by Lynsay Sands
“She’s right, dear,” Marguerite commented. “It is rather dusty. I think you need a new cleaning service.”
Vincent just grimaced and said, “I fear I prefer acting to the business end of things…or I used to.” He acknowledged his growing boredom with what used to be his passion for acting with an unhappy expression. “I tend to travel a lot with the acting too, so I have a vice president who takes care of the boring business stuff.”
“Human or immortal?” Jackie asked curiously.
“Both,” Vincent answered. “I actually have two vice presidents. One human for daytime matters, and one immortal who manages everything at night. Neil and Stephano Notte pretty much take care of everything between the two of them and just check in with me on occasion to be sure we’re all in agreement on things.”
“Ah yes, the Notte brothers,” Marguerite murmured, settling in the chair beside the one Jackie stood in front of. “Bastien has mentioned them. He says you made a wise choice employing them.”
Jackie raised her eyebrows at this comment, then said, “Let me guess: Stephano is the immortal and Neil the mortal.”
“Why would you say that?” Vincent asked.
“Because Neil is a nice, normal, mortal-type name, and all you immortals seem to have exotic -ien, -ius, or -o-type names,” she answered dryly.
“Exotic -ien names?” Vincent asked with bewilderment.
“Yes, you know, like Bastien. Exotic names rather than normal pedestrian names like everyone else has today,” she explained.
“Actually, Bastien was a common name when I gave it to him,” Marguerite murmured with amusement.
“Yes, and so was mine,” Vincent added.
Jackie grimaced. “Yes, well, that’s my point. Older vampires have older names that are no longer in common usage. Like Stephano.”
“Actually, I believe Neil is the immortal and Stephano the human,” Marguerite announced with amusement, then raised an eyebrow at Vincent. “Am I not right?”
Vincent nodded and Jackie’s eyes widened with surprise. “You’re kidding?”
“No.”
She considered that briefly, then sighed and dropped into her chair. Just when she thought she had these guys figured out, they pulled a fast one on her. Immortals usually had strange or exotic names and metallic eyes. It looked as if the metallic eyes part was the only thing she could count on.
“So…” Vincent raised an eyebrow. “What do we do first? Meet everyone here to give them the once over? Or get the list of employees from Dracula, the Musical?”
“Both,” Jackie decided. “Sharon can round up the list while you introduce me around, then we’ll take the list home with us so Tiny can help go over it.”
Vincent nodded at the suggestion and had started to push his chair back when the office door suddenly swung open, making them all glance toward it. Sharon entered carrying a tray with two coffees, cream, and sugar on it.
“Oh, Sharon, thank you,” Vincent said, getting to his feet.
The secretary set the tray on the desk and explained, “I don’t know how to make coffee. Fortunately, there was some left over from the day shift.”
“That’s fine,” Vincent assured her, then glanced to Jackie before adding, “I brought Jackie in today to meet everyone and familiarize her with the business. Aunt Marguerite wished to come along since she’d never been here.”
Jackie bit her lip to keep back her amusement as he repeated almost word for word what she’d suggested. It did the trick. Sharon relaxed and smiled as she said, “Of course. Is there anything I can help with?”
Vincent’s glance slid to Jackie, then he said, “Actually, yes there is. We’re going to need another copy of the employee list you and Lily brought over yesterday.”
“Another copy?” She frowned, but said, “Of course. I’ll round up the paperwork again and photocopy it.”
“Thank you,” Vincent said as she left, then stood and leaned over the desk to peer at the coffee tray. Jackie stood as well and they both moved to fix a cup each. Vincent reached for the sugar and Jackie the cream, but both of them paused and grimaced as Jackie poured the cream into the nearest cup and the liquid turned a dark gray. This coffee was terribly old and unbearably strong. There was no doubt it was undrinkable.
“There’s a cafeteria downstairs,” Vincent announced, setting the sugar back on the tray. “We can stop in there and grab a cup on our introduction tour.”
“Good thinking.” Jackie set the creamer on the tray and straightened as he walked around the desk. It seemed they were leaving right away, which was fine with her. Jackie and Marguerite followed him to the door. When he opened it for them, they stepped into Sharon’s office, then paused at the sound of slightly raised voices coming from an open door behind Sharon’s desk.
“What do you mean they were the originals?” Sharon’s voice sounded shocked.
“I told you that when you insisted on driving me over,” Lily’s voice answered with exasperation. “I was supposed to fax over copies, but you insisted on taking them over in person and I said I’d make copies and you said no, we’d just take the ones I had. Well, those were the originals, our copies. We don’t have any more of them.”
“Well, I didn’t realize they were the originals,” Sharon said shortly.
“You had to, Sharon. You took them out of the drawer yourself and insisted we take them.” Lily sounded completely bewildered by the other woman’s words.
Jackie’s glance slid to Vincent as he moved past her to approach the open door.
“Is there a problem, ladies?” he asked as Jackie and Marguerite followed and peered over his shoulders into a small file room.
“I’m afraid we brought the original copies of the employee list to you yesterday,” Sharon announced with a glance in the hapless Lily’s direction. “We don’t have backups. I hope it’s not too important?”
Jackie’s gaze narrowed on the woman. The secretary didn’t look terribly sorry to have to make the announcement. In fact, there was a satisfied gleam in her eye as she peered in Jackie’s direction.
Vincent glanced back toward Jackie with concern, but before he could say anything, Lily spoke up. “We still have it on computer, Sharon. We can just pull up the file and print it again.”
“Oh…Yes.” Not looking terribly pleased with the idea of the extra work, Sharon slid past them all and moved to her desk. Settling into her seat, she turned on her computer. The secretary glanced up to smile a bit stiffly at the four of them as Vincent, Jackie, Marguerite, and Lily moved around her desk to wait. She then ignored them and began to click away with her mouse as the computer finished going through its startup cycle. She clicked several times, then stopped suddenly and began to frown.
“Is there something wrong?” Vincent asked, his gaze narrowing.
“No, no,” she assured him, but the secretary was frowning as she added, “It doesn’t appear to be where I thought it was. I must have saved it in a different folder.”
Jackie felt concern tighten in her stomach. She was beginning to suspect the files had been removed. It made perfect sense that the saboteur might have made his way here after getting the papers from the house. That should have occurred to her last night. If it had, they could have headed straight here and perhaps got to the files before the saboteur had…Unless the saboteur had hit the office first. She wasn’t at all surprised when Sharon glanced up with obvious frustration and admitted that the file appeared to be missing.
Lily and Sharon turned wide questioning eyes to Vincent then, but he and Marguerite had turned to Jackie. She didn’t at first respond, but was busy considering matters. Owning her own company as she did, she knew that there would be other departments that might have the information. Costuming would have had to have a list of at least the actors along with their sizes to dress them. Security might have a list of who had been used in security. Each department would be a source for who was hired in each area, but there was one department that should have the in
formation on everyone in the production. Anyone who had worked on that play should have earned a check for the time they worked on it, which meant that accounting should have a list of all the individuals.
“Accounting should have a copy,” Lily blurted suddenly, the production assistant’s mind obviously having run along the same lines as Jackie’s. She moved forward now, saying, “I’ll go ask Phillip if he’ll—”
“Phillip is on vacation,” Sharon pointed out.
“Oh,” Lily paused and hesitated, then said, “Well, his secretary, Meredith, should be able to pull it up for us.”
“You’re right, Lily,” Vincent smiled at the production assistant.
“Shall I go ask her if she would—?”
“No, no.” Vincent patted her shoulder. “I wanted to introduce Jackie around anyway. We’ll stop in there first and ask Meredith to pull it up. Good thinking though. Thank you.”
When Jackie added her smile of approval to Vincent’s and the girl smiled shyly back, she found herself shaking her head as she turned to lead the way out of the office. Honestly, the girl didn’t look more than twelve or fourteen when she smiled like that. Jackie almost expected to see braces sparkling out at her. However, the girl was smart and at least trying to be helpful, unlike Sharon.
“Do you want to head right to accounting, or meet people along the way?” Vincent asked as he led her along the hall.
“Either way,” she answered. “It doesn’t really matter.”
Vincent turned a questioning gaze to Marguerite then, but she just shook her head. “I’m just here to tag along. However you like it, Vincent.”
Nodding, he paused at the first door they came to and ushered them inside.
“Mr. Argeneau.” The blonde behind the desk hid her surprise behind a smile of welcome as she stood up. “Mr. Notte didn’t warn me that you’d be coming in today.”
“Stephano didn’t know, Amelia,” Vincent assured her as he ushered Jackie and Marguerite across the office. “Is he in? I want to introduce him to my aunt and Jackie.”
“No, I’m afraid not.”
Vincent paused halfway to the inner door and turned to her with obvious surprise. “He isn’t? But he’s always in here late. He stays to brief Neil when he comes in.”
“Well, he is here somewhere, but he stepped out for a minute,” the woman explained, then frowned as she added, “He should be back soon. In fact, I was just wondering what was holding him up when you came in. He has tickets to a show tonight and planned to leave early.”
“Oh. Well, I’m sure he’ll return shortly, then,” he said and added, “We’ll keep an eye out for him on our tour, but if he should stop back here without meeting us, tell him not to worry about it. We can catch him another time, there’s no need to delay leaving.”
Amelia nodded, looking relieved that he wasn’t upset. “If he returns, I’ll tell him you were here.”
“Thank you,” Vincent said as he led them out.
They didn’t go far, just to the next door up the hall.
“This is Phillip’s office,” he explained as he led the way inside.
“The accountant who’s on vacation,” Jackie murmured as they paused in front of the empty desk in the outer office. “Is his secretary off while he’s away?”
“I don’t think so. Sharon would have mentioned if Meredith were away too,” Vincent said, then glanced toward the door to the inner office.
Following his gaze, Jackie spotted the cracked open door and raised her eyebrows. “Perhaps she’s in there.”
Vincent moved to the door and pushed it open. He glanced inside, then went terribly stiff. It was as if someone had shoved a pole up his back. She wasn’t the only one to notice.
“What is it?” Marguerite asked with concern as Jackie moved to join him in the doorway.
At first glance everything seemed in order…until Jackie noted the legs sticking out behind the desk, a man’s legs in trousers and dress shoes. Those legs weren’t moving.
Slipping past Vincent, Jackie crossed the room and moved around the desk, stopping short the moment she was able to see the whole man. She knew it wasn’t Phillip, the accountant. He was on vacation. Whoever it was, however, was dressed like an accountant, full business suit, nice tie, expensive dress shoes…In fact, the only thing that ruined the image of the wealthy, successful businessman was the knife in his chest.
Nine
“I’m guessing this is Stephano Notte?” Jackie asked, unable to look away from the pale, prone man. The mortal vice president of the company who had been missing from his office.
“Yes.” Vincent’s voice was almost a whisper and she peered his way. On first glance, one could be forgiven for thinking he wasn’t affected. His face was a cool mask of indifference, but not his eyes. They were glowing silver-blue and swirling with a mix of pain and fury and what she thought might be guilt. Jackie suspected he feared the saboteur was behind this and was blaming himself for it. She’d like to tell him that it probably wasn’t the case, but the plain envelope sticking out of the breast pocket of the man’s jacket belied that. The return address was all that was showing, but it was enough; it was Vincent’s address.
“He’s alive.”
Jackie tore her eyes away from the lifeless figure and glanced at Marguerite with surprise. “What?”
“He’s alive,” she repeated, staying by the door, but pushing it closed after a nervous glance out into the outer office. “I can hear his heart beat.”
Jackie turned back to the man and knelt to check for a pulse. She was sure she wouldn’t find one, it looked like he’d been stabbed through the heart. Surely he hadn’t survived that?
“They must have missed the heart,” Marguerite said, apparently reading her mind. “I can hear it beating. It’s slow and not very strong, but it’s beating.”
“I can hear it too.” Vincent knelt abruptly at the other side just as Jackie found his pulse. It was thready, but there, she realized with amazement. Stephano Notte wasn’t dead. Yet.
“We need to call an ambulance,” Jackie said urgently, straightening and moving toward the desk.
“He won’t survive long enough for that,” Vincent announced. “He’s dying as we speak.”
“We have to try,” she said grimly as she picked up the phone.
“Vincent, what are you doing?”
Marguerite’s sharp question made Jackie pause and turn back to see Vincent rolling up his sleeve.
“When I say now, take the knife out,” Vincent ordered as he opened Stephano Notte’s mouth.
“No, you can’t!” Marguerite protested, rushing forward. “Let me.”
Jackie frowned, her hand clenching the phone as she tried to sort out what was happening. Marguerite rushed to Vincent’s side, but wasn’t fast enough to stop him from biting into his own wrist. It was a deep bite and must have been painful, but he didn’t even wince. He merely shifted the gushing wound over Stephano’s open mouth and let the blood pour in just as his aunt reached his side.
Marguerite had reached out to catch his shoulder as if to physically stop him from what he was doing, but now sagged in defeat at his side.
Legs suddenly weak as she grasped what was happening, Jackie slumped against the desk, the phone still clasped in her hand. She watched fascinated as Vincent slid his free hand under the man’s neck and lifted him slightly to facilitate the liquid going down.
“Oh, Vincent,” Marguerite moaned the words, sadness heavy in her eyes as she—for some reason—peered from him, to Jackie, and then back and shook her head.
Disturbed by the woman’s reaction, but not understanding it, Jackie set the phone back and moved shakily to stand on Stephano’s other side as Vincent turned him. At least, she thought that was what he was doing.
“Take out the knife.” Vincent’s words were hissed through gritted teeth.
Glancing at his pale face with concern, Jackie automatically knelt to do his bidding. She didn’t really think, she just did it, he
r hand closing around the metal handle and pulling upward. It wasn’t until she met resistance that her mind realized that she was pulling a knife out of a man’s chest. A shudder of revulsion rushed through her, followed by a wince of sympathy as the knife finally came free and slid from the wound.
The moment the metal weapon was clear of Stephano’s flesh, Vincent took his wrist away from the prone man’s mouth and allowed the last of the blood dripping from his wrist to drop into the open wound on Stephano’s chest.
“Will it work?” she asked as Vincent’s wound stopped bleeding and he set the man back flat on the ground.
“I don’t know. We might have been too late,” he said unhappily.
Marguerite removed a handkerchief from her purse and handed it to him, and Vincent quickly wrapped it around his wrist. He tucked the end under the binding to keep it in place, then bent forward again to lift Stephano’s eyelids and peer into his eyes.
“It will work,” Marguerite said and the regret in her voice made Jackie glance her way sharply. It took a moment for her to sort out why the immortal was so upset by this turn of events, however, then Jackie recalled the rule about only turning one mortal in a lifetime. Most immortals saved that turn for their life mate. Vincent had just used it to save his vice president. If he found his life mate, he wouldn’t be able to turn her.
Her eyes returned slowly to Vincent. His expression was grim, his face pale as he watched over the man who he’d just sacrificed so much for, and she felt tears sting the back of her eyes. Had she really thought all immortals were selfish, arrogant beings who only saw mortals as walking dinner? Dear God, the man had just given up the opportunity of ever having anyone to share his very long life with to save a mortal.
“What’s done, is done,” Marguerite murmured fatalistically, drawing Jackie’s blurred vision back. She asked, “What do we do now?”
Jackie stared, not a single idea forming in her head. It was Vincent who said, “He’ll need blood and lots of it. But we need to get him out of here without anyone realizing he survived.”