by E G Bateman
Scott smiled. “Cool.” He balanced the empty glasses and headed to the bar. She followed him with her gaze. When he was concerned, so was she, and she had felt his concern through their link. She wondered what he wasn’t saying.
Dick lay back to enjoy the sun. “Where do you want to eat dinner? Or would you prefer to explore Vegas by yourselves?”
She sighed. “I thought I might turn in early. You two should go out, though, and bring Cheetos. That’ll do. She closed her eyes and sighed, soaking in the warmth.
“It’s up to you. I don’t mind.” Scott shrugged.
“I don’t eat,” Dick said for what seemed to be the fiftieth time, “so it’s most definitely up to you.”
Lexi lifted her sunglasses. “This has been going on for almost an hour. You’re like a married couple. Dick, decide where to eat. Take Scott somewhere you think he’d like.” She dropped the sunglasses onto her face.
“That works for me.” The young man grinned.
“Great. I know a fabulous barbecue place off the Strip. Everyone raves about it, but I think we should go there when we’re all out together. Lexi shouldn’t miss Jessie Rae’s. Scott, I’ll take you to The Burger Bar at Mandalay Bay. Everyone I know—well, everyone I know who eats food—tells me they do the best burgers in town and apparently, their shakes are to die for.”
She sat quickly. “Thank God that’s agreed.” She looked at Dick. “How are you doing for rations?”
“I’ll eat later. I’ve ordered in.” He didn’t offer any further details and she didn’t ask.
Instead, she turned to Scott. “Will you get ready?”
“One last swim.” He headed to the pool and dropped in.
Dick watched with a somewhat bored expression. “What happened to his floating pizza?”
“The girl it belonged to came and snatched it while you were at the bar.”
He raised an eyebrow. “The evil bitch. I hope he turned her into a mung bean.”
“She was, like, six.”
“And?”
Lexi rolled her eyes. She looked at the pool and smiled. “He’s making the most of it. I’m glad we didn’t stay at that shitty motel.”
Dick stood. “Good for him. I’ll start getting ready. I’ll meet him out front in forty-five minutes.”
Lexi woke in the middle of the night from a vision of flashing lights and the heavy vibration of bass. She lay in the dark and realized it hadn’t been a dream. Sometimes, she had a sense of where Scott was when they were apart. It would appear that her two friends were in a club dancing to seventies disco music. She smiled and closed her eyes to sleep again.
A muted thump made her sit. It had come from Dick’s condo. She was dressed within sixty seconds, opened the front door silently, and crept out. When she saw no one about, she scurried across to Dick’s entrance. She tried it and the door wasn’t locked. With a slow, careful movement, she turned the handle the rest of the way and opened the door silently.
Once again, the katana was in her hand. The house was in darkness, but she could hear someone moving in the living room. Sweat prickled her scalp as she took another silent step forward. The hyperawareness brought a cold sheen along her arms followed by goosebumps. Suddenly her vision blurred, and her stomach lurched. She flailed in the darkness, found the stair rail, and leaned against it.
When she looked up, an eerie glow came from the area ahead. It cast enough light to enable her to see the hallway around her. She rounded the corner into the living room as a large billowing specter came toward her, and she struck out with the katana. A scream pierced the night.
When Lexi turned the light on, Dick’s house boy from Palm Springs stood holding half a sheet in each hand. Jesús wore a strange glass pendant, which was the source of the bright yellow glow. Before she could say anything, he looked at her and fainted. She stared across the room and into a mirror on the wall. Her eyes were black.
What’s happening to me?
She checked that he hadn’t died of fright, then sat on the couch with her face in her hands.
“Lexi?” Jesús half-whispered, his voice trembling.
She raised her head from her hands to where he sat on the floor. He sighed with relief and put a hand on his chest. “I must have been seeing things.”
“I’m so sorry.” She somehow managed a smile for the shaken young man. “I almost killed you. I thought… I don’t know what I thought.”
“Mr. Levin asked me to bring some things for him.” He held up the ripped sheet and shrugged.
Lexi face-palmed. “Please tell me they’re not two-thousand-dollar sheets.”
He started to fold them. “No, no, don’t worry. They’re only the six-hundred-dollar sheets. It’s fine. I brought a few.”
She couldn’t tell if he was joking but suspected not. “Scott and I are staying next door. I heard a noise and came to investigate. What were you doing?”
“Luckily, I had a travel bag in the trunk. I used it to cover the window in the master bedroom, but I had to climb on the dresser to do it.” Jesús rubbed his elbow. “I fell off.”
“A travel bag?” For the life of her, she couldn’t grasp what he meant.
“You know…” He crossed his hands over his chest like a corpse.
“Oh. A body bag. When did you last speak to Mr. Levin?”
“It’s been a couple of weeks.” The man put his hands on his hips. “Why would he stay here? I looked for a basement, but I couldn’t find one so I started on the window. Do you think I did the right thing?”
“I guess you’ll have to speak to him about that.” She had no idea why Dick hadn’t told him about the daywalking, but that was his business.
Jesús gazed around the room. “I thought I was in the wrong place. First the windows, then this furniture. It’s horrible.”
Lexi wanted to ask him why his pendant was glowing, but she’d had enough. “I’m going back to bed.” She turned and left the room.
She wanted to tell Scott about her eyes but what could he do? It seemed he was already nervous about Bryan, which made it unfair to bother him further. She decided to let him enjoy his night out and pretended to be asleep when he came stumbling in at four am.
Chapter Fifty-Nine
After lying awake for another couple of hours, Lexi got up at six am, made coffee, and sat at a table on the deck outside. She didn’t know what to think so she didn’t think at all. After an hour of simply blanking out, Dick joined her. “A penny for your thoughts?”
She opened her mouth to make a glib response but nothing emerged.
He tried again. “Well, you scared seven shades of shit out of Jesús last night.”
“Sorry about that—and your sheet. I’ll ask Scott if he can mend it.”
“Don’t worry about it.” He slid his sunglasses on. “Jesús told me he thought he was hallucinating because your eyes seemed to have turned black.”
All she could think to do was shrug because she was at a loss to explain it. She changed the subject. “What time should we head to the Mob Museum?”
The vampire raised an eyebrow at her diversion. “Dolores has arranged for us to meet her friend near the museum for a chat first.”
“What the fuck?” Jesús screeched from the doorway. He gazed in horror at his boss, who languished very comfortably in the sunlight without catching fire.
Several people seated outside their apartments eating breakfast stared at him in alarm.
Dick waggled a finger in his ear as though he had deafened him. “Good morning, Jesús. Perhaps you’d like to put some clothes on.”
The man leapt back through the door.
Lexi chuckled. “You didn’t tell him?”
“I thought I’d surprise him,” he said blandly, a small smirk at the corners of his mouth.
“I think that between us, we’ll surprise him to death.” The smile left her face as she recalled how close she’d been to gutting him. She sighed. “I can’t feel Delphine there but what else could it be?
”
“Perhaps Scott could…I don’t know, have a poke around up there to see if he can find her.”
“I don’t want to distract him from the job. If we find the guy and get the talisman today, I can talk to him later.” She picked her empty mug up and stood.
Dick fixed her with a stern look. “So you’re asking me to say nothing to him?”
“I wouldn’t ask that of you.” She didn’t need to and was fairly sure he knew what she expected.
He didn’t seem happy about it but nodded and she took that as his agreement. The vampire turned to Jesús, who had put on a pair of shorts and resumed his bemused stare at his boss from the doorway. “We’ll head out for the morning. Would you mind looking after Marcel?”
The man nodded. “Yes, Mr. Levin.”
They sat at a table in one of the casino restaurants on Fremont and Lexi perused the menu.
Scott slouched like a grumpy teen. “Come on, I’m starving.”
She handed the menu to the server. “Eggs over medium with bacon and coffee. Thank you.”
The young woman looked at Dick with an expectant smile.
“I’ll take a Breakfast Jack.” He handed the menu to her without looking at it.
The waitress looked confused. “I’m not sure—”
Scott laughed. “Let me guess. It’s a Jack Daniels served at breakfast time.”
The vampire nodded and the girl left the table.
Coffee was provided and she listened as the two men chatted and laughed.
Oh, God, they’ve bonded. Her lip twitched but she said nothing.
Dick took his cell phone out and showed the screen to the other man. They both laughed.
Lexi raised an eyebrow. “If you two are showing each other dick pics, I’ll happily move to another table—or restaurant.”
“Lexi, please. My good name would never be associated with something so vulgar.” He showed her the screen. “We found a restaurant called Chin Chin last night. Peter told me that Chin Chin is Japanese for penis, which is hilarious, so I took a selfie with the restaurant in the background and I’m sending it to him.”
She remembered the young blood donor who had almost died after being drugged by Lorenzo in an effort to kill Dick. “How is he?”
The vampire put his cell phone away as the waitress arrived with the food. When she left, he answered, “He says he’s taken himself out of the food chain but wants to keep in touch. And he’s off the recreational drugs.”
“That’s probably a good idea. He was lucky he didn’t die.” Scott splashed ketchup over his impossibly large plate of food and looked at Lexi. “Hey, doesn’t this remind you of that breakfast we had in LA that time?”
She stared at the red-covered plate. “No. It reminds me of Jamal’s corpse.”
“You’re trying to put me off my food but it won’t happen.” He bit defiantly into a piece of bacon.
The two men continued to chat while she ate her breakfast, unable to stop thinking about how close she’d come to hurting Jesús. Scott looked at her occasionally with a concerned expression, which she pretended not to see.
Finally, he finished his food and focused his attention on her. “So, what happened last night? I felt your nerves ramp up. I tried to translocate because I was too drunk to remember I couldn’t do that, then I sensed you calm.”
Lexi shrugged. “I thought Dick’s condo was being robbed. I went in but it was only Jesús, so I went back to bed.” She avoided looking at the vampire.
Scott looked guilty. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there. If I can’t translocate, I shouldn’t be so far or let myself get into that state.”
She finished her coffee. “It was fine. You do deserve the occasional night off.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “Strutting your stuff to ‘Dancing Queen’ and ‘Blame it on the Boogie.’”
“Hey! No spying on the guys’ night out.” His cheeks went pink.
“A girl can’t help what she dreams.” She chuckled.
Dick knocked his bourbon back and glanced around the room.
He froze and some of the drink escaped his mouth and splashed onto his shirt. “Dick? Are you okay? You’ve dribbled half your drink down your shirt.”
Dick gasped. “It’s fine. The rest of it is in my lungs.”
“You must be Dolores’ friends. I’m Albin.” Lexi looked into the face of a man who was, quite possibly, the most beautiful living being she had ever seen. He was tall and dressed professionally. His white shirt was stretched tight across his chest and arms, fighting to hold in the muscles beneath it. She put him in the late-thirties. His jaw was chiseled and his chin dimpled, while his eyes were the cornflower-blue that people talked about but, until now, she’d believed didn’t exist. His lips turned up playfully at the corners.
Those lips.
She had never seen a specimen like him. Besides, she didn’t usually have time for relationships or, God forbid, romance.
But all I want to do right now is grab hold of this man, throw him onto the table and—
“Lexi!” Scott’s urgent but quiet warning made her jump. “Can you just…not?” His face was aflame.
“Oops!” She blushed as hotly when she realized that he would have felt her wandering daydream through their link.
“And you are?” Albin directed the full intensity of his heavenly gaze at the vampire.
“Dick,” he managed in only a slightly squeakier tone than usual.
“Really? What a coincidence.” A slight smile played on Albin’s lips. “I’ve been looking for you.” His eyebrow twitched a fraction of an inch and Dick groaned.
Scott turned in his seat to see what was going on. “Oh! Right, I see.” He turned, took his cell phone out, placed it on the table, and opened his notes app. “Take a seat. I’m Scott and this is Lexi.”
“Hi.” The man complied.
Dick stood. “Can I offer you my chair?”
Albin smiled. “I’m fine, thank you. I’m sitting.”
“Of course you are, yes.” The vampire sat but immediately stood again. “Can I get you something? Coffee? Jewelry?”
“A coffee would be great, thank you.”
Dick disappeared.
Albin followed him with his gaze. “He’s interesting.”
“No, he’s not.” Lexi couldn’t believe she’d blurted that out. From the corner of her eye, she could see Scott staring at her.
The man turned to her. “He’s a vampire out at eight am. That’s interesting.”
She dragged her attention away from the man’s face and looked at Dick, who seemed to be fighting the waitress for the coffee jug.
“When did you notice the talisman missing?” Scott tapped his cell.
The vampire returned to the table with a mug and the coffee jug. The bewildered waitress stared at his back, a hundred-dollar bill clutched in her hand.
“Two days ago.” Albin leaned back as Dick poured the coffee. His gaze remained glued to the historian’s face. “That’s enough, thank you.”
Dick looked down to see the coffee had poured over the top of the mug. “Good heavens.” He snatched the serviettes and mopped the spill.
Scott gave up. He retrieved the coffee jug and refilled his and Lexi’s mugs, then waited for the vampire to return to his seat. Finally, he continued. “What do the security cameras show?”
Albin drank carefully from the overfilled mug. “A throng of people—more than usual—around the case. Then the camera went on the fritz. When the crowd cleared, the chip was gone. All the thief left was the little embroidered pouch the talisman had rested on.”
Lexi looked at her coffee. It was easier to speak to the Adonis when she wasn’t looking at him. “I don’t understand why Kindred hasn’t taken an interest. It sounds like it was, without doubt, stolen.”
“I went to the Strip myself and spoke to the father of the local unit. I had stills from the security camera. Most of it was useless but I think it was clear from the footage before and after that it had been stol
en. They looked at me like I was being hysterical.”
Dick put his elbow on the table and his chin in his hand. “Those bastards. Would you like me to kill them for you? I could, you know.”
“That’s very kind of you, but I wouldn’t like to start a war because my feelings are hurt.”
“How thoughtful,” Scott muttered. “Did you have any questions, Lexi?”
“Hmm?”
He put his cell phone away. “No? That’s fine. Let’s go over there.”
Dick bolted out of his seat and held Albin’s chair.
Lexi glanced at him and noticed that his fangs were showing. She stared hard at him. “We’re out in public. Calm yourself.”
The vampire smiled awkwardly. “Oopsie.” He followed Albin to the exit.
She turned to face Scott. “What just happened?”
“I have no idea. Let’s get out of here.” He paid the check.
At the museum, they climbed the steps to the entrance of the building.
“Where are the papers Dolores gave us?” she asked Scott.
He pointed. “Dick has them.”
Lexi grimaced when she saw Dick gazing at Albin while the historian removed his ID and lanyard from a pocket. The vampire was fanning himself with the paperwork.
She approached him and took the documents out of his hand “Get a grip.”
His expression awed, he gazed at the other man from behind. “But look at that.”
Unfortunately, she looked and had to agree. He wasn’t wrong. Her gaze lingered on Albin’s perfect form.
Scott snatched the documents out of her hand. “Get a grip.”
The three of them followed their guide into a silent foyer and through another set of doors.
The sorcerer took a map of the exhibit from a display as they moved between the various artifacts.
Albin stopped at a door with a rope across it and a sign that stated the room was closed to the public. He swiped his ID across the pad on the door frame and it let them through. “I can show you what security footage there is,” he said and pointed to the cabinet.
Dick tapped him on the shoulder. “I’ll come and look at that.”