But maybe this wasn’t the way to do it.
She closed the box and started to slip it back into her dress, when the graphic on the front caught her attention. Carfax Abbey scrawled in raised red lettering like swirls of blood across the cover.
She thought of Sebastian and all the things she’d heard about him. His misuse of mortal women. His insatiable hunger. His arrogance.
She opened the matches again. She was doing the right thing. For the right reasons. Sebastian Young needed to be stopped.
She swiped the match across the striker. It flared, and before she could think better of it, she held the flame to the cardboard in the barrel. The thick paper was surprisingly slow to ignite. And surprisingly smoky, too. But eventually it began to burn in earnest.
She stepped back, watching and hoping the sprinkler above the feeble blaze got hot enough before the smoke set off the fire alarms. A smoke alarm would just delay the vampires’ amusement for the night. She wanted a real interruption. Gushing water and the damage created by the deluge was bound to suspend the nightclub’s nefarious activities for quite a while.
Wilhelmina crept over to the door and checked to make sure no one was coming because of the smell. The smoke had become thick enough for humans to smell, never mind someone with preternatural senses. But from what she could see from her limited angle, everyone was still busy drinking and dancing and socializing.
A loud pop drew her attention back to the fire. She hurried to the metal barrel. Flames rose high above the top of the drum, but it was still well contained. Thankfully. She wanted the nightclub closed; she didn’t want it burned to the ground. Nadine had told her that Sebastian, his brother and his brother’s wife lived above the club. Her intent wasn’t to hurt them.
She could feel the heat of the burning cardboard now, and the smoke had lessened. All she had to do was wait.
She didn’t have to wait long. Within a few seconds, the sprinkler over the barrel began to spray an umbrella of water.
Joyful laughter bubbled up inside of her. This time, she’d done it. She’d saved the mortals at the club. They wouldn’t experience the brutal bloodlust of a vampire. Not tonight.
She listened, expecting to hear the squeals of the patrons as water poured down on them. The abrupt silence of the dance music. The pounding of hundreds of feet racing for the exit, but she heard none of that.
Instead she heard a sharp, irritated voice demand, “What the hell is going on?”
Wilhelmina spun around, her high heels slipping in the water that had begun to pool around her feet. Before she could catch herself, she fell flat onto her bottom in the puddle, the sprinkler showering cold water down over her.
Sebastian stared at the soaked woman seated in a growing pool of water. Not exactly how he’d imagined a woman falling at his feet tonight. And frankly, he wasn’t too thrilled to be pulled away from the women he had been expecting to fall at his feet. But when he’d gone to the bar to order another round of drinks, he’d smelled smoke. He’d followed the scent to this—odd scene. His new waitress on the floor, drenched, near a smoldering recycling barrel.
“What the hell happened here?”
The vampiress—Wilhelmina—braced her hands on the floor and started to lever herself up. Sebastian reached forward to help her, but she jerked her arm out of his hold. The movement caused her feet to slip out from under her again, and she returned to the puddle with a loud plop.
“Are you all right?” he asked, crouching down so he was at eye level with her.
She peered at him through water-splattered glasses and a tangle of wet, black hair that had escaped her interesting hairstyle. The two knots on the top of her head, which had looked a bit like horns, now drooped and looked more like floppy dog ears.
Sebastian would have smiled at the image she created, if he hadn’t let his gaze drop from her bedraggled hair to her body. The silky brocade of her uniform adhered to her figure, revealing every slope and curve. The hemline, already short by his own design, clung to the tops of her pale thighs, perilously close to revealing far more.
“Here, let me help you up,” he insisted more gruffly than he’d intended. He stepped into the spray, water saturating his shirt, but he managed to capture her elbow. This time, she allowed him to help her. She slipped once as she tried to get her footing. Finally she managed to stand.
The new position didn’t help as much as he hoped it would. The silklike fabric still remained plastered to her skin, perfectly displaying the roundness of her breasts, peaked with pointy, taut nipples. The hemline clung and created a V at the junction of her legs.
He stared at the alluring sight until the erection in his pants pulsed, far more sobering than the cold water still splattering down on him. He immediately released his hold on her arm.
This was crazy. They were both standing in a rapidly growing puddle, gaping at each other. And he was actually feeling attracted to this strange, wet waitress.
“Holy shit.” Nadine’s statement finally seemed to break the spell formed between himself and the new waitress.
Sebastian spun around to see both Nadine and Ferdinand peering in the doorway. He stepped out of the fountain of water and swiped a hand through his soaked hair.
“I knew I smelled smoke,” Ferdinand said.
“What happened?” Nadine asked.
“I have no idea,” Sebastian said, then frowned at Wilhelmina. “What did happen?”
“I…” Wilhelmina stepped out of the spray too. She shivered and then thankfully crossed her arms over her chest, concealing those taut nipples.
Sebastian gritted his teeth. Why was he even thinking about that? His storage room was flooding, for God’s sake.
“I…” She shivered again, and her gaze strayed to the puddle spreading slowly toward boxes of expensive bourbon. “I…was sneaking a cigarette, and I guess it accidentally caught the paper in the can on fire.”
“You smoke?” Nadine asked.
Wilhelmina shifted, hugging herself tighter. “Um, yeah. Sometimes.”
Sebastian frowned at the shivering woman. Something didn’t seem right. But then he disregarded the thought. His senses were still on high alert from the visit from the police. Besides, from what he’d seen so far, everything about this woman didn’t seem right.
“Ferdinand, there is a water valve for this room in the back corridor near the bathroom. Switch it off,” Sebastian said. “It should be labeled.”
Ferdinand nodded and disappeared out of the doorway.
“Come on,” Sebastian said, holding out his hand to Wilhelmina. “You need to get dried off.”
Wilhelmina stared at his hand as if she expected it to leap out and bite her.
“What—what about the rest of the bar?” She nibbled her bottom lip.
Sebastian’s gaze dropped to her mouth, watching the action for a moment, noticing how red her lips looked. Red and very soft. Then he frowned, irritated that he found the sight oddly fascinating. “What about it?”
“Aren’t the sprinklers going off all over the club?”
“Ah,” he said, understanding her concern. “No. Sprinkler systems are designed to only trigger the heads that sense a rise in temperature. The rest of the club is fine.”
“Oh,” she said, her lips turning down at the corners in an expression that seemed to imply disappointment, but Sebastian couldn’t be sure.
Before he could consider it further, the sprinkler stopped, making the room oddly quiet, even with the dance music