by Megan Hawke
"Pony play not your thing?" Valerie asked. She was sitting pretty on what could only be called a throne. Someone had delusions of grandeur. Valerie wore full dominatrix: black latex catsuit, with leather corset over that, and thigh boots with spurs. Her opera gloves were black latex, and a latex choker encircled her throat. She dressed like that before she was Changed by the late, unlamented Jeff Howell. "Shame, I'd love to hold your reins."
"How wonderful. Remind me to never owe you any favors," I said. She laughed. "I'm here to call in that favor you owe me."
Valerie scowled. "How inconvenient. What do you want? Sanctuary? Help leaving the city? We heard about what you did. Such a naughty girl."
That surprised me. How did one of the newest vampires in Dallas learn about my problems with the police? Did everyone know? Like Council and the packs? Things were just getting more complicated.
"Really? Do you know who accused me of those crimes?"
"The police."
"No. Someone else accused me. Do you know who?"
"No. I can find out. Is that the favor you want?"
I so wanted that. But it wasn't my immediate problem.
"No. I'll figure it out. There are only so many covens in Dallas," I said. Valerie would talk. Everyone would soon know I was after a coven, and that I thought it was a coven that created the killer vamps and was framing me. Everyone would make up their own minds on whether I was guilty or trying to transfer blame to others, but it would make them all stop and think. "They will pay dearly for what they did. I need something else from you."
"Of course you do. You are not the most entertaining vampire in Dallas, you know? Not much fun at all," Valerie said. "Though, I heard that you and that delicious sister of yours put on quite a show at Antoinette's little party. Maybe your little family and my little family can get together for a play date one night."
"Oh yeah, that's going to happen."
Valerie held up her hand and Cicely placed a riding crop in it. She looked at me with smoldering blue eyes and a smile. Then she slapped the crop across her booted calf.
"Kneel, Sable. Kneel, kiss my booted foot, and beg for my favor."
I smiled tightly. "Good try. I'm not here to beg a favor. I'm calling in a favor owed to me. You should be grateful I didn't hold it over your head for a protracted time."
"Jeff was right. You're a bore," she said. "What is it you want?"
"A bank card."
"Money?"
"In a way. I can't get to my money due to certain things the police have done. Later, I'll have access. But I need to live right now. I have expenses," I said. "I have a family to provide for, as you no doubt understand."
"Just handing over a bank card is a rather large favor. All of my accounts are substantial."
"Is your life worth so little?" She frowned. I stepped closer. "You were nailed to a cross. Burning. Do you recall the pain of burning?"
"Yes."
"Good. I could've left you there. I could've let them kill you. To tell the truth, I'm not sure you would've done anything to save me if the circumstances were reversed," I said. She didn't deny it. Valerie just stared off into space with pursed lips. "But I saved you. And now you balk over money? Give me one of Jeff Howell's accounts. I'm sure you got a few, since you ended up with most of his assets after I staked him."
For a long minute, we stared at each other. Valerie flinched first.
"Cicely, give me my purse."
The pretty blonde hurried upstairs. She was back in less than two minutes. Valerie pulled out a remarkably overstuffed wallet, and removed a silver card. VISA bank card. She flicked it at my chest, and I caught it midair.
"Thank you." It was issued by my primary bank, an offshore institution catering to vampires, werewolves, and others wishing to avoid official scrutiny. "You are too generous."
"I know," she replied, with a dismissive wave. "You may leave."
Stuffing the card in my back pocket, I strode out the front door without another word. Halfway down the sidewalk I heard them starting up their kinky little game again. It made me long for the days when I didn't have anything more worrisome than deciding whom I would spend the evening enjoying.
I drove a convoluted route to Gabe's armory. Yeah, paranoia had me around the throat. Putting the Harley through its paces seemed like the thing to do. The bike performed well. Still it was no Kawasaki Ninja.
So it was after three in the morning before I arrived. There were no cars parked in front. I did notice light coming from under the door. I could feel them both inside the building's office, and knew what they were feeling, both physically and emotionally. And they were feeling a lot. Intensely.
Gabe and Heidi were doing what vamps and wolves did best. Heidi's dress was draped over a chair, and she was pressed up against the wall. Gabe was naked and firmly between her legs. Her legs were wrapped around his waist while he banged her like there was no tomorrow.
"Really? Our friends are all in jail, and all you two can think to do is fuck like rabbits?"
They yelped. I guess I snuck up on them. Talk about being distracted. Gabe jumped back, dropping Heidi on her butt. He immediately morphed into a wolfman. He growled, then realized it was me and morphed back to human. The transformation from wolfman to human was faster than the reverse.
"Well, it wasn't the only thing we thought of," Heidi said.
"But it was the most fun," Gabe said, and they both laughed. "Join us."
Their offer was tempting. So tempting. But I had to be strong. There were more important things we had to do.
"We don't have much dark left. I want to be prepared to move as soon as the sun goes down tonight." I looked Gabe up and down. "Do you have any clothes?"
"Yeah. I keep a small stash of clothes here."
"At least put some pants on. Put your dress on, Heidi. I want to get armed for tonight."
"Man. What a killjoy," Heidi said. "I vote to kick you out of the vampire club."
"I wish it was that easy," I said.
Gabe kept his deadly little toys out in the three bays. Pistols, submachine guns, assault rifles, and other hurt-the-bad-guy stuff were in racks, mounted to the wall, or piled on sturdy tables. He could make bullets of just about any caliber, and had figured out how to make both solid silver and silver-plated bullets. I loved that place. I wanted one of my own. I checked out the wall with Uzis, MAC-10s, and pistols.
"Where are your silver grenades?"
Gabe joined me after pulling on a pair of jeans. Nothing else. He was worse than either Heidi or Desiree about parading around half-naked.
"Don't have any," he said. "You know how hard it is to make them? And how expensive? Silver bullets are more cost effective."
"I thought you said casting silver bullets was harder than hell?"
"I said it was more cost efficient to make bullets, not easy," Gabe said. "But I don't cast solid silver. They're worthless as bullets. Silver-plated bullets is what we shoot."
I rolled my eyes. Everyone knew that. Saying silver bullets was just easier to say than silver-plated. Sometimes Gabe gets all technical on me.
"Maybe, but bullets aren't as much fun as grenades," I said. "Besides, one well placed grenade can kill a vamp, or a whole coven of witches."
"What about a MAC-10?" he said, pulling one of the submachine guns down. It really wasn't much bigger than a pistol. Only the really long magazine made it more difficult to carry or conceal. "These are sweet."
"It's just another version of an Uzi," I said. My mistake. Gabe looked shocked. "Stop! Don't bother." I threw up my hands to stifle his retort. "I don't care about velocities, or rates of fire, or range, or anything else you want to yammer about. They both shoot bullets fast. End of my knowledge and concern about them. I'll just zone you out."
My needs were simple. I found a black nylon cross harness double shoulder holster and started adjusting it. I adjusted it to a reasonable fit. They were always uncomfortable. And it left the area between my shoulder blades open
for my wings. There was no concern about concealing any more. Most of the time it was too dark and too late at night to worry about normal mortals.
"Where are all the swords?"
I didn't see any. Gabe always had swords available.
"Y'all lost them all," he said. Gabe narrowed his eyes at me. "You borrowed and failed to return any of them. Do you know how much a real sword costs? Do you?"
"Thousands."
"Thousands. I have a dozen swords on order. The first of them should start arriving at the end of April."
"That long?"
"I don't buy factory made swords. Each one is custom made for me. I have five sword makers that I buy from, and each is hand-forged."
Gabe didn't believe in taking shortcuts with his weaponry. Like I said, Gabe always had the best toys.
He handed me a long, curved knife. It was nice and heavy. "Try the kukri."
Dane had recently started using one. He swore it was easier to behead a staked-dead vamp with it, though he thought it was easier to behead an animated vampire with a katana. I hadn't tried it. It curved forward instead of back, so just looked unwieldy to me. But it was my best option so I accepted it.
"Gabe. It's almost time for me and Heidi to find a daytime resting place. I need you to do some things during the day."
"Sure, but why can't you stay here? I think we can make one corner of the office light tight."
"Too dangerous. We'll go underground."
"Eww," Heidi said. "I know you're right, but still. I hate going underground."
"Really? I find it quite comforting. I never feel safer than when I spend the day underground."
"It's so dirty. With all this rain, we'll end up totally muddy," she said.
She was right. I didn't think about that. The last weather forecast I saw was calling for more heavy rain this evening, and even thunderstorms around sunset. We'd come up very wet and muddy.
"Good point. We'll have to leave all of our clothes and weapons here." I grinned at her. She just glowered at me. I turned back to Gabe. "Can you check on Sabrina, Dane, and Desiree for me? Make sure they have lawyers, and try to get them out on bail if nothing else. Also, scout out my house. See if the police are watching it."
"Will do, Sabe." I lifted a brow at him. He looked pleased with himself, but said, "I know. Don't call you Sabe."
"Thanks. You're the best, Gable. I don't care what Heidi says about you."
"Aren't we going to feed first?" Heidi said.
"Do you have any blood?"
"No."
We looked at Gabe. It took him a second to realize the significance.
"Hell no! I'm keeping my blood, thank you."
"No problem, babe. There's a bank card in my back left pocket. Have blood waiting when we return tonight. Oh, and buy three burner phones. We have to assume the police are tracking our old phones." I glanced at Heidi and grinned wickedly. I rose up on my toes, and gave Gabe a kiss. "Don't forget to fold my clothes for me. Thanks."
I morphed into a bat. Gabe cried out and jumped back. Heidi laughed, walked over to the first bay door and pulled it open before she morphed into a bat, too. We circled the bays a few times, then flew out into the night. Gabe watched us warily. None of my boys truly liked it when I acted too vampy, especially when I turned into a bat.
We circled the area a few times, looking for a good spot. I would've preferred a covered spot, but no luck there. So I dropped down to the ground behind the Armory, less than fifty feet away. I morphed into human form and sat down in the cool, wet weeds. Heidi landed next to me.
"See you in twelve," I said, laid back and willed myself down.
I sank down fast. Six feet. It felt safe. I relaxed and went to sleep.
Chapter 14
I rose up the moment my vampiric senses said the sun was set. My senses didn't know it was raining, and that I could've safely risen an hour earlier. My body just knew when the sun rose and set. Better safe than sorry, so I waited.
"Of course the weatherman got it right this time," I muttered. Within seconds the heavy rain washed most of the mud off me. I stood and looked around, ensuring no one saw me rise from the earth. I was alone. Who else would be crazy enough to be standing in such a downpour? Heidi came up a moment later. "Good evening."
"I've had better," she muttered, combing fingers through her wet hair to get the mud out. Poor thing, Heidi look appalled. "You realize my hair is ruined, and I have no way to repair it."
"Do I look dry?"
"Yeah, but you sort of look sexy all wet and naked. You have better hair. Rain and humidity just makes my hair frizz."
"Race you inside," I said, and morphed into a bat.
Heidi called me a stinking cheat and followed suit. I won and reached the door first, because, well, I cheated. Gabe had the door open, so we just flew in and morphed to human. Two hot, steaming mugs waited on the nearest table.
"You are too good to me, Gabe." I sucked down half the mug before I started dressing. By morphing to bat and back to human form, I left myself perfectly clean and dry. "I hope you bought more blood. I'm famished."
We found Gabe alone, so I reached out with my senses. Dane was highly agitated and frustrated. Desiree was asleep. Both felt to be near each other, south of my location.
Two cell phones were on the table next to our mugs. Yellow post-it notes identified which belonged to whom. I picked mine up, and found he'd already programmed in everyone's phone number. I slanted a pleased look at him, and he wagged his brows at me.
"The fridge is full of blood. Twenty more pints." He handed me the bank card. "Where did you get this card? I checked, and it has over fifty thousand in the account."
"Really? Did you transfer the funds to another account yet?"
"No. I can if you want."
"Do it the first chance you get. Divide it up between everyone's accounts," I said.
Whenever I gained a windfall it was divided between all participating members of the family. Since all members were affected, everyone would get a cut of Valerie's generosity. But I knew that Valerie could clean out the account herself, at any time. I hoped we got it all before she decided she'd been generous enough.
"Consider it done, Sabe."
"You couldn't get the others bailed out?"
"They haven't set bail, but our lawyer will bail them out as soon as bail is set," he said. "They are afraid that with the rest of us still loose that it is not safe to release them."
They just made my job harder. Desiree had insights into, and knowledge of all aspects of the shadowy underworld of werewolves, vampires, and witches that no one else in my little family possessed. Sabrina was fast and aggressive in a fight, and Dane was easily the most naturally skilled and talented of the slayers. I mean, he was a dhampir, of all things. Which reminded me.
"Do the police know Dane is a dhampir?" I asked.
Gabe shrugged. "I doubt it. Dane doesn't like people to know."
Lightning struck close by, rattling everything.
"I hate it when it rains," Heidi said.
The heavy rain and thunderstorms gave us pause. Even vampires and werewolves hesitate going out in such weather. Though, Gabe admitted he liked to morph into a full wolf and hunt in warmer weather. Thunderstorms gave him a surge of energy.
"What about my house? Can I go home?"
"No. The police are watching it. They're good, but I found them," Gabe said. "They have four teams, each covering a different side of the house. We can't get in or out without being spotted. They are also watching my house, Dane's house, Sabrina's apartment, and Heidi's Plano apartment."
"Not Desiree's house?" I said.
"I don't know where that is, so I couldn't check it."
We had to believe they were watching that, too.
"What about my loft?" Heidi said.
Gabe grinned. Heidi and I looked at him, smiling. Was something going our way? Her loft would certainly be more comfortable and more centrally located than the armory. Heidi had
purchased it with an alias, and Kale had made modifications for better vampire living.
"For the life of me I found neither hide nor hair of anyone watching the loft."
There was nothing at the loft to aid in our search, so I nixed the suggestion we head right over. We'd all get comfortable. The rain would become a bigger deterrent. The night would become a bust, and I'd be one day closer to gruesome death at Jeric's hand. Problem was I didn't really have a better option.
"Those vampires the coven is reanimating with my blood will rise tonight. I wonder if I'll be able to feel them?" I never felt Heidi when she rose from the dead. Heck, Desiree hid the body and never told me I was Changing her. I didn't know what happened until Heidi found me, and then tried to kill me. Again. "Heidi, that night when you awoke as a vampire. How did you find me?"
"Our link. How else?"
"Really? I didn't feel a link to Yuri after he Changed me. Not right away."
I missed Desiree. She knew so much vampire lore. More often than not, when I asked a question she knew the answer, and in a lot more detail than I ever imagined. The more I thought of it, Desiree knew Heidi would find me. She was with me when Heidi showed up, not with Heidi when she rose up a vampire. So Heidi didn't need to be tended by me, or guided to me by another. Did I have that ability to find Yuri, way back when, but just didn't want to?
"Being a vampire is so confusing sometimes," I said. "We don't have a choice. The best bet is to drive around Oak Cliff until the other vampires rise. I'll try to keep myself open to sensing them, and when I do…"
"We move in and stake them," Gabe said. He looked excited. "And kill the witches, too."
"Killing the witches would be bad. I need someone that can take the fall," I said. "If we just kill them, the police will add their murders to the charges. I have to catch them red-handed, and have the police arrest them."
"Oh, that'll be easy," Gabe said.
"Life was so much easier before I died," Heidi said.
We had quite a few hours before the new vamps rose. It was after midnight when I was captured, and the blood exchange was done sometime after that. Maybe minutes, maybe hours later. So we decided to visit the house I was held in, to see if we could find any clues. But first, we went by Heidi's loft so she could change into something more appropriate.