When his quarry had taken a few steps across the living room floor—perhaps ten feet from the end table—Remy pressed the Power button on the remote.
The TV flashed to life and a canned laugh track from a sitcom blared from the speakers which projected sound from every direction.
“Fuck!” the mobster cursed and he pivoted toward the TV and fired his pistol at the screen.
The investigator stood quickly and hurled the statue end-over-end like an old German stick grenade. The man looked back in time to take the golden object directly in the face. He grunted and staggered back, his nose and mouth bleeding, but he struggled to raise his weapon even as the other man attacked.
Remy attacker grabbed his opponent’s wrist and kneed him in the stomach. He saw Riley float in beside him before he punched the man in the side of the head and felled him.
Silence set in, and he turned to stare at the fairy.
“Well,” he panted, “that didn’t go too badly. In fact”—he grinned stupidly and had a sudden urge to jump straight up and fist-pump into the air—“I kicked ass.”
Riley stared coldly at him. “You would have been shot—twice—if I hadn’t deflected the bullets, you know.”
His gaze snapped toward her and his eyes narrowed. “Oh yeah? Prove it.”
Chapter Fourteen
Harrison, Westchester County, New York
It had been a long day, Remy acknowledged. He’d been up since well before dawn and it was now a couple of hours after dark. When he arrived at Taylor’s mansion, though, he felt good. To be able to tell her that he’d found a lead, not to mention survived an assassination attempt…the anticipation was almost overwhelming.
As he mounted the short staircase at the front with Riley in tow, the right door opened.
“Good evening,” said Presley. “Ms Steele wishes to speak to you immediately.”
He smiled. “I’ll bet she does.”
The butler frowned at him. “We were considerably worried since you did not bother to call to inform us where you’ve even been this entire time.” His gaze drifted toward the fairy and the sight of her seemed to distract him for a moment.
“Aww, but I wanted it to be a surprise.” He protested and made an exaggerated pouty-lips face. “And yeah, Riley likes it when men stare at her all slack-jawed and drooling, so feel free to do so as much as you want.”
She giggled.
“My jaw,” Presley retorted, “is not slack in the slightest. I was merely trying to ascertain if this particular fairy was known to me or what her purpose here might be.” He closed the door behind them.
“Sure, Jeeves, whatever you say. Everyone knows that proper old gentlemen like yourself turn into the dirtiest perverts imaginable given any motivation. Riley, go on and hover directly in front of his face for a couple of minutes.”
“Okay.” She sounded cheerfully amused at the prospect.
“Stop.” Taylor stepped into the foyer from the hall. “That won’t be necessary. Remington, sit down.” She pointed at the nearest chair.
Remy suspected she was about to try to chew him out and couldn’t wait to destroy her with the news of all the useful things he’d discovered. He tried not to smirk too obviously as he lowered himself into the chair and noted the way Presley, behind him, sighed with relief.
The vampire stood before him and seemed to loom more than usual. “All right, why have you returned so late, and what have you been doing all day? You never sent word to us, so we were beginning to consider the possibility that someone had captured or killed you.”
“Well,” he retorted, “they tried.”
She betrayed no great surprise. “Indeed? Start from the beginning. I want to know everything.”
He took a deep breath and related the whole story, beginning with his purchase of Riley’s services in exchange for honey. From there, he proceeded through his experience in the casino, his trip upstate, and finally, the shootout at James’s second house in Windham.
When he finished—looking extremely pleased with himself—she folded her arms over her chest and nodded.
Riley piped up. “I helped,” she pointed out. “He would have been shot twice if—”
“Yes, thank you,” Remy interrupted her. “That still leaves all the other bullets that never would have hit me at all, though.”
Taylor seemed to flick her gaze aside for a moment, but when she looked at him, she said, “Today, you have drawn a disturbing amount of attention to yourself, but I am impressed that you produced a viable lead. I will investigate this hotel directly.”
He beamed and lounged back in his chair. “Ha! Yes! I knew you’d come around to seeing my true potential. We can forget all about that nonsense with the toilets. From this day forth, I am your equal in every way, aside from also being the owner of the company, of course. I—”
“Be quiet,” she snapped with understated power. He flinched even as his jaw snapped shut.
She narrowed her eyes. “It’s true you’ve not done too badly, but don’t go getting delusions of grandeur. You are still the most junior person here and will be for the foreseeable future.”
The fairy hovered between them and raised a hand. “Does this mean my services are still required, ma’am?”
The vampire answered before he could. “Yes, it would be useful to have you around. He bought you for a week, anyway, didn’t he?”
“Yes,” she confirmed and grinned. “He said I should wear clothes, though. That’s completely stupid.”
Taylor ignored her. “All right, I want both of you to stay here until I specifically give you leave to go anywhere else. And since I’m about to depart for this Gold Reveal Hotel, that probably means you’ll spend the night. You may use the guest room upstairs. Presley will see that you have what you need.”
Remy blinked in confusion. “Wouldn’t it make more sense to take me with you? Granted, I am tired, but…well, after my sterling performance earlier—”
She shook her head. “No. There’s no way of knowing what I’ll walk into there. I can handle it myself. Some things become far more difficult if I also have to keep someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing alive.”
He started to protest but she made a strange, sharp gesture with her hand and again, his lips seemed to seal themselves together against his will.
Presley walked up and looked at Taylor. “Madame, will you require full battle gear?”
She paused to consider the question. “No, light gear should suffice. They probably won’t expect anything too serious yet. And if they do, I don’t want anything heavy to slow me down on my way out.”
The butler nodded. “Very well, madame. But please be careful.”
She put a hand on his arm and strode past him toward the garage.
Remy snapped his fingers and shouted, “Presley!”
The old man turned. “Yes, sir? Oh, and thank you for finally getting my name right. I knew you had it in you.”
He cursed. “I didn’t eat all day. Order me a pizza, Jeeves.”
Park Avenue, Midtown Manhattan, New York City
It took Taylor only thirty-nine minutes to reach her destination. She knew when and how to drive faster than most people could get away with, could locate obstructions before they occurred, and was able to use New York’s myriad side-streets to her advantage. When she broke the human laws, she did so unobtrusively and without causing damage to either humans or their property. Her black Tesla slipped through the city like a thief in the night.
She arrived on Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan about half a mile before the point where the hotel ought to be located. She intended to drive past it out front and, if necessary, circle to the back and surveil the place a little before she plunged in.
The building appeared on the right and she examined it quickly, using not only her eyes but the subtler perceptive abilities which she’d had centuries to hone.
It was clear to her almost instantly that something was not right.
T
here were no clear visual clues out front and it wasn’t anything obvious. Something seemed to linger in the air, an off-kilter frequency of its electromagnetic ambiance.
The vampire found the nearest parking garage and left her car there on one of the higher levels, confident that the vehicle’s considerable security systems would keep it where it was and in one piece. She slipped into the shadows that clung along the edges of buildings as she made her way back toward the Gold Reveal.
She wore a light bulletproof vest under her dress and had a few minor weapons and useful tools stashed elsewhere on her person. Despite her precautions, she didn’t anticipate going to war. Not yet, anyway.
As she neared the tall, elegant structure, it occurred to her that she could try to fly or crawl to the top and work her way down through it, but even with her skills, there were many ways that could go wrong. More than anything, it was imperative that she not be sighted.
There was no other immediate threat so she resolved to simply walk into the lobby and speak to the staff. She could enthrall them if need be.
Unfortunately, she stepped through the glass revolving door and realized at once that doing that would be a total waste of time.
Someone else had already gotten to the hotel’s staff—and very likely the same people she was looking for. There was at least one vampire on her list of prime suspects. Humans under a spell always gave off a disturbing uncanny vibe. There was something unnatural in their behavior and a subtle odor about them.
The doorman, the concierge, and the security guard all stared at her with placid intensity as she strode toward the reception desk. She would have to be careful, her instincts warned.
And, she resolved, if things did turn ugly, she would do all she could to merely incapacitate these people. It was not necessary to kill them.
“Hello,” she said across the desk. A thin, friendly-looking man stood there. She looked into his eyes only long enough to give him a small jolt of her own influence. If she pushed too hard against the enthrallment he was already under, she could provoke a violent reaction and possibly break something in his mind.
“Good evening, madame,” he acknowledged robotically. “Unfortunately, the hotel is closed to new guests this evening. The entire building has been rented out for a private gathering. I’m sorry. You are welcome to return in two days if you still need accommodation.”
While he spoke, a pair of janitors, a maid, and a cook all wandered into the lobby to join the doorman and the security guard. All of them looked at her.
“Oh.” She drummed her fingers on the desk. “That is disappointing. May I see the register to at least know who it is who’s rented the hotel? I strongly suspect it’s an acquaintance of mine, so if that’s the case, I could speak to them and perhaps I could even change their mind.”
She hadn’t expected this argument to work. Rational discussion was a lost cause against the bewitched. The idea was to gauge his reaction and that of the six other people who’d begun to surround her.
The concierge flinched. “Madame!” he protested. “Absolutely not. We strictly respect the confidence and privacy of our guests. The individuals renting the building have done so according to the rules, and their instructions were quite specific. I’m afraid I must ask you to leave.”
Everyone else took another step closer to her. The concierge himself, meanwhile, seemed to reach under the desk for something.
Taylor noted the way the man moved and also the sense of rhythm she felt from the other six. One of the janitors would probably be the first to strike but the security guard would be the most potentially dangerous. None of them were a threat, but she did not need either the distraction or the commotion.
“Oh,” she said again, “that’s quite all right. “May I use your phone?”
The janitor was the first to move. She was already halfway into her reaction before he had even fully prepared. A black blur was all any of them saw.
“Stop her!” the concierge yelled.
The first man had tried to sweep a broom around her to pin her head against him with the handle against her throat. He had barely registered that she was no longer in front of him when she yanked his legs out from under him and he landed face-first.
The concierge and security guard both drew handguns while the other four still on their feet spread out, confused but alert. The maid tried to tackle her in what she obviously considered the moment of opportunity when the janitor fell. The vampire was already behind her. She flung the woman across the floor and her head struck the wall, where she lay unconscious in a heap.
By now, Taylor had already vaulted over the head of the security guard and seized the man’s shoulders as he raised his pistol to fire. She swung him upward and threw him down as she descended and stamped on his wrist. The bones cracked and he screamed and relinquished the gun. She snatched it and crushed it in her hand.
The other three all attacked at once. She backhanded the cook across the face and he wheezed and coughed blood as he spun and toppled. Two quick kicks to the ribs felled the second janitor and the doorman.
The concierge aimed and fired. Taylor stepped aside and a bullet hole appeared in the opposite wall. Before he could shoot again, she was suddenly on top of him, yanked the pistol from his grasp, and punched him in the stomach.
The man doubled over and vomited. She pounded his head into the desk and allowed him to slump to the floor beside the puddle of puke.
The lobby was silent aside from a few groans of pain. The vampire examined the seven humans quickly. All of them would live and she didn’t think she’d crippled any.
Footsteps approached and men shouted, and she cursed. Of course, her enemies would have surrounded themselves with as many enslaved protectors as possible.
She darted to the elevator, pressed the button, and stepped inside as the next group of would-be assailants rushed into the lobby.
“Stop!” she commanded, and they reeled. Their bodies experienced small, brief seizures as her impelling voice clashed with the brainwashing they’d already received.
The delay was all she needed, though. The doors closed and she thumped the button to take her all the way to the top—the Presidential Suite. That seemed the most likely place.
The compartment lurched and ascended.
Listening to the building around her, she could hear people moving on one of the higher floors and it didn’t come as much of a surprise when the elevator stopped about halfway up, followed immediately by the sound of someone taking a powerful cutting tool to the heavy cable that suspended the compartment.
“Shit,” she murmured, irritated by yet another hindrance. She vaulted up, pushed the ceiling panels aside, and swung her body up around the frame bars like a gymnast when the elevator began to tilt and sway as the cable started to fail.
Taylor crawled out on top of the compartment and jumped to the side of the shaft as the cutting process, somewhere up above, reached its end. Freed, the thick metal cord made a whining sound as it whipped loose and the elevator itself plummeted down the shaft to its inevitable ruin below.
She remained where she was for a moment, her nails gripping the steel girders and her body hidden in the deep gloom of the shaft.
Up above, someone asked, “Did we get her?”
“I don’t know,” another voice replied. “Call the dumbasses downstairs and have them check the wreckage. Until then, we have to assume she might try to fly or crawl up here.”
These people were probably higher-end security It was unlikely that the conspirators had brought their personal bodyguards with them, so those on the top floor were either more hotel staff or third-party hirelings. Either way, they had no experience fighting a vampire.
Taylor climbed silently and carefully, knowing full well that the men above kept a close eye on the elevator shaft but also confident that she could be almost on top of them before they saw her.
Soon, light appeared from the doorway leading to the Presidential Suite. Within it, si
lhouetted against the glow, were the heads of two men who leaned into the shaft to watch out for her.
She could pounce up, grab them, and haul them in to let them fall to their deaths. But it could also be done without any killing. It merely took more steps.
Lizard-like, she moved another yard or so upwards.
“Jesus,” one of the men said, “I think I see something moving down there. Where’s our report from the ground floor?”
That would be my cue.
Without a moment’s hesitation, she vaulted up and flew the rest of the way. The walls of the shaft fell away around her and in an instant, she stared into the faces of the two security men.
They fell back, their eyes wide and white, and mouthed curses without speaking while the sub-machine guns they carried aimed toward her.
The vampire landed between them before they could fire and shoved them both in opposite directions, slightly forward and at an angle. Each guard tumbled into a wall. The one on her right managed to squeeze the trigger of his weapon as he fell.
Taylor leapt again as the gun flared to life. She avoided taking the full brunt of the burst but two bullets grazed her leg. The pain was sharp but not debilitating and the wound would heal quickly enough.
The man who’d fired was still conscious, so she darted toward him. At the same time, she registered the presence of four more men who raced toward her position from around the corner. She’d deal with them momentarily.
Smoke rose from the barrel of the man’s weapon as she appeared before him. She was too fast for him to aim again, especially since his collision with the wall seemed to have injured his shoulder.
His face fell. “No!” he cried, certain he would die.
She merely swatted him hard across the face so his head bounced into the wall and he slumped limply, out of the fight.
The other guard had already passed out on the initial impact so she spun to face a new group of attackers. Like the first two, they were clad in paramilitary gear and carried sub-machine guns. Only one of them held his weapon, though. His teammates had them hanging from shoulder straps at their sides and brandished other objects.
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