BloodlustBundle

by Margaret Carter, Crystal Green, Erica Orloff, Patricia Rosemor

  “Uh-oh,” Silke said. “Do your hormones kick in when you look at him?”

  I suddenly felt annoyed. “Do yours?”

  “What is it you’re really asking?”

  I’d felt this tension humming off the bartender more than once, but I hadn’t wanted to define it. “It’s probably nothing. Just the way he was looking at me…”

  “Hey, if you can get his attention, I say go for it.”

  “He was assessing me,” I told her, “but it wasn’t attraction. It was like he was trying to see inside me.”

  “He does get weird sometimes. One minute he can be smiling and charming and the next minute he’s a completely different person.”

  I digested that assessment and wondered what Jake really was all about.

  “Did Raven show?” Silke asked.

  “I haven’t seen her, either. Listen, I need to get back inside before someone gets suspicious.”

  I’d barely made it past the security guy stationed at the door to check IDs when, seemingly out of nowhere, the owner appeared in front of me and gave me a good start.

  “Hey, Desiree.” My breath caught as I wondered if she saw through my disguise.

  Her eyes narrowing, Desiree leaned toward me and, through the curtain of blue-black hair that slid along her face, said, “Chérie, I do not pay for you to chat on the phone while my customers thirst.”

  Her tone was as mild as her French accent, her lips were curved, and yet I knew from the glitter in her dark eyes that she was truly irritated with me.

  “I’m on it.”

  Before I could say anything to arouse her suspicions, I quickly made myself scarce. Then I realized she’d known I’d been on my cell. Had she been spying on me through the window?

  I glanced back, and caught sight of her at the far end of the bar. How had she gotten there through the crowd so fast? I wondered. Her attention was centered on another pretty boy, this one with long blond hair. Blaise Allcock, I presumed from the description Silke had given me. They were sequestered away from other people, apparently arguing about something.

  I would have given my eyeteeth—whichever ones those were—to know what they were arguing about. Too bad I’d never gotten around to taking a course in lip-reading.

  I arrived at the table of newcomers, non-Goths who were gazing around, sending up smoke signals with their cigarettes and whispering to each other. I took their order and rushed back to the bar, where Jake got right on it.

  “Air fresh enough for you?” he asked.

  “As fresh as city air gets. Better than the smog in here.”

  A dark eyebrow shot up, and Jake’s gaze flicked from the drink order to me. He didn’t say anything, but I was getting weird vibes off him again. I couldn’t wait until the order was filled so I could get out of his space.

  What was his story? I wondered, remembering to handle the tray as Silke had showed me. For some reason, I couldn’t get a read on Jake, and I was pretty good at reading people.

  As I served drinks, I looked over the crowd for the hundredth time, but I didn’t see anyone who fit either Thora’s or Raven’s description.

  With the bar filled with bodies, most of them with a cigarette in hand, the atmosphere was thick enough to cut. I would be wearing the smoke until I jumped out of my evening’s costume and into the shower. And I couldn’t wait for that. In an era where women were allowed to be comfortable, why did anyone want to dress like this? I was wary of bending over, both because then I could hardly breathe and because I feared falling out of my bodice.

  Even so, I had to admit there was something seductive about walking among a whole group of people in disguise, me included. I felt anonymous, as if I could disappear into myself and no one knew who I really was. Which they didn’t. Maybe that was the attraction. That and the theatrical atmosphere of the bar itself, which drew as many neighborhood regulars as it did Goths.

  I swung through the crowd, taking orders while keeping an eye out for either of the Goth girls. As Jake filled an order for me, a commotion got my attention. A couple of guys trying to get into the bar were making threatening noises. The man blocking their way was solid looking—Hung Chung himself. The head security guard grabbed the two guys by their collars and shoved them out the door with him following.

  “Huh, what’s going on there?” I muttered to myself as I turned to see if the drinks were ready.

  “You know Chung likes to assert his authority. Scares the pants off underage kids.”

  “I wonder what scares him.” He was being unnecessarily rough, and I’d never had a fondness for bullies.

  “Not much probably. What scares you?”

  The unexpected question threw me. And the way Jake was staring at me. Speculation licked his features, and I wondered what conclusions he was drawing about me.

  “You want to know what scares me?” I asked, looking around at the young women in the bar and seeing them as potential victims.

  “Just making conversation.”

  “What scares me is that some people are so damn trusting they don’t recognize evil when they face it.”

  Jake’s expression altered subtly, but I didn’t miss it. I’d managed to surprise him.

  He said, “I’d like to continue the conversation. After work?”

  “I need to get these drinks to my customers.” I picked up the tray, but my mouth went dry.

  What exactly was he suggesting?

  “I find your perspective fascinating, Silke. So what about it? Breakfast, I mean.”

  “At four in the morning?”

  Heart of Darkness had a late license on the weekends. One of its draws, I knew.

  “Why not? You could use a meal. I could use company.”

  Was that all? I wondered suspiciously.

  What I could use was information. About Thora. About Elvin Mowry and his vampire cult. About Raven and LaTonya. Silke had told me Jake was okay so maybe this was a way to get what I needed.

  “All right. Breakfast.”

  By the time the bar closed and all the patrons left and we got things in order for the next day, it was nearly four-thirty. Thankfully, the next day was Sunday and I could sleep in. I wasn’t used to the hours.

  “Ready?” Jake asked.

  “As I’ll ever be.”

  We exited the bar, Chung locking the door behind us, me thinking the security guard was staring hard enough to see right through my disguise.

  “I’m parked over this way.” Jake indicated west on Randolph.

  “I’m over on Lake Street. We can take both cars and meet at the diner.”

  Though it was far from dawn, the streetlights on Randolph allowed me to see Jake’s visage tighten.

  “Lake Street’s dicey after dark,” he said. “You really should stay away from there. I’ll drive and bring you back to your car.”

  Get in a vehicle with a man about whom I know nothing when someone—him?—may be killing young women?

  Not hardly.

  “I’m perfectly capable of driving myself.” I was already backing away. “See you in ten.”

  Before he could object, I was on my way. The all-night diner was a short drive west and north on Ashland. It wouldn’t take long to rendezvous. As I rounded the corner, I glanced over my shoulder to catch Jake staring after me. Feeling thrown a bit, I waved him off. He turned and jogged west, while I headed for the elevated structure.

  The area was deserted and middle-of-the-night quiet. So quiet I could hear my own breath.

  Was this what it had been like last night when Thora had left the bar?

  A quick shiver shot through me, and I pulled the light cape closer. How odd. Summer evenings in Chicago were fairly comfortable, and not usually cool enough to give me a chill.

  Then I realized the chill came from deep inside me, as did the prickling along the back of my neck. This was no message from Silke, but the kind of prickling that came from gut instinct.

  From the certainty that something was amiss.


  Approaching Lake Street, I slipped my hand behind me and unfastened my holster so I could get to my weapon quickly if necessary. My eyes never stopped moving, my head never stopped turning, my ears never stopped straining.

  Nothing, nothing, nothing.

  Nothing but this sense of unease, of something about to happen.

  I spotted my Camaro, so I should have been relieved, but my stomach was knotted. Then a skittering sound sent my pulse shooting skyward, but I couldn’t place the direction. I kept moving toward my car but danced around in a circle to search the shadows for Elvin Mowry or one of his so-called vampires.

  But I saw no one. Heard not another sound until my key was in my car door lock. Then a high-pitched whine—familiar somehow—made me whip around and go for my gun.

  A flurry of material and wildly flashing limbs seemingly dropped down on me from above. I flew back and threw out my weaponless hands against the car to catch myself. In the dim haze of streetlight, I could see my attacker was a woman. As she came at me, a sweet, cloying smell enveloped my senses and yards of velvet material surrounded my body.

  What the hell!

  I felt her wet breath and a pinprick on my neck even as I shoved her off.

  “Hey, get away from me!”

  I was really strong. She was smaller but stronger. It took everything I had to keep her off me. No way could I get hold of her, either. I would rather not have hurt her, but I had to defend myself, and the simpler control tactics I knew weren’t going to work here.

  I hit her, elbowed her, kicked her, all with little results.

  The streetlight caught her eyes and they seemed to glow strangely against the dark, as if the irises were on fire. She made a mewling sound and licked her lips before coming at me with a fury. Somehow, I kept her from getting too close. Our movements were jerky, as if we were engaged in a bizarre dance.

  “What the hell do you want?” I grunted.

  She gave me no answer. Her expression vacuous, she seemed not to hear me, as if she were completely focused on some internal need. Or she was drugged.

  She was also determined to get to me, but for what purpose?

  I put some distance between us and tried a roundhouse kick. My leg was halfway to her when she caught my foot and twisted hard and fast. My other foot went flying and so did I. My body did a three-sixty. I landed on the sidewalk with an explosion of breath. She was coming for me once more, her face eerily illuminated by streetlight, her eyes still having that spooky glow. I lashed out with my foot and she jerked back, then came for me again.

  Another high-pitched whine suddenly assaulted my head, and I squeezed my inner ears to protect them, but the pain didn’t diminish. I couldn’t help myself—I put my hands to my head and covered both ears.

  My attacker stopped and stood still, as if enthralled by the blast of pain. And then, as if against her own will, she backed away from me.

  Meaning to go after her, to stop her, to get some explanation about what was going on, I let go of my ears and jumped up to my feet just as the high-pitched whine stopped. I pulled my weapon and ran after her. She was too fast for me. I couldn’t catch up. Then she slid around a corner, and by the time I got to the cross street, she was gone.

  “Damn!” I stood there, breathing hard.

  Wondering what the hell had just happened.

  Chapter 5

  Jake melded with the shadows even after he’d convinced the new one to give up her attack despite her need to feed. What had thrown him was that Silke had covered her ears as if she were able to hear the high-pitched command.

  How was that possible?

  And was it equally possible that this was not Silke Caldwell?

  He watched her now as, weapon held out in a two-handed grip, she peered around into the dark, but Jake didn’t think she was ready to see the real danger. Few people were.

  She managed to get her car door open without letting down her guard. Gun still in hand, she slid into the driver’s seat and slammed the door shut. Listening intently, he caught the click that told him she’d locked herself in.

  Whoever she might be.

  All night, he’d felt something off…something different about this Silke. Like when she’d floored Mowry’s follower—not the sweet-natured Silke he was used to, certainly, not unless she’d been play-acting all along and had showed her true colors only tonight.

  A woman with a weapon…

  Waiting until her car was headed west under the elevated track, Jake left the shadows and headed for his own vehicle, wondering how he was going to deal with the armed and dangerous woman.

  I was still shaking inside as I headed down Ashland Avenue toward All Night Long, the diner where I would meet Jake.

  One of the recruits in my gym class had asked me if I was ever afraid being a cop. Hell, yes, and I never wanted to stop being afraid. It was the overconfident cops who got themselves hurt or killed.

  You never knew what you were getting into when it came to a street altercation. And I still didn’t know what I’d just run into.

  That sound that had stopped me cold was familiar. And now I knew why. I remembered the night I found LaTonya. When I’d called for backup, I’d heard that very sound, though not as loud; I’d thought it was my cell phone gone bonkers. I’d been wrong. So what had I heard?

  Whoever had attacked me seemed out of her mind on drugs. And she probably had been trying to get up close and personal to get money off me to feed her habit.

  As to those weirdly glowing eyes…

  I reminded myself they had some pretty fancy contact lenses these days. Ones that made a person’s eyes look like those of a cat or a lizard or other animal. And crazy ones for Halloween. Ones that looked like fire. That had to be it—the only thing that made sense.

  So why was the skin at the back of my neck crawling as I remembered feeling her wet breath on it?

  What had that been about?

  Too up close for my comfort.

  I saw the neon diner sign ahead and started looking for a place to park. Even at night, parking was at a premium. But for once Lady Luck was smiling at me. I got a spot practically right in front of the door.

  But then when I walked into the diner, I changed my mind and thought maybe Lady Luck was having a good laugh at my expense.

  No Jake.

  Considering how long I’d been held up by the woman attacking me, Jake should have been here a while ago. Okay, so had he stood me up or what?

  I was still charged, pumped, the adrenaline queen. No way was I going to sleep anytime soon. I might as well give Jake a shot at showing.

  No sooner had I claimed a table than the outside door opened and Jake himself strolled in. This was the first I’d seen him in good light. Candlelight—even the fake kind like that at Heart of Darkness—romanticized everything, especially a person’s appearance. But in Jake’s case, I was sure he could stand up under bright sunlight.

  He spotted me and immediately headed for my table.

  “You showed,” I said. “I was beginning to wonder.”

  He glanced at the table empty of anything but salt and pepper shakers and a napkin holder. “Looks like you just got here yourself.”

  “I had some trouble getting into my car. What happened to you?”

  “Had to stop for gas.”

  Gas, huh? Now, where in the world would he find a station open in this area at this early hour?

  Jake took the seat opposite me. His lips were slightly curved as if he was amused about something, and his teeth shone white under the fluorescent light. I could hardly take my gaze off his mouth. And as I stared, I swore his incisors seemed slightly longer than normal. Then I blinked and realized my imagination was playing tricks on me.

  The waitress came around and asked if we wanted coffee. Call me nuts, but I did. The adrenaline was pouring out of me now and I needed that caffeine jolt to clear my brain cells if I was going to get any worthwhile information out of Jake DeAtley.

  He had coffee, too.<
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  Before the waitress could get away, we each ordered the manager’s special: three eggs, three pancakes, three slices of bacon, three sausages and hash browns.

  “A woman who eats,” he mused.

  “Most women eat, just not in public.” Thinking to myself that, despite her exotic beauty, the bar owner probably starved herself to stay so thin, I said, “Not every woman is a Desiree Leath.”

  “I would hope not.”

  I could hardly miss the irony in Jake’s tone. Well, he for sure knew more about the woman than I did. How much more?

  “You and Desiree seem pretty friendly.”

  “Strictly business.”

  “And what a business, right?”

  “It keeps life interesting.”

  “How interesting?” I pressed. “What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen go on in the bar?”

  “I think it’s pretty weird that non-Goths come to be entertained by a group shunned by most of society. Even weirder when a non-Goth tries to pass as one.”

  He was staring at me so hard I thought he could look right inside me when he said it.

  “People like to pretend they’re someone they’re not once in a while,” I said. “Sometimes a costume is necessary.”

  One of his eyebrows shot up, a dark slash over oddly pale irises. “You know, I really do admire a woman who can handle herself.”

  I was not immune. The short hairs on my forearms stood at attention. “So you said earlier.”

  He leaned back in his chair and watched me through slitted lids. “And you said something interesting about evil. About people not recognizing it.”

  “Ted Bundy.” I was unable to think of a better or more appropriate example. “He used his charm on twenty-eight young women to get them in situations where he could rape and murder them. Twenty-eight that we know of. His victims could actually number more than a hundred.”

  “There are other kinds of evil in this world,” Jake said. “Evil that can’t be fought in traditional ways.”

  A curious sensation slid through my stomach. “Examples?”

  “Evil that’s seductive, that will make a normal person rethink his or her values to get what they most desire.”