Companions (15 page)

"You have nerves of adamantium." He scratched his bare chest and looked at the bag. "Whatcha bring me? Groceries, I hope. A day of head hopping makes a man hungry. Mission accomplished; the mortal world has forgotten all about headless strigoi."

"What about the media coverage?"

"There's always another gruesome crime to cover. I already finished eating the leftover party trays in the fridge," he added with a hopeful look.

"Just what I need to have around the house, a chatty vampire."

"A chatty, hungry, naked vampire," he amended. "Do you think that's a good name for a rock band?"

She grunted. "Which reminds me." She dug into the pharmacy bag and tossed him a small box. "I did bring you a present."

He stared at the box for a few moments before he said, "Condoms?"

"If you're going to hang around my house naked, and it hangs quite nicely, then you — "

"Condoms? What do I need condoms for?" His teasing good mood was past now.

"We need to talk."

The sound of a key turning in the lock canceled any further conversation. They looked at each other, sharing surprise that neither of them had noticed any psychic trace of someone's approach. Then Selena whirled around and said, "Mom! Aunt Catie!" as the door opened and her relatives stepped in.

"Oh, you're home. We forgot the boxes of party stuff for Karen's next wedding shower and — "

Her mother's rushed explanation trailed off into stunned silence as her relatives stared past Selena's shoulder. The temperature in the room dropped like a stone. For a moment, the lights seemed to dim, but Selena figured that was a trick of oxygen trying to flee her brain and let her faint from the shame. In the farcical pause while Selena forgot to breathe and every other crisis paled compared to her mother confronting a naked man in her living room, the only sound for an infinitely long moment was the soft thud of the condom packet hitting the hardwood floor.

That was worse.

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Selena did notice that neither of the staring elder generation had the decency to blush. She, on the other hand, felt the heat rushing to her face like a wave of solid flame. She made a strangled noise and a feeble gesture. A part of her wanted to round on Steve and shout at him that this was all his fault. A terrified part of her recalled that she was the only thing that stood between her beloved mother and aunt and the most dangerous vampire in the world. She would give her life to protect them, but what good would that do?

Finally, it was Aunt Catie who said, "What a handsome animal."

"He's huge," her mother responded.

"Mother!"

She looked at Selena. "Does he bite?"

"I'm sure he doesn't," Aunt Catie said, coming forward with a hand stretched out before her.

Selena's impulse to tackle her aunt and shove her out of the way was arrested by her mother asking,

"When did you get a dog, Selena?"

Selena whirled around. To see her aunt scratching the ears of a big, black —

"Looks more like a wolf," her mother went on.

"Oh, no," Aunt Catie said as the big, black — dog — butted his head against her palm when she paused in petting him. "I know this breed. He's a Romany shepherd, isn't he, Selena? A very rare dog." Aunt Catie took a seat on the couch and the big, black — dog — jumped up to lie beside her. Selena noticed when Catie shoved the condoms under the couch with her foot. "Dog-sitting for a friend, Selena? Or is this big boy a member of the family now?" The Romany shepherd licked her sloppily on the face for this.

She laughed and shoved his head down. He put it in her lap. "Fresh."

"A Roma dog?" her mom said. "How delightful. Does that make him kin? What's his name?"

Selena almost said Steve, but a warning look from both her aunt, and the dog — who had blue eyes —

stopped her. "Gypsy," she answered. Selena's heart was pounding at this wild turn of events, but she'd had enough supernatural surprises in the last few years to act with as much aplomb as her aunt. "And he's not here permanently."

"That's almost too bad," her mom said. "You could use a companion." Selena choked on a gasp, and her mom only made it worse by adding. "Of course, I'd rather have grandchildren."

Aunt Catie took this as her cue and pushed Steve's head aside far enough so that she could get up. "We don't have time to stay," she told Selena as she dusted fur off her slacks. "We'll get the boxes out of your back room and go."

"I'll help," Selena said and followed the women into her spare bedroom. The cartons were quickly gathered up, and she escorted her aunt and mother to the front door. As she opened it for them, Selena said, "You still want me to come by your place later tonight and help with those New Age party favor things you're making?"

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Aunt Catie didn't miss a beat. "I'd appreciate it. See you whenever you can make it. You know I'm always up late."

Selena nodded to her aunt and kissed her mother on the cheek. As she closed the door on their departure, she turned to the blue-eyed wolf stretched out on the couch with his head on his paws. "Off the furniture."

The change was so sudden, she didn't see it, though the room wavered and spun a bit as he moved. One instant a black wolf bunched his muscles and leapt toward her, muzzle bared. The next instant a naked man grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her hard.

"What was that about? What did she mean by kin? How did she know about the Roma?"

"You turned into a wolf," Selena countered. She barely noticed that his grip hurt her. "Vampires can't do that."

"I can."

"But — " She'd seen him changed into a wolf once before… or thought she had. If it was an illusion this time, it was a damn good one. "How did you do that? Why?"

"Answer me," he countered, his eyes taking on that compelling vampire glow she found so irritating in others but rather fetching on him.

She let out a nervous giggle. "Fetching." The giggle escalated into a hysterical laugh. "Fetching. Oh, God." Suddenly she couldn't stop laughing.

She
wanted
to tell him, she really did. Any companion couldn't help but want to obey their lord and master's demands, but the stress of the day and the absurdity of the situation took away every last shred of self-control she had. Tears sprang to her eyes, and all she could do was laugh.

He was the most dangerous man in the world. Istvan knew this for a fact. He'd held the title for half a millennium. He had gotten used to a certain amount of respect. To be precise, what he was used to was groveling terror. Never before in a very long life had anyone ever reacted to his bullying by cracking up.

He found it rather appealing.

He helped her to sit on the couch. He got her a glass of water. He went into the bedroom and put on his clothes with the sound of her laughter ringing in his ears. It wasn't an altogether unpleasant sound, and he could see the absurdity of it all. "All right," he admitted, coming back into the living room. "Maybe I shouldn't have morphed like that."

Selena looked up at him, eyes red-rimmed. She wasn't laughing now. "You always avoid meeting your girlfriends' mothers like that?"

"No. I avoid having girlfriends."

"Wise choice."

He took a seat across from her. The natural tendency was to seek mental, physical, and spiritual closeness with a companion. Unnatural tendency, rather. He'd been giving in to that tendency an alarming amount recently.

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"I'm not a bad man," he said. "I'm just a very good vampire."

"You're a terrible vampire."

He had no idea why he said it, or what she meant by her answer. They had a more important matter to discuss. "What did your mother mean about Roma being kin?"

"We are Roma."

"You don't look — "

"And you do?"

He'd heard about his less-than-gypsy appearance often enough not to argue further with this pale-skinned, red-haired amazon. "What tribe?"

"We're a Traveler familia. The Baileys are Irish Roma, though we don't exactly advertise it to the world.

You know how gypsies are treated."

Nothing to argue about there, either. He should have known what was special about her. "Maria Ventanova must have known."

Her blue eyes flashed hatred. "I didn't get a chance to ask her."

"I might have asked her how she chose you for me if you'd hadn't shot her head off with an AK-47."

"It was an Uzi."

"My mistake." And it had been quite an impressive display of firepower by his companion, he recalled fondly, though he'd been very annoyed at the time.

"Companions aren't supposed to be able to kill vampires," he reminded her. He didn't point out that the penalty for a companion harming a strigoi was death. She knew that already, and he'd let her get away with it, under the circumstances.

No one knew better than he that the belief that companions and slaves were unable to harm vampires was complete fiction. It wasn't easy for a bonded mortal to do anything but happily obey, but it was certainly possible. Companions were force-fed the idea that their master owned them, body and soul, and there was nothing they could do about it, with their first taste of blood. He'd even tried it on Selena and gotten shot in the chest for his arrogance.

He could have broken her. Many strigoi took great pleasure in doing just that with their so-called lovers.

Many companions lived in abject terror of what would happen if they raised a hand to their master.

Companions were already primed to believe in their invulnerability to blooded mortals when they made the change, and it was their turn to be in charge. The ones who'd been mistreated tended to go on to become sadists themselves.

But some people didn't put up with shit from anyone, no matter how much blood magic was forced on them. "We both know how pig-headed you are. It must be the Roma blood."

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"Must be."

"Do you enjoy killing vampires?"

Her surface emotions remained quite calm, though he was aware of the ripples beneath. She folded her hands in her lap. "This conversation has strayed a bit," she said. "I was going to tell you about being Roma before my family showed up. I didn't realize it might be relevant until today."

"Answer my question."

"How long have I been your prime suspect?" she questioned him. "Recalling, I hope, that I was the one who turned the corpse over to Ariel."

"That action could have been a diversion."

"Why?"

"Because you are very clever."

She gave a faint laugh. "Not that clever."

He stood. "I agree."

"Thanks."

"I didn't believe you'd killed the vampire. Belief is not the same as proof." He walked to the door. With his back to her, he said, "My business with you is finished. I won't be coming back. Not to a Roma woman." The words were harder to say than he'd thought they'd be.

Why was he telling her at all? Because she was Roma, and one of the People deserved consideration?

Because talking to her was a habit he'd developed with terrifying speed? Companions were like drugs.

He'd watched strigoi caught in the addiction to their bloodbonded lovers for hundreds of years but never understood the devastating need until ending up an emotional crackhead himself.

He heard her rise. He felt the changes in her, physical and emotional, as she tried not to react or show a reaction. "Not coming back? You've said that before." That her voice was tight with pain did not mean that the part of her that was free wasn't glad.

"I meant it then, too." He shrugged.

He was gone an instant later. Selena stared after him, empty without him, heartbroken, tears rolling down her eyes. The separation wrenched at her gut, at her heart, at her soul. She sank down on the couch and buried her shaking sobs in the cushions. She hated the weakness but gave herself up to it simply to get through it.

After an awful while, she sat up and wiped the tears away. She even managed something like a small, triumphant smile.
Well,
she thought,
who knew the truth would prove to be such an excellent
diversion?
Steve was gone, never intending to return.

Good. Never mind that thinking about the loss tore her to shreds. She simply wouldn't think about it.

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There was a murderer out there she had to apprehend before the Enforcers did if she didn't want an entire conspiracy of companions to be discovered. Steve had superpowers, but she had a witness. Time for her to talk to Larry.

"How do you feel?"

Lawrence was a handsome guy, big and broad-shouldered, with a strong jaw, thick black hair, a sculpted mouth, and a strong beak of a nose. Selena remembered her first impression of him, on the terrifying night they'd met, as fey and beautiful in an otherworldly sort of way. That had been vampire magic, a glamorous projection brought on by the lure of sex and the hunt. She preferred him the way he really was, good looking in an ordinary way. She didn't like thinking that her aunt and he might — no, she wasn't going to think it. She was here to talk to Lawrence because of a case. She was going to keep her mind on a murder investigation.

He looked better than the last time she'd seen him. Not much, admittedly, but enough to quell her conscience's complaining about questions adversely affecting an injured witness's recovery. He was still swathed in bandages. A dark green satin robe was draped over his shoulders. She couldn't tell from looking at him whether his arm was showing any evidence of regenerating, and she was reluctant to inquire, more out of polite reticence than anything else.