Necromancing Nim (13 page)

He was silent a moment, watching me doctor his hand. His gaze on me seemed tangible, as if he were stroking my hair. Finally, he said quietly, “I’m sorry this happened.”

I stared resolutely at his palm, at the bandages. “You couldn’t have known they’d come here.”

He shook his head. “I should have worked harder to protect you. I had no idea Pieter could still have a bond with the stone after all this time, but that’s the only way he could have traced it here.”

Finished with my nursing, I laid down the gauze and tape. Colin’s hands could have been tended by a five-year-old, the gauze wrapped unevenly, the tape overlapping in places where it shouldn’t have overlapped. A medical professional I am not. “Well, since I’m in danger anyway, maybe you can tell me what it is.”

He was silent for several seconds, slowly opening and closing his hands as if to test either the bandages or the extent of his healing. Or maybe he was just killing time. “It’s a mystical object, and it’s powerful.” He sounded reluctant, as if he didn’t want to tell me anything about it.

“Nice. What does it do?”

He shook his head slightly. “Sebastian will be here soon—I’d rather let him explain.”

“Why?”

“I just would.” He sighed. “I assume it’s still here?”

“I haven’t touched the damn thing, and obviously they didn’t find it.” I nodded toward the unconscious vamp. “So it has to be here somewhere.”

Nodding, Colin seemed about to say something, but just then a knock fell on the door, and at the same time, Unfortunate Vampire Number Three moaned and opened his eyes.

“You get the door,” Colin said brusquely. “I’ll deal with him.”

It was, of course, Sebastian who had knocked on the door. He gave me an intense once-over that I would have taken exception to from anyone else. It felt like hands stroking me. This was…weird. First my body pinging when Colin paid attention to me, and now pinging when Sebastian did…well, just about anything. There was no way this could end well. At least not according to conventional wisdom. Conventional wisdom said I should pick one. Or walk away before things got ugly. “Are you okay?”

“Not so much,” I informed him. “Come in. Join the stupid party.”

Colin had tied up Unfortunate Vampire Number Three. He looked up as Sebastian entered. Emotion flickered across his face as he assessed Sebastian in much the same way Sebastian had assessed me. He seemed satisfied with what he saw and gave a curt nod.

“You know this guy?” Colin asked Sebastian.

Sebastian went to stand by Colin, then shook his head and settled wearily onto one of the kitchen chairs. Whatever energy reserves he’d had earlier in the night seemed to have drained right out of him. I wondered how he’d gotten here. Some vampire way, I assumed. Or maybe he’d taken the car, and that was why it had taken him longer than it had Colin. “Never seen him before.”

Colin kicked the bound vamp none too gently in the thigh. “What’s your name?”

“Dex,” the vamp answered.

“That’s a stupid name,” Colin stated. He dropped to a squat in front of the other vampire, bandaged hands folded loosely in front of him.

“So sorry you don’t approve.”

I realized my hands were still shaking. I grabbed a couch cushion from the floor—they’d only tossed them around rather than slitting them open as I’d feared—and went to sit on the couch where I could watch without being too close to the proceedings. I’d had about enough of the bad guys for the day. Had had about enough of the good guys too, for that matter. My emotions were boinging around like they were on some sort of bungee cord.

Sebastian considered the bound vamp with shrewd eyes. “You’re searching for the stone?”

“No,” Dex shot back, “we’re hunting Easter eggs.”

“Don’t be lame, Dex,” Colin chided. “It’s October.”

“Also not funny,” Sebastian added. “What made you think the stone was here?”

“Pieter. He could, I dunno, smell it or something.”

Sebastian nodded. “Right.” He sighed and was silent a moment, as if mulling, or brooding. I hoped he wasn’t brooding. That would be a stupid waste of time at this point, no matter how good he was at it.

“Where’s Pieter now?” Colin demanded.

“Ran off, didn’t he? When you showed up.”

Colin clenched his teeth. “You know what I mean. Where’s he holing up?”

“Downtown.”

“Care to be a little more specific?”

“Can’t.” At Colin’s baleful glare, he added, “Really, I can’t. He packs up every night. Moves to another building.”

“Where was he last night?” Sebastian queried.

“Abandoned warehouse over in Aurora.”

“Address?”

“I dunno. Sixteen hundred block, maybe.”

“Nice. Of what street?” Colin was in Dex’s face now, and I saw a hint of fang glinting past my boss’s lips.

“Colfax? Sixth Avenue? How the hell do I know?”

“Not very helpful.” Colin’s voice had taken on a growl that almost scared even me.

“Doesn’t matter,” said Sebastian. “He’ll be somewhere else tonight.” He nodded toward Dex, milder than Colin but no less frightening. “He’ll be able to find him, though. Pissant minion that he is, he’ll have no choice.”

This seemed to disturb Dex. “I’m not a minion!”

I supposed I wouldn’t have appreciated being called a minion, either, although in Dex’s case the description seemed accurate. Funny how he didn’t seem to mind the “pissant” part.

I leaned back in the couch. I was weary, drained. Aftereffects of the adrenaline rush, I supposed. I’d been having far too many of those lately. I wondered if my adrenal glands could just explode randomly someday.

“Right,” Colin said. “You’ll go back to Pieter, then, and you’ll tell him that if he touches this woman again”—he pointed at me without taking his attention off Dex, who was finally starting to act intimidated—“I will hunt him down and kill him. And by ‘kill him’, I don’t mean an easy beheading or a stake to the heart. I mean I’m going to tie him up in my basement and spool his guts out every night just for fun, and then put them back in upside down, then do the same thing the next night, and the next, until I get bored. Then I’m going to put him in a tub full of holy water and watch him melt down the drain. You got that?”

Dex had gone pale—no mean feat for a vampire. I couldn’t blame him. Colin’s threat had been pretty quease-inducing. Although it kind of gave me a warm fuzzy to think my boss would torture evil vampires for my sake. It almost sounded like he was admitting to the whole world that he liked me. Was that wrong? I don’t think so.

My neck itched, and I scratched it absently. The bite was scabbing over, and it was bumpy and sore. And starting to ache. I laid my hand flat against the wound. It was hot and swollen, throbbing. I supposed that must be normal for vampire bites. I couldn’t be sure, as, in spite of dealing with irate vampires almost every night, I’d never been bitten before.

“Could you get me some ice?” I asked, fairly sure Colin was done with his rant. “My neck hurts.”

Colin looked up. Dex looked down. Sebastian frowned at me. Colin, noticing Dex’s shift, grabbed him by the chin and jerked his head up. “Who bit her?” he snapped.

Dex’s attempt at a threatening sneer lost most of its impact with Colin smooshing his face. “Who do you think?”

Colin backhanded him, hard. Dex’s head cracked back against the table with a sickening thunk. He shook his head, dazed.

“Was it Pieter?” Colin made the question tightly urgent. What the hell? One vampire bite was pretty much like another. I didn’t see what difference it made which one of the freaks had bitten me.

“Of course it was,” Dex said.

“Shit.” Colin grabbed Dex by his collar and smacked his head back into the table, this time hard enough to knock him unconscious again. Then he crossed the room to me in two impossibly long strides and grasped my chin in his hand.

I flinched, part of me expecting him to smoosh my face and knock me unconscious too, I supposed, although why would he do that? It would just cost him sick leave and insurance premiums, and I’d probably sue him too. But there was something so darkly intense in his eyes it was hard not to read baleful intent in them. Until I met his gaze and realized it was concern. No, more than concern. Fear.

He acknowledged my small jump with a soft, “Shh.” His hand was unexpectedly gentle on my chin as he tilted it up, examining the bite wound beneath. Over his shoulder, I saw Sebastian approach as well, his face creased with a deep frown.

“Oh dear,” he said gently, and that was enough. I panicked.

“What? What is it? Dammit, what’s wrong?”

Colin’s hand landed softly on my shoulder. “Pieter bit you.” His voice was as soft as his touch, and that scared me shitless. “That’s what’s wrong.”

“I don’t understand.” I blinked back sudden, fearful tears, thinking of Therese. She hadn’t just been bitten, though—she’d been turned. “It’s just a vampire bite, right?”

Colin patted my shoulder awkwardly. “No, it’s not. But don’t worry. It’ll be okay.”

Sebastian gave him a look. Colin glared back at him. “You drove, right?” At Sebastian’s nod, Colin pushed back to his feet. “I’ll get this idiot into the car, then we’ll all sit down, and I’ll explain.”

I didn’t want to wait. I wanted to know now. I closed my eyes a moment, trying to gather some thread of composure. Sebastian came to sit next to me on the couch, his demeanor tired, embarrassed, chagrined—exhausted, I finally let myself admit. Whatever had been happening—aside from his brush with death—it was taking its toll on him. Trouble was, if I saw him that way—tired, pushed to the limit—it was harder to be upset with him. He reached out and took my hand, folding it between both of his.

Colin hefted Dex over his shoulder and took him outside. I heard a car trunk slam; then Colin came back in. The trunk. Good grief. He’d put Dex in the trunk. We were a collections agency, not the Mafia. We didn’t put people in the trunk.

“Somebody needs to tell me what the hell is going on,” I said, and my voice shook. I hoped no one else heard it, but Sebastian laid a comforting hand on my shoulder. I shrugged it off, shrinking into myself.

Colin commandeered the seat on the couch next to me. “This is all about the stone.”

“What is it, anyway? It was just…a lump of rock.”

“It’s a powerful piece of magic,” Sebastian said, rubbing the bridge of his nose wearily. “I’m so very sorry I dragged you into this. I shouldn’t have—”

“Just shut up with the apologies,” I snapped. “I don’t want to hear that shit right now. It’s too late, and it doesn’t do any of us any good. Just tell me what the stupid stone is, and tell me why you’re both so freaked out that this Pieter guy bit me.”

“The stone can make a vampire immortal,” Colin said flatly. Good. Somebody finally had the balls to dish out some answers.

However—

“Vampires are already immortal,” I pointed out, amazed I could come up with even that piece of logic with the way my head was spinning.

“Even more immortal,” Colin amended. “The vampire using the stone can drink holy water, go out in the sun, can’t be staked or beheaded. They’re untouchable.”

I raised an eyebrow. It seemed every vampire mythology had some kind of artifact along those lines. I’d never believed any of them were real. “So how come you guys aren’t using it to take these creeps out?”

“It’s complicated magic.” Sebastian took up the explanation. “It has to be embedded inside the heart, with an accompanying ritual. It’s all very messy.”

“I’d think if a vamp wanted to, say, become the king of vamp-land, it’d be worth it.” The wound on my neck itched and throbbed and burned. I pressed my fingers against it, making a face.

Colin got up, his fingers trailing across my shoulder as he moved, and went to the kitchen. Sebastian watched him worriedly, then turned back to me. He was very, very calm, which was starting to make me very, very anxious.

“Yes,” he said. “That’s why I’ve had it for the last half century. Colin and I gained possession of it through a series of rather unpleasant events. I’ve had it ever since, under lock and key so no one would be able to use it.”

Colin came back holding a wet dishcloth, which he handed to me. I nodded surprised thanks and pressed the cold cloth against my neck. It took the edge off the discomfort.

“And then somebody found out you had it,” I added.

Sebastian nodded. “Somehow. They’d been after me for a time in New York. I took everything and uprooted to Colorado, hoping they wouldn’t be able to track me, but they did. Now I know how they found me in the first place.”

“How?”

“Pieter,” said Colin.

“He was the vamp who had it when I initially took possession of it. He had it inside him for a time. I assume that allowed him to track it.”

“We thought we’d killed him,” Colin said. “Apparently, we didn’t quite.”

“Apparently not,” I said. “So now…what’s the rest of it? This guy bit me—why is that bad? I mean, other than the way any vampire bite is bad?”

Colin and Sebastian exchanged a glance. The eye-to-eye communication made me bristle. No fair, them leaving me out of stuff just because they’d known each other since dinosaurs walked the earth. “Hey,” I snapped. “Just tell me. Quit with the beating-around-the-bush shit.”