could retreat mid-act. I so wanted Fane to steal
Valerie back, claim his former rights, yank her from Gavin’s lap,
and haul her skanky ass up the stairs then ravish the banshee until
there was nothing left but a pile of red rags. But a Fane and
Valerie comeback was about as likely as Marcus suddenly developing
an appetite for snatch.
    Valerie rose to her feet and glared at Fane.
She lifted her nose in the air. “Come on, Gavin. I’ll