“Of course. Everything from dogs on leashes to cats prowling the streets to a couple of rats in the alleys. I think that goes without saying.”
“It does, and unfortunately if our foe was one of them and you looked at him, he could have entered your mind without you knowing it.”
“Then he could be waiting for me…No, never mind. I haven’t gone home, yet. He’ll follow me to find out where I live, if we’re right, and then do whatever he’s got planned when he thinks I’m alone.”
“Exactly,” Antoine replied.
“I’ll never look at an animal again without wondering if that’s what they really are,” Burke said sourly.
Reynaud gave him a compassionate pat on the back, joking, “I guess that means you don’t plan on getting a pet.”
“For sure not now. All right, how’s he going to find me again, if he didn’t follow us here?”
“It’s not that late,” Reynaud said. “Since he may have seen us taking off together, you’ll drop me at home then go back to doing your rounds. Presuming we’re not jumping at shadows, he’ll be looking for you so he can follow you to your place.”
“That works. I hope I don’t find one of his…minions. I almost feel sorry for them now, if we’re right about what’s going on.”
“I think you can figure they won’t attack someone unless you go after them,” Antoine said. “If you sense one, ignore him. Whoever’s controlling him will be somewhere in the area, so act as if you’re done for the night and go home.”
“Will do.”
“Reynaud, I’ll meet you at your house and we’ll go from there,” Antoine said.
“All right. Shall we?” Reynaud put his arm around Burke’s shoulders, not removing it until they got to Burke’s car.
“This is going to work, isn’t it?” Burke said as they drove away from the plantation.
“It is, I promise. It will work, and you’ll come out of it alive and in one piece.”
* * * *
After taking Reynaud home, Burke did as they’d planned and walked the area around Magazine as if searching for more vampires. He sensed several, all benign. By two-thirty he figured it was safe to head to his house. If he’s been watching, he’ll follow me. Of course, with that thought, he found he was checking out every car behind him until it occurred to him the vampire could be flying somewhere above him. Either way works, as long as I draw him into our trap.
He pulled into his driveway, parked, and went inside. The moment he entered his living room he froze. A woman was sitting on the sofa, holding a gun pointed directly at his chest.
“Sorry to have to do things this way,” she said. “Well, not really. Why don’t you have a seat while we wait for your friend, or friends I hope, to arrive?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Burke replied, not moving while he studied her. She’s not a vampire. I would have known she was here if she was.
“I think you do.” The woman gestured with the gun. “Please, sit. I’m not going to hurt you unless I have to. I respect you and what you do—up to a point.” She smiled grimly. “It’s just that you don’t take it far enough.”
Reluctantly, Burke crossed the room, settling in the armchair. “Who are you?”
“My name is Kailyn, and as I’m sure you’re aware by now, I’m not a vampire. At least not a full one.”
It took Burke a moment to figure out what she meant. “You’re a dhampir?”
“In the flesh.” Kailyn rested the gun on her knee, still pointed at Burke. “You aren’t, and yet you can find vampires. Why?”
“That’s really none of your business.”
“I’m making it…Okay, never mind for now. I know you’re friends with a fairly powerful vampire, Reynaud Cloutier, which annoys the hell out of me. I also know, because I followed you tonight, that he took you to see the King. I’m presuming it’s because you and Reynaud are worried about the sudden spurt of weak vampires who are trying to feed on humans.” When Burke didn’t reply, she continued. “It didn’t take long to come up with a plan to draw him and the King out and get them somewhere where I could deal with them without any witnesses.”
“Using me.” Burke sneered. “I thought your kind could get close to a vampire without them knowing you were there. You could have dealt with Reynaud at home. Or are you afraid of him?”
“Hell, no! You’re right, I could have attacked him at home but I’m after bigger game—the King. So I came up with a plan to make it seem as if another vampire was planning to invade his territory. By killing a couple of Sires, leaving their Children to fend for themselves, they would create havoc that the King would have to deal with.” She smiled when Burke looked at her in surprise. “Not Sires in his territory. He would have known if that happened. I took out several of them in neighboring territories then waited. Unsupervised and starving, the Children ran amok, exactly as I planned, coming to this territory because of the prevalence of tourists.”
“You bitch!”
She shrugged. “It comes with the, excuse the pun, territory. I saw you with Reynaud the day I arrived and followed you. Imagine my surprise when I saw you kill one of the creatures, but not him.” She shook her head. “Your taste in male companionship sucks. Anyway, that’s when I came up with my plan, hoping, as I said, to use you to get to them.”
“It didn’t work. They thought I was crazy,” Burke bluffed.
“Oh, really? Then why are they here?”
“To stop you,” Reynaud said, appearing beside Burke.
She was on her feet instantly, a long silver sword suddenly visible in her free hand. With two strides she was beside Burke, the gun pressed to his head. “Don’t move or I kill…is he your lover, Reynaud? Such sweet pleasure if he is, to kill the man who means so much to you.”
“We’re friends, nothing more,” Burke said before Reynaud could reply.
“Why don’t I believe that, since he’s here in your house? You must have invited him in at some point. And…” She kept the gun to Burke’s head as she looked around. “He invited the King inside, meaning Reynaud has been here often enough that he’s able to do that.”
“Young woman, might I suggest you cease your games,” Antoine said, his voice echoing through the room.
“They aren’t games. Hide and watch,” she sneered. “But then you are hiding, not that it will do you any good.” She started to pull the trigger just as Reynaud stepped between her and Burke, grabbing the gun. She let him have it, swinging the sword instead. She would have decapitated him if he hadn’t moved swiftly to the side. Instead, the silver sword slashed deeply into his arm and he shouted in agony.
Spinning around, she stalked toward Antoine, who was still invisible to Burke but not to her, since dhampir can see vampires—visible or invisible. From the way she was walking, sweeping the sword back and forth in front of her, Burke had the feeling she was trying to back Antoine into a corner.
Burke didn’t give her a chance to succeed. Pulling his gun from its holster he fired once and then again, praying silver was as deadly to a dhampir as it was to a vampire. Her back arched at the bullets hit her, then she was lying dead on the carpet.
“You must have hit her in the heart,” Antoine said with some admiration as he became visible. He glanced briefly at her body before hurrying to Reynaud who had collapsed beside the armchair, bleeding profusely. “He needs blood, Burke. Yours to be precise as he can’t feed from me.”
“I’ll do anything it takes, but how…?” Burke replied as he dropped down beside Reynaud to cradle him in his arms.
“Give me your wrist,” Antoine ordered.
Burke held out his arm, biting his lip when Antoine used one sharp nail to slash into his vein.
“Put it to his mouth,” Antoine said while forcing Reynaud’s jaw open.
Burke did, sighing with relief when Reynaud began swallowing. He glanced at Reynaud’s arm, watching the deep gash slowly begin to close when Antoine knelt and began licking the wound.
“I think that should do it, although he needs to sleep until this evening to finish healing,” Antoine said a few moments later. “You need to rest, too. You donated a decent amount of blood to him.”
“Take him up to my bedroom,” Burke said. He’d felt fine, until Antoine said that. Now he realized he was drained of energy.
Antoine nodded, lifting Reynaud into his arms. With Burke leading the way, they went upstairs and Antoine gently laid Reynaud on the bed, stripped off his bloody shirt, and removed his shoes and socks. “Now to take care of the other problems,” he said.
“What other…? Oh.”
Antoine chuckled. “Yes. You have a dead body in your living room, and you’re still bleeding a bit.” He took hold of Burke’s wrist, licking as he had done with Reynaud until the cut healed, which creeped Burke out as it felt sensual, even though he knew that wasn’t Antoine’s intention.
“Why didn’t she disintegrate the way vampires do?” Burke asked when they got downstairs. “The bullets were silver.”
“Because she was only half-vampire. It would be nice if silver worked the same way on them as on us, but it doesn’t. It hurts them, but it won’t kill them unless you hit their heart.” He chortled. “But then anything kills when that happens.”
Antoine picked up Kailyn’s body, slinging it over his shoulder before asking Burke where the door to his backyard was. “I’ll fly her somewhere to bury her, unless you’d like her grave in your yard,” he said, smirking.
“Um, no thanks.” Burke took him out back and seconds later Antoine and his ‘passenger’ were invisible. Burke could only presume he was heading somewhere safe to dispose of her. Like deep in the bayou? That’s where I’d do it.
When he returned to the living room and saw the blood stains on the carpet, he sighed. “I’ve had to do a lot of things in the past four or five years. Cleaning blood out of a carpet wasn’t one of them, until tonight.”
He gathered up what he needed and set to work, despite having no energy. He was damned if he was going to come downstairs that evening and be faced with a bloody reminder of what had happened. By the time he’d finished to his satisfaction it was dawn, making him heartily glad it was also Sunday and he didn’t have to go to work. Going upstairs, he undressed, showered, and got into bed next to Reynaud. Wrapping his arms around him, although he knew Reynaud wouldn’t be aware he had, he fell into a fitful sleep.
* * * *
Reynaud awoke knowing immediately he wasn’t at home. He knew where he was, however. After all, he’d spent several nights in Burke’s bed over the last month. Still, it surprised him that he’d slept the day there—even though Burke had made it a point to hang heavy drapes over the windows so he could—until he recalled what had happened.
“Burke,” he called out as he sat up, afraid momentarily that his lover might not have survived the dhampir’s attack. That is until it hit him that he wouldn’t have ended up in Burke’s bed if that was the case.
“I’ll be right there,” Burke hollered from the bottom of the stairs.
He was, with Antoine was right behind him carrying a cooler which he set on the nightstand, saying, “You need these.”
‘These’ turned out to be two bags of blood which Reynaud drank hungrily. “Now I feel human again.”
“I’m not sure that’s possible,” Burke said, hugging him.
“Yeah, get technical.” Reynaud wrapped his arms around Burke before asking, “Want to fill me in on what happened after the lady decided to try to take off my arm?”
“She was aiming for your head,” Burke replied, shuddering.
“Luckily, she missed,” Antoine said. “Then she came after me, probably figuring you were out of the picture no matter what. Burke had the presence of mind to draw his gun and shoot her. As luck would have it, our luck, one of the bullets hit her heart and she died.”
“I presume you did something with her body,” Reynaud said.
“The crocs are probably having a feast.”
“Do you know who she was? I mean other than her name.”
Antoine nodded. “I did some research when I got home. She was born over fifty years ago, in Montana. Her mother went on the run as soon as possible after that, taking Kailyn with her, of course. When Kailyn reached puberty and her powers began to evidence themselves, her mother told her about her father and how he would kill her if he found her. Then her mother sent her away to live with a dhampir who had befriended them.”
“Why hadn’t we heard about her until last night?” Reynaud asked.
“Because she moved to Europe, from what I could find out. She returned to the States five months ago and went into hiding. That’s the last anyone saw of her that we know of, until last night.”
“Why did she go after you and Reynaud?” Burke asked.
“I’m afraid we’ll never know.”
“I suppose we should be glad she’s dead,” Reynaud said. “If she’d been a male, I know we’d be glad, which I guess is a bit prejudiced of me. There’s no reason a female dhampir can’t be as deadly as a male.”
“Which she set out to prove last night,” Antoine replied dryly. “She over-calculated her abilities, trying to take on both of us at the same time.”
At that point, Burke told them what she’s told him about how she set it up to draw them to her, ending by saying, “Obviously dhampir don’t have to be invited in.”
“No. It’s one of the aspects of what they are that make them quite deadly to us,” Antoine replied. At that point, he excused himself, saying he had other things which needed his attention, and left.
“We sure blew it when it came to figuring out what was going on,” Burke commented.
Reynaud nodded. “However, based on what we knew, or didn’t know, it was a logical scenario.”
“At least we knew something was off. But then that’s what she wanted. Next time, let’s not jump in with both feet until we’re certain what’s going on. Okay?”
“Sounds good to me.” Reynaud disentangled himself from Burke’s hold, intending to take a shower to get rid of the evidence of what he’d been through.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Burke asked. “You damned near died. You need to rest.”
Reynaud chuckled. “What do you think I’ve been doing for the last twelve hours or so? Now I want to wash up.”
“All right—with my help.”
“I think I’m quite able…” Reynaud paused when Burke began undressing. “Yeah, help would be nice.”
The shower, with all it involved above and beyond actual washing, killed the next hour. Then they were dressed again, Reynaud in one of Burke’s T-shirts because his had been discarded as unsalvageable.
“You need to eat,” Reynaud said as they walked downstairs.
“I know, but the idea of cooking…”
“I’m taking you out for dinner.” He put his hands on Burke’s shoulders, smiling at him. “I know what you did for me. I might not have survived without your blood. The least I can do is feed you in return.”
“You’d have done the same thing for me,” Burke replied.
“No. Vampire blood is dangerous for humans to ingest except under very special circumstances.”
Burke seemed puzzled for a moment. Then he nodded slowly. “When you’re turning a human, the way your Sire did to you.”
“Yes.”
“I guess it makes sense that you blood is deadly to us except then.” Burke chortled. “After all, we don’t want humans hunting down vampires to feed on them.”
“No kidding. There’s also one other time when it’s safe for you to have a sip of my blood. When we’re having sex. But only a sip,” he cautioned. “Any more and you become my ghoul. Not something I want to happen. If you’re going to be bound to me, I want it to be out of love, not because you drank my blood. Once you did that, you’d need to feed from me from then on or you would wither and die.”
“As much as I love you, I’d rather not be connected t
hat way, thanks, so I’ll restrain myself if we ever try it while making love.”
“Thank you. Now, about feeding you the normal way.” Reynaud grinned as he steered Burke toward the front door.
* * * *
With the dhampir taken care of, things settled back to normal. Or as normal as they could be for a human in love with a vampire—and vice versa.
Burke’s day job continued to fulfill his creative and intellectual needs. Hunting for vampires who ignored the laws about feeding on humans made him feel as if he was doing some good in the world, even though no one but he, Reynaud, and Antoine knew it. Bring in love filled a void he hadn’t known existed until he’d met Reynaud.
Reynaud felt the same way, as he’d told Burke more than once.
“I’ve only truly loved two men in my long life,” he said one night after what they’d deemed a particularly fantastic bout of sex. “One was my Sire, who deserted me when my year was up.” He shook his head. “I never knew why, I probably never will.” He embraced Burke tightly. “And then I met you. Beyond all common sense, I fell hard for you once I allowed myself to admit it was possible.”
“You should have known it was. After all, your Sire loved you when you were human, right?”
“He cared for me,” Reynaud admitted. “Whether he loved me the way I loved him is debatable, considering how things ended.”
“Look at it this way,” Burke said after kissing him softly. “If he hadn’t disappeared you might still be with him. Then we’d never have met which would have been horrible, at least as far as I’m concerned.”
“I agree, my love. You’re ten times the man he ever was, even with your slight…flaw?”
Burke laughed at that. “I don’t see being human as a flaw.” Then he sobered. “It’s going to make it hard for both of us when I age and you don’t, but we knew that going in.”
“We’ll deal with it when it happens,” Reynaud replied before instigating a second round of lovemaking that ended as they knew it would—spectacularly.
Burke and the Vampire Page 11
