Why the hell did I agree to this? Ruby wondered as she followed Harlan into a high-rise office building. Oh, right. Because I don’t trust him and I want to see how his investigation goes, firsthand.

“This doesn’t look like a bar to me,” she commented, looking around the spacious lobby.

“You’ll see,” Harlan replied, as mysterious as ever.

Everything was far too fancy for her tastes, and the woman behind the reception desk looked like she’d just stepped off the cover of a magazine. Suddenly, Ruby felt underdressed in her jeans and leather jacket. She was wearing a red turtleneck underneath, not wanting to put her scars on display.

Who knows, that might be like ringing the dinner bell to whomever we’re here to meet.

Harlan was still in that impeccable suit of his. It looked just as fresh as yesterday, and Ruby found herself wondering if vampires sweat. She didn’t think so, but then again, she didn’t know much. Harlan definitely wasn’t falling over himself to let her in on all his little secrets.

And now I’m basically working with him, she groaned to herself.

But as the saying went, keep your friends close… And if hanging around Harlan would get her close enough to Grant, it would all be worth it.

“Hello, darling,” Harlan said smoothly, gliding up to the reception desk with the elegance of a ballroom dancer. “And what might your name be?”

A slight blush colored the cheeks of the woman sitting behind it, making Ruby think she had to be human. In comparison, there was no color to Harlan’s complexion, and the woman’s movements weren’t as smooth and precise as his.

“Katie,” she replied, giving him a wide smile.

“Ah, lovely,” Harlan remarked, and Ruby rolled her eyes at the pure cheesiness of it all. “Would you be a dear and call up to the penthouse. Tell them I have a delivery of garlic bread,” he grinned.

Katie looked slightly confused by that, but picked up the phone in front of her nonetheless. As she was making the call, Ruby stepped closer to Harlan.

“Garlic bread? Really?” she whispered.

“It’s a little inside joke,” he replied.

“So garlic doesn’t repel you?” Ruby couldn’t help but ask.

“If you’re thinking of kissing me after chowing down on a clove, sure, it might repel me,” he said, his eyes flicking to her lips and back to her eyes.

Ruby felt overly warm all of the sudden as she crossed her arms in front of her in an attempt to close herself off from Harlan. She really shouldn’t have been surprised at how he had a non-answer to everything. Who knew how many decades he’d had to come up with all his little lines.

“You can go up,” Katie announced. “I’ve unlocked the elevator button, so you can just press ‘penthouse’.”

“Wonderful,” Harlan beamed at her, and it looked like Katie might just melt at the sight of his dazzling smile.

If only she knew what he really was…

“After you,” Harlan gestured toward the elevator doors, and Ruby stomped over to press the button calling it down.

“You don’t have to waste your charm on me,” she grumbled, her mood growing even more sour for some reason. “I’m not going to fawn all over you like Katie.”

“Do I detect a note of jealousy in your voice, Officer Danvers?” Harlan raised a brow at her as the elevator doors slid open.

Ruby stepped inside the metal box with a harrumph. Jealous because of him, a vampire? That had to be the most ridiculous thing she’d ever heard.

“Don’t flatter yourself,” she scoffed, as the elevator began to move.

Being trapped in an enclosed space with Harlan put all her instincts on edge. If he’d wanted to hurt her, he’d had plenty of opportunity to do so, that was true. But what if he had some other plans for her? What if she was going to be served up as dessert for his buddies as soon as the doors opened?

Going along with any of this had been stupid and reckless, she realized that now. But it felt like this was all she had left – to bring that one last criminal to justice before she had to start her life all over again.

On the bright side, if I die today I won’t have to start looking for a new job, she thought, giving in to the grim, macabre side of her.

“Relax,” Harlan said, ever-so-gently placing a hand on her left shoulder. “I can hear your heart beating out of your chest. I didn’t think you were afraid of anything.”

Looking up at him, she saw a softness in his features she hadn’t noticed before. So far, he had been too glib to come off as sincere, but this time, there seemed to be something akin to genuine concern on his face.

“Just take some deep breaths and keep your eye on the ball. No one here will hurt you, I promise,” he assured her, and despite her better judgment, Ruby found herself relaxing a bit.

“I’m fine,” she said quietly.

It was time to pull herself together. She had been in stressful situations before. This was just more of the same. She still felt naked without her gun, as useless as it would be in this situation.

The doors slid open just as she took in a deep breath, and she was entirely taken aback at what she saw in front of her. Having half-expected to walk into some sort of blood orgy, with everyone clad in latex, leather or fishnets, the cocktail party vibe of the place caught her off guard.

All the men wore suits, which made her think that vampires had a dress code or something. The women looked matchingly respectable, draped in expensive looking dresses or business suits, with a few mini-skirts thrown in here and there. The bartender was set up behind a long marble counter near the far right wall, and he gave Ruby and Harlan a nod as they stepped inside.

Looking around, Ruby thought herself relatively sure of who were vampires and who were humans. The grace, that kind of animal fluidity that wasn’t common by any stretch of the imagination, she had already observed in Harlan was now becoming easy to spot, especially when juxtaposed with the living.

Every stride was measured and purposeful, every gesture planned and controlled. It made Ruby feel downright clumsy as she tried not to fidget or look around too much. At her side, Harlan was scanning the room, his eyes stopping at a small sofa near the back of the room.

“There. I know her,” he said, before starting to walk over.

Ruby followed suit, keeping close to him as she noticed a few of the patrons looking at her curiously. She might not trust Harlan, but she still knew him a bit better than all these other vampires milling about. He’d gone to the trouble of saving her life, so maybe he’d keep her alive, going forward.

As they got closer to the sofa, Ruby could make out the shape of a woman, with auburn hair and a voluptuous shape. But she wasn’t alone. There was a man with her draped across her legs.

Heart starting to pound again, she watched as the woman, dressed in all white, bent down at the waist and smiled down at the man before nuzzling her face into his neck.

Oh god, she’s going to bite him, was all she could think as she numbly followed in Harlan’s footsteps. I can’t just let this happen.

Harlan gave her a look that pretty clearly told her to stay back and let him handle this, but she couldn’t stay quiet. As the young, dark-haired man closed his eyes and let his head fall back, Ruby stepped forward.

“Stop,” she called out, getting the attention of not only the redheaded woman, but a few of the other patrons.

She could hear Harlan sigh beside her, but his presence barely registered, now that the woman was staring up at her, fangs exposed, a frown between her perfectly arched eyebrows.

Well, shit.