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

by Heather Graham

  Rhiannon stared after Audrey and wondered if the woman really did hate Sailor for “stealing” her role. Because if she hated Sailor, she might hate them all.

  But they’d killed the vampire who attacked Sailor last night.

  And it obviously hadn’t been Audrey, since she was definitely alive—or rather, undead—and kicking.

  She got into her Volvo and looked at the clock in the dash. 1:00 a.m. The meeting had lasted nearly two hours, she noted. As she drove, she replayed events in her mind.

  Last night they had killed a vampire. Maybe that had been the vampire, the one killing human beings and draining their blood. She needed to ask Brodie about that theory, see if maybe he thought they had come to the end of it. Of course, they didn’t know who the dead vampire had been....

  Or if he’d been working with anyone else.

  She pulled onto the freeway. This being L.A., there were plenty of other cars; some sped by her, and some she passed. No big deal either way, since the Snake Pit was only a few exits away.

  She had just taken the exit ramp when she felt a huge jolt on the roof, as if a pterodactyl had landed.

  She fought with the steering wheel to keep the car under control, almost veering into the steel guardrail but managing to straighten the wheels just before she swerved into it.

  She reached the end of the ramp and turned onto the street. Luckily the Snake Pit was just a few blocks ahead.

  The thing slammed onto the top of the car again, sending her careening onto the sidewalk. She heard the undercarriage of the Volvo rip over the curb and managed to steer back onto the street just before crashing into a boutique.

  Shaking, terrified, she delved desperately into her mind for some idea as to what to do, and then she knew. She had only one choice, and it was a choice she’d never imagined she would have to make.

  She should have practiced more often, should have listened to her father.

  Oh, Lord, she should have started as soon as this case began.

  She slammed to a halt and sat there for a long moment. It would come again, she knew.

  It could be anything, an Elven, a werewolf, a vampire, or, a shapeshifter, with its ability to become anything at all....

  Shapeshifters lost strength when they shifted. Werewolves could only rip and tear when they changed into the beast they were at heart. Elven might be powerful, but they would always be Elven, the least aggressive of the races. And vampires...well, she could be a vampire, too.

  And so she straightened and willed herself to change. She felt her fangs growing, her canine teeth elongating, and she felt the strength growing in her limbs.

  She got out of the car and looked around, saw nothing.

  A Buick drove by. The young couple in it stared at her, and the man hit the gas.

  “I know you’re out there!” Rhiannon cried. “You’re out there, and you’re a coward, attacking by night. Well, you won’t get me. You won’t get me, and you won’t get my cousins. I will destroy you first, do you hear me? Your reign of terror is over!”

  There was no sound at all then. Not even a car drove by.

  Shaking, she got back into the driver’s seat.

  Had it been Audrey Fleur? Had Audrey been truly threatening her outside the House of Illusion?

  She turned the key in the ignition and winced at the sound the car made as she started driving again, then cursed softly. Her car was going to need work.

  For a moment it occurred to her that maybe her attacker was trying to frighten her into leaving L.A. or just cowering in her house, too afraid to perform her duties. And then...

  Then, when she was weak and beaten, strike again and...

  Take over the city? Could it be that simple?

  She made her way the last few blocks to the Snake Pit, left her car with the valet and hurried inside.

  She saw Brodie sitting in a booth with Sailor and Barrie the minute she arrived. The club was full; it seemed as if everyone from every race had shown up. Of course, since the shifters held their meeting there, they outnumbered everyone else. Piped-in music was playing in the background.

  Brodie stood, frowning as she arrived. “What’s wrong?” he asked her quickly.

  “I’m fine,” she said, feeling too shaken to talk about it. She slid into the booth next to Barrie. “How were your meetings?” she asked them.

  “Mine was lovely,” Sailor said.

  “Everything went very well,” Barrie said gravely. “And by the way, nice picture of you and Brodie in the paper today.”

  “Yes, the gnome came through,” Rhiannon said.

  “How was your meeting?” Barrie asked Rhiannon.

  “Lovely,” she said sarcastically. “I told them one of them might be a murderer. I went over really well. Although,” she added, “some of them did seem to genuinely appreciate my honesty.”

  Barrie smiled. “I brought the situation up with the shapeshifters. They all swore they’d keep their eyes open.”

  “I spoke to Hugh on my way in,” Brodie said. “He said that he talked to the werewolves, but they assured him that a wolf wasn’t guilty—you wouldn’t be looking at a few pinprick marks if a werewolf had gone rogue, you’d be looking at victims that had been torn apart.”

  “True,” Rhiannon admitted.

  “Did you tell them about last night?” Sailor asked her.

  Rhiannon nodded.

  “Wait, wait!” Barrie said, raising her hand. “Are we really supposed to be discussing our meetings? I thought we were supposed to keep some confidentiality going.”

  “Between us?” Rhiannon asked her.

  “Yes, even between us,” Barrie said.

  “There are times when we’re going to have to be open and brutally honest—especially with each other. When a situation might not involve the entire community, that’s one thing. When what happens may have repercussions for everybody, that’s different,” Rhiannon said. “We’re still learning here, of course. We were thrown into this situation. But that’s the way I see it, and I think my view is logical.”

  “I don’t really see—” Sailor began, but then she broke off. “There’s Darius. And he’s looking for me. He looks concerned. Excuse me, please, I’m going to go talk to him.”

  Rhiannon watched her cousin walk away, and then turned to Brodie and Barrie. “She doesn’t seem to realize that she was attacked by a vampire last night, and if Merlin hadn’t hit the alarm, we couldn’t have stopped it.”

  “Do you think the attack last night was directed against her—or against her because of you?” Barrie asked.

  “I don’t know. I just don’t know.” Rhiannon looked at Brodie. “I had a wonderful moment tonight thinking that although we might never know his identity, we might have killed the killer last night. But now I don’t think that’s the case.”

  “What happened?” he asked sharply.

  “Something kept attacking my car when I was on my way here. And I’m pretty sure that Audrey Fleur threatened me,” she told him.

  He frowned. “Audrey?”

  “You suspect her, too?”

  “I wish to hell I knew—but she’s the only vampire in the play,” he reminded her. “Do you know if she’s here?” he asked, looking around.

  She set a hand on his and said quickly, “I don’t know. But she was getting into her own car. If she drove here, then it certainly wasn’t her.”

  “She could have parked somewhere and come after you,” he told her.

  Her hand still rested on his, and suddenly she wasn’t thinking about being attacked anymore. She was far more afraid of something that Sailor had said earlier. Once you go Elven...

  She drew her hand back. “I want to act as if nothing disturbing happened at all. Whoever is behind this, I want them to believe that I can handle whatever they throw at me.”

  “There’s a story in this somewhere,” Barrie said, and then her attention was caught by something across the room. “Your nasty little costar is here,” she told Brodie. “Sh
e’s right over there with Sailor and Darius. And look who’s joining them. That shapeshifter doorman from the theater—what was his name? Bobby something? He looks as if he’s hungering for Audrey, who’s fawning all over Darius.”

  “Bobby Conche,” Brodie said. “And see how he’s watching Sailor, too? He just loves actresses. All the pretty ones, anyway.”

  Brodie looked as if he was about to walk over and confront Audrey.

  “Wait,” Rhiannon said. “Let’s watch and see what she does.”

  They watched, but Audrey didn’t do anything interesting. She just sat there chatting.

  “I’ll go join them,” Barrie said. “And I’ll watch out for Sailor. No one is going to try anything in here tonight, that’s for certain.”

  “All right,” Rhiannon said.

  When Barrie had gone, Brodie looked at Rhiannon and said, “I don’t like it. You’re in serious danger.”

  She smiled at him. “Brodie, we Keepers are well able to defend ourselves and keep the law.”

  He caught both her hands, and his eyes met hers. “Rhiannon, someone else is dead,” he told her.

  She swallowed, lowering her head. Her guilt was choking her.

  This was happening on her watch.

  “Today? Someone was killed today?” she whispered.

  He shook his head. “I had my tech go through the casting lists, and so far four of the five people he researched and couldn’t find are dead. I found a woman today at the bottom of a pond in the back of an estate not far from the theater. So far Tony Brandt can’t get a handle on when she was killed—could have been a week ago, could have been two. She was completely submerged and...well, you know what nature does to a body,” he said quietly.

  “Brodie, what do I do?” she asked miserably.

  “We’ll find the truth.”

  “But—it’s my responsibility.”

  “No one works without help, Rhiannon,” he told her. “And the thing is, now you know you’re in danger, so now you know to protect yourself from it. And chances are your attacker is connected to our killer—if it’s not the same person—and now we know for sure that our killer is connected to the play.”

  “I’m sorry to say it, but if we really are looking for a vampire, then we need to look at Audrey.”

  “And Darius,” he added quietly.

  “Why would Darius risk everything he has in order to gain...nothing?”

  “I don’t know, but we need to investigate them both. It’s hard. We can’t pin them down with a ‘where were you on the night of whenever,’ because we don’t have a time of death.” He was quiet for a moment. “I don’t want you alone, all right? Tomorrow...during the day...”

  “What?”

  He sighed. “I’ll keep you with me.”

  She grimaced. “You don’t sound terribly happy about that. And frankly, I’m more concerned about Sailor. She could have been killed last night.”

  “And you could have been killed tonight. Anyway, Sailor told me she’s having a costume fitting tomorrow. She’ll be surrounded by people,” Brodie said.

  “That doesn’t explain why you don’t sound happy about having me with you.”

  He drew a deep breath. “Because I’m going to be searching for a fifth body.”

  Chapter 9

  They stayed for another hour. At one point Rhiannon ended up in conversation with Audrey, but she didn’t say a word about being attacked on the way in, and if Audrey was expecting her to be upset or afraid, she didn’t show it.

  Brodie spent some time off in a corner with Tony Brandt, and she knew by watching his face that they were discussing the case.

  Finally even the denizens of the night began to head home.

  Rhiannon joined up with her cousins and Brodie, and they walked together out to the valet stand. “We’re good to go,” Rhiannon told him. “The three of us can take my car. We’ll be all right getting home.”

  He stared at her incredulously. “Rhiannon, I respect you, and I know how competent you are. Whatever you said tonight, all the vampires are watching you now, and they look as if they’ve had a good slap in the face, a wake-up call, like they realize suddenly that someone is watching. But come on. Last night there was a vampire attack basically in your own home. Tonight—as you were leaving the vampire council—you were attacked. Try to shake me all you like, but I’m following you home.”

  She stared at him silently, then turned to hand over the slip for her car.

  “Rhiannon?”

  “You just said that you’re going to follow me no matter what. Is there something I should say?”

  He grinned, that slow, lazy Elven grin that made her go a little crazy every time she saw it, and the blood surged warm and hot through her veins, making her fingers tremble, as warning bells went off in her mind.

  “I guess not,” he said.

  An attendant brought Rhiannon’s car around. She slipped into the driver’s seat, and Sailor got in next to her. “I’ll go with Brodie so he isn’t driving alone,” Barrie told her.

  “Whatever you want,” Rhiannon responded, giving in to the inevitable. Her tone, however, was sharp.

  A few minutes later, with Brodie’s car visible in her rearview mirror, she waited for the sound of something huge landing on top of her car. She was tense, but Sailor didn’t seem to notice.

  “This has been such a great night,” Sailor said. “I think Elven are the wise men of the Others. They’re so intelligent and...rational. They were so nice to me, too.”

  “I’m so glad,” Rhiannon murmured. “Barrie sure clammed up earlier.”

  “She feels that her duty is to the shifters, that our first duty is to our Others, rather than ourselves. You know Barrie. Not happy unless she’s crusading for something.”

  Finally they arrived at the compound—and with no further incidents, which left Rhiannon feeling both grateful and relieved.

  She opened the gate and she drove through. Brodie was right behind her, and despite the fact that she wasn’t looking at him and certainly wasn’t touching him, she could somehow feel him.

  They parked and got out of their cars. Sailor immediately spoke up. “Look, I know you all feel like you have to guard me like a pack of Dobermans, but I won’t have it. We’ve got the tunnels connecting the houses, and we know from last night that the alarm system is working perfectly. I’m not saying we should take stupid chances, but what we are doesn’t last a week, it’s a lifetime commitment. I say we go through the houses, make sure everything’s locked up tight and then we all stay in our own places. I’ll ask Merlin to stay with me. Of course, if you’re frightened...”

  “I’m not frightened,” Barrie said quickly. “But I do think we should check out all three houses together.”

  “And everyone sleeps with a cross on,” Rhiannon said.

  “Does that really work?” Sailor asked.

  “My father said it’s not the cross per se,” Rhiannon said. “If you were Jewish, it would be a Star of David, and if you were Muslim, it would be the crescent. The point is that you wear a symbol of faith in a power greater than yourself. Oh, and put up some garlic. Vampires really don’t like garlic—it makes them sneeze. So let’s get started.”

  Rhiannon glanced at Brodie, who had been silent. He smiled at her and nodded. She realized that he was being intentionally silent, letting her take the lead. She felt a surge of gratitude for his sense of faith in her.

  With Brodie in tow, they went to work. Luckily Sailor was a vegetarian who made a lot of Italian dishes, so her kitchen was well stocked with garlic. They left cloves around the windows and doors of each house.

  Brodie checked closets, cabinets—and the tunnels. Merlin stuck to the main house, and followed them around. “I don’t need to sleep, so I’ll stand guard,” he said gravely. “I’ll watch over Sailor.”

  “I’ll stay on the couch at Rhiannon’s,” Brodie said. He looked at Barrie. “Maybe you should stay with one of your cousins.”

  She sho
ok her head. “I have work I’ve got to do before I go in to work. I’ll be fine.” They all stared at her. “Look, it’s almost daylight. Vampires don’t have the same strength in daylight that they do in darkness. Plus I’ve been practicing my shifting. If anyone gets in, I’ll turn into a dust mite and hide until one of you comes.” She grinned.

  “It really might be better if you all stayed together,” Brodie said.

  “No!” Sailor protested.

  “We are Keepers. We’ll always face danger, Brodie,” Rhiannon said. “We need to live our own lives despite that.”

  He nodded, not happy, but resigned.

  As he turned and they headed for Pandora’s Box together, Rhiannon thought she heard her cousins giggling. She turned quickly and saw them staring at her like a pair of doting old nanas. She shook her head slightly and hurried toward home, trying to ignore them. Brodie was staying with her for safety’s sake. This was business, not pleasure.

  Right?

  “I think your cousins want us to sleep together,” Brodie said.

  Startled, her face turning a half dozen shades of red, she looked at him. “They, um, can be a bit juvenile.”

  He lowered his head, hiding a half smile as they stepped into her house. She locked the door behind them, turned...and found that he was ridiculously close to her. She looked up at him. The breath seemed to rush from her lungs.

  “It doesn’t matter what your cousins think,” he told her. “It does matter what you think.”

  “What I think?”

  “About us sleeping together.”

  There was so much she could say, and even more that she should say.

  But she was speechless.

  He reached out, lifting a strand of her hair. “It seemed like such a wonderful strategy to explain your presence at the theater so you could watch what was going on there. But right after it started—I mean right after it started—I wanted it to be true.”

  “You did?” she whispered, then shook her head. “No, no, that can’t be true. You didn’t have any faith in me.”

  “Oh, it was worse than that! I thought you were an ineffectual, self-centered pain in the ass.”