fed off the infected blood offerings; he’d not still be this ravenously hungry. A weight fell from my shoulders at the thought. His blood-servants entered, hesitating a moment before converging on Leo. I didn’t watch as the first one lifted his wrist to his master.
Sixty minutes after we had left, Eli and I were back at my house. Half an hour later, we were each eating a very good, very rare steak and sharing the events with Alex. When we were sated and the adrenaline had been burned off with several beers, Eli said, “So. Are we hired?”
He looked cocky and amused, and I tilted my head. “Ehhhh.” I looked at his brother. “Your brother can follow orders and take down a house. How about you? You got info for me?”
“Yeah,” Alex said. “I sent you some stuff.”
I opened my own laptop, which felt increasingly out of date after seeing the kid’s electronics. The folders he sent were neat and orderly, the files organized under headings that were easy to follow, easy to read, and comprehend. I hit PRINT and added paper to the printer. I e-mailed the entire batch to Reach and dialed his number. When the line opened, he said, “Nice work. Leo is saved by the famed vampire-killer.” I heard the sarcasm and him clapping in the background.
I didn’t reply or rise to the bait. Instead, I said, “This one is for our old fees, not the exorbitant prices you’ve been charging me.”
“And if I disagree?” When I didn’t reply, he sighed and said, “Fine. What?”
“I just sent you a file. I want to know how it’s organized. I want you to run a search through it for anything with the name of the Enforcer in Asheville. See who it ties into. See what you can dig up.” I hung up and turned to Alex. “The name of the Enforcer in Asheville was Ramondo Pitri. You do the same assignment. We’ll see how your skills stand up to Reach’s.”
The kid’s eyes glowed. “Sweeeet.” He went to work, fingers clacking on the Seattle vamps’ Apple, his own laptop, and the two electronic tablets that still functioned, all four devices at once. Eli stared at his brother, then at me, and shook his head. Despite my demand that Alex had kitchen duty, he started cleaning up my kitchen. I liked that in a man.
Fifty-two minutes later my cell rang. At the same moment, Alex hit SEND. “Done,” he said.
I opened my cell and said, “Thanks, Reach.”
“I’ll e-mail the info to you,” he said.
I opened Alex’s new file and smiled. I had a new name to work with, a vamp named Hieronymus, which I couldn’t even pronounce. It seemed that Big H was mentioned in dozens of the files, as the next vamp-master to be challenged and attacked by the mystery vamp. At last I had a name and place to start. I compared and the same name popped up on Reach’s search too. I looked at the two men sitting in my kitchen. “You’re hired. Dawn is close. You start at noon. There are four bedrooms upstairs. Don’t take the one over my bedroom. Don’t play loud music. Get some sleep.”
“I’ve got some ordnance in the truck,” Eli said.
“As long as it isn’t combustible or fragmentary explosives, you can bring it inside.”
From his expression I could tell he was trying to figure out what to do with the explosives. I shook my head. Soldiers and their toys. With a full stomach and as much security in place as I could manage, I went to my room, stripped, and fell into bed next to my own
My official phone informed me that I had a text from Adelaide. “Mom is dying. They all are. Maybe three more days, if we bleed the blood-servants dry. Please help
I texted back “OK. Two days. I’ll find something for her in two days.”
I hoped. I pulled a pillow over my head and was asleep instantly.
I woke with my hands pulling a weapon from a shoulder holster tangled on the bed. There were people in my house and it sounded like they were tearing down the walls. Then I remembered the two men I had let into my home the night before. Derek had vouched for them, but . . . Really, could I get any more stupid?
I rose, brushed my teeth, swiped a hand along my braided hair in lieu of combing it out and rebraiding it, and dressed in a pair of wrinkled cotton pants and a T-shirt. I stuck three stakes in my hair and strapped a holstered .32 on my ankle—hopefully overkill, but making up for possible stupidity earlier. I unlocked my bedroom door, glad that I had at least turned the small thumb latch.
There were boiled eggs in a pot on the stove and I cracked and ate three for breakfast, watching the current changes in my world. Alex had taken over my kitchen table with his laptop and e-whatchamathingy tablets, the Seattle laptop, and my laptop. Cheeky kid. I sniffed him as I passed and said, “Take a shower. You stink.” He grunted, which was no surprise.
On a scratch piece of paper, I wrote out the names I wanted researched, starting with Hieronymus, and ending with all of Derek Lee’s men, including the ten New Guys. “These guys? Their names are on my laptop under a file named Derek Lee. Reach and I did deep background on Derek’s Vodka Boys prior to the Asheville gig, and the new Tequila Boys just last month. Maybe you can come up with something new.”
“Sure. Okay. Do I have to be legal?”
“Yes.” I slapped the back of his head. “Totally legal. You’re on parole, remember? But you can be creative.” At which the kid grinned like I had offered him an “all you can eat” dinner at a pizza joint. “Main thing I need first,” I said, “is for you to find out where this Big H vamp is located and anything you can about his organization. You can use the Internet, access my own files, and the files from the NOPD’s woo-woo room.” I added a request for him to look over all building renovation permits requested within fifty miles of New Orleans. After the events of yesterday, it was clear the mystery master vamp was bringing his fight to Leo’s home turf. If a vamp was moving in, he’d need real estate with vamp-requirements: steel-protected windows and reinforced doors, a room with easy exit via a hidden passageway, and updated electronics. There wasn’t time to build from the ground up, but I added a request for an expanded search, starting over the last six months, for new buildings that might work for a vamp. I tapped the table. “No huge hurry. Tomorrow would be nice.”
“Tomorrow?” His voice squeaked, that teenaged thing they do when their voices change at puberty. He blushed, half in anger.
“Kidding. Just kidding. Start on Big H info and the backgrounds on Derek’s men first. I need them by sunset. Two days will be fine for the permit stuff.” He shook his head at me with something like a horrified exasperation. “Hey, I’m used to Reach’s timeliness,” I said. “If you can’t cut it—”
“I can do it,” he said, sounding surly.
I turned away before he could see my amusement and went on into the living room. I stopped in the middle of the room, bare feet on the cool hardwood floor, chewing egg, and stared. There was a hole in the wall. It opened up under the stairs to reveal a little room with a slanted ceiling and another hole in the floor. The room’s walls were lined in stone—slate, maybe—and there was a bed with a lumpy mattress and tousled sheets under the most sloped part of the ceiling. Across from the bed was a small stand with a pitcher and bowl, a ewer, I guessed. There was very little dust and no mold, which I thought was interesting, except for wallboard dust, which now was everywhere, including on the man kneeling in the corner, holding a measuring tape. He was making the safe room I’d asked for, but it looked like I had a hidden one already, one I hadn’t known about.
Eli didn’t look around before he said, “You didn’t know this room was here?”
“I noticed the space my first night here, when I tore up the digital video equipment.” I toed the broken electronics he had left in a pile. I thought about the lack of dust and walked over to the sheets. Fingered them. Fancy sheets were something I had learned about since coming to work for Leo. These weren’t rotten, limp, or even old; they were
“There’s another hidden space in a closet upstairs,” I said. “But it isn’t my house and I wasn’t into vandalism. At the time.” I didn’t feel so bad about it now, however, knowing that I’d shared my house with the MOC and/or his heir when it was convenient for him.
“You need a safe room, you got a safe room,” Eli said, looking around, following the geometry of the small space, “one supported by cypress timbers and lined with stone and poured cement, in case of fire. All I have to do is repair the wall and hide the opening with that steel door.” He pointed out into the main room, and I saw a steel
