Murder in Vein

by Sue Ann Jaffarian

  The bartender returned and pointed toward the door with the beaded covering. "He's in his office. Go right through there."

  "Thanks"

  There was no one in the room when Madison entered. The candles were unlit and the lights were up, casting a harsh reality on the furnishings. In the better light, Madison could see that the sofas and chairs were old, the area carpets threadbare. It looked more like a warehouse for used, battered furniture than the meeting place of an active coven of vampire worshipers she'd seen just a few hours earlier.

  She stepped over to the coffin in the corner. The lid was still up. The coffin appeared to be fairly new and was easily the nicest thing in the room.

  "Ever get inside one?" a voice asked.

  Madison spun around to find Wilhelm just a few feet behind her. She placed a hand over her thumping heart. "Oh, I'm sorry, Lord Wilhelm. I didn't know you were there."

  His face was washed of its makeup, and he wore a long black Indian-style cotton tunic over loose black cotton pants. An ornate clasp held his silver hair in place at the nape of his neck. On his feet were huaraches. He looked healthier but older than he had the night before.

  "So, have you?" he asked again. He put out a hand and caressed the smooth outside of the coffin.

  Madison looked at the casket and did her best not to shudder noticeably. "No, never."

  "Every now and then I'll sleep in it," he admitted. "It's a little snug, but emotionally it's rather liberating." He stroked the shiny box with love and respect. "Kind of a sneak preview of coming attractions, you might say."

  "But I thought you were a vampire?" Madison gave him what she hoped was a look of doe-eyed innocence. "Don't they live forever?"

  "There are immortal vampires-those who live forever until killed by certain means-and mortal vampires, like myself." He touched his chest with a finger adorned with a heavy silver ring. "Both enjoy darkness and the blood of innocents." Noticing Madison's bewildered look, he smiled. "You have much to learn, little one." He moved toward the sofa. "Come, sit with me." His words were smooth and inviting.

  With very little hesitation, Madison took a seat on the sofa she'd occupied earlier.

  "Isn't Colin teaching you any of this?" When she didn't answer, Wilhelm laughed. "Or is he just fucking you like a wild stallion?" He looked Madison over, taking in her form-fitting sweater and tight jeans. "I know I would, were I so inclined that way." He sighed. "As it is, I'm very jealous of you. I've wanted him for years, but he won't let me have so much as a nibble, the cruel boy."

  Until now, Madison had never thought of Colin Reddy as a sexual partner, not even when she was teasing him about Lilith. But now, sitting with Wilhelm and listening to his lusty talk, it was all Madison could think about-as if Wilhelm's lascivious suggestion had implanted the idea in her brain with mere words spoken in dulcet tones.

  Wilhelm reached out and touched Madison's neck with a fingertip. "I'll bet Colin's feasting on you, both sexually and otherwise, like an all-you-can-eat buffet-and from the look of your unblemished neck, he's being very discreet."

  "Colin is teaching me about vampirism," she told Wilhelm, shaking off the cloudiness of desire. "But he's not into the drinking of blood."

  "Oh, no?" Again, Wilhelm laughed and continued to stroke Madison's graceful neck. "Once a mortal vampire gets a taste for human blood, he or she must have it. And Colin Reddy thirsts for blood. I know, I've seen it."

  Madison pushed his hand away. "What do you mean?"

  Wilhelm leaned back and gave Madison a thin-lipped smile. "The last time any of us saw Colin was on a holy day, a day of feasting, about ten months ago. On feast days, one or two of our acolytes sacrifice themselves to the rest of us."

  "You kill them?" Madison started to get to her feet, but Wilhelm moved forward to prevent her.

  "No, dear girl, nothing like that at all. Relax and let me tell you what happened. It may increase your appetite for the worthy Colin."

  When Madison leaned back again on the sofa, Wilhelm continued. "That feast day, only one acolyte was being presented. We dressed her in a white and gold chiffon Grecian-style gown and laid her on a table in a circle of flowers. It was a beautiful sight. Throughout the day, members and special guests could partake of her blood."

  "She let them?" Madison was shocked.

  "No," Wilhelm corrected, "she wanted them to do it. It was her privilege as an acolyte and servant of the coven."

  "People bit her and sucked her blood?" Madison fought the urge to be sick.

  Wilhelm had closed his eyes, fondly remembering the event. When he opened them, he reached over to the table next to the sofa and opened a small drawer, retrieving a tiny packet. He opened it and held its contents up for Madison's inspection. "Know what this is?"

  "Yes. They use those at the doctor's office when they stick your finger for blood."

  Wilhelm nodded. "They're called lancets. Diabetics also use them. And so do we. Generally, when we partake of another's blood, we stick them with one of these. We don't bite them. On feast days, members prick the acolyte and suck the blood from the tiny incisions."

  Unbidden, the photos of Evie Banks invaded Madison's mind. Evie's body had received multiple small cuts. Had Evie been a sacrificial killing?

  Madison pushed the memory of the photo aside, but not the thought. "And they don't mind being stuck over and over?"

  "On the contrary, they go into another realm of being," Wilhelm explained with enthusiasm. "They are actually transported into a state of nirvana as the feasting continues."

  "So what does this have to do with Colin?"

  Wilhelm put the lancet on the table and turned back to her. "On that particular day, everyone was taking their turn feasting on the girl, except for Colin. He hung back, but I could see in his eyes that he wanted to devour her ... to suck her dry. Finally, I handed him a new lancet and pushed him toward the table. He looked the woman over for a moment, then drove the lancet into her neck, right about here." Wilhelm reached out a hand and touched Madison right where her neck and shoulder connected. Her sweater had a boat neck, and his fingers were hot on her skin. Mesmerized by the story and his voice, she didn't push them away.

  "So he drank her blood?"

  "Oh, my, it was much more than that. As soon as Colin's lips touched the girl's neck and started sucking, she let out this moan, guttural and deep, from some dark, untouched place inside her." Wilhelm continued fingering Madison's neck. "It was beastly and absolutely fabulous. We all stopped our own feasting and merrymaking and gathered around the table, positively awestruck."

  Wilhelm withdrew his fingers from Madison's neck and stroked his own neck as he spoke, as if sensing it himself. "But Colin didn't stop with that one snack. Like a man possessed, he kept sucking on her. Cutting her over and over with the lancet when the wound he was drinking closed up. Blood dripped from his mouth and over that sexy black beard of his. And all the while she kept moaning and writhing on the table in ecstasy. Finally, right there in front of us all, she had this mind-blowing orgasm."

  When Wilhelm stopped talking, Madison had to remind herself to breathe. "The woman was Miriam, wasn't it?"

  He nodded. "Until last night, we never saw Colin again. I daresay Miriam would follow him to the ends of the earth for a rematch."

  Wilhelm studied Madison. "And you're saying he's never sucked your blood?"

  "Never" Though after that story, Madison wasn't so sure she didn't want Colin to try.

  "Then he's a man scared of his true identity. Pity. He has such potential."

  Madison almost laughed, thinking about Colin's true identity and how it would shock Wilhelm. Then she sobered up, thinking about how close Colin had come to being discovered, and Miriam possibly killed, in his uncontrolled bloodlust.

  Pushing blood sucking and orgasms aside, Madison fought to put her priorities in line. She'd come to Wilhelm with a purpose.

  "Although Colin is teaching me a lot," she told Wilhelm, getting things back to her purpose,
"I first learned about the lifestyle from a friend of mine a few years ago. A friend you might know."

  "Oh, really?" Wilhelm arched one eyebrow. "Who, pray tell?"

  "A couple of years ago, I met a girl named Sylvia. I never knew her last name. She was the one who first told me about vampirism. She was really into it"

  "Sylvia?" Wilhelm gave the name some thought. "I don't recall a Sylvia, but then I seldom become acquainted with the young people who come here to party."

  "No, she was a member of your coven. I'm sure of it."

  Wilhelm gave her the cocked eyebrow again.

  "I lost touch with Sylvia. Then this morning, when I was looking at your card, I remembered that it was the Bat Beauty coven that she belonged to, but I don't recall seeing her here last night."

  "You're sure it was Bat Beauty?"

  "Yes. She was about my age, with very, very curly blond hair."

  Wilhelm gave it more thought. "I do remember a girl with rather gorgeous untamed blond hair."

  "I'd really like to contact her again."

  "Tell you what, let me go into the office and see if I can find her name on our past members lists. If I do, I can at least give you the information we had on her at the time. Although we don't use last names in the coven, we do keep rosters for some purposes."

  While Wilhelm was gone, Madison tried hard to erase the image of Colin sucking on Miriam's neck from her mind, but the harder she tried, the clearer it appeared, like a permanent stain no amount of scrubbing would remove. She clamped her eyes shut but only succeeded in replacing Miriam's face with her own.

  "You can't stop thinking about it, can you?"

  Madison gasped in surprise. Wilhelm had quietly returned, startling her once again.

  She shook her head. "No, that's not it. I didn't get much sleep last night. I'm afraid I was dozing off."

  From the smirk Wilhelm gave her, she knew he wasn't buying her bullshit.

  "I found her information." Wilhelm held a piece of paper in his hand. "I wrote it down for you. According to our membership notes, she left the coven about a year or so ago to get married, so she might not have the same last name."

  Madison thanked him and held out her hand for the paper, but Wilhelm didn't give it to her. Instead, he sat back down on the sofa, closer to Madison.

  Wilhelm looked into Madison's eyes while his fingers stroked her neck again. Her brain told her to get up and leave, but her body wasn't listening. She was getting lost in Wilhelm's eyes, just like she'd gotten lost in Samuel's.

  "I gave you what you want," Wilhelm told her in a lullaby of words, never taking his eyes off of hers, "now it's your turn to help me."

  "What do you want?" In spite of her resolve being sapped, her words challenged him.

  "Every day when I wake up," Wilhelm explained, "I feed off an acolyte. It's my privilege as high priest. Today, Geoff was to serve me, but he didn't show up." His fingers played with her hair, using it to tickle her neck. "Today, I shall feed off of you."

  She shook her head, both to dispel the trance and to say no.

  "Yes, my girl, today you're not Colin's. Today you're mine. I'll be your first."

  Keeping his eyes glued to Madison's, Wilhelm reached back and picked up the lancet. He held it up in front of her face, its sharp point bright and inviting. "This is just the beginning to new worlds for you, Madison," he said in hypnotic words of seduction. "Just the beginning. Embrace it."

  NINETEEN

  hen Madison came to, she was stretched out on the red velvet sofa in the back room of Bat Beauty. She was alone. Her sweater had been pulled up from behind. Her arms were still encased in the sleeves, but the neck had been pulled up and over her head, exposing her entire back. She sat upright and pulled her sweater back over her head, covering herself. Next to her on the sofa was a piece of paper. She picked it up. It contained the contact information for Sylvia Hannaford.

  Leaning back against the sofa, she felt a stinging on the upper part of her shoulder, near the back of her neck. Reaching back, she felt a bandage. She also smelled alcohol. At least Wilhelm had sanitized the wounds.

  A fuzzy glance at her watch told Madison she'd been at Bat Beauty for almost two hours. How much of that time was spent passed out or being sucked on by a gay vampire wannabe, she wasn't sure.

  Taking the paper, she looked around for her bag before remembering that she'd left it locked in the trunk of her car. She headed out the door and through the bar while fishing her car keys out of the pocket of her jeans. She didn't look at the people at the bar, nor did she look for Wilhelm. She just wanted to get the hell out of Bat Beauty.

  When Madison returned to the Dedham home, she went straight upstairs to her room. She wanted to plug into her computer and see if she could find anything on Sylvia Hannaford.

  Once upstairs, she noticed the door at the end of the hallway was open. It was the door to the master suite. Thinking Doug and Dodie were up already, she went to the doorway and knocked. When she didn't get an answer, she stepped inside the dark room.

  A gasp escaped Madison's lips before she could clasp a hand over her mouth to muffle the scream. On the bed were the Dedhams-side by side cadavers. Doug was on his side, one arm thrown across Dodie. Dodie was on her back, her hands folded ladylike across her chest like a relief on a sarcophagus. Her eyes were closed, but Doug's were open, staring without seeing. Dodie wore a nightgown; Doug, pajamas. Neither were covered by a sheet or blanket. Notwithstanding their spray tans, they were deathly white and waxy. And stiff.

  "What are you doing in here?" a voice behind her demanded. Madison jumped. It was Pauline, standing in the doorway. In one arm she cradled folded laundry. The hand of her free arm was glued to her thick hip in annoyance. "You were told not to come in here."

  "I ... I ... ," Madison stammered, her voice shaking. "I saw the door open and thought they might be up." She looked back at the bed. "They're dead," she whispered, a catch in her voice.

  "Of course they're dead," Pauline said, not keeping her voice down. She snapped on the light, making the death scene on the bed even more ghastly. "They're vampires. What did you expect?"

  Pauline pushed by Madison and walked to the triple dresser. Opening a drawer, she placed some of the clean clothing inside and closed it. She repeated the process with the remaining clothing in the next drawer down.

  "But they're really dead, not sleeping." Madison inched back toward the door.

  "Vampires don't sleep." Pauline took Madison firmly by the arm and guided her out of the room. On the way out, she snapped off the light and closed the door behind them. "Every day when they go to bed, they die. If you called in the coroner right now," Pauline explained, "he'd examine them, then call the meat wagon. And they can't be woken up like you and me. Shaking, noise-nothing brings them out of it until their bodies come back to life on their own. It's just the way it is." Pauline squeezed Madison's arm until it hurt. "It's also the only time they're vulnerable to attack, so it's important that no one goes in there while they're like that. They trust you, Madison. That means you must keep them safe, just like I do."

  "There's no way to wake them?" Madison asked, looking back at the closed door.

  "Only one way," Pauline said, her face close to Madison's. "Blood. The smell of fresh blood is the only thing that will snap them out of it."

  Pauline let go of Madison's arm when they were in front of the guest room. "The Dedhams will be up soon enough." Pauline started down the stairs. "I'm heading home now, so you keep your nose out of their business and don't go in there again." She shook a finger at Madison. "You hear?"

  Madison looked at the closed door to the master suite and shivered. She had no intention of going in there again.

  The sun was almost down as Madison started up her computer and connected to the Internet. She checked her e-mail account. Nothing. There was never much, except spam. She started by Googling the name Sylvia Hannaford. Quite a few references popped up. She was starting to work her way through them
, looking for something that might connect her to the right Sylvia Hannaford, when the wounds on her shoulder started throbbing.

  As she reached over her shoulder to touch the place were Wilhelm had fed off of her, tears welled in her eyes. When it became difficult for her to see the computer screen, she got up and went to the window.

  Twilight was upon the canyon, settling over it like a soft veil. Madison fixed her eyes on the house across the street, on the corner of the roof that peeked at her through the trees. In a few minutes it would be too dark for her to see it. Her tears came in earnest. Rolling down her cheeks, they dripped unchecked onto her sweater. She wiped them away with the back of her hand and went to the bed, where she'd tossed her duffle bag. Opening it, she started taking out the clothing, moving robotically as she hung the items in the closet.

  Grabbing the tampon boxes, she headed into the bathroom to put them away, keeping busy to keep the memory of what had happened at Bat Beauty at bay. But when she saw her reflection in the mirror, a choking sob escaped her lips. Then another. She didn't look different, but she felt different. Wetting a facecloth with cool water, Madison pressed it against her swelling eyes.

  Continuing to coo in a rhythmic, spellbinding voice, Wilhelm had coaxed her into submission, even as her last shred of will had stood against him like the last soldier standing in a conflict.

  "Turn around," he'd ordered gently. "Face away from me."