Blood Battles (Fallen Angels Book 2)

by Judith Post

  Caleb's image flickered uneasily. "You know about the big three?"

  "And how you took Paki, Quinlin, and Petar to replace Vlad."

  Caleb spread his hands in a helpless gesture. "I was angry when you killed my favorite. The big three wouldn't leave it alone. It was poor judgment."

  "It was selfish and stupid, and that's why you've been avoiding us. You didn't want to face me." Caleb's blue eyes sparked with temper, but Enoch didn't give him time to answer. "Since you're the cause of this mess, maybe you could help fix it. There must be some way you can make peace with them."

  "I tried." Caleb's words were clipped. "They wanted me to return their favorites."

  "And you wouldn't?"

  "Could you? They left their masters to join me. If I return them, they're marked for death. And their deaths won't be pleasant, nothing painless and swift."

  Enoch took a deep breath. He hadn't thought of that. Keb had hinted that Okon was a petty tyrant. There was no point in dealing with him, but surely one of the three could be reasoned with. "I've battled alongside Ragnar. Could you work something out with him?"

  "First tell me, how did you win?"

  Enoch grimaced. "We killed everyone in sight." Which had been a good thing at the time. The rogue vampires they were fighting were on a rampage of blood lust. They had to be stopped. But as a general rule, Ragnar's method left a lot to be desired.

  "Ragnar brooks no infidelity," Caleb said. "He'd use Quinlin as an example for any vampire who thought of crossing him."

  "And Yerik? Could you talk to him?"

  "Oh, he'd receive me with smiles and charm. And once I gave him Petar, he'd tie him to a pole and watch one piece of him at a time burst into flames when the sunlight hit him."

  "There must be something," Enoch protested.

  "Paki wanted to return and sacrifice himself," Caleb said. "I forbade it."

  Enoch agreed. "From what Keb told me about Okon, he'd kill Paki and still wage war."

  "Dealing with those three is like dealing with the human crime lords. Would you trust any of them?"

  "No."

  Caleb looked at Enoch. His image was unwavering. "Then what would you have me do? I don't know how to undo what I've started."

  Enoch couldn't hide his surprise. "Is this a serious question?"

  ""Tell me what you want, and I'll do it."

  "Are you admitting you made a mistake?"

  "Your interpretation, not mine. But I should have thought things through more."

  "You could apologize to the big three."

  Caleb's aura sputtered with red licks of temper. "Apologize? They'd take that as weakness. They'd threaten war every time they made some petty demand."

  Too true. An apology might make things worse for the world. "What then?"

  "We crush them. We annihilate every traitor vampire and human hunter."

  "We? I couldn't tell you were involved."

  Caleb hesitated. "We seem to have angered each other recently. I thought it best to stay away. I knew you'd call me when you needed me."

  "Needed you?" It was Enoch's turn to flare.

  Caleb grinned. "You see? We have a unique ability to infuriate one another."

  Enoch spread his hands in frustration. "So what do we do?"

  "I'll talk to Bart and help him in any way he chooses."

  Enoch nodded.

  As Caleb's image faded, he said, "Take care, brother. And thank you."

  Enoch opened his mouth to say, "I'm not your brother." But after a moment, he realized that Caleb was right. Families aren't really a matter of choice. They're bloodlines and heredity and history. Caleb and he were forever joined, like it or not.

  Chapter 32

  Danny reached for his cell phone. Enoch would be expecting his call. "Doc's ready," Danny said. "Want to pick me up or should we meet there?"

  "Does this mean you have some free time? Can we stop for lunch?" It was the only time they could get together these days. Both of them were swamped lately.

  "Can't. I'm buried in paperwork."

  "Then I'll pick you up. We can talk on the way."

  Danny was waiting at the curb when Enoch pulled in front of the station. The powers that be had put police headquarters in a questionable part of town on purpose. The men in blue were supposed to be a presence there. Two women crossing the street looked at Danny and gave him a wide berth. He could live with that. They'd probably trust muggers more than they did cops. When Enoch pulled up beside him, he hopped in the Land Rover and frowned. "What? No Jaguar this time?"

  "I can't open my garage doors. Two vamps are camped in there."

  "And no one else can open the doors either, I hope?"

  "Nope, locked," Enoch said, "and I have the metal grid locked too."

  Danny gave a quick nod. "The picture you sent on your cell phone? It's the guy who was hanging out with Gino, right? His name's Demetri Capron. New York. Works for the same company that Gino does. Both sales reps."

  "Figures."

  "The techs who got called to the nature preserve are still scratching their heads. They found a guy with a broken neck—who was mostly dry, I might add—lying on the beach when they had to pull his car out of the lake. The side windows of the Buick were both broken. No tire marks in the mud. No tire marks anywhere. It's like his car was dropped from the heavens."

  "It was."

  "Kind of thought so. The evidence all points to that, but who's going to believe it?"

  "I hope no one."

  Danny nodded toward an empty parking space close to the morgue. "If you can keep the vamps alive, you guys are going to wipe out a lot of mob muscle for us mortals."

  "With pleasure."

  "Neither side can get too gung ho, though, can they?" Danny asked.

  "Not without calling attention to themselves, and they don't want that." Enoch pulled into the visitor's spot. As they walked inside, he asked, "Have you heard any more on the small time drug dealer?"

  Danny shook his head. "Nothing. It's like he dropped off the face of the earth." His thoughts turned to the car in the lake. Oh, brother, he hoped their guy wasn't a floater somewhere.

  Doc was waiting for them at the door and motioned them inside. Danny shifted gears and concentrated on the task at hand.

  "Another hunter?" Doc asked.

  Enoch nodded.

  "Not much to tell you. Broken neck, but you probably already know that." Doc flipped back the sheet. "Were there losses on your side?"

  "Not this time, but six so far, all good men."

  Doc raised a white eyebrow. "Men?"

  "Vamps, but good ones."

  Doc still looked skeptical. "If you say so."

  Danny wanted to tell him that some vamps were nobler, braver, and more generous than most humans he met. But he knew it would be a waste of time. First, you had to meet the good ones. They made a believer out of you.

  Enoch stepped closer and laid a hand on the dead man's shoulder. When he looked up, Danny asked, "What did you see?"

  "Donato's list."

  Doc frowned. "Wasn't that the guy in scraps in here?"

  "That's the one." Enoch looked at Danny. "This guy must have been sent to take his place."

  "Already?"

  "They're not wasting any time."

  "I heard that the techs found fingerprints on the car windows," Doc said.

  Danny shrugged. "They won't find any matches for them. How far back do fingerprints go?"

  "I'd guess not long enough." Doc pulled the sheet back over the man's face. He shook his head at a stray thought. "I wonder what a vampire's DNA looks like."

  "You've been locked in this room too long," Danny teased. "Anything else before we leave?"

  Doc nodded toward a second body on a far table. "You guys weren't part of that, were you? They had to fish that poor sod from the river."

  Danny was almost afraid to ask. "He doesn't have long, brown hair and a tattoo on his chest, does he?"

  "No, why? You thinking of
someone in particular?"

  "One of my former clients disappeared."

  "Was he black?"

  "No."

  "Not this guy then. I need to decide if he was dead or alive when he went in."

  Lung time. That would give Doc the answer. "Have fun," Danny said.

  "You guys love your jobs. I love mine."

  Danny thought about that. "Guess that's a good thing, right?"

  "We all do our best to keep things on the up-and-up."

  Danny grinned. He waited until he was back in Enoch's Land Rover before he moved on to a different topic. "Maggie had me trying on tuxedos last night. I look like a sausage in mine."

  "You could elope," Enoch said.

  "No." Danny waited for Enoch to get out of a traffic snarl before continuing. "If Maggie wants a little fuss and ceremony, that's what she'll get. Nothing's too good for my girl."

  Enoch smiled. "Still smitten."

  "She's the real deal," Danny said. "Till death do us part." He looked at Enoch. "Sorry, guess it's different for you."

  "I'm happy for you."

  Something in Enoch's tone made Danny drop the subject. They rode in silence until they reached the station. As he left the car, Danny said, "Hang in there, buddy. I'm rooting for you."

  Enoch's smile was grim as he pulled away.

  Chapter 33

  It was late afternoon when Enoch returned home. The Oriental carpet in the living room was creased in the center. Voronika had taken to "practicing" her warrior moves with Amado when he wasn't home, but the rug gave them away. He knotted his hands into fists. What was Amado thinking? Wait. He knew what Amado was doing—getting up close and touchy with Voronika. But his stupid lessons were going to make her feel confident enough to think she could battle. Damn it! She could get herself killed.

  He went to his computer, intending to work, but found himself flipping through a Brides' magazine that Voronika had dropped on his desk. Was she rubbing salt in his wounds? No, she'd circled the article for wedding foods. He didn't turn to that first. Instead, he looked at page after page of wedding gowns, picturing which ones she'd look best in. Ivory or white? Full or clinging? She'd be beautiful in all of them. He'd decided against tiaras for her hair when he reached the back of the magazine and got to the section that caught her eye—an entire group of articles on table settings and foods for receptions.

  He groaned. She'd circled different hors d'oeuvres created by Wolfgang Puck: shrimp in bacon, artichokes stuffed with herbs and breadcrumbs, potato pancakes with smoked salmon, satays, and panko crusted scallops. Oh lord. He should have known that nothing simple would suffice for the occasion.

  The sun had moved to the west, casting the living room in dim light. She came up behind him as he turned to the page with tiny cream puffs and tarts. Those were circled too. "Cute, aren't they?"

  "Everyone eats wedding cake."

  She pulled the magazine out of his hands and plopped onto his lap. He raised a brow and she looked surprised. "Are you still mad at me?"

  He pointed to the rug. "You should straighten up when you're done tossing each other around."

  She ignored his mood. "What do you think of these?" She pointed to cherry tomatoes stuffed with crab meat.

  "Looks good, if you're around long enough to taste one. Just remember we're feeding one hundred people, and all of those recipes are labor intensive."

  She smiled. "You don't sleep. You can cook twenty-four hours straight if you need to."

  Bart and Claudia came down just in time to hear Enoch's sigh. Bart smiled. "Problems?"

  Voronika held up the pictures for Claudia to see. "Come and help me decide."

  Bart looked at Enoch. "I think we've been dismissed."

  "Good, Keb and I are going to the nightclub tonight."

  Bart looked surprised. "You and Keb? What about her?" He nodded to Voronika.

  "This is work, and we probably won't stay long. We thought we'd motivate Gino to get this thing started." He glanced at his watch. "As a matter of fact, I should be on my way. Will you run interference with Voronika?"

  "I thought you were my friend."

  Enoch laughed and hurried out the door.

  When he walked into the bar, Gino was sitting at his usual table. Kandice hurried to take his order and grinned at the empty seat next to his. "No girlfriend?"

  Enoch shrugged. "I'm meeting a buddy of mine. She wasn't interested."

  Gino noticed him sitting alone and left his friends to take the stool beside his. "Long time no see."

  "Not long enough."

  Gino was trying to phrase his next question when someone jostled Enoch and pushed his way to the bar. Enoch turned, irritated, then blinked in surprise. Keb, dressed in white Ralph Lauren from head to toe, with his white hair pulled back in a ponytail, raised a brow at him. "I thought you'd save me a spot."

  Gino looked like he might fall off his stool. "You're the vam…. man from the alley!"

  "That's me." Keb motioned for a beer.

  Kandice shook her head. "Is there a rule that anyone who hangs out with Enoch has to be good looking?"

  "I hang out with Danny," Enoch reminded her.

  "There's that." She handed Keb his drink.

  "I'm actually here on business," Keb told her. "I came to see the driver of the silver Audi."

  "Gino's Audi?" Kandice tossed a worried glance to her boyfriend.

  "What were you doing in the alley?" Gino asked.

  Keb gave him a long stare. "I might ask you the same thing."

  "I asked first."

  "Trying to help an old friend." Keb's tone grew deadly. "I was too late."

  "Same problem I had." Gino tapped his glass for a refill. "My buddy was a little worse for wear when I got to him."

  "Quite a mess. Mine was dust to dust." Keb looked at Enoch. "I don't think you got to meet Horace."

  "Not this time around."

  Gino frowned at them. "Are you two a team or something?"

  "It's time for you to leave town," Keb said. "You've been warned."

  "I like it here. Maybe I'll see you around." Gino's tone made the words a warning.

  Keb raised an eyebrow. "Sooner than you think. We're ready for you."

  "We're?"

  Keb patted Enoch's back before he turned to go. "See you at home."

  Gino watched Keb disappear into the crowd and then leave the club. He wanted to follow him, Enoch could tell. But it wouldn't be wise. Keb could be waiting for him outside, and he'd never make it to his car and his crossbow. Instead he turned to Enoch. "You work with them?"

  "They're the good guys. You're working for the worst of the worst." Enoch threw down his money and left.

  Chapter 34

  Before Enoch could finish the morning newspaper, someone knocked at the kitchen door. He glanced out the window and saw Gino's car parked in the driveway. Shit. Would Gino and his friends try to force their way into the house to attack the vampires while they slept? Dumb idea. Grumbling to himself, Enoch went to the door and saw Kandice standing there. He pushed a button for the downstairs grids to slide into their hiding places and went to greet her. If she was simply a decoy, and Gino was lurking somewhere to jump him, Enoch wasn't worried.

  Enoch opened the door and gave Kandice a questioning look. Nothing about it was friendly. She rushed into speech. "I know this is going to sound silly, but you made me worried last night. My dad keeps trying to warn me about Gino, but that's what dads do. Is he in some kind of trouble?"

  "Everything about him is wrong."

  Kandice looked younger than usual today with her blond hair pulled back in a ponytail and wearing only a little makeup. Just mascara and lip gloss. "I know he's a player, but I'm not in it for anything serious. It's just for fun."

  "He's not fun, and you shouldn't be with him."

  Kandice looked around . "This is nice."

  Enoch narrowed his eyes, studying her. Something wasn't right about this visit. Kandice wasn't the type to take advice, bu
t Danny would be disappointed in him if he didn't try. He went to the refrigerator. "Want something to drink? Some juice or pop? I have coffee."

  "Just water." She looked at the loaves of bread and the bowl mounded with fruit on the kitchen's island, then her eyes wandered to the bottles of wine. "You must like to entertain."

  "Voronika likes it more than I do. She'd turn our place into a restaurant if she could."

  Kandice looked at the arch that led to the dining room. She walked in there and looked through to the living room. "You have the perfect house for entertaining." She took a sip of her water. "How did you and Voronika meet?"

  "By accident, just bumped into each other." True enough.

  "Was it love at first sight?"

  "Hardly." What was the girl really up to? She didn't come here for small talk. "I fell faster than she did. She still can't decide."

  Kandice looked surprised. "There have to be lots of women after you."

  "None like Voronika."

  "If she doesn't work out, there's always me. I'm young, but I know my way around."

  Enoch shook his head. "You didn't come here to flirt with me. I'm out of the pool and you know it. So, why are you really here?"

  Kandice looked out the window at the back yard. "How much property do you own?"

  "Does it matter?" Enoch sighed and told her the property's boundaries. They'd start with safe stuff before they got around to her real reason for being here.

  She went to the window and looked in all directions. "Doesn't it get sort of lonely out here? There's no one else in sight."

  "That's what I like about it—the privacy."

  She turned to study him. "I've noticed that. You don't talk much about yourself."

  "Not much to say. What about Gino? Is he private?"

  Kandice giggled. "Are you crazy? He goes on and on about how wonderful he is, how much money he has, and how many women he's had."

  "He's a sales rep, right?"

  "Maybe. He doesn't talk much about his job."

  He wouldn't, would he? Enoch frowned, trying to decide what made Kandice tick. "What about you? Do you want to bartend the rest of your life?"