Blood & Spirits (12 page)

I am not prepared for what he looks like tonight. Seeing him in decent lighting and under better conditions, I’m in awe. In a room full of women I’ve trained and dressed to be as seductive as possible, he stands out as the most deliciously attractive thing.

Every inch of his six-foot three frame seems to be lightly tanned and perfectly toned; not overly muscled, but enough to show slightly though his clothes.

He’s wearing a stylish button down shirt with a pair of slightly faded jeans that fit him in a way that words do no justice to. His shoes are expensive black Italian leather, polished to a shine. I know those are nice shoes because I know how much I paid for Frank’s pair of the same ones.

There’s even a messy elegance to his short brown hair, like a sexy ‘just got out of bed’ appeal. I’d say he was devastatingly handsome, if I didn’t think it would be a disservice.

Then he looks at me and gives me the most amazing smile I could imagine. I’m in no way prepared for this. He looks like he just stepped out of a magazine, and his smile could sell me anything.

I walk over to him, ringed in the center of my fawning professionals, and before I can even say anything he lays a big rugged hand lightly on my shoulder and I’m suddenly a mute.

I’m used to going through men like Kleenex, so it’s very rare that I ever find myself taken by one. But this one could take me anywhere. He still reminds me a little of Jules, but somehow more devilish, more mysterious.

Thankfully, Julie sees that I’ve frozen and scurries over quickly with ‘urgent matters’ that require my immediate attention.

She pulls me across the room promising to have me right back, while holding up her tablet in front of me to ‘show me a few appointments and scheduling issues’ as she whispers under her breath, “There may be a lot of men in the world, many fish in the sea and all, but there’s not a single one I’ve ever seen that looks like that one does. Wow.”

I can tell by his face, even from across the room, that he heard her. She sometimes forgets that the dead can usually hear very well. Surprisingly, he seems a little embarrassed by the comment though. I like that.

“Julie, why don’t you have Leslie take over for you here. I’d appreciate it if you’d give Frank a call and tell him I’d like to see him, then grab a couple fresh bottles and meet me in my office in the basement.” She looks at me like I’ve lost my mind, but nods and heads to the back to get Leslie.

As I walk back over to Garret, I’m overcome with feelings of infatuation. It takes actual effort to force myself out of the ‘high school girl with a crush’ mentality; after all, I don’t have to hold back when I like something anymore.

“Why don’t we go downstairs to my office? We can speak a bit more freely there.” See, I can talk to the pretty man like a real grown up if I try hard enough.

“Lead the way, Ms. Fischer.” Even the way he says my name is sexy. What is with this guy?

“Call me V. It’s this way.” I lead him to the basement door off the kitchen hallway. He follows closely but I can tell he’s taking in his surroundings very closely. Either he’s out to screw me over, or he’s afraid I’m going to screw him over. Either way, we need to get past that.

We walk into my office and I offer him a seat at my small conference table, while I get a map of the county down off my bookcase.

I join him at the table as Julie comes in with the bottles I asked her to and glasses as well.

“Frank is on his way. He said about ten minutes,” she reports, as she sets the glasses in front of Garrett and I like she were our waitress. Tipping up a bottle she fills our glasses, trying not to make eye contact out of respect.

When she’s finished she sets it down and turns to leave. I take her arm and point to the chair to my right. Her eyes widen in shock. She looks to Garret and then back to me, before asking curiously, “V?”

Smiling at her, I lock her gaze and mentally walk her to her seat. “Julie, I think it’s about time you became better acquainted with what goes on behind the scenes around here. You and I both know that you could run the house without me, and you manage enough of my other concerns that I’d just feel better if you understood a bit more about the world you live and work in.”

Her only reaction at first is to blink in stunned disbelief. She looks at the table in front of her and then back to me. “Do you mind if I take notes?”

“Not at all. So long as the notes you keep can’t be read by anyone but you.”

She looks at me wide-eyed, like a hooker caught in headlights, for a moment then gets up and gets her tablet and sits back down. “I’ll accept that responsibility.”

I expect some protest from Garrett. We’re all taught early on not to share too much of what we are with our slaves. But my employees are friends, not slaves. I’m ready to defend that point fervently, but his objection never comes.

It isn’t long before Frank shows up and as predicted he walks in and gives one look at Garrett and asks to speak with me in private.

We step out of the office, walk to the other end of the basement, and step into the wine storage closet. I can see it in his eyes, but knowing how my kind can hear he waits for the door to close before he starts in on me.

“So now we’re just inviting stray bloodsuckers home? How do you know we can trust him?”

I might get offended if I didn’t know that he genuinely has the best interest of my girls and I at heart. He sees himself as security and bodyguard to all of us.

“He saved my life last night, Frank. That goes a long way to building trust in my world. Besides, there’s just something about him I like. I can’t put my finger on it.”

“That’s because you’d probably rather put your mouth on it.”

I put my hand on him and cock my head to the side with one eyebrow raised. He knows he’s dangerously close to crossing a line. The question now is if he thinks he needs to cross it just to show me he’s not afraid to piss me off to try to keep me safe.

“Frank, back off. He looks good, yes. But he’s like me and he risked himself to save me. He has knowledge of spirits and a way to handle them that, while I don’t understand, I’ve seen in action and have to respect. He may be my best hope of finding Lucy or getting Rachel home. What are you doing to help me there?”

“How is that’s a fair question? I’m doing everything I can, like I always do. How long will this guy’s interests line up with yours? Just think about it V.” And with that, he turns and walks out. Since when does Frank walk out on a conversation with me? The world really is going nuts.

Frank is grilling Garrett when I walk back in and impressively, he’s putting up with it. I have to stop it though. Frank and Julie just don’t understand how to deal with creatures like Garrett. They’ve been spoiled by the way I treat them. I have employees, while my peers and betters have slaves.

This must be what a single mother feels like bringing a date home to the Spanish Inquisition at the hands of her kids.

A simple redirect for the conversation and we’re discussing the spirits and the fact that Garrett has studied them in Europe, Africa, and now North America. He’s especially interested in the level of activity Pekin has. Evidently, it’s in the top ten most active places for the disembodied on the continent.

It does strike me as a little odd that Garrett is so willing to answer a grilling from my P.I. on payroll, but odder still is all the information he has, and no clear agenda for what he’s planning to do with it.

Knowledge is power to the breathers; it’s so much more once you are dead. Not just power but control, and he doesn’t seem to have a focus or direction for all that he’s amassed. I read into him, and I sense no maliciousness in him. He really is a puzzle.

As I’m listening to him talk I let my mind drift further into his feelings, his aura, and he doesn’t seem to have any barriers up to keep me from doing it. Either he trusts me, which makes no sense, or he doesn’t have a way to defend himself, in which case how has he managed to live this long?

He leans back, listing to Julie ramble on about Lucy’s last appearance to her, and rests his hand on my leg. I lay mine on top of it, as though it were simply the natural thing to do. Frank is right about one thing, I certainly wouldn’t mind him in my mouth, or anywhere else in me for that matter.

Garrett mentions that Sunny, his ‘little girl’, has been helping him investigate the activities here in Pekin, but does not elaborate. I get an image of a girls face in his mind’s eye, but no real information.

Digging a little deeper, a few key facts about her start to become clear. He made her, but he is not her family. Like Jules, he has a family, and yet he chose to make her outside of it. She’s an orphan like me, but he’s lied to everyone convincing them she is his cousin. The way he’s protecting her is possibly the most beautiful thing I’ve discovered about him so far.

I know that I can’t afford a romantic entanglement, especially with someone from a pure line, but that doesn’t stop me from continuing to fall for this mysterious stranger.

I have to know more about him, but I have to find an innocent way to ask, see what he’s willing to give up in open conversation. After all, I’ll know if he’s lying.

“Okay,” I interject into the conversation. “I’ve been listening to your accent all night and I’m just going to ask. Where are you from? I mean obviously you’re British, but I can tell there’s something else there.”

Garrett looks at me and flashes a confident smile. Part of me melts in a way that I’d thought was lost to my condition.

“Well you’re right. I am British by birth, London actually, but I haven’t been there in a long, long time.” He says it with a disarming voice that makes me sure he attended charm school. “I’ve been all over really. Lived in Eastern France for almost ten years, and then in Egypt for a little over twenty, now I’ve been in the states for seven or so years, give or take. All of them were long enough stays that I’m sure they’ve colored my accent a bit.”

At this point Julie would burn down nursery schools to be with Garrett for a night, and Frank is trying to make sure we can all tell he’s unimpressed with him.

Out of the blue, Frank blurts out that he thinks the funeral home was a set up by Paco, that he sent me there to die. I don’t see the logic in it. After all, what would Paco have to gain from my death? Frank calls me blind for not seeing it. Julie says she agrees with me that there’s no angle, no benefit for him to kill me. Garrett doesn’t choose a side. I can feel in him that he agrees with me, but he doesn’t want to give Frank another reason to dislike him. He can tell that Frank is important to me, and he’s staying silent to make things easier for me.

Where did this guy come from?

It occurs to me that if Garrett is just passing through like he says, then he likely doesn’t know about Jacobi, or the political situation in Pekin.

I ask him if he’s spoken to the council and my suspicions are confirmed. I really need to introduce him to them so that Learner doesn’t find a new way to start trouble for me. I can see it now: either I’m horrible because I knew about him and didn’t make them aware, or worse, he gets the council to take out his personal frustrations with me on Garrett.

For nicety sake, if nothing else, I ask if he’ll let me introduce him to Jacobi.

I’m pleasantly surprised when he readily agrees. I pick up my purse and ask if he’d like to go now, since there’s no time like the present.

Again I’m surprised when he stands to leave with me, no questions asked.

Frank decides that now is a good time to tell me that he has a meeting set up for tomorrow night with a couple of witnesses to the grave robbing. He’s just letting me know in case I wanted to come along.

Of course I do. He knows that’s a priority to me. He’s trying to provoke me because of Garrett. Human behavior, I guess. I’ll deal with him later. Right now Garrett and I are going to take a little drive.

I feel kind of silly as we’re walking out to my car, and I catch myself thinking of this as our ‘first date.’

***

Rolling to a stop at the curb in front of the Community Bank Building, I feel like Judas without the paycheck. Garrett really doesn’t know what kind of reception he may well receive from Napoleon Learner.

That feeling only intensifies once I’m on the sidewalk and see the regular doormen replaced with twice as many security guards. This can’t mean anything good for the quality of my evening. For a moment I consider just pulling Garrett off down the block and going to the bar instead, but I know they’ve already seen us and if I walk away I’ll just look suspicious.

I step up to the door and dutifully wait, watching the activity on the other side of the glass. Talking into shoulder radios and waiting for a reply, these guys are more nervous than I am.

Finally two of them step forward and open the doors for Garrett and I, while the others stand back with their hands on their weapons. No, this was not even the cold reception I was expecting.

Security escorts us across the lobby and four of them get on the elevator with us. The ride up is a tense one. Garrett is looking at me with questioning eyes and I have no answers for him.

We’re led off the elevator and down the hall through the broken frame that held the doors to Jacobi’s office. The place is redecorated again, this time in a modern post-hurricane style. I really can’t believe my eyes.

“Don’t even pretend to act surprised, you lying little bitch! I know you were involved in this.” Learner is spitting at me before I can even take in the enormity of the damage. ”What have you done with him? You’re dead either way, but if you cooperate I’ll make sure you don’t suffer as much!”

My mind is racing, and my mouth is moving but no words are coming out. Garrett decides, unwisely, to come to my rescue.

“Who are you, and why are you screaming like an idiot?” His voice is patronizing, but not overly so.

“Who am I? Who the hell are you?” It looks like Learner may well just explode and save me a whole lot of trouble. “I’m Marcus Learner! I’m the Eldest in this region. I sit at the head of the Council!”

“Head of the Council? When was this decided?” Serena asks as she enters the room, thankfully distracting him from us for a moment. She has a look in her eye that seems to be daring him to say the wrong thing.