“I must admit, Lieutenant, that you are full of surprises.”
“Jordan. I’m off duty. And may I call you Erin?”
I grinned. “I’m off duty, too, Jordan.”
He ordered wine as we perused the menu. The prices were way above anything I could afford but nowhere near what I had seen in restaurants in New York, Washington, and London. I raised my eyes from the menu, and he caught me looking at him.
“If I couldn’t afford this, I would have chosen a cheaper restaurant,” he said with a smile. I returned his smile and focused on the halibut, the description of which made my mouth water.
After we ordered, he raised his wine glass. “To the most beautiful woman in Westport.”
I felt my face ignite. Refusing to meet his eyes, I said, “That’s really not fair.” I bit my lip, trying to hold it together. What I wanted to do was jump up and run, but I reminded myself of why I was there.
Blair reached across the table and laid his hand on mine. “I apologize. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I guess what I should have said was that I’m very glad to spend some time alone with you.”
His expression was very earnest, and I relaxed a little. I had thought about such a situation while I was getting ready that afternoon. “You don’t have to flatter me,” I said. “This is very nice, and I’m really looking forward to the ballet. I’d be much more comfortable if we could just think of us as friends—or comrades in arms, perhaps. And let’s just see how things work out. Okay?”
“I think I can do that,” he said.
“You don’t get out enough,” I said. “Dealing with corpses all day has to cloud your perspective. You’re just excited to see a woman who’s still breathing.”
He grinned. “You’re probably right.”
We had a nice dinner, and I was able to steer the conversation away from me and toward him. He had a sailboard and liked to sail on the river on his days off. He also had interests in travel and art. “Although I don’t get to travel as much as I’d like to,” he said.
After dinner, we strolled down the street to the opera house, which was a couple of blocks away. He led me to seats on the front row of the mezzanine.
“These are incredible seats,” I told him when we were seated.
“I was able to get the same seats I have for the opera. With a season subscription, I get first choice for other shows here.”
“Two seats? What would you have done if I couldn’t come?”
He laughed. “Asked my sister. She never turns me down.”
“Then she probably hates me.”
“No, she’s always telling me I should date more.”
His face was calm, relaxed, without the tension I always associated with him.
“Do you always find your dates from the list of current murder suspects?” I asked.
He blushed. “No. And you’re not a suspect.”
“But I was.” And I would never tell him his suspicions were correct as far as that vamp near the bus station.
Blair didn’t answer, but his blush deepened.
A few minutes later, just before the performance began, another couple came and sat down beside us. The man who sat next to me was Charles Mietzner, and his companion was a stunning blonde, maybe ten years older than I was.
Mietzner appeared to be around fifty years old, with brown hair and brown eyes. He stood a little short of six feet tall and seemed to be in good shape. He wore a bespoke suit, a diamond tie stud, and a Rolex watch. Everything about him exuded wealth and class.
His magic was palpable. Most mages could feel magic in someone else, but what kind of magic, and how strong, was a difficult thing to determine. In the same way, whether a mage was malevolent or not was impossible to tell. I had my own access to the ley lines choked down to an absolute minimum so as to seal my magic off from detection. Depending on how well he could do that, Mietzner might be very powerful and partially concealing it, or I could be feeling all of his power.
The performance started, and I allowed myself to be swept away in the music and the dancing. But I stayed aware of the fact that I held a portion of Mietzner’s attention.
When the intermission came, Blair introduced me, and Mietzner introduced his companion. She was a norm, and from her dress and jewelry, it didn’t require a wild guess to figure that she didn’t ever worry about paying her rent.
“I’m very pleased to meet you,” Mietzner said to me, holding my eyes with his own. “Jordan has been holding out on all of us.”
“I’m new in Westport,” I said, giving him a thousand-watt smile. “Jordan was kind enough to invite me tonight.” I reached out behind me, taking Blair’s hand and squeezing it—the kind of gesture meant to reassure him. But all my attention was on Mietzner, and all his attention was on me. His companion didn’t look especially pleased.
“Well, welcome to Westport,” Mietzner said. “I hope you find our city to your liking, and I hope that I’ll see you again.”
“I do like it here,” I said, “and I’m looking forward to meeting new people and seeing more of the city.” I held his eyes with mine, doing everything I could to project an invitation.
During the second part of the ballet, Mietzner leaned close to me and muttered, “I would enjoy learning more about you.”
“If I had your phone number, that might be possible,” I murmured back. When the performance ended, Mietzner shook my hand as we were saying goodbye, and left a small piece of paper with a phone number in my palm. His touch was almost electric. The man was definitely plugged into the ley line.
I put my arm through Blair’s while we walked back to his car. He seemed happy, and when he walked me to the door of my apartment building, I leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek.
“I had a wonderful time tonight. Thank you so much for inviting me.”
“Perhaps we can do it again,” he said.
“I would like that.” I used my key and entered my building, climbed the stairs, and reached my apartment. My wards were still in place, but sitting in the hall in front of my door was a head. A vampire’s head. She was blonde and macabrely grinning at me.
I whirled, casting a personal shield, but I was alone in the hallway. Not sure what to do, I cautiously made my way back downstairs, expecting to encounter the Hunter at any moment. To say I was freaked out would be a massive understatement.
I couldn’t see anyone in the parking lot, so I took off my heels and set them by the door. Opening it, I sprinted across the short distance to the office where Eleanor’s apartment was. I could see a light on in one of her windows. There was an emergency button next to the office door. I pushed on it and let it buzz, not caring if that was rude.
“What is it?” the box next to the buzzer asked.
“It’s Erin! It’s an emergency. Let me in!”
The door buzzed, I pulled it open, jumped inside, and pulled the door shut behind me.
“What is the matter?” Eleanor’s voice said from behind me.
I whirled around and said, “There’s a vampire’s head sitting in the hallway in front of my door.”
She didn’t waste any time, rushing behind the counter and picking up the phone. I could tell from her end of the conversation that she didn’t call the police, and that was confirmed about ten minutes later when Sam’s SUV pulled into the parking lot.
He came to the door, and Eleanor buzzed him in.
“Are you all right?” he asked, looking back and forth between Eleanor and me. We both nodded, and he gave me his full attention.
“You sure clean up damned good,” he said. “Now, what happened?”
“There’s a head in front of my door. A vampire’s head.” Even to my own ears I sounded a little shrill. I gulped some air and tried to calm down. I knew meditation exercises to calm myself, but practicing that sort of thing and actually doing it when confronted with someone’s bloody head were two different things.
“I tell people not to do that,” Eleanor said.<
br />
“Do what?” My voice rose almost to a shriek.
“Buzz people in if they don’t know them. People, salesmen mostly, will press all the buttons hoping someone will let them in without checking to see if it’s someone they know.”
More vehicles pulled into the parking lot. I recognized some of the people getting out of them as regulars at the bar. Others I had never seen.
“Well, let’s go see,” Sam said.
We waited for Eleanor to get some shoes on, then went outside. Sam held a brief conversation with the people outside, and a number of them fanned out, some going around my building and others checking out the area around the other buildings.
I led a small group to my apartment. Sam was huffing a bit by the time we reached the third floor.
He walked up to the head and lifted it by the hair, revealing a black stain on the carpet.
“Not much blood,” Sam said. “Looks like she was killed somewhere else and bled out before he brought her here.” He sounded so matter-of-fact. Maybe that was good, because I was freaking out and his manner calmed me down a little bit.
“Are your wards still intact?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“Open up,” he said. “I want to make sure there aren’t any surprises.”
I stepped around the black stain and opened the door. Sam started to follow me in, and I said, “You’re not bringing that thing in here.”
He looked at the head in his hand as though he’d forgotten he was carrying it, then carefully set it down on the black spot.
Sam and Eleanor followed me into the apartment and watched as I checked the place out. I even looked under the bed.
“No, as far as I can tell, no one has been in here.”
“What are you going to do with that?” Eleanor asked Sam, indicating the head.
“Give it to Blair. Where do you want me to tell him I found it?” he asked me.
“Not here.”
He nodded. “I’ll tell him I found it at Rosie’s. Close enough to the truth.”
I got a trash bag and he deposited the head in it.
Sam looked pointedly at the stain, and Eleanor said, “Don’t worry about that. I’ll take care of it in the morning.”
I reset my wards, and we trooped back downstairs where I retrieved my shoes.
The people who had deployed around the apartment complex trickled back and reported they hadn’t found anything or anyone suspicious. Soon, everyone got back in their vehicles and drove off. I went back upstairs to my apartment, stepping gingerly around the black stain.
I poured myself a double shot of whiskey, then undressed, put my clothes away, washed my face, and went to bed. It took a long time to fall asleep, and the dreams weren’t good. In one, a Hunter with the vampire’s head chased me around my apartment.
Chapter 23
I had told Lizzy and Jolene that I was going out with Blair, and they showed up at my place about ten o’clock in the morning.
When I opened the door, I looked at the floor. Eleanor obviously got up earlier than I did, and whatever spell she used on the carpet did the trick, because there wasn’t a trace of vampire blood.
“Let’s go to brunch,” Lizzy said, “and you can tell us all about your hot date.”
They took me to a restaurant overlooking the ocean, bright and open, with all-you-can-drink mimosas and a fantastic buffet. How they managed to land a table next to a window, I didn’t know, but the view was great. It was a rare bright and sunny day, with sailboats out on the water and gulls flying overhead. The sun sparkled on the whitecaps and the windows of the houses on the islands dotting the bay.
“So, spill,” Jolene said. “How was the ballet?”
“And how was Lieutenant Dreamy?” Lizzy asked. “Did you kiss him?”
My face flamed, and they both laughed.
“Are you going out again?” Jolene asked.
“Maybe. He has season tickets to the opera.”
“Ooo,” Jolene said. “A mutual interest in opera. Must be serious.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. I mean, I don’t know what love is supposed to feel like, but I don’t get all hot and bothered when I’m with him. Aren’t you supposed to do that when you’re in love?”
I told them about dinner and the ballet. They sobered when I described meeting Mietzner. Then I told them about the head, and their shock was obvious.
“Oh my God,” Jolene breathed. “Well, obviously you can’t meet with Mietzner. That’s far too dangerous. I mean, if he’s the guy who called in the Hunter, then he’s the one who’s trying to kill you.”
“I wouldn’t go alone,” I said. “I’ll arrange some kind of backup.”
That got me a couple of very skeptical looks. To change the subject, I pulled out the sketch Blair had given me. “This is the guy who hired the thugs who attacked Frankie. Is there any way you can use this?”
They both leaned forward, studying the sketch.
“Police artist?” Jolene asked.
“Yeah.”
Lizzy’s eyes seemed to cloud, and her face lost all expression. She sat like that, staring at the picture, for about five minutes. During that time, Jolene sat back and sipped at her mimosa, casually looking out over the view outside.
Eventually, Lizzy leaned back in her chair, her eyes cleared, and she reached for her glass.
“Anything?” Jolene asked.
“Maybe,” Lizzy said. “Possibly. I think I can feed you something to fuel a finding spell. Whether we come up with anything…” She shrugged.
Jill, the late-night bartender, came in an hour early that night. She ate dinner at the bar and we chatted. She was interested in hearing more about the vampire riot in the alley, and she laughed when I told her I had waded in using Sam’s magical bat.
“Yeah, I’ve only had to haul that thing out twice in all the time I’ve worked here,” she said. “I had a troll come in one night, and after he drank a couple of bottles of whiskey, he decided to bust up the place. I kneecapped him with than bat, and he went down like a chopped tree.”
“Do you get many Fae on your shift?” I asked. I had never seen one of the Fae in the bar.
“Every so often,” she replied. “They mostly hang out in Killarney, but once in a while, I’ll have one or two stop by. But that was the only troll. I think word got around that this wasn’t the place for them to go.”
Steve Dworkin and I left Rosie’s after our shift that night and were immediately jumped by at least a dozen vampires. I followed Steve out the door and didn’t have time to react before one of them shoved a gun against my head and pushed me face-first against the wall. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Steve pressed against the wall and a vampire holding a pistol barrel against the back of his head.
“Don’t move, and no one will get hurt,” a voice said. “Now, girlie, you’re going to walk, and be a good girl, or we’ll blow your boyfriend’s head off. Understand?”
“Yes,” I managed to say through gritted teeth. I was hyper aware that all it took was a jitter by some idiot and my brains would be splattered all over the alley. A fair fight was one thing, but that gun grinding into my skin about made me wet my pants.
My captor grabbed my coat at the shoulder and pulled me away from the wall, then directed me down the alley toward a waiting black car with its back door open. The gun never wavered, pressing firmly against my head. That didn’t stop me from pulling power from the ley line.
When we reached the car, the vampire released me and pushed me into the back seat. The pressure of the gun on my head disappeared, and I felt the barrel catch in my hair, then he pulled the gun away, trying to disentangle it.
I kicked backward and heard bone snap. The gun went off over my head, then I whirled and drove my fist into his throat. My other hand closed over his wrist and crushed his bones. He dropped the gun, and I snatched it up as I took off running, casting my shield as I did so. I hoped my escape didn’t put Steve in more danger. Hopefull
y, the distraction might give him a chance to escape, too. But I wasn’t about to get in that car if I could help it. I had visions of the cops pulling my body out of the river the next day.
A bullet hit my shield, while another hit the wall of the building next to me, and a third ricocheted off the sidewalk. When I reached the next street, I stuck out my hand and used the building to help me swing around the corner without losing much momentum.
Vampires are supernaturally fast, so I had no hope of outrunning them. All I wanted was to reach a place where I could turn and fight without any witnesses. Between Rosie’s and my apartment complex was a lot of open land—a park, several vacant lots, and an old flour mill that had been closed for decades, a crumbling ruin with a chain link fence surrounding it.
I stuck the pistol in my purse and drew the purse strap over my head. I couldn’t use the pistol with my shield in place, but I didn’t want to lose it.
One of the vampires caught up with me, suddenly running beside me and grinning at me. He thought he’d won the game. I cast a glance over my shoulder and didn’t see any more of them who were close.
I reached out and grabbed his arm, then sent a jolt of energy into him. His arm buckled in an unnatural way, and he flew from me, landing about twenty feet away and rolling along the ground. I kept running.
Two more vampires caught up with me as I reached the park, flanking me, and then trying to get in front of me. I assumed more of their friends were right behind.
As soon as they got close enough, I gave both of them a blast of energy that sent them tumbling.
My morning runs were something I dreaded. Some people got off on the endorphins and enjoyed that kind of exercise. I did it out of habit and the dread that I might fall out of shape. That night, I was glad I had kept up the practice. Vampires had a lot of supernatural abilities, but they couldn’t expend energy at a high rate forever. I had never heard of a vampire exercising regularly. They didn’t chase their prey but were ambush predators.
I reached the old flour mill and scrambled over the fence. The closest vamps were a couple of hundred yards behind me.
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