Page 5 of How a Vampire Falls

“Because you kept the test.”

“Of course I did.”

As had Leslie, but he didn’t need to know that. “Okay, just to clarify expectations here, I don’t know you like that.”

“Clearly. You didn’t know my name.”

“Because I took the test on a dare, Ryker. I didn’t plan my life around it.”

He shrugged and said no more, just studied her. He’d made his case. Now she had to make the decision. Routine or adventure.

“There’s a diner two blocks up, on Main Street,” she said. “Do you eat?”

“I love to eat. But in case this is our only date, I’d like to take you somewhere nicer than a diner.”

Leslie spread her arms. “You’re in the wrong town.”

“I found this Italian place that’s about twenty minutes from here. Dodie’s Garden.”

“Or we could get burgers at the diner.”

He went very still again, as if worried he might annoy her into calling the whole thing off. “You don’t like Italian?”

“More than burgers and milkshakes? No. My favorite foods are the ones that shorten human lifespans.”

He laughed, and this time the husky sound sent a little shiver through her stomach. Then he sobered again. He might be confident, but he wasn’t taking heryesfor granted. She’d give him a point for that.

“If you like diner food, then we’ll eat diner food.”

“Good.”

He looked around her booth for the first time. As the sharpness of his focus left her, she let out a slow breath. What was with this guy? Why did she want to know more about him?

“Why aren’t you under the tent?” He gestured toward the giant red canvas shading about half the exhibits.

“It’s luck of the draw,” she said.

“Everyone else is human. They should prioritize giving you the shade.”

What a weird expectation. Leslie shrugged.

He ambled around her exhibit, examining everything, and eventually halted in front of the waterfall model. “I watched the time-lapse reel you posted on this one, but seeing it in person… Wow.”

“Thanks.”

Wolf.

The gamey odor hit her full in the face. Her nostrils flared. So did Ryker’s. His blue eyes flickered toward a slate gray, and the silver flecks dulled. He shifted his stance toward the scent. Leslie did too on force of instinct, but Ryker looked ready for a fight.

“It’s just Ezra,” she said.

“What?”

Researching restaurants before he arrived was one thing. Ryker would have to dig several layers deeper online to get hints of the wolf pack. They weren’t entirely off grid, but you couldn’t unearth their presence here by accident either.

“Harmony Ridge has a resident wolf pack,” she said. “Just outside town, massive property ownership that goes back a couple generations. Everybody in town—I mean, everybody who’s not a lupine denier—knows about them.”

“They come into town?”

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