Scary Dead Things - 02 (28 page)

“Point taken,” she answered.

“OK, let's meet up at that espresso shop James likes. We can talk then.”

* * *

The four of us met up as planned about a half hour later. Sally was already there, and I saw that she brought Gan's clothes with her. Good idea. In all the chaos, I had forgotten that Gan was still dressed like something a blind man would cobble together from the Good Will box.

“Hey,” I said by way of greeting. Sally nodded back at myself and Starlight and gave Gan a sour glance. “So how are we looking?”

“Not good,” Sally said. “Between the brawl with the HBC and tonight, we're down to half a coven.”

“The others?”

“I got a few of them on the phone, told them to spread the word.”

“So what about those places you told me about, the ones off the grid?” I asked.

“Three come to mind. As far as I know, the warehouse where we dusted Jeff should be safe. That leaves...”

“Um, I don't think so,” said Starlight in a small voice.

“What are you talking about?” Sally rounded on her.

“I may have mentioned it to Colin while I was up there,” she squeaked in return. Colin was normally James' assistant in overseeing the Northeastern covens. However, since James was out of country, that left Colin in charge. Unfortunately for us, Colin was a little suck-up of a weasel. If he had information that any of the Draculas wanted, you can bet he handed it over to them on a silver platter.

“What the hell were you thinking!?” Sally growled.

“Well, you called me when I was up there,” Starlight started rambling. “After you told me what was going on, it might have...”

“Might have
what
?” Sally got in her face.

“Slipped.”

“How does the location of our secret safe house slip?” Sally hissed. I could see tinges of black starting to work their way into her eyes. She was not a happy camper.

“It just did!” Starlight pleaded. “Colin was there when you called, and he started asking me questions...”

“OK, enough!” I said, getting between them. “What's done is done, Sally. At least we know the warehouse isn't safe. We need to get the word out to not use it.”

“Fine,” she replied through gritted teeth, still glaring at Starlight.

“So what else do we have?” I asked, trying to get us back on track. Normally I'm all for a good chick fight, especially when the chicks in question look like Sally and Starlight. Throw in some tight T-shirts and a vat of Jell-O, and we'd have ourselves a party to remember. But now was probably not the time to indulge in twisted little fantasies like that. The last thing I wanted was to be distracted by some wet dream and then wake up to discover that the Khan was going to be skull-fucking my dismembered head for the rest of eternity.

“It's not great,” replied Sally. “There's the place where we met with the HBC.”

“Boston doesn't know about that?”

“No, but the Queens vamps obviously do,” she confirmed. “If word gets out that we're using it and they decide to fuck us over...”

“Gotcha. What's left?”

“Your apartment,” she said.

“
My
apartment?”

“Yes. As far as I'm aware, only a few vamps in the coven know where you live.”

“The Brooklyn safe house it is, then!” I said.

“But what about...”

“We'll deal with the HBC if we need to,” I said, cutting her off. “I'm not hosting a vampire slumber party.”

“God forbid you ever do anything to add some class to that place,” she quipped.

“I'm serious, Sally. Get the coven into Brooklyn. Arm them with every stake you can find, and then have them lay low. If need be, I'm not too far away. But there's no way you're all staying at my place. Not gonna happen. Besides which, I only have one bathroom.”

“Fine. I'll send most of them there with instructions to stay put, stay vigilant, and only open the doors for someone they know,” she said.

“I couldn’t help but notice that
most
part again,” I pointed out.

“Good to know you pay attention to something other than my chest on occasion,” she replied. “I hope you enjoyed spending quality time with Gan because she's going back with you. Oh, and in case you're wondering, I'll be joining her.”

I must be such a repressed closet homosexual that even I don't know it because I never thought in my life that I'd be arguing
against
a woman of Sally's looks shacking up at my place for a few days. But yet, there I was. One night with Gan had been bad enough. Potentially several nights with both Gan and Sally sounded like an explosion waiting to happen. In close quarters, they'd no doubt be at each other’s throat constantly, and that didn't even count my two human roommates and their tasty, blood-filled selves. I wasn't sure I had enough sanity in me to referee that kind of nonstop cage match.

Yet, Sally’s words did have some logic to them. As usual, it was just enough to make me question my course of action.

“These guys are after Gan,” she pointed out. “Therefore, it stands to reason that Gan should be kept away from the others.”

“And why does that mean my place?”

“Because the assassins are after you too, stupid,” she continued. “If both of their main targets are together, that's even better for the rest.”

“OK. I can see your
Star Trek
logic here.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Sally spat.

“Your whore is being insolent again,” Gan cut in.

“Not now, Gan,” I said, and then turned back to Sally. Oh yeah, those two in the same apartment together. Hoo-boy! “And as for you, I believe the phrase is '
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
'  That’s from
The Wrath of Khan
, just in case you were wondering.”

“I do not believe I have ever heard my father say that.”

“Different Khan, Gan,” I said, noticing Sally giving an eye-roll in response. “Anyway, logical or not, how do
you
play into this?” I asked Sally.

“It's pretty simple, really. I've gone stark raving insane,” she answered cryptically.

“I'm not doubting you, but that's not quite the answer I was looking for.”

“I've obviously gone bonkers,” Sally explained, “because rather than the safety of numbers that the coven offers, I've decided to stick with you. Two reasons: You get ashed, and I probably go back to being some other vampire's chew toy; and secondly...and Lord help me for this, but I actually believe in you. Yeah, I know, sounds crazy to me, too. But you just keep beating the odds, Bill.”

Wow, that almost sounded like a compliment. “I may beat the odds occasionally, but...” I started to say.

“Most of the time, it’s only because I’m there with you!” she interrupted. “I know. So I can't help but think, against all logic, that the absolute safest place for me to be is plastered next to your imbecilic side.”

I actually smiled at that. It was kind of sweet in an insulting sort of way. I held up a fist in front of Sally. “Partners?”

“Partners,” she confirmed with a fist-bump.

“Do not get any ideas, whore,” added Gan. “When this is over, he is still mine.”

* * *

We decided to first accompany Starlight to the safe house. From there, she could coordinate making sure the others arrived safely as well. Gan's senses were the most acute amongst us, and we periodically had her checking to see if she could sense whether the assassins were close by. She didn't catch wind of them, which was good. A few subway stops later, and I felt better about that. As I said before, good luck with a bunch of yak herders trying to negotiate the NYC tubes successfully.

We gave the building a once over, making sure no non-coven vamps were hiding anywhere, and then helped to secure the exits. Once we were relatively sure of the building’s security, Sally, Gan, and myself grabbed a cab back to my apartment. We then wound up hoofing it the remaining mile or so after Gan insulted the driver and got us thrown out. Can't tell you how
glad
I was that I got to spend some more time with the pretty little princess. Every hour with her felt like five.

Unfortunately, she was only part of the problem. I had a trio...or what I assumed were a trio, nobody had actually seen them and lived to give a tally yet...of assassins in the city, gunning for my ass. There had to be some way both to keep them from killing me and convince Gan to go back home with them. Unfortunately, for the life of me I had absolutely no clue as to how to do that. If I somehow, through some miracle, live long enough to join the Draculas, I'm going to institute a policy of talking through our troubles. Maybe start each of our meetings out with a group hug. Yeah, that could work...maybe.

Oh well, hopefully all of this could wait until the morning. Most vampires were strictly night people. For those keeping score, I was, too but, since I had a job to do, I had trained myself pretty well to be able to function during daylight hours...minus maybe any sunbathing. If we could make it until then, I could be relatively sure of a few hours of peace, during which the assassins would be sleeping and I could maybe think of something to do.

Speaking of sleeping, I was also wondering what the arrangements were going to be. I had given Gan my bed the night before, and I would probably do so again; however, that left Sally. I was pretty sure Sally wasn't going to be all that enamored with sharing a bed with the little girl who called her a whore with every other breath. Maybe Tom would be out again, and she could take his room...after getting
extensive
instructions of what not to touch. Yeah, this was going to be a disaster.

Before stopping at my building, we did a quick circuit of the block to allow Gan to sniff out whether Nergui and his buddies were anywhere close by. After a few minutes, she stopped and wrinkled her nose.

“They are not here...but there
is
something,” she said.

“Define ‘something’,” I replied

“There is something...unnatural in the air.”

“But no vampires?” Sally asked.

“No. There are no other vampires near. But there is...”

“Listen, honey,” said Sally. “This is New York. Pretty much everything smells unnatural here. If there’re no vamps, I say we're golden.”

I shrugged and replied to Gan, “Sally's got a point. You're probably just getting a whiff of the streets in general. Tomorrow's garbage day, after all.”