by Eve Paludan
Sam pressed her lips together for a moment. “It was only a fleeting thought. We’re back to what to tell my client, whether his wife is cheating or not cheating.”
“I have a proposal. Can you sit tight for a day and let me talk to Kevin Holden?” Kingsley offered.
“You? Are you kidding me?”
“I think I could swing this. Werewolf-to-vampire in a man-to-man talk, maybe in a sports bar that he frequents.”
“I can’t ask you to do that. It’s too dangerous, and it might jeopardize your life. Anyhow, he doesn’t go to bars that I’ve seen, and I’ve been tailing him, too. If anyone talks to anyone, it should be me doing the talking.”
“Sam, you cannot talk to the guy directly. It breaks every rule of private investigation and could get you killed, or at the very least, sued by your client.”
“Sued? That would suck worse than being killed,” she said, deadpan.
“This is not your average adultery case. It’s very dangerous.” Kingsley set his jaw in a way that she knew he was hell-bent on intervening for the purpose of her safety and well-being.
“Fine, you approach Kevin Holden. But what are you going to say to him?” Sam asked.
“Just tell me where he hangs out, and I’ll improvise as I go along.”
“When my client’s wife goes for boxing lessons at Jacky’s, he usually sleeps and then when the sun sets, he goes to a twenty-four-hour gym in Fullerton.”
“That makes sense, since he’s a vampire. Will you text me the address?”
Sam nodded and sent it from her maps app to Kingsley’s phone.
“Come here, Sam.” Kingsley stretched his arms around her and drew her into the big wingback chair he was sitting in. She put her arms around him, too, as far as they could reach since he was a big werewolf man. “As your lawyer, I want you to send your client an email saying you should wrap up the case within forty-eight hours and to just sit tight. And then, as your backup thug, just leave the male vampire detective to me.”
“That’s all well and fine, but what if Amber Tarkington decides she wants to be a vampire within the next twenty-four hours and he turns her?”
“She’s his feeder. I find that highly unlikely unless...”
“Unless what?” Sam asked.
“Unless he’s so in love with her that he says to hell with her being his dying feeder and he decides to keep her by his side for the rest of eternity.”
“That would be bad,” Sam said, reaching for her phone and taking it out. “Hang on and let me shoot my client that email.”
When she was done, Kingsley asked, “I know you probably want to get home to your kids pretty soon, but I have ten kinds of ice cream… Franklin and I could use some help eating it all.”
“I’ll take a rain check on the ice cream, but I sure could use some TLC in other areas.”
“You got it, Sam. Now, tell me what areas need attention?”
She smiled and pointed to her lips.
When he kissed her ever so softly, that’s all it took for her to want to stay for a while and just bask in the kind of lovemaking that made that smile stay on her face for the rest of the night and long into the wee hours of the morning.
Chapter 12
After an hour-and-a-half wait, during which Tammy and Anthony tried to keep Emily from talking about going after their blood, Fang rang the doorbell at the Moon home in Fullerton.
Anthony looked through the peephole before he opened the door to the tall, dark-haired vampire. “Hi, Fang. Thanks for coming all the way from Echo Park on such short notice.”
Fang walked in without saying hello, walked to the kitchen and put a thermos on the counter. “Where is she?”
“She’s in the bathroom with Tammy. Tammy made her take a shower and wash off all the blood, all of which was hers, as far as we can tell. We heard from Emily that several vampires, maybe up to five of them, bit her at the same time. She didn’t die right away, so we rescued her from them and brought her here. She did die in the car, of blood loss, I think, and just as I was about to do CPR on her, she woke up as an undead vampire. I checked. No pulse, but she’s walking and talking.”
“You’re lucky that she didn’t bite you when you leaned over to give her CPR.”
“I’m still pretty spooked about that.”
“You should be,” Fang said.
Fang and Anthony could hear the girls talking in the bathroom.
“I don’t trust Emily alone with Tammy. What are they doing in there right now?” Fang asked.
“She’s doing Emily’s makeup since Emily can’t see her reflection in the mirror. And my sister gave her a whole duffle bag of clothes that aren’t all bloody. I think they’re saying goodbye since Emily knows she has to go with you since she can’t go home.”
“It would certainly be hard for her parents to understand what happened to their daughter.”
“She doesn’t have parents. They died from drugs, long ago. She’s been passed around to different foster homes. She doesn’t seem attached to the current ones, but I could be wrong.”
“That’s sad.”
“I know. I think Tammy told her you were a family friend who would help her through this adjustment time.”
“I hope I can. I hope we can.” Fang paused. “Do you know if she was assaulted in any other way by the vampires?”
“She says not. They were in the middle of her bloodletting ceremony when we rescued her and the so-called king of their… um… clutch would have had first rights to her body.”
“It’s sick that some vampires make a stupid religious cult out of vampirism.”
“I agree. These guys are trash. And they were likely trash before they got turned.”
“Do you know who turned them?” Fang asked.
“No idea.” Anthony angled his head toward the thermos. “You brought her some blood from your blood club?”
“Of course. We can’t let her starve or she’ll attack someone. Anyone who’s easy or convenient. Or both. If she gets her first blood from a cup instead of a neck, it’ll be easier to train her to drink blood that way, instead of breaking her from the neck-vein habit.”
“You make it sound like getting a baby weaned.”
“That’s exactly right. She’s a baby vampire and needs to be taught, against her natural instincts, that killing humans and nonconsensual blood feedings are wrong. Very wrong.”
“It sounds like you have a school for newbie vampires.”
“It’s more like a safe house for new vampire teen girls who have nowhere else to go. There’s a vampire house mother and rules. Every teen resident has classes in safety, ethics and etiquette. They can also finish their high school diplomas via online classes. My blood bar supplies all the blood and pays the costs of running the place, including the salary of the house mother.”
“I never knew you had that safe house for new teen vampires. Does my mom know about it?”
He shook his head. “No. It’s something new I’m trying. We just started a month ago, and Emily’s going to be our third resident. The first two are almost ready to leave the nest. They are both cup-trained, and they both have job offers. I might mention it to your mom if it’s necessary, but I doubt it. I don’t even tell your mother everything I do.”
“Even though you’re close friends?”
Fang smiled. “In the vampire world, sometimes you need to keep secrets to protect someone—every time I keep a secret from your mother, it’s because it could be dangerous for her to know it.”
“You’re a good friend, Fang.”
“As is she. I want to keep both of us safe, so she only knows part of my activities.”
“Thanks for the blood, Fang, because the stuff in Mom’s fridge is long expired.”
“Well, your mother doesn’t need to drink blood anymore since she has that alchemy ring that allows her to eat regular food and forego blood meals.”
Anthony nodded. “I don’t think I realized how hard it was for Mom to just
feed herself until we rescued Emily. She keeps strongly hinting around about wanting to drink our blood, mine and Tammy’s. We keep having to convince her not to do it.”
“It’s hard. Very hard. Of course, if it were easy, everyone would want to be a vampire. Typically, a new vampire is not out chasing after rabbits in a city park. Not with all sorts of people surrounding him or her, all with a pulse and all easy pickings, compared to chasing down a mammal with four legs.”
Suddenly, a horrific cry of hunger from Emily echoed through the house and then Tammy screamed—there was the sound of a scuffle in the hall bathroom.
Fang leaped into action and was a blur as he yanked the bathroom door open and grabbed Emily by her long hair, just as she was about to bite Tammy in the neck. Anthony jumped in, too, trying to pull Emily’s arms off his sister. She had a vise-like grip on Tammy, though.
“Stop!” Fang said calmly.
When Emily turned around, their eyes locked and she let go of Tammy, whom she had tackled into the bathtub and was lying across her.
“Get off Tammy. Now. That’s not nice.”
Emily nodded slowly, her wide eyes never leaving Fang’s.
Fang gently frog-marched Emily to the kitchen. “Sit at the table, little one. I have something for you.”
Anthony shuddered and gave his scared sister a hand, pulling her out of the bathtub. “You shouldn’t have trusted her,” he whispered.
“She was being good, I thought,” she whispered back.
“Did you read her mind?” Anthony asked.
“Um, not really. We were talking about the clothes and stuff I was giving her, and I was putting on her makeup. We were talking about the new Kylie eyeshadow palette that I just opened, and I gave it to her. She was so happy. And it was so easy and comfortable between us, just two girls being girls. I had all the feels of a new friend.”
“Well, she was putting you under a vampire spell, Tam. Luckily, she isn’t very good at it yet, and you still had the ability to scream to save your life.”
Fang said from the other room, “Vampires can hear very well. Come in here, Moon kids. I want you to support and comfort Emily as she tastes her first blood. I want her to feel safe and have her friends around her.”
“I’m not sure she’s my friend now,” Tammy said. “She was about to kill me or turn me.”
“Both,” Fang said. He opened the vintage red plaid thermos and a curl of steam came out. “It’s still warm. And it’s delicious, I promise.” He poured a bit in the little red plastic thermos cup. “I just want you to drink a little bit from the cup.”
Emily pressed her lips together and shook her head.
Anthony said, “You could do that mind-control thing and make her do it.”
Fang said, “I want her to take it of her own accord. I want her to enjoy it and become accustomed to it. I want her first blood feeding to be organic to her, not forced. I rarely compel anyone to do anything. Come on now, Emily. I’m trying to help you.”
She shook her head again.
Tammy said, “I could read her mind. Should I?”
“No,” Fang said. “Not now. I’ve got this.”
He dipped his finger in the blood and put his finger in his mouth and sucked the blood off it. “Mmm, it’s so good. Want some?”
Her chin trembled. “Not like this. I want it to pulse in my mouth when I drink it. I want to suck it in time to a heartbeat, the way they did to me when they turned me. They were over the moon with joy. I want to drink someone’s blood like they drank mine.”
“No, that is not the way to be a good vampire. You try it, from the cup. Use your finger if you’re scared.”
She dipped her finger in the blood, as Fang had, and she brought it to her mouth. She opened her lips and shoved in her finger and sucked it noisily. Then her finger left her mouth with a popping sound. She threw her head back and moaned in a way that chilled Tammy.
Anthony’s jaw fell open as he watched Emily suck another finger coated with blood, and another and another, each time, sucking her finger clean and moaning in ecstasy. Those sounds she was making were doing something quite embarrassing to him, and he moved behind the kitchen counter so no one else could see his growing problem.
Finally, when she had sucked the dipped blood from every finger, Fang asked her, “Very good, right?”
She nodded and smiled at him, licking her lips.
“Now, I want you to pick up the cup and just drink normally. Think you can do that, Emily?”
She nodded eagerly and did so, gulping noisily and draining the cup until it was empty.
“Want some more blood?”
“Yes,” she said in a breathy whisper.
While she drank another cup, Anthony and Tammy looked at each other across the kitchen. Tammy’s face was pale with shock and disgust. Anthony’s face was red from blushing.
“Anthony, get Emily’s bag from my room and the pink zippered makeup case from the bathroom counter, would you? And put them by the front door?”
Anthony was only too glad to leave the room so he could get away from the sounds and sights that were contributing to his predicament.
When Emily had drunk half the thermos, she burped loudly and giggled.
Fang said, “You full?”
“For now,” she said. “Where am I going with you?”
“To a safe house in Echo Park for new teen girl vampires. No boys are allowed, for now, since I don’t want the place to turn into something sordid. It’s a place where you can do online school to finish your diploma, and you’ll have a house mom who gives informational classes on how to be a good vampire. And you’ll have two friends who are high school girls in the same situation you’re in, so I hope you’ll like them.”
“It sounds like a juvenile detention center.”
“It’s not. We keep you there by feeding you blood when you need it and giving you a bed and a very nice role model to help you learn to live this undeath in a way that won’t become a tragedy.”
“I’m not a prisoner?”
“No. There are no bars, no chains, no mind control.”
“Promise?”
“I do.”
Emily looked at Tammy. “Is Fang telling the truth?”
Tammy looked briefly into Fang’s mind. “Yes, he’s telling the truth. Your bed is waiting for you. Your room is painted pink and has white furniture. There’s a big-screen TV in the living room and the fridge is stocked with blood.”
“Are you going to make me drink animal blood?” Emily worried aloud.
“No, I know some vampires do it, but I hate the taste, so why would I offer it to anyone else? So, it’s human blood.”
“Where do you get it?”
“Paid donors.”
Emily turned to Tammy. “I’m sorry I tried to kill you.”
Tammy read her mind and looked away. “I hope you like your new life, Emily. This is a clean slate for you.”
“Thanks for calling Fang for me.”
Tammy looked at Fang. “Thanks for coming, Fang, and doing all this for a stranger.”
“Well, it was done for me, in a different way, but I had a mentor of sorts. She was evil in the end, but I think every new vampire needs one or there will be carnage, death, and destruction. And you don’t want that to happen, do you, Emily?” He looked hard at her.
“Not at the moment,” she replied honestly.
“It’s definitely time to go before you get hungry again,” Fang said.
Anthony carried her bags out to a limo with no driver that was parked at the curb in front of their house. Fang popped the trunk, and Anthony put the bags inside. “Is this your usual ride?”
“No, I rented it without a driver because it has a partition that I can close and doors I can lock,” Fang said as he opened the back door for Emily.
Emily frowned but stepped into the limo without saying goodbye. Fang closed the door and clicked something in his pocket, locking the newbie vampire in the limo.
&nbs
p; Tammy handed Fang the thermos. “I don’t know what we would have done without you.”
“Despite what you think of vampires, some of us, besides your mother, can be good people.”
“You really made me a believer,” Anthony said.
“You’re welcome here anytime,” Tammy said.
“Thank you. That means a lot to me.” Fang got into the long black limo and took Emily off into the night.
As soon as he left, Tammy said, “Not tonight, but eventually, Emily’s going to run away from the safe house.”
“Are you sure? It seems like a good deal for her.”
“It is, but she runs away from every foster home. I read her mind just before she left. She’s always planning her next escape and this time was no different.”
“What a shame,” Anthony said.
“Do you think Fang knows?”
“I don’t know. I couldn’t stay in his head very long. There’s horrible stuff in it. His mentor was a woman who used him in every disgusting way possible.”
“Oh, no. He isn’t going to put the moves on Emily, is he?”
“No, he has a girlfriend he loves dearly, and he would never cheat on her. Also, he’s not going to use a girl like he was used and abused. That’s why he’s running this safe house for new girl vampires. To protect them in every way.”
“Fang just won my respect.”
“Mine, too,” Tammy said.
They went back in the warm house, and Anthony stretched tiredly. “We’ve been up for hours with Emily and Fang. Heck, it’s going to be morning soon. I’m going to bed.”
“We can’t go to bed. We have to go back to my high school.”
“Now?”
“Now! Well, as soon as I can get some things ready. It’ll take me about an hour. You can take a nap. I’ll wake you.”
“Why are we going back? We already rescued Emily.”
“Because if we don’t nip this in the bud with the gang of teenage vampires who kidnapped and turned Emily, we’re going to have a vampire pandemic.”
“Tammy, no, we can’t. We can’t just storm the school with silver weapons and start murdering the thug vampires. We should call Mom right now.”