Save the Last Vamp for Me (3 page)

He smiled. “No, we’ve had a few more people join us. I can spare Soames for a while.”

“How many is a few?” Geeze, how long had it been since I’d last talked to them? Two weeks? Yes, that long. I’d had lunch with Terra and Logan, other members of their clan spread around the restaurant and keeping watch for trouble.

“Five more, and one’s an older queen with the same talent Alanna has for crowd control. Two of the men are related to her. We’re lucky to have them.”

“Good. I just realized what a terrible ally and friend I’ve been lately. I’ve only seen you guys twice since the Case of the Cursing Corpsicle.”

Logan chuckled. “It’s okay. You’ve been busy, and we’ve mostly been staying close to home. Safer for Terra that way, even though she’s about to climb the walls.”

I felt awful, hearing that. “Sunday, my mom’s planning to put together some care packages for the homeless. Tonya and I are going to help her, but we could use another person or two. I could teleport you two over and back home afterward, so no one would know. Oh, and there will lunch, cookies, and dinner.”

“Cookies are hard to turn down. I’ll let Terra know, but it’s probably safe to accept.”

“Cool. It’ll be fun, and it’s for a good cause too.”

“Right.” He raised his voice a bit. “Soames.”

Soames slid out from under a car. “Yes?”

“Go clean up. You’ll be working with Discord for a couple of weeks.”

I hoped it didn’t take that long, watching Soames sit up before rising to his feet, a grin appearing on his face. “Bodyguard, or do I get to be an honorary PI?”

“How about both?” I suggested, having learned that shifters could be quite the Noticers of Things.

“Great. Sounds fun. I think I have oil in my hair, so give me twenty to shower and change.”

“That’ll work, thanks.”

He nodded and jogged to the door that lead to the stairwell of the attached apartment building. I looked at Logan. “Has he crossed paths with vampires before?”

“A few times. Between the four of you, I doubt you’ll have too much trouble down there.”

I liked that Logan never failed to count me as a fighter, instead of labeling me as cannon fodder, or the next best thing to it. “Tell me something: Did you charge for labor when you rebuilt my car?”

“Didn’t plan to,” he admitted, his pine green eyes scanning the garage before meeting mine again. “Not until you told me the vamp was paying the bill. Him, I charged double.”

“Should’ve charged triple.” We shared a laugh.

“Let me guess, he’s your client.”

I raised both eyebrows. “You’re getting better and better at this detective stuff.”

Logan winked. “One day, I’ll open my own agency and give you a run for your money.”

“You do that. A little healthy competition’s good for the soul.”

We chatted until Soames returned. “I’m ready.”

“I’ll make sure he gets home. We’re in Nick’s truck because of Leglin. I may have to get a second vehicle, with all these dogs to cart around.”

“You can use one of our trucks whenever you need to,” Logan said. “Just let me know.”

“That’s nice of you. Thanks, I’ll do that. Tell Terra I said ‘hi’, okay?”

“Will do. See you later, Discord.”

“Bye.” Soames and I left for Nick’s truck. I climbed in the front seat first, and made introductions while the tiger shifter followed me. Leglin had the whole back seat to himself. “We’re going to grab dinner first. Our meeting’s not until seven.”

“Sure.” Soames pulled on his seat belt. “How much do I need to know?”

“Vamps don’t tend to feel friendly toward me.”

He laughed. “Knew that. Saw your car.”

“Right. Okay, we’ve been hired by Lord Derrick to investigate some murders that appear to be politically motivated.”

He nodded, using his forefinger to whisk a few hairs out of his eyes. “So I watch your backs and keep my eyes open for anything useful.”

I nodded. “Pretty much. Leglin’s going to be watching all of our backs.”

“Okay, can do.” He leaned forward to look past me at Nick. “Nice truck.”

“Thanks.”

“What kind of gas mileage does it get?”

I managed to keep from sighing as they began talking trucks. At least they were getting along, without any sniping from Nick. That was kind of interesting, since he’d taken an intense dislike to Logan practically on sight, and had tried to talk me out of having anything to do with Terra. He was convinced Logan was interested in me, even though Logan had never flirted or anything.

Logan was friendly, but no more so than either Damian or David, two of my witch buddies. Maybe Nick wasn’t being his usual jealous self because I’d already stepped into the shifter political arena by helping Logan run the Douche and his followers off a couple of times? Like a spilled milk kind of thing?

Of course, my boyfriend had spent a few days trying to convince me to renounce being their ally, but he’d finally given up when I told him I wouldn’t go back on my word. We hadn’t discussed it since.

Which was fine by me, because we argued about plenty of other things. For someone who’d said he loved me and had been prepared to propose, Nick had a lot of trouble accepting me for who I was.

That didn’t exactly bode well for a future together, but I was willing to let things go for a while. He was the first boyfriend I’d had who took extra time in the bedroom to make certain I had as much fun as he did, and without my having to explain or ask.

He was a good kisser, and near expert-level cuddler. Plus, he was hot.

Wow. I had a bit of a shallowness problem going on. Definitely something I should work on. It wasn’t as though Nick didn’t have other, more important qualities. He was faithful, had a good sense of humor, and had proven more than willing to put himself between me and physical danger. He was open to trying new things, and he really seemed to like spending time with my family, little brothers and all. A pretty good guy and person.

Whether he was the right guy for me long term, well...I’d reserve judgment.

“Earth to Cordi.”

I blinked, realizing we were pulling into the parking lot of my favorite Italian restaurant. “What?”

“We’re here. What are you thinking so hard about?” Nick guided his truck into a parking space.

“Girl stuff.” Thinking about your boyfriend totally qualified. “Sorry, truck talk zones me out.”

Inside, we placed our orders, and I looked at Soames after our server brought our drinks and left. “Logan said you’d been with him the longest.”

“First chosen for Terra’s clan. I was six.”

I knew Logan was twenty-nine, and had been appointed Terra’s Protector at age twelve. That meant Soames was twenty-three. “Soames is your last name, right?”

“Yes. According to my mother when she’s mad, my name is Dane Alexander Soames.”

I laughed. “My mom does that too, even to my dad. Makes us both cringe because we know we’re in for it when she hauls out all three names.”

“Exactly.” He looked at Nick. “Does your mother do that too?”

“To Patrick a lot, but not so much to me. I don’t make her mad very often.”

“It doesn’t surprise me that you’re the good son, and he’s the hell raiser,” I said. “Not even a little bit.”

Nick scrunched his face. “He’s not a warl...oh, that’s one of those weird human sayings.” He pursed his lips. “Yep, he’s the hell raiser. It’s really annoying.”

“He’s really annoying.” I changed the subject, because Patrick wasn’t a favorite one. Nick’s older brother had a thing for hitting on his little brother’s girlfriends. Patrick had told me so himself, right after hitting on me, the douchebag. “I’m hoping this case doesn’t take long.”

“Don’t hurry on my account,” Soames said. “I’ll enjoy the break from being a mechanic.”

“You don’t like the work?”

“I like cars and trucks, but no, not working on them. You wouldn’t believe how much time Logan had to spend teaching me stuff so that I could get licensed.”

I suddenly wondered how Logan had learned it all, and asked. Soames grinned. “He made a deal with a brownie clan after getting his first car magazine from them.”

“What?”

“Maybe we couldn’t pass between the realms, but some of the smaller folk could, and that’s how they survived, by smuggling stuff. Not just magazines, but all sorts of stuff.”

Hm. “Stuff like, say, socks?”

“Those, toys, you name it. If they could carry it, they did.”

Hah, I’d just solved one of the greatest mysteries of humankind: Why socks always went missing from dryers. “They still work the smuggling gig?”

“Sure. They’re pretty small, and that kind of makes it hard for them to find jobs. They have to survive too.”

“Of course,” I agreed. “But how did they get here and into people’s houses?”

“Magic.”

“But there wasn’t any here before the Melding.”

Nick snorted. “There was, but it was too weak for most to use. Just not too weak for the little folk to survive on and use.”

Huh, always something new to learn. I remembered something Terra had mentioned to me. “Is there a dragon living in Santo Trueno?”

The two men exchanged a look, their expressions smoothing to identical blandness. I looked from Nick to Soames, wondering why neither had answered yet. “That’s a yes, right?”

They kept gazing at each other, setting my curiosity on fire, and finally, after nearly a full minute of silence, I saw Soames shrug. Nick was the one who answered. “Yes, but he’s secretive, doesn’t like people knowing about him.”

“Why would he care?”

“I should’ve said ‘humans’, and he cares because he’s a freaking dragon, Cordi. One of the few left, and one of the most powerful supes in existence.”

Soames nodded. “You don’t want to know what he’d do if threatened, or if people started hunting for his treasure.”

“Okay.” I dropped the subject even though the confirmation we had one, and it had treasure, only further fueled my curiosity. Maybe my witch buddies could tell me more. I made a note to ask them later. “Ooh, here comes our food.”

Conversation during the meal consisted of my describing the house we’d looked at to Soames. “It has loads of space. I hope I’m able to get it.”

“It sounds really nice. We’re looking for a new place too.” He wrinkled his nose. “The Palisades are too noisy, but where we’re at was the best we could do at first.”

“I can put you guys in touch with my realtor,” I offered. “She’s a family friend too. Her name’s Rita.”

“I’ll pass that on to Logan when I get home tonight. Thanks.”

“No problem.” We finished a few minutes later, and left, ready to begin the night’s work.

––––––––

“I
’m never coming down here without you again,” I said, my hand across Leglin’s shoulders as he walked beside me. Nick was on my other side, with Soames beside Leglin. Vampires had been clearing out of the way since we’d entered the Barrows. One look at the hound, and they found elsewhere to be.

“You shouldn’t go anywhere without him or me.” Nick caught my hand, lifted it to kiss the back with a smug grin. “I keep telling you that.”

I limited my response to an eye roll. We’d spent way too much time arguing over that since we’d met. There had been some clarification that he didn’t think I was totally helpless, but even with my psychic abilities, my boyfriend thought I was a little too “fragile” to face off with supes.

He’d been on me about carrying the gun I kept in my desk drawer at the office. Mr. Whitehaven supplied everyone with guns and had paid for our concealed carry classes and licenses. Though I’d turned out to be a fair shot, I didn’t like guns. When you pulled one out, you had to be ready to kill someone. I preferred knocking them unconscious if at all possible. Still violent, sure, but a lot less final than death.

Exception: Vampires. I’m fine with putting them out of everyone’s misery. They’re just walking, talking corpses. Predators that see people as prey. Parasites who feed on the blood of the living.

Yes, I’m prejudiced against them.

It took about twenty minutes to reach Derrick’s estate. The two goons on guard at the gate didn’t want to let Leglin in. I crossed my arms. “If he’s not going in, neither are we. Better call your boss.”

“That won’t be necessary, Miss Jones.”

I started, not having heard a third vampire arriving. And nearly peed myself when I turned to check him out, because he was every bit as big as the douchebag who wanted to kidnap Terra, with short, dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. Hoping no one heard my gulp, I asked, “And you are?”

“Stone. I’ll be your guard while you’re assisting my master.” He half-smiled. “Open the gate. I’ll escort Miss Jones and her companions inside.”

“With my hound.”

Stone inclined his head. “Of course.”

The other two didn’t argue, opening the gates to allow us through. Stone offered me his arm, but I pretended not to notice. I don’t like touching vampires because their memories can be overwhelming and are usually bloody with a side of sex. The kinds of sex I wasn’t interested in and didn’t want in my head.

He changed the offer of his arm to a gesture to follow him after a second or two. We did, though Nick took hold of my free hand while I slipped the fingers of my other through Leglin’s collar. I shot Soames a look, and he proved himself quick on the uptake by hooking one of his fingers through the hound’s collar on the other side.