“Helena!” she purrs. “It has been too long. Is this that jinni we have heard so much about?” She inspects me like Lilith considering a new pair of shoes. “You didn’t tell me he was gorgeous. Please come in and sit down. Have you eaten, Helena?”
The Queen is a blond petite thing, maybe five feet two inches. She looks like she was perhaps thirty when she was turned. She has an air about her that emanates power. I sense a ruthless quality that reminds me of the other vampires I have run across through my many years. I think Hannah could take her though. The image amuses me and cools me down.
“Queen Zoe, may I present Aidan. Aidan, this is Queen Zoe,” Helena’s voice is as cool as iced sweet tea and as thin as the sands that run through a Persian King’s hourglass.
“Your Majesty.”
“Let’s forgo the formalities for now.” Zoe flicks her delicate bangled and bejeweled wrist, at us. “Please call me Zoe while we are together, Aidan,” she tells me, as if it is a huge concession. “Helena, you didn’t answer me, have you eaten yet?”
“No, your Majesty.”
“Helena, we go back far too long to stand on ceremony, please, I insist that you call me Zoe tonight.”
“As you wish, Zoe.” Helena finally meets her eyes. The queen flinches slightly but becomes the poseur of power again.
“We have several delicacies here at court.” Without waiting for Helena’s response she motions to another servant. “Fetch Madame Helena some nourishment, please.”
Helena lowers her eyes again. “You’ll spoil me, Zoe. I’m used to hunting.”
I am fascinated watching the two females test their boundaries with sheathed claws.
“Chére, it is good to be spoiled once in a while.” Zoe turns to me and I see a small half hidden smile on Helena’s face. Something had just happened that I didn’t catch but I think Helena has won this round. “Tell me Aidan, is it true that you can summon up anything you wish?”
I am expecting this and I conjure a gaudy pair of gold and ruby earrings that Helena and Lilith would sooner be caught dead than wear.
“A present for you, Zoe, something befitting a Queen.” She misses my irony.
“Oh thank you! These are marvelous. That was amazing.” Something moves in her ancient eyes, something I’ve seen in a snake’s eyes before they strike. “Helena you must have a house full of trinkets,” she says as she tilts her head towards Helena, never taking her eyes off the earrings or me.
“No, we never ask him to get us anything. We try to respect his powers,” Helena says quietly. “Though, Lily will sometimes ask him to warm up her coffee.”
Zoe looks like she swallowed something sour as she knows she has been caught with her greedy little foot stuck in her mouth.
“How is Julian?” she asks to change the subject. Helena replies in the positive. “And the happy couple?”
“Sebastian is eager to set a date.”
“Libby should reel him in before he loses interest.” The Queen’s tone of voice doesn’t match her disinterested behavior. Then the Queen’s eyes return to her prize and her manner turns casual.
“That’s why I am here.” Helena pauses, “Two nights ago, Lily was attacked and bitten by a werewolf.” She accents Lilith’s name slightly but doesn’t bother to correct the Queen. She is supposed to have an impeccable memory. She deliberately slighted Lilith. More importantly what did Sebastian do to the Queen that now has her disliking Lilith.
“Oh, God, not there too.” Zoe throws up her hands and her eyes get big, but I can tell that she is annoyed not surprised. Her expression is practiced and unconvincing. Her performance probably fools humans and naïve vampires, but not old djinn or ancient vampires.
“What do you know about this, Zoe?” I ask, instantly alert. My tone may have been a little sharper than she expects from her subjects. But I’m not a subject.
“We’ve been plagued by werewolf attacks.” She concedes, again aiming for casual. “Most of our attacks have ended in deaths. We are trying to eradicate them. But someone seems to be making more of them faster than we can hunt them down.”
“Wait, what do you mean, you are trying to eradicate them?” I demand, ignoring silly vampire protocols. The room goes deathly still, as only a room full of vampires can be. Zoe pauses, she tries to stare me down unsuccessfully. She picks up her conversation where she left off, acting like I never spoke.
“We don’t know when or how the creatures are being created. The city is in crisis at full moon over these so called ‘animal attacks,’ though we know what they really are.” She extends her hand, examining her talon-length nails. “I have a full squad on patrol during the full moon phase. It’s bringing too much attention to our activities,” she snaps, finally losing her facade.
“We think we know how the wolves are being made,” I say.
“What do you know, Aidan, Helena?” The Queen watches us under hooded eyes. Her guards make a subtle move based on some signal she has given them. I take Helena’s hand and she grips mine back, signaling that she is ready to disappear if things go sideways.
“The man that attacked Lily was on vacation here about three months ago and was mugged. His mugger bit him. You can guess it was a werewolf. But he wasn’t transformed at the time,” Helena explains her chin up. She meets Zoe eye to eye. Definitely not the submissive little vampire the Queen is probably used to.
“Someone is purposefully transmitting the virus to people and sending them out into the world. This man made sure to look at Liam’s driver’s license to see where he lived,” I offer further.
“We must stop him,” Zoe says. The fist she holds her earrings in clenches unconsciously crushing them. Blood runs between her fingers from the cuts the jewelry has given her. “It cannot be allowed.”
I zap the earrings and they are fixed. She looks down at them, giving me another appraising look. She calmly licks the blood from her fingers. This mercurial woman is so very dangerous. I will watch her closely. I don’t trust a word that comes out of her mouth. I’ve seen many sociopaths during my thousands of years and this little Queen will try to be a problem.
“Aidan and I are here to find him. We hope to track down the creature that is responsible for this and destroy him,” Helena says.
“You have my full support and my extensive resources at your command, Helena.” Zoe slips back to business. “We’ve had enough of this. It gives my city a bad name and vampires are starting to have troubles hunting.”
“Thank you, Zoe. We appreciate your support and any help that you can provide us,” I say, best to act like the good little jinni.
“Ahhh, Helena, your dinner has arrived. I think you will like him,” she says as she touches a finger to her curved lip. Typical bloodsucker, her appetite for her food mixes with bedroom play. “He is new to court. I only tasted him once six weeks ago.”
Helena engages the nubile young man with honey-kissed skin, and wills him to where she sits. He bends down and she tilts his head as she raises hers. In a flash of fangs she bends with lightning speed bites his neck. She drinks at a leisurely pace and has nary a drop of blood on her lips when she comes up.
“She’s beautiful to watch, no?” the Queen whispers. “I can’t will my victims yet. Some vampires never achieve this gift and both she and Julian can,” Zoe says wistfully, giving me another insight. I doubt she’s even aware.
“Thank you, Zoe. That was wonderful. I love Creole blood.”
“You’re welcome, Helena. Now, back to business. I’m going to have Celine liaise with you. She has been investigating the werewolf cases already.” There is no room for disagreement without showing our cards—Helena squeezes my hand.
“Thank you Zoe.” I bow. I’ve seen enough. She’s just another dead woman walking, an empty shell. But she has power, is on the verge of an intelligence and cunning. That makes her one of the most dangerous and repulsive vampires I have met. All tied up in a pretty petite package.
Zoe signals for a serving girl to
approach.
“Fetch Celine,” she says briskly.
“Yes, your Majesty.”
“Helena, leave your cell phone number with my assistant so I can reach you. She will give you my card and Celine will be able to reach me as well.” She is all business now. As if there could be no question of our acquiescence. “Here she is.”
A vampire about five feet six inches, with long black hair, cascading to her waist strolls in. Like all vampires, she is beautiful. She is wearing a black pants suit and heels, but her sinewy grace suggests a sleek cat. At the Queen’s indication, Celine flicks us a once over. Her eyes are cold and utterly devoid of humanity. Her perusal of Helena and me leave her unimpressed. She doesn’t bother to hide a sneer. She’s inexperienced, good. Celine is a cocky, immature, serial killer. She bows to the Queen.
Celine gives me another assessing look when Zoe tells her I am a djinn. A chemical signature that smells like fear passes between them. They are afraid of me. Interesting. I haven’t done anything to encourage that. Quite the opposite. What is Zoe hiding? More proof of her manipulative, sneaky ways.
“Celine, Helena and Aidan are here about the werewolf attacks. I want you to fill Helena in on everything you’ve learned so far and work with them. Helena is in charge while you are with her and Aidan. Is that understood?” I look over at Helena and she slowly lowers her eyelids. We both know that the Queen has just planted a spy in out mist.
“Yes, your Majesty.” Celine’s face tightens as she answers, her voice having no inflection and her lips stiff. There is a snarl in there somewhere. Somebody forgot her happy pills. More importantly, her ego is overriding a message her mistress is sending her. Foolish girls, they are giving me so much ammunition and they don’t have a clue.
“Helena, my friend, go find this monster and take care of him,” Zoe says her voice saturated with false sincerity. “Find out how many others there are out there. Bring me some good news.”
“I will try, Zoe. I will call you with an update soon.” Helena and I bow. “Good bye.”
Celine accompanies us when we leave the Queen’s mansion and return to the B&B to change. Helena slips into a nice summer dress that will survive the intense heat and stagnant humidity. I snap my fingers to don a pair of jeans and a button down shirt. Celine looks a bit overdressed. I offer to change her clothes, but she says no, though her eyes run over Helena’s dress. Whether she is envious or contemptuous is unclear. Perhaps both.
“Our intelligence has shown that the attacks have only been during the full moon cycle. I don’t know what you mean to find at this time of the month,” Celine says. She has a soft southern drawl but no inflection. Hannah would say that she makes her skin creepy-crawly.
“A werewolf is biting people in his human form. We are going to find him.” Helena tells her. “We hope to draw him out as victims since he attacked our friend during a mugging.”
“That’s absurdly dangerous,” Celine says. She snorts and looks away. Dismissive.
“It doesn’t appear that your method has been successful,” I say. “This may be the only way we can find him. Just out of curiosity’s sake, how old are you, Celine?”
“One hundred seventy-eight,” she says straightening. “Why?”
“You might show a bit more respect when talking to Helena. She is nine hundred eighty-six years old,” I comment. “She’s been around the block a time or two. For that matter, I am as old as time, give or take a millennia.”
“I’ve never met anyone older than the Queen,” she says. “I apologize for my impudence. It’s just that I have been working this case and I’m very frustrated with it,” she says as she turns her back on us. Her words are conciliatory but her actions deny it. I know she enjoys all the killing she has been allowed to do during her investigation. Even though she has been sent to spy on us, she is unhappy and looking for someone or something to blame. She swishes her long black hair over her shoulder as she turns to confront us, mouth screwed up in anger. “We find the victims of each attack and deal with them. Next moon cycle there are more to deal with. I don’t know what we’re doing wrong. The police think there is a serial killer first attacking the victims then killing them at the full moon.”
“That is because this werewolf is creating new werewolves during the month before the full moon. He’s not restricted by the moon phase,” I say. “ The only way to stop them is to go to the source. How many victims have you killed?”
“Twenty-nine so far.”
“Oh, my God!” Helena exclaims.
“What kind of people were they, Celine?” I ask. She has no remorse, no concept of it.
Celine shrugs indifferently. Warm bloods mean nothing to her. I think the intent of my question has slipped right through her black shriveled heart and over her head. I clamp down my will.
“At first, the attacks were on street people so they went unnoticed by the police. Now the victims’ are from all walks of life.” She throws back her shoulders and straightens up. “When we go out, I would like to volunteer as bait. It is my duty to the Queen,” Celine says.
“No, Celine, Aidan will be the bait. He can’t be infected. He’ll pose as a tourist. The randomness of this wolf’s selection concerns me. He’s reckless and vicious, what’s worse is he is intentionally infecting his victims and we have no idea why.” Helena pulls out some brochures we picked up in the lobby for tourists. “We are hoping that he haunts the same territory where he attacked his victim from San Francisco. It’s our only lead so far,” Helena says. Her eyes briefly engage Celine before she returns to her printed information.
“Where do we go?” Celine asks as she throws a hand on her hip and throws her hair back again.
“He was walking outside Saint Louis Cemetery No. 1,” I say. “At least that’s what Liam told me.”
“That’s a good place to get mugged,” Celine says, dusting off her hands like she is dusting off the dirt of the cemetery. “It’s notorious for its crime rate.”
“Should we pop over there and see what we turn up?” I ask.
“Celine, take my hand,” Helena instructs, as I take her other one. Celine looks at Helena’s hand but reluctantly obeys.
I set my internal GPS to Saint Louis No. 1. Celine stumbles and gasps when we arrive, unbalanced and unprepared.
“What just happened?” she asks, fangs out.
“We transmanifested. It’s what I do when I move from one place to another. I took you and Helena with me.”
“You could have warned me.”
“I think it was more fun this way,” I grin at her.
She snarls at me. Since I’m not supposed to vaporize her yet, she proves to have some potential for amusement.
“Let’s stroll along and see what happens. Liam said his attacker had a gun so be prepared,” I say.
We stroll around the perimeter for a while, admiring the beautiful mausoleums erected to house long dead souls. We aren’t able to enter the cemetery. Before long I sense that we have company. The girls and I chat and pretend we’re taking in the sights, though Celine’s answers are monosyllabic and disinterested. I can tell by the momentary pause in the conversation that the girls notice our company too. Their sense of smell is more heightened than mine and they’ve probably already placed him.
“Stop where you are, I have a gun!” a gravelly voice threatens from behind.
We stop.
“Turn around and empty your pockets.”
Celine and Helena have nothing in theirs. I conjure up a wallet with a fake ID, some bogus bills and fake credit cards.
“Now I want the gentleman to walk slowly over to me and hand me the wallet. Easy now, remember I have a gun,” he says.
He is an ordinary, older man. Not particularly well-built. He smirks at me like he knows something I don’t. I am pretty sure this is our man. He fits the description Liam gave me. I can feel Celine itching to move.
“Helena, Celine seems to need your support right now. I think she is going to collapse.
Why don’t you hold her?” I suggest.
“I quite agree, dear.”
“Ugh!” Celine says.
“Shut up! All of you!” our mugger growls, confused by our calm and frustrated by his lack of control of the situation.
I ease over to the man cautiously, acting like I’m afraid, but my only fear is that I might scare him away. He grabs at my wallet but gets my wrist instead. He pulls my hand to his mouth. I let him bite me. He gets a mouthful of essence and that surprises him. I send an immobilizing blast at him and it sends him to the ground. He can’t run but he can still talk.
“Are you okay, Aidan?” Helena asks.
“Never better.”
“Celine, have you control of yourself now?” I ask.
“Yes!” she hisses. “Let me go, Helena!”
“You almost ruined everything. You must learn patience, young one,” Helena says letting reproach show in her voice before she turns Celine loose.
“He has done so much damage. I just wanted to get him so badly,” Celine hisses. More likely catching him has ruined her fun.
“Yes, but until he bit Aidan, we did not know he was the one,” Helena counters, patiently.
“Who are you and what are you talking about? Let me go!” our captive yells from the ground.
I give him a kick. “What’s your name?” I ask.
“Fuck you!” the werewolf spits out.
I kick him harder. “What is your name? I can do a lot more nasty things to you than just keep you from moving.” A tree root snakes toward him, wrapping around his neck. His eyes widen.
“Do you want to reconsider your answer?” I tighten the grasp.
“Antoine,” he wheezes.
“Antoine, why are you infecting people?” Helena asks.
“I don’t know what you mean.” Wrong answer. The root grows ever so slightly tighter
“Oh I think you do,” Helena says. “I want to know how you figured out you were a werewolf in the first place.”
“Wasn’t so hard. Just had to put the pieces together.”
“I’ve heard enough, Aidan. We need to get him somewhere more private to question him.”
Sucking Bites (San Francisco Vampires Series #3) Page 9