DEAD: Confrontation (44 page)

“Adrian McGill,” the vampire bowed and took my hand, kissing the back of it.
Hey! When did he get so close?
“Now…turnabout’s fair play, lassie.”

“First…stop with the ‘lassie’ crap.” I pulled my hand away, suddenly remembering my task. “In this country, that’s the dog that saves Timmy when he falls down the well.” Adrian laughed.  It was a really nice laugh, and once again I felt all warm and squishy. “My name is Ava, and yes, I am a ghoul.”

“Thought your sort only noshed on the dearly departed,” Adrian said with far more animation than Belinda ever used.  In fact, if it weren’t for the pair of extended and pointy incisors, he might even pass for human. Living human that is. Well…the teeth and the smell, but I don’t think normal people can smell vampires.

“Huh?”

“The fluttery-pulsed little canary peeping at us from within your automobile.” Adrian looked past me and into my car…straight at a wide-eyed Lisa.

“That’s my friend, and she’s off limits,” I snapped.

“Ghouls don’t have friends,” Adrian pointed out.

“So I’ve heard,” I whispered. “Listen, Danny Boy, we have a bit of a problem. Supposedly, you aren’t allowed to just show up and start sucking on the locals. I guess there is a protocol or something your type follow.”
Protocol? Nice word, Ava. Take that, Morgan…and your ten dollar vocabulary.

“Every rule has exceptions,” Adrian’s eyes came back to me and I saw something nasty in them. It made me think one thing: predator.

“Yes, well…”my fingers tingled with my sudden spike of fear.  I let one hand brush my throat, making sure that the chain holding my silver cross, the one I’d been given by my daddy when I had my first communion, was easily accessible.

“So who sent you to kill me?” Adrian interrupted what was about to be a sad memory of my daddy most likely revolving around how much I missed him now that he was gone or some such thing.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Who sent you to kill me?”

“Why—?”

“Please,” Adrian interrupted, “I’ve been around too long, lassie.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“My apologies,” all of a sudden, he had my face in his hand, squeezing my cheeks, “
Ava
.”

And there went my fingers and toes. I just wish that the shark mouth thing was wired into the same circuitry.

“Stay where you are, little canary,” Adrian called. That would be Lisa wanting to come to my rescue. I don’t think she really thought things through.  I mean, here I am a ghoul with my own skill set—sure, I don’t have a grip on all of them yet, but  I’m learning—and this vampire is obviously just a teensy bit more than I can seem to handle.

“You are the low bird in the roost,” Adrian got way too deep into my personal space, “and somebody sent you to…deal…with me.” He thrummed his gross, cold finger on my cheeks with each word.

“I—” was all I managed to say before he steamrolled right over whatever lame excuse I was about to conjure up. His grip on my face tightening to the point where it began to hurt a little.

“The Psychic Controller of this district probably decided that you were expendable.” Adrian’s eyes had turned black just like mine. “Whoever it is probably just wanted to test me out before sending in the real killer. The special enforcer tucked away who probably puts down any who go rogue or just refuse to fall in line at the whim of this area’s psychic. Every psychic has a…I believe the popular term here in America is hit man?”

“How do you know I’m not the enforcer?” I tried to sound as tough as anybody can when their cheeks are being squeezed tightly.

Adrian laughed.  And laughed.  And laughed…

“I’m not sure how affronted I should be,” he finally said after his mirthful outburst.

“Excuse me?” I couldn’t wait to see how he would insult me next.

“You are either incredibly new, in which case it’s quite insulting that your psychic would think so little of me so as to send anything as unprepared as yourself…or you are the most cunning, clever lass in all the land.”

“I like the second choice,” I huffed. My lips were starting to feel funny from being squeezed into a big oval for so long.  A
lso, I could feel my cheeks bruising on the inside.  If I was all shark mouthed, I bet his hand wouldn’t even be able to—

It hit me like a metal train crashing through my skull!  Duh. I can be so slow sometimes.

I let my sense of smell drift off of Mister Stinky Vampire and find that nearby corpse that was probably his recent kill. It’s not exactly instant, but it does happen fast.

Adrian obviously misjudged and underestimated me. That’ll teach him to think I was just the disposable lackey. Yay, shark mouth! His hand pulled free of my cheeks.  However, rather than seeming concerned or frightened, he just seemed annoyed.

“Pay attention, lassie,” Adrian said in a voice so low that I know I was the only one who could hear it. “You tell your psychic that I’ll be challenging whomever is the king or queen of this kiss. Once that has been resolved, I will meet her personally.”

Her?
I hadn’t said anything about Morgan. Were all psychics female? There was so much I didn’t know.  A new surge of anger trickled through me.  I was their expendable asset. Well, I’d show them!

“Perhaps you could focus while I’m giving you what your psychic will most assuredly deem a rather important message.” Adrian was snapping his fingers in front of my face.
How rude!

I started. My smelling sense drifted to him and my teeth r
etracted to normal faster than my ex-husband use to go flaccid after our annual birthday sex. I wiped the thick slobber off my chin.

“So you want to fight the head vampire and take over?” I asked. Perhaps this wasn’t as bad as folks thought.  Well…unless you happen to be Belinda. Then it might suck just a little.

“No,” Adrian leaned in close and whispered in my ear,” I want to kill them.”

And then he was gone.  I really hate when they do that. The vampires I mean…with all their scary-fast comings and goings.

I took a sniff. His stench was already growing faint.  I didn’t think I could track him and I didn’t want to leave Lisa behind to test my ability in that department just yet. I returned to the car.

“Please tell me you weren’t zonked like last time,” I huffed as I slid in the driver’s seat. When we’d met Belinda the first time in a grocery store, Lisa had been hypnotized—or whatever it is that vampires do—and missed out on the entire thing.  I a
ctually had to convince her that it had, in fact, happened.

“Nope,” Lisa said through pursed lips, “I saw and heard it all.”

“Problem?” I turned to get a better look at her. I could hear the tension in her voice and smell the fear-sweat seeping from her pores.

“Ummm…” her voice trailed off, but she was pointing straight ahead.

I looked, and it took me a second to realize what I was seeing. People don’t normally scurry crab-like on their hands and feet. My excellent vision at night allowed me a much better view than what Lisa had. Thank goodness.

This woman’s throat was ripped open, and she had a flap of skin dangling like an open shirt collar. Her face was all snarly like a mad dog, and a set of pointy fangs poked out.

“Stay in the car,” I whispered and snatched the stake that Lisa held clutched in her hand with a white-knuckled grip.

I did my best to get out of the car quietly, but supernatural hearing makes that pretty much pointless. The crazy vampire’s head snapped up as soon as I engaged the door handle. So much for the element of surprise.

At first it sorta skittered back like it was startled. Then…it came bounding at me all growly and snarly.  This was going to be a quick test of my new reflexes.  I readied the stake as it leapt at me through the air.  I only had the briefest of seconds to hope that I was aiming my stake at the right spot.

There was a crash-squish sound and the crazy vampire made a really painful-to-the-ears screech. Then…poof! And now I was covered with a gritty, sand-like coating of vampire dust.

Dis. Gus. Ting!

I heard the door open, and Lisa got out of the car. A quick sniff did two things; first, it assured me that there were no fres
hly dead or newly risen vampires anywhere close; and second, it made me explode in a flurry of sneezes unlike anything I’d ever experienced. Now, my sinuses were caked in fresh vampire dust. Great.

“Wow,” Lisa breathed, stepping around in front of me and looking me up and down. “You’re all glittery.”

I looked at my hands. Sure enough, it looked as if I’d plunged my arms in a vat of glitter. Vampire dust is sparkly.  Who knew?

“We should probably hose you off before you get back in the car,” Lisa said. “We’d probably never get all of that out of the seats. It’d be worse than after a trip to the beach.”

Stupid disintegrating vampires.

We walked—well…Lisa walked, I sorta stomped angrily—to a darkened house and found a spigot but no hose. After the fifth house and still no hose, it dawned on me: winter. Duh, Ava, nobody leaves their garden hoses out in the wintertime.

That’s how I ended up sitting on the hood of the car as Lisa drove onto the nearby strip and pulled into the first do-it-yourself carwash. This one had three bays, only one with work lights overhead.

If anybody would’ve driven past, they would’ve seen a n
aked ghoul being hosed down by a seventeen-year-old trying desperately not to laugh.

***

“So basically I was bait?” I sat across the table from Morgan, trying my best to keep calm. I wasn’t wearing any shoes just in case. My fingers and toes had been tingling since Morgan walked through the door.

“You were given the opportunity to make a substantial sum of—” Morgan began in her annoyingly calm voice.

“Which you get none of since this rogue is still running around in
my
territory,” Belinda interrupted. Her voice was its normal mix of quiet sluttiness. But her porcelain-smooth face had a tiny crease in the forehead and one eyebrow was arched.

“Calm down,” Morgan placed a hand on Belinda’s arm. “Nothing will be gained if you lose your composure.”

Calm down?
She’d hardly reacted at all.  That’s when I had my epi…um epiph…oh hell, that’s when I figured out that vampires are not prone to showing
any
emotions.

“Ava already had to stake one vampire tonight, and it will be daylight in an hour at the most,” Lisa spoke out. 

I gave my head a tiny shake and tried to glare. Only, with my eyes being all black, I wondered if they conveyed meaning like they used to. I’d need to look in a mirror and make faces later.

“It would probably be best if we talked about this tomo
rrow.” When did Lisa suddenly get so chatty with the supernatural folks?

“You’d best restrain your pet,” Belinda mouthed in a whi
sper only I could hear.

“She’s not my pet,” I snapped.

“Ladies,” Morgan stepped between us, “and you, Lisa, this is not doing us any good. Now…Ava, perhaps you’d like to explain about having staked a vampire
already
tonight.”

“Adrian turned his last victim,” I answered, hoping my eyes were sending little daggers. “It came for us right after he did his vanishing act.  Only, it wasn’t like Adrian or the queen of charm, here.” I waved what I hoped came across as a dismissive gesture at Belinda. “More like a wild animal.”

“He’s turning revenants,” Morgan breathed in the most dramatic display of emotion I’d seen from her so far.

“Rev…revenants?”
I’ll bite. It’s not like I’m not already known for asking stupid questions.
“What the hell are those?”

“The best way I can explain it so that you’ll understand,”
ouch
, “is that they are like a rabid vampire.”

“The revenant is a monster…and deserving of death,” After one of her completely unreadable stares where I feel every pint of ice cream I ever ate bulging from my hips, Belinda added, quite unnecessarily, “Even by the likes of you.”

The petty side of my brain wanted to play the revoke-the-invitation game, but I knew better than to do it with Morgan present. I bit my tongue and continued to struggle with my finger-and toe-claws. Keeping them at bay was getting tougher by the minute.

“They are forbidden in this country,” Belinda went on after I didn’t take the bait—points for Ava! “Creating one is considered a crime and punishable by stake or sunlight.”

“Considering he intends on taking you out, I don’t think Adrian is all that concerned about protocol or rules,” I quipped.

“Ava is correct,” Morgan agreed.

I am?
Wow…I was just trying to be a bit of a bitch. I wasn’t really looking to score a point or anything.

“If she would’ve simply performed the task that we sent her to do,” Belinda deliberately turned her back on me, “this whole mess would be over and done.”

“If you two would have been more honest with me instead of sending me out like bait, then perhaps—”