by Jess Haines
“We have narrowed down the list of possible cities where he might be staying, but that’s about it. He must have known we were in the area somehow. We were interviewing Jimmy Thrane.” Clyde bared his fangs at that, but didn’t interrupt. “Trinity chose to stay behind and wait outside. When we came out, she was already dead.”
In pieces. Many, many pieces. And considering how he had reacted to Thrane’s name, I wasn’t about to tell Clyde that we had gone to visit one of the Goliath werewolves, either.
He resumed pacing, clenching and unclenching his fists as he did so. This was not the image of a master vampire in control of his empire. Even so, he was dangerous. Perhaps more so than before. The veneer had been stripped away, leaving a shadow of a monster, frightened and backed into a corner, ready to lash out at any convenient excuse.
“I received a call from your master this evening,” Clyde said, his voice cutting. “You do not appreciate being hired to help me, I assume. He says you wish to leave.”
Well, yeah. No kidding. However, I didn’t think that would be a wise response. Nothing appropriate was coming to mind—so Sara stepped in, her voice tremulous and wavering.
“It’s not that we don’t appreciate your hospitality, but we miss our own homes and families. Our friends. All the things we left behind.”
That reminded me of my idea, and I was quick to jump in, forcing a measure of enthusiasm into my voice. “As long as we’re here, we’re still on the case for you.”
Sara and Clyde both shot me a look. It was uncomfortable to be on the receiving end of those mixed signals, but I pressed on.
“It would help if you were a little more open with us about what’s going on—” Fabian’s black stare felt like a physical blow. I took a hasty step back, bumping into Sara in the process as I rushed out the rest. “If you can be, that is. We’ve got some friends who might be able to tell us more about where this guy is. Anything else you can tell us would help, of course, but we’ve triangulated the area where he is most likely staying and can probably find him with more time. As long as we’re left on our own to search, of course, since it seems like he’ll kill any of your people who are with us.”
Please, God, don’t let him realize why I don’t want him to send any other vampires out on the road with us.
Clyde studied me for a time. Though I was expecting him to be the one to answer me, it was Fabian who spoke up, his voice rich with condescension. “You ladies may think you’re fooling him, but you do not fool me. If you believe you can hide from Gideon, you are quite mistaken.”
Sara cleared her throat, her voice coming out more steady this time. “Would you mind telling us what else you know about him aside from his name? We might have been able to move this investigation along faster if you’d come clean from the start.”
Fabian’s eyes flickered, but he favored her with a lazy grin. No fangs. No threat. Not yet.
“He was my lover.”
Oh, that was not a happy thought.
“We wish to keep this amongst ourselves, you understand. It is a private affair, not a matter for the authorities. If we can find him, then I may be able to speak with him privately. If not, then he will continue this ridiculous assault—”
“Ridiculous? He’s killed some of my oldest and most skilled progeny!” Clyde sputtered, his voice taking on a slight lisp around the extended fangs. “You can’t possibly think that this matter—”
“May I finish?”
Clyde glowered at Fabian, but quieted. By this point, it was becoming quite clear to me who was wearing the pants in this relationship.
“As I was saying,” Fabian continued, turning his attention back to Sara, “he most likely believes that Clyde worked some form of magic to make me tire of him. Though it is far from the case, Gideon won’t understand unless he hears it directly from me. And as I don’t fancy him using his magics to overpower me in the process, I want to know where he is hiding during the day so that I might seek him out and prevent him from casting anything truly nasty before I can get in my say.
“Are you satisfied with this, or would you prefer”—he ran his tongue over a fang in an all too suggestive motion—“more details?”
“No,” I said faintly, “that’s quite enough for us.”
Now that I had a better understanding of what we were after and why, I wished they had said something about this mess from the start. I might have changed the way I went at this case. Not by much, but maybe Sara and I would have looked at the behavior of the necromancer in a different light.
Then again, maybe not. The vampire murders were still pretty insane, even if it was the act of a jealous lover instead of a power grab.
Love was a potent motivating force, and people did all kinds of crazy things in its name. Look at what had happened with Helen of Troy. An entire city under siege, gone to waste, and a war remembered thousands of years later, all because of the abduction of a single woman.
Max Carlyle had done something similar, planning for who knew how many centuries to displace Royce as the master of New York and utterly destroy his empire. All because Royce had killed the woman Max loved.
One had to hand it to the Greeks. They thought big when it came to the destruction of their enemies.
“I’ll assign you a new bodyguard tomorrow,” Clyde declared, stalking over to the couch to kneel next to it, his hand drifting over Fabian’s arm, which had resumed stirring the bowl once more. “Perhaps a human one. I don’t care for the idea of you two running around town with no protection. Even if Gideon would not hurt you, there are others who would.”
Though I was thankful for his offer, I couldn’t help but wonder what he had to gain by keeping us alive. Maybe Royce had threatened him with some form of dire consequence if he continued to use us to deal with the necromancer on his behalf, or if something terrible happened to us.
Clyde glanced at us over his shoulder, his eyes once again an icy blue. He had gained some control over himself, finally, though he was still clearly upset. “If you are going to continue your search, then we need to rethink how you will be going about it. I am not certain yet if I want to continue to use your services. We’ll discuss this again tomorrow.”
We were obviously dismissed. Sara shook her head and tugged on my arm, pulling me away, but Fabian held up a staying hand.
“Ladies, do not fret. You are still human yet, and Gideon does not trouble himself in the affairs of those who are not of Other blood, aside from doing his best to maintain a measure of secrecy about his presence and his actions. If you do continue your search, then knowing that may be of some use to you.”
I offered him a wan, humorless smile. “Thank you, Mr. d’Argento. We’ll keep that in mind.”
He nodded, his own smile sly and secretive. I had a bad feeling that Fabian had his own agenda and was planning something unpleasant for Clyde, who was currently quite interested in exploring Fabian’s bare chest.
I didn’t envy the vampire. Either one of them.
Chapter 19
When Sara and I got back to the guest house, the first thing we did was shower. Well, second thing for me. First I stored Jo-Jo’s and Gavin’s letters in my bag so I wouldn’t forget them whenever it was time to leave. I didn’t want to cause the family of werewolves any more grief than they’d already suffered.
That task out of the way, I spent a lot of time scrubbing and scraping and dancing around the little globs of ick that came out of my hair. Some of it was probably from Sara’s clinging to me, and the rest of it was most likely something I’d picked up during my time passed out on the alley floor.
Discovering just how many tidbits of grossness were clinging to me wasn’t pleasant, but the relief I felt after I was clean was immeasurable.
Throwing on some sweats, I poked around in the drawers in the various rooms in the house until I found a pad of paper and some extra pens. Next, I went back into my room and made notes of what I already knew about this case, and the ties we’d established the
necromancer had. Usually I liked to do this sort of thing on my computer—it made it easier to cross-reference—but that wasn’t an option here. Spreading the papers out on my bed along with the map with the notations of where all of the attacks had taken place, I tried to see how everything fit together.
Fabian was now dating Clyde. He had previously dated Gideon.
Gideon was after Clyde’s people, punishing the new beau instead of Fabian, who was supposedly the unfaithful one.
Why?
Most people, when cheated on, tried to retaliate by making their significant others jealous. Thus, Gideon’s response made me believe that he was acting irrationally, but for a far different reason than a need to get back at Fabian. Retaliatory affairs were the most common reaction of someone who discovered he or she was being cheated on.
Granted, magi might have different thought processes than most humans, and who knew what drove a necromancer to act as he or she did—but attacking Clyde instead of Fabian didn’t seem quite right.
My PI Spidey sense was tingling.
“You as suspicious of this mess as I am?”
I glanced over my shoulder at Sara, who was in the door rubbing her hair dry with a towel, and gestured for her to join me.
She tossed the towel over her shoulder and moved over to the bed, placing her hands on her hips. We both studied the papers, frowning down at them. Sara grabbed my pen and made a couple of small notations of her own, then traced some of the roads between the areas where the attacks had taken place.
None of them were too close to Clyde’s home. Another thing that didn’t quite add up if this was a case of Jealous Lover’s Revenge Syndrome. If he really intended to hurt Clyde, and he was angry enough to commit murder in the process, then why wasn’t he attacking the guy directly? Why the bit and piecemeal destruction of Clyde’s empire instead of an all-out assault? He was commanding enough zombies that he should have been able to do or take whatever it was he wanted.
Sara tapped the map where Thrane’s hideout was, on the spot where we had been attacked. “None of this is right. That stink was awful, but the zombies were still in pretty good shape, considering. If Gavin was right and they were out in the woods or whatever, from how uncoordinated they are, wouldn’t they have been torn up from stumbling around? Or maybe a bit damaged from animals or insects? I didn’t see much of anything like that.”
I rubbed my chin, and then leaned over the map as my finger followed the path Sara’s had only a moment ago. “Now that you mention it, yeah. Do you think Gideon’s keeping them in a refrigerated warehouse? Or somewhere else?”
“I’m not even sure if it matters anymore. Are we really still looking for this guy?”
“Cripes, I don’t know,” I said, turning away from the mess on the bed to walk over to the windows and stare out at the little slice of ocean visible between the mountains. “I was hoping Clyde would decide to let us do this on our own so we could stay with the White Hats for a while. Devon probably wouldn’t mind letting us stay there at night, at least until this mess with the zombies is cleared up.”
“Yeah, maybe. You know more about the White Hats than I do. Will they help us? Or hide us, do you think?”
I thought about it, frowning out at the dim sparkle of moonlight visible on the water in the distance. “Possibly. I’ll have to call Devon and see. Though I’m wondering if it might not be a bad idea to check some of the local cemeteries to see if that’s where the bodies are coming from. Maybe that’s why they didn’t look so banged up. He might be getting them fresh from somewhere close, then putting them back when he’s done.”
“Huh. Didn’t think of that,” she said, a brow quirking up. “One other thing to consider—we don’t know if Clyde’s going to assign us another bodyguard or not. We can’t exactly take a vampire’s servant to a White Hat hideout.”
“I know, but I don’t have any easy answers. If we’re going to get out of this alive, we’re going to have to have some kind of backup plan. Even though we should probably wait until tomorrow to figure out what we’re going to do, I get the feeling we’re running out of time. There’s too much we don’t know about this mess.”
“Like what Fabian is up to. I think he’s got his own agenda, and that he’s not entirely aboveboard.”
I nodded, lightly slapping my palm against the window. “Why is it that everyone’s been straight with us and given us information about the necromancer except the guy who should know him better than anyone we’ve interviewed so far?” I turned around, sudden realization making my eyes widen. “You don’t think he’s working with Gideon to take down Clyde’s empire, do you?”
Sara regarded me very somberly, her already pale skin going ashen. “Shia, if that’s what’s going on here, we better keep our mouths shut. You saw how attached Clyde was in there—he may not listen to us. Plus they’re already killing vampires. It wouldn’t be a far stretch for that mage to take us out as collateral damage if we get in the way. We’re in the middle of something much bigger than a lover’s spat.”
Much like Clyde had been doing earlier, I started pacing, unable to help my imitation of his actions. Adrenaline was spiking along with my fear, the sensation of being trapped squeezing my heart with heavy jaws. I needed an outlet for my nervous energy. Running my hands through my hair, I tried to think of a way out.
“We’ve got to think this through. Be smart about it. If Fabian succeeds at destroying Clyde before we get out of here, we’re toast. If we don’t keep looking for the necromancer, both of the vampires will suspect something, and we’ll still be in trouble. As much as I hate to say it, I’m not as concerned about screwing things up for Royce at this point, either. If he had any idea what kind of danger we’re in, I bet he’d agree.”
Sara nodded. “You suggesting a plan of action?”
“I think we need to get the hell out of here.”
“I’d rather you didn’t,” a male voice said from behind us. Sara and I both whipped around to see Fabian in the door, his head down and hands pocketed.
He only took a single step into the room, but it was enough to send us skittering back, both of us getting as far from him as we could in the small space. He lifted his head just enough to give us both a wry smile, raising a hand to gesture at us to stop what we were doing.
“Don’t worry, my little lovelies. No need for that. I’m not here to do you harm.”
I closed my fingers around the window latch at the small of my back, wondering if I could jump from the second story without breaking my legs in the process. That’s assuming I could get the window open and leap out before he could catch me. Cripes.
He moved deeper into the room, looking down at all of the notes Sara and I had made. His lips quirked, though whether he was pleased or not with our work wasn’t clear. His fingers brushed over the papers, his eyes flicking back and forth as he took in the details.
I hoped to God he didn’t notice Gavin’s name among the mix. It wasn’t much of a secret that we’d been talking to the White Hats and to Thrane, but if he figured out I’d spent time among the werewolves known for hunting and eating vampires, who knew what his reaction might be. If he thought we were making too many allies among the people who might want to see him dead, then he might think we were better off being disposed of—if he wasn’t considering as much already, that is.
When he looked up, he focused on me, his expression at first unreadable. Very slowly, his lips curved upward, though whether he was thinking I was amusing or that I looked edible was up in the air.
“You’re smarter than Clyde gave you credit for. It’s no wonder Rhathos saw something of merit in you, Ms. Waynest.”
I didn’t respond, my fingers twitching reflexively as his dark brown eyes focused solely on me. He put me in mind of a young Robert De Niro, all swarthy skin and smiles, and with all the Godfather connections and killer instinct that implies.
“You two are so quiet all of a sudden. But you had so much to say a moment ago.” His grin
became a bit more feral, his fangs lengthening as we watched. “Things that are best kept to yourselves. Gideon and I would hate to have our little surprise for Clyde spoiled.”
Knowing I was right about a case had never felt so terrifying before.
“W-we won’t say anything to him, we swear,” Sara said, her voice wavering. I didn’t take my eyes off Fabian, since he’d never looked away from me. “Please, we were trying to figure out how to stay out of this. We don’t want to get involved.”
“Correct,” he said, moving closer to me until he could tip my chin up with a finger.
His eyes never wavered from mine, and his touch was bitterly cold. I didn’t dare move, blink, or even breathe with him this close to me. Never mind biting me—the guy could snap my neck in an instant if I said the wrong thing.
“When Gideon and I are done here, as long as you have kept what you know to yourselves until then, I’ll see you safely away from this city. It will be our little secret.” He gave me a wink, like all this was just between friends. “I’m good on my word. You can count on it.”
“Please,” I choked out, trying not to faint, “we won’t say anything, we swear!”
“Very good. I will advise Clyde to continue to keep a detail on you. What he knows—I know. Keep that in mind.”
With that, he chucked me under the chin and then silently shot me and then Sara with a finger gun on his way out the door.
My knees gave out, and I slowly slumped down the wall until I was seated on the floor, staring up at the ceiling. This guy was going to kill Clyde, or at the very least take over his coterie, and who knew what he would do to us when it was over. We were in the middle of what was about to become a war zone with nowhere to hide and no way to escape what was coming. Fabian’s promise notwithstanding, we had no guarantee that we would live through whatever the vampire and necromancer had planned.
