Those Who Fight Monsters (23 page)

Dawn felt her skin prickle on her right side. She waited for the heaviness in the middle of her own body to weigh her down, too, just like it had before she’d gone into self-imposed exile after the last Underground — the one in London — had been vanquished.

Rehab. That’s what her lover and companion, Costin, called it.

As a former vampire who’d been turned human again with the termination of her maker, Dawn knew just what it was like to feel the darkness as it tried to drag you under.

The chill came to her again, but this time, there was valid reason for it.

A curtain by the stage.

A hand that appeared briefly before disappearing behind the velvet, leaving it stirring.

Adrenaline rose in Dawn, leaving her heartbeat sharp and fast.

But no one else had seen. In fact, Tigerman left Dawn standing there as he caught up to Kiko, then began leading them backstage. Kiko slowed down to talk to Dawn, cocking his eyebrow as she sent one last look to that stilled curtain. Maybe she’d just been imagining things, if Kik hadn’t sensed anything amiss.

“Tigerman was closed off,” the psychic whispered to her. “He blocked out my touch reading.”

“Not everyone is open to them.”

“Bad guys never really are.”

As they followed Tigerman out a side door, Dawn’s skin kept crawling, and it wasn’t just because of what she thought she’d seen back in that showroom.

They’d agreed that Kiko’s hotel room was the best place to talk in private. Dawn perched on the king-sized mattress, opposite where the psychic was leaning against the dresser. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror, and didn’t much care for what she saw. Dawn didn’t look like a normal person, even with makeup covering the black marks on one side of her face — her very own physical manifestation of the anger in her soul. The splotches of red on the other side were a souvenir from the dying high master of the Undergrounds, who’d splashed her with his blood. Thank God they just looked like inexplicable tattoos.

“So how’re …
things
… right now?” Kiko asked.

“Things?”

“You know.”

Dawn shot him a sarcastic glance. “All we’ve done so far is tour the showroom and backstage.
Things
are cool.”

“But we’ll be going back to get readings with my equipment. I just wanted to see if you need … well, rest. Stuff.”

“Kik, this isn’t so bad when you consider that my days used to consist of slicing off vamp heads.”

“Are you sure that—” Kiko started.

“Hey — I won’t turn into a raging monster that’ll bite your head off because Costin’s not around to temper me.” She took a long breath and made herself relax. “Besides, before he got me to the airport this morning, he took care of me.”

Just like every morning, they woke up before sunrise and Costin had used his psychic energies to push back the dragon’s blood that always threatened to join with the vampire darkness inside her. With the death of her own maker, she’d gone human again, but the heaviness within had remained, growing in force and hunger until Costin had found a way to curb it. He kept the dragon away from the soul stain, because they feared a collision would resurrect the big master … in
her
.

“I’m sure you’re as mellow as ever, Deepak,” Kiko said, “but I’ll get you back to San Diego by tomorrow morning so you can be with Costin anyway. I just wanted your take on Gigi here.”

“If she turns out
not
to be a ghost, Costin’s gonna join us, you know.”

“Yeah.” Kiko didn’t sound happy. Not because he didn’t like Costin, but because if Gigi
wasn’t
a ghost, that’d throw a curveball into their new lives.

“Before Tigerman gave us the tour,” he continued, “I didn’t realize that Gigi has been appearing to everyone in her prime, just like she never aged a day past her supposed death decades ago. But I guess her looking that way would make sense if she’s a ghost now. I mean, there’ve been plenty of reports of spectral Elvises and Marilyn Monroes who show themselves at the peaks of their gorgeousness, before they went downhill.”

“So that proves Gigi’s a ghost, and not a humanized survivor of the Underground?”

“If she isn’t an apparition, she’d resemble an old woman now, since all the Elite vampires went back to their real human ages when their maker died. Even if Gigi found another vampire to turn her recently, she wouldn’t look brand spankin’ young again.” Kiko seemed troubled. “I guess maybe I’m just lookin’ for reasons for her to be a ghost, because what if it ends up that Gigi
did
survive? And what if she’s not the only ex-Underground vamp running around?”

“We never did hear of her or some of the other Elite vampires after they turned human again and fled the L. A. Underground.” They’d thought those humanized vamps had committed suicide, just like all the others who’d found themselves un-beautiful and aged. “Maybe her soul stain never got to her, like it did with the others, and she made her way to Vegas.”

The soul stain — the curse of a humanized vampire in the dragon’s line. Dawn only knew this because she’d survived it, in spite of the marks her rage had brought out on her skin — badges that no other survivor had. Maybe that made her real special. Yay.

Her ex-vamp father and mother had gotten through their soul stains by dealing with the despair in their own ways, but…

Kiko said, “So what’re we going to do?”

His meaning was clear: if they found suicidal ex-vamps — remnants of the hunts — didn’t the team have a moral obligation to help them? Shouldn’t they deal with the damage they’d caused?

Dawn faced away from the mirror, where she could see the vague reflection of her “tattoos,” even when she wasn’t really looking.

Despite her obvious discomfort, Kiko persisted. “Like you said, Gigi could’ve been different from the other ex-vamps. Maybe she fought the soul stain because she had more to live for. Just like you did.”

“Or maybe she’s only a ghost.” It was as if the more often she said it, the better chances were that it’d be true. “We could just be seeing the first case of a soul stain causing a manifestation of grief.”

Kiko looked doubtful.

“Is it out of the question?” she asked. “Can’t extreme loss or tragedy bind a spirit to a place they loved or to an area where they need to right a wrong? I wonder if a soul stain did make Gigi commit suicide, then left behind something we can all see now.”

“And that’s why she’s here — because the Bahia represents her at her best, and that makes this a heaven for her.”

Dawn could picture how many other ex-vamp ghosts might have already appeared elsewhere, too, plunged into the deepest sadness from their stains as they haunted the earth.

Maybe ghosts weren’t a better option than humanized vamps, after all.

“Costin never mentioned it,” Kiko said. “He destroyed so many Undergrounds over the centuries, and he never saw something like
this
before.”

“He never stayed around to tend to the mental health of a master’s surviving progeny, Kik. He had to move on from one Underground to another as fast as he could.” God dammit. “This could be the first time those consequences have come back to bite one of his hunting teams in the ass.”

“Fuck a duck,” Kiko said.

Dawn closed her eyes. “Fuck a million ducks.”

A security guard allowed Dawn and Kiko into the showroom again, thanks to instructions left by Tigerman, who wasn’t very interested in watching the “ghosthunters”; he’d just told them to be done by the time the staff came in for a rehearsal of the showroom’s feature,
Heat!
, which was dark today. He’d also arranged for some employees who’d witnessed Gigi to be interviewed for the “article,” and they’d be here in about an hour.

Meanwhile, Dawn and Kiko wandered around backstage with an electromagnetic field detector and an ambient temperature gauge, but they found nothing ghostly. Then Kiko set about trying to capture some Electronic Voice Phenomena with his recording equipment.

As he worked, Dawn could hear her heartbeat, which felt like it was coming from the center of the earth, shaking the floor, pounding at her neck, temples. She waited for the skin on her right side, where the dragon blood marked her, to throb also, but it didn’t.

Don’t answer our summons, Gigi,
she thought.
Be dead. Stay dead
.

Kiko guided Dawn away from the recorder because he wanted to allow Gigi some time alone with it, just in case she was a ghost who’d be reluctant to talk to them. Then they went out to the main showroom to sit in a booth, not talking much, until it was time for the interviews.

The subjects waited in the backstage area: “Roberto,” the emcee of the show, with his butterfly-collar shirt and smile-crinkled gaze; a fifty-something magician whose tamed country accent belied the name “Trevor Barkley”; his button-nosed, Bambi-eyed blond assistant Naomi; and an unsmiling, reedy theater usher who seemed coolly intrigued not only to be asked about a ghost, but to be interviewed about it by a soul patch-wearing little person, too.

“I saw Gigi first,” Roberto said, as he sat on one of the vanity tables in the large common dressing area. Behind him, bulbs lined a mirror, and Dawn could see hair plugs dotting the back of the emcee’s scalp. “Gigi was on those steps leading to the stage, just as bold as life.”

He pointed at the stairs to their right, and everyone looked, as if expecting to find her there.

Much to Dawn’s gratitude, they didn’t.

Kiko asked, “How do you know it was her?”

“No mistaking Gigi Calhoun,” Roberto said. “I’m her
numero uno
fan.”

The magician’s assistant, Naomi, cleared her throat, and Roberto chuckled.

“Okay. Maybe I share that honor.”

Naomi smiled at him and picked up a brunette wig behind her, starting to comb it out. In spite of her attempt at humor, frown lines decorated her forehead.

Kiko asked, “Could you see Gigi’s face? Tigerman said she appears with her hair half-hiding her features. Her dress and gloves cover the rest of her.”

Roberto had that dreamy fan expression — he was in Gigi-land, and Dawn wondered if his love for the star had been strong enough to conjure up a ghost.

“I’ve been a fan since I was old enough to watch old movies on TV,” he said. “I know my Gigi.”

Dawn asked, “How long did she stay?”

“Not long. She walked to the top of the stairs, then turned right once she got to the stage. It was during a show, and I was—”

The magician broke in “—flirting with the showgirls while you waited for your next cue?”

Everyone else but Naomi laughed, and Trevor slid her a grin, as if he liked teasing her about Roberto having a wandering eye. She didn’t seem as amused, and Dawn guessed that there was probably something hearts-and-flowery between the
numero uno
fans.

“As I was saying,” Roberto said, “I was able to run up those stairs pretty fast, but Gigi was gone.” He snapped his fingers. “Just like that.”

“I saw her in the back of the showroom about a month ago,” Naomi said, “while Travis and I were rehearsing a new trick on stage. When I said something, Travis thought he saw her, too.”

“Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t.” The magician settled back in his chair, all fading boyish good looks. “The lights were in my eyes. You should ask Victor about it, though.” He nodded to the usher. “He’s seen Gigi more than anyone.”

In response, Victor just shrugged. Dawn narrowed her eyes at him.

“How many times?” she asked.

“Three.” He had a voice as dry as a half-drunk martini. “She comes and goes.”

So nonchalant. “You see a lot of ghosts?”

Victor’s attention seemed focused on the pseudo-tattoos that Dawn’s makeup barely covered. She didn’t flinch. Let him stare.

“If Gigi has decided to hang out with us,” the usher said, “I say let her be.”

“I agree,” Trevor the magician said. “I was even hoping to put her in my act.”

Victor rolled his eyes. “Classy.”

Travis grinned at the rest of them. “Gigi was never shy about publicity, from what I hear. She’d be a boost for all of us. A draw. God knows we need the PR.”

Ah, the sweet stench of show biz, Dawn thought. She’d grown up in Hollywood, so she knew it well. It smelled just like piles of bloodstained money.

As Kiko went on to question them about details — how solid did Gigi’s form seem? What were the exact times and dates? —Dawn realized that there wasn’t much of a pattern to her appearances.

When showgirls and other staff began to arrive, Dawn and Kiko’s time was up. Tigerman had invited them to watch the rehearsal — a few tweaks to a rain forest number featuring the statuesque young ladies in towering diamond-shower headdresses, and not much else. Dawn and Kiko had asked to watch from backstage, since Gigi had been seen here the most.