Another Day

by C. L. Quinn

  “Then we need to call the police, Xavier.”

  Pushing away from her, Xavier paced. Should he go ahead and tell her? If she were to understand how dire this was, she needed to know what she faced.

  “This isn’t the place to tell ya this, but this man…my enemy…”

  Xavier stopped. She wouldn’t believe him. Hell, he wasn’t completely comfortable with the idea yet himself. But he had to convince her. He had to show her.

  “Margot, this man who might come for ya, he’s not fully human. Neither am I.”

  She was smiling now, her arms folded. “Got it. So, what is he? A superhero? An alien?” She remembered something he’d said earlier and laughed. “A vampire?”

  When she saw his expression, the laugh faded.

  “He’s a vampire? Wait, you’re a vampire? Wow, all the romance novels are right, you guys are hot.”

  Pushing away from the wall, she joined him. “Xavier, you’re goofy. Sexy goofy, don’t get me wrong, but goofy. And you look so freaking serious! We’d better get back downstairs. They’re either wondering where the hell we are, already know what we’re doing, or they’ve left.”

  Xavier followed Margot off the roof. He would have to convince her, but later, when they were truly alone.

  “You understand what I want?”

  “Sure. Stupid, I ain’t. You understand, you pay up front, satisfaction guaranteed. I took care of the other threat for you, didn’t I? I’m a results-oriented man.”

  Michael nodded at the cell phone. “Yes, you did, admirably. Everything’s in that packet you’ve received. I also want the man who works with her and the girl staying in her apartment. You have the photos and addresses. I’ve clearly outlined where to take them and how to handle them when you get them there. I am to be notified instantly when it’s done.”

  “Mister, I will do all you want. You got my account number. Once I see your deposit, I begin. You can consider it a done deal. Thanks for the business.”

  “Thank you, uh, S-man.”

  S-man rung off.

  Michael stared at the burner phone for several seconds afterward. S-man, the man called himself. Because Superman was taken. What the fuck-ever. As long as he got the job done.

  No one fucked with Lipnicki. He’d have Margot and her threat contained soon. Picking up his own cell phone, he tapped the final button on the screen to send 200,000 dollars to S-man’s account. Now, he just had to wait.

  It wouldn’t be easy. The thought of Margot and the fresh-faced young girl tied up for him to play with, in whatever manner he wanted, had him turned on again. The intern had to be taken to protect the secret, but too, the idea of an audience had always intrigued him. This would be the perfect time to try something new.

  Michael could not wait.

  Koen came back. “She isn’t here. The doorman said she’s gone out to dinner.”

  “Shit!” David swore. “Timing! Where’s she gone?”

  “He doesn’t know, but she had guests, two men and a woman. I got descriptions. Any guess who one of the men was?”

  “Xavier?” Tamesine supplied, surprised. “Civilized socializing? He really is a new man. I am fascinated to see how he will reconcile this Xavier with the man he’s been for centuries when he gets his memory back.”

  “Be nice.”

  “No, Koen, I really cannot wait.”

  Sober, Koen led them back to the SUV he’d rented to bring them from Boston to New York. “I just want him back.”

  “We’ll get him, my friend. First, we need to find him and the woman. I can find him now that his life signal is no longer blocked. Let’s get in the car, and I’ll search for him.”

  David and Bryn quiet in the backseat, Koen behind the wheel, Tamesine closed her eyes and reached into the white to touch the wind. Unmoving, her first blood magic reached for first blood, and there, not too distant, was the life signal that showed Xavier’s position in the city.

  His spirit amulet, a hidden amulet worn by all first bloods, had hidden him to protect him, when he faced mortal threat from Claude. Now, reacquainted with his nature, the amulet had opened up the spirit link, and Tamesine’s considerable magics found him easily.

  “He’s at a place called Great Stakes, a restaurant not far from here. I think that’s amusedly appropriate, don’t you?”

  “Thanks, again, Tam, for your help. I think we wouldn’t have lived through this shit these past few years without your help.”

  “Bullshit. But you have it, anything, anytime, as much as I need to give. You guys are my world. You saved me.”

  “Mutual admiration society aside, don’t ya think we should get movin’?” Bryn and his usual tactfulness interrupted Koen and Tamesine, but David agreed. He wanted this done, Claude gone, and to get back to his life in Iceland.

  “Sorry. Yes, you’re right. Koen, turn right at that light.”

  “What are we going to do at the restaurant?”

  “We’ll figure it out. I’ve reconsidered our strategy some. Let’s discuss it later. Right now, I feel an urgency about making sure that she and Xavier are okay.”

  “They left. Look, Robert paid the bill. What a darling. I’ll have to reimburse him. And Xavier, I need to get home. That young woman is one of the girl’s Michael abused, and she’s going to testify for me. I need to prepare her.”

  “Ya don’t want to continue what we started?”

  “Started? I think we finished, and quite well, too. And yes, I’d love to stay with you, but this takes precedence. After she’s taken care of, after I find her secure lodgings, I’ll come to you and then…”

  Closing her eyes, she breathed deeply, her hand sliding along his chest. “I think we will, indeed, continue.”

  “Ya can’t stay alone, Margot, I mean it.”

  “I won’t be alone. I’ll have Robert with us all day tomorrow.”

  How could he make her understand that a human could not help her? He couldn’t. “All right. Just be careful, then, lass.”

  “I’ll be fine, my vampire. Go take care of Lucky.”

  Xavier nodded, because he knew he wasn’t getting through to her, and led Margot from the restaurant to take her home.

  They didn’t notice the men watching outside as he led her into a waiting taxi.

  Escorting Margot into her apartment, Xavier glanced down the hallway before he closed the door behind them.

  Robert and Cheeky were seated on the sofa, the television on, volume low, with a bowl of popcorn perched before them.

  “Ah, ha! Finally bringing her home, sir.” Robert’s exaggerated, amused voice was overly deep like that of a disapproving father.

  He was a practical man, and he could tell by watching Margot with the huge Scotsman that he’d never had a chance. Moving on was something that he did well.

  Cheeky wasn’t as subtle. “You two look like you’ve had a really good fuck. I’d like to have one someday. It isn’t the same, fucking a paying customer, you know?”

  She turned a soft eye to Robert.

  He jumped from the sofa, pulling his suit jacket down into place. “Whoa. Don’t look at me. I don’t need to get yanked for statutory rape.”

  “I’m eighteen,” Cheeky snapped.

  “No, you’re not.” he countered.

  “Close,” she answered with a shrug and lifted eyebrows.

  “Close isn’t close enough. Say, I think it’s time to say goodnight.”

  Margot showed him to the door. “I’ll reimburse you for dinner.”

  “In that case, we had a nice time. Margot, could I speak with you for a moment?”

  “Um, sure.”

  “In the hall.”

  “O..kay.”

  With a glance back at Xavier, she stepped out and closed the door.

  “Who is this guy?”

  “I know him. Quite well, Robert.”

  “Yeah, that’s apparent. But what do you really know about him? Is he the guy who works at the bar in the Smoke District at Hunts Point?”


  “Yes. God, you two men need to stop worrying about me. Look, I know Xavier well enough that I’d trust my life to him, just like I do with you. Now, go home, get some rest, and get back here in the morning. Fancy breakfast at eight, all right?”

  “All right. Just, be careful. I kind of don’t want to look for a new boss.”

  “Got it. I’ll see you, Gopher.”

  After Robert left, Margot took Xavier’s hand to lead him to the door, too.

  “You can see we’re fine. We’re safe. Go to work.”

  “I’ll stay outside. If ya need me, call.”

  “Xavier…”

  “It’s not up for discussion. I’ll be here.”

  Shaking her head, she led him to the entry door, just as she’d done with Robert. All of her dates had been attractive passive men. She liked to be in control, liked to be obeyed. With Xavier, though, they met on equal ground, strength to strength, need to need, heart to heart. He challenged her, countermanded her, argued with her, and she loved it.

  Loved it. It was too soon to use that word in any capacity, but it kept coming up.

  She pushed him, hard. “Go home, big man. No woman feels safe with a vampire on the other side of her door.” She smiled, blew him a kiss, and closed the door.

  As the door closed, the locks clicked, Xavier on the wrong side, he stood, frozen, aware that he wasn’t welcome to stay right now, afraid to leave.

  She refused to stay with him, and during daylight, when he would be trapped inside, he couldn’t protect her. It was time to call in his new friends and family. They would be at the bar tonight, and while he didn’t want to leave her, she’d said she was staying in the rest of the night, so he prayed that she would be safe.

  “I’ll return soon, lassie.”

  As he headed to the stairwell, a man in jeans and a light jacket passed him, talking on a cell phone as he stopped at an apartment door and searched for a key. He smiled up at Xavier, who returned the greeting and headed down the stairs.

  Xavier left through the front door just as two men in business suits entered the building, glanced behind them at four more dressed casually, and turned to nod to them. Another man stepped up, dressed in coveralls, and approached the doorman.

  Seconds later, the doorman was unconscious, and the man in the coveralls peeled them off to reveal a match for the doorman’s uniform. Two other men carried the unconscious doorman away to lay him behind a desk.

  Moving with practiced grace, they headed up the stairwell and stopped on the twelfth floor to co-ordinate.

  “She’ll open the door if we knock. She’ll think he’s returned.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “I heard the conversation. She’ll think he’s come back.”

  “Try it.”

  The man who was obviously second in command knocked on the door. Moments later, the locks released, the woman they sought opened the door.

  “Xavier, I told you…”

  All men surged in, three grabbing Margot, two heading for the young girl they knew was here with her...target number two.

  Margot tried to fight, to protect herself as she was trained to do, as she told Xavier she could, but as soon as she felt a pinprick in the side of her neck, she knew it was over. The room was dancing now, as dark forms swam in front of her.

  “What…” She couldn’t speak anymore. Was this the man who had kidnapped Xavier? Was he right? What did the asshole want with her? Son of a bitch…she’d failed. They were taking Cheeky too…

  “Get her feet, control her. Client don’t want them hurt.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure he’s a real saint.”

  “Ain’t none of your business, Rockin’ Robin. Secure her and let’s go.”

  Darkness eased over her eyes and she was out.

  DONE.

  Toast received the text and smiled. Easy, peasy, just as he’d said it would be. His soldiers didn’t even have to fight for this type of thing, the drugs did all the work.

  GOOD. GET HER IN PLACE. LET ME KNOW WHEN SHES THERE.

  Okay, a quick dinner, a nice smoke, and he’d head to the warehouse to check on his merchandise and wait for his second team to check in.

  What a lovely autumn night in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Toast had been born and raised here, and while he’d traveled all over this world, he was always grateful to put his feet on U.S. soil again and come home to New York City.

  He dialed the client. “Yeah, S-man here. The first two packages are secured. Working on number three.”

  Ten

  Koen and Tamesine retraced Xavier’s life signal after he was nowhere to be found in the restaurant.

  “He’s back at the bar,” Tamesine revealed.

  Frustrated, Koen, at the wheel again, headed back downtown. “I’m returning to the woman’s apartment. If she’s there, we do what we need to do, and then meet him at the bar. This night has been messed up from the beginning.”

  “It’s been crazy, and that is exactly how life works. It will all be okay in the end.”

  “Promises, promises, little supervamp.”

  “Let’s just feed my blood to Xavier’s girl and go see him. I think we should let him know what we plan.”

  “No. He’ll refuse.”

  “He’ll be furious when he finds out later.”

  “He’ll refuse and we’ll have fewer options. Tam, I know my brother, even the memory-challenged man who works at a dive bar, and he’ll stop us. I would too, if I knew you were going to try something like this.”

  “We all would. And yet, cooler heads sometimes must make the decisions. I think your initial instinct was good. There isn’t any choice if we want to find Claude quickly, or even at all. He has a history of disappearing.”

  The car pulled up across the street from Margot’s building.

  “Look, let me feed her, and then we can discuss this or argue about it at length. Even so, if something were to happen with her, whether we decided to go through with this or not, I’ll be able to find her. That at least is a good plan.”

  “Agreed. Let’s go.” Bryn was already out of the car and heading into the building.

  “He doesn’t like confrontation,” David explained.

  “I couldn’t agree more.” Tamesine followed him in.

  Up the stairs in seconds, they found her door easily. Preparing to use her talent to unlock the door and gain entrance, Tamesine’s eyes shot to the men behind her.

  “It’s unlocked.”

  They were silent until Koen said the obvious.

  “She wouldn’t leave it unlocked in this city.”

  They were inside the apartment, and when they found it unoccupied, were afraid that they were too late.

  David sighed and pointed beside the sofa. “Look.”

  A lamp lay on the carpet, still lit, the shade askew. The odd item dislodged let them know that something bad had happened here tonight. Tragically, the vampires already knew what it was.

  “Well, he has her.” Koen said what everyone knew.

  “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Tamesine whispered, her eyes moving over the otherwise beautifully decorated apartment with nothing out of place. It was incongruous to her, in view of the fact that the woman who lived here, who had lovingly chosen these things to decorate the space where she lived, was gone, likely never to return. She was too late!

  Koen watched Tamesine survey the room, the upturned lamp, the clear countertops in the kitchen, the dustless black tabletops. He knew what she was thinking.

  “This is not your fault. It was your idea to make her visible over distances. We just didn’t think that Claude would make his move so quickly. We only just found out last night that she was bait material. We’ll get her back, Tamesine. I promise that.”

  “You can’t. And thank you for trying to console me, but even if it’s true that you can’t promise that it will be okay, I promise that we’ll burn buildings around that man before I’ll let him get away again.”

&n
bsp; “Aye, I agree.” Bryn had just as much reason to want Claude ended.

  “Thank you, men. So, I guess we have to let Xavier know. Oh, Koen, he’ll be crushed. You didn’t see them together the other night.”

  Filing back out of the apartment, Tamesine noticed something lying on the floor beneath one of the whitewashed oak end tables. It wasn’t big, but the shape was familiar. As she approached and bent to retrieve it, she held it up to consider what she’d found. Her eyes teared again. “It’s the cap off a syringe.”

  “A syringe?”

  “Yes. And Claude would have no need of a syringe.”

  Silence before David spoke. “Claude doesn’t have her.”

  Xavier pushed the extra-large portion of French fries through the food window and turned back to secure the fryer. He’d know when the vampires arrived, the strange feeling now familiar and recognized. The second they did, he was going to send one back to Margot’s place.

  Now that he understood compulsion, it was his only choice. She’d hate him for it, he knew that, but her safety was at stake, and if she couldn’t believe him, couldn’t trust him enough to accept the improbable, he would have to force her to let him protect her.

  Xavier admitted to himself that she’d become important to him. He couldn’t let anything happen to her. She’d called him a hero, and he was anything but. In this instance, though, he’d move hell and earth to be her protector.

  His attention to his work tonight was shit. Lucky had called him on it several times already.

  “Get your head out of that cloud, Scottie. You need to watch what you’re doing,” he’d barked.

  Yeah, well, I’m kind of obsessed with keeping a vampire from killing my woman!

  When the feeling spread over him some time later, his head shot up. They were here. Pushing open the swinging door, he scanned the room. He didn’t see them. Where the fuck were they? Stepping further into the bar, he began to weave around the patrons, pushed by several when he got in their way, pushed back when several got in his. They weren’t here, anywhere. But he did hone in on two huge men who stared right at him. He didn’t need to guess…they were vampire.