by Mark Henwick
The bracelet wasn’t tingling either, but I wasn’t about to draw any conclusions from that until I’d spoken to Mary. I didn’t know if it was a one-time warning or something that would work all the time. And what was the definition of harm for a magic bracelet? Better to not rely on it.
I tried one last pass, forcing myself to dance my way through the middle of the floor, bouncing off people. It was kinda fun, but my heart wasn’t into it tonight. There was nothing new till I got to the other side. I had emerged next to the bar area and dozens of ZK members were slouching against the wall. They’d claim to be providing security, but they were just checking out the dancers. I’d lay odds they were selling too. They were the old style ZK, bikers with tattoos and colors. They weren’t vampires, but there was a hint in the air. Maybe they’d been around vampires recently. I couldn’t see any with obvious bites, but then, it was dark. I drifted closer, pretending to look around.
“Yo! Bitch! Find what you’re looking for?” one shouted over the music.
“Yo! Bitch! No,” my little demon shouted back at him. He lurched off the wall, but one of his friends grabbed his arm and he subsided.
Oooh. They were on good behavior tonight. No messing with the clients.
I’d had enough. I left the basement and headed for the fresh air.
Emerging up into the cold and quieter lobby area, I saw a group standing, sharing cigarettes, talking and laughing. I recognized one of them, a mechanic who helped me work on my car when I could afford it. We had met at a couple of raves before. He was okay. I gave him a wave and he drifted over.
“Hey, Rom! You good?”
“Amber! Whoa. Yeah. Looking good. You not staying?” We clasped arms. I used the excuse to swing around and look back where I’d come from, through the group of ZK bouncers at the doors. Nothing.
“No. Don’t feel the mood tonight. Thought I wanted to dance and I don’t.” I stuck my hands in my jacket pockets and hunched my shoulders, looking left and right.
“That’s bad, man. Tight sounds, Electric Breath.”
“They are that. Go on—enjoy.” I clapped him on the shoulder and started walking.
As soon as I had cleared the basement I knew I was being watched again. The familiar itch was getting worse and worse. People were still arriving at the rave, but some were leaving as well. I couldn’t tell if there was a watcher in that group. I’d gotten a good look around, talking to Rom, but no one seemed out of place.
I needed my HK from the office safe. The office keys were in my car and my car was at the office. Crap. Time to haul ass.
Chapter 22
I walked towards the station. About a dozen people from the rave were going in the same direction. Clearly, I wasn’t the only person who had decided not to drive. They were a mixture of everyday folk mainly, heading home after a party. From the sound of it, some younger girls were bringing up the rear. The real dancers were still going at it in the basement and would be till the morning.
The night had turned colder, and it felt damp enough that I turned my collar up. That was all I needed, some atmospheric fog to set me off even more. At the station the loose group came apart like smoke and we drifted onto the north and southbound platforms to wait.
I called Morales and spoke in Spanish when he answered.
“Hello, darling.”
“Are you drunk, Farrell?”
“I missed you tonight, babe, you would have loved it, there were so many of Guy’s friends there.”
“Guy as in Guy Windler? ZK at the rave? Enough to warrant pulling some in?”
“Yeah, loads and loads. Y’know the place—the old mall at Dry Creek. I guess you’ll want to catch up with them there later.”
“Okay, I’ll pull them in for holding the rave when they start to close it down and people are out of the way. We’ll see what falls out.” He sighed. “It’s not as if I have a pile of normal police work to do or anything.”
“I love you too, babe,” I said and closed the cell.
When the train pulled in, I moved up to the front of the second car and sat facing the back. The train was brightly lit and warm. I tried to sit still and look calm, but whatever it was that had me jumpy was going into overdrive now.
A man got into the car in front and sat alone with his back to me. I twisted around to check him out. He was wearing a dark ski jacket, ideal for hiding a gun. He was a big man and he moved smoothly, like an athlete. His jacket collar was flipped up and above that I could see his sandy hair was cut short. He wore loose jeans and running shoes. Other than me, he was the only person who got on alone. Him?
Two extraordinary girls got into my car in a haze of cheap perfume and dope. The blonde looked dazed, her eyes half closed beneath her snake’s nest hairstyle. She wore tall black boots and a leather trench coat, with a raised collar like a fan behind her head. Her friend was Asian, Vietnamese at a guess, and if I had to guess any further, her parents’ despair. She wore a black Victorian corset, baring her neck and shoulders and showing they were tattooed with leopard skin spots. Below a leather skirt, her legs were in fishnets and she wore black combat boots. Both of them wore thick black lipstick and eyeshadow that made them look like sleepy raccoons. The Vietnamese girl had blood trickles drawn from the corners of her mouth. Seeing me looking, she stood up straight, all perky, and gave me a goofy smile and wave.
I gave her my sorry-I-wasn’t-really-staring look and turned away. God, it must be chilly in that outfit! No place to hide a weapon, anyway. The pair of them went down to the back of the car and sat together, heads close, sharing earphones from an MP3 player and nodding along to the music while chatting. Good multitasking skills.
I couldn’t see well into the car behind them without appearing to stare, but I did make out a tall couple getting on, hand in hand, and then the doors closed. The train started to move.
I couldn’t let the paranoia take over. Nothing was going to happen on the train. I would just have to be alert when I got out.
At the second station the athletic guy from the front car got out and walked away. So much for the best suspect. A few more people got on, but I didn’t bother to add them to the list. The warmth started to relax me and my eyes half closed.
Glancing back down the car, I realized the goth girls were now completely oblivious to me. Sucking face, as they say. Eeek!
While they were otherwise engaged, I looked hard at the couple in the car beyond, but they were sitting with their backs to me and paying no attention.
Colorado Station finally came and I got down, casually glancing around.
The couple from the car behind mine got out and walked off without a glance, buttoning up their long coats. So much for them too. Just another white-collar couple out for some excitement at an illegal rave.
The goth girls stumbled out and made it to a bench, where they collapsed. The blonde had her head in her hands and the Vietnamese girl was murmuring in her ear, stroking her back. I wanted to stop and check that they were okay, but if I was being followed, I didn’t want to draw any attention to them.
I sighed and started walking. No one followed. I was sure that the paranoia would keep me alive, but maybe it was also going to keep me on edge unnecessarily. I walked onto Colorado Boulevard and down to Evans, then across behind the office to the car.
At the car, my nose twitched with the smell, but I was too slow. One second I was unlocking the car door, and the next I was pinned against the car. There were two of them, and they had to have been inhumanly quick and quiet to get me like this.
I wrenched to the left, intending to feint, then spin to the right and start kicking ass. The move died before it got started. It was like pushing against the side of a building. All I managed to do was bang my nose on the car. I added inhumanly strong to the list.
“Please, do not struggle. We are much stronger and quicker than you,” said a quiet voice in my left ear—a female voice, a nice voice, a voice you could trust. “We have no intention of harming you.
”
I twisted my head around until I could glare at her. It was the woman from the couple on the train. Damn, completely suckered. No, not a woman, a vampire. “Then why sneak up on me and slam me against my car?” I said.
“We want to talk. Would you have just come along if we’d asked nicely?” She smiled at me, all sweet reason. And she was right. A couple of vampires suddenly up and ask me to accompany them and I’d have been running or fighting again. Much good that would have done with these two. The four in LoDo had been ordinary. These two were something else entirely.
“Maybe not,” I conceded. “Going where?” This conversation was becoming surreal.
Her eyes held mine, near as I could tell in the darkness. “The Master would like to meet you,” she said.
“As in the Master of the Denver vampires? And that’s supposed to make me feel calmer?”
She leaned closer and I cringed. It was an unconscious reaction, but I was defenseless in their grip and she was in range to do whatever she wanted. Like bite me. As soon as she saw the reaction, she moved back.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t intend to alarm you further. I assure you there is no harm intended, no violence that you do not bring,” she said carefully. She thought for a moment and added, “On my Blood, I so swear.”
I could hear the capital letter in her voice and strangely, that comforted me. I got a slightly better feeling about this.
I turned to the man on my right. “What about you?” I demanded.
His smile was a little tight. I got the feeling he wasn’t happy with the oath. “What she says is binding for me. But there’s no way that you’d know that, so, on my Blood I swear, no harm is intended to you.”
I turned back to her. “Okay,” I said. “I suppose I have to say something like I’ll come quietly.”
The grip on my left wrist eased experimentally. When I didn’t move, she backed up and let me go. I glared at the man and he let me go too.
I turned around slowly and we stood looking at each other while I rubbed my wrists. They were both taller than me, dressed in long coats against the chill. I could barely make out their features.
“Your cell, please,” said the man. I handed it over and he switched it off and placed it in the glove compartment.
My nose hurt from smacking against the car, and when I touched it, I came away with a drop of blood. Crap.
“I have a nosebleed,” I said warily. “Is this going to be a problem?”
I could have sworn they were laughing at me. “Oh, no,” the man said, “we fed before coming out.” Not a man, a male vampire.
“Please get in the back, Ms. Farrell,” the female vampire said, opening the door.
I got in. She was on my left and he went around and got in the other side, so I was trapped between them in the back seat.
“This car doesn’t drive itself,” I said, though what the hell did I know. I seemed to remember a Dracula movie where a horse carriage drove itself up to the castle. Again, I got the feeling they were amused.
The driver’s door opened and the third vampire got in, heralded by a fog of cheap perfume and the smell of dope. No wonder I hadn’t smelled anything on the train.
She sat in the driver’s seat—my seat—and turned to look back at me over her leopard-spotted shoulder.
“Oh, your spotter. How appropriate,” I said sarcastically. “Pretty tatts, Pussycat.”
She gave me a cool smile with a hint of fang beneath the black lips. “Fooled you, Round-eye.”
The demon in my throat snapped back in bad Vietnamese. “It won’t work twice, little sister, and the only real fool is the last fool.”
The eyes widened a touch and the smile went a little strained, but she didn’t reply as she set about changing my seat to suit her.
The one beside me snorted in amusement. “We should not talk to you beyond the essential, Ms. Farrell. And I regret,” she held up a black blindfold, “it will be necessary to cover your eyes.”
I glared at her, but she let it bounce off and waited patiently, holding the blindfold. Finally, I turned my head angrily and let her fasten it. It was a good blindfold; not even a hint of light came through.
The car started and we moved off smoothly. So vampires can drive, even an old stick shift like this.
“One last question,” I said. “What happened to the other girl?”
“She’s fine,” came from the front.
“Enough,” came from my left, and I shut up.
I was stuck there, kidnapped in my car. Not exactly without hope, but Morales’ tracker was sounding a lot better than it had yesterday. A bit too late for that.
There being nothing else to do, I tried my old army trick of visualizing complex movements. I mentally walked through Master Liu’s forms for calmness. It helped, some.
Chapter 23
The car slowed and turned, then stopped, calling me back from my meditations. A window opened and closed. Nothing had been said. Maybe they all did mind reading or sign language. I had a feeling we had just passed through security and we were waiting for gates to be opened, but if so, they swung or rolled silently. After a short time we moved again and the sound of the tires changed; we were on a gravel driveway.
The car stopped again and the doors opened. The night air was cold but full of the scent of plants. Buddleia, like Mrs. Desiarto had. Honeysuckle and jasmine. Vampires liked night blooming plants. It figured, sort of. These vampires had no trouble with sunlight, but they seemed to prefer the night.
“Come out this way, please, Ms. Farrell.” The vampire guided me out on her side, her hand on the top of my head to keep it from bumping the door frame. They were certainly showing every consideration for their kidnap victim.
“Walk this way slowly, please,” she said, bringing me around the door, her hand holding my upper arm gently but firmly. “There are steps here.”
I felt my way up some lipped stone steps and was guided through a door. I could feel the change in the air again. It was warmer and moister, carrying a hint of cooking smells, furniture polishes and something else. Underfoot, the floor was wood and our heels clicked on the surface. The room was large and gave a slight echo. I took comfort from the sound of footsteps departing, leaving just mine with my one escort.
On the other hand, the something else in the air was like the smell of my abductors, copper and cinnamon. I was inside a vampire house. The soothing effect from meditating in the car was gone and my fear spiked in my stomach again. I wanted to rip the blindfold off and lash out.
Immediately, her voice came quietly in my ear. “Ms. Farrell, we do not intend you harm. Please be at ease.”
“That’s a big ask, what with me blindfolded and kidnapped, in a vampire house.”
“I understand. The blindfold will come off soon.” Her hand squeezed my arm reassuringly. “May I ask you a question?”
“Sure, why not?” I recognize a distraction when I hear one, but it didn’t hurt me to play along. Maybe she would drop her guard and I could test that awful strength and speed again.
“What did you do in the car?” In the pause while I tried to understand the question, she went on, “I ask because you changed.”
“Changed?” I said, puzzled.
“You became very calm. I can hear your heartbeat, Ms. Farrell. I can smell the chemistry of your blood,” she said. “In the car, it was almost as if you had fallen asleep, but you had not.”
I shivered. “I was meditating, that’s all.”
“No, Ms. Farrell, that is not all. I’ve observed meditation before. You changed. People might express it that your aura changed. I don’t like the word, but it will do.”
I shrugged blindly. “If you say so, but I was just meditating.”
We had reached a different part of the building, moving into a room. Acoustics changed subtly. There was carpet underfoot and it was warmer than the entrance hall. She let go of my arm, and her hands touched my shoulders and turned me around. The blindfold loosened an
d was taken off.
She looked different. I had seen her first in the darkness behind my office and it had made her face seem hard and angular. In the soft light of this room she was serene, beautiful and mysterious, even strangely familiar. And deadly, I thought, and not human any more. A vampire. Don’t ever forget that.
If she could read my mind, she showed no sign of it, or maybe she read every word and it bounced off her like my glare did. Her face was serious, her eyes shadowed and staring into mine. Her hands were still on my shoulders.
What next, a little bite or two? My stomach lurched again, and I felt my muscles tensing up—fight or flight. I knew she was strong and she had moved so quickly when they caught me, but her colleagues were not in sight. Maybe this would be my best opportunity. I was backed up against a wall, which would give me a good platform. My eyes flicked over her shoulder to see if I could spot the way out.
“Please, Ms. Farrell. Raising your heartbeat and flooding your body with adrenaline is not going to achieve anything here. We intend you no harm.”
That was the fourth or fifth time she had said it. She waited while I got all those muscle groups to stand down. If I did anything, I needed surprise on my side, and that was going to be difficult with her reading me like a book.
“You are standing on an elevator platform. This will take you down to an audience room. He will be there soon. Be calm and be careful.” She paused and went on, almost sounding concerned, “Respect would not go amiss.”
Before I had time to process what she had said, let alone respond, she let go of me and stepped back. Curved glass doors whispered around from behind me and shut with a snick, making me jump. The floor dropped, gently but swiftly.
I got another bolt of adrenaline. Whatever was going to happen was happening now and there seemed no way to get off this train before it crashed. I tensed up again, coming up on the balls of my feet as the elevator stopped and the doors whispered open, but the audience room was an anticlimax. It was even dimmer than the room above, but the light here was deep blue and directionless. The room appeared empty. I stepped forward and waited for my eyes to adjust.
