“So, what did you think?” Lizzy asked as we walked out to the parking lot.
“Seems like a fun crowd,” I said.
“Yeah, they can be. I go out dancing with some of them occasionally, but we mostly see each other here on Sundays. With my classes and all, I don’t have a lot of spare time.”
“So, you’re in school?” I asked.
“Yeah. I’m working on my doctorate in Astrophysics at the university.”
I must not have kept a very good poker face because Lizzy laughed. “Yeah, Dizzy Lizzy can actually add two and two and integrate the sum into Einstein’s theories,” she said. “And I can cast a horoscope like nobody’s business.” Her expression grew somber. “One of the girls said there was a vampire attack near Rosie’s last night.”
“Yeah. He attacked a stripper at that bus stop a couple of blocks from Rosie’s.”
“Wow. Did she survive?”
I nodded. “The cops caught him. Do you know what they do with a supernatural?”
“They have a special jail,” Lizzy said. “You know that detective who comes into the bar? The one who’s got the hots for you? He’s head of the Paranormal Crimes Unit.”
I felt my face warm. “Blair?”
“Yes, that’s the one.”
“Sam said he didn’t have any magic, but that he’s sensitive to it.”
Lizzy shrugged. “He doesn’t seem to have any problem pushing through the veil. Maybe his magic is just dormant. Do you need a ride?”
She led me to a pink Mini-Cooper and unlocked the doors. “It matches my hair. Don’t you think that’s cool? Where to?”
I gave her my address, and she pulled out into traffic like a racecar driver pulling out of the pit.
“So, how did you know about the stripper?” Lizzy asked. “Did you see it?”
“I got to the bus late, or maybe it was early, and I heard something. When I checked it out, I found the guy biting her in the neck.”
“Oh, wow.” Lizzy shook her head. “You’re brave. I would have picked up the phone.” She glanced over at me. “Oh, yeah. No phone.” Her eyes widened. “What did you do?”
With a shrug, I said, “Kicked him in the head.”
We pulled up at a red light, and she turned to inspect me. “Yeah, I can see that. You don’t have any soft magic, do you? It’s all dominance.”
She was right, I didn’t have any soft edges. I was the girl the Illuminati sent out to pound their enemies into submission. I bit my lip, then said, “Not really. I don’t have any talents, as people call them. I just tap a ley line and apply power to what I want to do. So, what are your talents?”
She chuckled. “I’m clairvoyant. A seer. But I see more than the future.”
When my eyes met hers, I realized the depth that was in her, disguised by the pink hair, wild clothes, and colorful makeup.
“And that frightens people,” I said.
She nodded.
“Truth is the most powerful weapon,” I told her. Then I had a realization. “The cards. You really don’t need them.”
Lizzy blushed. “Well, they give me a medium to help express what I see. And it’s less intimidating, I think.”
“Don’t look too hard at me,” I said. “I’ll just confuse you. Past, present, future—none of it is real. Even I don’t know who I am.”
“Yeah. I know.”
Blair showed up shortly after I took over the bar that evening.
“You know, when I looked at that guy last night, half his head and his face was crushed,” Blair said. “But this morning, all he has is a nasty bruise.”
I nodded. “Vampires heal fast. You can find a lot of books about them at the library. Check the fiction section. Need a menu?”
He opened his mouth, and then closed it. I waited. Finally, I asked, “Coffee or a beer, Lieutenant? Menu?”
“You told me that you knew as much about vampires as you did about werewolves, garden gnomes, and leprechauns.”
“Yes, I do. Tell me about the Paranormal Crimes Unit. What do you do? Investigate people for using a Ouija Board without a license?”
Blair didn’t answer me, just stared with his mouth hanging open. I tossed a menu to him and went down to the other end of the bar to fill a drink order. I couldn’t figure out what the guy wanted. He came around bugging me almost every night, asking weird questions, and evidently, following me around. I was tempted to assign Liam to wait on him when he came in but decided that Sam probably didn’t want Blair interacting with Liam.
When I finished waiting on all my other customers and filling the waitresses’ drink orders, I came back to Blair. But just as I opened my mouth to ask him if he wanted to order something, I caught a glimpse of a couple in one of the back booths. They were young, and I’d noticed them when they came in. But what they were doing violated one of Sam’s rules.
“Excuse me a minute,” I said to Blair and rounded the bar. As I got closer to the young lovers, it became apparent that my suspicions were justified.
She lay back against the wall, a glassy look in her eyes. Blonde, but dressed as a goth. Her skirt was hiked up to her waist, but she wasn’t protesting. He was the quintessential black-haired goth-dressed vampire, his hand was between her legs, and his fangs had already broken her skin.
“Hey! You can’t do that in here,” I said, loudly enough that he couldn’t ignore me.
He turned his head, and his fangs dripped with her blood. “It’s consensual.”
“I don’t care. House rules. Do it somewhere else.”
“Fuck off.” He turned back to his girlfriend, who was giving me a dirty look.
I grabbed him by the hair and dragged him out of the booth. He yelled, then started cursing me. He kept trying to grab onto something with his hands, or find purchase with his feet, but he couldn’t get any leverage. I dragged him across the floor toward the doorway.
“Liam! Please open the door for me,” I called.
He hurried around the bar and made it to the front door before I did. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Blair standing at the bar watching me. When I reached the open door, I stopped.
“Liam, please throw this guy out in the street.”
For the first time since I’d met him, I thought I saw a trace of a smile cross Liam’s face. He reached down and grabbed the vamp by the neck and the butt of his pants, lifted him, and tossed him out like he weighed nothing. The vamp hit the street and skidded until he hit the wall of the hotel.
“Thank you, Liam. Please go back and watch the bar now.”
He turned around and did as I told him. The vamp, on the other hand, sprang to his feet and acted like he planned to charge me.
“Don’t even think about it,” I told him, holding my hand out with my palm facing him. He took two steps and bounced off the shield I set in front of him. “Go away, or I’ll call the cops.”
“My girlfriend is still in there.”
“And if she wants to go with you, she’ll come out. But you are banned, buddy.”
He snarled. I snarled back and closed the door. When I turned around, I ran into Blair, who was standing behind me.
“You’ll call the cops?” he asked.
“Yeah. You should be good for something.”
I looked over at the girlfriend and saw that Jenny was leaning over her. I approached them, and Jenny turned to me.
“She’s at least two sheets to the wind,” Jenny said. “I’m not sure she could rationally consent to her own name.”
“I’ll call a taxi if you can get her address,” I said.
Jenny nodded.
After I called the taxi, I asked Blair, “Have you decided if you’re going to order something, or you’re just going to warm the seat?”
“You seem to be able to handle vampires rather easily.”
“Just a punk kid playing games and acting tough,” I said.
I turned around and walked away, but halfway down the bar, I stopped and turned back. Blair irritated me, but
he also scared me. I couldn’t shake the feeling he was trying to pin the vampire killings on me. Why he thought I was at fault was a mystery.
“Lieutenant Blair, I don’t know what your problem is, but me and my private life are none of your business, and I don’t appreciate you badgering me or following me around. If you want to eat or drink something, then I will serve you. If you want to ask intrusive questions, I suggest you talk to the owner.”
Chapter 8
I came into work three nights later to find Sam behind the bar talking to Blair, who was sitting on a barstool. Both turned and watched me as I hung up my coat and tied on an apron. I wandered over and waited.
“That guy you threw out the other night was found dead last night,” Blair said.
I looked up at Sam, waiting for him to say something.
“He was a vampire,” Sam said. “They’re already dead.”
Blair shrugged. “We can’t look at it that way. Vampires are a myth, like werewolves, garden gnomes, and leprechauns, so when we find a body, we treat it as a homicide. But someone thought he was a vampire. He had a wooden stake through his heart, and his head was cut off.”
“Sounds classic,” I said. “Have you rounded up everyone in the city named Van Helsing?”
Sam snorted.
“How many young women have you found with their throats torn out?” I asked. “Between that guy at the bus stop and the guy who came in here, you should be able to clear a few cases. Even vampires have fingerprints.”
Blair looked unhappy and didn’t answer me.
“I think it’s a legitimate question, Lieutenant Blair,” Sam said. “You’ve been in here after every vampire death, but my sources tell me that vampire attacks have escalated over the past three months. Who are you trying to protect?”
The cop turned and walked out. Sam and I looked at each other, and the expression I saw on his face mirrored my own feelings of puzzlement.
“How much does he really know?” I asked. “Lizzy told me he was with something called the Paranormal Crimes Unit.”
A customer came to the bar and I pulled him a beer. Sam was still waiting for me when I finished.
“Blair doesn’t report through the normal police chain of command,” Sam said. “He reports to the District Attorney. I’ve heard of similar special units in other cities.”
“So, how much does he know? You said he’s a sensitive, but he doesn’t have any magic?”
“I’m not sure exactly what he knows, or what he believes,” Sam said. “I’m fairly certain that someone above him is a mage or some sort of paranormal. No one in the paranormal or supernatural communities wants the public to know we exist.”
“And what is the difference between a paranormal and a supernatural?”
He gave me an odd look.
“Humor me. Couch, sofa, or divan. The words people use are confusing sometimes. I’m not from around here.”
Sam chuckled. “Paranormals are humans with talents or magic—mages and witches. Supernaturals are non-human. Vampires, shifters, the Fae. Make sense?”
I nodded. “How many cops in his unit?”
“Maybe a dozen. Two witches, a couple of shifters, a clairvoyant, two or three mages. I’m not really sure about all of them, but some are normals. He also contracts with some freelancers. You’ve met Jolene, Josh, and Trevor. They do special jobs for him.”
“And he’s fixated on me because?”
“You don’t seem afraid of vampires.”
“So? Are you?”
He winked at me. “Not as long as I can see them coming. But I think Blair feels your magic. That you’re strong enough to kill the bloodsuckers.”
I threw up my hands in disgust. “Hell, half the people who come in here could kill a vamp. Some of them could poison a vampire with their blood alcohol levels.” I held up the knife I used to cut up limes and other fruit. “Do you know how long it would take to decapitate someone with this? It takes five minutes to cut up a damned lime, and it’s the only knife I have.”
Sam shook his head. “Ask Dworkin to sharpen it. The other reason Blair’s interested in you is that you showed up about the same time the beheadings started. One of the things he asked me is if I had ever heard of a being called a Hunter. Seems there have been a lot of vamps losing their heads in Dallas, Atlanta, and St. Louis as well.”
“I tend to agree with Jenny,” I said. “Hunters are mythological, just like demons and angels. Humans haven’t changed much over the millennia. We always invent fanciful stories for things we can’t explain. And besides, Jenny told me the beheadings started before I came to town.”
I was frustrated as hell. Westport had a vampire problem. I show up, and suddenly it was my problem. It wasn’t fair.
Later that evening, Lizzy came in and made a beeline for the bar. Crawling up on one of the barstools, she leaned forward and said, “Erin, be careful.”
“Oh? What’s up?”
“I’m not sure, but something dangerous is going to happen.”
“To me?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know.” Her face showed distress. “Either you’ll be in some sort of danger, or something dangerous will happen around you.”
I patted her hand. “Thank you for telling me. I promise, I’ll be careful.”
“You don’t believe me.” She scooted off the stool and started to turn away, but I held onto her hand.
“Lizzy, I take you seriously. I mean it. Thank you.”
Her eyes got misty, and she blinked furiously, then said, “Okay. I just thought you should know.”
“And I appreciate it.” I fixed her a drink and refused her money. Whether she really Saw something or not, I wasn’t in the mood to dismiss any warnings. Too much that I didn’t understand was going on, and my own instincts were screaming warnings to be careful.
It also gave me sort of a warm feeling that someone cared enough about me to worry. My Masters warned me about all sorts of things, but they were more interested in losing an expensive asset than about whether I lived or died.
After the stripper attack, I was always very alert while walking to the bus stop, and with Lizzy’s warning ringing in my head, I cast a personal shield when I left the bar. But that night the weather was nice and the walk and the wait for the bus were uneventful. The motion of the bus relaxed me, and I drowsed a little on the way home.
The bus always dropped me off half a block from the entrance to the apartment complex, but before I covered that short distance, three vampires stepped out of the shadows and stood in front of me. I could sense more of them behind me.
I had taken down one of the oldest and most powerful vampires in Europe, and I could feel the power of old vamps. The beings confronting me radiated none of that kind of power. They were young vampires, like the guy I threw out of the bar. Unfortunately, I had left my sword behind when I left the Illuminati. Decapitating a vampire with my fingernail would take even longer than doing it with the dull bar knife.
“Good evening, Hunter,” one of the males said.
“I’m afraid you have me confused with someone else,” I replied. “That’s not my name.”
“You’re the bitch who threw Jimmy out of Rosie’s,” one of the females said. “Then you hunted him down and staked him.”
“I threw a guy out of Rosie’s, yes. But that’s the last time I saw him.”
“Someone is killing us,” a male voice said from behind me.
“That might be because you’re hunting and killing innocents,” I said. “Does your master know what you’re doing? He can’t be happy if you’ve drawn a Hunter to town.”
The guy in front of me cursed. “We have no master. A Hunter killed him. The final death. And you’re the number one suspect.”
I wanted to roll my eyes. Did I have some kind of sign on my forehead that said ‘vampire killer’?
“Just because I threw a vampire out of a bar?”
“Well, if you didn’t kill him, at least we’ll elimina
te one vampire hater,” the female said.
I fed power to my hands and feet as the vamps moved closer. Hands reached out for me, and someone behind me grabbed me by the shoulder. I punched the face of the guy directly in front of me, his face caved in, and he staggered backward. Dropping into a crouch, I wheeled around and extended my leg. The man behind me screamed and went down, his knee bent sideways.
One of the females grabbed my hair and pulled me off balance. My hand closed around her wrist and crushed it. She let go. I came up from my crouch and slammed my fist into her gut, feeling her ribs crack. She threw up blood and stumbled away.
A car engine sounded, and headlights shined in my eyes, outlining the vampires in front of me. The car rushed toward us, and the vamps turned to face it. A pink Mini-Cooper slid sideways, tires squealing, and hit two of the vamps, sending them flying.
“Get in!” Lizzy screamed.
I leaped toward the car, opening the door, but someone grabbed me from behind. I spun, elbowing him in the face, and lashed out with my foot, crushing his chest. As soon as he let go of me, I jumped in the car, and it accelerated away before I could even close the door.
We roared off down the street. Lizzy’s eyes were wide, and I could smell her fear. The knuckles of her hands gripping the steering wheel were even whiter than her face. My own hands were shaking, so I didn’t blame her.
“If you ever need a reference,” I said, “I’ll be glad to testify as to the accuracy of your predictions. I don’t think they’re following us, so you can probably slow down a bit.”
A laugh exploded from her, and a few seconds later, she let off the accelerator.
“Damn! That was crazy!” She shot a glance at me, then looked back at the road. “Girl, you’re hell on wheels when you get going!”
I had to laugh. “Liz, you’re the one with the wheels. And thank you.”
“So, what do we do now?” she asked.
I was buzzing with adrenaline, and her question caught me off guard. I wasn’t sure what to do. “Well, it appears they know where I live, so that’s out until dawn. Tell you what, let’s go back to Rosie’s and I’ll buy you a drink.”
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