Murder in Vein (2010) (29 page)

Samuel chuckled softly.

They rode in silence for several minutes before Samuel
glanced Madison's way. "Are you upset because you saw Colin
biting that woman or because he wasn't biting you?"

"What?" Madison shifted in her seat to look at Samuel. He
certainly wasn't one for beating around the bush. "I'm upset
because I was nearly kidnapped-for a second time in less than
a week, I might add. And Colin-who was supposed to have my
back-was nowhere around."

They stopped at a red light. Samuel looked at her. She
squirmed in her seat and looked away, knowing he could read
her like a neon sign.

"That is a good reason to be upset, yes. But it's not what's on
your mind right now, is it?"

Madison shrugged. It was dawn. The sky was gray but full of
bright promise. They were driving along Pacific Coast Highway,
with the ocean to their left. She concentrated on the sea, trying
to replace the picture of Colin and Miriam in her mind with the
serenity of the waves.

"It won't work, you know." Samuel moved the car forward
when the light turned green.

"What won't work?"

"Trying to block me out. No matter what you're thinking now,
I'll just skip over it and read your past thoughts."

"That's just plain annoying, you know that?" Madison crossed
her arms and sulked.

"Maybe. But I find it very useful."

"Then why bother asking me anything?" Madison snapped.
"Just read away."

"I'd rather hear it from you. I want you to express your feelings, not bottle them up. It's healthier for you and will help calm
you down-which, in turn, will help our progress"

"Colin gave me a cup of tea to calm me down. He didn't try
to play psychiatrist." She turned her head in Samuel's direction.
"And considering I'm a sneeze away from death, who gives a rat's
ass about what's healthier?" As a thought occurred to her, she
added, "Can you also read Colin's thoughts?"

Samuel shook his head. "It's something I can only do with the
living."

"Lucky us."

Again, Samuel let out a soft laugh. "You're avoiding my
question."

"Which was? Oh yeah, the biting thing" Madison rolled her
eyes. Samuel already knew the answer, but he was going to make
her say it. "A little of both, I guess. I was upset about Colin biting
Miriam and maybe I wanted to know what it felt like. You know,
to be bitten for real"

"And what about the sex? Did you also want to have sex with
Colin?"

"Yes," she answered with the bluntness of an axe hitting
wood. "At least at the time I saw him with Miriam. It was a creepy
sort of turn-on, although it repulsed me at the same time." She
paused. "Does that make sense?"

Samuel nodded. "Yes. It's quite normal, in fact."

"I'm normal? Who knew?"

"The behavior is quite normal," Samuel clarified. "You, on the
other hand, are a bundle of contradictions. Pain. Hope. Anger. Vulnerable. Tough. Even sweet at times." He glanced at her.
"Which is also quite normal, considering your background."

"When we get to the Dedhams', I'll stretch out on the sofa and
you can analyze me for real. Do you charge by the hour or by the
decade?"

"Sarcasm," Samuel added. "I forgot to list defensive sarcasm."

They had turned away from the ocean and were heading into
the Topanga area, getting closer to the Dedhams'.

"You know, Madison," Samuel said after a few moments of
silence. "If a vampire bites you, you won't die. Not unless the
vampire wants to kill you."

"Like you killed those girls when you first turned?"

"Yes" Samuel's voice was solemn when he answered. "Who
told you that? Dodie?"

"Pauline. She told me you killed the daughters of the man
who blinded you. At least she said that's what people say about
you.

"And what else has Mrs. Speakes told you?"

"That you were enslaved as a young boy and lived in Egypt
during Roman times. That you were blinded by your master
when you were a young man. It that true?"

"Mostly, except that I was blinded while very young." Samuel
kept his eyes on the road while he talked. "The father of the girls
I killed had raped and killed my mother, right in front of me,
when I was a boy. He blinded me after making me watch, then he
sold me into slavery."

Madison shivered at the thought, then sat silent for a
moment. "You raped them, didn't you?" she asked, not looking at
Samuel. "Pauline said you made the man watch while you killed his daughters. But you made him watch while you raped and
killed them." Her tone was accusatory.

"Yes"

"So the daughters paid for their father's sins. Hardly seems
fair."

"No, it wasn't fair, but life isn't about what's fair, anymore
now than then. Was it fair that my mother was raped and murdered? Or that I was sold into slavery?" Samuel glanced at her.
"Was it fair that you were raped repeatedly as a child?"

Madison didn't answer, just wrapped her arms around herself
and squeezed.

"Fair is best left on the athletic field," Samuel continued. "Life
isn't a game, Madison. Neither is an undead life."

Again, Madison was quiet with her thoughts.

"Yes," Samuel said, answering the unspoken question in
Madison's head. "That is why I backed off that night at your first
council meeting. In you I saw my mother and those girls. You
have been harmed enough."

They rode the last few miles to the Dedham home in silence.
Once in the driveway, Samuel turned off the car's engine. "They're
not home yet. I have some things to tell them and you together.
Things Colin and I decided."

"You're going to kill Ethan and Ben, aren't you?" In the
shadowy light of the car, Madison studied Samuel, looking for
nuances in his facial expressions. She found none.

"You already know the answer, Madison, so why ask the
question?"

"Because I want hear to it from you."

Samuel took off his glasses and latched his murky eyes onto
Madison's brown ones. She couldn't have looked away if she'd tried. "The council has already sentenced to death whoever is
behind these killings. If Ethan Young, Lilith, and Ben are, in fact,
the killers, then they will be dealt with by extermination."

"You make them sound like vermin."

"Aren't they?"

Remembering Geoff and the corpses of the dead women,
Madison agreed. "Yes, they are."

Madison unbuckled her seat belt and started to open the car
door. Samuel placed a hand on her arm, stopping her. "To answer
your other question," he said to her. "Yes, I wanted you last night,
Madison. But I would never again take a woman by force. I currently enjoy the social and sexual company-and, yes, even the
blood-of a couple of young, beautiful women. They come to
me willingly. I wouldn't have it any other way." The two of them
looked into each other's eyes but said nothing until Samuel patted her arm and let it go. "You're cold. Let's get you inside."

When the Dedhams returned home from their surveillance
job, they had nothing to report from their evening. Kyle Patterson went straight home after leaving the diner and stayed there
all night. He and his wife had a mild fight, watched some TV, and
went to bed shortly before eleven. He never left the house again
until about daybreak, when they followed him back to the diner.
Gordon took over the shadowing from there.

"But," said Dodie, "I did get an interesting call from Stacie while we were watching Mr. Patterson. She said one of her
homeless clients was babbling about seeing people getting killed.
He was telling everyone that vampires were running wild in Los
Angeles."

The news got everyone's attention except for Doug, who'd
heard the call in the car.

"Did Stacie find out anything more?" asked Samuel.

"She couldn't. She said there were too many people around.
She said no one believed him, of course, and thought he was
drunk. Before she could spend any time alone with him, he'd run
off."

"We need to find that man," said Samuel, his voice thick with
authority.

"Stacie thinks she knows where he stays," Dodie continued.
"It's some alley not far from where they hold the legal clinic. She's
going back there tonight when there are fewer people around."

"Good," Samuel said, his voice a little more relaxed. "I'll give
her a call tonight and check in on it."

Samuel lifted the glass of blood Dodie served him and
drained it. Dodie and Doug were still working on theirs. Madison was slowly munching her way through a bowl of cereal and
milk. She was getting used to seeing glasses of dark red liquid.
The four of them were seated at the Dedham kitchen table, going
over the various events of the evening.

"Colin and Madison are going back to Bloodlust tonight,"
Samuel told them.

This was news to Madison. She dropped the spoon she was
holding into the bowl. It hit the side of the stoneware with a
clang. "Are you kidding?"

Samuel turned to her. "Pretend that you know nothing about
their plans-that you left the club angry because you found
Colin with Miriam."

Madison wasn't convinced it was a sound plan. "If we had a
fight, won't they find it odd that we're there together again?"

Samuel shrugged. "You patched it up. Couples do that. Just
don't seem overly lovey-dovey. Give Ethan the impression that
you really returned to see him again."

"Colin and I were never very lovey-dovey."

Without comment, Samuel continued. "Colin will be watching you every second"

Madison started to say something snotty, but Samuel saw it
coming and cut her off.

"Don't worry," Samuel assured her with a half grin. "He'll be
covering you even if half the club slits their wrists in front of
him." He turned to Doug. "You're to go to Bloodlust tonight, too,
but separate from them. I want you to observe everything. Be a
second set of eyes on Madison."

"Won't someone of my age seem out of place?"

Madison shook her head. "There were several old-I mean
mature-guys there last night. Most of them hung out at the bar."

"Considering I'm over two hundred years old," Doug said
with a wide smile, "you can say old."

"Isabella is back in town," Samuel continued. "She'll be covering Lilith at Fang Me."

"What about me?" asked Dodie, eager to get into the action.

"You're heading to Dark Tidings tonight," Samuel instructed
Dodie. "Colin said that Tuesdays and Thursdays are when Lady
Harriet conducts her coven meetings and poetry readings. I want
to see if that Ben character shows up there again. Madison will
give you a full description of him. Tell Lady Harriet that Colin
referred you to the coven; that should get you in. Also keep an
eye on Lady Harriet. Since she has a bloodline, she might be in
danger, though I keep thinking they would have grabbed her by
now, since she's so accessible to them"

Dodie nodded, her face set in determination.

Samuel leaned back in his chair. "By this time tomorrow,
I want Ben, Ethan, and Lilith in our custody and answering
questions."

"Why don't we just call Mike Notchey' Madison suggested,
and tell him what I heard?"

Samuel shook his head. "From this point on, Mike's out of
this."

"But it's his job," Madison persisted.

Samuel leaned forward. "There are some things, Madison,
that we can't involve Mike in. He already goes far out on a limb
for us."

Madison still did not see his point. "But he can take them into
custody and interrogate them."

"That's right," Doug said. "And maybe they will be brought to
justice, but probably not. And if Ethan and Ben are not the ones
pulling the strings, we might never find out who is. Remember
the suspect the police already have in jail now? He's not talking.
Ethan and Ben, even Lilith, might give the police the silent treatment, and then we'll learn nothing."

Samuel placed a hand on Madison's arm. "Remember what
we talked about in the car, about the council's decision?" When a
light of remembrance shone in Madison's eyes, Samuel knew she
understood. "Mike can't be involved in that. He can't even know
about it, at least not directly. He's not a stupid man. He'll know,
I'm sure, but he cannot be involved."

Finally, Madison saw the situation through their eyes.

Doug lifted his head as if sniffing the air. "Do you hear that?"
he asked Dodie. The Dedhams cocked their heads like dogs hearing a silent whistle. "I've heard it a couple of times now."

"It sounds like a cell phone ring," said Dodie. "It's coming
from upstairs."

"That must be my phone," said Madison without concern.
"Bet it's Kyle, asking me to come back to work before Monday."

Dodie asked, "Aren't you going to answer it?"

Madison shrugged. "Why? I'm not going back yet, and if I
don't answer he'll find someone else to fill in. I'm really not in
the mood to hear him beg this morning."

Doug was still listening for the phone. "It stopped, then
started again. Someone is really trying to reach you, Madison."

"It might be Mike," suggested Dodie. "If he thinks we've gone
to bed, he may be calling you with some news."

Realizing that might be true, Madison trotted upstairs to find
her phone. Several minutes later she returned holding it, her face
white.

"It wasn't Mike or Kyle," she told them. "It was my landlord.
Someone has broken into my apartment and trashed it."