by HELEN HARDT
“You said the body disappeared while you were calling the police. Can you tell me anything else? Did you see anyone? Who might have taken the body?”
He shook his head. “I’ve already told you everything I know.”
“Think.” His fangs were apparent. “Think hard.”
“I can’t—” The man went rigid.
“What is it?” I asked.
“They’ll kill me.” His voice was a hoarse whisper.
“Who?” Dante demanded. “Who will kill you?”
“The men. They’re like you. I didn’t realize until now. I’ve seen them before. The vampires.”
“The ones who are after me,” I said more to myself than anyone else.
“Vampires aren’t killers,” Dante said.
“These vampires are.”
“And you’re suddenly just remembering all of this? You’re a fucking liar.” Dante stalked forward, his hands balled into fists.
I couldn’t let him do this. I had to do something. But what?
“They said they’d kill me. Said they’d…”
It was all making sense. Of course. The vampires had taken Julian’s body and buried it at St. Louis Cemetery. They were able to glamour the guards. No one else could have gotten in.
But why?
“Dante, please. He won’t be able to help us if you beat the crap out of him.”
Dante’s stance softened. Slightly. “You’re lucky I love this woman. You’re lucky I listen to her.”
“Thank you, miss.”
“Don’t thank me.” I rubbed my forehead. “I’m a nurse. I can’t stand to see suffering. Besides, you’re no use to us if you’re messed up. We’re going to need your help.”
He shook his head. “No. They’ll kill me.”
“Do I look like I care?” Dante said.
“Dante.” I touched his hand. “He doesn’t remember anything. If he poisoned your father, it was because your mother told him to. Then she told your father to drink it. It brought him to you. He can’t help us if he’s afraid of us.”
He softened once more, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Tell me everything,” he said. “Every fucking thing. If I have a tiny inkling that you’re not being completely honest with me, I’ll break every bone in your body.”
Chapter Eight
Dante
My blood was finally calming, thanks to Erin.
I regarded the spectacled proprietor of the fraudulent magick shop. He was easily manipulated, clearly.
“Start at the beginning,” I said.
“The beginning is when I had the dream. The beautiful woman in the hospital gown. She made me feel…peaceful. I told her I’d do anything she asked. She gave me a recipe. Told me to combine the ingredients and put it in a brown glass bottle on the stoop outside in back. In the alleyway. I swear to you I don’t remember doing it. I don’t—” He closed his eyes, squeezing them shut.
“What?” Erin said.
“I thought it was part of the dream.”
“What? That what was part of the dream?” I demanded.
“The potion. Mixing the poison. But maybe…maybe it wasn’t.”
“I think it’s obvious that it wasn’t,” I said. “Keep going. What was in the poison?”
“Hemlock. Belladonna. And…rattlesnake venom.”
“Where the hell did you get rattlesnake venom?” I raked my fingers through my hair.
“I don’t know. I can’t afford it. It’s like two thousand dollars an ounce. But it was here in my shop. At least it was in the dream. If it was a dream. No, wait…”
“What?”
“I…I milked the snake myself. In my dream.”
“Where is it now? The venom? Let me see it.”
“I used it all. Threw away the bottle. In my dream.”
“And I suppose the trash has been hauled away since then.”
“Yes. Of course.”
“Rattlesnake venom is extremely dangerous,” Erin said. “You’re lucky you didn’t harm yourself just from contact.”
“I was very careful. It was almost like I wasn’t doing it. Like someone was doing it through me.”
“Can vampires do stuff like that?” Erin asked me. “Inhabit a person and make them do things?”
I shook my head. Vampires couldn’t. But according to my father, ghosts could.
Ghosts could, if the person was a medium. Was Joseph a medium? Bea apparently was. Even if Joseph was a medium, the ghost inhabiting him would have had to know how to milk venom from a snake. Certainly not my mother.
That I knew of, anyway.
I knew very little about my mother.
Another question for my father.
“It wasn’t the vampires. They didn’t come until later. After I’d called the cops.”
“They took the body?” I said, ire rising. Vampires. My own kind. Whoever they were, they had removed my father’s clothes before they buried him.
They had wanted me to see his condition.
Fuckers. My fangs itched in anger.
Joseph nodded. “I’m sorry I lied. They said they’d kill me.”
“Describe the vampires who took the body,” I said. “Don’t leave out a single detail.”
“I… I can’t.”
“Why the fuck not?”
“Dante.” Erin grabbed my hand.
I whisked it away. “Baby, I need answers. We need answers.”
“You’re right. We do.” She turned to Joseph. “Answer his question, please.”
“I can’t.”
“Bullshit,” I said.
“No, I really can’t. They were masked. I didn’t see them.”
“What kind of masks?”
“Black Mardi Gras masks. Ornate…and oddly beautiful, actually. I was mesmerized by them.”
“You weren’t mesmerized. You were glamoured.”
“What?”
“Never mind.” I turned to Erin. “Do you have any more questions for him?”
She shook her head. “Let’s just go to the other shop and get the herbs I need. Then we can try to figure the rest of this stuff out.”
“I need to talk to my dad.”
In an instant, he appeared before us. I nearly jumped out of my skin. He held two fingers to his lips.
Of course. Joseph couldn’t see him.
“Go to the alley behind the shop. We’ll talk there,” my father said.
“Thanks for everything,” Erin said. “We’ll be back if we have more questions.”
“Please, don’t—”
“We’ll be back if we have more questions,” I repeated. “Don’t try to hide. I will find you.”
In the alley, my father’s ghost was waiting.
“This is where you died,” I said. “I can feel it.”
“You feel the residual energy from my body because your body came from mine.”
“Semantics, Dad. Whatever. I feel it.”
“I know, son.”
“Rattlesnake venom, Dad. You were killed by rattlesnake venom.”
“Was I? It was quick. That’s all I know. Not a lot of pain.”
At least that was a little settling. “Did Mom know how to milk venom from snakes?”
“Not that I know of,” he said.
“Then I’m stumped. That guy, Joseph, said he had a dream that he milked a rattlesnake and made the bottle of poison that killed you. He said a beautiful woman came to him in a dream and told him how to do it. When he described her, she sounded an awful lot like Mom.”
“It probably was. If she could come to me, she could come to others. The need was dire.”
“But how the hell did she know how to make poison?”
“I don’t know, Dante.”
“I want answers, damn it!”
“I know you do. Sometimes there aren’t any. It’s possible another ghost helped Joseph make the poison. Or it’s possible your mother got the information elsewhere. I’m new to the ghostly realm. I don’t know
all the avenues of information.”
“Question after question after question.” I sighed. “When are we going to find answers?”
“I don’t know. But we will. The probate hearing on my estate is tomorrow. After that, you’ll have access to my funds.” He smiled. “Correction. Your funds. Well, yours and your sister’s. It would be good if you both appear in court.”
I hadn’t talked to Em in a few days. “I’ll call her.”
“Good.”
“Dad, the vampires who are after Erin—at least we’re assuming they’re the same ones—took your body and buried it in the cemetery. According to the nutjob who owns this shop, anyway.”
“You know for sure they are the same vamps?”
“Not for sure, but who else would it be? Most vampires are nice people, right?”
“That’s not what I mean. How did he know they were vampires?”
“He says he just knows.”
My father began to roll his eyes but then stopped. “How does he know?”
“I don’t have a clue. We got all the information out of him that we could. I figured I’d send River down here to get anything we couldn’t.”
“Good idea. Can he get the time off?”
“He’s taking care of it. He and Erin are both on leave until we solve all these mysteries.”
My father looked at Erin. “Everything worked out?”
“Yeah. With Dante’s help. Apparently he can glamour after all.”
He looked back to me, his brows raised.
“I’m not sure how I did it. I just knew Erin needed the time off, and she was having trouble.”
“Good. You’re showing good instincts. You’ll be a quick study, son. You’ve always learned quickly.”
“When can I learn more? You need to teach me, Dad.”
“I know. Maybe tonight we can begin.”
“Maybe? Why maybe?”
“Because I’m on constant watch. Why do you think I’m not always around? I have other things to attend to.”
“What’s more important than figuring this all out? We have to get Lucy back. And we have to find Uncle Brae.”
“Nothing. Trust me. I’m working outside of the corporeal plane as much as I can, searching for answers.”
I sighed. Always something enigmatic. If it wasn’t that crackpot Bea, it was my own father. “We need to hit another shop to get the herbs for Erin.”
“Good. I’ll be in touch.” My father vanished.
I caught Erin before her legs crumpled beneath her. “You okay?”
“Yeah. I’m fine. You’d think I’d be used to your father’s disappearing act by now.”
“If it helps, I’m not sure I’m used to it yet either.” I pulled her to me in a tight hug. “I love you. Let’s go to the other shop.”
I inhaled.
Thank God!
I could still smell the luscious fragrance that was Erin. The Wiccan priestess who owned the shop had mixed up a potion for Erin, and she had placed a drop behind each ear and on each wrist.
Her scent was still thick.
As selfish as it was, I was happy her scent hadn’t disappeared.
“I guess it isn’t working. I can still smell you.”
“That doesn’t mean it hasn’t disappeared to the other vampires,” she said. “You might still smell me because of our bond.”
“I hope so, baby. We can check with River tomorrow. If he can’t smell you, we’ll know it worked.”
“I’ve cast a spell on the potion,” the priestess assured us. “It should do what it is meant to do. But you can make it stronger.”
“How?” Erin asked.
“Your belief. It will shield you if you believe it will.”
“Okay,” Erin said. “I believe it.”
The priestess shook her head. “Words aren’t enough, I’m afraid. But you will believe, and you will believe soon. There is one more thing that will make it even more potent.”
“What?” Erin asked.
“He knows.” She stared at me.
“How would I know?”
“Think about what you have in your possession. What will make every potion or spell or charm stronger.”
Erin grabbed my forearm. “Your father. His remains.”
“Vampire ashes are a powerful shield,” the priestess said. “Add a pinch to the potion. You will see results.”
We stopped at a café for a quick snack. A plate of beignets later, Erin excused herself to go to the bathroom.
I checked my phone for texts and smiled when a shadow passed me and a body sat down across from me.
“That didn’t take long,” I said to Erin, still looking at my phone.
“I didn’t realize you’d missed me.”
The voice was not Erin’s.
Chapter Nine
Erin
“Erin!”
I turned away from the mirror where I was reapplying my lipstick.
The blond head bobbing toward me through the restroom door belonged to Dale, one of the nurses who worked the night shift at the ER with me.
“Hi, Dale.” I smiled.
“What are you doing here? We heard you had a family emergency and were headed back to Ohio.”
“Oh.” I cleared my throat. Just what I didn’t need. Where was Dante when I needed him? Obviously he wouldn’t be in the ladies’ room. “I leave…soon. I couldn’t get a flight until morning.”
“Is everything okay?”
“As well as can be expected. Everyone is hanging in there.”
“I hope it’s nothing too horrible. I heard your leave was open-ended.”
“Yes, for now. I hope I won’t be gone for too long.”
“Is your new boyfriend going with you?” She smiled. “I hear he’s really hot.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. Renee told me she saw him in the ER with you last night after you came out of Dory’s office.”
“He’s…uh…not going with me. He has business here.”
“What’s his name?”
Really? She thought I had some kind of family emergency, and she was worried about gossiping about my new boyfriend? “Look, Dale. I’m in kind of a hurry. And I’m really worried about…you know.”
She clasped her hand over her mouth. “Oh, God. Of course! You must think I’m an unfeeling boob. I’m sorry, Erin.”
I smiled. “It’s okay. I’m sure everything will turn out okay. I’m just glad I was able to get the time off to be with my family. I have to run.”
I whisked out of the bathroom and didn’t look back as I headed back to the table Dante and I were sharing.
I stopped abruptly, my toes jamming against the tips of my shoes.
Seated at our table, across from Dante, was none other than—
“Abe Lincoln,” I said.
“Erin. Hi. What are you doing here?”
I grabbed Dante’s arm. “I could ask you the same thing. But I need to talk to Dante privately for a minute.” I pulled him into a stand and away from the table.
“I need your help. A blond woman wearing jeans and a pink scrub shirt is going to come out of the bathroom in a minute. Can you glamour her? Make her forget she saw me here today?”
“I can try. Why?”
“She’s one of the nurses in the ER. I’m supposed to be on leave for a family emergency, remember? I told Dory my flight was this morning.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“And what’s Abe doing here?”
“He said he’s looking for you.”
“Sheesh. Okay. If you can take care of the nurse, I’ll take care of Abe.”
He nodded and walked toward the restrooms. I went back to the table and sat down in Dante’s seat across from Abe.
“Erin.”
“That’s my name. What do you want, Abe?” I eyed him. He was healing nicely from the beating he’d taken from the vampires.
“I need to talk to you. I was going to come to the hospital tonight, but then I saw
your vampire friend sitting here.”
“Shh!” I looked around. “Don’t say the V-word so loudly.”
“Sure. Sorry.”
“What do you want?”
“You need to get out of town, Erin.”
Funny. Everyone at the hospital thought I was doing just that. “Why?”
“They won’t wait much longer. They’re after you. If they can’t have you, they’re going to take the next best thing.”
“What’s that?”
“They know about your brother. They know he’s a detective who works nights. They’re going to sniff him out.”
My heart jumped. Jay. Shit. And River had taken leave from work and wasn’t there to protect him. My mind raced furiously. “Wouldn’t they have noticed him by now? Like you said, he works nights, when the vampires come out.”
“He’s a male.”
“So?”
“You’re a female.”
“Your vision seems to work just fine, Abe. Can you get to the point, please?”
“They’re more attracted to female scents, but they’ll take your brother if they have to. Erin, they think by threatening your brother, they’ll get you to come to them.”
I eyed his neck. Sure enough. Brand-new puncture wounds. “When was the last time you saw them?”
“Last night.”
“You fed them.”
“Well…sure. A guy’s got to eat.”
“Jesus, Abe. You’re nuts. You know that? How did you end up on the street anyway? You can’t be more than twenty-five or so.”
“I grew up on the street, Erin. And I don’t do drugs.”
I flashed back to the first time I’d met Abe in the ER. I’d been convinced he’d been on something when he started talking about vampires, but his labs had come back clean. He was telling the truth. “I know you don’t.”
“Thank you for believing—”
Dante sat down next to me. “All taken care of. I think.”
“Thank you.” I squeezed his forearm.
“Can you protect Erin?” Abe asked suddenly.
“With my life,” Dante said.
“Good. What about her brother?”
“Huh?”
“He says the vamps are going to go after Jay if they can’t have me,” I said. “And with River…”