Phoenix Contract: Part Three (Fallen Angel Watchers) Read Online Free Page B

pants and headed directly to the drink waiting area.
    His best chance of hooking up with the vampire was while she waited for her drink which didn’t leave him much time to work. Taking long strides, he juggled potential pickup lines on the short trip from the register. The vampire stood next to the Hear Music rack, holding a Blues compilation CD. Troy tensed with a rush of excitement, seeing the perfect opening.
    “That’s a great CD,” he said, approaching her with a winning smile. Once into the role, his nervousness dropped away, and he was ready for action.
    She glanced up, looked him over, and then smiled as she tilted her head up to his face. “Yeah?”
    Troy could feel her eyes on his throat, no doubt sizing him up for a bite.
    “I’ll confess, I’m not much of a Blues fan. Bit before my time,” she said with a giggle. “It was just something to look at while I wait.”
    She started to put the CD back, but he intercepted it, turning it over so he could scan the back. “The Blues are more than just music. It’s about savagery and suffering and the triumph of the human soul.”
    “Wow, that’s really beautiful.” Her hazel eyes were wide and moist, greed and interest glimmering in their depths. She wasn’t smart enough to really understand what he meant, but he had her hooked anyway.
    The vampire gave him the once over, her gaze lingering along his lengthy form, and her appreciation increased with each passing second. The more she saw, the more she liked. Eventually, she noticed his ring, as so many people did, because the remarkable sapphire was big and brilliant.
    “That’s a gorgeous ring,” she said.
    “Thanks. My father gave it to me,” Troy replied with a bland, practiced smile.
    “It’s really pretty.” Her gaze coveted the ring, and he speculated that she planned to take it from his corpse after she fed.
    “Cheryl.” One of the Starbuck’s employees called her name and set the Vanilla Latte on the counter.
    “That’s me.” The vampire hesitated, torn between grabbing her drink and risking the loss of her prospective meal. Her transparent expression betrayed her thoughts so thoroughly that he might as well have been a mind reader.
    Luckily, at that moment Troy’s drink appeared on the counter, and they called his name. “And that’s me,” he said with an easy smile. “Want to grab a table?”
    “Sure! That sounds great.” The vampire bounced on the balls of her feet with a perky smile and a swish of her hair. She moved to fetch her latte, and while her back was turned, Troy peered out the store glass windows.
    He spotted Katsue watching them from a pay phone across the street while she pretended to make a call. Their gazes locked, and Katsue used sign language to acknowledge him. Katsue wore a bland, bored expression, but he could sense her amusement at his expense. She knew hitting on women made him uncomfortable, even when it was only professional role-play.
    He resented her smugness, and if he could have reversed the situation, purely for the sake of revenge, he would have, but Katsue demonstrated the same sexual ease with women that she did with men. There would have been no point.
    Resigned, he returned his attention to the vampire, adopting an easy smile to cover the grim determination he gave to his task.

    Katsue held the receiver of the pay phone tucked against her shoulder and mimicked the sounds of a real conversation, occasionally pretending to listen to the non-existent person on the other end. A middle class businessman had been waiting for five minutes to use the phone. He impatiently shifted and used body language to show his irritation.
    “Hurry up,” he finally snapped.
    “Get a cell phone like everyone else in this City, you loser!” Katsue retorted, tossing her waist-length black hair and turning her back to him. She switched to Japanese and sang the lyrics to a popular pop song.
    Finally, the man gave up and marched off in a huff.
    “Took you long