La Vida Vampire (24 page)

Fists clenched in impotent rage, I turned my back on Ike to stand in front of Saber. “What now?” I asked, low and tight.

“We stop it before it gets out of hand.”

“Can’t you just shoot them?”

I heard the underlying wistfulness in my whisper, and Saber must’ve, too. He bent closer. “You have to face this, Cesca.”

“Why? Because they’re my people?”

“No.” He tucked a tendril of hair behind my ear. “Because they’re everything you work not to be.”

My breath left my lungs in a whoosh as I stared into his eyes for an endless moment. He was right. Hard as I’d tried to hide from the horror of my past, from the ugly part of myself, I had to face this. We had to save Janie and Mick.

“I only hope,” I said, jabbing my finger in his chest, “you brought an arsenal of silver bullets.”

He slid his gun from the holster under his jacket. “Locked and loaded.”

“Do we go in blazing?” I asked, straightening my spine.

“We play it by ear, but keep this in mind. Like it or not, you’re a vampire, too, and this is your turf. If things go south, grab Janie and Mick, and stay out of my line of fire.”

I nodded. “Let’s go.”

We turned as one to stride side by side toward the vampires. I envisioned an insane version of the shoot -out at the OK

Corral, especially with Saber on my right hiding his gun at his thigh. Eight feet from the living and undead, Saber and I stopped.

“Ike,” Saber said.

“Saber.” Ike’s fully dilated eyes showed only black as they flicked from Saber to me. “Francesca, Princess Vampire.”

His rich voice slid over me like raw silk, an infinitely more dangerous sensation than the skin prickles. Even my defunct title sounded like a caress instead of merely a name, and my throat ached to answer him. I might have, if Saber hadn ’t shifted at my side.

In that second, I realized that Ike was pulling energy from my aura. That ’s what caused the tugging tightness in my chest and throat.

I threw up my shield with a force that made Ike’s reptilian eyes widen. Surprised me, too, but life and death are powerful motivators.

“Public enthrallment is illegal, Ike,” Saber said steadily.

“He’s pulling aura, too,” I said. “That’s a staking offense, isn’t it?”

“It is,” Saber said, raising his gun hand in a slow, even motion. “Let the woman go.”

“Or you will what?” Ike sniffed. “Shoot me?”

“In a heartbeat.”

“A heartbeat? How appropriate when it would be your last,” Ike sneered, his fangs flashing white in the streetlights. “You would not kill one of us before we ripped you all to shreds.”

“You forget, Ike,” Saber said. “I have a vampire on my side. That evens the odds some.”

“Is this so?” Ike’s slashing eyebrows rose mockingly. “Princess Vampire sides with mortals over her own species?”

“Don’t put me in the middle of your pissing contest,” I snapped. “I put up with this crap from King Normand, but I’m not taking it from you.”

“We’re not bluffing, Ike,” Saber warned.

Ike ignored him, his beady eyes boring into mine. “Answer the question, Princess.” He dipped his open mouth toward Janie’s neck. “Do you choose mortals or vampires?”

Ike’s fangs hovered inches from Janie’s jugular. Saber was a deep breath from firing. Something in me snapped, and I acted on instinct.

I swung my gaze to the mocha-skinned female vamp in his entourage, and pulled her aura like a supersuction vacuum on full power. The vampire hissed as the first shock hit her, and she tried to fight me, but I’d siphoned energy to survive. I was a master at this, and I was ticked.

The vampire’s will broke, and she staggered forward to sag at my feet on one knee. Her black hair was an art piece of long cornrows with what looked like bits of polished bone beads. Human bone. Yuck.

I looked at Ike. His expression was more thoughtful than angry, but he vibrated with tension.

“Now who is committing the staking offense?” he asked sardonically.

“Self-defense, Ike. Right, Saber?”

He looked a smidge pale, but his eyes twinkled. “That’s how I see it.” Saber raised a brow at Ike. “So, Ike, what’ll it be?

Play games, or talk about Rachelle’s murder?”

That got Ike’s attention.

He straightened and let go of Janie. She swayed but stayed upright, and I breathed a little easier. Ike’s eyes narrowed on Saber. “You have something to report?”

“A second murder with the same MO as Rachelle’s,” Saber said easily.

“Gee, Ike,” I said, widening my eyes, “it’s been all over the news. Didn’t you know?”

“I do not watch mortal newscasts,” he said repressively, pupils bleeding back to as normal as they would get. “Saber, put your paltry gun away and explain.”

“Let these people go first,” Saber said. “Walk them to the street and break the thrall nice and slow so they don’t panic.”

“When Princess releases Laurel, I shall.”

I startled, because I’d forgotten the woman kneeling in front of me. That I’d pulled Laurel’s aura was one thing. That I’d effortlessly held it scared the hell out of me, but now was not the time to show it.

“Tell you what, Ike. Have Cici and Claire move the mortals, and send—” I motioned at the tall, white female vamp who’d stood like a statue through our face-off.

“Zena,” Ike supplied.

“Send Zena over here to get Laurel. We’ll each release on three.”

Ike snapped his fingers at Zena. She rushed to help Laurel stand and positioned her near Ike. Cici and Claire carefully led Mick and Janie to the street. When Saber counted us off, Ike and his male minion broke the thrall on both Janie and Mick. I freed Laurel so abruptly the air crackled with energy.

As Saber holstered his gun, Mick and Janie blinked into awareness of the here and now. Mick shot Saber and me a surprised look, then grasped Janie’s hand, and hurried off. They’d be missing time, but better that than missing blood. Or an entire throat.

Which is what I might be missing if I’d let Laurel come back to herself at my feet.

“She insults you, my lord Ike,” Laurel growled, black eyes shooting hatred. “She insults our entire nest. Let me kill her now and be done with it.”

“Silence.” Ike’s voice cracked like a barbed whip. “Saber, tell me of your investigation.”

“Saber is not investigating,” Laurel pushed. “He is sniffing around this one. I smell them, each on the other.”

“You’re probably right, Laurel,” I said, sugary sweet. “Saber’s been living in my space for a few days. Protecting me.”

Ike’s posture stiffened. “From whom? Rachelle’s killer?”

Laurel’s jaw muscles tightened, and it hit me that she had something to hide from Ike. I filed that tidbit away.

“We don’t know yet who killed Rachelle,” Saber said, all business, “but a Frenchwoman named Yolette Fournier was killed here on Thursday. She knew Rachelle and probably visited your club in the last week or ten days.”

“Many people visit my club,” Ike sniffed. “How was this mortal acquainted with my Rachelle?”

I waited for Saber to drop the bomb.

“Rachelle was accused of killing Yolette’s first husband,” he said.

“In France.” It was a statement not a question.

“That’s right,” Saber said mildly. “Did you know about the incident, Ike?”

“I knew. However, if this Yolette is herself now dead by the same killer—” He spread his hands as if looking for answers.

“Surely you do not think I had anything to do with this.”

“No,” Saber said, “but you might be able to give us a new lead if you answer a few questions.”

Ike tapped his chin, then shifted his gaze from Saber to me. “Are you assisting Saber in this matter, Princess?”

I glanced at Saber, who nodded. “Unofficially, yes. I’m helping narrow the suspect list.”

“And are you privy to what Saber would ask me?”

I shrugged. “More or less.”

“Then you must ask this of me.”

“Why, so I’ll owe you one? No dice.” I’d exposed my only real vampire skill for Ike to see, might as well speak my mind.

“It’s
your
vampire who died, Ike. You can be a good citizen and answer questions here, or I’m betting Saber can talk to you in a more official capacity.”

He paused so long, I thought we were headed for a standoff. “Very well. What do you and Saber want to know?”

I glanced at Saber. “Gorman first?”

“Start with Cassidy.”

“Fine.” I met Ike’s black eyes again. “Did you hire a man named Eugene Cassidy to investigate Rachelle’s death?”

“Rachelle’s murder, and I did not hire him. Tower —” Ike waved at the tall vamp who’d frozen Mick. “—caught Mr. Cassidy lurking in our parking lot. I merely suggested it would benefit his health and the health of his loved ones should he look into the matter for me.”

“Did Cassidy,” Saber said, “say he’d been tracking anyone?”

“A Covenant man,” Ike admitted.

“Have you had trouble with the Covenant in Daytona?” I asked, partly out of curiosity.

“They never seem to bother us for long.”

I’ll bet. Could I be as ruthless as Ike? Naw. In spite of pulling Laurel’s aura, I couldn’t pull off ruthless.

“Ike,” Saber said, “Yolette probably visited your club, but she would’ve been with her new husband. Do you remember a French couple being there last week?”

“I am not in the club, only the office. Laurel?”

She jerked ever so slightly, but I noticed it, and so did Ike and Saber.

Laurel tossed her head. “They seemed to be groupies, Lord Ike. Only interested in sex with us.”

Watching Cici and Claire from the corner of my eye, I expected them to flinch. They didn’t, poor trapped souls.

“Yes, they were into sex with vampires,” Saber said to Laurel. “We need to know what they did at the club. Did Rachelle leave with them?”

Laurel shrugged. “If she did, I did not see her go.”

Liar,
I thought, and knew I was right. Laurel had been jealous of Rachelle. That was plain in her eyes, never mind reading her thoughts.

“What about security cameras?” I asked. “Do you have those tapes?”

Laurel smirked but wiped her expression clean when Ike stepped to her side, mirroring Saber’s stance beside me. He took her hand and tucked it in the crook of his arm.

“I am afraid,” he said silkily, “that the cameras record digitally. They erase themselves after twenty-four hours.”

“Bummer,” I said.

“Any further questions, Princess?”

“Just one. Why did you show up tonight?”

“To take this famous ghost tour.”

I blinked. “Are you serious?”

He waved a languid hand. “It seems a quaint way to spend an evening, and I paid for the privilege in buying every ticket.”

“You bought thirty tickets?” Saber asked, sounding as astonished as I felt.

“Fine. Let’s do this.”

I spun to grab the lantern from the substation cabinet. When I straightened, I turned smack into Ike with Laurel still on his arm. He didn’t budge an inch, just stood staring at me.

“What?” I snapped, only partly in irritation. The other part was nerves because, well, the guy
was
scary.

“Are you setting up your own little kingdom in St. Augustine, Princess Vampire? If so, be warned I will not tolerate competition.”

“One vampire does not a kingdom make, Ike. I’m just doing my job and living a normal afterlife.”

“One hears you do not need to work.”

“One might also hear I’d be bored stiff if I didn’t—no pun intended.” I leaned forward, not into his face, but nearer. “Now, are we doing this or not?”

“Tut-tut,” he said. “Your tour manners leave much to be desired. Perhaps I will turn in a complaint. I have ways of applying pressure to have you fired.”

The tut-tut almost had me grinning, but when he attacked my manners—my excellent manners—that was it. My free hand planted on my hip, I glared.

“I’m not in a power struggle with you, Ike. If you want to do the tour, fine. If you want anything else, you can go whistle Dixie, because you’re not getting it from me.”

Laurel and the tall twins hissed like snakes, but I didn ’t back off. “I’m free and way over twenty-one, and I’ll do as I please. Got it?”

“We’ll see,” he said evenly, but he stepped back. “Please proceed.”

I rolled my eyes at the whole lot of them and began the ghost tour, doing my best to ignore the jealous rage emanating from Laurel.

The spirits were out in force, but from the first stop, they scrambled to hide from the vampires. It might ’ve been funny if I hadn’t felt so bad for them.

While Saber watched my back, Ike’s vampires did nothing but complain. They avoided the cemeteries and churches as sacred ground, and the fort and old Spanish hospital were snubbed as hallowed ground. The vampires bitched about walking instead of flying, and they flat-out heckled one of our most disturbing ghosts, Fay. The crabby ghost had gone berserk rattling windows. I’d need to mend fences with her before I took another tour by her house. I would’ve loved for the biting ghost at the oldest drugstore to take a hunk out of someone—preferably Ike or Laurel—but it wasn’t to be. When the building was moved back in 1887, it had been plopped down on part of the Tolomato Cemetery. If I really thought the vampires would fry on holy ground, I’d have cheerfully mustered all my vampire strength and speed to give ’em a shove and watch ’em burn.

Tacky, but true, and it would’ve saved me from having to see any of them again. I suppose you can guess that the abbreviated tour didn’t take long. In forty-five minutes we were back at the waterwheel, where music poured into the night from the Mill Top Tavern. I wrapped up my spiel with Saber at my side again.

“That was not as amusing as I had been led to believe, ” Ike said, eyeing his blood bunnies, Claire and Cici, as if contemplating punishment. “But the night is young. Perhaps you will both have a drink with us?”

“No, thank you,” I said as I put my lantern away.

“Excuse me?” Laurel snarled, elbowing Saber aside to crowd behind me.

I was
really
getting sick of people invading my space, but I faced her and forced myself to smile pleasantly. “I said no thank you.”

“Lord Ike allowed you to live this night,” Laurel said, the beads on her cornrows quivering with her intensity. “You will not refuse him.”