Stealthy and quiet, he hooked a leg over the molding at the top, swung himself over the edge, and froze. Nothing moved, and he heard no heartbeats. Rising, he backed away to get a run at the edge and leaped. He landed on the next roof nearly twenty feet away and ducked behind a ventilation stack just as the roof door across the way banged open. He lay back and looked up into the summer night sky, the moon just a sliver. He searched for constellations to calm the rush of adrenaline. There were Cassiopeia and Perseus. The Big Dipper and the Little one. He could barely see Orion because of cloud cover.
It was a real shame he’d been forced to dissolve a long-standing relationship in a matter of seconds because of a financial situation. Dammit. After several minutes, the sounds of searching finally ended on the roof and he eased up to see if the coast was clear.
“I think they’re gone,” a feminine voice said from behind him.
He jumped and twisted around. Red hair, large, cat-shaped eyes, a smile that was part smirk, part amusement. And she was a witch. He could smell the magic on her from where he sat.
“I didn’t think vampires could be startled,” she said, laughter in her voice.
“You used a cloaking spell. Otherwise you’d never have sneaked up on me. We’re living dead. Any emotion you feel, we feel, but more.”
“Why do you suppose that is?” she asked, her tone conversational and curious.
“Because we’re caught between the moment of life and the moment of death all the time.”
“I see you’ve given it some thought.”
“Some.” More than some. He’d had more than two hundred years to think about it.
He climbed to his feet and turned to face her.
She looked younger than he had at first thought, her skin smooth and glowing with health. She smelled wonderful. And the strong beat of her heart called to him. Though he’d fed before visiting Milo, the adrenaline had triggered a fierce need.
Her auburn hair hung in a long tail down her back. He imagined looping it around his hand and drawing her head back while he fed from her slender throat. He took a long step forward and came up against a barrier so strong he bumped his head and swore at the sudden pain.
“You’re telegraphing your thoughts, vampire. I wasn’t born yesterday.”
Christophe rubbed the bruise on his forehead, but it was already healing. He lifted his arms to judge how close the barrier was. Shit, he was trapped. He rarely had to breathe anymore, but his chest expanded with quick hard breaths now, and his sluggish heart began to pound. “Are you with the police?”
“No. I just warned your fence they were coming. They must have discovered his connection to the jewels the same way I did.”
His jaw tensed and he studied her again. “Why would you warn him?”
“Because my clients don’t want you arrested. They want to meet with you and thank you for saving their child’s life.”
Ah. The baby.
“I just did you a favor. But if you’d like, I can call the police now.” She shrugged and withdrew a cell phone. “The Sutherlands can meet with you at the jail as easily as my office.”
“I would rather not,” he said quietly.
At his tone she looked up to study him, then put the phone away. “Did you wipe Mr. Baig’s memory?”
He quirked a brow. “What do you think?”
“Had you known him long?”
“A while.” Why was she so interested? “For the most part, our relationship has been a legitimate one. I often bought antique jewelry from estate sales, and he would turn a profit from it.”
“But not recently.”
He didn’t bother to answer. “Let me out of this cage.”
“Not until we’ve come to an understanding.”
“That I won’t hunt you down and rip out your throat?”
That idea seemed to surprise her. “You’ll leave a note for parents to save their child, but threaten a woman?”
“A witch holding me prisoner.” He pushed his hands against the invisible barrier and turned to try and discover any weaknesses. The electricity of her magic tingled against his skin until it burned and he dropped his hands. His palms were blistered, but healed almost immediately. She couldn’t kill him, but she could hurt him. “I will not meet the parents.”
“Why not?”
“They’ll recognize me.”
Her brows rose. “You know them?”
“No.” He could not explain. It would only pique her curiosity. He’d lose his job at the college. He’d once again be wandering, homeless. And what would happen to Arnold? “You said your clients, meaning the Sutherlands. You are not a policewoman or associated with the police?” He gained a small amount of satisfaction seeing wariness creep into her expression.
“If I don’t meet with your clients, you won’t be paid, will you?”
“No.”
“If you can change my looks, perhaps I could meet with them.” He knelt inside the cylindrical bubble, hoping to appear less a predator.
* * *
GODDESS, HE LOOKED like a fallen angel kneeling there with his dark curly locks tumbling about his ears, his well-trimmed beard, and those strange gray eyes glowing silver with first lust, then anger. His broad chest and shoulders looked powerful beneath his sports coat. His long legs were well muscled. They’d have to be, since he’d jumped the twenty-foot span between the buildings.
“What were you before?” she asked.
“Before what?” he asked.
“Before your transition?”
“A soldier, a husband, a father.” His expression grew pensive and he looked away.
“Is that why you wrote the note? Because you had experience with your own children?”
He remained silent a moment. “Perhaps. Such a wee thing to struggle so.”
“Did you go into her room?”
“No. Only the parents’ room to leave the note.”
“I’m sure the Sutherlands will be relieved to know that.”
He shrugged. “Those who view us as monsters often behave with less humanity than we do. Are you going to leave me here to burn in the early morning sun over the theft of a few pieces of jewelry?”
She caught her breath, truly shocked at the notion. “No.”
He looked up at her, his gray eyes still glowing. “That is a relief. There are those of your kind who would.”
What he said was true. The witches and vampires had a natural dislike and wariness of each other. Witches drew their power from the life force around them. Vampires from the blood of the living. Which in a way was very similar. But she had seen inhuman actions on both sides. And keeping him imprisoned wasn’t doing either of them any good. Besides, she needed him to be cooperative, not only to finish out the Sutherlands’ wishes, but to answer questions about the break-in at the Council’s storage facility.
“I’ll be paid for finding you, whether or not you meet with the Sutherlands. But they really do wish to thank you. Their daughter might have died, had you not left that note. She had to have emergency surgery the next day.”
“I’m glad they followed through on my suggestion.”
“And you did steal three hundred thousand dollars’ worth of jewelry from them.”
Three hundred thousand! He rose to his feet. “You’re kidding me right?”
His change for his normal formal way of saying things to a more colloquial vocabulary caught her attention. “What do you mean?”
“The Sutherlands are pulling a fast one on you, or the insurance company, or both.”
He spoke with such conviction she was tempted to believe him. “If the police have traced the gems you gave to Mr. Baig, there will be a record.”
“And if the Sutherlands are in financial difficulty, there will be a record of that as well.”
“So how much would you say what you took was worth?”
“Hypothetically, if I had done the job…”
She fought the urge to roll her eyes.
�
��Three necklaces and a bracelet worth twenty-five thousand max. The rest of what Mrs. Sutherland wears is fake.”
That was two hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars’ profit Sutherland would collect from the insurance company, if what this thief said was true.
But what had Sutherland done with the original gems?
Possibly the same thing this vampire had done. Brought them to Mr. Baig or someone similar to sell, replaced the diamonds with fakes, and the insurance company would be none the wiser, as long as he had the receipts for the original pieces and photos of them to authenticate his ownership. And they had handed her photos of the pieces during their first meeting.
Shit! And she had liked the Sutherlands. Damn them!
She dropped the shielding she’d used to cage the vampire, but kept her eye on him.
He reached out to feel for the barrier and, finding it gone, stuck his hands into his pockets and relaxed. Damn him, he looked like a GQ ad. Model-gorgeous and masculine as hell. He even had a little charm. Too bad he didn’t have a pulse.
She pointed a warning finger at him. “Don’t try using any of your vampire woo-woo on me. It won’t work. I’m immune to it.”
He bowed his head and flashed her a fanged smile that shouldn’t have been charming, but was. “I will keep my woo-woo to myself.”
The way he said it made it seem about something more than his ability to compel. Her cheeks burned.
“How much are they paying you to find me?” he asked.
“Five thousand dollars.”
“They may have more in mind than a thank-you, since I know about the jewelry.”
“Let me recover from one disappointment before you pile on another, will you?” It was depressing to discover your clients weren’t exactly what you expected them to be.
He smiled, and with his fangs retracted and in the soft glow of the security lights, he looked human. But he wasn’t, she warned herself.
And there was no proof what he said was true. But she would look into the Sutherlands’ finances, just in case. Dammit.
“So you’re a private detective?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“And a witch.”
“Yes.”
“You’re exactly what I need at the moment.”
Wow, the gall of some people. “If that’s a pickup line, you can forget it.”
“No. It wasn’t.”
Now she felt a little insulted.
“Not that you’re not attractive enough for me to want to pick you up, but I need a witch who’ll help me rescue someone very important to me.”
CHAPTER 4
“IF YOU’RE NOT going to turn me into the police, perhaps we could go to a coffee shop and have something to drink,” Christophe suggested. Now it was dark, the temperature had dropped, and she looked chilled. The smell of car exhaust from down on the street lingered in the air. “It will give me an opportunity to explain why I stole the jewelry from the Sutherlands, and why I need a witch. And it will give you time to see I’m not the monster you think I am.”
She studied him with a dubious frown. “You were going to bite me, and now you want me to have coffee with you?”
“It was a momentary lapse. I promise not to bite you while you drink your coffee. It would be rude.”
She laughed, then sobered as he strolled forward. The defensive tension built in her body language. In his most soothing voice, he said, “I work with humans all the time and am able to control my,” he grinned, “woo-woo. You needn’t be afraid. We can help each other, perhaps.”
“You steal for a living, and you want me to trust you?”
“I work for a living. I’ve just run up against something untoward and resorted to a little burglary to resolve the issue.”
Her brows rose at that.
He motioned toward the door leading down into the apartment building.
“I’d prefer you go first.”
Trust was going to take some time with this one. It was a shame he couldn’t use his vampire woo-woo on her. He wanted to laugh every time he thought it. Instead, he shrugged and headed for the door.
The Dish wasn’t exactly bustling at almost midnight. Four students were pulling a late-night study session in one of the booths, and a couple had fallen asleep from exhaustion at their tables. The wait staff, used to the last-minute insanity of the semester, worked around them, cleaning up, refilling salt and pepper shakers, and rolling silverware for the next day.
“We don’t have much time. The diner will be closing in half an hour, so I’ll get right to it. A month ago, Arnold, my uncle, disappeared. Someone took him while I was at work. Arnold has been with me for…a very long time. I have trusted him with all my financial issues because he’s more…human, and people are more at ease with him. Everything is direct deposit these days. No one ever hands you a paycheck anymore and says ‘go, you earned it, spend it.’ But when he disappeared, it left me without access to any funds. I didn’t know how much money it would take for me to hire people to help me get him back, so I chose someone I thought could afford a small loss.”
Over her shoulder, he saw Andy Kutzerd, one of his students, swagger into the diner and go to the counter to place an order. He was hard to miss, with his carrot-red hair and six-foot-three frame. He played football on the college team, their star quarterback. Happily, his usual entourage of fellow players and girls were not in attendance.
He knew the kid, since he was in Christophe’s American History class, and unfortunately the booth wasn’t big enough for Christophe to duck out of sight. Andy would be bearing down on them at any moment. Shit. This night was getting more and more interesting. “Excuse me for a moment.” He slid free of the booth and approached the student. “Hello, Andy.”
“Hey, Professor. How you doin’?”
“I’m fine.”
“Beautiful lady you’re with,” Andy said, his curiosity palpable. “Girlfriend?”
“Hopefully. First date.” It was impossible not to grin at that.
Andy grinned in return. “You know most of your students think you’re gay. There’s rampant interest. Bets and everything going on. You just gave me an edge.”
Christophe shook his head. “Why would my personal life be of interest to the student body?”
“Well, all the girls flock around you after class, but you never show any interest, even when they go into overdrive and try to vamp you. And you do live with that older dude.”
Christophe coughed to cover his single bark of laughter at the vamp comment. “That older dude is my uncle.” Or at least that was the cover he and Arnold both used when questions were raised about their living arrangement. “And I don’t show interest in the ladies in class because it’s against university policy to date students. And they’re much too young for me.”
“Policy is policy, but if I had that kind of interest…” Andy peeked around Christophe’s shoulder again, then shrugged one massive, muscular shoulder.
“You’d be out of a job. And I’m rather attached to mine. It pays the bills.”
Andy grinned. “Point taken, Professor. But you have a stronger will than I have.”
Or maybe he was just getting old. Hell, he was old. He bit back a sigh.
“Is there something I can do for you?” Andy asked.
“Yes, there is.” Christophe debated with himself about how much to affect the student’s memory. He decided to give him a gentle nudge, gazed into the man’s eyes, and projected his will. “Stay here at the counter and give us some privacy.”
“Sure thing, Professor,” Andy nodded.
Christophe wandered back to the table.
“Afraid I’ll figure out where you work?” she asked as soon as he sat down.
“You’ll figure it out soon enough. My name is Christophe, but you may call me Chris if you like.” He offered his hand.
She hesitated then accepted it, shook it briefly and said, “Zaira.” She twisted her coffee cup around in a circle. “Why don’t yo
u continue with what you were saying?”
“I’ve been tracking Arnold for a month, but every time I get close, they move him before I can reach him. It has to be witches.”
“Why would they take him?”
Christophe shoved a hand through his hair, pushing back his curly locks. If he told her too much, she wouldn’t help him. If he told her too little, it would put her in danger. “To force me to do something I don’t want to do. They’re holding Arnold hostage until I do it.”
“What is it they’ve asked you to do?”
“I can’t tell you what it is.”
“Have you done it yet?”
“No. But if I can free Arnold and get him somewhere safe, I can tell them to go stake themselves.”
“If you can’t get him to safety, what then?”
“I’ll have to do what they’ve demanded. Or they’ll kill him.”
“Why do you think witches are holding him?”
“Vampires can run very fast, making it appear as though we get from point A to point B in a matter of seconds. Arnold is very old, but he’s still human. He wouldn’t be able to run. And his position change is instantaneous.”
“Like a witch teleporting?”
“Yes.”
She was silent for a long moment.
He stared at the small crease between her auburn brows in fascination. Her eyes were hazel, a blend of green and brown, with touches of blue around the iris. Her skin was almost as pale as his, but flawless, and it had the warmth of the living to give it more glow. A tender blush rose to her cheeks, telling him she’d noticed his masculine interest.
“I’ll come in and meet with the Sutherlands under a disguise spell, if you’ll help me get Arnold back, and I’ll pay you whatever fee you decide is fair. I can narrow it down to his general area, but you’ll have to locate him. Then you can teleport me to the location before they can escape with him.”
“It would be easier if I could go in alone. If you come with me, they may sense you before we arrive.”
“It’s too dangerous for you to go in alone. You won’t be dealing with witches alone. There are vampires involved. With both working together…it would be too risky.”
Magic and Mayhem: Have Wand, Will Travel (Kindle Worlds Novella) Page 3
