Free Deadman's Blood by T. Lynne Tolles Page A

quick call to Jules’s office to see if she was there, but no one answered. His last ditch effort was to see if she was home, so he drove the several miles to her house. Her car was in the driveway and the lights were on. She either forgot about their plans or had chickened out.
    He had brought a bottle of blood wine with him in case the end of the evening called for it. Blood wine was found in Malaysia, one of the only things that could intoxicate a vampire. Made from a rare ‘blood berry,’ to humans it doesn’t taste much different than an earthy cabernet. It is fermented much like a wine, but it is these rare berries that have an effect on a vampire much the way brandy might have on a human. A glass, he was hoping, might loosen Jules up and let him into her world.
    He parked, grabbed the blood wine, and headed for the door. He knocked and a few minutes later, Jules opened it.
    “Anton.” She looked embarrassed at his being there.
    “Am I interrupting anything?” He had both of his hands behind him holding the bottle of blood wine.
    “No,” she said quietly with her ever so slight British accent.
    “I suppose I pushed too hard for the date you missed.”
    “I’m sorry, Anton...I just...”
    “I brought a bottle of blood wine. Best stock in my father’s wine cellar. I thought maybe we could talk - no date, just talk.”
    She looked at the bottle he presented to her and he could tell that she was thinking of reasons to send him away, but Anton realized that though she often turned him down on the phone, he had been successful once before in person. He hoped by standing in front of her, this would be the case again.
    She looked up at him after a moment. She even ran her fingers over the label on the bottle. Then she stepped backwards, widening the doorway, and said, “Sure.”
    She was in jeans that fit her perfectly, accentuating every lovely curve. She wore a tight fitting T-shirt that revealed the tiniest bit of skin between her jeans and shirt. She was barefoot and it looked as if she had just recently had a pedicure with blood red nail polish applied.
    Her house was tastefully decorated and though it had many nice and expensive things in it, it felt comfortable. He followed her into the living room where she had a book open on the couch upside down, as if she had set it down to open the door but didn’t want to lose her place.
    She set the wine down on the coffee table and asked him to sit and make himself comfortable. She headed for what he presumed was the kitchen and came back carrying two wine glasses and a wine opener. She handed the opener to him and said, “Will you do the honors?”
    “Sure,” he said. He grabbed the bottle and started twisting the corkscrew into the top of the cork after taking the foiled seal off. When it was down as far as it would go, he pulled what looked like rabbit ears down and the cork make a small pop noise as air rushed into the bottle. He poured some blood wine into each of the glasses and handed one to her.
    “A toast?” he asked.
    “To what?” she asked, her sapphire blue eyes looking to him for an answer.
    “To friendship,” he said. He felt this was safe and noncommittal, which seemed to be what she wanted.
    “Okay. To friendship.” She said then took a sip as did he, but, she never took her eyes off of him.
    He leaned back into the couch, sighed deeply, and looked around the room. A painting caught his attention and he said, “That’s lovely. Who’s the artist?”
    “A nobody. Just something I picked up when I was traveling through Tuscany. So tell me, Anton, I don’t think you came here to talk about my taste in art; why did you come?”
    “To try and get to know you!”
    “But I think I’ve made it pretty obvious, I’m not...good for...the relationship type. Your persistence makes me think that I’ve become merely a challenge to your ego. The thrill of the chase and nothing else. I mean, come on...have you ever been turned down?”
    He