“There’s the menu.” Lizzy pointed to each of the three chalkboards on the wall. “Cocktail and beer specials, main menu with dessert, and the raw bar. Best place in town for raw oysters. Everything’s fresh, right off the boats. My dad knew Daddy Jack, and he also knows his son, who runs the place now.” She leaned forward and whispered. “He’s a witch.”
For seafood, the prices were very reasonable. I found out how reasonable when they brought our crab claw appetizer. It would have been a meal in itself for one person. And when they brought our entrees, I took one look at my fish stew called cioppino and knew I would never finish it.
“You can get a take-out box,” Lizzy said, pulling one of her crab legs apart. “Here, taste this.” She put a raw oyster still sitting in its shell on my plate. “You don’t come from the coast, do you?”
“Middle of nowhere,” I said, picking up the oyster with my fork and dipping it in the cocktail sauce, like she was doing. “Literally. Nothing but trees as far as the eye can see. We had some fish, mostly trout, musky and walleye, but anything like this would have had to come in frozen. Red meat and fowl were more the order of the day.”
I braced myself and popped the oyster in my mouth. Strange texture. Strange taste, but good. I saw she was watching me closely, so I smiled. “That’s good!”
“Where in the middle of nowhere?”
Rather than play the game with her, I pulled out my phone, googled a map of the Northern Midwest, and showed her.
“There.”
She blinked at it, then turned her eyes up to me. “There isn’t anything there. That’s the middle of a national forest near the Canadian border. There aren’t even any roads.”
“I told you. And what would someone say if you tried to show them where your fairy mound is on a map?”
“But the fairy mound isn’t on a map. It’s actually not in this reality…” her voice trailed off. “In the middle of nowhere?”
“Yep. But where I showed you on the map is how you used to get there. Now it’s gone, and not even a memory remains. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
Lizzy grinned. “That’s where Mistress Chantelle’s School for Seductresses, Spies, and Assassins was? Who did you practice on? Bear shifters?”
I sighed. “No, each other and the masters. But the year I was eighteen, they took me out into the world and gave me intensive practical training. Mostly in Europe, but I spent a lot of time in New York, Washington, and South Florida, plus a month in South America.”
The grin disappeared. “The Illuminati are real? And you were one of them?”
I nodded. “I was a Hunter. The City of the Illuminati, their base of operations, was destroyed shortly before I came to Westport. I thought that all of the big wigs—the members of the council and the leaders of the Hunters’ Guild—were dead. But Laurent tells me that the second-in-command of the Guild survived, and Master Rudolf knows me. He may know I’m in Westport. And last night, I met a man who I’m sure is Illuminati. He might even be a Hunter.”
“Not good,” Lizzy said. “So, are you going to Salt Lake City to tend a bar for George Flynn?”
“I hadn’t even thought of that,” I said. “See why I wanted to talk to you?” I shook my head. “I haven’t heard a word from Flynn since he left Westport. I mean, when I warned him that Laurent wanted to kill him, he said I would always be welcome, but how much should I trust a vampire? Lizzy, I’m not just afraid for me. If they suspect I told anyone about them, it will be a blood bath. They wouldn’t hesitate to kill you, Jo, Trevor, Sam—hell, even Blair and Frankie and her father.”
“There are a lot of places you could easily disappear,” she said. “Pick a smaller town like Corvallis or Eugene or Bend. They can’t search every city in the country.”
That would mean leaving the only friends I’d ever had. Running was the last resort, even if it was the smart choice.
“But, what would I do without you?” I asked, and got a toothy smile as a reward.
We brainstormed through my options all during dinner.
At one point, Lizzy said, “Suppose that Illuminati guy is here for a reason other than you.”
“Huh?” I intelligently responded.
“What if he’s here because of Nava and Meitzner? Or because that Rudolf guy is looking for a safe place to regroup and build a new base of power, like Laurent?”
“Why would he be interested in Westport?” I asked.
“Why did you come here?”
The ley lines. Two major ley lines intersected east of the city, just inside the boundary of the national forest. The Fae had a fairy mound almost directly on that intersection. At least a dozen minor ley lines snaked through the city, including one that ran right under Rosie’s. The city was a nexus of magical energy.
The City of the Illuminati had also been built where two major ley lines crossed. That had provided the fuel that torched the city. But Rudolf wasn’t there, so he couldn’t know that. All he could possibly know was that the city disappeared—as though it never existed. The only witness to that conflagration was me.
“The ley lines,” I said. “The same reason the Fae are here.”
She nodded. “The city being here is convenient, also. It gives the Fae a place to observe and interact with humans but still have a wilderness around them. The city isn’t so large as to create other problems, the wind off the ocean blows any pollution away, and the national forest keeps humans from surrounding the Fae. When you stop to think about it, the city has natural boundaries that keep it from growing much larger. The national forest to the east, the mountains to the north, the rugged coastline to the south, and the ocean to the west.”
“And you think Rudolf is interested in this place for the same reasons?” I asked.
“With the Illuminati destroyed, and him the only one left from the ruling clique, why do you think he would consider you important? He doesn’t know what destroyed the rest of the Order. How many Illuminati were there?”
“Seven or eight thousand, including North America, Europe, and South America. There are regional headquarters in Bavaria, outside London, and in Ecuador. Major cities such as New York, Washington, and Los Angeles have large contingents, and there are operatives, such as Nava and Meitzner, scattered all over the place.”
“And how many were killed when the city was destroyed?”
“Probably between five and six thousand. The last time I heard someone mention the City’s population, that was the estimate.”
“And of the two or so thousand left, you are the most important person he should be worried about? Why?”
I thought about it. Rudolf couldn’t know I had the book, the History of the Illuminati, that held all their secrets. It had been missing for three years before I found it, and in spite of all their efforts, none of the Illuminati had known where it was. And he couldn’t know that I was responsible for the destruction of the City. Would Master Benedict have called Rudolf to tell him I had gone back to the City? It appeared that Benedict’s primary and immediate focus when he gained possession of Strickland’s crystal was to destroy it.
“How many other Hunters are floating around the world as free agents?” Lizzy asked. “Is Rudolf searching for all of them?”
“You’re making a lot of sense,” I said, “but I can’t just assume that he isn’t going to target me. If he finds out I’m the one who killed Nava and Meitzner, he may decide I’m part of a conspiracy against the Illuminati.”
“You’re paranoid.”
“Absolutely. And so are the Illuminati.”
Chapter 4
My conversation with Lizzy managed to kickstart my brain and get it working again. Instead of drowning in fear and indecision, I managed to step back and review all of the information I had.
I knew there were factions inside the Columbia Club. Two prominent pillars of the community, Daniel Nava, the district attorney, and Charles Meitzner, the mayor’s chief of staff, turned out to be members of the Orde
r of the Illuminati. There were others who I thought of as Illuminati sympathizers and who were still alive. But I had little insight into the club’s membership and who those people might have been.
On the other side was Franklin Jones and his allies, who had put a stop to the bounties being offered for vampires and werewolves. Elections were coming, and it seemed as though both factions of the club wanted control of the mayor’s office and the state governor’s office, with the Illuminati backing Westport’s mayor in his bid to become governor.
As part of their strategy to disrupt the city and use the resulting chaos to consolidate their power, the Illuminati faction in the Columbia Club had brought in a Hunter, who killed at least three members of the club who opposed the mayor, in addition to killing the city’s head vampire.
Lizzy was right. Gavin Edmundson’s appearance could be explained as a continuation of an Illuminati plot to gain control of Westport. And in fact, that was a more logical explanation than Master Rudolf dropping everything to find and kill one girl. I knew that he disapproved of my special place as Master Benedict’s personal Hunter. He had told me once to my face that my magical and fighting skills weren’t very impressive so I must be damned good between the sheets. So, why would he obsess about me?
Or I could just be rationalizing because I didn’t want to face the tough choice of starting all over again in another town.
The one thing I was sure of was Gavin Edmundson being Illuminati, and I would bet he was also a Hunter. And if he planned on resuming the murders of Franklin Jones’s allies, I had to find a way to tell Frankie.
When Lizzy dropped me off after dinner, I did a thorough survey around my building, and sure enough, found my stalker standing in the trees by the stream in the back. I was torn between giving him a piece of my mind or simply ignoring him. Deciding the latter was better for my blood pressure, I started toward the front door, then stopped.
Using my own skills as a stalker, I circled around by the creek and came through the woods behind him. When I got within arm’s reach of him, I grabbed his cloak and jerked on it.
Cunningham whirled about and found himself staring at the point of my long dagger.
“Just calm down,” I said. “I only want to talk to you. Okay?”
He nodded. “Okay.”
I lowered the knife and put it away. He followed it with his eyes until it disappeared from sight, then I saw him relax.
“There’s a Hunter in Westport,” I said. “I assume he was sent here by Rudolf Heine. His name is Gavin Edmundson. Do you know who Francis Jones is?”
“Yes, the assistant district attorney.”
“Good. Have you met her?”
“No, but Constance has.” Constance Gardner was Gabriel Laurent’s other dhampir. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall for Frankie’s conversation with Gardner after she was discovered running a vampire bounty operation in the city.
“Unless you have warm feelings for the Illuminati and Rudolf Heine, I would encourage you to have Laurent inform Ms. Jones of Edmundson’s affiliation,” I said.
“Why don’t you?”
“How would I know anything about the Illuminati and their Hunters? I’m just a bartender.”
“Ah, I see. And what do I get out of this?”
“You say you’re human,” I said. “Even a small bit of revenge tastes good. Besides, I doubt Laurent would feel very comfortable if he knew a Hunter was here in the city.”
“That is true.” He hesitated, then said, “You assume that I don’t blame Gabriel as much for Stephanie’s death as I do Heine.”
“No, I don’t. But if you serve a master, you accept what they do. When you stop accepting, then you stop serving.”
“Is everything so black and white with you?” he asked.
“No, the world is shades of gray. But you either serve the Dark or you serve the Light. That is a choice, not a sliding scale. Vampires are creatures of the Dark.”
I brushed past him to go home. I didn’t know whether he would tell Laurent as I hoped, but at least I tried.
His hand caught my shoulder. I spun around, pulling power from the ley line.
“I would like to get to know you better,” he said.
I shook off his hand. “I’m not interested in getting to know a vampire’s thrall, especially the way you mean,” I responded. “I’m only interested in free men. But I’ll give you some advice. Stalking a woman is not the way to endear yourself to her.”
He didn’t try to stop me again. When I reached my apartment, I looked out the window and he was gone.
I called Michaela Gallagher the following morning and invited her to lunch. Michaela had been one of the big winners coming out of the vampire succession battles, although she did lose her father. We agreed to meet at Rosie’s.
I showed up ahead of the appointed time and grabbed a table that would allow us to converse privately. Not unobserved, however. Michaela was impossible to ignore. When she came through the door, conversations halted as everyone turned to stare.
Blonde, six-feet tall, with a curvy but athletic body, she could have been a supermodel—as long as she didn’t have to smile. A dhampir’s fangs weren’t as obvious as a vampire’s, but they were still far larger than my teeth.
She bent down and bussed my cheek, tossed her coat over an empty chair, and settled into her chair with a grace that a swan would have envied.
“Long time, no see,” she said. “I thought you’d forgotten me.”
I grinned. “I didn’t realize your phone only received calls. You should get yourself a fancy one like mine that calls out, too.”
She laughed.
After the waitress took our orders, Michaela leaned forward and asked, “What’s up?”
“There’s a Hunter in town.”
She leaned back in her chair. “Ooo. That’s not good. Has anyone warned Laurent?”
I shrugged. “I told David Cunningham.”
Michaela cocked her head a little to the side and seemed to study me. “That one is a real looker. Only the second male dhampir I’ve ever heard of. But young. You do know that, right?”
“How would I know that? You hardly look older than I do, but I know you’re well over a hundred.”
She chuckled. “I’ll be a hundred forty-five this spring. David’s only thirty.”
I waited for the punchline, but she didn’t say anything else.
“How old is Constance?” I asked.
“Oh, I don’t know. Two hundred? Two-thirty? Definitely on the downside of the curve.”
“It sounds like you’ve gotten to know them.”
Michaela shrugged. “I have to see Laurent fairly regularly. Business. He expected more, but I disabused him of that notion right away. If I have my way, I’ll never sleep with another vampire again. But a couple of my sisters have kind of a crush on David. They invite him over and take him out with them.”
“And Constance?”
“She’s a bitch. We’re civil to each other. No point in tearing each other’s throats out, but if she had a fatal accident, I wouldn’t mourn for more than a few seconds.” The ghost of a smile crossed her face. “She needs to watch her tongue around Eileen, though.”
Eileen Montgomery was a vampire and the proprietor of Necropolis, a vampire-goth nightclub. She and I got along, but I hadn’t seen her in a while.
Our meals came, and after the waitress left, Michaela asked, “Does this Hunter have a name?”
“Gavin Edmundson. He’s presented himself to the Columbia Club as a representative of a similar club on the east coast.”
She nodded. “You’ve met him? I don’t know all the Columbia Club members, but some of them aren’t nice people.”
I pulled out a list and pushed it across to her. “Yeah, I met him while he was having dinner with Franklin Jones. Anyone you might care to identify as being interested in stirring the pot?”
Michaela reached in her purse and pulled out a pen, then quickly made checkmarks next
to half a dozen names. “Wouldn’t put it past any of these. Word is that at least some of them were involved in that bounty business.”
After we ate and she got up to leave, she asked, “Do you mind if I tell Eileen about the Hunter?”
“I was hoping you would, as long as you don’t say where you got the information.”
After Michaela left, I went to Sam’s office, where I closed the door and told him about Edmundson. At that point, I figured that I had dropped the information as widely as I dared.
Chapter 5
With two nights off, and having just finished reading my latest novel, I felt restless. I wondered if vampires read vampire romance novels. I assumed their thralls did, at least before being enthralled.
Two of the small cities Lizzy had suggested as hiding places were university towns. I had checked them out and discovered the tuition costs of those universities were half what I would pay in Westport. I calculated that if I was frugal, it would only take me two years to save one year’s tuition. At that rate, I could graduate in fifteen years. Their financial aid was a joke. I would have to quit my job and starve for a year to qualify. No matter how powerful I was, I couldn’t eat magic, so that option was out.
But rather than dismiss the relocation idea completely, I decided to spend some time around the university in Westport to try and get an idea of what living in a university town might be like.
I went out to the clubs with Lizzy and Jolene sometimes, but Lizzy had a big assignment for one of her professors, and Jolene was spending a lot of quality time with her boyfriend of the month. Since Trevor wasn’t being very friendly, I figured he probably wouldn’t want to take me dancing either.
But if I moved to a new city, I wouldn’t have any friends there at first, so I throttled my insecurities and went out on my own. I put on a pair of black leggings and a frilly rose-colored tunic top that made me feel girly, then took the trains out to the university. It was a Tuesday night, so things were rather quiet, but there were still plenty of students in the bars. I also noticed there were a lot of cops on the street and patrolling in cars.
Dark Dancer (Rosie O'Grady's Paranormal Bar and Grill Book 3) Page 3