by Judith Post
"Not hardly, but it's fun for now."
Fun—her favorite word. "And later?"
Another shrug. She looked at his Land Rover sitting in the drive. "That's an expensive vehicle. You should keep it in the garage."
"I'm going out later today. No need to." He couldn't decide where this whole situation was going. "Is that what you came to talk about? My car?"
Kandice walked to the island and picked up an apple, took a bite from it. "Has Danny talked to you about my dad?"
Okay, maybe she was heading into the real reason she'd come. "Not much. Tony seems like a decent guy."
"He is. Both of my parents are. A little straight-laced, but they're both great. Does Dad know what your special talent is?"
Enoch hesitated. "He knows I’m a psychic."
She looked surprised. "I didn’t think Dad would go for something that’s not by the book."
"Is that why you stopped seeing him? He wouldn't understand about you and Gino?"
"We aren't very much alike." She walked to the trash can and tossed the apple in it. "Does Danny know much about you?"
He crossed his arms over his chest. "Is that what you're interested in? My gift?"
She put her water glass down, avoiding his gaze. "Is there a bathroom upstairs?"
"There's one tucked under the stairs, right there." He pointed. "Small, but handy."
She looked disappointed. "I was hoping I'd get to see more of your house."
"Voronika's taking a nap. She hears everything. You'd wake her."
"She's sleeping now?"
It was Enoch's turn to shrug. "We didn't call it a night until an hour ago."
"And you're not tired?"
"I don't need much sleep."
She glanced at the door by the pantry. "Where does that go?"
"To the basement."
"Is it finished? Can I see it?"
"No, this isn't a house tour." What was her game? He nodded to the staircase.
"I get to go up?" She sounded excited.
"I thought you needed to use the restroom. The door's there."
"Oh, yeah. Right." She hurried in, stayed a minute or two, and then flushed. When she came back out, she looked to see if he was watching. He was. She came to join him. "How long does Voronika sleep?"
"Eight hours, like everyone else."
She gave a quick nod. "Want to give me a tour of your yard?"
"Not really. If you came for advice, like you hinted, it's this. Stay away from Gino."
"Guess that's a hint. Thanks for listening to me."
"I didn't. Why did you really come?"
Kandice looked away. "Just checking you out, I guess."
"I don't think so."
"Why then?" She still wouldn't meet his eyes.
"Gino shouldn't have used you to dig up information on me. That's tacky, hiding behind a girl. And it was tacky of you to agree."
Kandice's cheeks turned bright scarlet with embarrassment. "What are you talking about?"
"This isn't a game. I'm not amused. Don't come here to spy for him again. As a matter of fact, don't come at all unless you're in serious trouble. And you will be if you stay with him." Enoch walked her to her car and opened the door for her.
She left in a hurry.
Chapter 35
Gino was caught off guard when Kandice stomped into the hotel room, hands on hips, and stood face to face to confront him.
"You made me look stupid. I felt stupid!" she fumed. "He guessed. He told me not to come back, nosing around, to get information for you."
"So what?" Gino didn't care if Enoch figured out what she was up to or not. He didn't really care if she walked into a den of vampires and didn't come back out, except then he wouldn't learn what he needed to know. "Who cares what Enoch thinks?"
"I do! He knows Danny and my dad. And he made me feel like a fool. You made me feel like a fool."
If the shoe fits…. But he knew better than to say that. Girls need to hear the right things and want to feel important to you if they're going to be of any use at all. "I'm sorry, hon. I knew Enoch was plenty sharp, but I thought he'd be as distracted by you as I am. When you're in a room, I don't always think straight."
If anything, his words irritated her even more. She might be silly, but she caught on fast. He had to handle her carefully. "News flash," she said, poking a finger at his chest. "The man is perfectly capable of ignoring me. I don't turn him on at all. He treats me like some kid."
"It must be the silver one's hold on him. He's hooked right now, or believe me, you'd give him a run for his money. I've been with lots of women, Kandy, and I've never met one like you." All lies. Pretty lies. And her look told him she knew it. Why would Enoch want a Kandy when he could have a Voronika? But Kandy was a lot of fun and a great time in bed. And her dad was a cop, and she knew every cop in the city. And she'd been able to weasel her way into Enoch's house.
He ran a hand up and down her arm. "Come on. Quit being mad at me. Tell me about Enoch's house and set-up so that we can put this behind us and go somewhere nice for a late lunch."
She allowed herself to be mollified. She gave a small pout and went to sit on the bed. "Where are you going to take me?" It was blackmail, and they both knew it, but they both knew it was part of the game they were playing, so he went with it.
He sat down beside her and wrapped an arm around her. "Where do you want to go?"
"Some place expensive."
"Your wish is my command."
"Some place out of town. Maybe Indy?"
"Call in sick tonight. Decide where you want to eat, and I'll make reservations."
She smiled. "What do you want to know about Enoch's place?"
"Just tell me what you saw."
"He really is a writer. He's not a competitor for any business scheme of yours."
"Tell me."
A half hour later, he had a decent idea of what he was up against. The house was built to hold an army and situated far enough away from everything to wage a war. That's what the vamp in the bar had meant by the word we. Vamps were probably stashed in the shed and the garage and in the attic of the house. How many? Gino didn't have a clue, but this wasn't any ordinary nest. He wasn't going to just waltz into some dark room and drive a stake through one vamp's heart.
While he nuzzled Kandy and made small talk on auto pilot, his mind was racing. He needed to call Manny. He needed more men.
Chapter 36
Everyone was gathering in the kitchen that night to hear Enoch's story when
Ulrich and Gunther came tumbling out the basement door, punching each other. They rolled on the ground until Gunther leapt to his feet and threw an under cut to Ulrich's chin. The force hurled Ulrich backward. He slammed against the garage, then flung himself at Gunther and hammered him in the stomach. With a grunt, Gunther flew across the yard. He sprawled in a heap near the back of the lawn. Coiling his legs beneath him, he sprang on Ulrich, grabbed his shoulders, and tried to rip him apart.
"You're tickling me!" Ulrich's fist sent Gunther flying. Gunther leapt on his friend and tried to sink his fangs into his neck. Ulrich laughed. "Love nibbles. Stop it."
Gunther's face went red with fury. He raised both fists when Bart seized him and pulled the two apart.
Ulrich would have taunted him more, but Enoch grabbed him from behind and gave him a hard shake. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"He insulted me." Gunther strained to free himself. "He insulted the old ways."
"We're not Huns anymore, oh brilliant one." Ulrich's words were slightly slurred. "We should have never been Huns in the first place."
"Our boat left us!" Gunther yelled.
"Because we got drunk and passed out. Our comrades thought we died in the battle."
"Dead drunk!" Gunther stopped struggling, looked at his friend, and bent over, laughing. "Get it? Dead…"
"I'm dying with laughter." Bart's tone was sardonic.
Ulrich sagged against Enoch and lau
ghed too. "You should have seen us, old friend, big and blond, riding with a bunch of Huns."
Bart wasn't amused. "Did it occur to either of you that a hunter could be in the woods, aiming a crossbow at any of us, because you two couldn't stay sober?"
Gunther shrugged free of Bart's grip. "We can't stand being boxed up night after night, doing nothing. Why can't we go into town and hunt the hunters? Why do we have to sit here and wait?"
"Because the whole point of coming here was to draw the hunters to us."
"But…"
Bart held up a hand to silence him. "They'll be here soon. Enoch and Keb made sure of that."
Gunther inhaled a lungful of fresh air, and Enoch could watch him start to calm. "I can hear and smell again," he said.
Bart gave him a look. "Stretch your legs and your wings, but go one step farther than the nature park, and you'll wish you hadn't."
Eva and Amado stepped out of the shed to see what the fuss was. Ulrich called, "Hey, Eva! Want to keep me company? I still remember our last time together."
Amado looked at him in shock. "Eva spent time with you?"
"We were working in Budapest."
"Not just working? More?"
Ulrich laughed. "What woman could resist more when she's near me?"
Eva began smoothing wrinkles out of her white, peasant blouse. She'd obviously slept in it. "Your needs were met, weren't they?"
"Mine and Gunther's. We've never had a woman who could take on both of us at the same time."
Amado's jaw dropped in surprise.
"Close your mouth before a bat makes a home there, and keep your hands off my woman." Ulrich turned to Enoch. "Show me around, old friend."
Enoch started for the nature preserve, shaking his head. "You enjoyed that too much."
Ulrich's blue eyes danced. "Yes, I did. When Eva finally has her way with that priss, he's going to regret making her wait so long."
"That's more information than I wanted to know."
Ulrich laughed and slapped him on the back. "We're not angels, like you. We can stray."
Enoch thought of Voronika. Vampires weren't known for their fidelity, but somehow, Bart and Claudia had made it work.
Ulrich looked at the dense underbrush. "There are animals everywhere. We can hunt each night."
"Don't make it obvious. Naturalists work hard to keep things in balance."
Ulrich looked at Gunther. "We'll respect that."
The two didn't return until pink colored the eastern horizon. Voronika gave Enoch a quick kiss before following Bart and Claudia upstairs to the bedrooms. When the house grew quiet, he went to the living room and opened a book. Today, he was drinking coffee, reading a mystery, and relaxing…if no one knocked on the door or called for help.
Chapter 37
It was late afternoon before Danny had time to call Enoch. "Can we get together somewhere? Your pick. We need to talk."
"Shit. Is it three already? The time's flown by. I forgot to eat. Can you do a late lunch?"
"No time. Maybe a drink? I'll drive to your place for a beer."
"Gino knows we work together on cases. I want it left at that. You shouldn't be too close to this."
"So where?" Danny asked.
They decided on a bar in a strip mall on highway 24. "Is it open this early?"
"I don't know," Danny said. "Let's find out." A classy seafood place was nestled in the strip mall's corner, but the bar, next door, was known for its casual ambience—good drinks, great wine, and well-priced food. On the drive over, Danny turned on the Buick's air conditioning. It was the first day of July, and it was just plain hot.
There was more traffic than usual. Cars darted back and forth from one lane to another, thickened when he reached Washington Street, and clogged when he neared the shopping areas. When he reached the strip mall, he parked beside Enoch's Land Rover. The minute he opened his car door and stepped outside, the heat hit him.
"High humidity too," Enoch complained, stepping from his car to meet him.
"This is when you wish you owned a lake cottage and had the summer off," Danny grumbled. "You're rich. Why don't you buy someplace on the water and invite us up for the season?"
"Voronika can’t do sunlight. Lakes don't tempt her."
"Tell her she's a spoilsport."
When they settled at a table and the waitress came, Danny and Enoch both ordered a beer. "Aren't you going to get some food?" Danny asked.
"The heat's killed my appetite."
"I never have that problem."
Enoch gave a pointed look at Danny's girth. "I can tell. So, what's up?"
Danny ran a hand around his collar to loosen it. Sweat slicked his skin. "The guy's body they dragged out of the river—he's a small time drug dealer who sells out of his home. One of our cops recognized him. That made me start to worry about our guy on Fourth Street. I was beginning to think he was a goner, but then I got a call from him this morning."
"Where is he?"
"In Indy, and he phoned to tell me that I probably wouldn't believe him, I'd think he'd taken too much of his own stuff, but that vampires picked him up and flew him there and told him not to come back. If they saw him again, he'd be dead."
Enoch leaned forward, interested. "Did he meet any other dealers there, ones he knew?"
"Yeah, including our floater. The dead guy's wife and kids are in Three Rivers. He wanted to sneak back to see them." The beers came and Danny took a long sip of his. "The thing is, our guy wants to come back too, but he'd like to stay alive when he gets here, so he called me to try to work out a deal."
"What kind of a deal?"
"The usual. He'll give us information if we turn a blind eye to his business dealings."
Enoch thought a minute. "What does he think a detective can do about vampires?"
"He wanted us to load all our guns with silver bullets to get rid of them."
"Those are a little hard to come by."
"I didn’t say he was brilliant. I said he wanted to come back to Three Rivers."
"Why risk it?" Enoch asked. "If vampires warned him to stay away, why not start over in a new town?"
"Harder to do than you'd think. No contacts, no customers." Danny shrugged. "Besides that, his boyfriend lives here, won't move. They've been together eight years. It's serious."
"And his boyfriend knows that our dealer might die if he comes back?"
"The boyfriend's mom and sisters live here. He won't leave them. Plus, there's no money. Our guy's running out of funds."
"He must not be making much selling."
"He's small time. He's going broke." The human condition. Danny understood that only too well.
Enoch looked worried. He understood it too. "Even if we could protect him, which I doubt, we couldn't protect his boyfriend or his boyfriend's family. And the vamps could use any of them against him."
Danny nodded. "I'll tell him to wait, but that we believe him, and we'll try to do something to change things for him."
"But what will he do? He's homeless and broke."
"He won't listen and he'll come back."
They were silent while the waitress brought two more beers. Once she left, Enoch said, "They'll kill him. He won't last a week. Our guy's information means one of the big three is working with a dealer in Detroit."
"And Gino's from New York, so they have connections there too."Danny let out a deep breath.
Enoch's expression turned serious. "Tell our guy if he comes back, we'll be fishing him out of the river next, if we find his body at all."
Danny reached for his wallet, but Enoch shook his head. "I invited you, remember?"
On the way to their cars, a question came to Danny. "You're always fighting bad guys, one century after another. Are you ever tempted to take matters into your own hands, go on the offensive, and just eliminate people and vamps you know deserve it?"
"You mean, play God?" Enoch stopped, and Danny could tell that he'd caught him by surprise. "Are you?"
"Once you start thinking you're above everyone else," Enoch said, "you end up like Caleb. Look where that got him."
Enoch considered Caleb's fall from grace a punishment. Danny wasn't so sure Caleb saw it that way. "It's crossed my mind that you don't have too many Thou Shalt Nots."
"My rules are bigger than that. It's not about the letter of the law. It's the principle." Enoch held a hand over his eyes to shade them. "It's damned hot out here."
"Hotter than hell?"
Enoch groaned. "Bad joke. I'm going home."
"It's back to work for me." He opened his car door, and heat blasted him. "One of the joys of Indiana. Winter's a mess. Spring's too short. Summer's too hot. And I have allergies in Autumn."
Enoch laughed. "See you later."
Danny was smiling too as he pulled away, but his humor evaporated on the way to the station. A slow boil took its place. He hadn't thought bad vampires could stoop any lower than their natural impulses, but Okon, Yerik, and Ragnar had made deals with mortals as horrid as they were. He wanted all of them—the bad vamps and mortals—stopped and destroyed.
Chapter 38
When Enoch pulled into his driveway, Gino's car was there, and Gino himself was walking around the back yard. When he saw Enoch, he came to meet him.
"Hey, sorry to bother you." At the look on Enoch's face, Gino hurried into speech. "When Kandy stopped in yesterday, she left her purse. I had to see some clients and was out this way, so I told her I'd stop by to get it."
"How convenient." Enoch's words were laced with acid. He knew Gino had been peeking in windows and poking around. It didn't matter, but it still annoyed him. All of the windows where the vampires slept were darkened so that sunlight wouldn't hit them. Gino would notice that every door and window was protected by metal grids, though. Enoch frowned, trying to remember. "I didn't notice a purse. Did she say where she left it?"
"In a downstairs bathroom."
Of course. Some place he wouldn't see it. Enoch nodded. "I'll get it and be right back." He had no intentions of inviting Gino into his house.