Blood Red Roulette

by Jana Denardo

  He fished out his phone and dialed. “Siobhan, I’m ready. Let’s get out there and see if we can flush her out.”

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  LUC POPPED the spout off a rum bottle, tossed the empty, and jammed the spout on a fresh bottle. Tonight was busy inside of Shifty’s. A full pack of werewolves had shown up and were talking with Michael. Luc knew some sort of bribe was being offered to make them help search for Eleni. He’d been in his new place for nearly a week with nothing happening. George didn’t know anything according to Arrigo. Luc stopped asking about George. He didn’t want to know what was happening to him. He wasn’t sure he’d ever be cut out to be a Chiaroscuro member. He didn’t like hunting people down or the responsibility that came afterward.

  As he mixed the Cuba libre, Luc knew a few other things to be true. He missed the comforts of Arrigo’s luxury condo. Boy, had he gotten used to being spoiled fast. Luc missed Arrigo’s touch even more. He ached to waltz to Cajun music with him, as Arrigo had learned how back in his New Orleans days. Arrigo would look so sexy dancing to a little BeauSoliel. He wanted to just sit there watching TV, leaning against Arrigo’s shoulder. Luc missed the sex and the love and acceptance. It was something else he had gotten used to fast. He felt like a man in the desert looking for water, a strange feeling for a swamp rat.

  Luc slid the drink in front of the witch who’d asked for it then turned his attention to the gaggle of girls who seemed to be completely normal and either drunk enough or psi insensitive, as Siobhan called it, to not be weirded out by being surrounded by a group of predators. He didn’t mind that they thought he was adorable. One of them kept making eyes at him. At least they were tipping heavily with each drink. Luc hoped they weren’t expecting too much for their attention. He had no intention of cheating on Arrigo. Even if he did, he knew it would be dangerous for them. His control during sex remained shaky. Arrigo didn’t trust him on his own without an older, more experienced vampire to help him keep an even keel, and Luc definitely didn’t trust himself.

  He gave the girls a mix of fireballs, Cuba libres, and sex on the beaches. As he headed back behind the bar, Luc thought he saw someone in the doorway. He made a big deal of working the cork out of a wine bottle while looking around it at the front door. His blood ran cold. His eyes hadn’t lied to him. She seemed to be studying the patrons. Luc doubted she’d stick around long.

  While grabbing down two wineglasses to keep up the pretense of working and not noticing her, Luc dug out his cell phone. He didn’t trust that Arrigo and Siobhan could watch their phones’ feed from the wireless camera while they patrolled for Eleni. Arrigo answered on the second ring.

  “Arrigo, she’s here!”

  “What?”

  “At Shifty’s. I’m getting Michael now. I’m going after her,” Luc said.

  He thumbed off the phone when Arrigo said, “Wait!” He knew Arrigo and Siobhan were in the Fremont area, but he’d be damned if he was waiting. Eleni had disappeared.

  Luc ran over to Michael at the wolf’s table. “Michael! She was just in the doorway. I’m going after her. Allons!”

  Michael nearly knocked the table over, jumping up. It wasn’t until they were on the street that Luc realized the rest of the pack hadn’t followed except for a small Hispanic woman with a tough expression on her face.

  “Where’s the rest?” Luc asked.

  “The alpha doesn’t see it as his problem. Mercedes is willing to help.” Michael jerked a hand toward the woman.

  “Merci. I didn’t see which way she went,” Luc replied.

  Michael flared his nostrils, knowing Eleni’s scent. Mercedes—who didn’t—looked to Michael for her cues. Luc doubted Michael could pick up anything with all the damn people running around on Fremont. For his part, Luc trusted his eyes. He spotted Eleni down near Bunions, making a left off Fremont. Good, there would be less people that way.

  Luc didn’t waste time with words. Michael would follow him. Luc pushed his way down the street, trying not to knock anyone down and at the same time trying not to lose Eleni.

  “Giancarlo!” Michael bellowed, waving a hand. Several tourists gave him the stink eye.

  Luc saw Arrigo and Siobhan fighting their way through the crowds on the other side of the street. Luc stabbed a finger in the direction Eleni went. Arrigo nodded. As a newly formed pack, they rounded the corner, leaving the glaring lights of the Fremont Experience. He was grateful to get the neon out of his sensitive eyes.

  There was no one else on this much more dimly lit street. Grinning, feeling his fangs lock into place, Luc took off. He’d always been fast, a necessary trait in his family. It had helped keep him out of reach more than once. Luc’s stride ate up the distance between him and Eleni, vaguely aware the others were right with him. All of his attention honed razor-sharp on his prey. Even though no one said a word, he knew she had to know she was being followed. Even the most clueless person would notice the sounds of feet slapping concrete as they ran.

  Luc lunged for her, hearing Arrigo warning him to be careful. All Luc cared about was that Arrigo let him deal with this bitch who had turned his life inside out. He grabbed her, trying to drag her down. Eleni twisted in his grip, her hand coming up. Luc stepped back thinking she had a Taser like George had.

  He was completely unprepared for the loud bark of a pistol. Fire tore into his belly. Screaming, Luc hit the pavement. Michael kicked him as he tried to leap over Luc. Eleni fired again, and Michael dropped.

  “Luc!” Arrigo cried.

  A growl sounded, and Luc wasn’t sure if it was Michael or Mercedes until the female werewolf hurdled him, wearing her wolfman face. Eleni aimed, and Mercedes dodged, tripping over the uneven sidewalk. She fired at Arrigo, but if Eleni hit him, Luc couldn’t tell. The pain in his belly took up too much of his mind. The blood leaked through his fingers as he pressed them against his stomach.

  Eleni took off even as Arrigo stooped down to check Michael and not Luc. Luc knew that made sense. Arrigo understood that he’d heal up. Werewolves weren’t as lucky. Siobhan kept after Eleni. Her body jerked as she took two bullets, but she didn’t stop. Arrigo gave up on Michael and ran after Eleni too. Siobhan took a hit to her leg, which took her down. Eleni seemed to learn from that and immediately aimed at Arrigo’s pelvis.

  Luc cried out as Arrigo fell. Arrigo kept struggling, trying to get up, but fell each time. Eleni didn’t waste time attempting to finish them off. Either she was out of bullets or knew she wouldn’t get in fatal shots before the older vampires recovered enough to kill her. She kept on running. Luc struggled to sit up, but his body didn’t want to move. Sweet Jesus, was he paralyzed? Could vampires be paralyzed?

  Mercedes pressed her shirt to Michael’s shoulder, her bra seeming super white under the streetlamp. Luc couldn’t understand why he even noticed when there were so much more important things to worry about.

  “Arrigo,” he said. “Arri, are you all right? Siobhan?”

  “I’m all right.” Siobhan sat up, blood on her face where the bullet had gouged her cheek. The skin twitched, already patching itself. “She hit my knee. That’s going to take a moment. Arrigo, what about you?”

  “Hip.” He struggled up but fell back three times before accomplishing it. “Bone’s not broken. Damn near blew my dick off with that shot.”

  “The bitch. Mercedes, how’s Michael?” Siobhan managed to get to her feet and staggered, in no shape to run after Eleni.

  “Bleeding badly. I’ve got pressure on it. Someone better call 911. I can’t let the pressure up,” Mercedes replied.

  “On it,” Siobhan said, phone in hand.

  Arrigo staggered over to Luc and nearly fell back down. “Luc, can you move? You took a bullet at close range.”

  “Maybe.” Luc pushed himself up on one arm. “Better than a minute ago.”

  Arrigo pulled up Luc’s shirt. An angry hole marred his side. Arrigo peered around Luc’s back, grunting. He didn’t have to ask what Arrigo saw. Luc had been hunti
ng his whole life. He knew how big an exit wound could be. “You’re healing. Hopefully there’ll still be a little mark to make it look like you were grazed by the time the cops get here.”

  “Our DNA is everywhere,” Luc said.

  “Yeah, that’s why I’m hoping for visible grazes. We can deny treatment and move on with reasonable explanations,” Arrigo said, turning to Michael. “Are you with us, Michael?”

  “Hurt too much to be dead,” Michael rasped. “Kinda want to be a healing vampire right now.”

  “I bet. Still hurts, though,” Luc moaned. “You going after her?”

  “Siobhan and I can barely walk. You and Michael can’t.” Arrigo laid him back against the sidewalk. Luc stared up at the light-polluted sky, trying to ignore the pain in his abdomen. He wanted Arrigo and Siobhan to go after Eleni, but he knew why they couldn’t.

  “Shouldn’t you two go?” Luc asked.

  “Probably but there’s CCTV all over the place here. They’ll know we were here and want to know why we left,” Arrigo said. “Also, that.” He pointed to the blinking lights of the emergency vehicles. Fremont had fairly intense police presence and Luc spotted two uniformed cops racing down the sidewalk.

  The ambulance arrived just after them. The detectives came soon after, including one Luc recognized. She was Arrigo’s friend, but maybe not for much longer judging by the look on her face.

  “You’re telling me your ex shot up you and your friends,” the woman said, her tone far sharper than would be considered professional.

  “Yes, Eleni did this. She just grazed me, Luc, and Siobhan. We’re not seriously injured, Shani,” Arrigo said, not for the first time. “Mercedes is uninjured… but poor Michael.” He gestured toward the ambulance.

  “Is thinking in Hollywood movies people shrug off shoulder wounds,” Michael said as he was being loaded onto the ambulance. “I can barely stand it.”

  “That’s because Hollywood is full of shit. They’ll get you to surgery. I’ll interview you afterward,” Shani said.

  The EMTs said something to her Luc didn’t quite catch before shutting up the back and getting in the ambulance. Shani turned back to Arrigo, fury in her eyes.

  “You said she was in Reno. That’s why Taabu came back.”

  “I’m sorry, Shani. She was there. Obviously she came back,” Arrigo said. “I still have people watching over Taabu. We were out for some fun while Luc was on his break.”

  “I work at Shifty’s,” Luc offered, glad his belly wasn’t hurt quite as much anymore. He was nervous, though, too much so. It wasn’t as if he had done anything wrong.

  “Are you sure you don’t want treatment?” Shani eyed him. “That’s a lot of blood on your shirt.”

  Luc lifted the hem. A small bloody groove could be seen. “It’s not bad. Just bled a lot.”

  Shani gave him a look of disbelief. All Luc wanted was for Shani to leave them alone so Mercedes could track Eleni—if she was still willing to help a bunch of strangers—and so he could go home and be miserable about Eleni’s escape.

  Finally, he got his wish, barely before sunrise. Arrigo broke some speed laws getting them home to the Veer since it was easier to reach than Luc’s new home. Luc’s skin prickled and burned by the time he was in the bathroom, showering off the blood and failure. Arrigo joined him, but it was strictly for the purpose of cleaning away the awfulness of the night. As they dried off, Arrigo wrapped his arms around Luc. His fingers gently probed an extremely sore spot on Luc’s back. No doubt it was the exit wound, mostly healed now.

  “I should have kept going,” Arrigo whispered.

  “She shot you in your hip. You’re lucky you can walk.” Luc sighed, pulling away, and bent over to get his fresh boxers off the vanity. He groaned. “Damn, still hurts. I’m so weak.”

  “Hardly. You ran after the woman who assaulted you in the worst way possible. You need to have more faith in yourself, Luc.” Arrigo took the boxers from him and knelt down. He stretched the boxers between his hands and Luc stepped into them, happy he wouldn’t have to bend down and pull them on. His back throbbed.

  “I’m trying to, but at the end of the day, Eleni got away.”

  “Three vampires and two werewolves went after her, and none of us caught her. You are on par with us.” Arrigo stood back up and found his own underwear.

  Luc snorted. “Fair point.” He staggered into the bedroom and dropped onto the mattress. He didn’t even have the energy to pull up the blanket. “At least we know she is coming for me,” he said into the pillow.

  “I’m not resting easier knowing that.” Arrigo crawled into bed next to him.

  Luc managed to flop over so he could look at Arrigo. “You aren’t? Trust me, I ain’t either.”

  Arrigo pulled up the sheet and tucked it behind Luc, then used it to draw him closer. Arrigo gave him a soft, weary kiss. “I wish I could promise I could keep you safe. All I managed to do was get half your kidney shattered.”

  “No, I did that chasing after her. I ain’t been safe a day in my life, Arrigo. You make me feel safe, and she doesn’t have the element of surprise anymore. We know she’s here. We’re hunting her as much as she’s hunting us. We almost got her tonight. We’re doing better.”

  Arrigo shook his head, and his hair tumbled into his face. “We’re still reacting to her, not the other way.”

  “I know, but it’s like hunting gators. You put the bait out there. Then you got to be faster than a top predator who’s been around since the dawn of time.” Luc smiled.

  “I can’t argue that. Get some sleep. You still have a lot of healing to do.”

  “Yeah.” Luc spooned up with Arrigo. Disappointed, sore, there was one thing he took away from tonight: he could stand up to Eleni. Knowing that changed things for him. There would be another time. While he didn’t look forward to it, Luc felt better about it than ever before. It was a happy thought to fall asleep to.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  LUC STRETCHED, bending back a little at the waist to take the pressure off his back. The crappy thing about bartending was being on his feet for hours made his back ache. Luc idly wondered if he had arthritis in his spine. He’d taken enough kicks to it over the years from his da and Henri. It was certainly possible. Being shot a few days before didn’t help any. Oh well, at least it was an easy enough job, though Luc wanted to avoid bars on his off time. Arrigo talked about getting him a part-time job as a valet at a casino once his control was better. It would be nice to have a job that didn’t involve alcohol.

  He offered up a tired smile to the Korean vampire who had been flirting with him all night. From listening to her talk he suspected vampire sexuality was a fluid thing. Maybe it was just the vampires he knew. Maybe they started out bisexual like him and Arrigo. He didn’t think Siobhan was bisexual, but he didn’t ask about that stuff.

  “It’s a long night for a young one like you.” She pushed her empty glass toward him.

  “Yeah. Ain’t so bad. Better than my last job.” Luc filled her glass with Guinness. “About the same dumb hours too.”

  She laughed. “I’m surprised Arrigo lets a cutie like you out of his sight.”

  Luc felt his face go red. “He knows I’m shy and unlikely to stray.”

  Her fingers brushed his as he handed over the mug. “Too bad.”

  Luc smiled at her and moved to the other end of the bar where a guy he didn’t know wiggled his empty bottle at him. He replaced it with another Miller Lite, which would probably make Arrigo roll his eyes at the cheapness of it. He wasn’t sure Arrigo drank cheap beer. He’d seen him drink one in the Alibi, but that might have been to fit in. The beer he brought stargazing had been some pricey microbrew. Last time Arrigo drank here, he had a froufrou blue thing.

  Luc glanced at his cell phone to find it was close to his end of shift. He wasn’t looking forward to going home on the bus. They didn’t want to risk using a car Eleni could know, and he had a senior-citizen tracking device hidden in his pocket. It seeme
d pretty obvious if he wore it on his wrist. If anything his new place was grosser than the last one. At least it wasn’t far from the bar. He could walk to it if he wanted to. To his surprise, Arrigo came into the bar with Sykes. Michael was still in the hospital, which seemed to piss the werewolf off. Luc couldn’t blame him. He wanted revenge for Hanako, and he wasn’t going to get it in a hospital with a gunshot wound.

  Arrigo beckoned to him. Luc called to his boss, Diana. “Be back in a minute.” He pointed to Arrigo, and Diana nodded. Luc hustled over to Arrigo. He could read the tension in Arrigo’s face. Luc’s heart kicked as nerves tickled in his belly.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m not sure. I got a call from Cheryl, but it was dead when I picked up. I thought she might have accidentally dialed me. She’s guarding the diner since Shani is with Taabu tonight. I called her back with no answer. I phoned Lily. She’s at work. She thinks I’m coming over to talk about the ghosts.”

  “But you think she’s in trouble.” The tension made Luc’s voice crack. No one should be allowed to hurt poor Lily. She’d gone through enough crap, just like him.

  “I don’t like that Cheryl isn’t answering her phone. Siobhan is out in Henderson, tracking down a lead. Sykes and I were in the Nugget checking out a potential sighting. I figured you’d never forgive me if I didn’t come get you before going to the diner,” Arrigo said. “Siobhan’s across the city, too far to get here fast enough.”

  Luc felt a swell of pride and gratitude. Arrigo’s understanding and faith was proof he’d made the right choice in staying with Arrigo. “Damn right.” He glanced over his shoulder. “But Diana….”

  “Diana, I know it’s early, but I need to borrow Luc. It’s business,” Arrigo bellowed across the bar. Diana waved them off.

  Luc didn’t need further encouraging. He followed Arrigo and Sykes to the car. He didn’t know Sykes well as he didn’t talk much. All Luc knew was Sykes was magical somehow.