Keeper of the Night (The Keepers: L.A.)

by Heather Graham

  “It had to be her!” Sailor said suddenly.

  “Her?” Rhiannon asked.

  Sailor looked at Brodie. “You know. Audrey Fleur. She’s angry at me because she wants to be in the movie and I got the part instead of her.”

  “Sailor, I just can’t see any vampire taking a chance on entering the home of a Keeper over a role in a movie,” Rhiannon said.

  “We’ll worry about who it was later,” Brodie said. “For now, Barrie, go upstairs with Sailor and keep an eye on her. Rhiannon and Merlin and I will check out the house. And when we’re done, well, we’re all staying here tonight. That’s a nice big couch over there, and it will do me just fine.”

  “All right,” Barrie said. “Sailor, let’s go. I have to be at the paper early tomorrow, so I need to get some sleep.”

  “Are you nuts? I couldn’t possibly sleep right now,” Sailor said.

  “Well, then, you can watch me sleep,” Barrie said. “Let’s go.”

  They went up the stairs, and Merlin followed them, saying, “I’ll holler if I find another open window.”

  “Thanks, Merlin,” Rhiannon called to him.

  She was suddenly acutely aware of the fact that she was alone with Brodie and wearing nothing but an oversize T-shirt and a pair of lacy panties.

  Luckily he seemed focused on the possibility of renewed danger at that moment. And he could have no clue whatsoever that she’d been fantasizing about him when the alarm had gone off.

  “How many rooms?” he asked her.

  “Living room, dining room, kitchen and a family room out back on this floor. And a few closets,” she added quickly.

  “Start from the back, and I’ll start from the front, and we’ll meet in the middle,” he told her.

  Rhiannon was thorough; she even looked into cabinets when she hit the kitchen. Brodie met her there. “Merlin says Sailor closed her bedroom window and there’s nothing else open upstairs.”

  “Thanks,” she said. “Brodie, how did you get onto the property?”

  “I’m Elven,” he reminded her. “I parked at the top of the drive and cleared the wall in a single bound, just like Superman,” he said lightly.

  She laughed and realized that whatever might come of it, she was suddenly glad that he was in her life.

  “Thank you,” she said. “Thank you for getting here so quickly.”

  He nodded. “It’s my job. It’s what I do,” he said. There was a husky tone to his voice, and he added quickly, “We might want to sweep up our uninvited guest.”

  “Good idea,” she said, going for a broom.

  “Are there two of those?” he asked her.

  “You don’t have to—”

  “Yeah, I do,” he said as she handed him a second broom.

  He went back to the living room with her, and they began sweeping up the piles of ash. “The place is definitely going to need a good dusting tomorrow,” she said.

  Brodie hunkered down by the skull, then retrieved the jaw. “I’m going to take these to Tony Brandt. It’s a long shot, given his age, but maybe we can trace our vampire through his dental work.”

  “Can you tell from the skull what sex our visitor was?” she asked him.

  Brodie shook his head. “I can’t. Maybe Tony can. You have some kind of a tote here? Something I can carry this in?”

  “Sure.” She went into the kitchen and delved into the broom closet. She found a reusable fabric grocery bag and took it to him.

  “Perfect,” he told her as he put the skull and disarticulated jawbone into the bag.

  They stood there awkwardly for a moment. Then Rhiannon swung into hostess mode. “There are four extra rooms upstairs—you’re welcome to a real bed.”

  “I think I’ll just stay down here,” he said. “Maybe not awake and aware, but ready to be up, awake and aware if I need to.”

  “Okay. You know, you don’t have to stay. I can...I can keep watch ’til morning.”

  “I’d be happier staying the night.”

  “Okay. But at least let me get you a pillow and a blanket.”

  “That would be great.”

  She ran upstairs to the linen closet, then hurried back bearing a pillow and bedding. “The couch opens up into a bed,” she told him.

  “I’ll be just fine the way it is,” he assured her.

  “Okay. Well, then, I’ll leave you,” she told him. “If you’re the first one up, there’s coffee in the pot already—a tradition in the main house—and there are tea bags and hot chocolate and cereal... Help yourself.”

  “I’ll do that.”

  “Good night, then.”

  “Good night.”

  He smiled and nodded but didn’t turn away. For a moment she envisioned a strange fantasy in which he stepped forward and took her into his arms. She pictured herself touching his face, fascinated by the lines and strength of it. Then his lips touched hers, and she was infused with the fire his gaze ignited when she least expected it.

  She blinked quickly, offered him a brief nod of acknowledgment and turned away.

  Rhiannon hurried up the stairs and looked into Sailor’s room. Despite Sailor’s earlier protest that she was wide awake, she was sound asleep, just as Barrie seemed to be at her side. Rhiannon smiled, surprised to realize that she felt like a mother hen looking in on them. She was the oldest; she had Barrie by a year, and Sailor a year and a half.

  And now, here in the Canyon, it was down to the three of them to keep order.

  They’d done all right tonight, she thought. Yes, Brodie had helped, but most people in the world got by with a little help, and she realized that to be the best she could be, she had to be open to help when it was available.

  She walked down to the guest room where she had always slept when she came out to California to visit. There were still posters of her favorite rock bands on the walls. No one had ever taken them down. The room had been hers, and if things hadn’t worked out the way they had she wouldn’t even be in L.A. No, the main house was Sailor’s, and she didn’t begrudge her cousin in the least.

  She walked over to the dresser. The years of her youth seemed combined there. Ticket stubs from plays, concerts and movies had gone into a cup. She opened the little jewelry box. A tiny statue of Judy Garland popped up, and “Over the Rainbow” began to play.

  She needed to clean out the room, she thought drily. It was wonderful, but it was hers no more. The old Keepers were not coming back.

  But for tonight...

  She turned off the overhead light and lay down, but unlike her cousins, she really was wide awake. Her heart was still pounding too quickly.

  Sleep, she needed sleep.

  It would be nice to slip back into that fantasy she’d been having when she was so abruptly awakened by the alarm.

  No, not a good idea, not when the object of her fantasy was lying on a couch just below. Flesh and blood. So close she felt she could still feel the leather of his jacket, the touch of his hand, and hear his voice.

  No, no, no, no.

  Dear God, he was Elven! She had to stop thinking about his eyes, his face, his body and his touch! He would read her mind if she didn’t keep her guard up, and then she would die of humiliation. She barely knew him, and she was having hot, sweaty, imaginative dreams about what she’d seen of him and wondering about the parts she hadn’t.

  To distract herself she started thinking about tomorrow night and the council meeting. Her first...

  They probably assumed that she would just listen.

  If so, they were assuming wrong.

  It wasn’t mandatory that every Other attend every council meeting, much less the informal multi-race get-togethers afterward, but most liked to enjoy an evening where there was no need for pretense. It was wonderful to live in a mixed world, but there was a real relief in escaping pretense for a place where everyone was different and the various races could mingle. Sure, throughout the years and across the globe prejudice had reared its ugly head, even between the other races.
Shapeshifters who hated werewolves. Werewolves who thought they were better than the vampires. Vampires who looked down on the Elven. Most of the time that prejudice came from the same sources as in the human world: fear or poverty or envy. But with the Others’ supernatural abilities, the consequences could be much worse, and that was why the Keepers existed. They were the hand of tolerance and balance in a world where, even taken all together, the Others were still just a fraction of the population, always in danger of discovery and extinction. Dissension and malicious behavior could endanger them all.

  She rolled over in misery.

  And the vampires were at it right now—when she had barely arrived.

  She felt her anger begin to burn again. There was no doubt that a vampire had invaded Sailor’s home tonight, no doubt that somewhere out there, at least one vampires was pursuing evil.

  She would never fall asleep if she stayed this angry.

  She forced herself to go over song lyrics, and eventually she dozed off. When she opened her eyes again, the sun was sending delicate patterns of gold through the curtains.

  * * *

  Brodie woke at seven, and he could smell coffee brewing. When he opened his eyes, he saw that one of the Gryffald cousins was standing by the couch, holding a cup of coffee and staring down at him. It was Barrie. Disappointment filled him.

  “Good morning, Detective, and thank you for staying the night. Coffee?”

  “Sure. Thank you.”

  Barrie handed him the cup. As he sat up, she perched next to him, staring at him. “Are the police going to give any kind of a press conference about the murders? I’ve been doing my best to get information out of my sources on the street, but no one seems to know anything about a vampire on a killing spree. I was thinking that some press coverage might make someone remember something, maybe lead to ID’ing the victims.”

  “And it could make a killer hungrier,” Brodie said.

  “Hungrier?” That was Rhiannon. Freshly showered and dressed for the day, she was coming down the stairs. “A vampire broke into this house last night. Sailor could have died. I think we might as well go for broke and give Barrie a chance at a big story.”

  Rhiannon was angry, he thought. He didn’t need to read her mind to know that.

  She was taking last night’s attack personally, which, he supposed, was natural. She was the vampire Keeper, and her cousin might have been killed by one of her out-of-control charges.

  “All right, slow down and let’s think about this,” he said. “The attack last night might have been intended purely to enrage you, Rhiannon, and make you react rashly. It was meant personally, yes, but you can’t let yourself take it that way. You’re a Keeper. You have to remain in control at all times.” He turned to her cousin. “Barrie, I’ll talk to my captain about your idea for a press conference. I have an identity now on one of the victims, and I have a tech working on trying to figure out who the others were, but you’re right that getting the public involved might help. I’ll see that a police spokesman calls you about any press conference, all right?” He looked back at Rhiannon, who nodded curtly and walked into the kitchen, presumably in search of coffee.

  “Thanks,” Barrie said, rising. “I have to get to work.” She paused, though, and asked, “Do you think that attack was specifically directed at Sailor? Or are we all in danger now?”

  Brodie looked at Barrie. “I don’t know. I think you all need to be careful until we figure this out. Maybe I should drop you at work.”

  “I’m game,” she told him.

  “Rhiannon? How about you?” he asked as she came back into the living room.

  “I don’t have to be anywhere until this evening, so I think I’ll stay here with Sailor, who’s still asleep. I’m still a little worried, though. Will you give me a call and let me know whatever you find out?”

  He nodded, finished his coffee and carried the cup to the kitchen.

  Rhiannon followed him and leaned against the sink, looking serious. “Should we...meet tonight? After the council meetings?”

  He wished she hadn’t followed him into the kitchen. They were too close.

  “Absolutely. Go to the Snake Pit. Barrie will already be there, because that’s where the shifters meet. I’ll bring Sailor, since we’ll be at the same meeting, and meet you there.”

  Yes, being this close to her was definitely a mistake. He was dying to reach out and touch her. He could smell the shower-fresh dampness of her skin, and he could almost feel the touch of her hair against him.

  This wasn’t going to work. He had to get out of here. “I need to get home for a quick shower, and then to the station and the morgue,” he told her. “I’ll drop Barrie, make sure she’s safely at the paper. Can you take Sailor to the café with you this afternoon, then drop her at the old church for her council meeting before you head to your own?” His voice sounded like a growl. Hell, at that moment, he might as well have been a werewolf. He offered her a forced smile before he collected the tote bag and headed back to the living room to collect Barrie.

  * * *

  It was an easy ride to the newspaper office, and from there he went back to his own place to shower and change, before making his way to the station.

  Adam was grinning when Brodie approached his desk. “You should kiss me!” Adam told him. “I mean, don’t, but you should.”

  “You’ve found something?”

  Adam nodded. “Five names. One was Jordan Bellow—but I understand that he was identified last night. There are four more—two are women, though, so they aren’t your corpses. The two remaining men are Oscar Garcia and Deacon Steitz. Oscar grew up in foster homes, but he’d been at a halfway house in Oregon before going to Hollywood—to audition for a play. The guy running the halfway house said that he’d been a good guy, but he kept slipping in and out of AA. Kept having relapses. When he never came back to the halfway house, the guy just figured he’d gotten the part. Deacon Steitz was a loner. Both parents died in a car crash when he was twenty-two. He spent time in Chicago working the comedy clubs, then told a friend he was heading to California to try for the big time. The two women—Lila Mill and Rose Gillespie—were two more acting wannabes. Lila was a Southern California girl, twenty-three, tried three different colleges, always shopping around for scholarships, and then told a friend that she was going to audition for the ‘perfect’ play and not to expect to hear from her until she’d made it big. Similar story for the other woman. She was excited, heading out to audition for a play that was going to be her big break. She was being very secretive about it, though, so no one actually knew where she’d gone. Still don’t, since we don’t have two dead women.”

  Brodie felt as if a rock had slipped down his throat to his stomach. “We don’t have them yet,” he said wearily. “All five of them auditioned for Vampire Rampage?”

  “Yep—I went off the lists you gave me. Four of them made the callbacks. I found the fifth when I checked the initial audition lists.”

  “Good work. Thanks, Adam,” Brodie said, but the words felt dry in his mouth. “Pull up a map of the Canyon area for me, will you? Find me something that shows me all lakes and waterways.”

  Adam groaned. “You’ll have to give me a few minutes.”

  “You’ve got it.”

  “So, why are you still standing there?” Adam asked him.

  “I can stand for a few minutes.”

  Adam turned back to his computer.

  Brodie waited.

  There were two more bodies out there. Two women. He had to find them.

  While Adam worked at the computer, Brodie drew out his cell and gave Tony the names he had just gotten from Adam; he was certain that they could officially ID their John Does now that he had the names.

  Five people had disappeared, unnoticed because of the lives they had led, until finally one’s lover had come looking for him.

  “You’re sure?” Tony asked.

  “Nothing is sure until you do the forensic testing.”
<
br />   “I’ll get right on it.”

  “I’m ninety-nine percent sure there are two dead women out there, too. I’m going to find them.”

  Tony sighed. “I’ll be waiting,” he said.

  Adam was still on his computer when Brodie hung up. “By the way, have you seen the paper today?” the younger man asked.

  Brodie tensed, remembering that picture Jake Reynolds had snapped last night.

  “No. Why?”

  Adam glanced up for a minute. “You look good. Hot Hollywood star all the way. And your date—she’s even hotter. Up and coming singer, huh?”

  “Adam, where’s the paper?” Brodie asked, trying to keep his temper in check.

  “Right there, other side of my desk. I know I can get the news on the computer, but I still get a paper every day. I like turning the pages, doing the crossword puzzle.”

  Brodie wasn’t listening as Adam droned on, telling him the advantages of real paper over a computer screen. He picked up the newspaper and began riffling through it—the picture was on the nightlife page.

  It was a good picture, actually. He and Rhiannon were looking into each other’s eyes. He had to admit that if he’d seen that picture of two others, he would be convinced they were a real couple.

  He hurriedly read the caption underneath the photo, which didn’t say much. Actor Mac Brodie from the play Vampire Rampage, out with the Mystic Café’s trending new singer, Rhiannon Gryffald. Could she be the girl of his dreams?

  And that was it.

  Brodie let out a sigh. He decided that gnomes weren’t really such nasty little beasts.

  “I’ve got your maps,” Adam said. “You’ve got a lot of water to cover.”

  “Then I’d better get started,” Brodie said, taking the maps from Adam with a terrible sense of foreboding. The minute he looked at the first map, he knew exactly where he was going to find the next body.

  Chapter 8

  Rhiannon took Sailor with her to work at the Mystic Café, where she had an evening set scheduled, since the council meetings didn’t start ’til late, when most of L.A. was safely tucked into bed.