Mickey left her boyfriend’s side and wove her way across the dance floor toward Kaleigh. “Hey, you’re back.” She had to lean close for Kaleigh to hear her over the music.
“I’m back.” Kaleigh raised her hands and let them fall. “I came with Katy. She sort of came with a guy.” She nodded in their general direction.
“He’s hot,” Mickey observed.
Kaleigh shrugged.
“Hey, you want a beer? A smoke?”
“Nah, I’m good.” Kaleigh watched Tomboy open the basement door to allow some guy to enter. What was it that was bugging her about that door? She looked at Mickey perched beside her. Despite the nose ring, tongue stud, and tattooed eyeliner, she had kind of an earnest face. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure. We’re friends, right. Kinda,” Mickey amended.
“Kinda,” Kaleigh agreed. She pointed to the basement door. “This is the second time I’ve been here and both times something’s been going on down there. Your boyfriend lets some people in, but some people he doesn’t let in.”
“Private party.” She sipped her beer.
“I get that. So what’s going on down there that isn’t going on up here?”
Mickey looked her in the eye. “You really want to know?”
Kaleigh nodded slowly.
“Let me talk to Tomboy. Come on.” Mickey popped up off the arm of the chair.
Kaleigh followed her. As she wound her way through the couples dancing, she looked for Katy but didn’t see her. She and Beppe must have stepped out on the porch to get a breath of air. It was hot in the house, despite the ceiling fans and open windows.
A couple of feet from the basement door, Mickey stopped. “Wait here a sec,” she instructed. “Let me talk to Tomboy. His place. His rules.”
While Mickey talked to her boyfriend, Kaleigh scanned the crowd again for Katy, but she couldn’t find her. Was she in some corner making out with Beppe? It wouldn’t even be that big a deal, except that now Katy and Pete were having sex and sharing blood. Once you got the taste again…the desire was hard to fight. Kaleigh remembered that.
What if Katy tried to pull the same thing with Beppe? She knew her friend was just sowing her wild oats, as they liked to say; she knew that eventually Katy and Pete would get back together. They’d been playing this game for centuries. But why did it have to be this human? She’d been watching Katy and Beppe all night and there was something about him that worried her. Something…absent, in his eyes.
Mickey came back to Kaleigh. “Tomboy wanted to know if we could trust you. I told him we could.” She was wearing black lipstick; when she spoke, in the dark room, it made her teeth look like they were glowing. “Can we?”
“You mean am I going to go to the cops?”
“Tomboy says your uncle is a cop. The one investigating the murders.”
“Fin’s cool.”
“So you want to?” Mickey pointed with her beer. “Go down?”
Kaleigh considered backing out of it. She should just find Katy and go home and not come back again. But something downstairs was drawing her…“Sure. It’s not, like, dangerous or anything, is it?” She gave a little laugh, suddenly nervous. She was a little scared and she didn’t know why.
Tomboy reached out with a beefy hand and opened the door.
“I don’t know.” Mickey handed her boyfriend her empty cup as she entered the stairwell. “Anything or anyone can be dangerous in the right circumstances.” She brushed her hand over Tomboy’s chest as she stepped into the dark stairwell. “Right, baby?”
He closed the door behind Kaleigh, enveloping them in total darkness.
Regan sat in the dark on the edge of his bed, his hand on his chest. His heart was pounding. His T-shirt and boxers were damp with sweat. He could feel his hair stuck to his temples.
Another damned nightmare.
It was the Rousseaus. They just wouldn’t leave him alone. Not in his mind, at least.
He reached for the beer bottle on the cardboard box beside his bed. He took a swig. It was warm and flat. He drank the rest of it anyway.
Pulse still racing, he laid down again, tucking his hand behind his head.
Why was he dreaming about the Rousseaus? Sure, maybe New Orleans last year hadn’t been his best moment, but it wasn’t the first time he’d gotten himself into a tight place. Not even the first time he’d gotten cornered by the Rousseaus. They were a nasty bunch of vampires. Sober, it was pretty obvious he should never have thought he could get away with stealing their shit, but what addict didn’t do something stupid once in a while?
And he was clean now. Sober. Safe.
So why the bad dreams? Was someone trying to tell him something? His subconscious? The Rousseaus?
Did this have something to do with Fin’s case?
A sense of dread washed over him. Could the murders be some kind of payback for what he’d done, even though his family had paid for the stolen drugs for him, supposedly settling his debt to the New Orleans vamps?
He got out of bed and walked down the dark hall to Fin’s bedroom. There, he stood outside the half-open door for a moment. If Colin and Richie were dead because the Rousseaus were holding some kind of grudge against the Kahills, he wouldn’t be able to live with himself.
He pushed open the door. “Hey, bro,” he whispered.
Fin’s bed was empty. Regan went back to his own room, unsure if he was disappointed Fin wasn’t there to ask him about the Rousseaus, or relieved.
Chapter 14
“Late for you to be knocking, Victor.” Peigi held her screen door open with one hand and her plaid flannel robe closed with the other.
Victor stared at his shoes. “Saw your light on,” he mumbled. “Knew you were still up. ’Sides, you’re still the president of the General Council, ain’t you? I’d think that would mean you’d be available to your constituents day or night.”
“Constituent? Is that what you are, Victor?” She sighed as she pushed open the door. “Well, come on. I suppose if I don’t let you in now, you’ll just be back tomorrow night.”
“Suppose I will.” He followed her through her dark mudroom and kitchen and into the lamplit living room. Sure enough, she had the TV on. He’d never been in Peigi’s living room before. Never had any reason to come before now. The place fit her personality, practical. A plaid couch and recliner, two sturdy end tables and a coffee table. Like the clothing she wore, the furniture looked like it came out of an L.L.Bean catalog.
“I’m not offering you a cup of tea or a gin and tonic,” she warned, plopping down in her recliner. She picked up the remote off the arm of the chair and turned the volume down on the TV.
“Wouldn’t drink it if you offered. Not if I was dyin’ of thirst,” he grumbled.
“So what is it? What’s so urgent that it can’t wait until daylight hours?”
She tugged on the ties of her robe as if she was afraid he might be interested in taking a peek. Peigi wasn’t his type, not with her short straight haircut, lumpy figure, and manly ways. He liked his women more feminine. Softer around the edges. Besides, he could never trust a woman with pyro-kinetic abilities. A woman like her got pissed at you, there was no telling what she might set on fire.
“I wanted to ask—” Nervous, he folded his hands in his lap. “I wanted to get on the General Council agenda this week. I…I got something that needs to be addressed.”
“I’m sorry. We’re already jam-packed, Victor. These murders have stirred up a mess. What do you need to talk to us about?”
He fiddled with his fingers. He’d taken a shower before he’d come and even used the brush Mary had bought him to clean under his fingernails. He’d put on a clean T-shirt, and the pants were only a couple days out of the wash. It was important to him that he look respectable. Peigi had to understand how important this was to him.
He hadn’t told Mary he was coming tonight because she’d have objected and then he’d have to have come anyway and then she would have been ma
d at him. Victor didn’t like it when Mary got mad at him. “I need to talk to the Council,” he repeated to Peigi stubbornly.
“Victor—”
“I want to marry Mary McCathal.” The words blurted from his mouth before he could stop them.
Peigi looked at him for a second. “I see. You know, of course, that because she’s Bobby’s widow, she’s prohibited by sept law to remarry.”
“Thought it was prohibited by sept law for Regan to board my ship, suck my blood, and turn me into a vampire. Didn’t stop him.”
Peigi’s face softened. “What Regan did was wrong. We all agreed on that centuries ago. We are eternally sorry for what he did.”
“Seems to me, you all owe me an eternal favor,” he grunted. “Least you could do.”
“We can’t change sept law, Victor. Mary may cohabitate with you, but she may not marry. Not you nor anyone else.”
He rose. Mary had warned him this would be a waste of time. Now he would have to go back to her and tell her she was right. He would have to tell her he couldn’t marry her. But it wasn’t right. It wasn’t her fault that some crazy human kid thought himself a vampire slayer. It wasn’t Mary’s fault her husband was murdered.
“I’m not asking you to change the law. Just make an exception. I deserve a favor from you all, considerin’ what you done to me,” he said bitterly.
“You know it’s not up to me. I can’t grant an exception to a law we’ve upheld for more than a thousand years.”
“I want to speak to the Council,” he repeated, thrusting out his lower lip stubbornly.
“Very well. It’s within your right.” She got up and stood in front of her chair as if she was standing in front of the Council, instead of in her living room in her pajamas in the middle of the night. “The agenda is filled for Monday night. I’ll see you’re added to the next session’s agenda. You’ll get an e-mail confirming the date and time.”
“Don’t have a computer.” He headed for the door, embarrassed by the lump that had risen in his throat. One good thing happened to him after hundreds of years and these filthy bloodsucking vampires wouldn’t grant him this one wish. All he wanted was to marry his Mary. All he wanted was to be happy.
“Then you’ll get a call.”
“Don’t have an answering machine.” He walked into the dark kitchen.
“Fine, then I’ll have Liz type up a letter. You do have a mailbox, don’t you, Victor?”
He pushed out the back door and stumbled down the steps, feeling stupid for having come at all. He hurried across the grass, ignoring Peigi’s call to him. Mary said it would be a waste of time, trying to speak to the Council. She said they couldn’t marry. The way he saw it, she was only right on one count.
Ordinarily, Kaleigh was comfortable in the dark. She walked around her house at night in the dark. She walked around town in the dark. She hunted in the forest when she needed to feed off the deer in the dark. Hell, she was a V. Even if she didn’t sleep in a coffin like in the movies, she adored the silky darkness.
But this darkness on the stairway was different. It wasn’t that it was scary, just…unsettling. God, she wished she could read humans’ minds. She had been able to before, in some past lives, but it might be years before she developed the gift again.
“You okay?” Mickey grabbed her arm to guide her down the stairs.
“Uh-huh.”
They left the hip-hop beat of Kanye West as they descended into the basement where some kind of ear-shattering Goth music was playing. A light glowed at the bottom of the steps from a single candle set on a table just outside an area that had been curtained off with heavy black drapes.
“Take one of these.” Mickey had to lean close so Kaleigh could hear her above the music. She offered a black mask from a pile on the table. She took one for herself and pulled it over her face. It only covered her eyes and her nose, but it was enough to alter her appearance. Kaleigh could see how unobservant humans might be fooled by the mask, even if she wouldn’t be.
Kaleigh noticed a basket of condoms on the table beside the candle. So Rob was right. They were having sex down here. And doing drugs. She could smell weed. The burning incense wasn’t enough to cover its cloying sweet scent.
“No names down here. It’s anonymous. You get it?” Mickey’s tone was threatening.
“Sure. Yeah, I get it,” Kaleigh said.
“You want one?” Mickey indicated the basket filled with condoms.
Kaleigh shook her head.
Mickey parted the black curtain.
Kaleigh started after her, then stopped. “Hey, wait.”
Mickey looked back.
“Katy’s not down here, is she?”
Even with the mask, Kaleigh could see the look of disdain on Mickey’s face. “Katy wasn’t invited. This party is by invitation only.”
Kaleigh took a deep breath and followed Mickey through the curtains. They stopped just on the other side.
“Make yourself comfy,” Mickey said. “Bar’s over there. You can participate, or just watch. It’s up to you.”
Kaleigh watched her walk away, her gaze drifting. There were black curtains all around, making the basement look like a big room, even though it still smelled like a wet basement in southern Delaware. Kids in their late teens and early twenties sat in little groups or lounged on cushions on the floor. Couples in various stages of undress were making out. There were a few knots of three or four people. Naked.
Kaleigh swallowed. She could feel her face growing warm with embarrassment. A porn flick played on a TV; some guy dressed in a black cape was doing some girl on a coffin.
Sweet baby Jesus, what the hell was this?
There were votive candles everywhere and here, the smell of incense was strong. So was the smell of the marijuana. Her sense of smell keen, she sniffed the air to get a better take on things, her brain dissecting the characteristics of each scent, identifying them: alcoholic beverages, perfume, men’s cologne. The scent of human perspiration and desire.
Suddenly the hair rose on the back of her neck. One distinct scent rose abruptly from the others. Human blood.
That could only mean one thing. Shit, Kaleigh thought. Who’s here? she telepathed, sending the message out to anyone who had the ability to hear her. She didn’t think she recognized anyone, but she wasn’t looking too closely, not when people were naked.
No one answered her telepathic demand, but she could feel one of her own present…no, two.
She scanned the room, trying to look closer without really seeing what they were doing. They were all wearing the same stupid masks, of course, but she knew which ones were human. She would know which ones were not.
Two humans making out. Her pants off, his still on.
Two more humans, naked limbs entwined…
She looked away, wondering if such images could damage a young mind like hers. Of course, she wasn’t really that young. She’d probably seen worse. She just couldn’t remember, and didn’t really want to.
Kaleigh looked at the couple again. Her fingers clenched the heavy fabric of the drapes that blocked off the staircase. Was that Johnny K. with that human blonde? It was. The mask didn’t fool her. She knew the cleft in the chin. She and Johnny were second cousins…or was he her uncle twice removed? It got confusing sometimes.
But it was definitely Johnny, and that half-naked girl he had his arms around was definitely drunk or high and she definitely didn’t know Johnny was a V. She watched as he lowered his mouth to her neck.
Johnny, what do you think you’re doing? Kaleigh demanded, shooting her thoughts telepathically. Don’t you dare touch her again!
But Johnny didn’t hear her. Either he had blocked his mind or he was too lost in the feeding.
It was unlawful for Kahills to take human blood, but it happened sometimes. The nature of the beast, Peigi liked to say. And there were penalties in place when members broke the law. But when the sept said its teens were forbidden to have sex and feed on humans,
they weren’t kidding. If the Council found out about this, there would be serious repercussions.
Kaleigh wasn’t sure what to do. Should she march right over to Johnny K., grab him by the earlobe, and march him up the stairs? No, she couldn’t do that. It might cause suspicion among the humans. Besides, a feeding V could be dangerous. He wasn’t himself. Kaleigh didn’t need to get into a fight with Johnny in this basement. She wasn’t even sure she could fight him.
“Hey.” Mickey appeared beside Kaleigh, startling her.
“What the hell is this?” Kaleigh stared at her. “Some kind of orgy or something?”
She shrugged. “It is what it is. It has been since the beginning of time,” she said mysteriously.
The crazy thing was, somehow what Mickey said rang true. The longer Kaleigh stood there, the more familiar the scene seemed. It was like she had been here before. Sort of. She wondered how Johnny had ended up down here. “Who…whose idea was this?” she asked.
“I don’t know. One of the guys’, I’m sure.” Mickey laughed.
“I…I should go home.” Kaleigh scanned the dark room one last time as she backed up toward the staircase. She was sure she could sense the presence of another Kahill. A female. But she didn’t see her. Some of the curtains were drawn, sort of, making little cubicles. She wondered if the girl she sensed was in one of those.
“You sure you don’t want to stay? It’s perfectly safe.” She drew her finger along Kaleigh’s shoulder blade. “No one talks about what goes on down here.”
Kaleigh looked at Mickey as if she’d grown her own fangs. That had definitely been a come-on. Mickey was a lesbian? What about Tomboy? Of course, maybe she wasn’t. This was obviously a room for teen experimentation. Experimentation Kaleigh had no intention of playing a part in. “I really do have to go,” Kaleigh said, trying not to sound like she was as put-off as she was. She didn’t want Mickey to think she was attracted to her sexually; on the other hand, there was always the possibility she might need Mickey for something another time. Never burn bridges. It was a good adage to keep when you lived forever. “I…I don’t know where Katy is. She was pretty messed up last time I saw her,” she lied.
Immortal Page 14
