The tropical birds called exotically somewhere in the atrium, and DJ said nothing more. It could have been the truth, or a lie, or anything; she had no way of knowing. She tried a different tack.
“Were Johnny and Mayo...” she hesitated “...involved?”
He smiled a cat smile. “Involved? How delicate of you. You mean were they fucking? The better question is, who wasn’t Johnny fucking? The boy was a whore.”
Barrie bristled. “He was sixteen. He was still a child.”
“There are no children on movie sets. You grow up...or you die.”
She stared into his face. “Well, Johnny died.”
“That will happen when you play with fire,” he snapped.
“Tell me what you mean,” she said quickly. She could see his eyes flare, but after a moment he spoke.
“Johnny would use anyone to get what he wanted. He was fucking Branson to get more scenes in the movie, he was fucking Mayo to get more promotional face time.” DJ smiled again, slyly. “I learned a lot from him.”
Barrie caught her breath. “So...you think he was killed because someone felt used? Mayo? Branson?”
“Or maybe because he and Travis were starting to talk big about making Otherworld a coming-out party. For Others.”
“Oh, my gosh,” she murmured. If they really had been talking about breaking the silence and revealing the existence of the Otherworld to humans, the suspect pool had just become millions.
She forced herself back to the conversation while still trying to avoid DJ’s hypnotic black eyes. “Then...you think he was killed because someone thought he was going to break the silence?”
“I never said he was killed,” DJ said maddeningly.
“But do you think so?” Barrie persisted.
He waved a finger at her and dropped into one of the club chairs in the hollow tree, gazing up at her. “You tell me what you think, and I’ll tell you if you’re hot or cold.”
She hesitated, and thought of Mayo hiring a shifter of Johnny’s age to play Johnny. “I think Mayo was obsessed with Johnny.”
DJ dropped his head onto the back of his chair and laughed, then sat straight up, startling her. “Everyone was obsessed with Johnny. You’re obsessed with Johnny.”
Barrie realized he had a point.
DJ flung a leg over the arm of his chair and studied her. “Johnny cultivated obsession. It was a highly successful career strategy.” He leaned forward abruptly, with the trick that vampires had of moving faster than light; it suddenly felt as if he was right in front of her face, and she had to bite back a scream. “This is old news, Keeper. What do you really know?”
Barrie took a breath to steady herself, and even so she struggled to keep her voice even. “I talked to a cast member from the original movie who said Johnny died on set. Before the film was finished shooting.”
DJ looked honestly startled.
But he’s an actor, she reminded herself grimly.
He looked away, then back at her. “Fascinating. But it rather begs the question of who I was acting with the final week. Granted, we were partying pretty hard by then. Still, even tripping my brains out I think I would have noticed if my costar had disappeared.”
Barrie felt her stomach drop in disappointment. It was exactly the same thing that Darius had said. The biggest piece of the puzzle she’d found didn’t seem to fit.
“So, why would anyone say it?” she asked.
He lifted his shoulders dramatically. “People say all sorts of things about the film behind closed doors. A lot of people had every interest in making Johnny’s death legendary. It was good for the movie.”
She stared at him, aghast. “You’re not saying...that someone killed him to make the movie a success?”
He smiled at her as if she were a child. “Oh, now, you’re acting as if the idea is some kind of surprise. I thought you grew up in this town.”
And so I did, but I don’t know who told you so, she thought.
“Are you in touch with Robbie Anderson?” she asked out of the blue.
He barked a laugh. “Robbie. What do you mean, through a Ouija board?”
“You think he’s dead?”
“Dead, or living a quiet, normal, entirely uneventful life somewhere—what’s the difference? Shifters often die young, you know.”
Even if I didn’t, you vampires keep pointing it out to me, she thought.
“You must know why he disappeared,” she said impulsively. “Johnny dead, Robbie missing—I think you may be the only one in the world who knows why, really.”
She knew she’d struck a chord, because for a moment he was completely silent and still.
“I would be the only person who knew...if I knew. Which I don’t,” he said.
She was getting tired of the Cheshire cat riddles. On impulse, she said, “I think maybe someone was threatening all three of you. Using you.”
He flicked a hand. “Everyone was using everyone else.”
“But you three were kids. Sixteen years old. It wasn’t a level playing field.”
He looked away from her, but she could feel something in him responding to what she was saying.
“You have so much power now. You could expose whoever was using Johnny, Robbie, you...all of you. You could heal a very old wound.”
He exploded to his feet, lashing out with a rage that didn’t just startle but frightened her. “Everyone involved with that film ended up dead or damned. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?” He was so angry she could see red in the corners of his eyes and the beginning of fangs. He was on the brink of Changing, and that was not good.
She stood very still and kept her voice very quiet, and even knowing how dangerous the situation had suddenly gotten, she still had to ask, “Are you saying you think the film was cursed?”
He smiled ambiguously, and though the redness was fading from his eyes, he didn’t look entirely human. “It made me what I am. What would you say?”
They stood silently, then he turned and stepped out of the tree, walking off down the trail until he disappeared into the trees.
She stood for a moment with her heart racing and the river rushing in her ears, then she started back along the winding path through the “jungle.” Her thoughts were whirling as she tried to get some grip on what had just happened.
The leaves rustled right beside her and she whirled with her heart racing—to see Brad the assistant step out of the undergrowth.
“I’ll see you out,” he said neutrally, for once not an exclamation point in sight.
* * *
As they stepped outside onto the portico, she was startled to see that it was full dark; she’d forgotten the real time in the artificial light of the African Room. And even more startling, her car was gone.
“The guard moved it,” Brad said behind her. “I’ll have it brought around right away.”
Okay, maybe it just wasn’t nice enough to leave right in front of the house. But I didn’t give anyone my keys, Barrie thought uneasily. Instead of saying it aloud, she thanked him and walked down the stairs to the curb to wait.
The door closed at the top of the stairs, and darkness surrounded her. The estate was remarkably quiet; she could hear the rustle of wind through eucalyptus leaves and night bird sounds in the tops of trees, and there were stars, actual stars, appearing in the sky, not something anyone saw too often in the city.
She heard a flipping and splashing somewhere nearby, and turned to look. Beside the roundabout of the drive there was a large pond, apparently stocked with fish; as she watched, she saw one leap, glimmering briefly in the moonlight before it splashed back into the water.
She walked closer to the pond and looked down at the moon on the water, and thought back over the strange interview.
DJ’s feelings toward Johnny could at best be described as ambivalent; even fifteen years dead, Johnny obviously still inspired some serious jealousy. It couldn’t be easy for an actor to still be trying to compete with a tragically dead young star.
/> But could DJ have killed him? Would he have?
At the time of Johnny’s death, DJ had been only sixteen years old himself. Sixteen-year-olds were capable of murder; gang shootings proved that far too often. But movie stars rarely killed other movie stars.
Most movie stars aren’t vampires, either, she reminded herself. And just as she thought it, she felt the brush of air against her face as something swooped by her.
Something huge.
Barrie stumbled and spun in a panic, her breath catching in her throat as she stared up into the dark night.
The stars glittered above and the wind was light and teasing, but her bloodstream was flooded with adrenaline, the ancient fight-or-flight instinct. She wasn’t alone. She could feel someone watching, could feel eyes on her skin as if she were being watched from a high vantage point.
She turned to run back toward the house, but the invisible creature whooshed at her again, a large, live, breathing force, this time barely missing her.
Barrie didn’t think, didn’t scream, she just ran. She felt the push of air beside her again, this time accompanied by the warmth of breath on her neck, such a crawly feeling she would have screamed if she weren’t so intent on fleeing.
Her winged attacker circled, forcing her away from the house, toward the eucalyptus grove.
She ran and threw a look over her shoulder, her heart plummeting as she saw her pursuer for the first time, a big winged thing, an enormous dark shadow like an ancient pterodactyl.
Vampire.
Barrie felt low desert scrub scratching at her bare legs, drawing blood as she ran.
So not good, she realized; the vampire would only be more aroused by the scent.
She ran harder, heels pounding in the sand, scanning the dark frantically for someplace to take refuge. To the right of her there was a gulch, an amazingly authentic desert ravine, with sandstone cliffs and a dry riverbed, saguaro cactus and the towering shadows of Joshua trees.
She knew she had to shift, to buy herself some time with camouflage, but it was hard enough to shift or even glamour when you were standing still, much less when you were running for your life.
Still, she forced herself to focus on her astral body, fixed the image of a moth in her mind, something small, insignificant to the huge creature pursuing her....
And as she was concentrating...she ran straight into someone who grabbed her with strong arms.
Mick.
He pulled her down against the nearest boulder, shielding her with his body.
Barrie could feel the warm sand under her legs and hands, and Mick’s strong body tense beside her, protective and pissed.
She leaned into his shoulder, gasping for breath, and looked up into the sky, scanning for the vampire. The night was black and the stars were bright, and the wind flowed and whispered around them, but she could see nothing, hear nothing. Mick’s arms were tight around her, and she could feel his heart racing against her back.
“I don’t...see it,” she whispered. He rested his chin on her head and said nothing.
But after a prolonged moment of silence, he unfolded himself to stand, pulling her up with him.
“Out of here. Now,” he ordered. He pulled her along the boulders in the direction of the front drive, keeping close to the shelter of the rocks.
“What are you doing here?” she whispered.
“It looks like I’m trying to keep you from being drained of blood,” he said tensely as he stared up into the night sky.
“It’s not like that,” she began, even though she could still barely breathe through the wild pounding of her own heart.
“Oh, it’s not. What is it like, then?” he said, still scanning the sky as he steered her up the incline toward the mansion.
“Well, sort of like being pursued by a vampire and rescued by a shape-shifter before any bloodshed or mayhem, something like that,” she admitted, breathless. As they crested the slope, she saw the Bentley parked and waiting.
“Good, we’re looking at the same picture, anyway. Get in the car,” he said.
“I have my own—” she started.
“Philip will come and take your car back. You’re coming with me.”
It was hard to argue with someone who had a spare driver to toss around like that, so she shut up and got in, sinking into the comfort and safety of the car as Mick shut the door after her.
The Bentley wasn’t as roomy as the limo, but it was more luxurious, in its way. There was even a bud vase on the dashboard, with a fresh rosebud. Barrie couldn’t take her eyes off it. It helped steer her mind away from her brush with death.
“Nice touch,” she said weakly, feeling her body go limp with the adrenaline crash.
“Don’t talk to me,” he said stonily as he started the car and steered down the drive.
“Why not?” she asked, startled.
“Because I am really, really angry with you right now.”
Barrie was silenced. He did sound furious. She huddled meekly in her seat, and he said nothing more until the tall metal gates of the estate were shutting behind them in the dark.
“Your cousins insisted on coming with you, hmm?” he said in a voice that could have cut glass.
“Things...came up....” She knew she was busted, but the excuse bubbled up, anyway.
“Right. What came up was a vampire in full-attack mode.”
“You saw it,” she said in a small voice.
“Hard to miss,” he said grimly, and took a bottle of water from the console, handed it to her. “Drink this. You’re probably in shock.”
She meekly took the water, and the second she tipped it up to her lips she realized she was practically dying of thirst. She drank almost the whole thing down, then sat back in the seat and sneaked a look at Mick, who was stiff and silent beside her as he drove. “Was it DJ?” she ventured.
He looked at her for a moment. “I don’t know,” he said, his voice flat. “It was a vampire.”
Great, she thought. That part I knew.
“What happened in there?” he finally asked, his hands tight on the steering wheel as he negotiated the curving and pitch-black canyon road.
“It was...amazing. He’s got a whole environment going. Trees. Dead big game. A river.” She was aware that she didn’t sound entirely coherent, but she couldn’t help herself. “Why did you come? What did you think was going to happen?” she asked on impulse.
“I came because I had a feeling you were lying to me,” he answered, his voice flat. “I have no idea what I thought was going to happen. With DJ, he could be just playing—or not playing at all.” And then, much more softly, he said, “Impossible.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“With DJ...impossible to tell.”
There was something in his voice that puzzled her. “How do you know him?” Because the way he was talking, it was obvious that he did.
He glanced at her in the dark, then away. “He’s a major contributor to the Circle Foundation,” he said with a hint of irony.
“Really,” Barrie said.
“I’m not sure that he actually knows it,” Mick added. “But the checks keep coming.”
“Well. How nice for you,” she said.
“It is,” he agreed. “Very nice. His name looks good on the masthead. These things mean something. Money makes money.”
She nodded, processing this.
“Did he say anything useful?” Mick asked in a voice that implied that he doubted it.
“I think so,” Barrie said slowly, although she was struggling to remember exactly what DJ had said that was in any way helpful.
“And?” Mick was waiting.
“He said that Johnny was on set until the movie wrapped,” she said. “And he said...” To her own total surprise, she burst into tears.
“Hey,” Mick said from the driver’s seat, alarmed. He reached over and took her hand. “What?”
It was a minute before she could get enough of a hold on herself to
control her sobs. “It seems like everyone was using Johnny. DJ said that Johnny was in control. But he was a kid, a kid. I don’t care how famous or how rich or how gorgeous, they were all just kids, all three of them. They were being used—by everyone—and it destroyed all three of them.”
Mick was completely silent in the driver’s seat beside her, as if rendered speechless by her outburst. He looked out the window at the dark and winding road of the canyon, and he said nothing, but his fingers were warm and strong around hers as she cried it out.
Finally she swallowed and spoke. “You don’t think so,” she said dully.
“I don’t think I’m in a position to judge,” he said, without looking at her. “But you do know that you can’t believe a word he says.”
“I’m not stupid,” she said defensively. “The fact is he may not remember anything that happened on that film all that clearly. There are probably whole parts of his life he doesn’t remember.”
“Exactly,” Mick said, and looked slightly less tense. They rode in silence for what seemed like forever.
“What do you think?” he asked finally.
Barrie bit her lip, thinking of the past hour, of the past three days. “I think a lot of people wanted Johnny dead,” she said.
* * *
When the Bentley drove through the gates of the House of the Rising Sun, Barrie saw that her own Peugeot was already parked in the drive. Mick pulled in beside it and stopped the car.
“Like teleporting,” she murmured.
“What?” he asked. He had been silent in his seat for the last few miles.
“Nothing,” she said, not knowing what else to say.
“Barrie,” he said, and the intensity of his voice nearly made her heart stop.
“What?” she said, her mouth dry.
He turned to her, took her face in his hands and stroked her cheeks with his fingers. She caught her breath and looked into his eyes, willing him to kiss her, but he didn’t. It seemed as if he was struggling with himself. “I want to stay...if you want me to.” But before she could answer he added, “But there’s something I need to do tonight. It can’t wait.”
And before she could react, he was opening his car door and shutting it again, and almost as suddenly he was opening her door to let her out.
Keeper of the Shadows (The Keepers: L.A.) Page 16