Cake (54 page)

“
No,” Marcus answered. “He just thinks I have a special talent. Does he know about you?”

“
Well, thanks to Frederick’s ad campaign, I’m kind of hard to miss,” I told him. “Match that up with a police record for prostitution, and the missing person’s report out on me, and it was probably only a matter of time. This is all entirely my fault.”

“
You did not shoot me in the throat,” Marcus threw back at me before asking, “What happened to the assassins?”

“
They’re no longer a concern,” I said simply.

“
You killed them? Oh, Xavier…”

“
Don’t. I’m not done with the killing yet. Put Claudius back on.”

“
Xavier…” Marcus’s voice softly whispered my name into my ear, and there was so much emotion in that one word that it pulled at my heart. Shade was right; I
was
in love with him.

“
Don’t make me think about it, Marcus. Please, put Claudius back on, or I’m hanging up.”

The phone was handed back, but not before I’d heard Marcus’s angry retort of, “We are not done yet!”

“
Xavier?” Claudius’s voice was a whole lot of calm.

“
Don’t take Marcus back to the Manor,” I said. “There might be more waiting for him there. How many knew he was coming here tonight?”

“
I had suggested it earlier in the week, but I did not know we were coming for sure until I got the call from your mother. I called Marcus right after that. What are you thinking, Xavier?” Claudius asked.

“
That there might be a traitor in your midst,” I told him. “You can tell Marcus, but do it later. Explain that I’ll take care of it after I deal with this other situation.”

There was a pregnant pause, then, “Can you carry out what you intend? You are alone out there, after all.”

That comment made me stop and think about what was going on. I had fully expected Claudius to start ordering me to get my ass back to them. Instead, it sounded like I was getting his blessing. I cleared my throat.

“
I’ve got a Hellcat. I’ve got a rifle. I’ve got ammo and I’ve got fangs. And just for surprise, I have wings too. They won’t know what’s hit them,” I said, my voice full of a confidence I didn’t quite feel. “You just keep Marcus safe for me,” I pleaded.

“
If I have to tie him down, I will,” Claudius promised.

“
He’d like that,” I laughed. “I’ll call you later when it’s all done.”

As I snapped the phone closed, Shade began shrinking her body into that of a housecat. The transformation was always so cool to watch.

More comfortable for me, Xavier, while you’re driving
.

My fingers tightened around the steering wheel, and I sat there for a moment, just staring out through the windshield, listening to the beating of my heart as it settled into a higher beat than what was normal. Then again, nothing about this night was normal.

Xavier?

I killed three people tonight, Shade. I probably will kill three more.

Would you rather have Marcus dead?

No!

They started it. You finish it and finish it hard, so no one will dare come after your family again. That is the sign of a ruler…and you will make a good ruler, my Lord Emperor
.

Shade snuggled her body in closer to me, settling down beside me and pressing up against the warmth of my low rider leathers.

Are you ready now?

Ready as I’ll ever be.

I started up the car and threw it into drive, switching the radio on and scanning the bands, searching for some music that was appropriate to commit mayhem and murder by. Nothing took my fancy, so I set it back to a John Tesh song I found on an easy-listening station.

At least, I could calm down a bit.

Kill me, kill me now.

Shut up, Shade. I like him. Go to sleep.

The car sped back toward the city, and I tried not to think about what I had to do…what I was going to do.

T
wenty-Four

Angel of Death

Ain’t it always the way…You’re on a road trip, and there is nothing good to listen to on the radio. The CD player did have some outdated greatest hits in it, but I wasn’t that desperate to listen to music. Instead, I let the haunting notes of the waltz I had danced to earlier play out in my head, along with the image I could still see of Marcus, laid out in a growing pool of his own blood. Shake it off. Stay objective.

I’d always heard the term “stay frosty” being mentioned in movies. I understood what it meant now. I had to keep my edge hard. Block out the bad stuff and concentrate on the mission ahead.

Shade happily snored on the seat next to me. Who knew cats snored? And she didn’t keep it quiet either. I glanced down and saw her paws twitching as she slept. What was she dreaming of?

“
Shade. Shade? SHADE!”

Her head popped up off the seat and she looked at me, blinking.

Are you drunk, pretty kitty?

Yeah. Too much essence. Too much at once. I feel bloated.

She yawned and flattened her ears to her head before lying back down. I reached over and poked at her ribs.

Do that again, Xavier, and you’ll lose a finger.

We’re almost there.

I’m up. I’m up, for Pete’s sake, I’m up already.

I glanced over and saw that she was licking at herself, between her back legs. “Ewww.”

Avert your eyes, you pervert. You’ve done worse.

Averting, averting, averting. By the way, if I could do that…

Shut up!

Note to self—cats are crabby if you wake them up.

It was 3:00am when we finally pulled into the city. At every major intersection we passed I saw my own smutty face staring out from billboards. Jeez, it was embarrassing…and sort of hot, considering I’d been a dorky fat kid all through school and for several years into my career. Yet just look at me now! If that was what I looked like in Flame, it’s a wonder Marcus ever managed to prise himself off of me. Wait, he never really did get off of me. Not that I minded.

Oh God, you’re thinking about him again.

What?

Shade did a funny kind of shiver that made her fur puff out from her body like she’d just stepped out from under a hot hair dryer.

You get this strange smile on your face every time you think of him. It’s sort of a grimace, but with joy in it.

Her little kitty tail smacked down on the seat between us. Being so small you wouldn’t think that it could have the same effect on me as the large red panther one that she wielded with such skill and pride, but I guess there’s something to say about conditioning, because I actually flinched.

Get your game face on, Xavier.

I looked across at her. Where the hell had she gotten that expression?

Your father and I would watch Sunday football when you and your mother were cooking dinner. And based on that information alone, you preferring to play housewife, how could you not be aware that you were gay?

Not a topic to be discussed, Shade.

But…

“
I said no. Now concentrate, we’re here. There’s two men posted outside Randall’s door. Can you get up on his balcony?”

You’re in a huff so you won’t Silent Speak to me?

Alright, I’m in a huff. Because you keep pushing me, Shade. I’ve got to put a bullet through someone’s head tonight. I’m a little agitated over the whole thing, and you’re not helping.

Her little kitty eyes peered out through the side window as Shade stood up on the armrest of the door.

I’m sorry. I keep forgetting you’re not even five months old. Is it apartment 6B he’s holed up in?

Yes. I’m going to park three blocks back and come over the roof. What’s the range on Silent Speak?

We are blood bonded. There is no limit unless one of us is dead…and that would be you.

Slowing down, I lowered the window so Shade could jump out, noticing that I had caught the attention of the doorman. I slowly continued on my way, turning my head side to side as if I was searching for an address.

I drove a couple of streets over, parked the car, took the gun case from the trunk and then, backtracking to the building I had selected for making my ascent, I scaled the wall a little before pulling the fire escape down. Its unfolding hinges sounded like broken fingernails on a chalkboard, the screeching noise causing the small hairs on the back of my neck to stand on end. Considering this was supposedly a ritzy part of town, you would have thought that they’d keep the damn thing oiled. Then again, this whole place was now a ritzy re-vitalized area. They probably never thought to check it.

Climbing quickly up the rungs, I pulled it back up behind me. I could feel the whole structure shake and squeal in protest as I did so, and I shivered as I pictured my body plummeting to my death, bits of rusted and broken fire escape clutched uselessly in my hands.

As I made my way to my target, I thought back to how I had watched that vampire leap over the rooftops above me when I had been running like a fool from alley to alley a few months ago. I’d thought it was impossible to leap from building to building, until I’d seen that guy in action. Well, at the time, I had been a ‘wet behind the ears’ fledgling who’d had more experience lying on his back than being upright, as Shade liked to point out more times than I cared to hear.

“
It’s so easy to do,” she’d say during training. “A regular first day fledgling should have been able to do it, why not you?”

Why not me? Because I had been too busy learning other skills. Marcus had me trained well, considering I fought like a tiger against him. Though it didn’t matter how hard I tried, in the end he always got what he wanted. And I got what I wanted too, even though I’d convinced myself that I didn’t want it. It’s never a good thing to consider yourself a slut, but I
had
been on my back all the time. And you can’t learn a hell of a lot when you’re getting nailed to the mattress with every breath.

But I knew now that if I really hated it, there were other ways to escape from him that I never considered at the time. I’d learned a lot about myself, and about being a vampire, these past four months. Thanks to Shade, I was getting a crash course in how to be a vampire, and I knew I’d better learn my lessons fast and I’d better learn them right, or I was going to be a dead fledging vampire, and Marcus would be minus his favorite slut.

Xavier?

I had no idea where Shade was but her voice, cutting into my thoughts, sounded loud and clear in my skull. Crouching, I crab walked along the ledge I’d just jumped on, moving to a spot that would give me a clear line of sight.

I’m just coming up into position. How’s the target?

Pacing. He’s got a couple of bodyguards in there with him. He’s just put the phone down and he appears to be really pissed, muttering the name Monahan followed by a very colorful, descriptive commentary.