by Sharon Green
The term "gift shop" sometimes makes you think of a small place with postcards and knickknacks, but that picture doesn't match what we found. The fairly large store had all kinds of things including clothing, not to mention a wide variety of bathing suits. We all spent a few minutes looking at what was available, but the guys made their choices before I did.
"What's wrong, Taz?" George asked from where he stood next to me. "Can't you make up your mind?"
"It's more a matter of talking myself into making the right choice," I told him, swallowing a bit of annoyance. "I thought about going with a bikini, something I've always wanted to do, but I'm going to buy this white one-piece suit instead. In spite of the opinion of a large number of people, I don't really enjoy looking for trouble."
"I think that's very wise of you," George said, an odd tone to his voice. "With the number of shapeshifters now in this hotel, there's no sense in drawing them closer than they already are. There is a limit to how much self control men can exert."
Since I didn't want to hear any more talk on that particular subject, I took the white suit to the clerk who was eagerly waiting to exchange the suit for money. A lot of money, more than I would have had to spend back home, but that wasn't unexpected. If you come to a resort without everything you'll need, you can expect to pay through the nose for what you forgot.
All of us but George had small bags to carry, and we headed back toward the elevators with our purchases. It was still raining out, which meant we'd be able to lounge around and nap until we decided what we wanted to do for dinner. That was the plan, but for some reason plans like that rarely worked for me.
"Taz, Eric, just a minute," we heard, and turning showed us Dan Czarek, head of the shapeshifters who were in charge of security at the hotel. Dan was hurrying in our direction, so we waited until he reached us.
"What's wrong, Dan?" Eric asked, showing that Eric had noticed the same disturbance in Dan that I had. "Don't tell me there's even more trouble scheduled for the conference."
"Scheduled, no," Dan answered, something of a smile appearing briefly on his face. "What's happened is completely unexpected and has nothing to do with the conference, only with us. Will you take a look and tell me what you think?"
Since he was talking to Eric and me, he had to mean there was shapeshifter trouble. If there was anything we didn't need it was more shapeshifter crap, but there was no decent way to refuse our help.
"Sure we'll take a look," I agreed, trying not to sound weary or resentful. "Where do we have to go?"
"Down to our level," Dan answered, reaching past us to hit the down button for the elevators. "And thanks for doing this. We'd take care of the thing ourselves, only we don't know where to start."
Eric and I exchanged a glance over that, but there was nothing else to do until we saw what Dan was concerned about. An elevator came, turning off the down signal, and we all got into the car. Dan may not have noticed that the rest of the team joined us, but I certainly did and just as certainly didn't complain. Depending on what the problem was, the entire team just might be needed…
Chapter Two
It didn't take long to reach the third underground level, the level that was designated as belonging to the shapeshifters at the conference. The shapeshifters were a security force, some working for the conference in general, some for individual vampires attending the conference. The first area was filled with exercise equipment in a wide and open section, and there were also smaller rooms with chairs for meetings or relaxing, reading or watching videos, listening to music or snacking. But it was that first area we walked into that stopped us in our tracks.
"What is that?" Amiol asked as we all looked around at the smeared and pooled mess easily seen in a wide section of the area. "It can't be anything good."
"It isn't," Eric answered, the faint growl in his voice an echo of what I happened to be feeling. "Someone obviously thought it would be cute to spread blood all over the place, human blood, in a way that can't be missed. I'm hoping this doesn't mean we're missing two or three people – or more."
"No, everyone is accounted for, at least among our own," Dan said, doing his own staring at the mess. "And for some reason I don't expect to find anyone missing anywhere. Unless I'm completely wrong, this wasn't done to get us blamed for slaughter. All I can think of is what would have happened if you hadn't told us how to control ourselves in the presence of spilled blood…"
Those words sent something of a chill through me, mostly because I knew exactly what Dan meant.
"Someone wanted to send most of you out of control and probably on a rampage," I said, really beginning to get mad. "A someone who didn't know that the rampage wasn't a sure thing any longer. Is it possible this was done by Damon Frost or one of his people?"
Damon Frost was the leader of the shapeshifter bodyguards Verna had brought with her. The man was a boaster and a cheat, and he'd been given a lot of lumps before he'd been ejected from the group.
"Frost and his team were flown out of here last night, and they aren't a team anymore," Dan answered with a shake of his head. "The others announced that Frost and his girl Tippy weren't acceptable as teammates, and they'd refuse to ever work with the two again. When Frost tried to throw his weight around one of them grabbed Tippy to keep her from linking with Frost and then they flattened Frost."
"The man was begging to be treated like that, but he isn't likely to see the matter the same," Eric put in, his voice showing his own distaste. "The fool will probably go rogue at some point, but hopefully he'll be taken care of by some other rogue hunters rather than us. But if it wasn't Frost, then who could it be?"
"None of you are able to … pick up a scent that doesn't belong?" George asked, looking around at Dan, Eric and me. "Is the blood too much of a distraction for you to be able to do that?"
Dan and Eric immediately agreed that they couldn't get past the scent of the blood, but something kept me from adding my own agreement. The odor of blood was nearly overpowering, but…
"I want to try something," I said instead, starting to get an idea. "It might not work, but there's no harm in making the try…"
With that I turned my back on the bloodied room to face the elevators. Doing that didn't make me less aware of the blood, but for some reason the scent itself wasn't as overpowering. I also … gave my attention to my inner self in some way, and then I was able to pick up more in the way of scent than I had a minute ago. One of the elevators had nothing but our scent, but the other one…
"That's got to be it," I muttered, then turned back to the others. "Dan, is there any reason Trent Maddox would have come down here? Any legitimate reason, I mean, like looking for workers to dragoon?"
"Maddox never came down here," Dan answered with a frown. "He may have enjoyed throwing his weight around with everyone he met, but we'd made it clear that we weren't going to be slaves to his whims so he'd better cut it out if he wanted to stay healthy."
"And I thought Maddox was out of a job," Eric put in with a shake of his head. "George told us how you and Oldon got the vampire Maddox worked for to take a good long look at what he was doing in her name, which ought to have gotten him fired at the very least. Didn't that happen?"
"We'll have to look into the matter, because I'm not unsure about getting a scent that matches Maddox," I answered. "If the fool is still around, the matter of cleanup will be his to take care of."
There were a lot of sounds of agreement with what I'd said, and then we were ringing for another elevator. One of the three elevators was permanently out of order until its car could be replaced, but the other two didn't seem to be having trouble taking up the slack. When the doors to the left opened we entered the car, but we only went up one floor.
The second floor underground belonged to the vampires and was the place where they held meetings and some of them had suites. We walked toward the room with the double doors, a room I expected to see empty on the way to Oldon's suite, but it wasn't empty. A handful of the
vampires were already up and standing around, all of them holding cups of warmed blood to drink from. One of them was Tellia, the female vamp who had employed Maddox, but that wasn't the benefit it should have been. The female was something of an idiot, but happily there was someone else in the room who wasn't.
Mio was supposed to be the strongest vampire in the group, possibly stronger than most of those who weren't attending the convention. He stood listening to the exchange between two male vampires, but when he saw us in the doorway he smiled and came over to us.
"Nice to see you and your team again, Taz," he said, stopping a couple of feet away. "If you're looking for Oldon, I don't think he's up and around yet."
"I was looking for Oldon, Mio, but possibly you'll be willing to lend us a hand," I answered. "We have a case of serious vandalism to report, but not to Tellia. The one who committed the vandalism was Trent Maddox."
"You sound very certain of that," Mio commented, the look in his dark eyes somewhat disturbed. "And if Trent is involved in something like that, why wouldn't you speak to Tellia about it?"
"I had some trouble with Tellia yesterday, and if Oldon hadn't stepped in it's possible the trouble would have gotten out of hand," I told him. "Maddox sent some shapeshifters after me because of some heated words we'd exchanged, and then he lied to his boss when I tried to speak to her about it. Instead of trying to find out who was lying and who was telling the truth, Tellia just decided to believe her minion. Oldon convinced her to talk to Maddox with more than just words, but it's possible the man managed to twist her back to his side of the argument."
"I hadn't realized that Tellia was that far out of touch," Mio said, turning a little to glance at the female vamp in question before returning his attention to us. "So what did Trent do, send attackers after you again?"
"No, this time he seems to have it in for different shapeshifters," I said. "Dan here asked us to take a look at their level, and what we saw was a lot of spilled blood all over the exercise area. From that I'm guessing that Maddox was trying to start a riot."
"At the very least," Mio growled, nothing left of the smile he'd shown to begin with. "How many of your people are in difficulty because of this, Dan?"
"Thanks to Taz, none of us have lost it," Dan told him with a lot of satisfaction. "Yesterday she taught us how to … make an adjustment inside ourselves, an adjustment that lets us be aware of spilled blood but not lose control. If she hadn't done that for us…"
"Yes," Mio said with a nod, needing nothing of the words Dan hadn't spoken, and then his dark gaze was on me again. "Happily for all of us, Taz is making a habit of helping out those around her. Let's see if I can do some helping out of my own."
He gestured to us with a crooked finger before turning and heading for Tellia, and all we could do was follow him to find out what he had in mind. He glided right up to Tellia where she stood, and when she looked at him he smiled.
"I understand you've had some trouble with your human assistant, Tellia," Mio said evenly. "I'd like to know what's become of the man."
"I've sent him to do inventory while I decide whether to simply fire him or punish him in some way," Tellia answered with no effort to return his smile. "He lied to me, Mio, and that's something that can't be overlooked. In the meanwhile I intend to interview the shapeshifters to find one of them to take his place. I told Trent about my decision last night, and now that I'm ready to begin my day I can also begin the interviews."
"I'd like you to hold off on that for a short while," Mio answered, his smile still curving his lips. "In fact I'd like you to go back to your apartment and stay there until I send for you, doing nothing but taking blood when you need it. Do you understand?"
"Of course," Tellia answered, her bearing now more … dreamy than it had been. She walked away toward the doors out of the room, and in another moment she was gone.
"I don't believe I never noticed how badly Tellia was doing," Mio said with a sigh when he turned back to us. "She's all but running on automatic, so to speak, and that isn't good. Once it gets dark I'll have her taken to a place where she'll be looked after and helped. If she's beyond fixing she'll never be allowed out into the world again."
I would have bet money on the virtual certainty that Mio had taken control of Tellia, but it didn't seem like a good idea to mention that aloud. Glancing around at the others said they'd gotten the same impression and were also staying diplomatically silent.
"I think we now know why Maddox spread blood on the shapeshifter level," I said with a sigh of my own. "He decided to show how irresponsible shapeshifters are, and then would have graciously taken over his old job again."
"Without understanding how much trouble he was in the process of making," Dan agreed, obviously a little too angry to sigh. "The man is a complete idiot, and needs taking care of as much as his former boss."
"I think I'll leave that 'taking care' to the people he nearly started a riot among," Mio said, gazing at Dan in a musing way. "We still need someone to run this event, so why don't you take over the job. As soon as you've found and dealt with Trent Maddox, of course. Are you willing?"
"Well … sure," Dan answered, now looking surprised almost to the point of stunned shock. "I can run things, I guess, until you find someone of your own people to take over. And I think I'd better get right to it. If Maddox is taking inventory the way he's supposed to be doing, I shouldn't have any trouble finding him…"
Dan nodded in a distracted way before turning and heading out of the room. We all watched him go, and by the time he was completely out of sight Mio was grinning.
"If things work out the way I expect them to I won't have to find anyone else to do the job," he murmured to the rest of us. "Dan is one of the most competent beings I've ever come across, and I expect things to be running smoothly around here in no time at all. After all, he was bright enough to ask for the help of you folks."
By now Mio's grin was aimed at me and the team, which was very much a compliment. I tried to think of some way to thank Mio for what he'd said, but before the words came we were joined by someone who spoke first.
"Is there a problem?" Oldon asked as he glided over to join us. His wide and friendly smile was very much in evidence, but there seemed to be a touch of disturbance in the vampire's dark eyes.
"There was a problem, in fact two problems, but they're taken care of now," Mio answered, shifting his grin to Oldon. "Your people have come through for us again, my friend, and I'll tell you all about it once I've made some necessary arrangements. I should be back in just a few minutes."
This time it was Mio who nodded to us before leaving, and Oldon didn't wait until the vampire was out of sight before giving us his attention.
"What is he talking about?" Oldon asked, looking around at the team. "What problems were there, and how did your group help out? If someone is assigning you extra jobs just because you're here, I'll have to have a talk with that someone."
"No, it's all right, no one is taking advantage of us," I assured the vampire quickly, holding up one hand. "Dan Czarek ran into some trouble and asked our advice, and we were able to help out so we did. All the rest was Mio's doing."
"Which I think he wants to tell me about himself," Oldon said with a slow nod, then he looked around. "Have you people been out shopping? I thought it was still raining out there."
"It is still raining, which is why we did our shopping here in the hotel," Eric supplied with a smile. "Some of the Hunters, Inc. people invited us to go sun bathing and swimming with them tomorrow, but none of us had bathing suits. We now have the suits, so we're all set. We won't need anything fancy when we go out to Senor Frog tomorrow night for dinner."
"Ah, good," Oldon said, his expression open and friendly again. "You're getting into the matter of vacationing, just the way I wanted you to. And you intend to go out to a restaurant tomorrow night… I meant to ask you to be my guests one night at a restaurant, but now I've gotten a different idea. If you decide I won't be intru
ding during the outing, please think about the possibility of my joining you tomorrow night. If that would be too awkward, just say so and I'll stay behind. Let me know when you make up your mind."
He nodded in the same friendly way and then turned and walked off, leaving the team and me without anything to say for a minute. I know I groped around inside my head during the silence, and then George sighed.
"Are we really supposed to tell that being that he isn't someone we care to associate with in public?" George asked, putting our major problem into words. "I thought it was clear our job is to hurt rogues, not those who hunt rogues with us."
"And Oldon would be hurt if we decided we didn't want him with us," Eric put in, also voicing the obvious. "How can he think we'd do something like that?"
"Maybe he doesn't," I suggested, wondering if going into paranoid mode was appropriate right now. "Maybe he's just trying to manipulate us into asking him to go along, doing it this way to make sure he isn't refused."
"But why would he do something like that?" Freemont asked, sounding as confused as Amiol looked. "What possible reason can he have for trying to force us into asking him to go along?"
"I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't have the slightest idea," I admitted with a sigh. "Let's think about the situation for a while, and then maybe one of us will come up with an answer. Meanwhile, I think Eric and I ought to make sure that Dan and his people have found Maddox and are taking care of that mess."
The others agreed with me, so I gave my purchase to Freemont and Eric gave his to Amiol, and then we split the team. The others went back to our suite while Eric and I went looking for Dan.
