Crimson Death

by Laurell K. Hamilton

  "I'm dating a lot of men who are prettier than me," I said.

  Nolan frowned at me, and the lines in his face folded into the frown like it was his natural look. He really needed more reasons to smile soon. "Who?" he asked.

  I took Nathaniel's hand in mine, and nodded at Dev across the van. I laid my head against Nicky's shoulder. He said, "Don't include me in the prettier club, Anita. I know I'm attractive, but not in the same way that Dev is, and I'll never be as beautiful as Nathaniel, but that's okay. You don't have to protect my ego on this one."

  I wasn't sure what to say to that, so I said, "It feels mean to say they're pretty and not include you, because you're hot, too."

  "I didn't say I wasn't hot. I said I wasn't as beautiful as they are, and I'm sure as hell not as beautiful a man as you are a woman. I'm dating out of my league and I know it."

  "I think you're ballparking my league just fine." I smiled at him and offered up a kiss, which he took with a smile of his own.

  "It's like we're not even here," Nolan said.

  "You haven't seen anything yet," Edward said.

  I gave him a frown. "Are you saying we overshare with you?"

  "Not with me, but Nolan isn't me and he's not used to this much honest communication."

  "The only way to have this many relationships is to talk honestly."

  "But not in front of strangers," he said.

  "So it's okay to stand shoulder to shoulder with Nolan and kill vampires, but we're not supposed to talk about emotional stuff?"

  "Yeah, that's what I'm saying."

  "Well, fuck that. Nolan started it by making a statement that isn't true, and I could prove it, so I did."

  "You didn't prove anything, Blake."

  "Dev and Nathaniel are prettier than I am, but I'm in relationships with both of them. That proves that women, or at least this woman, will date people prettier than they are, so I've disproved your blanket statement."

  Nolan frowned harder so that the lines on his forehead looked like they'd been carved into his flesh with a dull knife. It looked almost painful and made me want to touch his face and try to smooth them out. I wouldn't do it, but the more he made his face look like that, the more I wanted to do it.

  He looked at Edward and whatever look they exchanged, Edward understood it. "She's being honest."

  "She thinks she's being honest," Nathaniel said.

  I looked at him sitting beside me, still holding hands with me. "What's that supposed to mean?"

  "I've never known a beautiful woman who didn't know exactly how beautiful she was," Nolan said.

  "Now you do," Edward said.

  I was pretty sure I understand what he was saying, but it made me uncomfortable, so I said, "How far to your headquarters?"

  "Are you changing the subject?" Nolan asked.

  "Yes."

  He frowned harder yet, and the lines looked almost artificial. I didn't even usually notice things like this, but Nolan's face seemed etched with some grief that had spent too many years fashioning itself a home on his face. It was like he needed a hug.

  "We're not that far outside Dublin," he said.

  "Don't I get any points for the fact that if I pull my holy item out it will glow?" Dev asked; apparently we weren't done with the conversation.

  "That will be more helpful when we don't have vampires fighting on our side," I said.

  "The first time I pulled out my cross it didn't glow," Nolan said.

  "Are you saying now it does?" Edward asked.

  He nodded. "You might say that watching all the other holy objects glow in the face of evil was a conversion experience."

  "Were you not raised Christian?" Kaazim asked.

  "No, my father is actually an atheist. He said he couldn't believe in anything that caused so much pain, when it was supposed to be a benevolent god."

  "I've got some close friends who aren't religious for similar reasons," I said. Nathaniel had dutifully gone to church with me, but Micah had refused. He said that he couldn't reconcile a loving God with some of the things he'd seen in his life. Since he'd spent years being at the mercy of one of the most twisted sexual sadists I'd ever met, I understood his confusion, but I did not share it. It had actually bothered me that if it had been Micah I planned to marry instead of Jean-Claude, I still couldn't have married in the Episcopal Church. Jean-Claude couldn't step into the church, but Micah wouldn't step into one.

  "It bothers you that they don't believe," Nolan said.

  "Yeah, it does."

  "Sorry, Anita, but sociopaths aren't big on God and the angels," Nicky said.

  "My only problem with so many of you not believing is that we're hunting vampires, and holy objects only work if you believe, so yes, Dev, you get brownie points that you believe."

  "Blessed objects work regardless," Jake said.

  "Yeah, because they're empowered by the belief of the holy person who blessed them, not by the belief of the person wielding them," I said.

  "I guess I need one of those before we meet any more vamps in person," Nicky said.

  "I can lend you a blessed object, Murdock--though you admitting that you're a sociopath . . . does that mean I shouldn't trust you at my back?" Nolan said.

  "As long as we're on the same side with the same goals, I'll have your six."

  "And if our goals aren't the same?"

  Nicky looked at him, and that one blue eye looked colder, like spring skies when there's a sudden frost and all the flowers die. "Then I won't have your six."

  "So if our goals diverge, I shouldn't trust you?"

  "You've been in this business longer than I have; trusting anyone is for suckers."

  "You trust Anita."

  "If I couldn't trust her I don't think I would be in love with her."

  The van went around a bend of the road a little fast, and we all reached for things to hold on to. Nathaniel held my hand tighter, and I reached for Nicky's arm; it was like holding on to a warm, flesh-covered tree, or maybe a rock. His biceps were sort of epic.

  "I'll never have arms half as good as this, no matter how much I lift," I said.

  "You'd look silly with arms as big as Nicky's," Dev said.

  I smiled. "I know, but it's still unfair that the men have the edge in the gym."

  "You can have babies," Nolan said.

  "That is so not a good trade-off," I said, but I let myself lean my head against Nicky's shoulder, my hand still around his arm.

  "You know I'd have the baby for us if I could," Nathaniel said.

  I rose up from leaning against Nicky and fought not to give an unhappy face to Nathaniel. "I know, and I wish you could, because I so am not looking forward to being pregnant."

  "It might be nice to have babies underfoot again," Jake said, looking at Dev.

  "Don't look at me. I'm still trying to figure out the romance part. I think babies are a step above that."

  "Sharing a baby can be romantic in a way," Nolan said.

  "I have a story or two about babies; one of them is even about this one," Jake said.

  Dev smiled and patted his arm. "There's nothing romantic about changing diapers; I remember that story."

  "I am a very old friend of the family, enough that I babysat on occasion," Jake said, to Nolan's look.

  "What story?" I asked.

  Dev shook his head. "I'm armed to the teeth and about to help you hunt big bad vampires. I would like to do that without Jake telling any stories that include me in diapers or in elementary school."

  "I bet you were an adorable baby," Nathaniel said, smiling.

  Dev smiled back. "I was, but I don't need to be reminded that I'm the youngest one here."

  "You don't mind that sort of thing normally," I said.

  "Maybe I want to be a grown-up."

  I remembered being his age and having things to prove. "Okay, you're a grown-up. We can save the embarrassing stories for later."

  "I think I may even have pictures on my phone of him as a baby," J
ake said.

  "You're just teasing me now. You do not have my baby pictures on your phone."

  Jake got his phone out without a word and pulled up the pictures. He swiped though until he came to one and showed it to Dev, who got a strange look on his face. He wasn't unhappy, but he was deeply surprised.

  "I didn't think you kept pictures of us," Dev said as he handed back the phone.

  "I know," Jake said.

  "Wait. I want to see," Nathaniel said.

  He looked at Dev, who shook his head. "Later," Jake said, and put the phone away.

  "Old family friend, is it?" Nolan said.

  Jake looked at him. "I never had children of my own."

  Dev put his arm around the older man and said, "Sentimental bastard," and kissed his forehead. Jake pushed him away, smiling, calling him a cheeky child or something, but Dev was smiling more like his old self again. When people ask if love can last they always seem to mean romantic love, but there are all kinds of love, and they can all last.

  42

  THE ENCLOSED VANS were opened inside a garage that looked as if it had been emptied of its contents just minutes before we arrived. There were two new people already in civilian clothes waiting for us; the clothes might have looked street normal, but if you knew what to look for, you could see where the dangerous toys were hiding. They stayed with us while Nolan and the others went to change, because one thing Nolan had to agree to was more civilian clothing and less looking like a soldier. He had enough clout that we had the vampires with us, but not enough to let him run around Dublin looking like a paramilitary bad guy from the latest action flick. Nolan requested that Edward come with them. He told me he'd be right back, I said fine, and we were down a man just like that, but they were down two, so I guess we were still ahead.

  Flannery was as tall as Nolan, Brennan, and Griffin, like they were the beginnings of a sports team; even Donnie was almost as tall as the men and had that same easy physicality that only those who have been gifted athletes, or at least incredibly physical, their whole lives seem to have. Flannery was dark like Brennan, not as handsome, but his smile was bright and made you smile back before you thought about it. I'd take a little less attractive in exchange for pleasant. I'd had my fill of beautiful but moody men, or women for that matter.

  Flannery's jacket fit too tight across his shoulders, so his shoulder holster printed, worse on his left side where the gun sat. It looked like either the jacket was borrowed or he'd gained body mass since he bought it. I caught a glimpse of the extra ammo magazine under his right arm held in a leather pocket. Most people wouldn't realize what that glimpse of dark leather was, but then we weren't most people.

  Mortimer--Mort--was the shortest of the team at five-six, but he moved like he had springs that propelled him forward, energy contained in a body that was honed down to muscle and compact flesh. In a jacket bulky enough to hide the guns, he looked delicate the way that Micah did in sloppy clothes, but I knew physical potential too well to believe that he was as dainty as he looked; I was betting that a lot of bigger men had underestimated him, and regretted it.

  I knew this wasn't all Nolan's team; Donahue had said she was Donnie because there was a second Donahue on the team. Flannery explained that they would be accompanying us pretty much everywhere from this point on. "One of us for every two of you," he said, still smiling, but his brown eyes were smiling with him, as if he couldn't think of anything he'd rather do than babysit armed strangers while they hunted vampires in his city. Of course, maybe Nolan hadn't shared all the intel he had, and there might be more going on than he was sharing with us. Military who have worked black ops for too long not only know how to keep a secret but start doing it even when they don't have to, or maybe that was just how it had affected Edward. My experience with people in this line of work was actually pretty limited when I thought about it. I just felt I knew more of them, because the ones I did know I knew so damn well.

  Griffin had thrown one of the body bags over his shoulder, and Donnie had the other one. I didn't know which teenage vampire was which, but it didn't really matter. They were both going to the same place: a cell here at the "warehouse" that was apparently the headquarters for Nolan's new group. The fact that we hadn't seen any of the drive here meant that we didn't know where the hell we were, or how to get here, or how to leave. I mean, we knew to go out one of the doors, but beyond that we didn't know which way Dublin was, or the airport we'd landed at, or anything really. I'd seen so little of the country that it was like any other business trip out of town. Throw in the hotel later, and add a cemetery, and me being able to actually hunt vampires, and it would be like Old Home Week. Nathaniel was still hoping to have a few days at the end of everything to actually play tourist; me, too.

  Nolan had left the last body bag behind when he took Edward off for their secret squirrel talk. The body bag lay on the concrete floor where Nolan had left it after he and Brennan dragged it out. They had treated it like you treat the dead, like they had no feelings to worry about and no flesh to bruise. Come nightfall the vampire in the bag might have both. It depended on how long she'd been undead and how much control she had. Whoever had made their daughter a vampire should have been able to call all of them out into the night to do his or her bidding, but it was like the "master vampire" was just making vampires sort of willy-nilly. If there was a plan, then neither the police nor Nolan and his people could figure out the logic of it. Maybe there was no plan; maybe it was just a vampire that was doing whatever the hell they wanted to do in Dublin.

  "Nolan said to secure the prisoners," Griffin said.

  Brennan grabbed one end of the body bag. Jake grabbed the other end and helped him lift. "Allow me to help you."

  "I can carry it."

  "Of that, I have no doubt, but it is the heaviest bag and we are here to help you."

  "Are we putting vampires in the cells without testing them first?" Donnie said.

  "We're following orders," Brennan said.

  "Are you saying that Nolan pushed to have you guys take the vampires as prisoners, or whatever, but you've never actually had a supernatural anything in a cell to see if it will hold them?" I asked.

  Brennan scowled at me. He really wasn't handsome enough for the sour disposition, but then I didn't think anyone was worth it anymore. "We know our job, Blake."

  Fortune flashed him her best smile, which was a pretty good smile. "But isn't part of why we're here to help you test things out?"

  His face had started to soften as he looked into her blue eyes, but he fought it off and scowled even harder. I wondered if he'd learned the technique from Nolan.

  "They were supposed to help us test the cells before we used them for actual prisoners," Donnie said. If she was having any trouble holding the body in its bag, it didn't show. I realized she was built a lot like Magda and Fortune, tall and athletic-looking. Even with more women on the "team," I was still the short, delicate-looking one. Even Echo was inches taller than me, so having all our vampires up and running wouldn't change that I was sort of the runt of the group. I didn't normally worry about it that much, but I suddenly realized that this was the most women I'd ever worked with at one time and I was still the short one.

  "Then maybe we should do that before nightfall," Nicky said.

  "They feel like dead bodies now," I said, "but once the sun goes down they won't be."

  "What am I supposed to do? Say Oh my and drop the bag because it's supposed to be full of scary vampire?" Donnie asked.

  "No, I'm just saying that it'd be good to know your cells will hold before the 'prisoners'"--and I made little air quotes around the word--"wake up and start looking for food."

  Griffin and Donnie exchanged a look. Brennan scowled harder. Mort joined him in the scowling, though he wasn't as good at it yet. I wasn't sure if he was just more pleasant than he was pretending to be, or if he hadn't been around Nolan as long. Flannery stepped up, smiling.

  "I think it's a good idea to test th
e cells before we lose the sun," he said, still smiling.

  "Great. Then let's do it," I said.

  "Which of your people gets locked into the cell to try to break out?" Brennan asked; he'd taken the bag from Jake and hefted it over his shoulder.

  "Let me do it," Nicky said.

  They all looked at him. "No," said Brennan.

  "We want a fair test for the vampires that will be in the cells tonight. I don't think you, Mr. Murdock, are going to be an equivalent for a mother and two teenage girls," Flannery said.

  Nicky gave them a grin that was more a snarl. "You're just afraid it won't hold me."

  "I will do it," Magda said, "if someone will watch over my master."

  "I will be honored to bear his burden, and treat him as if he were my own master," Jake said. It sounded more formal than they usually talked to each other, and maybe it was a type of prepared speech, but regardless Magda lifted the duffel bag holding Giacomo and started to hand it to Jake.

  "You really call the vampire in that bag master?" Donnie asked.

  Magda looked at her. "Yes."

  "I don't," Nathaniel said.

  "Is it like a bondage thing?" Mort asked.

  "No," Magda said.

  "Why don't you call yours master? Is it a guy-girl thing? Please tell me it's not some kind of male-versus-female thing," Donnie said.

  Nathaniel smiled at her. "No, of course not. Damian just isn't my master."

  "Then why are you carrying him?" she asked.

  "Because I needed my hands free for weapons," I said.

  "Is he your master?"

  "No."

  Griffin said, "What do Ms. Fortunada and Ms. Sanderson mean when they call their vampires master? If it's not a bondage thing, is it like a real slave thing?"

  "It's more the old idea of fidelity to the Lord of the Manor," I said.

  "Some vampires demand to be called master by all of their underlings," Fortune said.

  "Do your masters demand that?" Donnie asked.

  "No," most of us said together. Then we all looked at one another, and Nolan's people looked at us, too.

  Donnie said, "That was a little disturbing that all of you said that."

  I shrugged. "You asked the question."

  "I didn't think you had a master in that way, Marshal Blake," Flannery said.

  "Jean-Claude gets the title so the other vampires don't get all weird about him marrying the Executioner."

  "But when you call him master, do you mean it?"