“Hello? Earth to the most annoying vampire I’ve ever met.”
“I want some information, Dulcie O’Neil.”
“And what type of information would that be?”
He leaned back in the chair and eyed the room around him, as if counting the patrons. “Do you recall that abandoned building on Kiwi Street that has been vacant for two months?” “The one that used to be the Chinese massage parlor?” Sam asked. Bram nodded, his attention finally resting on me again. “Yes, that one.” “So, what of it?” I asked, wondering what Bram had to do with a Chinese massage parlor. It sounded like the setup to a bad joke. “Well,” he leaned back in his chair and cracked his knuckles. “I have been considering buying it to open a restaurant.” “What does that have to do with me?” I snapped.
Someone had killed Fabian and I needed to find out who before the finger started to point at me. I didn’t have time for this crap. “Patience, fairy. Patience.” I narrowed my eyes and sipped my drink, counting to ten all the while. “Get on with it,” Sam said. “Our Bram BS meter is nearing its limit.”
“You two are in a fine mood tonight.” He sighed. “I think, but I am not certain, that Dagan is going to try to beat me to the property.”
“Because he, a demon, wants a Chinese massage parlor?” I rolled my eyes. “I don’t know, Sam, maybe we should get in on it, too. What do you think?”
She shrugged. “I do like massages.”
Bram ignored us. “I got into a row the other day with Dagan, and I think he is trying to get even with me by taking the property out from underneath my nose.”
I sipped my drink. “So, let me repeat myself, what the hell does this have to do with me? Why should I give a crap? Because, in case you didn’t notice, I don’t.”
Bram just smiled. “I want you to find out if Dagan is planning on purchasing it.”
“And why do you think he’d tell me? Dagan and I aren’t friends by any stretch of the imagination.” The truth was that Dagan was usually on the wrong side of the law, but the only reason I cut him any sort of slack was due to the fact that he gave me lots of good leads. Hey, sometimes you’ve gotta work with the bad guys to get the even worse guys. Bram continued to smile like his lips were paralyzed. “He has no reason to hide this from you…it is perfectly legal.” “He has no reason to share his business dealings with me either.” “I was thinking that perhaps Samantha might be able to influence him.”
Sam slammed her drink on the table, and it sloshed up and over the side of the rim, as if as outraged as she. “You want me to put a truth spell on a demon?” Bram just nodded. The vampire had balls. “No way,” I interrupted. “You must think we’re total idiots.” “He would never know,” Bram continued. “And I do not think either one of you is an idiot.” Sam gripped her glass so tight, her knuckles went white. “It’s too risky. If he found out, he’d kill us both.” “How would he find out?” Bram continued, acting like he was asking us to figure out Dagan’s favorite color.
“How does anyone find anything out? It just happens and I don’t want to be on the end of that temper, thank you very much,” Sam snapped.
Bram quirked another winning smirk in Sam’s direction, no doubt hoping the amorous feelings she’d once harbored for him might serve him well. As her best friend, if I even saw a hint of that happening, I’d curtail it faster than Bram could piss me off again.
“Well, perhaps you wouldn’t need the spell. Just make small talk-see what he says,” Bram offered.
Small talk was doable. A spell on a demon wasn’t. “And if I just ask Dagan some questions, you’ll answer all my questions tonight?” I demanded.
“Yes. I trust your word, Dulcie. I know if you agree to something, you will honor it.”
Yeah, now I was thinking my great sense of honor was going to work against me. Dagan wasn’t someone you wanted to screw around with. Demons are notoriously short-tempered and they don’t get mad or even, they just kill you.
“Okay, I’ll talk to Dagan and see what I can find out,” I said. “Now, I have some questions for you.”
Bram grinned again, his fangs reflecting the low light of the room. As soon as his fangs surfaced, Sam immediately dropped her gaze, and I’d bet money she was thinking about the time she’d let him drink from her. She’d told me the day after it happened. Apparently, they’d been getting hot and heavy, and she’d let him take a little nip of her neck. As soon as he’d started drinking her blood, she’d had like four orgasms in a row. And they weren’t your normal, “this feels good” vibrator-type orgasm. They were mind-blowing, like nothing she’d ever felt before. I’ve never been with a vampire so, of course, I was eating her story up. But, even if it sounded good, I still had no interest in some corpse feeding off my neck. “Ask away, my lady,” the corpse in question said. “What do you know about Fabian’s death?” Bram frowned, his brows knotting in the middle of his forehead. “Fabian died?” “You’re a terrible actor, Bram,” I said with a sigh. Goddamn, I so didn’t have time to deal with this.
He held up his hands as if in submission. I knew better. Trusting Bram would be like trusting a rattlesnake. Fine and good until the thing sinks its fangs into your skin, and you’re dead an hour later. “Ah, yes, now that I think about it, I had heard Fabian died.” “Who told you?” I asked. “Cannot say for sure. It was a general theme in here all night.” “What did you hear about it?” Sam asked. “Well, I heard Dulcie was the last to see him, and she was the only suspect.”
Hades be damned. Everyone seemed to be forgetting that I wasn’t the last to see him-the stranger had seen Fabian the same time I had. Course, all anyone had to go on there was my word. “Dulcie didn’t do it,” Sam said, her mouth tight. Bram grinned. “I did not say she did. I am merely repeating the rumors I have heard…as you requested.” I gritted my teeth. “Go on.”
“Apparently Fabian bespelled you and turned you into something vulgar, and you were upset and came back and killed him. I cannot say I blame you. Life is better without Fabian.” “I didn’t kill him.” “I am sure you have wanted to over the years, Dulce?” he asked with a wicked grin. “Not quite as much as some people I can think of.” “Ah, Sweet, you and I go way back.”
I sighed. “Regardless, I’m not the one being questioned here. Do you want that information about Dagan?” He nodded. “Yeah, then stop pissing me off.”
“Apologies,” he said, but the smile quirking his lips said he didn’t mean it.
“Okay, what do you know about a stranger in Splendor? Have you seen anyone new lately?”
Bram strummed his fingers along the table as if doing so would help him remember. “There was someone who came in the other night; he was asking for you actually.”
“What? Who?” I demanded.
Bram’s gaze followed a cocktail waitress as she delivered drinks to the table across from ours. Her boobs were hanging so far out of her shirt, they looked like they might fall out. And judging from the expression on Bram’s face, he hoped they would.
I cleared my throat, and he faced me, wetting his lips. “I did not get his name. He said he was passing through but did not give the nature of his business.” “What did he look like?” Sam asked. More fingers strumming along the table, the sound like a dull axe reverberating through my head. “Dark hair and light eyes. Probably your type-resembled me.” I glanced at Sam. “It was the stranger from Fabian’s.” A shiver coursed through me like someone had stepped on my grave. “Are you sure?” Sam asked. I shrugged. “Who else would it be?” Then I faced Bram again. “How long was he here?” “Not long. He came in, had a drink and asked Angela where he could find you.” “And what did Angela tell him?”
“Perhaps you should ask her.” Bram steepled his fingers in his lap. Then he brought his index fingers together and held them out before him like two guns butting up against one another. “When you hold your fingers like this and focus on them both, it looks like there is a little sausage between them.”
“Bram, for Hades’ sake,” I started.
He dropped his fingers and faced me with a boyish twinkle in his eyes. It would’ve been charming if not for the fangs just cresting his lower lip.
“Talk to Angela, Sweet, she can give you the play by play.”
“I will. In the meantime, though, I’m sure you must’ve asked Angela what she told him?”
“I cannot put anything past you, Dulcie.” He chuckled. “She said he could find you at Headquarters. Then he paid for his drink and walked out. End of story.”
I was quiet as I considered it. If the stranger had been looking for me, why hadn’t he just approached me at Fabian’s? True, I’d left there in a hurry once the little creep had bespelled me. And, maybe the stranger hadn’t known what I looked like. But, as a fairy, my ears give me away. If he knew I was a fairy, then he would’ve known me from Fabian’s store. It wasn’t like there were lots of fairies in Splendor. In fact, there were only two-Zara the
