by Deanna Chase
She threw me a dirty look. “Damn you and your phone. Don’t make me call David again.” She lowered her voice as if to spare David’s feelings, but there was no way he couldn’t hear her. Not with his vampire powers. “You know I can’t stand that guy.”
He didn’t even flinch.
“Right.” I cleared my throat. “Sorry, it won’t happen again.”
Phoebe didn’t even have the decency to hide her rolling eyes.
I threw my hands up in defeat. “I said I was sorry. Will you please tell me what in holy hell is going on? Whose house is this?”
“It’s mine,” David snapped and strode inside. “If you two are done insulting me, we have a vampire to question.”
“I wasn’t…never mind.” Nothing I said would change his mood after the night’s events. “What vampire?” I asked, following the pair into the house. Neither acknowledged my question.
A scream started to bubble in my throat. I gritted my teeth together, holding it back. If they weren’t going to talk to me, why did they bother making me tag along? Damn David and this stupid assignment.
I glanced around, taking in the tastefully decorated living room. Period antique tables and an ornate hutch from the eighteen hundreds were intermixed with newer, modern-day settees and armchairs, giving the room an elegant but useful feel. When had he acquired this house?
Five months ago, David had lived in a one-bedroom bachelor-pad apartment, complete with garage-sale furniture. Someone else must have decorated this place.
The walls showcased contemporary paintings, rich with New Orleans history and architecture. The place begged to be featured in Southern Living magazine. Only the white metal casings from the motorized blackout window coverings screamed vampire lair. When closed, nothing penetrated the patented metal sheet.
I followed Phoebe into a large library. The walls, packed floor to ceiling, housed everything from rich leather-bound books to contemporary science fiction. Not a romance novel in sight. Somehow that knowledge lightened my heart…until the soft, feminine voice filled the silence.
“David,” a sleek redhead purred. “It was thoughtful of you to bring entertainment. You know how I like variety.” She sipped from a pewter cup, the contents leaving a tinge of red on her lips.
Disgusting.
The female vampire held the cup toward David, but he ignored it and fixed her with a glare. “Clea. Why are you in my house? Uninvited.”
Her perfect porcelain brow wrinkled as she tilted her head to one side. “Ah, don’t be like that,” she cooed. “You’ll ruin all the fun. Besides, you don’t want to disappoint your playmate.” She cast Phoebe a sidelong look, leering at my friend.
“Don’t fuck around,” he snapped at her. “You won’t like the result.”
“Such language, young one.” The vampire vixen waved one finger in a shame-on-you motion. “You don’t want me to tell Eadric you’re being ungracious to a guest, now do you?”
David let out a hollow laugh. “You seem to be under the impression you have the upper hand here.”
She rose from the chair, her face transforming from fake innocence to outraged hatred. “How dare you—”
“I’d sit down if I were you,” David warned.
“Or?” She crossed her arms and glared.
“I’ll let the witch fry you.”
Phoebe held up her sun agate and smiled sweetly. “Sorry, Clea. I don’t take nicely to those who try to Influence me.”
“What?” My whole body went rigid with shock. She’d tried to Influence a witch?
Phoebe shook her head and whispered, “I’ll fill you in later.”
A flicker of understanding, followed by rage, crossed Clea’s face as she realized Phoebe had set her up. The moment passed and she assumed a bored expression. “Please. You were begging for a taste.”
“Where’d you get it?” David asked Clea, ignoring my outraged glances.
She shrugged.
David stepped toward the bookshelves closest to him and rested his hand on a thin leather spine. “Perhaps you’d prefer different accommodations.”
Clea leaned forward, rested her chin in her hands, and fixed him with a sneer. “Don’t tell me you have a secret vampire dungeon?”
“Something like that.”
Her smile faltered as they locked eyes.
“How do you feel about sunrooms?” David asked.
She visibly relaxed and leaned back in the chair. “I have yet to see one I can’t muscle my way out of.”
“There’s a first time for everything.” He pulled the thin book forward. I glanced around, looking for a secret passage or doorway. Nothing moved or revealed itself.
Clea laughed and stood. She stalked slowly toward David. “What’s Eadric going to say when I tell him about this pathetic attempt at intimidation?”
“Nothing, since you’ll be nursing a full-body, third-degree burn…if you survive.” He launched himself, meeting her halfway in the middle of the massive room. I fell back, flattening myself into the bookcase behind me. Link hovered at my feet, already shifted and growling.
They spun, moving so fast I couldn’t tell who had the upper hand until Clea smashed against the wall and David pinned her there with his hands around her neck.
“Last chance,” he said. “Where’d you get the Influence?”
Clea spit in his face. “Fucking faery lover. You think I don’t know who she is? We all thought since you’d turned, you’d finally come to your senses. Guess we were wrong. Now get the fuck off me before I tear her to shreds.”
“Such confidence for someone in a position to get her neck broken.”
“Breaking my neck won’t stop me.”
David let out a low, sinister laugh. “I know, but it will hurt. A lot.”
“Sadistic bastard. Too bad you’re such a waste. We could’ve had a lot of fun exploring that tendency.” She turned her head and licked his hand. “Would have been nice to know last week when I had you in my bed.”
I had to fight off a gagging reflex. David had been with her?
“Shut up,” he hissed.
“Oh, don’t want the little girlfriend to know all about who you’ve been doing while she pined away for her lover? What difference does it make, David? You know she won’t have you now that you’ve turned vamp, and you didn’t even have the decency to tell her before Eadric ordered you to—”
In one swift motion, David snapped her head back with a sickening crunch. Her head flopped to the side at an unnatural angle.
I pressed my back against the bookcase, trying to get as far away from the scene as possible, and ignored the stabs of pain shooting through my pinned wings. My knees buckled, refusing to support me. I struggled to stay upright. This was the second time I’d witnessed such violence from David. When we’d been together, he’d been sweet, gentle, loving. Now he was a monster.
David didn’t say a word as he dragged a struggling Clea to the opposite side of the room.
I caught his tight expression in a full-length mirror just before he pushed the antique frame. The whole thing swung open, revealing a glassed-in sunroom. He hadn’t been bluffing. One of Clea’s red, patent-leather heels flew across the sunroom as he tossed her inside and slammed the mirror shut.
“Security glass?” Phoebe asked.
David nodded, running his fingers along the top of the mirror. The reflective surface evaporated, revealing Clea writhing in pain from her broken neck.
“How long will it take for her to recover?” Phoebe peered through the clear glass.
“Not long, since it looks like she fed recently.” He glanced at the pewter cup. “Unless you drugged her.”
She shook her head. “Not for a lack of trying though. Damn vampire had a grip on her drink tighter than this leather skirt.”
David’s gaze traveled the length of her body. “Nice disguise.”
Phoebe preened. Actually preened.
“Stop it!” I shouted. “Just stop. Since when do you two
work together? And what in the name of Lilith is going on? I swear, if someone doesn’t start talking soon, I’m going to sic Link on both of you.”
Phoebe stared past me with her eyebrows raised high.
I glanced over my shoulder to find Link back in Shih Tzu form, curled up on a throw rug. “Damn it!”
Phoebe put an arm around my shoulders and pulled me from the room. “If you’d had your phone turned on, I would’ve already told you.”
A low growl rumbled from my chest.
She laughed. “I’m just sayin’. Come on. Let’s get something to drink, and I’ll fill you in. David, holler if that vamp so much as twitches.”
He mumbled his agreement.
Phoebe led me to a pristine, high-end kitchen, outfitted with restaurant-quality appliances and solid black marble counters, a pleasant contrast to the slate-gray painted cabinets. The décor would have been cold if not for the pop of red shelving behind a section of glass doors. Not a thing was out of place.
Of course it wasn’t. Vampires rarely ate solid food. They could, they just didn’t need to.
Phoebe pulled out a chair from the breakfast table and nudged me toward it. I sat, focusing on the napkin holder and the half-full salt and pepper shakers while she headed for the refrigerator. I imagined David sitting with his morning coffee and laptop as the sun highlighted auburn streaks in his dark hair. The image unsettled me almost as much as seeing Clea’s snapped neck. That person was gone. Our days of lazy Sunday mornings were over. I had to get out of here. Standing, I knocked the chair back in my haste. The resulting crash reverberated through the house, and before I turned around, I sensed David behind me.
“Go away,” I demanded.
Silence ensued. If it hadn’t been for my vampire senses, I’d have thought he’d actually left.
Taking a deep breath, I righted the chair and sat to wait for Phoebe. Two could play the ignore game.
“Are you all right?” David finally asked in a low voice.
“No, David. I’m not.” I didn’t turn to look at him. “You just broke a woman’s neck so the rest of us wouldn’t hear about your intimate affairs and whatever orders you have from Eadric. Turning vampire doesn’t change someone’s nature that much. So, no. I am not all right. Not at all. I just found out a man I thought I loved is a raving, murdering lunatic!”
“Willow!” Phoebe exclaimed from across the kitchen. “Clea’s a vampire. She can’t die from a broken neck.”
“Let it go,” David said, steel in his voice. “She’s entitled to her opinion.” He retreated, and a moment later a door slammed, making me jump in my chair.
“Wil,” Phoebe said with a sigh.
“I can’t believe you’re taking his side,” I accused.
“I’m not, but—”
My glare silenced her. She took slow deliberate steps in my direction as if waiting for me to cool down. Finally she handed me a bottle of juice and sat in the chair to my left.
Suspicion rose as I studied the bottle. Pomegranate juice. My preferred nonmagical drink. The one David had once claimed tasted like rotten grapes. “Did you bring these?”
Phoebe shook her head. “It was the only beverage in the fridge.”
Odd. Had David stocked his kitchen specifically for me? I shook the bottle and then nodded to Phoebe. “Spill it.”
She leaned back and stretched her legs. The miniskirt rose, revealing a splash of hot-pink silk. She caught my pointed look, grimaced, and wrapped a sweater over her bare thighs. “Work hazard.”
“Why are you dressed like a high-priced call girl?”
“I’m in disguise.”
“Obviously.”
“Hunting a vampire.”
I held my hand up in a stop motion. “Can we drop the buildup for once and just get to the details?”
“But that’s my favorite part.” She pursed her lips into a pout, then grimaced at my exasperation. “Fine. I was investigating your case and David told me Clea had been asking questions about you. I’m pretty sure she targeted him for information. Anyway, any vamp interested in a faery is unusual, so I started with her. Then she tried to Influence me and here we are.”
My heart started to race. “Do you think she’s the one threatening me?” I couldn’t imagine why—I’d never even seen her before.
Phoebe shook her head. “I doubt it. She seems more the type to deal Influence. I called you, but we all know what a useless waste of time that is, so I tried David. He said he’d pass you the message but also offered his place for questioning if I tagged her.”
Any vampire caught with Influence was breaking the law. As an agent of the Void, Phoebe was required to arrest her. I narrowed my eyes. “Why?”
“I figured it was as good a place as any. Turns out it’s better than I imagined. Did you see that sunroom? Talk about a handy vamp death chamber.”
“Yeah. Why do you think he had it installed?” Everything about him seemed so dark and violent now.
“No idea. It sure is convenient, though. This bitchy vamp has somehow got a hold of unsanctioned Influence. We need to find out how before Maude does, otherwise we’ll both be kept out of the loop. He offered a place and I took it. End of story.” She grabbed one of the bottles off the table and stalked out, heading toward the library.
I slumped. Phoebe was damn good at her job. I knew it better than anyone. But I couldn’t shake the feeling something other than goodwill was driving David’s cooperation. He’d disappeared for months. Now suddenly he cared?
I left my unopened juice on the table and followed Phoebe. Sulking in the kitchen while they interrogated Clea was unacceptable.
Just before I reached the library, an anguished moan followed by a frantic gasping sounded from the open door.
“Phoebe?” David’s concerned voice followed.
“Phoebs?” I ran.
The witch lay writhing on the floor, her hands clawing at her neck. Her wide, dark eyes bulged from her maroon-shaded face.
“What did you do?” I fell to my knees, covered Phoebe protectively, and verbally lashed out at David. “Did you bite her?”
“No! Jesus, Willow. I didn’t do anything. She took a drink of that juice and then fell.”
“The juice?” The bottle lay on its side in a puddle at Phoebe’s feet. I reached for it. The faint whiff of distilled cherries permeated my senses. I snatched my hand back. “Cherry Bomb,” I whispered before bolting across the room to my purse, which was lying next to Link.
Frantic, I dumped everything out in a heap on the floor and rummaged, tossing keys, receipts, and other clutter aside. Where was my pillbox? “It’s here somewhere. It has to be.” I cursed, checking each pocket and compartment. With everything emptied, I dug through the mess again and spotted my baggage-claim receipt from my trip home. “No. No. No. This is not happening.”
David had stayed at Phoebe’s side, trying to keep her from hurting herself further as she convulsed on the floor. “What are you looking for?”
“The antidote. It’s in my pillbox, but I couldn’t fly with it. It’s sitting on my dresser.” I ran to Phoebe’s side, scanning the room. “Did she have a purse?”
He didn’t answer.
“David! Did she bring a purse?”
“I don’t know. Check the desk.” He smoothed Phoebe’s hair back, trying to soothe her.
I jumped up, swallowing a frustrated scream. “Damn it! Where is Phoebe’s emergency kit?”
Please let her be as prepared as she usually is. If not, I’d have to risk my own life to save her. The search of the desk came up empty.
There was only one other option. I’d have to extract the Cherry Bomb from her manually. Then I’d be the one burning from the inside out. My heart sped up and a thin sheen of sweat covered my entire body. I had a slight chance of surviving the poison. Phoebe didn’t.
“As soon as I reverse the effects, get me home,” I ordered David.
“You can’t—”
“Just do it, David!” Betwe
en my tree and Talisen, I was almost positive I’d be okay. I kneeled beside Phoebe.
Link barked. Right next to him was a thin black jacket. Phoebe’s.
I snatched it up, searching the inside pockets first. Right away my fingers brushed against a cool metal box. “Thank you, God!” I cried, ripping the pocket as I yanked the box out. I jimmied it open. Right there in the middle sat the deep purple pill I’d been looking for.
“Move.” I shoved David over as I collapsed at Phoebe’s side. Tilting her head toward me, I spoke clearly. “Phoebe, I have the pill. You just need to open your mouth, and I’ll take care of the rest.”
Tears streamed down her face. Oh, Goddess help us. Phoebe did not cry. Ever. Not from physical pain and certainly not from emotional pain. But some things are too awful to bear. Being eaten from the inside by the magic-enhanced drug, Cherry Bomb, was one of them.
Phoebe managed to open her mouth just enough for me to tuck the pill under her tongue. There was no hope of being able to swallow it. The intense burning caused by the poison would make that impossible. I’d formulated the pill to melt rapidly under the victim’s tongue. It also made it easier to administer in advanced cases when the victim had already passed out. Phoebe wasn’t far from that point.
“How long does it take to work?” David asked, looking skeptical.
“A few minutes. It’s already started.”
“She’ll live?”
I turned hard eyes on David. “Of course. Why? Were you hoping for something different? Is that why you laced the drinks in your fridge with flesh-eating drugs?”
He sat back, his expression horrified. “You think I did this?”
“You offered your house to Phoebe. The drinks were in your refrigerator. How else did they get there?”
“You’re being ridiculous. I haven’t even been here for over a week.” He leaned over to inspect the bottle. “Pomegranate juice? Does that look like something I would buy and keep around on the off chance I could lure a mortal here?”
I wasn’t convinced. “You were quick to offer us your house. Quick to take Maude’s deal. You know we both drink it. You didn’t offer it to us, but maybe you were waiting until later. After we’d interrogated your girlfriend, you could’ve tried to off Phoebe. Or both of us.” I unconsciously scooted over to Link.
