by Shéa MacLoed
The live band struck up a tune and Emory clapped her hands. "Oh, this is my song. Gotta dance. See you guys later." And she disappeared into the crowd, gossamer skirts swirling like fairy wings. If fairies had wings, which, believe me, they didn't. I'd met the Queen of the Sidhe more times than I cared to remember. She definitely did not have wings.
We helped ourselves to glasses of spiked punch and stood back to watch the action on the ballroom floor. I had to admit, it looked like a lot of fun. The music was great. The band, dressed in kilts and top hats, rocked out on stage while the dancers made a colorful splash of movement below. I couldn't help tapping my foot to the rhythm. I finally started to relax a little.
And then the screaming started.
Chapter Six
For a split second, everything went dead quiet. The band stopped playing. People stopped dancing. I'm not even sure anyone was breathing. Then more screams rang out, and people started running. Next thing I knew, there was a stampede toward the doors.
"What the bloody hell?" Kabita shouted over the noise. She rarely swore, but the circumstances definitely called for it.
I started toward the spot where I'd first heard the screaming, only to be nearly bowled over by a man carrying an enormous gun. Probably not a real one since the thing was bigger than he was and I could make out orange plastic beneath the black paint job.
Emory pushed her way out of the crowd, eyes wide and her once white dress splattered with blood. "Eddie, come quickly." She grabbed his hand and disappeared back into the mob. Kabita and I plunged in after them, then stumbled to a halt next to Eddie and Emory.
In the middle of the ballroom floor laid the crumpled form of a woman. Her dark hair was spread out around her like a cloud, her skin icy pale. Her Victorian gown was a dark crimson touched here and there with a bit of black lace. I would have assumed she'd merely fainted except for the gaping wound at her throat and the pool of bright red blood beneath her, spreading across the hardwood floor. I could make out footprints and smears where people had skidded in the slick blood.
"What the hell happened?" I asked, staring at the body. I had a bad feeling I already knew. I knelt to take her pulse. Definitely dead. Another person in close proximity to Eddie had been killed by a vampire. The pattern was falling into place.
"Eddie," Emory's voice was barely above a whisper. "I was standing right next to her. I saw what happened. It was…." She glanced around as if to make sure no one was listening. "A vampire." She whispered the last word.
I glanced at her, startled. She knew about vampires. How? And what else did she know?
"Yes, my dear." Eddie patted Emory's hand. "That much is obvious. Why don't you run and fetch the head of security."
"Are you sure that's wise?" Kabita asked.
"I'm afraid there's no hiding it this time," Eddie said with a sigh. "Although how we shall explain this, I do not know."
"Why do we have to explain it?" I asked. "It's not like we were anywhere near the body."
"With so many eye witnesses, it's best we come up with something rather than let speculation run wild," Eddie said.
I stood up and moved closer to Emory. "Did you see the vampire?" I asked her.
She looked a little surprised. "I…ah… that is…"
"Don't worry. Morgan is a Hunter," Eddie said.
That seemed to give her relief, though I was surprised he told her. Clearly she was in the know about things supernatural. Very interesting. "Well, then, yes, I did. Clear as day. I didn't realize what he was, at first. When I saw those red, glowing eyes, I thought he was a demon."
Kabita and I glanced at each other. Soul vamp.
"He just walked up to her," Emory continued. "Grabbed her and sank his teeth into her throat right in front of everybody."
"Everything will be all right," Eddie said, patting her hand again. "Now go. Quick as you can."
With a nod, she took off running, gold slippers making a light tapping sound on the floor.
"Wonderful. Now everyone knows there's a vamp on board. We're going to have to make up a damn good cover story." Kabita scowled. Although she appeared fairly calm, her use of the simple cuss word made it clear she was anything but.
"Easy enough," Eddie murmured. "We're a theatrical lot, we steampunk enthusiasts. Perhaps we can come up with something creative and convincing. A theatrical entertainment, perhaps."
"Can we fool security, too?" I asked. "Better they don't know the truth."
"I think it's too late," Eddie murmured, nodding toward the ballroom door. I glanced over to see a man in a white uniform striding toward us, a couple of beefy guys trotting along behind him. Emory wasn't with them.
He was halfway across the floor when he stopped, turned to his men, and spoke in a low voice even I couldn't hear. The men seemed a little confused, but with shrugs went to guard the ballroom doors. The uniformed man continued toward us, his long strides eating up the floor.
He was ridiculously tall. Six foot six, I'd guess, or taller. Broad shouldered, long-limbed, and with cheekbones that could cut ice. The wheat blond hair and pale blue eyes spoke of Nordic decent, and he wore an air of authority as easily as I wore a machete. Definitely head of security.
"Mr. Mulligan," he said with a nod.
"Mr. Magnussen." Eddie nodded back.
They seemed to know each other. Interesting.
"I don't suppose I could ask you and your friends to wait outside." Magnussen had quite possibly the best poker face I'd ever seen. I couldn't quite place his faint accent.
Eddie gave him a tight smile. "I suppose you are correct. Where is Miss Chastain?"
"She was covered in evidence. I sent her to her stateroom, along with one of my female officers so she might change her clothing."
"Evidence," Eddie said tightly. "You mean blood."
Magnussen nodded and knelt beside the body. He didn't touch, simply looked. "Has anyone touched the body?"
"I did," I said, stepping forward. "Only to check her pulse and make sure she was dead." Although, of course, I'd known the moment I'd looked at her. In my line of work, you get real friendly with death. "Other than that, none of us has touched her, although what happened before we got here, I have no idea. People were running and screaming and freaking the hell out." Not that I could blame them. It must have been quite a shock watching someone rip someone else's throat out with their teeth.
"I don't think I need to roll out a major investigation. It's clear what happened here." Magnussen stood up.
"It is?" I couldn't help the surprise in my voice. I mean, of course it was clear to the rest of us, but what exactly did he think happened?
"Of course," he said, looking at each of us in turn, eyes cold and serious. "I think you have some vampire hunting to do, Miss Bailey."
# # #
"How the hell does he know what I am?" I hissed at Eddie as we hurried down the hallway toward the storage room cum command center.
"I will tell you in a moment," Eddie replied, pulling me behind him, Kabita striding along in our wake.
While Kabita and I had stared at the head of security in shock, he and Eddie quickly plotted a cover story to explain the latest death. They'd come up with bath salts. Not the kind you put in your water for a nice soak, but the highly illegal drug kind. It made total sense, as bath salts did crazy ass things to people. Like the guy in Florida who'd literally ripped another guy's face off with his teeth. Combine drugs with a steampunk ball, and presto chango, you've got a strung-out killer who thinks he's a vampire. Perfect cover story for the local police. After they'd settled on the story, Magnussen and his men had taken over and we were dismissed with a promise that Magnussen would meet with me later. Oh, goodie.
It would be much later, if I had my way. The guy made me strangely nervous.
Once we were inside the storage room with the door shut behind us, I whirled on Eddie. "Okay, spill. How does Magnussen know who I am? For that matter, how does he know about vamps? And what about the other bod
ies? Does he know about those, too?"
"No, no. He doesn't know about the other bodies. I felt it best not to, ah, alert anyone. Unfortunately, we will probably have to tell him now."
"Okay, so the Hunter stuff? How does he know?"
"Magnussen once worked for the Underrättelsekontoret. The Swedish Intelligence. Much like our own CIA. For a branch similar to the SRA."
I blinked. "He was in supernatural intelligence?" That was a turn of events I hadn't expected.
"More than that." Eddie licked his lips. "Haakon Airik Magnussen is a Sunwalker."
Chapter Seven
"I'm sorry," I said. "Can you run that through the ringer again?"
"He said Magnussen is a Sunwalker," Kabita snapped. She turned to Eddie. "What the hell is he doing working head of security on a cruise ship?"
Eddie shrugged. "Who knows? Could be he still works for the Underrättelsekontoret and he's here undercover. Or maybe he just wanted a change of scenery."
"How old is he?" I asked.
They both stared at me. "I don't see how that is relevant," Eddie said. "But he is quite old. He was a Viking."
"A real one?"
"Well, of course. What did you think I meant? The sports team? I believe he was a friend of Erik the Red or some such. How much older he is than that, I do not know." Eddie began shuffling through the piles of documents on the table. I wasn't sure if he was actually looking for something, or trying to avoid further questions.
"And you managed to research all this?" Kabita asked, eyes narrowed. "How exactly? You can't find that stuff on the internet." She leaned one hip against the table and crossed her arms. The glare she shot Eddie was enough to make a strong man quail.
Eddie seemed to pale a little, but quail he did not. "I have been around the block once or twice, you know. I have my ways. Now, ladies, we have bigger fish to fry than Haakon Magnussen. There is yet another vampire aboard this vessel, and we must find and stop it before it kills anyone else."
I decided to allow him the subject change. At least for the moment. "I think I've finally figured out the pattern."
Eddie sighed, but Kabita raised a brow. "And that is?"
"I think someone is trying to frame Eddie for murder."
Eddie all but rolled his eyes. "That is ridiculous."
"Is it?" I asked. "Think about it. If you were investigating a series of murders in which all four deaths happened in close proximity to one man, wouldn't you be suspicious of that man? Consider him a viable suspect?"
Kabita snorted. "You'd better believe it."
"But it is clear the killer is a vampire," Eddie said. "Haakon…"
"What if the head of security wasn't a Sunwalker?" I asked. "What then? I believe it was only sheer bad luck for whoever planned this that the person investigating these crimes would be the one person who would know exactly what the perpetrator was."
Eddie sighed. "It does make a strange sort of sense, but the question is why? Why would someone care to frame me for murder?"
"Do you have any enemies?" Kabita asked. "Ones that wouldn't mind seeing you locked up?"
"None that I can think of," Eddie said. "At least none with access to the kind of technology that creates these soul-imbued vampires."
Well, that was an interesting turn of phrase. So, Eddie, the sweet, loveable guy did have enemies. It was hard to believe, but I'd come across stranger things.
"Maybe someone just wanted to get you out of the way for a while," I suggested.
Eddie shrugged. "I can't imagine why."
Neither could I, but I had a feeling it was important I figure it out. "In any case, we still need to find the vamp. Our best bet is to start searching where I found the other one," I said. "They must have been working together. Anything else is one coincidence too many."
"Agreed," Kabita said. "But I also think there's got to be more to it than that. There must be someone aboard controlling these guys."
"Not necessarily," I said. "Remember, soul vamps don't need to be in proximity to their creator to be controlled. Not like regular vamps. Whoever it is could be sitting on an island somewhere sipping a piña colada and getting a tan."
"We must be prepared for both possibilities," Eddie said. He leaned over, palms flat on the table, as if he was suddenly finding it hard to breathe.
"Eddie, are you okay?" I put my hand on his shoulder.
"Fine, my dear," he said, patting my hand, but his skin looked a little gray. I hadn't noticed it before, so I wasn't sure if I was imagining it or if the room just had bad lighting. "This sort of unnecessary death simply turns my stomach." He offered me a small smile. "Serving justice on this poor woman's behalf is all I need."
"Well, then that is what we will do."
# # #
While Magnussen dealt with the body and the local authorities, the rest of us headed into the belly of the ship to find the vamp. I took them straight to the spot where I'd killed the first one. It was the nature of vamps to nest together. Safety in numbers maybe. Who knew? But chances were, we'd find the second one close to where I'd dispatched the first.
We searched every inch of that damn ship from the cargo holds to the ventilation shafts. Nothing.
"He can't have just disappeared," Kabita said. "We're surrounded by water. Miles from shore."
She was right.
No wait. She was wrong.
"Shit."
Eddie and Kabita both stared at me.
"Vamps don't need to breathe," I explained as I headed upstairs to the command room.
They both stared at me as if I'd grown a second head, but followed slowly.
I sighed as I let myself into the room. "If you don't need to breathe, you don't need to worry about drowning." I let them in, then shut the door carefully. "And it takes a long time for vampires to get tired. Much longer than it would a human. He could have gone overboard. Swum as far as he could until he was either exhausted or the sun came out. Then he could have sunk to the bottom and walked to shore."
"Oh, my," said Eddie, polishing his glasses. He was looking decidedly green. I handed him a bottle of water, which he took with a grateful smile.
"You're an evil genius," Kabita said, clapping me on the back. "Though wouldn't the pressure be a problem?"
"He's dead, remember," I reminded her. "Or undead, anyway. He doesn't have to worry about getting the bends or damaging his organs or whatever."
"So, how do we find him?"
"That might be a little more complicated." I unrolled a map across the table. "The nearest island is here." I stabbed at it with my finger. "But as far as I can tell, it's really small and completely uninhabited."
"Perfect place to hide," Eddie speculated, sinking into a chair at the head of the table. He was looking better, but he was still a little off-color.
"Except he's a vampire. Where would he hide from the sun? There are no buildings and trees won't cut it."
"Wade back out to sea?" Eddie suggested.
"Possible, but a pain in the ass. My guess is he's headed toward his maker or whoever has control over him. Whoever the creator is, I doubt he — or she — is going to hang out on a tiny empty island. If I were a true evil genius, I'd be hanging out on the beach sucking down frosty beverages." I stabbed at another island. "Here maybe. It's big enough to have a comfortable resort and all the creature comforts. Or here." I tapped my finger on another one. "A little small and rustic, but possible."
"I can call back the helicopter," Kabita suggested. "Easy enough to check out those islands."
"I doubt the captain is going to let you land a helicopter on deck again," Eddie pointed out. "Not without some explanation, which we can't give him. If he gets involved in this investigation, he's going to want to hold you as material witnesses. Possibly turn you over to the authorities."
"We can't afford that kind of delay," I said. "We need to get off this boat and to those islands as quickly as possible."
"Maybe we can take one of the lifeboats," Kabita sugge
sted. "Or the wave runners. They've got some down below."
Eddie shook his head. "They will catch you quite easily, I'm afraid. They tend to keep an eye on such equipment, and there is no way you can launch without the bridge being notified and assuming, quite correctly, that the vehicles are being stolen."
I gave a frustrated sigh. "How then? Every minute we're on this ship is another minute wasted. We can't lose this vamp. He's our only lead to whoever is controlling him."
"I might, ah, be able to help you with that," Eddie said.
Kabita and I glanced at each other. "We're listening."
"It's a bit unconventional, and you'll both get quite wet, but I think I know someone who can help."
Chapter Eight
Eddie insisted we wait for full dark to carry out "the plan," but he refused to tell us what he had up his sleeve or who he'd found to help. Instead he handed us the key to his stateroom and shooed us off with the order to rest before disappearing toward the elevators.
"I don't know about you," Kabita said as she paced the narrow strip of floor next to the table, "but I am way too keyed up to sleep. Want to hit the casino?"
I shook my head. "I feel like I haven't slept in days. I'm going to do what Eddie suggested and take a nap."
Kabita nodded. "Meet you in a couple hours," she said before striding down the hall after Eddie.
I locked up behind me and headed in the opposite direction. Once in Eddie's room, I pulled the heavy drapes over the window, kicked off my boots, and threw myself on the bed. The bed was large and plush, and smelled of salt and sea. I was out within seconds.
# # #
Lush green grass as tall as my waist brushed me as I passed, tickling where it touched bare skin. The snug leather leggings I wore felt strange and a little too warm for the fine weather of this land, but they were practical. The short matching leather bodice bound my breasts tightly in place while allowing freedom of movement. I had been wearing a woolen tunic over the top, but it was far too hot, so I'd stuffed it in my pack and went about with stomach and arms bared. No one minded. In fact, most of the other women were dressed the same.