‘That’s right.’
‘That’s big, isolated houses? For the rich people anyway.’
‘He had a pretty big place. The neighbours were like, a block away or something. Big grounds, security fences. I looked into it, but there was no evidence of anything wrong there. He just decided to pick up and leave.’
‘Without mentioning it to anyone.’
‘Okay, strange, but not unheard of.’
Mike had decided that Addison was not especially keen on discussing this stuff with a human, but the order from the Summus Concilium had come with a note saying that ‘those humans operating with Hunter Dione under the New York Agreement’ were to be viewed as having the same authority as Dione. Mike had decided to worry over that little surprise when he was alone with Dione, or at least with Dione and Catherine.
‘And his supplicant, Cooper, fits the type our killer likes. It’s a cop cliché, but I’m not that fond of coincidences.’
‘Humans aren’t,’ Dione said. ‘They like to think that things happen for a reason. When you get to my age, you’ve seen enough things happen out of sheer random chance that your views change. However, it’s not going to stop us looking into the matter. I’ll put Mary on it to start with.’ She flashed Addison a smile. ‘Being able to do official searches on people does have some advantages.’
‘Huh,’ Addison grunted. ‘I just bet. We have to make do with subterfuge.’
‘Like Sally over at the HSS?’ Mike asked.
Addison’s eyebrows went up. ‘How do you know about Sally?’
‘Well, the name came from one of the detectives I was working with. I could sense vampire in the room and she winked at me. Very bright blue eyes. I figure she’s carpathian.’
‘She is. Quite an old one.’
Mike noticed the slight grin on Dione’s face: another one who would not be underestimating him, in her view. ‘What about Kellerman? The detectives said they got a tip, but he was alibied for three of the murders.’
‘Yeah, well, Sally told us about the tip and I looked into him. His alibies came from supplicants and valentines are pretty good at manipulating people.’
‘Not especially,’ Dione said. ‘Carpathians are a lot better, if they bother to learn how. He could have addicted them, but keeping three addicted, probably more, isn’t that easy. He’d have to be a very busy man.’
Addison paused and then shook his head. ‘No, this guy was a manipulator. He moved out of San Francisco after the pogrom and a couple of people indicated he’d been poaching supplicants up there. The number he had here suggested he liked the… prestige of having so many girls eating out of his hand, so to speak. And I had a witness placing him near one of the places a victim was taken from, on one of the nights he was supposedly alibied for.’
‘I’d like to talk to your information sources,’ Dione said. ‘And that witness, obviously.’
‘Well…’ Addison gave a shrug. ‘I guess you can talk to anyone you like. You’ve got the auctoritas order.’
‘Yes… I’m still wondering what provoked that.’ Dione looked to Mike. ‘Auctoritas is basically “authority.” We’ve been given leave to act with the authority of the Summus Concilium, so all vampires under the council system are required to cooperate with our investigation. I’m just wondering what they know that we don’t. I didn’t think this was that much of a big deal.’
New York, NY.
‘So, this Summus Concilium… They’re the most important vampires in the world?’ Juliana was watching Mary at work on her keyboards; Mary had a lot of keyboards in her office.
‘They like to think so,’ Mary replied and then relented. ‘As far as vampires under the council system are concerned, the Summus Concilium is the supreme authority.’
‘But?’
‘But they’re all very old. I think the oldest is about twelve hundred. With vampires, that isn’t always a good thing.’
‘But Dione’s like twice that.’
‘Yes, but Dione’s… I don’t know. She’s more flexible than a lot of older vampires. To be fair, the vampires over there know she’s got that, and that she works well with humans, and they know their limitations. But they’re still a bit… stiff. Even the ones who aren’t British.’
‘You’re British!’
‘Which means I know what I’m talking about,’ Mary replied. ‘Anyway, I’ve spent more time in America than I have in England. Boston, Seattle, here in New York.’
‘Yes, I looked it up. Seattle during the Gold Rush!’
‘Not as exciting as it sounds. Still, there were a few wolves among the Suquamish and it was the first time I’d ever met any of my own lineage I didn’t hate. Never was very good at the language though. And I did spend some time back in England in the Second World War. Dione was in Europe and Leo was in the Pacific, and I thought I should help, somehow. That was when I discovered I had a talent with computers.’
‘In World War Two?’
‘Little place called Bletchley Park. There was this young man there. So imaginative. Anyway, I felt I was helping keep Dione and Leo safe, decoding German messages and such. Quite a good time, actually, but then they went back to being stuffy prigs. How did we get onto this topic anyway?’
Juliana frowned. ‘Uh, you were explaining about the Summus Concilium and then you… said you weren’t very British.’
‘Right. Of course, Americans aren’t much better. I mean, you have no idea what Bletchley Park was, do you?’
‘Uh… Did it have rollercoasters?’
Beverly Hills, CA.
‘Of course, the big problem we’re going to face in the next few years, the one no one seems to want to really look at too closely, is the probability that the secret will be revealed.’
They were sitting in Catherine’s lounge, Catherine herself, Dione, Mike, and Ruth, each with a glass of wine. No one felt like moving since the evening had decided to be warm, as far as the people from New York were concerned, and a little muggy. And the conversation had turned somewhat philosophical, as conversations were inclined to do in those circumstances.
‘I mean,’ Catherine went on, ‘I think you guys are heading in the right direction. Your Agreement is a step in the right direction. But I think we need to look at this properly, start making plans. Because if it breaks without warning…’
‘Mobs with pitchforks,’ Mike said.
‘I’m maybe not the best person to talk to about this,’ Dione said. ‘I’ve spent a long, long time protecting the secret.’
‘You’re the perfect person,’ Catherine countered. ‘You have authority, and I don’t mean the kind handed out by those stiff-necks in London. You’re probably the oldest vampire in existence and you’ve got experience with working closely alongside humans. Successfully, which is the important part.’
‘And you’re one of the most innovative vampires around,’ Mike said. ‘You’re more likely to consider other possibilities than most.’
‘It does feel like just a matter of time,’ Ruth said. ‘Social media. Almost everyone has a video camera on them all the time. It has to be getting harder to keep it all under wraps.’
‘Yes,’ Dione conceded. ‘The problem is that it’s hard to come up with a way to handle the transition. At some point, you have to tell people that there really are such things as vampires who live by drinking the blood of humans. I don’t think there’s a way to do that without ending up with problems.’ She held up a hand. ‘But you’re right, the worst way possible is the sudden revelation. Yes, Mike, mobs with pitchforks, but what we’d really get is witch hunts and war.’
‘So we need to start sooner rather than later,’ Catherine said. ‘We need some sort of… committee. Humans and vampires working together to come up with a plan to make it work.’
Dione sipped her wine. ‘I’ll mention it to Leo. Would you be willing to come out to New York to talk it over with him? It’s not going to be easy. Getting the Summus Concilium on side will not be easy.’
�
��I know. And of course I’ll come. I’ll go to bloody China if I have to.’
‘Huh. Let’s hope we don’t need to do that.’
20th February.
A day spent interviewing various witnesses involved in the death of Peter Kellerman, one way or another, had proven very little. Two of the supplicants who had alibied him continued to be firm in their belief that they had been with him and he had not been committing murder. Various others who had testified to his tendency to poach supplicants in San Francisco still said the same, but both Dione and Mike had got some odd vibes from them. They had looked nervous, though having to speak to Dione might have accounted for at least some of that. There were still two people left to find, one of Kellerman’s supplicants and the witness who had claimed to see Kellerman near one of the pick-up sites: both seemed to have spent time making themselves hard to find, but Catherine had put some of her contacts to work on that problem.
Altogether, it had been a day of mild frustration, so when Dione got a message from Mary saying that they needed to set up a teleconference, hopes were somewhat high. Of course, Catherine had all the equipment needed to project Mary up on the lounge’s huge screen, patched through from the secure laptop Mike had brought with him.
‘Afternoon, Catherine,’ Mary said almost as soon as her face appeared on the screen. Mary was not frowning, so she likely knew the Princeps.
‘Mary, good afternoon. Always a pleasure to see you.’ Catherine turned and indicated Ruth who was sitting on a sofa, a shirt hastily thrown over her half-bikini. ‘This is Ruth.’
‘It’s all right that we discuss this with Catherine and her supplicant here?’ Dione asked.
‘There’s nothing a Princeps and her favoured can’t know,’ Mary replied. Her lips twitched a little. ‘Just so long as you’re aware that we’re acting under Summus Concilium auctoritas, so if you tell anyone else, Di will have to torture you both to death.’
‘I could stand to be tortured by Di,’ Ruth replied.
‘Good, then I’ll begin. Since the big guys saw fit to drop that agent authority on you, Di, and basically declare that SCU is working on the same basis… When’s the last time you can remember them doing something like that?’
Dione frowned, took a second to consider, and then said, ‘Never. But the Agreement may have influenced the decision. I’m sure Mike would not have been included without it.’ She glanced at Catherine. ‘Sometimes they can actually handle a few modern thoughts.’
‘I was surprised too,’ Mary went on. ‘So I used that authority and requested the reasoning.’
‘And they said auctoritas only goes so far?’
‘Sort of. What I got back was what they think this guy had been up to prior to the murders last year. He’s been a busy man.’
‘We suspected this was not the beginning.’
Mary nodded. ‘The trail they’ve collected starts in Paris in two thousand and three. Six victims, usual MO. The Hunter there tracked down the killer, who was using the name Evan Harris, and almost ended him. Fairly spectacular chase across the rooftops, apparently, but Evan got away. The report indicates it was more luck than judgement, but the Hunter indicated that Evan had skills. From scent, they figured he was not that old, certainly less than a century.’
‘Someone trained him in evading capture.’
‘Probably. One other aspect of the MO. Evan had ended another vampire in the city, a fairly wealthy one who had a pretty, young, blonde supplicant. He also had the skill to basically brainwash the girl into being his slave and used her to live in comfort in their house while he was on his killing spree. She was a wreck when they got to her, sobbing her lungs out because “Evan said he would take me with him when he left.”’
‘Lorentz and Cooper,’ Mike said. Dione gave a nod. ‘A vampire and his blonde supplicant went missing around the time of the deaths here,’ Mike explained for Mary’s benefit. ‘I’m guessing “Evan” pulled the same trick here with them. Nice big house in Hollywood Hills with big grounds and a security fence.’
‘Perfect,’ Mary agreed, nodding. ‘After Paris, Evan goes off the grid. European Hunters were notified to keep an eye out for him, but it’s likely that he ran a long way. Three deaths in Sydney, Australia, in two thousand and ten. They were only noticed after the fact, however. When he turned up in Rome, Italy, the following year, someone was tasked with looking for other possible matches worldwide. It looks to me like he got scared after the near miss in Paris because they couldn’t find anything else before Sydney.’
‘Mary, get them to backtrack from Paris and do the same sort of search,’ Dione said. ‘Or do it yourself since we have the authority. I’m willing to bet no one thought of looking for victims before Paris.’
‘Seems likely. Okay, four dead in Rome and when the Hunter closes in, Evan just vanishes. He obviously had an emergency escape plan worked out this time because there was no trace of him. Three more victims in Mexico City in two thousand thirteen. I think we’re missing a batch, possibly in South America. They only located the Mexico City ones due to some reports which came out of wolf contacts down there several months later, and those reports indicated that he did his vanishing act when some CIA types began poking their noses in. Not the usual CIA operatives down there, imports. They turned up after the second death, apparently with the sole purpose of tracking Evan.’
Catherine’s eyes narrowed. ‘We had some unusual activity here last year which could have been CIA. Sally reported some people talking to Grant and Espinosa with government IDs and no record of the meeting being kept.’
‘Think that’s where Evan got his training?’ Mike asked.
‘It’s possible,’ Dione replied. ‘We know the CIA knows about vampires and that they have used valentine secretions in some of the drugs they’ve produced. They could even be looking to get their source back.’
‘After Mexico City,’ Mary went on, ‘we get L.A. and now New York. He always starts on Valentine’s Day, which may be purely symbolic. He racks up as many kills as he can before things get too hot, and then he leaves. And he seems to have got very good at hiding between sprees, so we need to nail him before he runs.’
‘We need to catch him before he runs,’ Dione said. ‘I want him intact enough to talk. If he’s CIA, or ex-CIA, I want to know what they’ve been up to.’
New York, NY.
Leeanne took a tentative sip of the drink Pat had put in front of her. Her eyebrows went up. ‘That’s nice. What did you say it was called?’
‘I didn’t,’ Pat replied, ‘but you asked for cocktails with embarrassing names, so Lisa is having a Quick Fuck, and you’re having an Orgasm.’
‘I think she got the better deal there,’ Lisa said. ‘Not that I’d complain about a quick fuck, but still…’
‘I always thought it was a Screaming Orgasm,’ Leeanne said.
‘I don’t have any light cream in, so you’ll just have to have a quiet one. The ingredients are a little different.’ Pat looked down the bar and began to move. ‘Back in a bit.’
Leeanne turned to Lisa. ‘How’s yours?’
‘Kind of coffee and cream.’
‘I got more cream, I think.’
Lisa giggled. ‘Yeah, well, orgasms are creamier, I guess.’
‘According to you, they’re blissful light shows. Not that I’m jealous or anything. I see lights too, even without the added biochemistry.’ Leeanne frowned. ‘I wonder what causes that.’
‘Virus. Uh, though I guess it’s not actually the virus. It must be something the virus secretes or causes the body to secrete. A morphine analogue?’
‘Something endorphin-related, but that doesn’t explain the aphrodisiac effects or the heightened, um, bliss during sex.’
‘Unless there’s a lot of endorphins. Like a lot.’
‘Hmm…’ Leeanne sipped at her cocktail until Pat returned and then got straight into it. ‘Do you know what causes the numbing effect when you bite someone?’
‘Virus,’ Pat repl
ied flatly.
‘No, it must be something the virus produces, not just the virus itself.’
‘In that case, no, I don’t. Ask Winthrop. I’m sure he knows.’
‘Yeah… Yeah, he probably does.’
~~~
‘I wonder what it’s like?’
Lisa looked up at Leeanne, her current cocktail glass poised at her lips. Pat was up the bar serving. ‘What what’s like?’ Lisa asked.
‘Well… Being a vampire, I guess. Drinking blood. Living, potentially, forever. The enhanced senses, for some of them. I was almost converted and that was really weird. Frightening, but kind of comfortable.’
‘That’s just the endorphins kicking in. You’d just have been scared otherwise.’
‘Yeah… But most of them have to go into it voluntarily. What’s it like for them? Are you really the same person before and after? I mean, they all seem to say that you change over time, but does some of that happen immediately?’
‘Well, we could ask Juliana. She’s more likely to remember both sides. That said, she doesn’t seem that different and she maybe has more reason to have changed.’
‘True.’
Lisa frowned a little at her friend. ‘You sound like you’d kind of like to find out in person.’
‘What? No! No, I don’t… Okay, so I could see a lot of upsides to it, eventually. Think of all the time you’d have to learn stuff. But…’
‘You have to consider what you’d lose,’ Pat said, appearing beside them as though through magic. ‘Why do you think Winthrop won’t do it? He’s worried, with good reason, that he would lose his imagination and, with it, his ability to do what he does. That’s one of the reasons anyway.’
‘I hadn’t thought of it like that,’ Leeanne admitted.
‘You’d be amazed at how many willing converts never considered that aspect of things when they agreed to change.’
‘No,’ Leeanne replied. ‘I don’t think I’d be surprised at all.’
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