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pocket, but a special phone that had her breathing a sigh of relief when the screen lit up. It still had power. Taking out the charger, she walked over to a small vanity and plugged it in. Compared to most cell phones today, it appeared thick and on the bulky side. Old fashioned. That was the beauty about advancing technology. Anyone seeing this particular phone would think Ria behind the times for having something so antiquated. Except it wasn’t what it appeared. Yes, it was a cell phone, and would function as one for a short time, if she actually had service to it. She didn’t, because that’s not why she carted it around.
    On the side was a miniscule slide button. When she pushed it over, the battery cover slide free, which she set on the counter, followed by the battery itself. What was revealed looked like the back of any other phone, except for an almost unnoticeable black piece of tape. Carefully pulling that free and placing it right side up next to the other pieces of the phone, she looked at the tiny switch hidden by the tape. Flicking it caused the phone to separate in half, and she ran a finger over what had been hidden there.
    The quarter pint of blood was cool to the touch.
    Satisfied, and amazed at her friend’s ingenuity, Ria reassembled everything. Dax had given her the phone as a mutual favor. She was testing for durability, longevity and passibility. It was also a back-up to the back-up. Though she’d had plenty of blood before this trip, she, and he, had noticed her need for the liquid nourishment had recently begun to increase.
    Neither knew what it meant.
    What she did know was that explaining away her occasional pouts of fatigue or deathly paleness of skin beneath her sun-kissed tan as symptoms of her autoimmune anemia was preferable to the reality.
    Because everyone knew vampires were myths.
    Chapter Three
    Though showered and dressed, Ria was still bleary-eyed as she stepped out the slider door onto her little private balcony. Reaching fingers from the weak morning sun crept over the large garden at the back of the house, bringing warmth to the beautiful and vast arrangement of flowers and vibrant plants interspersed with benches, a gazebo and a covered swing. An inviting wonderland that beckoned one to come on down and sit a spell.
    Affected by the chilly dawn temperature and her damp hair, she wrapped the light-weight jacket tighter across her middle. Flicking her lighter, she breathed in a lungful of the herbs contained in her cigarette. A special blend of herbs created by her friend Dax to mask one’s scent against those who had a nose for sniffing out the truth.
    Like a shifter finding out she was a vampire. A dangerous situation she most definitely did not want to become a reality.
    Eyes narrowed at the possibility, Ria took another drag. She didn’t much care what was in it, as long as it worked. And from experience, she knew it did. At least against full-bloodied vamps who also possessed heightened senses. Ria, on the other hand, was only part vampire. She was also the great-granddaughter of a sorcerer. Not that she had any magic powers to speak of, or if she did, they had yet to manifest. Her bite, on the other hand, did contain a type of temporary paralytic when she needed to take sustenance from the source rather than a bag. An intimate act she tended to shy away from, as the drawback was arousal, for both her and her host.
    As she smoked, and occasionally shivered, she looked beyond the garden to the orchards that made up the majority of the Felix family reputation. Rows upon rows of trees heavy with ripe oranges, black olives and avocados covered nearly half the land. Buildings of different shapes and sizes were scattered throughout the area as well, including the barn she knew Porter lived over. Off to her left, she could just make out a section of a two-story house the oldest son, Santos, lived in.
    Santos. Just the thought of the dark-haired, dark-skinned man made her twitchy,