Save the Last Vamp for Me (15 page)

One of her hands crept up to touch her neck, calling my attention to a set of jagged scars. They looked as though a vamp had bitten down and then jerked away without fully opening its mouth. She frowned. “So?”

“As a blood donor, you must’ve spent a lot of time in the Barrows.”

“Yeah.”

My mind was scrambling. “Lira wasn’t turned all that long ago. Your scars are old.” None had the pink appearance of freshly healed wounds. “You stopped donating before she was turned?”

Angelique’s eyes slid away from my face. “Yeah.”

“May I ask why?”

Her fingertips brushed across the jagged scars. “I was attacked. Had a vamp that didn’t want to stop drinking.”

Oh, we were getting somewhere now, and I even thought I might know where. “How did you get away?”

“Another vamp came along, and spooked him, I guess. He let go and took off.” She shivered, probably thinking of how near a miss she’d had. “Just disappeared.”

“Do you know who the other vamp was?” I held my breath, waiting for her to answer, and remembering Tase’s mumbling:
Invisible, invisible, invisible
.

“His name was Ramon.”

Hello, Giant Freaking Clue. “Lady Esme’s Ramon?”

“Yeah. That’s how Lira met her. They called her to come get me.” Angelique blinked. I had the impression she’d surprised herself by volunteering the information.

“Okay.” Puzzle pieces were raining down, and falling into place. “Any idea why that guy was watching your place?”

Her face tightened, and she shrugged, plucking at the hem of her sweater. Darn it. I looked over at Soames, who freed a hand and flicked his finger across his throat. With a tilt of my head toward her, I silently invited him to speak.

He cleared his throat. “Miss Herrera, you’re wearing a lot of silver. Interesting thing about silver: It’s like poison to vamps.”

My new thing learned for the day. Useful now and in the future, so an excellent thing to learn. “You’re afraid because there’s a vamp after you. Who?”

She touched the necklaces, the scars, and dropped her arm to hug her knees to her chest. “It’s the one who attacked me. They were trying to find him. Said he was breaking the law, trying to drain me.”

I nodded, hoping my expression looked properly encouraging.

“Lira said, last time we talked, they’d tracked down three they thought were killing people. She was sure one of them was him.”

Three. Holy crap. I pulled the folder out of my purse and collected the photos of the three dead vampire lords. “Please look at these.”

Her hand trembled as she took the photos. The second photo captured her full attention. “Him. He’s the one that nearly killed me.”

I took the photos back and checked. “Merriven.”

Angelique licked her lips. “I think he killed them.”

I shook my head. “Maybe Esme and Lira, but he was killed before the others were.”

She stared at me. “No.”

“No, what? They found his ashes in his home.”

“He can’t be dead, because I saw him three nights ago. That’s why,” she gestured at her cascade of silver necklaces. “I haven’t left here since I saw him. He wants me dead too.”

She was afraid, could’ve thought she saw him. I wasn’t willing to take that chance. “Well, we’re not going to let that happen. Go pack a bag and put some shoes on. I’m going to take you somewhere safe.”

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I
left Soames standing guard over the unconscious vampire, and teleported Angelique to the Blue Orb. More specifically, David’s kitchen on the second floor. He jumped, the knife he was spreading mayo with clattering to the floor. “I really wish you’d call ahead.”

“Sorry. I need a favor.”

“Okay, what?” He bent to retrieve the butter knife.

I explained, while Angelique studied him, doubt all over her face. David grinned, an edge of fierceness sharpening it. “Absolutely, she can stay here.”

“He’s a warlock, and he won’t let a vamp near you.”

Angelique looked from him to me. “You’re sure?”

Admittedly, David didn’t look like a magical bad ass, in his beige slacks and baggy blue cardigan over a white button down shirt. The glasses holding on for dear life at the tip of his nose certainly didn’t help. “This is his Clark Kent. If a vamp shows up, you’ll get to see him turn into Superman.”

David blushed bright pink.

“I have a question too. How difficult are invisibility spells?”

“Ingredients aren’t difficult to find, but to find a spell that actually works? Nearly impossible,” David said.

“Thanks.” I patted Angelique’s shoulder, smiled at them both, and teleported.

Soames was flexing his right hand. “He came to.”

“Oh.” The vamp was out cold. Again. I shrugged. “Angelique’s safe.”

Soames didn’t ask where I’d taken her, just hauled the vampire up to sling the limp body over his shoulder. I touched the shifter’s arm, teleporting us out to my car. We dumped the vamp into the hatchback area and climbed in. I sighed. “Looks like we’re about done with this case, depending on what this guy has to tell us.”

“Are we going to question him?”

I shook my head. “Nope. We’re going to drop by the office for a minute. I need to check something before we call Derrick to set up a meeting. He can have Sleepy.”

Soames grinned. “Then let’s go.”

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T
he stop by the office was as brief as I’d promised Soames. I only needed to refresh my memory about something, and grab a few of the scene photos, before meeting with Derrick.

Back in my car, I called Stone. “Hey, we’ve found some new info we want to share. May I teleport directly to the library?”

“Yes, that will be fine. We had less than satisfactory results with the witnesses.”

“Bummer. We’ll be there in fifteen minutes.” I pushed the button on my car stereo to end the call. “I’m really liking this hands free thing.”

Soames was frowning. “I’m guessing that means they didn’t have their memories altered. But how could he make himself invisible?”

“I have a theory about that, and it doesn’t include spells. David says that invisibility spells that really work are nearly impossible to come up with.”

“What’s your theory?”

“You’ll just have to wait. No sense in repeating myself. By the way, nice job mentioning the silver thing.”

He looked at me. “You really didn’t know that?”

“Nope.”

“Huh.” His gaze went back to our passenger. “Well, you can set vamps on fire with a thought, so I guess no one felt you needed a different way to deal with them.”

“Guess not.” I knew there were big gaps in my knowledge of the supernatural, but sometimes, there were gaps I didn’t even realize existed. “Will silver kill them?”

“A silver knife or bullet to the heart should work just like a stake. Other than that, it’ll burn them, and weaken them as long as there’s particles of silver in their systems. Oh, and they can’t break silver chains.”

More useful knowledge. “I thought silver was bad for shifters.”

Soames chuckled. “No. Enough damage can overload our ability to heal. Burning us works, so does beheading. Of course, beheading works on most things. But silver itself isn’t a problem for us.”

“Wow.”

He looked at me. “What?”

“I’m having an ‘Oh my God, my life is completely off the rails’ moment. I have a vampire in my cargo area, and we’re discussing ways to kill people.”

“You should’ve been on our side of the Sundering. This was daily conversation for us.”

How freaking sad was that? I changed the subject, since we were near an entrance to the Barrows. “Oh, look. A parking space.”

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O
ur prisoner regained consciousness once more before we pulled him out of my car, but I kept Soames from clocking him a third time. “Awake is kind of necessary for questioning.”

“Right.” Soames settled for a tight grip on the vamp’s arm, just above the elbow. “Ready.”

Derrick and Stone were waiting in the library when we appeared. I smiled before making myself comfy on the couch, across from Derrick. “We come bearing gifts.”

“I see. Who is this?” Derrick studied our prisoner, who looked pretty scruffy now that I could see him conscious and bright-eyed with what appeared to be fear.

“No clue. I’ll get to him in a minute.” I was ready to enjoy myself. “First, the reason the witnesses’ memories weren’t altered is because the killer was invisible. Ever hear of telekinetic invisibility?”

Derrick shook his head.

“Okay, but you do know that kinetic abilities are basically about manipulating matter. A psychic with telekinesis can,” I concentrated, lifting the coffee table a few inches. “Make things move or,” I put the table down. “Hold up your hands like you’re going to push something.”

Derrick complied. I concentrated, thickening the air between us. “Okay, push.”

His hands moved an inch before encountering resistance. Surprise flashed across his face.

“Technically, that’s aerokinesis, but I try to keep things simple for the sake of my sanity.” Everyone but the prisoner chuckled, though I’m not sure what they thought was funny. “Light is also matter, so someone with kinetic abilities could learn to manipulate light too. And if you bend light around anything the right way, it becomes invisible.”

Derrick realized he still had his hands up, and dropped them. “The killer has this ability.”

“That’s what I’m thinking, yeah. I checked with an expert, and invisibility spells aren’t easy to successfully create. He didn’t teleport, or there’d be dead witnesses or they would’ve had their memories altered.” I retrieved the photos I’d collected. “Look at these. The first one is from the scene where Merriven’s ashes were found.” I’d scanned the photos quickly, and grabbed the first one I saw that had a blur in it that I didn’t take. “And this one, I took at Esme’s of Deborah’s ashes.”

“The blurs?” Stone asked, leaning over Derrick’s shoulder for a better look.

“Yep. Notice how they’re both tall, say about person height?”

“Yes.” Derrick passed both photos to Stone. “So, telekinetic invisibility.”

Time to drop the big bomb. “I know who your killer is too. Merriven.”

Derrick’s lips twisted. “Miss Jones....”

“You found ashes at his place, but that doesn’t mean they were his ashes. Plus, I have a witness who saw him after he was supposedly killed, and possibly his motive for faking his own death.”

My satisfaction knew no bounds when Derrick and Stone both came to full attention. I told them everything we’d learned from Angelique first. “Top that with this: I thought Tanaka and Holmesby looked familiar the first time I saw their photos. Didn’t know why, since I couldn’t remember meeting either of them. Earlier today, my memory was triggered, and I recalled something I’d picked up from Ginger.” My smile had faded. “It was one of Merriven’s ‘dinner parties’, where they were draining humans. Holmesby and Tanaka were there.”

“It’s rather convenient you remembered such a thing tonight,” Stone said, handing the photos back to Derrick.

“When I was first turned, one of the most difficult changes were the memories transferred to me. It’s quite easy to convince yourself to forget some things, in order to preserve your sanity.” Derrick met my gaze, and I nodded.