Save the Last Vamp for Me (6 page)

Nick planted his hands on my shoulders, but the thing kept tangling itself in my hair. “Be still and I’ll uh...You said not to touch them.”

I had a gargoyle in my hair. A baby gargoyle. Fantastic. “It’s not going to pee on me, is it?”

“Like I’d know. Quit moving.” He released my shoulders and parted my hair to look at it. “It’s hiding its face. I think it’s scared.”

“Great.” He let my hair fall and I slowly turned around. “How do I get it to let go?”

“Talk to it?”

The boss had said to do that before trying telepathy. “Right. Um, little gargoyle, it’s okay. You don’t have to be scared. No one here’s going to hurt you.”

No movement from the lump attached to the back of my head. “Come on, baby G. Get out of my hair.” Nothing. I looked around the end of the bed at Stone. “A little help here?”

“Perhaps if you took it upstairs to one of the larger gargoyles?”

“Okay.” I glanced at the wardrobe, and noticed the gray tracking line had disappeared. Which had to mean it had appeared to point me at the baby gargoyle, and thus, the critter tangled in my hair could offer up a clue. “Yeah, I’ll do that. Come on, Nick.”

We rejoined Soames and Leglin after stepping over the late Gia. Stone didn’t follow us, probably wanting a few minutes alone to either mourn or reclaim those expensive earrings. I waited until we cleared the stairs leading up to the main floor before trying to talk to the little gargoyle again, using my telepathy this time.
Hi, my name’s Cordi. What’s yours?

It shivered.

It’s really all right. I won’t let anyone hurt you.

The gargoyle moved, pulling my hair. I gritted my teeth to keep from saying “Ow” and maybe scaring it more.
Do you want your mommy? If you do, you’ll have to tell me where she is
.

Its tiny claws scratched as it slipped down, moving from my hair to my shoulder. Soames noticed and started to say something, but closed his mouth when I put my finger to my lips. The gargoyle huddled against the side of my neck, pulling my hair over itself to hide. It felt like warm suede.
That’s more comfy. Thank you
.

Welcome
. It was the tiniest whisper of thought, but clear. Yay, I’d established contact with the alien life form. Thank goodness it wasn’t a face hugger.

What’s your name?

Tase
. It shivered again, something sliding around the back of my neck.

Though I hadn’t meant to, I was already touching it—well, it was touching me—so I reached up to pat it.
Did we scare you? We didn’t mean to
.

Invisible, invisible, invisible
. Tase shivered while chanting the words as though they were a spell. I dropped my hand, worried I’d freaked him out by touching him.

“I think he’s too little and scared to be any help. Let’s see if we can find his parents.” We made the turn from the top of the stairs, walking down the short hallway that led to the grand entry hall. Derrick was still by Ramon’s ashes, speaking to a pair of his vampires.

I stopped as we passed the foot of the stairs because the gargoyle closest to us woke up, half-extending its wings. One second, it was a statue, the next moving. It turned its smushed-looking face toward me. “Uh oh.”

“Give me the child.” Its voice sounded like pebbles being poured out of a bag. Mr. Whitehaven hadn’t said they could speak verbally.

“Are you its mom? Because I think Tase wants its mom.” The grinding sound I’d heard earlier, while scanning the place, filled my mind again. It was a lot louder this time, and ended as something large thumped down at the main doors. I kind of didn’t want to look away from Smush, but did and discovered the other vampires scattering at the approach of a tiger-sized gargoyle.

This one was black, and actually did have a feline body, with a long tail ending in a spade point. Its wings were folded, and its lionish face was surrounded by a mane of curls. It tramped right over the late Ramon’s ashes, heading directly for me.

“I think that’s Mommy,” Nick said. “Same tail.”

“Give me my child, human.” Mama Gargoyle’s voice sounded nearly human, with just a touch of a grinding tone.

“That was my plan. Um, Tase?” The baby gargoyle didn’t move. “Your mom’s here. Time to go home.”

“What did you do to him?” Mama Gargoyle bared a set of jagged teeth. So Tase was a boy. Good to know. I heard Nick take a deep breath before moving a step ahead of me. Soames slipped between me and Smush, the one at the foot of the stairs.

“Nothing. He was hiding, and he came out and crawled into my hair.”

Leglin suddenly stepped in front of all three of us, and growled at Mama Gargoyle. “
My mistress stated her intentions. She wishes to return the child to you. She does not harm the young or helpless
.”

Mama Gargoyle’s tail lashed from side to side, narrowly missing the stomach of one of the vampires as he plastered himself against the wall. She’d understood the hound. “Then surrender him to me.”

“I’m trying to. He’s scared and won’t let go.” I lifted my hair so that she could see him.
Tase, you have to go to your mommy. She’s getting really mad
.

“Did you touch him?”

“Uh, yeah, but he touched me first. I told you he crawled into my hair, and you can see he’s on my neck.”

Mama Gargoyle hissed, her too-large eyes becoming slits. Leglin lowered his head and flattened his ears, the fur down his back rising as he bared his teeth in a silent snarl. Crap, we were going to have a fight if we couldn’t calm her down.

“Look, I only touched him because he was already touching me, and he’s scared. If I’d hurt him, do you think he’d be clinging to my neck like this?” Her eyes became a bit less slitty. “I brought him up here to find you. I don’t know why he won’t let go. Maybe he thinks he’s in trouble.”

Her tail slowed its lashing, and she opened her eyes more. Leglin lifted his head an inch, his lips dropping and ears relaxing. All of which seemed good signs. “Maybe if I get closer to you, he’ll let go?”

Nick shook his head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Cordi. She could flatten you with one swipe.”

“She wants her baby back, and I want to give him back to her. Nobody has to get hurt, right, Mrs...um, ma’am?” A little courtesy couldn’t hurt, considering Mama Gargoyle could take off my head with one bite.

She cocked her head, and to my surprise, sat down. “You may approach. I will not harm you.”

“Thank you.” I stepped to the clear side of Leglin to avoid going around Nick. My hound walked forward with me, halting in front of Mama Gargoyle. Once close, I wasn’t sure what to do next. After a second, I pushed my hair over my shoulder and leaned toward her. “Your mommy’s right here, Tase.”

She cooed wordlessly, startling me. I felt Tase move, his head turning, and winced as he took off. I had a good look as he paused and glanced back, before burying himself in her mane, and he did look like a tiny, cute version of his mom. Backing away, I said, “There you go. Safe and sound.”

“We will speak in the future,” Mama Gargoyle said as she stood. She turned and tramped back out, mashing vampire ashes deeper into the runner, and took flight just beyond the doors.

“Whew.” I turned, noticing Smush had turned to stone again. “That was interesting.”

“Yeah, because now you have a gargoyle pissed off at you.” Nick frowned, watching the doorway.

“She said ‘speak’, not ‘I’ll be back to rip you to shreds’.” Soames rotated his head, popping his neck. A grin spread across his face. “That was pretty cool.”

“Right?” I giggled, partly from relief. “I didn’t even know they were real, and now I’ve talked to three.”

––––––––

S
tone had bagged Gia’s earrings, and handed those and Ramon’s signet ring over when he rejoined us. I let Derrick see them, but told him, “I’m keeping hold of this evidence for now.”

“Of course.” His easy agreement surprised me.

“Thanks.” I hesitated, looking around. His team appeared to be finishing up, the hum of a small vacuum filling the air as one of them took care of the ashes. “Who was that one?”

“If Ramon and Gia were downstairs, then that victim was Deborah.”

“Noted. I think we’ll head back to the office. I want to organize the information we have before taking a look at the other scenes.”

“Sensible. I’ll send photos and information sheets about these three.” Derrick held up one of our business cards. “Do I use this email address?”

“Yes, thanks. We’ll be back Monday night, to view the other scenes. I’ll let you know if anything pops up before then.”

Derrick inclined his head, a small smile on his face. “I appreciate your professionalism, Miss Jones.”

I nodded back, pleased I’d been able to maintain said professionalism surrounded by so many vampires. Turning away, I waved the guys and Leglin over. “Let’s head back to the office.”

––––––––

––––––––

I
let the boss know we were there before leading the guys to what Kate liked to call the War Room. It was a conference room at the opposite end of the building from Mr. Whitehaven’s office, roughly the same size, but completely windowless. Custom-made whiteboards were mounted on each wall, stark against the
café au lait
colored paint as they formed a solid strip around the room, broken only by the door. Even their frames were white.

Between those and the long, mahogany table surrounded by matching chairs with dark chocolate leather seats and backrests, I felt slightly intimidated. I’d never used the room before, none of my previous cases being particularly complicated by loads of information. Not that I’d let a silly feeling like that stop me, especially after Derrick’s little remarks. Nope, I marshaled my troops, all two of them that possessed thumbs. “We need tape and dry erase markers. We’ll file one folder, keep one on hand, and use the third for our case wall.”

Soames dropped his folder onto the table. Nick tapped his against his leg. “I’ll file mine and get the other stuff from the supply closet.”

“Thanks.” I opened my folder and lay it on the table to begin sorting the contents as Nick left the room. “I’ll put the head shots and info sheets in order of death. Will you separate out the photos for me?”

“Sure.” Soames took the stack of photos, each of which had a victim’s name at top. Nick returned, bearing the tape and markers, a few minutes before we’d finished.

About an hour passed before everything was arranged to my satisfaction. I wrote the names of the three new victims under those of Lady Esme and her two “favorites”, in order of discovery.

We lined up to lean against the table and look over our handiwork. I crossed my arms. “Nine murders, six of them from a single family.”

“Which, if Stone knows what he was talking about, means Esme’s bloodline is completely wiped out.” Nick rubbed his chin.

“How? Someone had to turn her into a vampire.”

“Yeah, but she was a master vamp. When a vampire becomes a master, he or she also becomes the beginning of a new bloodline.”

“Oh.” I learned something new every day. Or in this case, every night. “Don’t all vampires eventually become masters?”

“No, not even most of them do. The majority stay minions to their masters forever.”

“Bet that sucks.” My gaze dropped to Ramon’s name. “They do have to be masters to hold council seats, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then if Ramon was her heir apparent, he was a master. Why was he still with her?”

Soames jumped in to answer. “There’s levels of mastery too, but even if he was as powerful as Esme, he may have stayed out of loyalty, or even love, if she’d never treated him badly.”

“Okay.” Love? Not a word I’d use in regard to vampires, because it didn’t sit well with me. It wasn’t worth wasting time on discussing though. “Back to the bloodline wiped out thing. That sounds personal rather than political to me.”

“It could be both.” Nick shrugged. “Doesn’t really matter since both masters of her line are dead. She wasn’t the only council member killed, just the first one.”

“Right.” I dropped my arms. “Well, I’m going to check email, download and print the pictures we took, and then head home. Why don’t you drive Soames home? I’ll be ready at ten tomorrow.”