Under a Vampire Moon Read Online Free PDF Page B

away, she opened the door and climbed in, smiling at Adam as she did.
    “There, see? It’s all good,” Adam said cheerfully, sending the van moving forward again as soon as she’d settled in the seat and tugged the door closed.
    “Yes, thank you.” Carolyn quickly undid her shoe, slipped it back on and did it up only to frown as her heel immediately slipped out again. She stared at it blankly, slow to realize that her foot hadn’t worked itself out of the shoe, but that the sandal strap had actually broken.
    “Damn,” she muttered.
    “This pretty lady is Caro,” Adam announced to the van at large, and then added, “Caro, this is the band, the NCs. It stands for the Notte cuginos . Notte is their last name and they say cugino means cousin. I am taking them down to the main building so they can perform.”
    Carolyn briefly forgot about her shoe and glanced around with surprise, her eyes skating over the shadowed faces of the five other people behind her. It was hard to see much. The roads weren’t exactly well lit; all she could really make out was that she thought one of them might be a woman. Maybe two, she thought as she noted the long hair on the one in the seat directly behind hers. Although, if that was a woman, she was one hell of a big female.
    A snicker came from the smaller one she’d thought was a female and Caro glanced to her curiously.
    “Say hello,” Adam ordered cheerfully.
    “Hello,” Carolyn murmured even as the riders in the back did as well. At least, most of them did, the one in the back who had moonlight glinting off his bald head remained silent and she eyed him curiously, wondering if he shaved his head as some sort of fashion statement, or was balding and trying to hide it by shaving his head. Really, that sort of thing fooled no one, she thought. Although he seemed to have a nicely shaped head, the sort that took well to the style.
    “Caro is a friend of Genie’s,” Adam announced and then glanced to her and asked, “You are sitting with Genie tonight to watch them play?”
    “Yes,” she said, smiling as she settled back in her seat. “Genie and a young couple on their honeymoon, Marguerite and Julius.”
    Adam nodded, but the sudden tension in the back of the van was actually palpable, and Carolyn recalled that Marguerite and Julius had arranged for the band to come here. She bit her lip, wondering if she should say something to acknowledge that, but didn’t have a clue as to what she should say.
    “We are all related to Marguerite and Julius.”
    Carolyn turned in her seat again to see that the smaller female had sat forward . . . and she was definitely female. Not that Carolyn could see her any better, but the woman’s voice was a beautiful, husky singsong that could only be female.
    “Really?” she asked with a smile. “How are you related?”
    “Raffaele, Zanipolo, Santo, and I are all nieces and nephews,” she said, pointing to each dark figure in turn. She then gestured to the second figure with long hair, the possibly very large female, and added, “And Christian here is their so—”
    “Their brother,” the one called Raffaele interrupted.
    “Julius’s brother,” the woman agreed, and then jabbed Christian in the shoulder and taunted, “Put your hair back in its ponytail, cugino . Surely you realize you could be mistaken for a woman like that?”
    “What?” the man asked, glancing over his shoulder with what appeared to be confusion, though it was hard to tell in this light.
    The woman leaned to whisper something in his ear and then sat back with a laugh as Christian muttered under his breath. He turned to peer toward Carolyn then and she stared back curiously, wishing she could see his face. Like the girl, he had a nice voice, though his was definitely all male.
    Growing uncomfortable under the man’s stare, she slid her gaze to the others, noting that every one of them appeared to be peering from him to her and back almost expectantly, their heads