Bloody Bones ab-5

by Laurell Hamilton

  He shook his head gently. "I didn't ask what you did for a living. I asked what you were."

  I frowned. "Maybe I don't understand the question."

  "Perhaps you don't, but your friend asked what I was. You said I was a fairie. I ask you what you are, and you describe your job. It would be like me saying I'm a bartender."

  "I don't know how to answer you, then," I said.

  He was still staring at me. "Yes, you do. I can see a word in your eyes. One word."

  When he said it, a word did come to mind. "Necromancer. I'm a necromancer."

  Magnus nodded. "Does Mr. Stirling know what you are?"

  "I doubt he'd understand even if I told him."

  "Do you really have the ability to control all types of undead?" Magnus asked.

  "Can you really make a hundred shoes in a single night?" I asked.

  Magnus smiled. "Wrong kind of fairie."

  "Yeah," I said.

  "If you're working for Stirling, why are you here? I hope you didn't come here to try to persuade me to sell. I'd hate to have to say no to such a lovely woman."

  "Can the compliments, Magnus. It won't get you anywhere."

  "What would get me somewhere?"

  I sighed. "I've got too many men on my plate now."

  "That's the God's honest truth," Larry muttered.

  I frowned at him.

  "I'm not asking you out on a date. I'm asking you into my bed."

  I frowned at Magnus. No, glared was a better word. "Not in this lifetime."

  "Sex between supernatural beings is always amazing, Anita."

  "I'm not a supernatural being."

  "Now who's splitting hairs?"

  I didn't know what to say to that, so I said nothing. I rarely get in trouble with silence.

  Magnus smiled. "I've made you uncomfortable. I am sorry, but I'd never have forgiven myself if I hadn't asked. It's been a long time since I was with anyone who wasn't straight human. Let me buy you both drinks, to make up for my rudeness."

  I shook my head. "Menus would be fine. We haven't eaten yet."

  "The meals will be on the house."

  "No," I said.

  "Why not?"

  "Because I don't particularly like you, and I don't take favors from people I don't like."

  He sat back in his chair, a strange, almost startled expression on his face. "You are direct."

  "You have no idea," Larry said.

  I resisted the urge to kick Larry under the table and said, "Can we have some menus?"

  He raised a hand and called, "Two menus, Dorrie."

  Dorrie brought them over. "I'm part owner of this place, not your waitress, Magnus. Hurry it up."

  "Don't forget that appointment I've got tonight, Dorrie." His voice was mild. She wasn't fooled.

  "You aren't leaving me alone with these people. I will not..." She glanced at us. "I don't approve of lovers' night. You know that."

  "I'll take care of everybody before I leave. You won't have to sully your morals."

  She glared at all of us in turn. "You're leaving with them?"

  "No," he said.

  She turned on her heel and stalked back to the bar. The men who weren't paired off watched her swaying back, carefully, not staring until she couldn't see them.

  "Your sister doesn't approve of abusing glamor?" I asked.

  "Dorrie doesn't approve of a lot of things."

  "She has morals."

  "Implying I don't," he said.

  I shrugged. "You said it, not me."

  "She always this judgmental?" he asked Larry.

  Larry nodded. "Usually."

  "Let's just order our food," I said.

  Larry smiled, but he looked down at the menu.

  It was a laminated piece of paper printed on both sides. I ordered a cheeseburger, well done, house fries, and a large Coke. I hadn't had caffeine in several hours; I was running low.

  Larry was frowning at the menu. "I don't think I could eat a hamburger right now."

  "They've got salads," I said.

  Magnus laid his fingertips against the back of Larry's hand. "Something swims up behind your eyes. Something... awful just behind your eyes."

  Larry stared at him. "I don't know what you mean."

  I grabbed Magnus's wrist and pulled him away from Larry. He turned his eyes to me, but there was more than just their color to make them hard to stare at. The pupil of his eyes had spiraled down like the eye of a bird. Human eyes just didn't do that.

  I was suddenly very aware that I was still holding his wrist. I drew my hand away. "Stop reading us, Magnus."

  "You wore gloves, or I'd be able to tell what you'd touched," he said.

  "It's an ongoing police investigation. Anything you discern by psychic means must be held confidential, or you're liable just as if you stole information out of our files."

  "Do you always do that?" he asked.

  "What?"

  "Quote the law when you're nervous."

  "Sometimes," I said.

  "I saw blood, that's all. My gifts are rather limited in the area of far-seeing. You should shake Dorrie's hand. Far-seeing is her strong suit."

  "Thanks, but no thanks," Larry said.

  He smiled. "You are not police, or you wouldn't have threatened me with the police, but you were with them earlier. Why?"

  "I thought all you saw was blood," I said.

  He had the grace to look embarrassed; nice to know he could be embarrassed. "A little bit more, perhaps."

  "Touch clairvoyance isn't a traditional fey power."

  "Our many-times-great-grandmother was the daughter of a shaman, so the story goes."

  "Getting magic from both sides of the family tree," I said. "Dirty pool."

  "Clairvoyance isn't magic," Larry said.

  "A really good clairvoyant will make you think it is," I said. I stared at Magnus. The last clairvoyant who had touched me and seen blood had been horrified. He hadn't wanted to touch me again. He hadn't wanted me anywhere near him. Magnus didn't look horrified, and he'd offered to have sex with me. Different strokes for different folks.

  "I'll take your order through to the kitchen myself, if you'll just decide what you want," he said.

  Larry stared at the menu. "A salad, I guess. No dressing." He thought about it some more. "No tomatoes."

  Magnus started to stand.

  "Why won't you sell to Stirling?" I asked.

  Magnus cocked his head to one side, smiling. "The land has been in our family for centuries. It's our land."

  I looked at him and couldn't read his face. It could have been the absolute truth, or a boldfaced lie.

  "So the only reason you don't want to be a millionaire is because of what... family tradition?"

  The smile deepened. He leaned closer, long hair spilling forward. He whispered, and it was quiet enough that he needed to whisper. "Money is not everything, Anita. Though Stirling seems to think it is."

  His face was very close, just barely far enough away for me not to complain. I could smell his aftershave, faint as if you'd have to get very near his skin to smell it, but it would be worth the effort.

  "What do you want, Magnus, if it's not money?" I stared at him from too close. His long hair trailed over my hand.

  "I told you what I wanted."

  Even without the glamor be was trying to sweet-talk me, distract me. "What happened to the trees out by your road?" I didn't distract that easily.

  He blinked long lashes. Something slid behind his eyes. "I happened."

  "You cut down those trees?" Larry asked.

  Magnus turned to him, and I was glad not to be staring at him from inches away. "Sadly, yes."

  "Why?" I asked.

  He straightened up, suddenly businesslike. "I got drunk and went on a little rampage." He shrugged. "Embarrassing, isn't it?"

  "That's one word for it," I said.

  "I'll go get your food. One naked salad coming up."

  "You remember what I'm getting?"
I asked.

  "Meat burned to death; I remember."

  "You sound like a vegetarian."

  "Oh, no," he said. "I eat all sorts of things."

  He walked away through the crowd before I could decide if I'd been insulted or not. Just as well. For the life of me, I couldn't think of a good comeback line.

  10

  Dorcas brought our food without a word. She seemed angry—maybe not at us, but with us. Or with everything. I sympathized. Magnus went behind the bar, spreading his own special brand of magic to his customers once more. He glanced our way and smiled but didn't come back to finish our talk. Of course; we'd been finished. I was all out of questions.

  I took a bite of my cheeseburger. It was almost crispy around the edges, not a smidgen of pink in the center. Perfect.

  "What's wrong?" Larry asked. He was nibbling at a lettuce leaf.

  I swallowed. "Why should something be wrong?"

  "You're frowning," he said.

  "Magnus didn't come back to the table."

  "So? He answered all our questions."

  "Maybe we just don't know the right questions to ask."

  "You suspect him of something now?" Larry shook his head. "You have been hanging around with cops too long, Anita. You think everyone's up to something."

  "They usually are." I took another bite of burger.

  Larry squinched his eyes tight.

  "What's wrong with you?" I asked.

  "There's juice coming out of your burger. How can you eat that after what we just saw?"

  "I guess this means you don't want me to put ketchup on my fries."

  He looked at me with something near physical pain on his face. "How can you make jokes?"

  My beeper went off. Had they found the vampire? I hit the button, and Dolph's number flashed at me. Now what?

  "It's Dolph. Eat hearty. I'll phone from the Jeep and be back."

  Larry stood up with me. He put a tip on the table and left his salad nearly untouched. "I'm done."

  "Well, I'm not. Have Magnus pack my meal to go." I left him staring forlornly down at my half-eaten burger.

  "You're not going to eat it in the car, are you?"

  "Just have it packed up." I went for the Jeep and its fancy phone. Dolph answered on the third ring. "Anita?"

  "Yeah, Dolph, it's me. What's up?"

  "Vampire victim out near you."

  "Shit, another one."

  "What do you mean another one?"

  That stopped me. "Freemont didn't call you after I talked to her?"

  "Yeah, she said good things about you."

  "That surprises me; she wasn't too friendly."

  "How not friendly?"

  "She wouldn't let me hunt vampires with her."

  "Tell me," Dolph said.

  I told him.

  Dolph was quiet for a very long time after I finished. "You still there, Dolph?"

  "I'm here. I wish I wasn't."

  "What's going on, Dolph? Why would Freemont call and tell you what a good job I'm doing, but not ask for the squad's help on something this big?"

  "I bet she hasn't called the Feds either," Dolph said.

  "What's going on, Dolph?"

  "I think Detective Freemont is pulling a Lone Ranger on us."

  "The federal boys are going to want a piece of this. The first vampire serial killer in recorded history. Freemont can't keep it to herself."

  "I know," Dolph said.

  "What are we going to do?"

  "The body on the ground this time sounds like a straightforward vampire kill. It's classic, bite marks, no other damage to the body. Could it be a different vamp?"

  "Could be," I said.

  "You sound doubtful."

  "Two rogue vamps in this small a geographical area, this far from a city, doesn't seem likely."

  "The body wasn't cut up."

  "There is that," I said.

  "How sure are you that the first killer is a vamp? Is there anything else it could be?"

  I opened my mouth to say no, and closed it. Anybody who could cut down all those trees in one drunken brawl could certainly cut up people. Magnus had his glamor. I wasn't sure it was capable of doing what I'd seen in the clearing, but...

  "Anita?"

  "I might have an alternative."

  "What?"

  "Who," I said. I hated giving Magnus up to the cops. He'd kept his secret so long, but... what if the question I should ask was, had he killed five people? I'd felt the strength in his hands. I remembered the clean trunks of the trees, cut by just one blow, two at most. I flashed on the murder scene. The blood, the naked bone. I couldn't rule Magnus out, and I couldn't afford to be wrong.

  I gave him up to Dolph. "Can you keep the part about him being fairie out of it for a while?"

  "Why?"

  "Because if he didn't do it, then his life is ruined."

  "A lot of people have fey blood in them, Anita."

  "Tell that to the college student last year whose fiance beat her to death when he found out he was about to marry a fairie. He protested in court that he hadn't meant to kill her. The fey were supposed to be hard to kill, weren't they?"

  "Not everyone is like that, Anita."

  "Not everyone, but enough."

  "I'll try, Anita, but I can't promise."

  "Fair enough," I said. "Where's the new victim?"

  "Monkey's Eyebrow," he said.

  "What?"

  "That's the name of the town."

  "Jesus. Monkey's Eyebrow, Missouri. Let me guess. It's a small town."

  "Big enough to have a sheriff and a murder."

  "Sorry. Do you have directions?" I fished my small, spiral-bound notebook out of the pocket of the black jacket.

  He gave me directions. "Sheriff St. John is holding the body for you. He called us first. Since Freemont wants to go it alone, we'll let her."

  "You're not going to tell her?"

  "No."

  "I don't suppose Monkey's Eyebrow has a crime scene unit, Dolph. If we don't have Freemont come in with her people, we're going to need somebody. Can you guys come down yet?"

  "We're still working our own murder. But since Sheriff St. John called us in for his murder, we'll be in the area as soon as we can get there. Not tonight, but tomorrow."

  "Freemont's supposed to send over crime-scene photos from the first couple that was killed. I bet if I asked she might send over photos from the second scene, too. Show-and-tell tomorrow when you get here."

  "Freemont may be suspicious about you asking for more pictures," Dolph said.

  "I'll tell her I want them for comparison. She may be trying to hog the case for herself, but she wants it solved. She just wants to solve it herself."

  "She's a glory hound," Dolph said.

  "Looks that way."

  "I don't know if I'll be able to keep Freemont out of the second case or not, but I'll try to give you some lead time, so you can look around without her breathing down your neck."

  "Much appreciated."

  "She said you had your assistant with you at the crime scene. Had to be Larry Kirkland, right?"

  "Right."

  "What are you doing bringing him to crime scenes?"

  "He'll have a degree in preternatural biology this spring. He's an animator and a vampire slayer. I can't be everywhere, Dolph. If I think he can handle it, I thought it might be nice to have two monster experts."

  "It might. Freemont said Larry lost his lunch all over the crime scene."

  "He didn't throw up on the crime scene, just near it."

  There was a moment of silence. "Better than throwing up on the body."

  "I'm never going to live that down, am I?"

  "No," Dolph said, "you aren't."

  "Great. Larry and I will get out there as soon as we can. It's about a thirty-minute drive, maybe more."

  "I'll tell Sheriff St. John you're on your way." He hung up.

  I hung up. Dolph was training me never to say good-bye over the phone.
>
  11

  Larry slumped in the seat as far as the seat belt would let him. His hands were clenched tight in his lap. He stared out into the dark like he was seeing something besides the passing scenery. Images of butchered teenagers dancing in his head, I bet. They weren't dancing in mine. Not yet. I might see them in my dreams, but not awake, not yet.

  "How bad will this one be?" he asked. His voice sounded quiet, strained.

  "I don't know. It's a vampire victim. Could be neat, just a couple of puncture wounds; could be carnage."

  "Carnage like the three boys?"

  "Dolph said no, said it's classic, just bite marks."

  "So it won't be messy?" His voice was squeezed down to a near whisper.

  "Won't know until we get there," I said.

  "You couldn't just comfort me?" His voice sounded so small, so uncertain that I almost offered to turn the Jeep around. He didn't have to see another murder scene. It was my job, but it wasn't his job, not yet.

  "You don't ever have to see another murder scene, Larry."

  He turned his head and looked at me. "What do you mean?"

  "You've had your quota of blood and guts for one day. I can turn around and drop you back at the hotel."

  "If I don't come tonight, what happens next time?"

  "If you aren't cut out for this kind of work, you aren't cut out for it. No shame in that."

  "What about next time?" he asked.

  "There won't be a next time."

  "You aren't getting rid of me that easy," he said.

  I hoped the darkness hid the smile on my face. I kept it small.

  "Tell me about vampires, Anita. I thought a vampire couldn't drink enough blood in one night to kill somebody."

  "Pretty to think so," I said.

  "They told us in college that a vampire couldn't drain a human being with one bite. Are you saying that's not true?"

  "They can't drink a human dry with one bite, in one night, but they can drain one with one bite."

  He frowned at me. "What's that supposed to mean?"

  "They can pierce the flesh and drain the blood without drinking it."

  "How?" he asked.

  "Just put the fangs in, start the blood flow, and let the blood fall down your body onto the ground."

  "But that's not taking blood for food, that's just murder," Larry said.

  "And your point is?" I said.

  "Hey, isn't that our turnoff?"