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Chase frowned, pursing his lip. “Vampires wouldn’t do that, would they?”
“Not most of the ones I know. But I can smel the scent of the undead on her. I know a vampire did this. ” The scent was al over her, dank and fresh as the grave.
“Do you think he may be working with humans? Someone who might have decided to draw the cross afterward?” He tapped his notebook with his pen and glanced at me, waiting.
My turn to frown. Would a vampire work with humans? “I suppose it’s possible, though not likely.
But he might have his stable with him, if he has one, or people under his glamour. Regardless of how deadly, or even how grotesque, al vampires have an innate charm. Whatever footprints were here are covered up by now. The snow . . . it’s fal ing hard. ”
“The weather’s been getting pretty freaky the past few years. Must be global warming. ” Chase pushed back his sleeve to look at his watch. “It’s near to four in the morning. What were you doing out here?”
I shrugged. “Got a lead on our serial kil er. ” I laid out what Roman had told me about the area. “I wanted to look around before putting anybody else in danger. It’s not safe in this area of the city for people. Or vampires. Except our murderer, apparently. ”
Chase glanced around at the tree-shrouded park. “We do get a lot of reports of injuries from this district, and there have been several unexplained deaths over the years around here. I can believe it’s haunted. There were a lot of fights here in the old days. A lot of skirmishes between different factions—some racial, others political. ”
“Any of those unexplained deaths happen to be murders like our girls?”
He shook his head. “No. Unexplained as in the victims shouldn’t be dead and the causes were never explained. I can believe this part of the city teems with ghosts. I never come out here unless I can’t help it. ”
A distant expression washed over him, one I’d seen on Camil e’s face when she was listening into the energy, and after a moment, he startled out of it. “There are entities here—ugly, old things.
I don’t know if they’re spirits or what . . . but they aren’t friendly. ”
“Chase, how long have you been able to suss energy like that?”
With a shrug, he flipped his notebook shut and stuck it in his pocket. “You know how long—ever since I woke up in the hospital. It’s been two months and I feel like I’m walking in Never-Neverland.
Everything seems so different. I don’t know how you girls do it—walking in two worlds at once. It’s driving me nuts. ”
“Talk to Sharah, she’l help you. ” I hesitantly reached out, then patted him on the arm. “Dude, you have to learn to live with this because it’s yours. For a long, long, long time to come. I know what it’s like. Look at me, Chase. Look at what happened to me, and I didn’t just get stabbed by a demon. I went through hel . . . I remember what happened to me. Every nuance, every cut of the blade, every touch of him on me and inside me. ”
Chase dipped his head, blushing. “Yeah, and I know I sound like a baby next to you. I’m sorry. I forget sometimes, just what happened to you. I shouldn’t complain about my own problems.
They’re a drop in the bucket. ”
“You know that’s not what I meant. I’m just saying, I understand what it’s like to have your life suddenly changed on you, to have everything you ever expected stripped away and replaced with something different. ”
“Thanks. ” Laughing then, he motioned toward the walk. “Let’s go. ”
“What about her?” I jerked my head toward the body, not wanting to leave until they got her out of here.
“They’l bring her when they finish with the crime scene. ”
I glanced over my shoulder, feeling the urge to cry. “Tel them to be careful. It’s dangerous to leave them here alone. Let me know when you find out who she was. You’re going to have to break the cause of death to the newspapers soon. You can’t wait much longer. ”
Chase let out a long, slow breath, and I could feel the pulsing of his heart from where I stood.
This one made him nervous.
“I know. I’l do it tomorrow. But the fal out’s going to be hel . ”
Unfortunately, I knew he was right.
I wandered back to my car. The bar was closed, but I needed to check in on Erin. As I unlocked the door, it occurred to me that once Chase leaked the story about the vampire serial kil er to the press, I’d better have safeguards already in place. Like maybe a steel gate in front of the door. It was wel known that a vampire owned the Wayfarer, and frankly, I didn’t want to have to go apeshit on any miscreants. I stopped in my office and dropped an e-mail to Lisel, my bookkeeper and part-time assistant, to cal about starting the process as soon as she got into her office.
As I locked the door behind me, I could hear noise coming from upstairs and headed up to see Erin. She was there, alone. Tavah was in the basement watching the portal.
“Hey, Erin. Everything okay?” I glanced around. Tavah had taken her charge seriously. The guest room was sporting a new TV, a DVD player, an Xbox, and a computer, and I knew that if I checked the mini-fridge I’d find bottles of blood. “Looks like you’ve got quite the setup here. ”
Erin paused the DVD she was watching and broke into a beaming smile as she turned. She dropped to submission and I held out my hand for her to kiss.
“Menol y, thank you. And look what else we got. ” She motioned to a smal bookshelf in the corner that was now stuffed with books. There must have been a good forty or fifty paperbacks sitting there on the shelves.
I laughed, feeling the stress of the night ebb away. “I can see that my credit card got in a good workout. ”
Erin blinked. “I’m sorry—did I spend too much?”
“No, not at al . ” I’d be paying on the haul for months, but Erin looked happy and that was what counted. She was also back in a pair of nice jeans and a button-down shirt, neither of which Sassy would let her wear, and looked more her old self than since she’d been turned. I sighed. I’d better go talk to Sassy soon, before she showed up here. But there was another phone cal that was even more important for me to make.
“Let me go make a cal , then I’l come back and we’l talk for a while, okay?” I headed toward the door.
“Sure thing. And again, thank you. I feel like I’m me again. At least as far as I can be ‘me. ’ ”
I scurried downstairs to my office and dropped into my chair, staring at the phone. Final y, I decided it wasn’t going to make the cal itself and pul ed my Rolodex toward me, flipping through the cards. Stevens . . . Stevens . . . there it was. Wade Stevens.
My hand on the receiver, I swal owed a bitter taste in the back of my throat. I so did not want to cal Wade. He’d pissed me off so badly I’d wanted to stake him when we’d argued. Now, I had no choice. I’d promised Roman. And truth be told, if I was honest with myself, I’d worked out my fury at the idiot—I didn’t feel much of anything.
That’s not true, either, a voice inside me whispered. You know you don’t want Terrance to become Regent. You know Wade would be a better choice.
Blinking, I shook off the voice and punched in his number. After three rings, he picked up.
“Menol y?”
“You must have Cal er ID. ”
“Yeah, I do. ” He sounded suspicious, but beneath it I caught a nuance of hope. Yeah, that would last a long time once he found out I wanted him to drop out of the running. “What’s up?”
“Let me say up front, this is not my idea, but I promised I’d talk to you about it and I have to keep that promise. ” In a rush, the words raced out of my mouth. “You need to come here, to the bar. I have to talk to you about the election. It’s important, Wade, or I wouldn’t bother you. ”
“I can’t make it over there now. ” He paused, then said, “What about if I meet you at the bar tomorrow night? Wil that be soon
enough?”
“Yeah. ” I never felt tongue-tied, but this was an awkward situation. I’d be damned if I was going to apologize for kicking him out of my life after the stunt he’d pul ed, but I couldn’t just leave everything on a sour note, either.
“Listen, on an entirely different subject, we’ve got trouble in the vampire community. Tomorrow, Chase is going to break news that wil put al of us at risk. ”
“What are you talking about?”
“We’ve got a vampire serial kil er on the loose, and Chase can’t hold it from the public any longer. You’d better tel the group at Vampires Anonymous to watch their backs. ” The mention of the group stil stung. I’d been making friends there when Wade kicked me out. But I wanted to warn them. “I have a feeling the backlash won’t be pretty. Five women dead so far, al human, and al raped. ”
Wade’s voice dropped an octave. “You’re kidding. Please tel me you’re kidding. ”
“No, we’ve got a fruitcake on the loose and it’s going to get worse before it gets better. I’m looking for him, so if you or your . . . friends . . . know of any newly minted vampires around who are wacked enough to pul this sort of stunt, you’d better get that info to me ASAP. He likes to hunt in the Greenbelt Park District. ”
“I’l see what I can find out,” Wade said, any arrogance gone. “I’l see you first thing after sunset at the bar. Until then . . . take care, Menol y. I . . . I’ve missed you. ”
“Yeah . . . see you. ” I sat there, receiver in my hand, listening to the dial tone. You’ve missed me so much you haven’t bothered to try to contact me, or apologize. Right, dude.
Slowly, I replaced the phone in the cradle and headed back upstairs, my mind racing over everything that had happened in the past twenty-four hours. The vampire serial kil er . . . Erin . . .
Roman . . . and now Wade. Couldn’t a vamp girl catch a break?
Arriving home shortly before five thirty, I first slipped into Camil e’s room. She was lying in the huge new bed Smoky had bought for them. Tril ian snuggled on her right side, his arm draped around her. Smoky was on her left, his hair lightly playing across her arm in his sleep. Morio was curled up on the bottom of the bed in fox-form. They looked like a perfectly formed jigsaw puzzle, with al the pieces in place. As I slipped over to the bed to wake her, both Smoky and Tril ian woke, eyeing me with sleepy frowns.
“I need to talk to Camil e,” I said aloud, seeing that they were both awake.
Smoky gently poked her in the arm til she woke up. Blurry eyed, she sat up and yawned.
“What?”
“I need to talk to you and Delilah, downstairs. Won’t take long, but it’s important. I need you two to do me a favor before the day’s out. ”
As she clambered across Tril ian, her naked body brushing against him, I grinned. Both he and Smoky were staring at her, hunger rife in their expressions. Morio was stil asleep—or doing a good job of pretending.
“I’l have her back up here for you guys in a few minutes,” I said as she slid into her robe.
Smoky coughed. “We’l be . . . up. Camil e, you might want to down a shot of espresso before you return to bed. ”
Tril ian laughed. “Two, even. ”
She stuck her tongue out at them. “You think you’re getting nookie this early, then you’re going to owe me a long, luxurious back rub in return. ”
“Deal. ” Both men spoke at once.
She pushed me toward the door. “Now see what you’ve done? Created a couple horny monsters in my bed. ”
Laughing, I held up my hands. “Hey, I wasn’t the one who let them through the door. I have to get Delilah. Why don’t you go down and see about waking up Iris, too. ”
While Camil e headed down the stairs, I took off for the third floor to wake Delilah. As I eased into her room, I had to laugh. There, sprawled buck naked and gorgeous on her bed, was Shade, her lover. Our other reptilian resident, he was half dragon, half Stradolan—a shadow walker.
If he hadn’t been Delilah’s, I might have found him appealing. He had the same shadowy, Netherworld energy to him that al undead were cloaked in, but he was vibrant and alive and fil ed with fire. I smiled softly as I saw the golden tabby curled near him on the bed.
My sister. She often slept in her cat form, finding it more comfortable, and we loved her al the more for it. I slid in through the door, not wanting to startle Shade, but the minute I set foot inside more for it. I slid in through the door, not wanting to startle Shade, but the minute I set foot inside the room, he was sitting up, alert, a dagger suddenly in his hand. Where it came from, I had no idea, but there was nothing wrong with his reflexes, that was for sure.
As he saw it was me, he relaxed. “Menol y, I’m sorry—I didn’t mean to draw steel on you. Sheer reflex. ” He lowered the dagger and glanced down, smoothly pul ing the sheet over his lap. “Is there something wrong?”
“I can’t wait to see you in battle,” I blurted out. “You’re one hel of a fighter, aren’t you?”
Shade laughed, his voice rich and thick. His skin was the color of warm toffee, and his hair flowed over his broad shoulders, honey and amber highlighting the wheat strands. A scar marred his face, but it synchronized with his personality.
“Yes, my vampire friend, I am no stranger to battle. ”
Remembering why I was there, I leaned down and petted Delilah awake. “Yo, Kitten. Wake up. I need to talk to you downstairs. ”
The cat languorously stretched, looking total y in bliss. Then she shimmered and began to transform. I stepped back as Shade slipped from under the covers and pul ed on his robe. Within a couple of minutes, Delilah appeared on the bed, Hel o Kitty PJs and al . So that was why her col ar had been pink instead of blue.
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