Real Vampires Know Size Matters (17 page)

“I gave you money for food.” I let her go, refusing to feel guilty. When Aggie had complained I hadn’t given her enough cash, I’d ignored her, figuring she was just being greedy. Maybe prices
had
gone up since I’d shopped for steaks and snacks for Valdez.

“That pitiful amount you spotted me barely covered staples. You expect me to live on bread and water?” Aggie sniffed. “Those diet dinners don’t come cheap.”

“Wait a minute.” I wasn’t buying into this guilt trip. I stomped over to the kitchen and pulled on the freezer door. “Staples? Since when is a premium brand of ice cream a staple?” I opened a cabinet. “Hah! There are three kinds of chips in here, even Cheetos.” I whirled on her. Had someone told her I’d had a thing once for those little orange puffs?

“What? We didn’t get junk food where I came from. Fancy banquets can be such a drag. I . . .” Aggie shut up at what must have been a wild look in my eyes as I pulled open a drawer.

“Look at all this candy! What did you do? Hit the Halloween treat aisle?” My mouth watered. Chocolate.

“Uh, yeah. What if we get trick-or-treaters? That’s all they were talking about at the grocery store.” Aggie’s food tray was shaking.

“Trick-or-treaters?” My voice rose. “Are you freaking kidding me? Here? Where vampires live and there are double dead bolts on every door? You have to have a code to even get in this building, Aggie!” I ran my hands over a particularly delicious-looking bar. Dark chocolate, the label said, with coconut and almonds. The reminders of my unfair life made me whirl around and land in front of Aggie again, my vamp powers in overdrive.

“You took money from my mother and now you’re torturing me.” I thumped her on the shoulder with my fist. “Traitor! Ingrate! I brought you into my home. Gave you a roof over your head when you had nowhere else to go.”

“Ow! That hurt!” Aggie cringed and rubbed her shoulder. “I’m sorry, Glory. I didn’t think about you when I bought that stuff, I swear. Just me. I wanted it. Even though it’s not on my diet.”

“It’s sure as hell not.” I could smell that chocolate from where I stood, inches from Aggie. I jerked her stupid diet dinner from her hand and practically threw it on the coffee table. What a farce. Expensive diet dinners followed by who knew how many trips to the kitchen for snacks. No wonder she wasn’t losing weight. I imagined Aggie enjoying a bag of Cheetos and snarled.

“Glory, calm down!” Aggie scooted to the other end of the couch and looked like she wanted to make a run for her bedroom.

“Stay put, we aren’t done.” I blocked her escape route.

She shook and held a hand to her throat. “Are you going to kill me? Over my food choices?”

“If I did kill you, it would be because you plotted against me, with my mother.” I frowned down at the scratch on my boot. “Did she tell you what to buy at the store? She’s probably trying to make me regret being a vampire. This would be just like her.”

“I don’t know. I got a craving. Hebe has the power . . .” Aggie kept staring at me. “Shit, look at your big honkin’ fangs. I get it. I’m just a weak mortal now. At your mercy.” A tear ran down her cheek. “Okay, I was wrong. I shouldn’t have listened to Hebe. But she was the one who gave me a chance to be with Ian and she freed me from Achelous.” Big tears were rolling now, dripping off the end of her chin. “Come on, Glory. Surely you can relate. I
had
to get away from that controlling son of a bitch. And you don’t take a favor from a powerful goddess without expecting to pay her back.”

Well, well. For once, Aggie did look scared. I realized her mortal blood had taken over in the delicious smell contest and my fangs
were
fully extended. I wasn’t about to do something stupid and had never been a killer anyway. Obviously Aggie was as much a victim of my mother’s plotting as I was.

“Aggie, you drive me nuts.” I fell back into a chair and took a steadying breath. “I thought you had a goal. To get into Flo’s size-six cast-offs.”

Aggie wouldn’t look at me as she wiped tears off her face. “I do. I’m desperate to lose weight. But it’s so
hard
.”

I could see she meant it. “I know. I’m sorry. Look. You’re a good size right now. Own it, work it and quit obsessing about the stupid diet. I’ll give you a few more things from the shop if you’ll stop worrying about the size number in the label and concentrate on being proud of yourself now.”

“I can’t.” Aggie’s wail was straight from her heart. “Glory, size matters. I want to hook up with a guy who’ll take care of me. When I was a Siren, the Storm God handled everything. If I’m little and cute, I’ll stand a better chance of snagging a rich man.” She sniffled. “Look at you, vampire, able to do stuff like freeze people, shape-shift, scare me shitless. I’m just an ordinary human now. You have no idea how helpless that makes me feel.”

I gritted my teeth. Okay, I got it. Before I’d decided to use my powers, I’d acted like her for years, no, centuries. But I’d grown past that now. And there were plenty of mortals who managed to take charge of their lives and they didn’t have power one.

If my own powers were suddenly stripped away, would I be so sure I could handle things on my own? I did a gut check. Hell, yes. I could take care of myself now. My dependent days were over.

I studied Aggie. She’d been a force to be reckoned with for centuries. I had a feeling that pushy broad was still in there somewhere.

“Get a grip, Aggie. I’ve never known a woman more capable of handling herself than you. Quit looking for someone else to take care of you and look inside. You have what it takes to make it on your own. You’re smart, beautiful—not that that matters—and talented. You
have
skills, lady, you just need to discover them.”

Aggie’s mouth quivered. “Skills? I get it. You want me to turn tricks? Those are the only skills I’ve got and you know it. Sex. Sirens are famous for it.”

“No!” I jumped up and gave her shoulders a shake. “Stop it. Sex isn’t all you know. I’m thinking you must be pretty smart and I know you’re manipulative. There’s got to be some way to make that work for you. You can still sing too, can’t you? Even though it isn’t magical, it’s a good skill.”

Aggie firmed her mouth and I could see the wheels turning. “Hey, maybe you’re right, Glory. I know I’m sick of my own whining. Part of it was to bug you. Hebe had me do it.” She brushed aside my hands and slapped her fork down on her unfinished dinner on the coffee table. “Of course I have a line of fancy patter I can use when I need to. I could even wrap the Storm God around my finger from time to time. Ian admitted I was smart too. Yes, my voice
is
golden. Maybe I could get a singing gig. We’re here on Sixth Street where there are a dozen clubs open every night needing entertainment.” She took a deep breath, her robe rising and reminding me she had a good figure that an audience would appreciate.

“There you go. So you’re not powerless.” I could easily imagine her in one of the clubs, tossing her blond hair as she sang.

“Damn it, I’m going to cut my hours at that bastard Ian’s house and start looking for something else. A way to make money on my own.” She grinned and winked.

“Cut your hours? Won’t his men tell on you?” I knew she was supposed to work a certain number a day, according to their agreement.

“Naw. His day guards are putty in my hands. I think they feel kind of sorry for me.” Aggie got up and stretched.

“Really?”

“Don’t sound so surprised. Like you said, I can be manipulative when I need to.” Aggie polished her nails on her robe and fluttered her eyelashes. “They even let me watch my shows, the
Real Housewives
reruns, every afternoon after lunch. It’s not like Ian’s house is really dirty, and he won’t let me touch his lab.”

I had a creepy feeling that Aggie’s manipulation used more than charm to get the shape-shifters who watched Ian during his death sleep to give her breaks. I started to read her mind then decided the fewer details I knew the less grossed out I’d be.

“Okay then. Maybe you’ll find a second job that you can do in the evenings.” I was for anything that would get her out of the house when I was awake.

“First, though, I’ll do a little shopping downstairs tonight. Thanks, Glory. I figured once your mom outted me I’d be toast here.” She stopped in the hall doorway. “I’m in the mood for a long soak. I hope you aren’t planning to use the bathroom anytime soon.”

“No, go ahead.” Bathing. That reminded me. “Don’t use the alley. I saw a, um, rat out there. Huge.” I had to give her the warning before she disappeared into the bathroom. Sure, I’d like her out of here, but I wasn’t desperate enough to make her a zombie sacrifice.

I stared down at her dirty dinner tray, then thought about what she’d said. What was wrong with me? Aggie
should
have been toast. Instead I was giving her good advice. I could almost hear my mother’s laughter. And what about Mom’s conviction that she’d never let Mel hurt me? Really? What if the witch came after me when Mom was “busy”? She seemed able to tune in and out of my life at will.

I picked up the book Madame had sent me and glanced at the page marked with a slip of paper. I was going ahead with this plan. Too bad there were enough ingredients to create Frankenstein’s monster. And how on earth was I going to find all this stuff? Maybe my mother was right and I had no business messing with voodoo. When someone knocked on the apartment door, I jumped and ran to the peephole, careful to look before I threw the lock.

“Rafe. I wondered where you were. I thought you were supposed to stay here during the day.” I opened the door.

“I was here. When I got your text that you were with Blade, I slept on the couch, but left as soon as Sienna woke up. I had a few things to do at the club before I could come tonight. Plus I wanted to go home and shower, pick up a few things.” He came in with a duffel bag. “Everything okay?” He sniffed the air. “What’s that smell?”

“A combo of spaghetti and peanut sauce. Aggie’s diet dinners.” I locked the door behind him. “I need to go down to the shop tonight. Are you sure you can spare the time away from the club?”

“No problem. But if you can see your way clear to go over to N-V for an hour or two later, it would help me out.” He rummaged in the kitchen and came out with the carton of ice cream. “Is this part of Aggie’s diet?”

“She’s struggling. Do her a favor and finish that off. There are Cheetos and candy in there too.” I sat on the couch. “I can go to the club. First I want to wait for Jerry to come by. He’s leaving tonight for Miami, to do some checking on the voodoo woman. He had a bad encounter with her last night and we decided it might be best for him to leave town for a while.” I told Rafe about the drug, leaving out the date rape. I knew Jerry wouldn’t appreciate Rafe knowing that detail.

“No way. She made him forget the whole night? That’s harsh.” Rafe spooned up chocolate ice cream. “Yeah, leaving town is a good idea. We know Mel’s stuck here and we can scope her out at that seminar. Did that book come?”

“Yes, but look at these ingredients.” I picked up the book and opened the page. “New leaves from a baobob tree. Three legs of a Peruvian cave whip scorpion. A feather from a pileated woodpecker.” I moaned. “I could go on and on. It could take forever even if I could find a place to order this stuff from on the Internet and not be put on a terrorist watch list.”

“Yeah, sounds pretty dicey. Let me see that.” Rafe scraped the last bite out of the pint and walked into the kitchen to dump the empty carton into the garbage can. When I heard him rinsing off his spoon, I had to smile. He did make a nice roommate. Aggie’s dirty dish still sat in the middle of the coffee table.

“Do I hear Rafe?” Sienna came out of the bedroom. “Hey, glad you got here. Are we going to N-V? I got a text from Ray. We need to rehearse tonight. I don’t want to go to his house so I thought we could practice in that soundproof room you’ve got above the club.”

“I’m supposed to stick close to Glory. She needs to go to the shop.” Rafe was leafing through the voodoo spell book. “Glo, can we drop Sienna off at the club first, then do our thing at your shop? You trust her alone with Ray and the band?”

I was about to answer when there was another knock on the door. What was this? Didn’t anyone need the code downstairs? What had happened to ringing for entrance from the street? I inhaled though and sensed Jerry on the other side of the door. Of course. He had the code and a key. He’d knocked as a courtesy. I flung open the door.

Jerry dragged me into his arms for a long kiss then looked over my shoulder. “Valdez.”

“You’re not surprised he’s here?” I eased out of Jerry’s arms.

“No.” Jerry smiled and kept his hand on my waist. “I called him and asked him to meet me here. Did you really think I could leave town with you unprotected?”

I glanced from Rafe to Jerry and back again. This was huge, Jerry asking Rafe for help. “That’s nice. I guess Rafe told you—”

“That I’d be happy to arrange guard duty for you, Glory. But that I don’t want to delegate it. Blade understood. That you and I have a special bond.” Rafe relaxed into a chair. “So what are your plans, Blade? What do you think you can accomplish with this trip?”

“I’ve got a line on Mel’s sister. She’s in Miami and may have something to tell me that could help with this situation. Mel’s business is very important to her. If I can get something that could endanger her reputation publicly, ruin her business, I think that will cool her off toward me. Problem is, it has to be something that keeps my name out of it.”

“Yeah, I get that.” Rafe smiled. “Good plan. Drag a skeleton out of the lady’s closet. Blackmail her. She should hate you for it and back off.”

“If I have to, I’ll drag her sister back here. I think she may be the key to getting this done.” Jerry pulled me down to the couch beside him then finally noticed my guest. “Sienna. How are you doing?”

Sienna smiled nervously. “Okay, I guess. We were just trying to figure out the night’s schedule. I have to practice, Glory needs to go to her shop. It’s complicated.”

“Right. That’s the vampire life.” Jerry leaned back, his arm around me. “It doesn’t get any easier. Valdez, sounds like you need backup. Can’t you bring in another shifter, someone to help with the ladies?”