"Usually during these meetings," Jerry told her, "I'm stuck making small talk with Samuel's latest fling, but he came solo this time." Jerry looked Madison over. "He has quite a taste for young mortal women who are a feast for the eyes"
Madison studied Jerry Lerma over the rim of the teacup. "You're drinking tea." It was a statement, not a question.
He nodded at her and raised his own cup in salute, knowing what her next question would probably be.
Lowering her cup away from her face, Madison asked, "You're not a vampire?"
Jerry shook his head and smiled. "No, I'm not. You might say Kate and I have a mixed marriage."
"Is that possible?"
"Very, as long as I learn to be a night owl and she doesn't mind my growing older while she doesn't. We've been married a couple of years now."
He picked up the plate of cookies with his left hand and held it out to Madison. "How about a cookie to tide you over until breakfast?"
Madison shook her head, then spotted another interesting detail about Jerry Lerma. It looked like he had a bloodline. At least, that's what she thought the odd line stretched across his palm might be. It was separate from his lifeline yet distinctly different than the other creases on the palm.
"You have a bloodline?" This time it was a question and not a statement.
Jerry put down the plate and studied his own hand. "Yes, I do."
"Then why aren't you a vampire? You're married to one."
Picking up his own cup, Jerry took a long sip before answering. "While I'd love to spend eternity with Kate, I'm not so sure immortality is such a good thing for anyone. And it's certainly not natural. Kate has offered to turn me many times, but from what I've observed, living forever is more of a curse than a blessing." He took another sip. "No, I'm content to live the life I have and be done with it." He gave Madison a wide, warm smile. "Quality over quantity, you might say."
"But what about Kate?"
"Kate was turned in Paris in the 1920s, quite against her will. At the time she was a budding writer, keeping company with the likes of Gertrude Stein and Hemingway, and having the time of her life. After, she had to build a new life, which has been quite colorful but bumpy. I'm one of the many rest stops she's made along the way." He smiled a knowing smile. "We met when I was lecturing on, of all things, vampire legends and myths. She came to my lecture and heckled me. After, I invited her to join me for a drink, my intent being to convince her my lecture was sound. Of course, I didn't know at the time she was a real vampire." Jerry winked at Madison. "Turns out my lecture was rubbish, after all."
Madison leaned forward, getting closer to Jerry. "Does ... does she bite you?" she whispered.
Jerry tilted his head back and laughed. "Yes, on occasion, but mostly in the throes of passion."
Madison blushed and considered shouting TMI.
"But am I a food source?" Jerry continued, smiling at Madison. "No, I am not. Like the Dedhams, Kate is mostly into animal blood, but human blood is better for them, so once in a while I oblige her."
Madison thought about the human blood Dodie had enjoyed the night before and the animal blood in the fridge.
"It's quite stimulating, you know," Jerry added. "Being bitten, I mean. Nothing quite like it."
Madison shuddered and leaned back in her chair with her tea, trying hard not to think about anyone's teeth embedded in her flesh.
The two were quietly sipping tea when the door to the den opened. Kate Thornton and Dodie came in. Kate settled next to Jerry and slipped an arm through one of his with affection. "I'm exhausted, dear," she said to him. "Let's go home and go to bed."
Madison looked at the middle-aged couple and tried to push the thought of comfy Kate feasting on the neck of the professorial Jerry. She shook her head like a wet dog and looked away.
Dodie's attention was on Madison. "They'd like to see you again, Madison."
"Why?" Madison wasn't sure she wanted to face the council again.
"Come along," Dodie encouraged. She turned to Jerry and Kate and smiled. "We'll see you two soon." She returned to Madison. "Kate and Jerry are two of our best friends. We play bridge with them every week."
Madison put down her teacup and got to her feet. Kate and Jerry stood up along with her. Kate took Madison's hands in her own. "We are so counting on you to help us out. But don't let Colin frighten you. He's like most young men, more bark than bite. Though you're so pretty, I'm sure he'd love to sink his fangs into you."
"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Madison asked.
Kate gave her a throaty laugh. "Colin's been perfecting that bad-boy routine for hundreds of years. But don't worry, you'll do fine." She turned to her husband. "Won't she, dear?" Jerry agreed, and the two of them took their leave.
When Dodie and Madison were alone, Madison stalled by picking up her teacup again. She took a big swallow of tea. "Something tells me," she said, glancing at Dodie, "that I'm going to need something a lot stronger than tea to get through this."
When she took her seat back at the dining table, Madison was surprised to see that along with Kate, Stacie and Mike had also left. Dodie took the seat Kate had vacated. Doug was in his same seat and so was Samuel. Colin was pacing, agitated, and in an even more foul mood than when she'd last seen him.
THIRTEEN
am not going to be bait for some psycho!" Madison yelled, jumping to her feet.
After she'd returned and taken her place back at the table, Samuel had told Madison their plan. It hadn't gone over well.
"We just want you to visit a few of the vampire-themed groups and nose around," Samuel explained to the frightened woman as she moved to and fro like a caged animal. He got up from his chair and moved to her end of the table, taking Colin's former seat. "Get to know the people involved, Madison. Many of these groups are just harmless clubs populated by people romanticizing vampires. But some, we know, dabble in very dark things. Based on the recent murders, somehow someone found out about bloodlines and for whatever reason is killing women who have them. They have to be stopped. We're not even sure it's someone from one of the covens, but it's a good place to start."
Madison paced on the side of the room opposite Colin. "So you're just going to send me in there to ask questions, hoping I stumble on something?" She stopped long enough to put her hands on her hips and stare at each of them, particularly the Dedhams. "Guess the life of a beater doesn't mean shit to you deadbeats. And why should it? In relation to your sense of time, my little life is nothing but that of a flea's, if even that."
"Madison, dear," started Dodie, "it's not like that, really."
"Then what is it like, Dodie? You're sending me into a hornet's nest of lunatics I know nothing about, and without protection."
"That's not true, Madison," Doug threw out. "Colin's going with you."
Madison stopped in her tracks and pointed at the sullen Colin. "Him? He doesn't even like me. What's to stop him from killing me himself?"
"Bloody perfect." Colin leaned against the back of the sofa, his arms crossed in front of him. "I told you this would never work. I should just handle this alone."
"You can't, Colin," Samuel told him. "They are targeting women. You can only go as her escort."
Madison stalked back to the table and looked down at Samuel. "They are targeting women with bloodlines." She held her left palm out like a stop sign. "In case you've forgotten, I don't have one."
Samuel leaned back in his chair. "You will have," he announced casually. "At least a temporary one."
Madison exploded with frustration and anger. "So you're going to give me a fake bloodline and send me out to meet a killer?" When Samuel said nothing, Madison continued her rant. "At least have the balls to look me in the eye when you sentence me to death." She snatched Samuel's sunglasses off his face and slammed them down on the table.
Everyone in the room caught their breath in shock, except Samuel. Like lightning, he grabbed Madison's wrist and pulled her to him until they were n
early nose to nose. Her breath hit his face heavy and fast, but no breath escaped his lips or nostrils. She turned her head rather than look into his cloudy eyes.
"Look into my dead eyes, Madison," the head vampire ordered, his fangs unfurled and menacing. "Look, I said." He jerked her wrist. "You can die now or you can take your chances. It's entirely up to you"
Against her will, Madison turned to look into Samuel's eyes, blue-white with hints of fire, like opals. She stared into them, mustering her inner core to hold strong. "Most of my life," she told him, eyes locked onto his, "people have threatened me to get me to do what they've wanted. Bullies at school, other kids in the foster homes. No one ever gave me a choice except between doing what I didn't want to do or receiving beatings for not doing it."
She wrenched her arm free from Samuel's grasp and rubbed her wrist. Walking over to the wall, Madison leaned against it and addressed the vampires, who were watching her with intense interest. "Ever since I came into this house, I've been battered around like a rowboat in a hurricane. One minute I feel safe; the next, my life is on the line. Same shit I've put up with since I was eight."
Leaning against the wall, an exhausted Madison slid downward until she was sitting on the floor with her back against the hard surface. Her body may have surrendered, but not her spirit. "Well, that shit's stopping here and now."
"See here," Colin started to say, but Samuel stopped him with a hand gesture.
Madison drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. Locking her eyes back on to Samuel's face, she said, "Give me a real reason why I should help you, then let me make the choice whether I do it or not. My life, my decision. If you don't, you're no different from the bastard who raped me from the time I was ten until I was nearly twelve. He told me he'd kill me, too."
No one moved. Except for the sound of the wind in the trees outside, the room was silent.
"Come on, vampire," Madison taunted, her voice beginning to crack as a tear ran from her left eye down her cheek. "Give it your best shot."
Both Doug and Samuel got to their feet. Doug went to stand behind Dodie, resting his hands on her shoulders. She reached up one hand and covered one of his.
Samuel walked up to Madison. Squatting in front of her, he studied her, taking in her scrapes and bruises and staring deep into her wet brown eyes without speaking. She never took her eyes off his face. The pull he had on her was strong, but so was her resolve. Taking each of her hands in his, he unwrapped them from her knees and held them while he continued to look at her.
After a few moments, Samuel said in a low but strong voice, "We need your help, Madison. We'd like you to help us stop the killings. We need a live woman to infiltrate these groups and see if one of them might be responsible for these deaths. Colin knows enough of these people to get you inside. They don't know he's a real vampire, and he's a man and has no bloodline, so I doubt he would attract much attention from the perpetrator." Samuel paused. "But you might." He squeezed her hands gently. "Please help us. It could mean saving a lot of lives. Think about what happened to Evie."
Madison removed one of her hands and wiped her wet face and nose on the sleeve of her sweater. She sniffed back more tears. "And if I say no?"
Again, the room went deathly silent, everyone waiting for Samuel's determination.
"If you say no," Samuel replied, "we will return you to your prior life ... unharmed."
Colin took a step forward. "You can't be serious, Samuel. This beater knows way too much about us."
Samuel didn't turn to look at Colin but continued staring into Madison's eyes. "I believe, Colin, that whatever decision Miss Rose makes, she will keep silent about us. Won't you, Madison?"
Madison nodded, then squeaked out a yes. She cleared her throat. "Yes, I will never tell anyone. On that you have my word."
Samuel raised the hand he still held and kissed the knuckles lightly. Then he let it go and stood up, still looking at Madison's face. He returned to the table. "She's telling the truth." He turned to look back again at Madison, still crouched on the floor. "About everything."
After returning to his seat at the head of the table, Samuel glanced at his watch. They'd been handling the issues at hand for three hours. "The sun is up," he told everyone. "We need to finish and go home. We need our rest."
Samuel addressed Madison. "I'm afraid we'll need your answer right now, Madison. We'd hoped to put our plan into action tonight."
Madison got to her feet and walked to the table, standing at the end opposite Samuel. She was emotionally and physically exhausted but had been thinking about Evie Banks and the other women, those in the police photos. She wanted to go back to bed-her cramped bed in her tiny apartment. But she also didn't want any more women to die. She could easily have been one of them-had nearly been one of them but for Doug and Dodie's intervention.
She looked at the Dedhams. Doug was still standing behind his wife, his hands protectively on her shoulders. His face was kind and encouraging. Dodie looked concerned and sad. Madison glanced at Colin. The young-looking, arrogant man still leaned against the back of the sofa with his arms crossed. He was dressed in black jeans and a black turtleneck sweater, his pale skin a stark contrast to his dark hair and clothing. Watching Madison as she watched him, he left his post by the sofa and walked back to the table.
"What's it to be, Madison?" he asked her, his tone a bit more civilized than before. "You in or not?"
"You'll have my back?" she asked Colin.
He nodded.
Madison closed her eyes. When she did, she saw the raw wounds of the dead women. "I'm in."
"Hold still, Madison," Pauline told her. "We want to get this right."
Madison and Pauline were seated at the Dedham kitchen table. Pauline, with an iron grip on Madison's left hand, was using a henna tattoo kit to make a bloodline on the palm. Spying exactly the spot she wanted to target, Pauline drew a thin and slightly curved fine line between Madison's real lifeline and one of her other palm lines. Madison squirmed.
"I can't help it," she said to Pauline. "It tickles."
Pauline let go of Madison's hand. "There" She consulted the package instructions, peering through the reading glasses perched at the end of her nose. "It says you have to let that dry for six hours."
"Six hours!"
"That's what it says." Pauline showed Madison the box. "So no washing that hand. Good thing you're right-handed."
It was now eleven. Madison did the math. "That means not until at least five. I wanted to go back to bed. I hardly got any sleep last night."
"You can go to bed as soon as that stuff is off-maybe a little sooner. We don't want it to get too dark. Meanwhile, take it easy. From what I understand, you've got a big night ahead of you."
"How did you even know to bring henna?"
"Mrs. D left me a voice mail to pick it up on my way in. That's why I was late. I had to wait for the beauty supply shop to open. That's how we mostly communicate, by texting and voice mail," Pauline explained, "since they're usually in bed by the time I get here. Today her message said to bring henna and give you a bloodline. Mrs. D also told me what's going on-about a new dead girl and her being your friend and all."
Madison studied the line of thick paste drying on her hand. "I must be out of my mind, going along with this."
Pauline put the cap back on the applicator. "You're doing a good thing, Madison. A very good thing."
"But what about Mike Notchey? Shouldn't he be doing stuff like this? He wasn't even there when they told me about it"
"He's really not working these murders officially."
"He's a cop, isn't he?"
"Oh, yes. Definitely. But these aren't his cases or his jurisdiction. He's sort of the vampires' man on the inside."
Madison frowned with understanding. "You mean he's on their payroll."
Pauline shook her head and laughed. "No, nothing like that. He's a clean cop, but over the years he's become close to the Dedhams and to the va
mpire community, as many of us have. He keeps their secrets and helps them out, and sometimes they help him out. These murders are something he's nosing about on his own time. Not to mention the cops already think they have the guy who did the earlier killings." She paused and looked off toward the wall while she gave it more thought. "Mike's a complicated guy who has seen more than his share of personal tragedy. He can be crotchety, but he's one of the good guys."
Pauline looked at the henna instructions again. "Says it will stay good for four weeks in the fridge." She headed for the refrigerator with the leftover henna dye. "Good. That way, if we need to, we can refresh that line"
"Four weeks?" Madison's jaw dropped. "You really think it will take that long?"
Pauline shrugged. "Who knows?"
An extended time frame gave Madison a whole new worry. She couldn't stay with the Dedhams for four weeks. She had a life to get back to, not to mention a job. Kyle had said he'd only hold her job for a week. She decided to address that in a couple of days. Certainly, no one expected her to be here indefinitely. Then she remembered that the concept of time to the vampires was different than it was to her. She had a finite allotment of it. They didn't.
After a few minutes, Madison addressed something else on her mind. "Have you met the vampires on the council, Pauline?"
Pauline gathered up the henna package and put it aside on the counter, then washed her hands. "Yes, I've met the present council and most of those who served on past councils. Mr. D has been on the council only for about six or seven years. Some of the others were on it from the start, like Stacie Neroni and Colin Reddy."
"Why do Stacie and Colin hate each other?"
"Fighting, were they?"
Madison nodded.
Pauline shook her head and made a clucking noise. "It's something that happened several years ago involving a mutual friend of theirs named Julie-Julie Argudo."
Madison's curiosity perked up. "Another vampire-or a beater?"
Murder in Vein Page 9
