Tall, Dark and Immortal

by Cat Devon

  Alex shrugged. “Either one works for me.”

  “Your clan could just as easily be responsible for these troubles.”

  “We aren’t.”

  “Your unwillingness to share your secrets about being able to tolerate sunlight has been a thorn in our side for decades,” Lynch said.

  “You seem to be doing okay.”

  Lynch shrugged. “It’s cloudy today.”

  “Is that what this is about?” Alex demanded. “Your envy over our ability to tolerate sunlight better than you can?”

  “No. I’m merely pointing out that it would be a bad move on your part to start trouble with us over this blood issue.”

  “Message received,” Alex said curtly. “The same goes for you and your clan.”

  “You’ll learn soon enough that you aren’t as special as you think,” Lynch said cryptically. And then he was gone.

  Lynch’s departure at vamp speed guaranteed that no human would see him.

  “What was that about?” Keira asked the minute Alex crossed the threshold of the interrogation room.

  “Get back in here.” He tugged her into the room once more. “What kind of stunt are you pulling, strolling in here and making wild accusations? Are you writing some tabloid story or something?”

  “ReadIt is not a tabloid. We do the stories others refuse to cover.”

  “Like vampire stories?” he mocked her.

  “No, not like vampire stories.”

  “Why did you come here?” he demanded.

  “I told you. There have been several robberies from—”

  Alex interrupted her. “I know all that. I don’t know what your connection is other than your claim about being interested in the story as a reporter.”

  “Action needs to be taken,” she said. “So what’s next?”

  “What’s next is that you go home and leave this to the professionals,” Alex said.

  “To the professional vampires, you mean?” she countered.

  Alex had to figure a way to shut her up The fact that she knew he was a vampire made her a danger to his Vamptown clan. It would be so much easier if he could just compel her, but since he couldn’t he would have to come up with another plan. He could lock her up somewhere and throw away the key, but then he’d have to give her food or she’d die. Death wasn’t an option; she was annoying, but that didn’t warrant a death sentence. He had to figure out what was going on with this Keira Turner, this vampire hunter’s next of kin. And he couldn’t do that here. It was too risky given the number of people at the police station. He had to get her someplace alone, where she couldn’t tell others that he was a vampire. And he had to do it fast.

  “Let’s go.” He took her by the arm and hustled her out of the building to the fenced-in parking area in the back. The day might be cloudy but the air was thick with humidity and heat, more heat than usual even though it was early July.

  “Where are we going?” she demanded.

  “To your place.”

  “I don’t usually invite strange men to my apartment,” she mocked him. “But then you aren’t a man. You’re a vampire.”

  “Okay, I’ll bite,” he said.

  “I hope not,” she muttered, fingering her ring nervously.

  “What makes you think I’m a vampire?”

  “The facts.”

  “As imagined by your grandfather, right?” He headed for his black Camaro, stopping long enough to open the door for her.

  His chivalrous action was noted by her. “Thanks,” she said automatically before hesitating. “I am not getting in that car with you. My apartment is only a few blocks away. We can walk unless sunlight bothers you?” she asked as the clouds parted.

  “Does it bother you?” he countered. “You’re paler than I am.”

  “Blame that on my Irish ancestors.”

  “Or your witch ancestors.” He slammed his car door shut and took her by the arm again.

  “Don’t be ridiculous. I don’t have any witch ancestors and my apartment is the other direction,” she said as he headed off at a brisk pace, leaving the parking area and heading around the corner.

  “I know a shortcut,” he said.

  Once again, she stopped in her tracks. “I don’t do shortcuts.”

  “Tough shit,” he growled. “Let’s go.”

  She wisely didn’t argue this time. Pissing off a vampire was not a wise move. He hoped she made that realization, but she didn’t stay silent for long. “Why are we going to my apartment?”

  “Privacy.”

  “To do what?” she demanded suspiciously.

  He tugged her away from a texting pedestrian who nearly rammed into her. “Idiot,” he growled.

  “I don’t think this is a good idea,” Keira said.

  “Too late now. We’re at your apartment building.”

  “I can refuse to go in.”

  “You could,” he agreed. “But then you’d never get what you came to me for.”

  “Which is?”

  “Answers.”

  She stared at him intently for a long time. He let her. He could sense what she was thinking, wondering if it was safe to trust him. It wasn’t, of course, but he couldn’t let her know that. He wouldn’t kill her. But he could make her life very difficult if she didn’t cooperate.

  “Okay,” she finally said and unlocked the door to the building. The tiny foyer held mailboxes for the three apartments inside. The door from the foyer into the hallway and stairs had a security system requiring a code to be entered.

  Her apartment was on the third floor. He would have expected her to live in one of the many high-rises instead of this throwback building located between a Starbucks and a twenty-four-hour Korean market. She seemed pretty upscale in that flirty red skirt of hers that he was finding more attractive by the minute. And those shoes of hers, while not heels, did draw attention to the sexy length of her legs. Definitely not struggling-writer attire. He expected her apartment to be upscale as well, but instead it had a trendy boho vibe.

  She opened the door and stumbled back. Upended chairs and a broken coffee table rested on piles of books, papers, and mutilated pillows disgorging their feathers. Drawers from her bedroom had been dumped out and strewn all over. A silky black bra hung from a lamp shade, which was itself tilting drunkenly to one side.

  “Messy much?” he drawled as he automatically shoved her behind him while he surveyed the room. He didn’t sense anyone there—human or otherwise.

  “I am a very tidy person,” she shot back. “Someone broke in here and did this.”

  She seemed more angry than scared, which some might find heroic but Alex found problematic. She was strong, yes, but he had hoped to use fear to make her compliant.

  “What are you doing?” he said as she took out her cell phone.

  “Calling the police.”

  He took the phone from her. “I am the police, remember?”

  She glared at him. “Did you do this? Trash my place?”

  “I’ve been with you since you walked into the police department. Do you think I can be in two places at the same time?”

  “You weren’t with me the entire time. I left you with that other guy … Lynch. Lawrence Lynch. Was he a vampire, too? Did vampires do this?”

  “You really do need to stop blaming vampires for everything that goes wrong. Clearly whoever broke in here was looking for something. They left valuables like your TV. What about your computer?”

  She patted the large messenger bag hanging across her body. “It’s in here.”

  Alex was getting a bad feeling about this. “This wasn’t a normal robbery.”

  “What are they after?”

  “You.”

  Chapter Two

  Alex’s words chilled Keira. Her grandfather had warned her in his note that trouble was coming. She hadn’t taken his words as seriously as she should have. She thought he’d been speaking figuratively.

  Obviously not, if someone had trashed her place and Al
ex was saying they were after her. Had they come after her because she went to see the vampire cop? And who were “they”? The thieves who’d stolen the blood? What did they want from her?

  The sight of her home torn up so badly made her feel sick to her stomach but she kept up her tough attitude in front of Alex, just as she was hiding her fear now that he’d told her vampires were after her. Well, he hadn’t said they were vampires, just that they weren’t regular, whatever that meant. She took it to mean the worst.

  Kind of like the state of her apartment. A giant mess. She bent over to pick up the framed photo of her mother, the glass shattered, and nearly jumped out of her skin at the feel of Alex’s fingers on the bare small of her back.

  “What’s this?” he said.

  “A tattoo.” She instantly straightened and tugged down her floral top. “I’m sure you’ve seen them before.”

  “Not like that.”

  “It’s a symbol of protection.”

  “It’s a very elaborate variation of the Eye of Horus and it’s quite unique in the way it’s depicted.”

  “How do you know?”

  He shrugged. “A good friend is a body artist and owns his own tattoo parlor.”

  “Is he a vampire, too?”

  Alex rolled his eyes at her.

  “It’s a logical question,” she said.

  “Nothing about this is logical.”

  “Shouldn’t you be contacting the crime scene people to dust for fingerprints or something?” she said, setting her mother’s photo beside the TV.

  “That’s not necessary. I already have an idea who did this.”

  “You do? How?”

  Instead of answering, Alex said, “Pack a bag. You’re coming with me.”

  “No, I’m not.”

  “They’ll be back,” he told her. “Pack fast.”

  “I just told you, I’m not leaving.”

  “You do not want to be here when they return.”

  “What do they want with me?”

  “Your grandfather had a lot of enemies.”

  “Vampire enemies,” she said.

  “Apparently.”

  “So you admit it.”

  “I don’t have much choice,” he replied.

  “What makes you say that?”

  “Them.” He pointed to the pair of vampires on the fire escape outside her living room window, their fangs showing. “Hold on.”

  “To what?”

  “Me.”

  He took her in his arms and exited the building, moving at freaky-fast speed.

  Keira hung on for dear life as neighboring buildings flashed by in a blur before her hair blew in her eyes, blocking her view. Her ears popped the way they did during takeoff on a flight. She had her arms around his neck and her hands clenched together as she heard what sounded like a door banging open. A moment later they were in a large room with brick walls. He set her on her feet, steadying her when her knees nearly buckled.

  “Where are we?” she said unsteadily.

  “Somewhere safe. For now.”

  “I was right. You are a vampire!”

  “Don’t go patting yourself on the back just yet,” he told her. “We’ve got bigger problems.”

  “Those vampires outside my apartment?”

  “No, the vampires at the door here.”

  Sure enough, there was a knock at the door. Alex opened it.

  The vampire in the doorway had gray hair gathered back into a ponytail with a leather thong. He had a craggy face, wore a GOT BRAINS? T-shirt, and had a lot of tats, including those on the backs of his hands. If this guy was a vampire, he sure looked like the deceased comedian George Carlin.

  “We’ve got trouble,” the vampire said. “And she’s standing right there.” He pointed to Keira.

  “Yeah, I know,” Alex said. “Her grandfather was a vampire hunter.”

  “Not just any vampire hunter. The Executioner,” the still-unnamed vampire said. “I’m Pat Heller, by the way,” he told her.

  “I’m Keira Turner.”

  “I’d say it’s nice to meet you but then I’d be lying,” Pat said. “What’s she doing here?”

  “She knows about vampires and she can’t be compelled to forget,” Alex said.

  “Of course she can’t be compelled. She has hunter blood.”

  “She also has this.” Alex moved closer and yanked up her floral top.

  “Hey!” She yanked it back down.

  “Did you see that?” Alex asked Pat.

  “She has a protection tat.”

  “Not just any protection tat,” Alex said. “It’s the Eye of Horus. A very unique version of it. I’ve never seen anything like it. Have you?” Pat shook his head.

  Keira closed her eyes and considered tapping her shoes together three times in order to leave this craziness and go back home where she was safe. But she was no Dorothy, this sure as hell wasn’t Oz, and her home was no longer safe.

  She opened her eyes and looked around. Why had her grandfather sent her to see Alex? Why had he sent her into a vampire’s den … or loft as the case might be?

  She’d spent most of the night reading his lengthy journal, some parts of which had been written in a language she didn’t know. Latin perhaps? Parts had seemed to resemble small drawings or hieroglyphics.

  She’d spent the morning at the Chicago Historical Society checking out the old files to confirm that the newspaper clippings were original. They were. The black-and-white photo in the October 9, 1871, Chicago Tribune of her grandfather standing beside the charred remains of city hall was real. He looked to be in his thirties at the time and had the same streak of white in his hair that he had later in life.

  She’d always said he looked young for his age. Now she knew why. But she didn’t know what it all meant. Maybe she should have figured that out before going to confront the vampire cop. “Ya think?” she muttered to herself.

  But there was no turning back. She had to deal with the here and now. As if she didn’t have enough to deal with given her mom’s recent death. Did that have anything to do with all this? Had her mom’s car accident been something else?

  Why hadn’t her grandfather told them, warned them of the danger involved with his line of work? She clenched her fists and confronted Alex once again.

  “Did you kill my mother?” Her voice was thick with emotion.

  “What are you talking about?” he said.

  “She was killed in a car accident two months ago. They said it was a drunk driver but maybe not. Maybe it was a vampire who killed her.”

  “Remember what I told you about not blaming vampires for everything that goes wrong?”

  “My mother’s death is more than something that went wrong!” she shouted.

  “Calm down,” he told her. “Everything is going to be okay.”

  Keira couldn’t believe he was saying that to her. But then she couldn’t believe much of what was happening to her. Had she lost it? Was this a bizarre nightmare of some kind? “How do you figure everything will be okay?”

  “You’re alive, aren’t you?”

  “Am I?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Alex said.

  “Maybe you drugged me,” she said. “Maybe none of this is real.”

  “Including your grandfather’s journal? You read that before I met you.”

  Damn. He had a point. Okay, so this was real. At least part of it. Her grandfather was a vampire hunter. She’d have to get over it.

  But Alex still hadn’t answered her question about her mom. The memory of her mother’s framed photograph with the shattered glass hit Keira hard. That picture had been taken on her mom’s last birthday. She missed her so much.

  Keira blinked back the tears. She couldn’t cry in front of these vampires. She refused to show any sign of weakness they could possibly take advantage of and use against her.

  “What is it with the girls you boys bring home?” Pat said. “Daniella asked Nick the same thing about her mom.�
��

  Keira’s voice was shaky. “So you’ve killed other people’s moms and blamed it on a car accident?”

  “No!” Pat said angrily.

  “My grandfather wrote that vampires are evil.” Her voice was stronger now.

  “Some are. So are some humans,” Alex said with a hard edge to his voice. “We weren’t responsible for your mother’s car accident.”

  “Like you’d admit it if you were,” she said.

  “Why ask the question if you don’t believe the answer?” Alex retorted.

  “I don’t know,” she shot back. “This is all new territory for me.”

  “Me, too, muchacha,” Alex said. “You’re trouble.”

  “Then let me go,” she said.

  “You came to me. You started this. Remember that.”

  “And you’re determined to punish me for that, right?” she said.

  “Wrong.” Alex shoved a hand through his already tousled dark hair.

  “She’s a security risk.” This growled comment came from a newcomer. He was younger than Pat and much sexier. Everything about him was dark, from his inky-black hair to his deep-blue eyes.

  “Damon,” Alex began.

  “You shouldn’t have brought her here,” Damon interrupted him.

  “I didn’t have a choice. Hostile vamps were after her. I couldn’t let them take her,” Alex said.

  “Why not?” Damon demanded.

  “Because of this.” Keira lifted her top and pointed to the small of her back.

  “So she’s got a protection tat. Big deal,” Damon said. “It would have protected her … maybe.”

  “Her grandfather was The Executioner,” Alex said.

  “Okay, that is a big deal,” Damon said.

  Keira was trying not to panic. She was now outnumbered three vampires to one reporter … her. She tried to turn the conversation away from her and back onto the blood thefts. “Does any of this have anything to do with the robberies from the area blood banks and hospitals?”

  Damon said nothing.

  “I suspect it does,” Alex said. “And I suspect the Gold Coast clan is to blame. Lynch came to see me at the station.”

  “What did he want?” Damon said.

  “To assure me the Gold Coast vamps weren’t to blame for the troubles.”