Always the Vampire (35 page)

If that was the case, maybe the homeless girl hadn’t suffered, but that’s not what I’d seen in her staring eyes. I’d seen horror.

“Did Balch say anything about the press? He told me they’d go nuts over the murders, but I never saw a single reporter, and you
know
Gorman would’ve ragged me about it if he’d heard.”

“The official story is that the two criminals turned on and killed each other, and that the homeless couple died of pneumonia.”

“Which makes them unrelated incidents,” Triton said.

“That’s right,” Saber confirmed. “No serial killer, no sensational story, just tragic deaths in the case of the homeless pair.”

“Did you tell Balch about Starrack?”

“In the spirit of quid pro quo, yeah. I told him Starrack is our suspect and showed him the drawing.”

“Bet he wanted to issue a BOLO right away.”

“He did, and I explained why a be on the lookout bulletin would be a mistake. He wasn’t happy, but he backed off.”

“I’m just glad we’re off Balch’s suspect list,” Triton said. “Get me the names of liquor stores to call, and I’ll get on it.”

As he opened the car door, I sensed someone hovering in the shadows on the sidewalk behind us. Adrenaline rushing through my veins, I unbuckled my seat belt, and jumped out of the car in a flash.

“Cesca, what the—”

“Hello, Princess,” a distinct male voice called.

“Is everything quite all right, dear?” a female voice asked.

Imelda and Clarence Clarke stepped into the street, and I slumped against the SUV.

“We’re fine, thank you,” I answered as they hustled closer.

I moved to meet them at the tail of the SUV, Triton and Saber joining me.

“We’re terribly sorry if we startled you children, but you sat in the car such a long time, we became concerned.”

“Are you out for your evening walk?” Saber asked the question lightly, but I heard the undertone of caution.

Melda waved a hand. “Oh, yes. We’ve taken to coming by every night since this poor young man was attacked.”

“Want to do our part to help the Princess, don’t you know,” Clarence added. “Any friend of hers and all that. That’s a lovely sundress, by the by, Princess. Isn’t it, Melda? Puts me in mind of one you wore to a dance many years ago. Yours was white, though, with sunflowers.”

I elbowed Triton.
Thank them for checking on you.

“What? Oh, yes, I appreciate you watching out for me. Very kind.”

“Pish posh, it’s nothing,” Melda said. “I just hope your business is concluded swiftly.”

I blinked. “Our business, Mrs. Clarke?”

“Why yes, dear. We’ll never get our bed and breakfast off the ground if vampires fear coming to Florida.”

Clarence nodded solemnly. “We’re rooting for you and Mr. Saber; we’ll look forward to your visit whenever you have the time to call on us. Come along, now, Melda. We want to look at that new batch of listings in Deland.”

Saber, Triton, and I exchanged bemused glances.

“Those two are a trip,” Triton said softly, “but I’m glad Lynn’s not staying with them.”

“Because you’d be more tempted to go see her?”

“No, because she’d be doing another case study. An extended one.”

With Melda and Clarence on the job, Triton’s property was likely safe, but we went inside his apartment anyway, just to be sure nothing waited in ambush. When all was clear, Saber and I headed home at last.

Snowball launched herself into Saber’s arms the moment we entered the cottage, and this time the object of her affection fed and watered her.

I set the alarms then headed to the bedroom. My sundress came off, my St. Augustine lighthouse sleep shirt went on, and I padded back to the living room. Snowball batted a catnip-filled toy around the bamboo floor, while Saber had parked himself on the sofa to watch college football scores and highlights on ESPN. His eyes might’ve been glued to the TV, but he patted the cushion when I neared.

“I’m catching the scores to unwind.”

“Did the Gators and ’Noles win their games?” I asked as I sat beside him and propped my feet on the coffee table.

“Gators won big, ’Noles won in a squeaker over the ’Canes.”

“Did your alma mater win, too?”

He grinned, gave me the Hook ’Em Horns sign, and linked his fingers through mine. The sportscaster ran down another list of stats before Saber canted his head at me.

“What?”

“Are you reading my thoughts?”

“No, your nervous energy. Are you worried about the chances of Starrack showing up at the Greek festival of Friday night?”

“Yes, but that’s nearly a week away so I’m putting that worry on the back burner. Right now I just want to know if everything is ready for the couples shower tomorrow.”

“Tents, tables, and chairs were delivered on time and set up, and Lynn helped me slice onions and tomatoes for the burgers.”

“Considering she has hair to kill for, Lynn’s growing on me.”

With a flash of his sexy grin, Saber turned to face me. “Honey, when a man runs his hands through straight hair, there is no surprise, no intrigue. But when I do this—”

The pulses in my neck thundered and my mouth went dry as he cupped first one cheek then the other in his palms, inching his fingertips into the thick strands at my temples.

“This is my idea of riding the waves and shooting the curls.” He brushed his lips over mine. “Every last lock of your hair is a sensual adventure.”

I gulped and whispered, “You feel like surfing about now?”

He answered with a long, deep kiss, and when we finally slept, it was with a lock of my hair wound around Saber’s wrist.

 

 

My honey’s comment about my waves and curls notwithstanding, I flatironed and gooped my hair as straight as possible for the barbeque on Sunday. Guests meeting a vampire hostess was one thing. Meeting one with scary hair was another. I was taking no chances with the success of this party.

The event soon proved a finger-lickin’ success. The weather cooperated with even a hint of fall in the air. Saber cooked the meats and veggies to perfection on the new grill he’d bought as his own housewarming gift. And though the guests were Neil’s friends and colleagues, they and their spouses were open and friendly with Saber and me, and with each other.

Most of the women gathered under the tents to talk and eat with Maggie. Most of the men ate in the house to watch the Jacksonville Jaguars football game. Most of the gifts, when they were opened at halftime, were hardware store gift cards, so Maggie and Neil didn’t have an ordeal loading their haul.

Saber and I cleaned up the mess quickly, sorted the recycling from the trash, and in no time we were ready to change from our party clothes to our training uniforms of shorts and T-shirts.

Triton arrived at Cosmil’s place on our heels, and low and behold, Pandora sat at the base of the porch steps in her panther form. I’d missed the mysterious feline so much, I had the wild impulse to throw my arms around her neck.

I stopped in my tracks, causing Saber and Triton to stumble into my back. Great. Days, maybe even hours away from fighting the Void, and we were doing the Stooges.

“Any special reason,” I said to Pandora, “we’re supposed to stay outside?”

Old wizard and the woman are spell casting.
She lowered her head to the grass, and nosed first one object then another toward me.

The amulets.

“What’s Pandora doing with the amulets?”

“She’s playing bocce ball, Triton,” I snarked. “Give her a chance to tell me what’s up.”

“Testy.”

“Do you two ever not snip at each other?” Saber casually asked as he picked up the disks.

He curled his fingers around them for a moment then switched the medallions from one hand to the other before holding them out for Triton and me to take.

“Thanks, Pandora.”

I gaped at him. “You heard her?”

Saber grinned. Pandora chuffed.

The panther prowled off to the ceremonial area of the circle.

“What’d she say?” Triton asked impatiently.

“That there’s magick afoot inside and we’re off to practice healing. You didn’t hear her, but Saber did? What’s up with that?”

“Sue me, I’m preoccupied.”

We followed Pandora to the far side of the circle where she stopped and raised a paw over a brown rabbit laying on its side.

“Oh, poor thing,” I said, leaning over the animal. “What happened?”

“Wait. Does this work like it did on the trees?”

Draw on all your powers.
With that bit of nonexplanation, she loped back to the shanty.

“Okay, gentlemen, in case you missed that, Pandora says the rabbit has been poisoned, and we’re to use all our powers to heal it. Ready?”

We knelt around the animal that was no bigger than Snowball, Triton on my right, Saber across from us. The spring of cool energy at the base of my spine that had been dormant now stirred like a slow whirlpool, then bubbled through me in rhythm with the warm pulse from the amulet in my left hand. I caught the rabbit’s gaze and sent calming thoughts as Triton and I moved in unison to lightly touch the poor panting body. Saber let his hands hover over ours, and I mentally heard our healing intent blend into a soft song.

This time when the rays beamed from the medallions, the light shone as a golden candle glow rather than a white laser. The rabbit laid still under our ministrations, and its breathing eased. Then it extended its limbs in a waking-from-a-nap stretch, and the halo of light from the amulets snapped off. The rabbit got to its paws and scampered into the brush.

“Well done,” Cosmil said from behind me.

I startled, lost my balance, landed on my butt.

“You two and Pandora need to wear bells,” I complained as I looked to see his lips quirking.

Behind Cosmil, Lia laughed, and I caught a strong undercurrent of cautious elation.

“Bells would have distracted you from your task,” Cosmil said. “Come now. No time to sit down on the job. We have much to do and more to plan.”

“Tell me those smelly liquor bottles helped you and Lia find Starrack’s hideout,” I said as Saber extended a hand to help me up.

“Alas, no. Starrack seems to have erased himself and the Void from the ethers, perhaps because you came too close to catching them. But we have learned something helpful through another avenue of investigation.”

“Come on, Cos, out with it.”

“As you say, Triton.” Cosmil inclined his head toward Lia. “It is your discovery. You do the honors.”

I took a psychic peek at Lia’s thoughts, but they were locked tight. I had the strong premonition that this would be a classic good news, bad news, worse news situation.

“We believe,” she said slowly enough to draw out the suspense, “that we’ve found the spell Starrack used to make the Void.”

“Hold it,” I said, hand up in the classic stop signal. “I thought the Void was a thought form.”

“It is,” Lia said, “but because Starrack was never terribly patient, we’re fairly certain he relied on a manifestation spell to speed up the process of creating the Void.”

Saber stepped forward. “If a spell made the Void, does that mean you can unmake it with another spell?”

“Unlikely,” she answered. “This particular spell calls for the use of blood, Starrack’s and perhaps someone else’s. There is no way to undo the spell without using the same bloodline.”

“However,” Cosmil chimed in, “in the course of our research, we spoke with a faerie in the Council records department who put us in touch with an investigator. That led us back to Lia’s contact in the nymph community.”

I barely kept from gnashing my teeth. “Cosmil, with all due respect, would you spit it out before I get a raging headache?”

He frowned and huffed, but answered me.

“Several nymphs came forward to report they had cavorted with Starrack last September. At the time, he hinted to them that he had a big scheme starting. Then he disappeared.”

“A year ago?” Excitement zinged through me, and I grasped Saber’s arm. “Isn’t that close to when Ray said Rico started getting nutso in Miami?”

“I think you’re right. And he threatened Vlad in late February.” Saber turned to Cosmil. “What else did you learn?”

“Nothing from the nymphs, but having an idea when the Void was created enabled us to track its probable life cycle patterns.”

“This thing has a life cycle?” Triton demanded.

“It is a living organism.” Cosmil gave him the disappointed-teacher eye. “To continue, we compared the Void to other documented thought forms created with the same or a similar magical boost.”