Last Vampire Standing (30 page)

Saber was more succinct. “Shit. That’s gonna piss off the Covenant from coast to coast.”

“You think Gorman will show up at the tour tonight?”

“We’ll find out real damn soon.”

025

Gorman wasn’t lying in wait at the tour substation. Instead, a crowd of thirty ghost tourists chattered loudly enough to wake the, um, dead.

Janie in a Victorian costume and Mick in his Spanish soldier suit hurried toward Saber and me, and someone in the crowd yelled,

“There she is!”

Saber thrust me behind him just as Janie and Mick reached us. Mick stood shoulder to shoulder with Saber against the stampede, and Janie huddled next to me.

“Back off, folks. Now.” Saber’s voice cracked across the space, and everyone froze.

“Wow, are you the bodyguard?”

“No, the boyfriend.”

The crowd laughed but fell back, and Mick spoke up.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is a ghost tour, not a rock concert. We need some order here.”

When the group energy downshifted from crazed to curious, I stepped from behind Saber and smoothed the skirt of my sapphire Regency gown.

“I’m delighted you all came out for the tour, but we do have a schedule to keep with the ghosts. So, please gather around me in an orderly fashion, and we’ll begin.”

I introduced Janie and Mick, and off we went without another incident. Okay, I did have writer’s cramp at the end of the evening from signing autographs. I felt like a fraud, impersonating a celebrity, but it would have been rude to refuse. Vampire superpowers I may not have, but I have manners in spades.

When the last tourist walked jauntily off, I hugged Janie and Mick.

“Thanks for your help, and for your anniversary gifts.”

“You thanked us in your phone message,” Janie teased. “I bet you sent a note, too, didn’t you?”

I nodded, and she rolled her eyes.

“You’re terminally polite, you know that?”

“You want crowd control help tomorrow, Cesca?” Mick asked. “I heard another thirty people signed up for that one.”

“You two don’t have something better to do?”

“Lots, but we can do that later, can’t we, Janie? It was kind of fun to be part of your entourage.”

I groaned. “Please, stop. I want this hubbub to die down.” We chatted a few minutes more, but Saber was getting antsy about the raid on Vlad’s place. After we’d parted, it dawned on me that Kevin Miller hadn’t been on the tour. Maybe he’d given up waiting for me to come back to work and had gone home, but my little voice nagged that something was off. 026

Candy was supposed to call with her raiding-Vlad’s-nest report, but hours dragged by while we waited. I gave halfhearted attention to my homework while Saber fidgeted, watched ESPN, played with Snowball until he wore her out, then paced. He was jumping out of his skin by the time midnight rolled around, but five minutes later, his cell rang. A quick check of caller ID, and he turned on the speaker.

“Candy, you guys good?” he asked.

A loud pop in the background, a little screech, and a curse crackled over the speaker. I shot out of my chair. One beat, two, and finally Candy spoke.

“Sorry, Saber. Crusher just opened some champagne all over me.”

I exhaled on a whoosh of breath as Saber pulled me down beside him. “I take it the night went well?”

“Well is relative. We’ve got some answers, and we’ve got Vlad in custody. That’s why I’m callin’ so late.”

“You made a capture, not a kill?”

“Got Vlad with a stun gun. I didn’t think it would work, but one of the guys on the task force nailed him. Once he was down, we got the silver shackles and guards on him and swept the building.”

“Candy, tell us what happened.”

“Us? Is Cesca there?” Candy laughed. “Well, a course she is. Okay, here’s the skinny.

“From what we got out of three different vamps, Marco is down your way. He put his tracker in some poor homeless guy who was probably more dead than alive to begin with. Vlad stuck him in a hole of a room where he died.”

I glanced at Saber and grimaced.

“So you’ve got Vlad on felony murder. Did the vamps tell you why Marco is in Florida?”

“Oh, yeah. Most of ’em couldn’t tell us enough, but Jemina is apparently a woman scorned, and she spilled that Marco’s workin’

with Laurel. She told us Vlad wanted Ike removed, and Marco went to do the job.”

“That fits our theory. You find any payment records to Vlad from Ike?”

“We found reams of records, and it’s fascinatin’ stuff. We also found at least a partial list of vamps who are rakin’ in tributes across the country, but this next part is weird.”

“Hit me.”

“The vamps in major nests are in turn makin’ payments to someone else. Someone higher, I have to assume. The amount varies, but it goes to an offshore account.”

“Shit.”

“By the truckloads. I’ve already got the forensic accounting team on this, but I don’t know how far they’ll get before the owner of the account finds out we’re tracing it.

“It’ll be closed and another one opened.”

“Yeah. The big question is, who or what could possibly have that much control over vampires?”

The madness,
Ray’s voice whispered in my head.

“The what?” Candy asked.

I blinked at Saber. “Did I say that out loud?”

Saber gave me a questioning look. “Yeah, you did. Are you getting something psychically?”

“I’m not sure how I got it,” I said, rubbing the goose bumps that erupted on my skin, “but I think it ties to what Ray told us on Monday.”

“Wait, people. Catch me up. Who is Ray?”

“Ray,” I began, “is a vamp who was Ike’s friend and attorney. Ike willed his worldly goods to Ray, so Ray takes over Ike’s nest.”

“Gotcha. Go on.”

“We interviewed him and the rest of Ike’s vamps on Monday night, and Ray told us privately that there was a madness affecting the major nest vampires. He didn’t elaborate, but you could tell he’s seriously alarmed.”

“I don’t suppose Laurel’s tracker is workin’,” Candy said.

“Negative, it appears to have been removed entirely. As of Monday, Ray had temporarily shut down the club, and he’s keeping his vamps nestbound.”

“No reports of activity that would point to Marco and Laurel bein’ on a rampage?”

“Been as quiet as a tomb.”

Candy was quiet a long minute.

“All right, here’s what we’ll do. I’ll hurry the forensic accounting team along, and you two see if you can get more information out of Ray. Crusher and I will work on Vlad, maybe even give him a chance to cut a deal if he’ll tell us what’s goin’ on. Meantime, I’m puttin’ out an alert to headquarters and every VPA office in the country.”

“You getting Homeland Security involved?” Saber asked.

“And the FBI and freakin’ CIA if I have to. We’ve got to bring these suckers down. Every last one of them.”

“Won’t Mr. Big with the offshore account just come after the next heads of nests?” I asked.

“Not if we can get one of the honchos to roll on this guy.” Candy sighed. “I’ll admit the chances of that are slim and none, but Slim ain’t left town yet. And, Saber, you need any backup, you call us. Crusher can be down there double time with half an army of his freelancers.”

“Good to know. We’ll talk to Ray tonight and check in if we learn anything new.”

Saber snapped the phone shut and tapped it on his knee. I didn’t like his speculative expression.

“Are we going to Daytona now?” I asked.

“No, I don’t want to disturb the perimeter Ray has set up.”

“What perimeter?”

“Except for last night during our date, I’ve been checking in with him.” His lips twitched. “Remember how vampires like to have psychics or witches in their camps?”

“I was one, and what’s funny about it?”

“It seems that Suzy is also a fairly powerful witch, and has set wards on the property.”

“Her witchy powers didn’t go haywire when she was turned?”

“Apparently not. That’s why I don’t want to go out in person, but if we call Ray to question him, you think you might be able to get in his head enough to read him?”

“I can try.”

Saber jerked his chin toward the computer. “Turn that off so the mail alert doesn’t ding.”

I did, and also grabbed a pad and pen as he dialed Ray. I didn’t know Saber had the number, but then I didn’t know the residence had a phone line.

“Nest residence,” Miranda said in her crisp British accent.

“Hello, Miranda, this is Saber. Is Ray available?”

“He has Tower engaged in a rousing game of chess, but let me call him, Mr. Saber.”

Tower played chess? Suzy the vampire cheerleader was a witch?
I was starting to feel like an underachiever.

“Saber, is there any news?”

“That’s why I’m calling. Vlad is in custody, and the vamps in his nest are cooperating with the VPA.”

“And they have confirmed what?”

“Vlad wanted Ike out. He sent the vamp we told you about, Marco, to work with Laurel and get the job done.”

“Marco is the one who is immune to silver?”

“If the reports are true, yes.”

“Are Laurel and this Marco still at large?”

“’Fraid so. The VPA in Florida is on alert. I notified the agency Monday that they were Rampants, but these two are flying off the radar.”

“So it is advisable to keep the nest secure?”

“Yeah, though you might be able to help us get a break if you’re willing to help.”

Ray paused. “Help how?”

Saber gave me the high sign to turn on the mind probing, but I was already there. Not picking up anything yet, but tuning in as best I could. I doodled on the pad to clear my mind.

“You mentioned that the upper-level vampires, the ones running the bigger nests, were being afflicted in some way. You called it a madness, but can you be more specific?”

“Un momento.”

We heard footsteps, voices in the background, then a door closing before Ray spoke again.

“You understand I can only give you my observations, yes?”

“That’s fine,” Saber said. “Anything to go on will help.”

“Rico—that is, Richardo, the head of the South Beach nest—could be somewhat fearsome, but was stable in temperament.”

I closed my eyes and let Ray’s voice wash over me.

“Months ago, perhaps in October, Rico became more erratic in his behavior. At first, he lashed out at his nestlings over small matters that he shrugged off in the past. Then he grew more easily enraged, meting out harsh punishment to those who would before have been given only a reprimand.”

“Did he feel his authority was being challenged?”

“I do not think so, and yet he grew to be more and more paranoid, especially since March. I began to hear the same thing from vampires in other major nests. Their leaders were following a similar pattern.”

“Besides Ike asking you to investigate Laurel, was there anything in particular that made you leave?”

“Rico was becoming insular. Seeing only his advisors.”

Of which Ray was one. I slid into his memories and watched as he entered a large, dark chamber. A magnificent chandelier hung in the center of the room, yet only a few candles lit the room. Rico sat in a high-backed armchair crowded into a corner. No windows ran along those walls, though both the other walls were lined with windows. I had the impression of a fabulous mansion that had once bathed in the south Florida sun. Now shadows crept along the floors, an oozing, oily fog.

“What happened when you asked to leave?” Saber asked.

I flinched as the scene unfolded in Ray’s memory. Rico rose from his armchair, and the candlelight caught his gaunt face. He gestured wildly and shouted in Spanish about Ramon’s betrayal. Ramon—Ray—assured Rico he would return; Rico wouldn’t hear him. He backhanded Ray, but the blow that should’ve launched Ray across the room barely snapped his head to the side.
Rico is starving. His energy is being drained.

I wrote the words on the pad without conscious thought, without even opening my eyes, but Saber must have seen it.

“Did you notice physical differences in Rico? Did his habits change? Did he seem to age?”

Ray sighed. “You remember when some of the independently living Miami vampires disappeared?”

“Yes.”

I remembered, too, because Saber had gone to Miami to investigate right after we started dating.

“Rico—”

Ray broke off, but the scene in his mind kept playing. Vampires and a few humans who seemed to be spouses were dragged before Rico. If the vampires would join his nest, he would spare them. Those who resisted . . . I snapped my eyes open and clutched at Saber’s good arm, but it was too late to stop the images of blood spurting as Rico tore out their throats.

“Let me simply say Rico was feeding more often, and yet the feedings did not sustain his energy.”

“Damn it to hell.”

“So it would seem,” Ray replied. “I have shared with you. What are you not sharing with me?”

“Before I tell you, let me ask you one more thing. Does Rico have an accountant?”

“One who is a vampire, yes. He was one of Rico’s advisors. Or I suppose he still is, if he lives.”

“Did this vampire mention Rico was paying another vamp?”

“He did not know who Rico paid, but money transfers were made.”

“To an offshore account?” Saber pressed.

“Yes. What have you found?”

“The raid on Vlad’s nest turned up records of payments from minor nests to him, and from him to an offshore account. The feds are tracing it, but would you speculate that whatever controls the account is responsible for this madness thing?”

“
Madre de
—It is
la oscuridad
, Saber. The darkness. I can say only two more things. Do not be surprised if the account disappears.”

“Yeah, we’re figuring that’s a good possibility.”

“I would call it a certainty. Tell the princess that I allowed her to see into my memories so she will recognize the black fog. The darkness. Do not let it consume her.”

“Black fog?” Saber paused. “Ray?”

The line was dead.

I collapsed back on the couch as Saber shut the cell phone and then pulled me into his arms.

“What the hell did you see?”