Bloody Heretic (4 page)

Chapter Two
   

    The following evening Jeanne Darke awoke to the sound of Gloria sobbing into a pillow in the bathroom. Though she was doing her best to hide her wet, hacking coughs, Jeanne could fairly smell her salty tears from under the door. As depressing as it wa
s
to hear, it was worse trying to confront her about them. Jeanne's only recourse was to ignore the girl until she stopped, lest she face the wrath of Gloria's hatred. She knew, just as she had known for the
past
four months
,
that Gloria and Timothy Brown h
ad been having an affair behind the backs of the group and against Jeanne's expressed orders
particularly
. There was only a
twinge
of guilt over her Child's circumstance, a small twinge. Gloria had dug her own den, she would lay in it. She had warned t
he g
irl after all. Jeanne leapt
from the lumpy second rate mattress and flashed into her clothes in a second. Gloria became aware of her movement and quickly rubbed a towel over her no doubt puffy cheeks. She splashed some water on her face, sniffled once and
opened the door wi
th a smile as false as a drag queens eyelashes
. Jeanne chose to ignore the hostile waves coming off her
offspring;
instead she turned on the Television.

    "
Twelve
channels and nothing on," Jeanne said sarcastically. Gloria gave a curso
ry chuckle but otherwise continued getting dressed. Things were boiling over, Jeanne could tell. She gave Gloria another week, tops, before she snapped under the pressure of keeping her love of Master Orleans a secret. Oh, how she loved fucking with the g
i
rl. She quirked a lazy smile before switching off the TV and turning towards Gloria.

    "You didn't enjoy 'Everybody loves Voroniny'?" Gloria teased.

    "Too contrived," she answered.
“
I
’
m heading out. I
’
ll need something to wear tonight. Would you lik
e to come?”
She asked, knowing Gloria loved shopping but was too angry to say yes.

    “
No, I
think I
’
m just going to catch
up on my weapons cleaning.”
She didn
’
t
meet Jeanne
’
s eye as she turned toward her suitcase. They both knew she was lying, she had cl
eaned her enormous stash of guns just days before, but neither said a word. Jeanne grabbed her coat and walked away. As was her c
ustom, she eased silently past
Dominic and Claude
’
s room. Claude was still asleep, being among the youngest of the group, but D
ominic was wide awake. She was quite amazed to find that after five hundred years she could still blush. Though she hadn
’
t entered the room, the sound of Dominic pleasuring himself in the bathroom was clear as a bell to her from the hallway. This was new,
he had never done this before as far as she could tell, and she wondered why the sudden change. Was it because he was going into the club tonight? She had heard somewhere that men
pleasured
themselves before a date, to relieve tension or something like tha
t. Where had she heard it from? Was it
There
’
s Something About Mary
or
perhaps
from Josephine Baker
? She sho
ok her head, trying to stay in the present as Dominic seemed about to wrap things up.
Both of their hearts pounded as he spilt
himself onto the bathroom floor.

    “
Mon Dieu
...Jeanne
,”
he exclaimed as he slid to the floor, his back thumping against the wall where her head rested. She backed away
quickly, shocked to hear her name on his lips. He was gay, was he not? She had only
seen him drink from men, as she had been following him for some time now, out of boredom. Maybe he was bisexual. Her ear found its way to the wall again and she listened as he zipped his pants and exited the bathroom. She backed away
again;
sudden
ly
worrie
d she would be caught listening. It was a ridiculous thought as no one would ever know she was there unless she wanted them too, but the moment was a private one and she felt a sudden rush of guilt for having heard it. She walked away, telling herself tha
t
it wasn
’
t her fault the man had decided to take himself in hand just as she was walking by.
The sun had set behind the
buildings of Volgograd as she exited the front of the hotel. There was a shopping plaza east of the hotel and she made her way toward it
. The snow had thankfully melted while she was asleep. She was sure the shoes she would end up in tonight would not be conducive to walking in six inches of frozen wasteland. The plaza was full of humans running about, doing daily activities that they too
k
for granted. Jeanne for the most part enjoyed watching h
umanity go about its
business. I
t w
as a favorite past time of hers
but tonight she ignored them as she quickly located a shop that would provide her with the correct style needed for tonight
’
s activi
ties. She flitted around for a few minutes, deciding between a dress or a top and skirt combo before she made up her mind.
A quick swipe of her credit card and she was on her way back toward the hotel. She stopped just outside the building to make a quick
call to The Orchid. It rang four times before Ember
, her bartender and loyalist employee,
picked up the phone. She sounded groggy. Must have fallen asleep in the office again.

    “
By all that is Holy, what do you want?”
She demanded.

    “
Just checking in
, Love,”
she answered.

    “
It
’
s seven in the morning here, do you realize this?”

    “
Yes,”
Jeanne said.

    “
I hate you.”
She didn
’
t. “
What did you need?”

    “
Like I said, just checking in. I worry about my girls when I
’
m away for so long.”

    “
We
’
re f
ine. As good as we all were two days ago when you called. Any word on when you
’
ll be back, so I can finally get a good mornings sleep?”
Ember growled.

    “
Soon,”
she answered.

    “
You
’
ve been saying that for months. This Were business is getting
ridicul
ous. Can
’
t they wipe their asses without you having to be there to supervise?”
Ember didn
’
t know the truth about Jeanne and she liked it that way, but sometimes she would have like
d
to enlighten the girl, just once.

    “
The situation is a tad more complicated than ass wiping,
cherie
. Perhaps I will fill you in upon my return. I
’
m trusting you to not to run the business into the ground until I get back,
Ç
a va
?”

   
“
Yes, yes. Now, let me go back to sleep.”

    “
Good nigh
t.”
She flipped her phone shut before Ember could respond. They had an understanding. Jeanne did whatever she wanted and Ember put up with it. She skipped past the lobby to the back stairwell, not wanting to run into Dominic for fear his sensitive ears wo
u
ld perhaps pick up the sudden racing of her heart. What had changed between yesterday and now, other than her discovery that yes, he was in fact a hot blooded male? She had thought to pro
voke him yesterday with her
game of Quid Pro Quo, mostly out of bored
om
.
She was finding that teasing him was fun.
He rarely showed a crack in his faç
ade.
Rarely gave anything away about himself.
She would pay strict attention to him toni
ght. He was quite the mystery a
nd she loved to solve a good puzzle. Gloria was still in
the room when she returned. From the opposite end of the hallway she could hear Alex and Vic approaching their room
as well
. Gloria didn
’
t make so much as a peep when Jeanne tossed her bag into the bathroom and flopped down onto the mattress.
As she lay b
ack on the bed Vic and Alex walked into the room.

    "Hello ladies,”
Jeanne greeted. 

    "Hey Jeanne." Alex
flopped
down o
n the bed next to her. Vic straddled
a chair.

    "So, it's your turn tonight," Vic said. "I've been thinking. Adam and I should g
o in with you, just to introduce you to the upper level patrons. We'll stay for a spell,
and then
split. It should smooth over the transition."

    "Good idea. Ethan and I can come too. I didn't want to admit it in front of the guys, but I've been having a
blast in there," Alex admitted sheepishly. Victoria blushed prettily. "You too?" Alex asked
, seeing
her reaction as well.

    "I know I shouldn't but yeah. Christ, it's so intense! All that sex in the air. It's too heady for my Were senses," Vic fanned he
rself off with her hand. Gloria slid Jeanne a look. Neither of the other women in the room knew the truth about them. It would stay that way as well. It was bad enough th
at Adam and Dominic knew
. Jeanne was still unsure of what to do about the Green Eyed D
evil
’
s knowledge of her Hybrid nature
.
Or how he had come to find out
about it, but she would discover the truth eventually.

    "I'll be fine, I assure you." Jeanne smiled.

    "We
know you will. You
’
r
e
much too restrained to react the way we did. I'm so freaking
embarrassed
." Alex laughed. Did the chit just call her restrained? Gloria slid her another look, this one said
'Don't'
.

    "Go over the layout of the club with me again," Jeanne said to Vic in
stead.

    "Again? Alright." Vic leaned back in the chair, rocking the feet off of the floor. "The building
was converted from a Cold War steel m
ill.
Its
walls are the original concrete and steel. Some walls have been added, you'll be able to tell which, a
nd you should assume that the added rooms are being
monitored
. The outside perimeter of the building will be
routinely
monitored
by the staff. The dance floor, the three bar areas, the booths."

    "How timely are the rounds?" Jeanne asked.

    "About ever
y fifteen minutes, but they switch it up depending on how busy or the amount of activity. They're all very thorough. That's why Adam felt it
necessary
to switch out tonight. They've been circling us the past two nights." Jeanne nodded. It made sense. They
might even have gotten word from some cohort of Dante's that they
had
missed
in Europe
, letting them know that the Orleans Pack and King John's Investigations were on their tail. If so, they had to grab as many girls as they could and fast.

    "I'll work
on finding the daytime location. Dominic can cover the girls," Jeanne said.

    "I love the way she says
'Dominic'
. Don't you guys?" Alex said. Jeanne stared
calmly, inside she wondered if
maybe she was giving something away, saying his name differently.

    "How do I say it
?" Jeanne replied. Alex frowned, suddenly insecure.

    "I don't know. All French like. You roll your letters together and everything sounds like sex on a stick." She shrugged at Jeanne. "It's not a bad thing."

    "Would it be better
if I sounded like this?" Jeanne asked in a perfect American accent. Alex and Vic scoffed.