“Something like this disturbs anybody with a conscience.”
I pulled the tart out of the oven, and despite the delectable scent, I’d lost any interest in sampling it. The sound of the reporter’s voice winked out, replaced by Jacob’s favorite XM country station. “I was thinking of calling those detectives I know to see if they’d drop us a hint or two. Only knowing them, they’d come up with a way to blame me, especially Kuykedal.”
“He does seem to have it out for you, but he hasn’t charged you with anything yet.”
“Not for lack of trying.”
I served the both of us, knowing Jacob would fret if I didn’t eat after all my effort. “Besides, what would you do even if they gave you a lead, chase it down? I thought you wanted a nice, calm, normal life now. No more adventure.”
“Call me paranoid, but it’s been too quiet. I keep waiting for the bogeyman to come bursting out of the shadows shouting ‘boo.’ Given the fact that I now know vampires and magic are real, I wouldn’t put it past the bogeyman to exist.” Jacob poked at the tart with his fork and took a cautious sniff. “Looks pretty good.”
I shook my head; he didn’t have to sound so surprised at that. “I haven’t poisoned you… yet.”
He grinned at me. “Not for lack of trying,” he said again. “There’s still an eggplant in the fridge.”
I dug my fork in, but the delicate cheeses and caramelized onions failed to lure me out of my thoughts. I couldn’t shake the feeling of premonition hanging heavy over me. Maybe I was finally letting my dreams get to me, but I’d never put them to rest if I kept ignoring them as I had done. “Would you do me a favor? Call those detectives of yours. I just want to make sure that those victims were already dead before the fire.”
Jacob looked as if he were about to argue but thought better of it. “I’ll leave a message for Aderson. He’s better about getting back to me without the hassle. I’ll let you know as soon as I hear anything. You do realize he might not tell us jack.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” I covered his hand with my own. “Thank you. It’s probably just the conspiracy theories of an old man, but it will soothe my restless curiosity knowing one way or another.”
“Okay, gramps. I’d better get to the gym before I meet with the execs and my agent again.” Jacob rose and placed his dish in the sink, then came over, and gave me a hard kiss. “Try to put it out of your head. It’s just some whack job who’s preying on people who’ve got nobody to look out for them. The police will get him, eventually.”
“I’ll be fine, I promise.” I watched Jacob go from the screen door and cleaned the kitchen. And then it was time to go out and face the day. It was easier when I was with Jacob doing our morning runs because I didn’t want him to see my apprehension. And it had gotten to the point where cloudy or rainy days barely made me twitch.
Sunlight flooded our yard, bright and glowing golden. The summer heat struck me as I stood on the porch, reminding me quite vividly of the burns I’d suffered when my office had been on fire. Intellectually, I knew I wouldn’t burst into flame when I walked out into that light, but it was difficult to ignore two thousand years of instinct shrieking and clawing at me.
Taking a deep breath, I stepped off the porch and managed to keep from flinching at the same time. I’d passed the test another day. I refused to become a prisoner in my own home during the day. I would get used to my new existence through a sheer effort of will if nothing else.
By the time I arrived at my office in the Cathedral, I’d almost put worries of sunlight and murder victims out of my mind. I had chosen a different kind of life, one with peace and companionship in it with the love I’d always craved. There was no sense in seeking out the blood and battles that had occupied my time before. There was no sense in giving into my fears of change.
Then Jacob called.
Frowning, I set the phone back on the receiver and stared at it for a long time, unease slithering over my skin and my intuition jangling. According to Detective Aderson, the victims had been dead already, and each one had been found with a knife still lodged in their heart.
Killers didn’t leave their murder weapons behind. Unless the knife wasn’t a murder weapon and was merely used to keep its victim immobile so the sun could do its work. Was it paranoia, my own fears haunting me, or was it significant?
I checked my watch. It was almost time to pack up anyway and head home. I could leave a bit early, take a different bus, and swing by the crime scene beforehand. It wasn’t that far from our house, and then….
And then what? Investigate? Get myself noticed by the police still doing their work? Bad enough I had Jacob call and get on their radar. My young lover would rightfully throw a fit if I involved myself, as I would if he had. I rose and pushed the idea out of my thoughts. The past was buried—best just to let it be.
Chapter 3
I PEERED in on Kristair as I carried the dirty dinner dishes to the sink. He sat in his favorite chair with a book open in his lap, though I had yet to see him turn a page. It was only another sign of his distraction. He denied being lost in thought, but I hadn’t been able to draw him into a conversation all evening, and he hadn’t uttered a word of protest when I offered to load the dishwasher and clean the kitchen.
It proved my point, at least to me, but now I was stuck with the chore.
I glanced at him again as I went to scrub down the table, and it struck me how young he looked. Maybe a year or two older than me at the most. Sometimes I forgot he had been my age when he was turned into a vampire. When he gazed at me with his ancient eyes or spoke in that proper manner of his, his youthfulness faded.
The windows and back door to the kitchen were open, letting in the night breeze to soothe away the sultry heat of the day. It was almost getting to the point where we’d need to keep the AC on at night as well, but I kinda missed the liquid heat of Louisiana. I’d never had AC growing up, and I sure as hell appreciated it during the day, but sometimes it made me feel like I was living in a box with no outdoor sounds. Kristair never seemed to be bothered by the heat or cold—or he just hid it damn well.
I didn’t hear a sound, no creak of the back porch, no sensation of eyes on me, so when the knock came on the screen door, I nearly jumped out of my skin. “The fuck!” I tossed the sponge into the sink, turned, and froze. Ghedi Ussier’s dark face peered at me through the screen. For once, there was no trace of dimples, and his gray eyes were glacial.
“What do you want?” That came out far more belligerent than I intended, but good god, my heart was still pounding. Sneaky, soft-footed bastard.
“Good to see you, too, Mr. Corvin. Is the old man home? I need to speak with him.”
“What about?” I made no move to open the door or to invite him in. Dammit, I’d never told him Kristair had returned, and I was pretty sure my lover hadn’t either. Couldn’t say I was too surprised he’d found out, though, but it was unsettling to think we might’ve been vampire gossip. If Ussier knew, how many others did? Did they know Kristair was human now? That he was vulnerable?
“Jacob,” Kristair said from behind me.
I flinched inside. Kristair wouldn’t chastise me in front of others, wouldn’t even consider it, but boy, right now was one of those rare moments when I was glad we didn’t share our mental connection. I could sense his disapproval for my manners even without glancing at him.
“Ancient One.” Was it my imagination, or was there a note of almost welcome relief in Ussier’s tone? I’d never heard anything like it in all the time I’d known him. Then, to my surprise, without a word of invitation from either of us, Ussier had the gall to open the door and walk right in. I thought there were rules against that.
“It doesn’t work that way. You know that,” Kristair said in an undertone as he strode forward and clasped Ussier’s hand. “It’s good to see you, old friend.”
“I thought you couldn’t read my mind anymore,” I muttered under my breath, snagging a beer from the fridge.<
br />
“Your expression spoke volumes. I don’t need to read minds to know what you’re thinking.”
“That’s true, Corvin, you never did make an attempt to hide what you thought or felt about something.”
I opened my mouth to tell Ussier that when I wanted his opinion I’d ask for it, but the tension around the vamp’s eyes stopped my words. Something was wrong, seriously wrong. Kristair cast me a glance that was both a warning and a plea for patience, and I subsided with a mental grumble.
“Please, let’s sit and you can tell me what brings you here.” Kristair gestured to the kitchen table, and I cocked my head and studied my lover’s face. It was as smooth and unreadable as ever, but something in the shade of his voice made me wonder if he already suspected the reason for Ussier’s visit. He’d better not have been holding out on me.
Ussier pulled out a chair and leaned back with careless grace, as if this really wasn’t anything more than a reunion between friends. Only the intensity of his gaze gave away his agitation, and that was more than I’d ever seen from him. Frowning, I sat down as well, admitting to myself that my curiosity had been raised.
“Is this about the serial killer?” Kristair asked, and to my double shock, Ussier nodded.
“Yes, whoever it is has been targeting vampires, striking them just at dawn when they’re the weakest, then staking them outside to let the sun do its work for them.”
“Wait a minute, they’re vampires?” I asked Ussier and then turned to Kristair. “And you knew this?”
“No, I merely started suspecting it this morning.” Kristair glanced at me, his expression inscrutable. I could have sworn he was trying to tell me something, something he didn’t want to say aloud with Ussier here, so I bit my tongue. For the moment.
“What made you suspicious, old man?”
Kristair turned his attention to Ussier, a thoughtful frown furrowing between his brows. “The timing bothered me, for one. If the hunter was going for humans, then he ran the chance of running into them awake. For instance, this morning was a workday. So were most of the others, if I recall. Many of his victims would’ve been up and about if they were human. Two or three a.m. would have been a better time to strike.”
It hit me then, what Kristair didn’t want Ussier to know. His dreams. That must’ve given Kristair the first connection. But weren’t they only nightmares brought on by his return to humanity and not prescience? After all, the dreams had started long before the murders.
“The fact that none of the victims had any family or friends searching for them was another clue, but there were no other similarities between them. They were of different ages, men and women, from various backgrounds. They only thing they had in common was that they were alone in the world. Still, that wasn’t enough to satisfy me and make me jump to the conclusion that they were vampires.”
“That’s why you had me call Aderson. But I don’t get it, if they were vampires, wouldn’t autopsies show they were already dead before the fire? No matter how badly they were charred?” I scratched my head. Come to think of it, how did that work? How would a coroner find cause of death on a body that had ceased changing however many ages ago? “How does that make a difference one way or another?”
“The fact that the bodies were so badly destroyed by the fire was another clue. A human would have something left, no matter how bad the fire was. And all of these fires were reported rather quickly. I asked some more questions after you called and it seemed that whatever remains there were, none of them made it to the coroner’s intact. The older a vampire is when they finally perish, the quicker they decay. Besides, only vampires burn so easily. No other creature, mortal or supernatural, immolates so fast, and your detective friend admitted they couldn’t find traces of any accelerant.”
“You have been giving it some thought, Ancient One,” Ussier said, a pleased smile flickering across his lips. “How come I’m not surprised? Anything else you care to add to your theories?”
Kristair slipped his fingers into my own, giving my hand a squeeze. “Not really, there were other things that bothered me, but I didn’t know for certain until you showed up. That’s why you’re here isn’t it? You need someone to help you hunt down whoever’s preying on the vampires.”
“Oh, no way in hell.” I glared at the both of them. “You’re outta yer damn mind, Kristair.”
Ussier’s cold gaze zeroed in on me. Only lines of strain and worry around his mouth and eyes made him seem at all human. “Whoever’s doing it is only attacking us at dawn, not at any damn time we can fight back. They certainly aren’t vampire, that’s for sure, and the majority of us don’t have any defense against these kinds of attacks. I don’t even know how the fuck they’re finding out where their victims are sleeping.”
“What about Lisabeth? Has she been able to divine any leads?”
“Nothing tangible, the only thing she’s been able to tell me is that whoever’s behind this has their soul divided. Whatever the fuck that means.”
Kristair was staring, off, a finger tapping against his chin slowly. “Have there been any other attacks on your people other than the ones we’ve heard about on the news?”
That had to be a good sign—Kristair wasn’t lumping himself in with his old friends—but I did wish Ussier would stop indulging his curiosity, even if I was a bit interested myself. It just couldn’t be good that he showed up here tonight. To distract myself, I rose and finished loading the dishwasher as I listened in on their conversation.
“Not yet. At first we thought it might be a werecreature, given the gruesome way they were killed. Or an especially tenacious hunter. But Silverfeather insists it’s not one of his people, and I doubt he’d be willing to break the truce we have at this time. And a random hunter popping up here doesn’t make much sense either. There are more notorious vampire lairs than Pittsburgh.”
“Whoa, now wait a goddamn minute.” I turned around and glared at the both of them in exasperation. “Have I been living in a bubble all my life? How come I heard none of this until you popped up?” I pointed at my lover.
“Humans only believe what they want to believe. How often did you hear somebody claiming supernatural sightings and dismiss them as jokes, crackpots, or lunatics? Welcome to the real world kid,” Ussier said with a hint of his old grin.
“I’m probably going to regret asking this, but what is considered a notorious vampire lair?”
“Mexico City comes to mind. Of course, with all the unrest in Kabul and Peshawar and other locations in the Mideast, more vampires are flocking over there. Unexplained bodies don’t raise such a fuss in such places.”
“These attacks could be personal,” Kristair said softly.
“No shit they’re personal. Someone wants to get our attention and make their damn point.” Ussier scowled, his voice grim. “I get the feeling it’s personal, only I don’t have a damn clue who they’re trying to get at. We all have enemies of one kind or another.”
“Has anyone in your circle lost someone close to them?”
“The gentleman this morning got together with Artemise once a month, but the rest were on the fringes or just passing through.”
Kristair’s head shot up. “Bedwyr?”
“Yeah, I forgot, you would’ve known him too. Otherwise, there doesn’t seem to be any real pattern to whose targeted, unless it’s just opportunity. Except for Bedwyr, none of the victims were too old. They wouldn’t have the safeguards the rest of us do. Though, whoever it is, Kristair, they’re not leaving one damn trace for us.”
“Have you considered that the assassin is using magic?” Kristair asked, and I studied his face, searching for any signs of grief for this Bedwyr person, but my lover seemed as inscrutable as always.
Ussier grimaced. “Yes, but if they are, it’s not a form either Lisabeth or Artemise recognizes.”
“They’re the experts,” Kristair said thoughtfully, his eyes far away. I recognized that expression, when his thoughts were moving so fas
t it was damn near impossible to decipher them. It used to give me a headache when he did that. Then he pinned his gaze on Ussier, for the moment every inch the ancient vampire he used to be. “You’re here to call in old favors.”
“It is the currency of the undead,” Ussier said smoothly.
Kristair inclined his head toward him. “It would be my honor to help you in any way I can.”
“Wait a minute—”
“It’s not open for discussion, Jacob.” The utter finality in Kristair’s voice and the direct look he gave me brought me up short. He’d never spoken in that tone before.
“Fuck me,” I cursed viciously, glaring at him and trying to penetrate that thick skull of his with some other choice words.
“I think it’s time I leave you two lovebirds to discuss this.” Ussier rose and shook Kristair’s hand. “You know how to get a hold of me.”
“Of course, my friend.”
Ussier nodded to me. “See you around, Mr. Corvin.”
Guilt made me writhe a little inside. For Christ’s sake, it wasn’t that I didn’t sympathize with Ussier, and I knew I owed him, but someone here had to have a little common sense. I stared after him as he walked out the door and then let out a groan of frustration. “Wait, Ussier.”
To my surprise, Kristair didn’t try to follow me out, and Ussier paused, waiting for me on the porch. “Look, I know I owe you, I owe you big time,” I said in a low voice. “But dammit, you can’t ask him to do this. We’re only human again. We’re gonna get ourselves killed.”
Ussier paused and grinned. “Only human? Somehow I doubt that. Besides, I’m not looking for you two to start a war. I’m more interested in using that old man’s mind. He’s been around longer than any of us. If anyone can put all the pieces together, it’s him. You’re pretty damn clever yourself. You two make a good team.”
I considered that as I walked him out to his 4Runner, weighing the danger with everything the vampire had done for Kristair and me, and then sighed. “Okay, so you’re just seeing if we can run down a new angle, not take whoever this is out.”
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