by Judith Post
When Gino closed his cell phone, he sagged back onto the bed and ran a hand through his crisp, dark hair. Just what he'd feared. He'd better finish the vamps on his list, or someone would finish him.
Chapter 24
All of the vampires were in the kitchen when Enoch, shirtless, walked through the door. Heavy towels were hung at the windows, blocking the sun. Amado frowned and stared at Enoch's chest. "Is it true?"
"I saw it," Eva said.
Nula stared at Enoch's bare chest, his muscled abs. "Now I know why mortals want to go to heaven."
Amado shook his head. "Your story's impossible. We heal, but not that fast. There's not one sign. The stake missed."
Enoch poured himself a shot of whiskey and gulped it down.
Amado wouldn't let it go. "It was some kind of a trick, wasn't it? You can do illusions."
"No, stakes don't bother him," Gunther said. "It will take bare hands to defeat him. Or maybe steel."
Eva shook her head. "You're a fool. He shook you like a rag doll in the alley."
"He's stronger than you are?" Amado asked Gunther.
Enoch was tired of listening to both of them. More than that, he didn't trust Gunther, and he wanted him to think twice about crossing him. He looked at Claudia. "Stab me somewhere."
"You sure?" When he nodded, she took the butcher knife and plunged it into his forehead. As she drew out the knife, the wound closed and healed itself. There was no blood on the blade.
"You felt no pain?" Amado demanded.
"It always annoys me. It's like a cheap parlor trick."
Bart laughed. "You amaze me, my friend."
Voronika came to rub a finger on his forehead where the knife entered. "Don't do that again. I don't like it."
He pulled away from her. "We're not mated, remember?"
She stared, caught off guard. "Are you hungry?"
"Famished. I forgot to eat supper."
"And why is that?" She sliced thick slabs of bread and roast beef to make a sandwich. She shoved it to him. "Eat."
Gunther stared at the bread and cheeses, meats and wine. "You've all gone soft. Surely there are prodigal humans to drink."
"Not around here. Caleb's promise," Claudia said.
"We're not allowed to even hurt a human," Bart reminded him.
Keb hurried to finish that statement. "Unless they're attacking us. If it's self defense."
"Caleb still hasn't changed that rule? When will it end?" Gunther nibbled on a slice of rare roast beef and grimaced at the taste. "Too dry."
"Never." Enoch poured himself a glass of merlot. "It's a promise between angels."
While he ate, Bart said, "Keb told us about Horace and Donato, how you stepped in front of him and took the stake meant for him."
"I like Keb."
"For which I'm grateful." Keb smiled.
Bart turned his attention to Gunther. "You didn't follow my command. You didn't come when I called you, and you didn't come here first."
Gunther's face contorted with anger. He didn't like to follow orders. Bart looked just as furious. He expected his generals to do as they were told. Claudia held up a hand. "It's done. We need to work together. The hunters know we're here now. They saw four vampires in one alley. They know at least three are still alive. They'll figure out that we're working together. Soon, they'll find where we are."
"We're well prepared. And thanks to Gunther, we're one general short," Bart snapped.
Gunther looked at Bart's face and knew better than to argue. He reached for another slice of roast beef, avoiding his gaze.
Bart turned his attention to Enoch. "I don't suppose you'd like to be a test dummy and try to storm the house. We've been practicing, but I'd like to see how our defenses stand up to a serious assault."
Enoch blinked, surprised. "What do you want me to do?"
"Try to shoot us with these." Bart handed him metal arrows. "They won't kill us unless you miss and shoot us in the head."
"Or heart," Amado corrected.
"Only wooden stakes kill us there. Aim at Gunther first."
"Even if my aim's good, you might move at the last second. These aren't safe." Enoch grinned. "But I have a better idea."
"What?"
"I'll buy them today. When you wake up tonight, I'll be ready."
Bart's face lit with amusement. "So it's a surprise?"
"Yup. You're just going to have to wait. And sleep well, because tonight, I'm taking you all down," Enoch said.
Keb laughed. "You against all of us?"
"Hardly fair, is it? You can call for reinforcements if you want to."
Voronika shook her head. "Boys and toys." But even she smiled at Enoch's enthusiasm.
Bart slapped Enoch on the back and glanced at the sunlight intensifying behind the towels at the windows. "We must rest now. But when we rise tonight, we'll be ready for your challenge."
"You wish." Enoch watched the others head off to bed before he turned to Gunther and Keb. "Let me show you the joys of the basement."
Chapter 25
Danny knew that Enoch had barely had time to get home, but that didn't matter. He called him anyway. "We've got Gino. I haven't seen him yet. Want to come to the station and sit in?"
Enoch growled, "Your typical style. Straight to the point."
"If you want charm, call Maggie. She has it in spades." That's what attracted Danny to her. What she saw in him, Enoch wasn't sure. "Are you coming or not?"
"I'm on my way."
"I'll wait for you." Twenty minutes later, Danny gave a quick nod when Enoch entered the station. "Nice shirt." Enoch had pulled on a clean, white tee. On their way to the interrogation room, he said, "He's got a lawyer with him. A smooth guy from New York who knows all the angles. I haven't gone in yet. Should be interesting."
When they entered the room, Gino's eyes narrowed. He and his lawyer were dressed to impress in expensive suits and silk ties. They were as slick as Danny was rumpled. Gino had even shaved, sacrificing his sexy stubble to appear professional.
"I thought you might remember my friend," Danny told Gino. "While we were examining Donato's body, you shot a wooden stake at him." Danny held up Enoch's shirt with the hole in the center of it.
Gino looked Enoch up and down, looked at where the hole was. "Looks like I'm not a very good aim." What a smooth customer. Danny was impressed. "You're a big target, but it's the first time I ever used a contraption like that. Glad I missed." He cocked his head to one side. "Who are you anyway? I've only seen you at the bar. Why are you at an official interrogation?"
The bar where Kandice worked. Danny had forgotten about that in the rush of the moment. "He's a psychic I bring in on some of my worst cases. So, why did you try to kill him?"
"Did you see what was left of Donato?" Gino asked.
"That's why I called him. Knew there'd be strong vibes he could pick up on." Two could play at the contort the truth game.
Gino shrugged elaborately. "Sorry, I thought you were the same guys who killed Donato. You're both big enough, strong enough." He looked at Danny's football build and Enoch's height and muscles.
"Since when can two men shred a human being? And there was yellow police tape securing the scene," Danny said.
"I wasn't there. Maybe you had chain saws. How would I know? And I've heard that sickos return to the crime scene to get a rush. I figured you'd come after me next."
"Why?"
"Who knows? Who knows why someone went after Donato? We don't even know anyone who lives here."
"Really?" Danny flipped open a folder. "What about a guy who worked late in his office? He was killed with a stake through his heart, the kind of stake someone fires out of a crossbow. The kind of crossbow and stake you fired at Enoch."
"Hey, if I was used to using a crossbow, your friend would have a hole in him, wouldn't he?" Gino stared at Enoch's chest, then gave him a measured look.
"You did put a hole in his shirt. If he hadn't moved at the last second, he'd be dead
." From the placement of the tear, it would be impossible for Gino to have missed. Anyone could see that.
Gino raised a dark eyebrow. "Lucky him."
"So why a crossbow?" Danny persisted.
"I took it from Donato, what was left of him. He was carrying it."
It was Danny's turn to stare. "We don't see that too much around here."
Gino sighed. "Donato was losing it a little, always nervous. Said it was for self-defense."
"Against what?"
Gino looked at his lawyer, and the lawyer gave a small nod. "A friend of mine was killed that way in New York. A salesman like me. Had a problem with a customer from this area, so I came here to look into it. Freaked Donato so much he started carrying a crossbow, too."
"He didn't think a gun would work better?"
Gino threw up his hands in frustration. "Okay, I'm going to level with you, but it's going to sound crazy. Something scared the hell out of poor Donato. He was going around telling people that vampires were killing people."
"Excuse me?" Danny decided to play dumb, to see how Gino would react. "Vampires?"
"Hey, I didn't say I believed him. I'm just telling you what he thought."
Danny tried to decide which way was the best to go. Confront Gino about the vamps in the alley. Ask him why one would jump on his car. Or pretend that never happened. He decided to hammer on a known fact. "And the guy in the office building? Was he supposed to be a vampire?"
"Donato thought he was. He was really rattled, maybe a little crazy."
"So Donato killed an architect to protect himself?"
Gino looked away. "It's possible. He wasn't with me that night, and when I asked him about it, he wouldn't talk about it."
"So you knew and didn't report him?"
"I didn't know. I only wondered."
"And what about you?" Danny pressed. "As far as we can tell, you could be a killer, too."
Gino spread his hands. "Me? I couldn't even shoot your friend, and he's pretty hard to miss."
Danny glanced at Enoch. Gino was good, as smooth as they came.
"If you let me touch you, I'll know if you've killed anyone or not," Enoch said. An out and out lie, Danny knew, but he was interested in how Gino would respond.
The lawyer shook his head. "My client hasn't done anything. He doesn't have to prove his innocence."
"I was only offering as a favor," Enoch said, "so that he wouldn't be a suspect."
Gino shook his head. "Thanks, but no thanks. You're way too freaky. This whole thing is crazy."
"About that," Danny said. "What do you think happened to Donato?"
"Hell, maybe he was right." Gino looked at Enoch—a challenge. "Maybe there are vampires walking the earth. Something sure messed him up."
"And he never confided in you?" Danny asked.
"Would you believe your friend if he swore vampires were after him?"
Danny shrugged. "Point taken."
Gino dismissed Danny and turned his attention back to Enoch. "Do you believe in vampires?"
"Not any more than you do."
Gino's lawyer rose. "In that case, unless you plan on pressing charges, my client and I are leaving."
Danny waved them away. They were both pros. They knew how to work the system. "Don't leave town, though. I might need to question you again." He and Enoch followed them to the hallway and watched them walk out of the building, then Danny said, "Can you believe that guy? His friend just got ripped to shreds, and he doesn't bat an eyelash."
"You'd better watch your back." Enoch frowned. "Gino knows a stake went through my heart and I'm here and healthy. He knows you called me in on the case. For right now, he's not sure what you were doing in the alley with a group of vampires, and that's thrown him. But that won't last long. Gino's ruthless. Be careful."
"I'm not the one opening a hotel for friendly vamps," Danny said. "You are." Enoch was inviting any and all hunters to his stone house to try to take his friends. "You're the one who'd better watch out."
Chapter 26
Gino drove Roberto to the airport. If he needed the lawyer again, he'd call him, but neither of them thought that would happen. On his drive back to the hotel, he didn't look at scenery. His thoughts turned over and over again to the detective's friend, the psychic, who came to the nightclub most evenings.
What exactly could the guy do? How much did he know? Enough to be interested and join his detective friend in the interrogation room. But they couldn't prove anything, even if they suspected plenty. More importantly, though, what the hell was the guy? Gino saw the stake sink deep into his chest. Then it slid out and the man's skin was as smooth as if it never happened. Vamps heal, Gino knew. But not like that. The cop had seen it too, but he'd been standing behind him, at a distance. Did he really think the stake made a hole in his friend's white T-shirt, but missed the skin? Gino shook his head. Why the hell wouldn't he think that? What other explanation would you come up with if you hadn't seen it yourself?
The next thing that worried Gino was why the psychic was hanging out in an alley with a huddle of the undead? They looked pretty buddy-buddy. And what about his girlfriend—she of the long, silver hair and cool demeanor? Was she part of this little group? There was something about her, something different.
Gino got the feeling the detective was on the up-and-up. His buddy had used his special tricks to help him with a few cases, so he was in the guy's corner, but Gino would bet money that the cop didn't know much more than that. So why was he in the alley with vamps, too? Simple, really. He came to investigate a murder.
A stoplight turned red and Gino used the time to replay the scene he'd watched. When he thought about it, the detective didn't look any too happy with a vamp on each side of him. Did he realize they were vamps? Or when you met them, did they look like anyone else—and it was just when they changed that they turned ugly? Gino didn't know. He hadn't actually met one of them until the girl vamp landed on top of his hood. Had the detective seen that? He'd still been in the alley, pretty busy and distracted with what was left of Donato.
The light turned green and Gino stepped on the gas. Not much traffic yet. That was good. His mind wandered. When he'd first seen the girl in the alley, she'd been dressed in some strange get-up, but she looked pretty much like anyone else. By the time she looked through his front windshield, though, with her fangs sprouted, she looked downright scary. The cop couldn't see that, not from where he was. So…it was possible the cop didn't know. None of them had mentioned vamps in the interrogation room. It had been a taboo subject. Gino sure as hell wasn't going to say too much about them. Neither did the psychic. They'd danced around the subject, feeling each other out, and that was fine with him.
A car jerked into his lane and Gino had to slam on his brakes to keep from rear ending it. Dumb ass. The driver wouldn't last a minute in New York. Gino went over what each person said at the police station. Maybe the cop did know. What would that mean? Had the psychic convinced him that Gino and his friends had teamed up with monsters? He'd have every reason to believe him. After all, Gino and Donato showed up with crossbows and stakes. If he were a cop, he'd take that as a clue.
Gino was still puzzling out how to handle things when he pulled into a parking spot at the hotel. The cop wasn't going to let on how much he knew. Why would he? That would be stupid, and the guy was no dummy. Neither was his friend. Gino would have to tread carefully. Maybe it was time to toss hints here and there to Kandice, enough to stir up her interest. If she was curious, she'd ask around. Maybe she'd even come up with something.
He was walking toward the hotel's back door when he saw something draped across Donato's Buick. Frowning, he walked to see what it was. His breath caught when he recognized Carlo. A deep, red groove circled his friend’s neck. Garroted. Damn it to hell! Why couldn't Manny just leave it alone? He punched in the numbers for New York. "I don't need the cops to find another body. They're asking enough questions about Donato. Have one of your winged freaks take him
away."
"Finish this job, Gino. Do it right. I have a lot hanging on it."
Gino flipped his cell phone shut. He walked to the hotel door. His body felt stiff with anger. Carlo didn't deserve to die. None of them had signed on to work with monsters out of horror movies. Manny did. Why, Gino didn't know, but he didn't like it. He didn't like anything about this.
Chapter 27
Before Enoch could leave, Danny said, "Want to stop by to see Doc now? I have time."
"Are you driving?"
"Do you have your Jag?"
Enoch sighed. "I'll drive. Better yet, here." He handed Danny the keys.
"Hallelujah! I've hit the jackpot!"
"Just get us there in one piece."
"What do you care? You can't die. I'd be the one who gets banged up."
"Don't forget my car. I want it in one piece, too."
What a thing to worry about. Danny had brought back lots of cars, safe and sound, after high speed chases. "You're awfully fond of material possessions for a spiritual being."
"If I have to stay here, I intend to enjoy all the perks I can."
"I like that philosophy. I'll try to remember it if I ever win the lottery."
Doc was waiting for them when they arrived. He frowned at Danny. "You look awfully chipper for a detective with dead bodies piling up."
"This guy was no loss. The world's better off without him."
"Why's that?"
"He's a thug, a hired killer."
Doc pulled back the sheet and looked at the remains. He shivered. "He must have pissed someone off. Now would be a good time to level with me. What happened to him?"
Danny glanced at Enoch. "Can we? I like to know what I'm up against and why. I don't like stashing away one question and worry after another when they don't add up."
Doc frowned. "What the hell are you talking about?"
Danny waited for his friend to give a somber nod and was grateful when it came. They might as well tell him. They couldn't keep making stupid excuses much longer. And if war broke out soon—like Enoch expected—there'd be more bodies and more strange deaths. Doc had a right to know.
