I let myself slide down until I was sitting with my knees tucked up. My toes were inches from the circle. I did not want to touch it again.
Dolph walked through the circle like it wasn’t there and knelt beside me, part of him still in the circle. “Anita, what’s wrong?”
I shook my head. “I’m not sure.” I stared up at him. “It’s a circle of power, and I can’t cross it.”
He glanced back at his own body partially inside the circle. “I can.”
“You’re not an animator. I’m not a witch, and I don’t know a lot of official magic, but some of the symbols are either death symbols or maybe symbols of protection from the dead.” I stared up at him, my skin still shivering from trying to cross the line. A new horror spread through my mind. “It’s a spell to both contain and keep out the dead, and I can’t cross it.”
He stared down at me. “What exactly does that mean, Anita?”
“It means,” said a female voice, “that she didn’t create the circle.”
19
* * *
A WOMAN stood just inside the door. She was tall, slender, dressed in a purple skirt suit with a white man-tailored shirt. She walked into the room with an eagerness that made me knock about ten years off her age. She looked thirty, but she wasn’t. Twenty-something and full of herself. Probably around my own age, but there was a shiny newness to her that I’d lost years ago.
Dolph stood, offering me a hand up. I shook my head. “Unless you want to carry me, I can’t stand yet.”
“Anita, this is Detective Reynolds,” he said. He didn’t sound entirely happy about it.
Reynolds walked around the edge of the circle as I had, but she was coming for a better view of me. She ended up on the opposite side from Dolph. She stared down at me, smiling, eager. I stared up at her, skin still jumping from trying to force my way past the circle.
She leaned down and whispered, “You’re flashing the room, dear.”
“That’s why the underwear matches,” I said.
She looked surprised.
There was no way for me to stretch my legs out without touching the circle again, so if I wanted to quit flashing the room, I had to stand up. I held my hand up to Dolph. “Help me up, but whatever you do, don’t let me fall into that thing.”
Detective Reynolds took my other arm without being invited, but frankly, I needed the help. My legs felt like spaghetti. The moment she touched me, the hair on my body stood at attention. I jerked away from her and would have fallen into the circle if Dolph hadn’t caught me.
“What’s wrong, Anita?” Dolph asked.
I leaned into him and tried to breathe slowly and evenly. “I can’t take anymore magic right this moment.”
“Get her a chair from the dining room,” Dolph said. He didn’t speak to anyone in particular, but a uniform left the room, probably to get the chair.
Dolph picked me up while we waited. Since I couldn’t stand, it was hard to protest, but I felt like a damn fool.
“What’s on your back, Anita?” Dolph asked.
I’d forgotten about the knife in the spine sheath. I was saved from having to answer by the uniform bringing one of the straight-backed chairs into the room.
Dolph eased me into the chair. “Did Detective Reynolds try a spell on you?”
I shook my head.
“Someone explain what just happened.”
An unhealthy flush crept up Reynold’s pale neck. “I tried to read her aura, sort of.”
“Why?” Dolph asked.
“Just curious. I’ve read about necromancers but never met one before.”
I looked up at her. “If you want to do any more experiments, Detective, ask first.”
She nodded, looking younger, more unsure of herself. “I am sorry.”
“Reynolds,” Dolph said.
She looked at him. “Yes, sir.”
“Go stand over there.”
She glanced at both of us and nodded. “Yes, sir.” She walked over to stand by the other cops. She tried to be nonchalant about it, but she kept looking over at us.
“Since when do you have a witch on the payroll?” I asked.
“Reynolds is the first detective ever with preternatural abilities. She got her pick of assignments. She wanted to join our squad.”
I was happy to hear him call it “our” squad. “She said I didn’t draw the circle. Did you really think I’d done that?” I pointed at the body.
He stared down at me. “You didn’t like Robert.”
“If I killed everyone I didn’t like, Saint Louis would be littered with bodies,” I said. “Why else did you drag me down here? She’s a witch. She probably knows more about the spell than I do.”
Dolph stared down at me. “Explain.”
“I raise the dead, but I’m not a trained witch. Most of what I do is just,” I shrugged, “sort of natural ability. I studied basic magic theory in college, but for only a couple of classes, so if you want feedback on a detailed spell like this one, I can’t help you.”
“If Reynolds hadn’t been here, what would you have suggested we do?”
“Find a witch to undo the spell for you.”
He nodded. “Any thoughts on who or why?” He jabbed his thumb behind his back at the body.
“Jean-Claude made Robert a vampire. That’s a strong bond. I think the spell was to prevent him from knowing what was happening.”
“Could Robert have alerted his master from this far away?”
I thought about that. I wasn’t sure. “I don’t know. Maybe. Some master vampires are better at telepathy than others. I’m not sure how good Jean-Claude is with other vampires.”
“This setup took a while,” Dolph said. “Why kill him like this?”
“Good question,” I said. I had a nasty idea. “It’s a weird way to do it, but this might be a challenge to Jean-Claude’s control over his territory.”
“How so?” Dolph had his little notebook out now, pen poised. It was almost like old times.
“Robert belonged to him, and now somebody’s killed him. Could be a message.”
He glanced back at the body. “But who is the message meant for? Maybe Robert pissed someone off, and it was personal. If it was a message for your boyfriend, why not kill him at Jean-Claude’s club? That’s where he worked, right?”
I nodded. “Whoever did this couldn’t have pulled off something so elaborate at the club, with other vampires around. No way. They needed privacy. They might have needed the spell just to keep Jean-Claude or some other vamp from riding to the rescue.” I thought about it. What did I really know about Robert? Not much. I knew him as Jean-Claude’s flunkie. Monica’s boyfriend, now husband. A soon-to-be daddy. Everything I knew about him was through other people’s perceptions of him. He’d been killed in his own bedroom, and all I could think of was that it was a message for Jean-Claude. I was thinking of him like a flunkie because Jean-Claude treated him that way. Because he wasn’t a master vampire, no one would want to kill him for his own sake. Geez, I was actually thinking of a Robert like disposable commodity. We could always make more.
“You’ve thought of something,” Dolph said.
“Not really. Maybe I’ve been hanging around vampires too long. I’m beginning to think like one of them.”
“Explain,” Dolph said.
“I assumed that Robert’s death was connected to his master. My first thought was that no one would kill Robert for his own sake, because he wasn’t important enough to kill. I mean, killing Robert won’t make you Master of the City, so why do it?”
Dolph looked at me. “You’re beginning to worry me, Anita.”
“Worry, hell,” I said, “I’m beginning to scare me.” I tried to look at the murder scene fresh, not like a vampire. Who would go to this much trouble to kill Robert? I didn’t have the faintest idea. “Except for this being a challenge to Jean-Claude’s authority, I have no idea why anyone would kill Robert. I guess I don’t really know that much about him. It could
be one of the hate groups, Humans First or Humans Against Vampires. But they’d have to have some heavy magical know-how, and either group would stone a witch as fast as stake a vampire. They consider them both devil spawn.”
“Why would the hate groups single out this vampire?”
“His wife’s pregnant,” I said.
“Another vampire?” Dolph asked.
I shook my head. “Human.”
Dolph’s eyes widened just a fraction. It was the most surprise I’d ever seen from him. Dolph, like most cops, doesn’t ruffle easily.
“Pregnant? And the vampire is the father?”
“Yes,” I said.
He shook his head. “Yeah, that might earn him a starring roll on the hate group hit parade. Tell me about vampire reproduction, Anita.”
“First, I need to call Jean-Claude.”
“Why?”
“Warn him,” I said. “I agree this probably is something personal to Robert. You’re right. Humans First especially would kill him in a heartbeat, but just in case, I want to warn Jean-Claude.” I had another thought. “Maybe that’s why someone wanted me dead.”
“What do you mean?”
“If they want to harm Jean-Claude, killing me would be a good way to do it.”
“I think half a million dollars is a little steep for bumping off someone’s girlfriend.” He shook his head. “That kind of money is personal, Anita. Someone’s afraid of you, not your toothy boyfriend.”
“Two hired killers in two days, Dolph, and I still don’t know why.” I stared up at him. “If I don’t figure this thing out, I’ll be dead.”
He touched my shoulder. “We’ll help you. Cops are good for some things, even if the monsters won’t talk to us.”
“Thanks, Dolph.” I patted his hand. “Did you really believe Reynolds when she said I could have done this?”
He straightened, then met my eyes. “For a second, yes. After that, it was a matter of listening to my detective. We hired her so she could help out on the preternatural stuff. It would be stupid to ignore her on her first case.”
Not to mention demoralizing, I thought. “Okay, but did you really think I was capable of doing that?” I motioned towards the body.
“I’ve seen you stake vamps, Anita. I’ve seen you decapitate them. Why not this?”
“Because Robert was alive while they carved open his chest. Until they removed his heart, he was alive. Hell, when they took his heart, I’m not sure how long he might have lived. Vampires are strange when it comes to death wounds. Sometimes they linger.”
“Is that why they didn’t take his head? So he’d suffer more?”
“Maybe,” I said. “Jean-Claude needs to be told, in case it is a threat,” I repeated.
“I’ll have someone call.”
“You don’t trust me to tell him?”
“Leave it alone, Anita.”
For once I did what he asked. Even a year ago I wouldn’t have trusted anyone dating a vampire. I’d have assumed they were corrupt. Sometimes, I still assumed that. “Fine, just call him now. Be bad if Jean-Claude got wasted while we were debating who should warn him.”
Dolph motioned one of the uniforms over. He scribbled something in his notebook, tore the page out, folded it, and handed it to the uniform. “Take this to Detective Perry.”
The uniform left, note in hand.
Dolph glanced back at his notes. “Now, tell me about vampire reproduction.” He stared at what he’d written in his notebook. “Even saying that sounds wrong.”
“Newly dead males often have leftover sperm from before death. That’s the most common. Doctors recommend you wait six weeks before sex after you’ve become a vampire, sort of like after a vasectomy. Those babies are usually healthy. Being fertile is a lot rarer in older vamps. Frankly, until I saw Robert and his wife at a party, I didn’t know vamps as old as he is could make babies.”
“How old was Robert?”
“A century and some change.”
“Can female vamps get pregnant?” he asked.
“Sometimes with the newly dead it happens, but the body spontaneously aborts or reabsorbs the baby. A dead body can’t give life.” I hesitated.
“What?” Dolph asked.
“There have been two reported cases of an older female vampire giving birth.” I shook my head. “It wasn’t pretty, and it certainly wasn’t human.”
“Did the babies survive?”
“For awhile,” I said. “The case that’s the best documented was from the early 1900s. Back when Dr. Henry Mulligan was trying to find a cure for vampirism in the basement of Old Saint Louis City Hospital. One of his patients had given birth. Mulligan thought it was a sign that life was returning to her body. The baby had been born with a full set of pointed teeth and been more cannibal than vampire. Doctor Mulligan carried a scar on his wrist from the delivery until the day he died, which was about three years later when one of his patients crushed his face.”
Dolph stared down at his notebook. “I write it all down. But frankly, this is one bit of information I hope I never have to use. They killed the baby, didn’t they?”
“Yes,” I said. “Before you ask, the father was not mentioned. The implication is that the father was human and may even have been Dr. Mulligan himself. Vampires can’t make babies without a human partner, as far as we know.”
“Nice to know humans are good for something besides blood,” he said.
I shrugged. “I guess.” Truthfully the thought of giving birth to a child with severe Vlad syndrome scared the hell out of me. I never planned on having sex with Jean-Claude, but if it ever came up, we were definitely taking precautions. No spontaneous sex, unless it included a condom.
Something must have shown on my face, because he asked, “Penny for your thoughts.”
“Just glad I have high moral standards, I guess. Like I said, until I saw Robert and his wife, I thought a vampire over a century was sterile. And considering the length of time you’d have to keep the vamp’s body temperature up”—I shook my head—“I don’t see how it could be accidental. But they both claimed it was. She hasn’t even gotten their amnio results back yet.”
“Amnio test for what?” he asked.
“Vlad syndrome,” I said.
“Is she healthy enough to stand up under this kind of news?” he asked.
I shrugged. “She looked fine, but I’m no expert. I’d say she shouldn’t be told over the phone, and she probably shouldn’t be alone. I just don’t know.”
“Are you friends with the wife?”
I shook my head. “No, and don’t even ask. I am not going to hold Monica’s hand while she cries over her dead husband.”
“All right, all right, it’s outside your job description. Maybe I’ll let Reynolds do it.”
I glanced at the young woman. She and Monica probably deserved each other, but . . . “Jean-Claude might know who Monica’s friends are. If he doesn’t, I know of one. Catherine Maison-Gillete and Monica work together.”
“Monica is a lawyer?” Dolph said.
I nodded.
“Great,” he said.
“How much are you telling Jean-Claude about this?” I asked.
“Why?” Dolph asked.
“Because I want to know how much I can tell him.”
“You don’t discuss ongoing homicide cases with the monsters, he said.”
“The victim was his companion for over a century. He’s going to want to talk about it. I need to know what you’re telling him so I won’t let something slip by accident.”
“You don’t have a problem withholding information from your boyfriend?”
“Not on a homicide. Whoever did this is at the very least a witch, and maybe something scarier. It’s probably one of the monsters, one way or another. So we can’t tell the monsters all the details.”
Dolph looked at me long and steady, then nodded. “Keep back the heart and the symbols used in the spell.”
“He’ll have to know
about the heart, Dolph, or he’ll guess. Head or heart, there isn’t a lot else that’ll kill a century-old vamp.”
“You said you’d withhold information, Anita.”
“I’m telling you what will wash and what won’t, Dolph. Keeping back the heart from the vamps won’t work because they’ll guess. The symbols, fine, but even there, Jean-Claude’s going to have to have to wonder why he didn’t feel Robert die.”
“So what can we withhold from your boyfriend?”
“The exact symbols used in the spell. The knives.” I thought about it for a moment. “How they got the heart out. Most people will still go through the ribs to tear out a heart. They see all the hospital shows on TV and they don’t think about doing it differently.”
“So if we get a suspect, we ask how’d you get the heart out?”
I nodded. “The crazies will start talking about stakes. Or be vague.”
“Okay,” he said. Dolph looked at me. “If anyone hated the monsters, I thought it was you. How can you date one of them?”
I met his eyes this time, not flinching. “I don’t know.”
He closed his notebook. “Greeley’s probably wondering where I took you.”
“What did you whisper to him? I would have bet money that he’d have held on to me.”
“Told him you were a suspect in another murder. Said I wanted to watch your reaction.”
“And he bought that?”
Dolph glanced back at the body. “Close to the truth, Anita.”
He had me there. “Greeley didn’t seem to like me very much,” I said.
“You’d just killed a woman, Anita. Tends to give a bad first impression.”
He had a point. “Do I need to have Catherine meet us down at the station?” I asked.
“You’re not under arrest,” Dolph said.
“I’d still like Catherine to meet us at the station.”
Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Collection 6-10 Page 21
