Madison gasped softly, always surprised by Samuel's ability. Her displeasure about riding on the back of Colin's motorcycle in the rain was one of the concerns occupying her mind, but it wasn't the foremost one. Without a word, she started to leave.
"And Madison," Samuel called to her just as she reached the arch leading to the guest wing. She turned around to find both Samuel and Colin watching her. "What happened last night," Samuel told her, "that was justice. Our justice. Remember that."
She gave the two vampires a short, quick nod of understanding and left.
THIRTY
t was true, Colin didn't have his bike with him. Instead, he was driving a Porsche. He drove it fast and deliberate, as he did the motorcycle, making Madison almost ask for a helmet.
When they arrived at the Dedhams', Doug and Dodie were waiting for them, eager as two puppies hoping to go out for a walk.
"We're so glad you're home," Dodie said to Madison, taking her jacket and shaking the rain out from it before hanging it on a hook by the back door. "We have something we want to discuss with you before we go to bed"
"Just put her bag down on the floor, Colin," Doug directed, "and come join us. You hungry?" Before Colin could answer, Doug turned to Dodie. "Sweetheart, you have any of that special blend left?"
"That's okay, folks," Colin told them. "I'm not hungry at all."
Madison cast Colin a quick look. His eyes met hers but revealed nothing.
Madison turned back to the Dedhams, wondering if they were going to bring tip Lilith. Her head bulged with questions, but she wasn't sure when to ask them or who to ask. Samuel was in charge, but the Dedhams were her hosts. "Everything okay?" Madison asked instead.
"Everything's wonderful, dear," Dodie told her. "What can I get you for breakfast? Want me to scramble you a couple of eggs?"
"Ah, nothing, thanks. I'm not very hungry either, and I had some juice at Samuel's." Madison looked at the Dedhams like they'd lost a wheel off their wagon. She was expecting a birdsand-bees talk about vampire justice, not eggs.
"Sit down," Doug told her, holding out a kitchen chair for Madison, "and we'll tell you our news." He looked at Colin. "You, too, Colin. You might as well hear this now. Samuel already knows."
Colin took a chair and again exchanged looks with Madison. He seemed as confused as she was about the Dedhams' behavior. Madison lifted her shoulders in an exaggerated shrug.
The Dedhams took seats at the table. Dodie looked at Doug, urging him to begin. "This morning," he said, "we're celebrating Madison's new home."
Madison sat up straight with surprise. "My new home? Have you found me a new apartment?"
"No, dear," Dodie said with a smile. "Something much better."
"What are you guys talking about?" Madison felt like she'd missed something.
"Here," Doug told her with excitement. "You're going to live here."
Madison stood up in disbelief. "Here? With you? In a house of vampires?"
Doug scowled. "You say that like it's a bad thing. I mean, after all, haven't we been good to you?"
With an audible thump, Madison sat back down and put her head in her hands. "Yes, of course. You and Dodie are the best. I'm grateful to you for everything, but... ." In her mind, the goodness of the Dedhams collided with the death of Lilith.
"No buts about it," Dodie said, with a jerk of her head to seal the deal.
Madison turned to Colin. "Help me out here, will you?"
Colin held a hand up. "Don't get me involved in family matters."
Getting no help from Colin, Madison looked back at the Dedhams. They seemed genuinely confused by her lack of joy.
"Listen," Madison started, "you've both been great. I mean, I'd be dead if not for you. But I have a job and school, and I need to find a new apartment-one that's close to both of those things."
"You can still work and go to school but live here," Doug told her. "Rent free."
"That's a longer commute than I'd like to make," Madison advised him. "Especially for the kind of money I make."
Dodie laughed. "What Doug means, silly, is you'll have a new job and you can go to school next semester. There are several good colleges not far from here."
Madison shook her head, still not understanding what they were saying. "What job?"
"With us. With the council," Dodie told her, excitement building in her voice. "You can assist Samuel-be the council's connection to the living, sort of like Mike is with police matters. You can start right after we clear up this nasty mess with the covens."
It was becoming clear to Madison what was going on. Knowing what she knew, Samuel meant to keep her close. "Samuel put you up to this, didn't he?"
"No, he did not," Doug said with knitted brows. "You living here was our idea. After seeing your apartment destroyed, we were going to invite you to stay here until you got back on your feet. But then Dodie thought why not have you stay permanently, like you're really our family."
"We called Samuel this morning after we got back from our duties," Dodie added. "We wanted to make sure it was all right with him since you're, well, alive and all, and we have to be so careful about that."
"But Samuel loved the idea," Doug joined in. "It was his idea that you go to work for the council. He said we could use a bright young woman like you." Doug beamed so bright, Madison wanted to shield her eyes.
"It's not that I don't care for you two," Madison began. "I do. You've been more like family to me these past few days than anyone I've known since my great aunt Eleanor died." She gave the Dedhams a sheepish smile. "And it was fun introducing you to people as my grandparents."
"So keep introducing us as your grandparents," Doug said in a matter-of-fact voice.
"But to live here," Madison continued, "is another story. I'm used to being out on my own. And I wouldn't want to be underfoot."
Dodie waved a hand, letting Madison know it was no big deal. "We sleep most of the day. You sleep most of the night. You could even decorate your room any way you'd like."
Doug reached out and patted Madison's arm. "Tell you what. Just give it a try for a little while-say, a few months. If it doesn't work out, you can move into an apartment. We'll even help you find a new one."
"But you should definitely take the job with the council," Dodie stressed. "They will pay you much better than that waitress job, and the hours will be more flexible when you need time for school."
Madison laughed in spite of the confusion and darkness dulling her brain. "Mostly night work, right?"
"Not necessarily," Doug said in all seriousness. "There are a lot of things Samuel and the council need help on during the day, when we're all sleeping. That's why we need someone like you.
Madison looked at the Dedhams, moving her eyes back and forth from one to the other. They really did look like pictureperfect grandparents. "Do I have to answer right now?" she asked them, thinking about the events of the night before. "I have a lot to think about."
Dodie clutched Doug's arm to stem her excitement. "No, dear, take a few days. We know it's an important decision."
When the Dedhams went upstairs to retire, Madison walked Colin out to his car. It had stopped raining, leaving the morning air fresh and filled with the damp, musty scent of the surrounding earth and trees.
"So what do you think?" she asked him. "About me living here and working with the council?"
Colin leaned against his car and considered his reply. "To be perfectly frank with you, having you here has given the Dedhams a spark I've not seen in them before. I'd like to see it continue. And maybe it's time for you to have a new start and a loving family. Nothing wrong with that."
"And the job?"
"I heartily agree with that. We've talked from time to time about needing a beater who can run interference for us. And everyone you've met on the council likes and admires you." Colin gave her a wide, genuine smile, the type of smile she had seen him give Isabella at Bloodlust. "Trust me, the admiration of a vampire is a difficult thing to
come by."
Madison looked into Colin's eyes. "But what about last night? Isn't that the real reason Samuel wants me to stay? He wants to keep an eye on me because of what I know." She glanced at the house. "Do they know what I saw?"
"Undoubtedly. Doug is on the council, so Samuel would have told him this morning." Colin placed a hand on each of Madison's upper arms and held her directly in front of him. "Listen, I know you're terrified by what you saw. The entire council knows you're scared." He paused, then plowed on with blunt reality. "The truth of the matter is, if we thought for a moment you were going to talk, you'd be dead already."
She jerked away from him. "Is that supposed to comfort me?"
"What I'm trying to say, Madison, is that if an invitation to live and work among us was extended to you, then it was authentic and not a trick. Vampires don't do things like that lightly."
Madison was quiet for a moment, then asked, "Who was that other man there last night? Was he a vampire?"
"Yes. That was Eddie Gonzales, another council member. We have to have a certain number of members present to carry out an execution."
"And what about Lilith's body? Did you munch on it until it was gone? Pick your teeth with her bones?" Madison shuddered, then another issue that had been nagging her for days popped out of her mouth. "And Bobby Piper's body-what happened to that? If we dug up Samuel's back yard, would we find dozens of beater bodies?"
Colin was silent as he weighed his words. "No, you wouldn't find any bodies." He paused. "We have a special service that disposes of inconvenient corpses."
"Inconvenient corpses." Madison shook herself in disgust. "That's a civilized way of putting it."
Another few minutes of silence passed. A soft rain started up again, but neither Madison nor Colin made a move to take cover. Madison glanced over her shoulder at the house. "My grandparents, the vampires."
Colin stood up and placed a hand on either side of Madison's face. She looked into his black eyes but didn't pull back.
"We got off to a rocky start, Madison," Colin said, his voice taking on a genuine tone of tenderness. "But I really like you and hope we can become friends ... in spite of everything."
He bent forward and grazed her lips with his. Then he kissed her-a light but lingering kiss. Almost against her will, Madison leaned into it, surrendering to its soft, erotic pull until a vision of Lilith's white body and the memory of her screams broke through, destroying the moment.
Madison jerked back. She didn't look at Colin but just stared at his mouth-the mouth that, hours ago, had sucked the life out of another woman.
Again, silence fell between them until Colin walked around to the driver's side of his car. Before getting in, he gave her another long look.
"Give it a try, Madison, both the job and living here. We vampires aren't always such a rotten lot."
THIRTY-ONE
hen were you going to tell me about this?"
The question came from Mike Notchey. When he'd arrived at the Dedham house to check up on Madison, she'd brought him up to speed on the break-in, both the one at her apartment and the one at Auntie Em's.
"I just did."
"A day late and a dollar short, aren't you?" He looked pissed.
"There was nothing you could do about it," she explained. "Culver City isn't your jurisdiction."
When Notchey had arrived, Pauline told him Madison was on the back patio. He'd discovered her tucked under a blanket on a chaise longue, getting some fresh air and reading a book. Or rather, the book was in her hands and open, but he'd found her staring off into space.
"It was just some vandalism, probably by kids," she said, pulling the blanket up farther to ward off the damp chill in the air. "At least that's what the police said. Someone probably noticed I hadn't been home in a few days and broke in."
"That doesn't explain the break-in at the diner on the same night."
She stuck her nose back into her book.
"Considering you were kidnapped and nearly murdered less than a week ago, you seem pretty cavalier about the whole thing." Notchey took a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and lit one. He took a long first drag, savoring each second he held it.
"I thought you and the vamps thought I was snatched by mistake?"
Notchey took two more long drags, then snuffed the cigarette, saving the rest. "I'm still leaning that way, at least for the moment. But even if you were grabbed by mistake, it's pretty obvious someone is looking for you now."
Madison didn't like the idea of keeping Mike out of the loop on things, even if she did understand why the vampires wanted it that way. And after last night, she understood their reasons more.
Changing the subject, Madison announced, "The Dedhams asked me to stay and live here with them." She watched the detective, looking for some sign of approval or disapproval. His face was a blank.
Notchey drew up a patio chair and sat down. "Are you going to?"
"I'm not sure yet. It's a very generous offer, but there are a lot of things to consider."
Notchey blew out a gush of air. Madison could smell smoke on the breath he expelled.
"You're still very young. Sure you should be shut up here, in vampire world?"
"I'm not sure about anything right now." She let Mike think she was only talking about living with the Dedhams, but in truth she was also thinking about Samuel and Colin, and Lilith. And Colin's kiss.
"They said I could live here," she continued, "and go to one of the colleges in the area. Transferring wouldn't be a problem. I've only been taking general classes. I don't even have a major yet."
"And what about a job?"
"Samuel offered me a job working with the council-kind of a combination secretary and liaison is how I understand it."
Without a word, Notchey pulled out his cigarettes and removed the one he'd just saved. He lit it again.
"You don't seem happy about that news," Madison said, sensing that this time Mike would smoke the butt right down to his fingers.
"I'm neither happy nor unhappy. I'm concerned." He took a drag, held it, and exhaled before continuing. "Once you're in with the vampires, you'll never get out. Then again, you're already in pretty deep, but this will be the big and final plunge."
Madison scoffed at the idea. "I'll be able to move on anytime I want. They know I won't say anything."
"Ever see the Godfather movies?" He took another puff.
"Sure. Everyone has." Madison tilted her head and looked at him, not sure where he was going with the reference.
"Remember that famous line?" Notchey asked. "I think it was in the third one: `Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in"' He shrugged. "Or something like that."
Madison laughed at Notchey's bad impression of Michael Corleone.
"Well, the vampires are like that," he told her, taking his last puff before snuffing and tossing his cigarette. "They're monsters, Madison. No matter how civil they seem"
Unbidden, the mental snapshot of Lilith's execution popped into her head.
"They're horror film legends come to life," Mike added. "Throw in seductive and mysterious, and that's an alluring combination."
"Is that what happened to you?"
"In some ways. I got close to Doug and Dodie. Like you, they saved my life. I owe them."
"The council didn't save your life," Madison pointed out. "So why do you help them?"
"Because I want to work with them to make sure the lid stays on between their community and ours. These current murders could blow all that to smithereens. Speaking of which, did you guys learn anything at Bloodlust?"
Madison was torn. She didn't want to lie to Mike Notchey, but neither did she want to go against Samuel's wishes. In the end, if it was between Mike or Samuel getting mad at her, she'd take Mike's wrath over the head vampire's any day.
"Not really. Both Colin and Doug went there last night and came back empty-handed."
Notchey started to leave. "Well, at least there haven't been any more murd
ers-not that we know of, anyway."
Madison got up and went inside with the detective. "Mike, you know the Hollywood area well, don't you?"
"It's not my beat, but I'm familiar with a lot of it. Why?"
"Have you ever heard of a place called Porky's? Someone mentioned it to me, but I couldn't find anything about it on the Internet. I'm not even sure if it's a place-could be a person."
Notchey twisted his face in thought. "Doesn't ring any bells. Who told you that? Was it at Bloodlust?" He studied her face, waiting for an answer.
Madison wanted to tell him about Cubby and how Porky could be a lead to where the murders took place, but she wasn't sure how to do it without telling him everything. "No, it wasn't," was all she said.
About an hour later, Pauline left for the day. Madison had approached her almost as soon as she came in that morning about how she felt about Madison moving in permanently.
"You still going to keep your own room tidy?" was all the housekeeper had asked.
"Of course. Don't see why that would change."
"Then I say welcome. I think it would be good for both you and the Dedhams."
In the afternoon, Madison was restless. Her mind was buzzing with the pros and cons of living with the Dedhams and accepting the job with the council. Her lips were buzzing with the feel of Colin's kiss, and her ears were buzzing with the impact of Samuel's words. And everything was overshadowed by Lilith's death. She knew she would never forget what she'd seen, but she wondered if she'd ever be able to put it aside.
Mike Notchey was right. Once she made a commitment to work and live among the undead, they would always have a hold on her.
Shaking herself out of her thoughts, Madison went to the computer and tried again to find a reference to Porky or Porky's in the Hollywood area. Still nothing. She came to the conclusion that it had to be someone's name. She wondered if Stacie had found out anything more since last night, then remembered that it was likely she was sleeping, or whatever it was vampires did, just like the Dedhams, Colin, Samuel-all of them were out of commission for several more hours.
It occurred to Madison that, vampires aside, living with the Dedhams and having the house to herself most of the day could have both an upside and a downside. The big house seemed empty without Doug and Dodie's cheerful banter, and Madison wondered if she would get lonely rattling around the place. Pauline would be company, but she had work to do. But, Madison countered in her head, once she returned to school and started working with the council, she'd be occupied most of the day and would have several hours in the evening when she could interact with the Dedhams. During the day, it would be almost like living alone, and she'd done that for several years. It was all part of the process of weighing the pros and cons of the offer.
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