Texas Hold 'Em (28 page)

Lacey pulled down a heavy black and steel gun from its pegs. It looked like an AK-47, but it had a massive barrel and a large drum magazine.

My request for Lacey got Jacob moving. He stopped inching away from her, shot me an indignant look, pulled a large army-green duffel bag out of a drawer and, with a stoic effort, walked right up to the witch, holding the bag open. Lacey smiled at him and placed the Saiga-12 assault shotgun into the bag.

While I was watching the scene between Lacey and Jacob, I hadn’t noticed that Marie had begun to close in on me. I started a little as I realized she was inches away. Marie extended her arm, her hand palm up, wrist almost touching my lips.

With the index fingernail of her other hand, she slit her wrist.

“Drink it. It will speed up the healing process. It’s not a panacea, but I’m old and it’s potent. It will make you clot quickly, and hopefully you won’t pass out on us while we get out of here.”

A loud thump made me jump. I thought the vampires had burst open the trapdoor above, but it was Jacob. He had dropped the duffel bag and was now staring at Marie and me in horror.

I expressed Jacob’s concerns for him. “No way! You’re not turning me into one of them. Er, you.”

“I’m not. Sorry, you’re not my type. You seem to have a knack for getting into trouble, and I don’t need that following me around for all eternity. Plus, it would be bad form—you’ve already been claimed.”

“Claimed? What do you mean claimed? I’m not claimed. No one’s claimed me.” I was a bit off-kilter, watching the blood drain from the wrist in front of me.

Marie covered the slit in her wrist with a thumb to slow the flow of blood. “Of course you are, and if you decide being a vampire is what you want, then you’ll have to ask your girlfriend. I’m sure she would happily comply. Now, please don’t waste any more of my blood. It’s going to stop flowing soon, and I’d rather not cut myself more than once. That’s so emo.”

When I made no motion to do any such thing, she let out an exaggerated sigh. “It takes more than a little bit to turn someone, though I admit that you may experience a bit of strangeness for a few days. Just don’t have any more, from anyone, and you’ll be fine.”

“I’ll be fine? You promise? No turning?”

Marie nodded. Finally, I acquiesced. Ignoring the horrified look from Jacob and the curious one from Bryan, I inched forward and took a tentative taste. It tasted like blood. I stopped and asked, “How much?”

“Not much. I’ll let you know.”

“Okay.” I tried some more, then paused one last time to ask, “And this isn’t going to change me?”

“No.”

I started drinking the lukewarm liquid until she added, “At least, I’m about eighty percent certain it won’t.”

I started to cough.

“Stop being a baby.”

I stared at her in disbelief.

“What? I’m old, so my blood is potent, and it’s been a while since I turned anyone. I’m not like Christian out there breeding an undead horde, and I don’t make a habit of giving it out. I can’t know for sure how much it takes. It’s not like it’s an exact science. But I know you need more to heal yourself, so hurry up.” She watched me with an oddly maternal look for another minute, then gently took away her wrist.

Marie then turned to Jacob and asked, “Why was your escape route barred from the outside? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose?”

Lacey answered for him. “Chance’s ‘friend’ here had been planning on cooking him and his girlfriend down in this room the other night. He forgot to un-bar it.”

Marie nodded, as if that made perfect sense. “Speaking of cooking, we might want to leave now. From the smell, that fire they set seems to be spreading.”

“He should have called by now.” Jacob checked the display on his phone for the tenth time in as many minutes, in case by some miracle he’d missed it ringing. He had been holding onto the phone since we’d left the shop. Not only was Jacob not pleased to find the van missing with his nephew, he was furious that we were forced to take his work van; no one had the keys to Kevin’s Altima, and my Miata was not only back at the hotel, but had an insufficient number of seats.

“Kevin is fine, Jacob. He’s a smart kid. Besides, Megan is with him.” I left out the fact that Megan was basically incapacitated, and that Kevin was the one watching over her. I knew it wouldn’t help calm him down, anyway.

Jacob was at his wits’ end. His home and business were both burning to the ground, his nephew was missing, and he was forced to flee to his safe house with a vampire in tow. “Thank you, Chance, that’s what I want to hear. You left a vampire to keep an eye on my nephew to make sure vampires don’t get him. Have you ever heard the expression ‘the fox guarding the henhouse?’”

Marie, on the other hand, was even more well-behaved than usual. She sat next to my brother at the kitchen table, watching him play a game on his phone.

“Oh, relax—Megan hasn’t killed Chance yet, and she keeps an eye on him all the time,” said Lacey, staring into the fridge. “Actually, even more remarkable is the fact that Megan hasn’t killed Bryan yet. It’s a real testament to her restraint.”

Bryan was too caught up in his video game to voice a comment, though Lacey’s observation had been accurate.

“Exactly,” I agreed. “I’m sure Kevin heard the gunfire at your shop and took off. They’re probably at a diner somewhere having a cup of coffee and a slice of pie.”

Jacob blew up. “So my nephew having a cup of coffee with a vampire is supposed to make me feel better?”

Bryan looked up. “Calm down, dude, you’re messing up my concentration. Megan’s not gonna do anything to Kevin. She couldn’t, even if she wanted to. She fell out of the hotel room and pancaked on the cement.”

“She’s dead?” Jacob asked. I couldn’t read the strange expression on his face.

“Don’t worry; she’ll be fine,” I said, more for my benefit than his.

“Trust me, Chance. I wasn’t worried about her,” Jacob said.

“Wow, that’s mighty decent of you,” said Lacey, going through the vegetable drawers in desperation.

“I won’t mourn the loss of a monster. Look: first you bring vampires into my house, then you leave my nephew with one who is wounded, and now you bring another one of them here!” Jacob pointed a shaking finger at Marie. “Chance, this is my safe house! It was designed as a place to go and hide
from
vampires, not with them! I haven’t had a single vampire anywhere near finding me for twenty years. Did you know that? Not one. And now, thanks to you, they’re crawling all over the place.”

Marie looked up from Bryan’s phone and opened her mouth to say something, but Lacey cut her off before she could.

“They’re like bedbugs, they really are: once you get them they’re impossible to get rid of, they hide during the day, and they suck your blood. I invited Megan over for drinks one night a few years ago and she never left. I finally had to start charging her rent.” Lacey closed the fridge. “That’s it; I’m ordering pizza.”

Jacob continued his rant. “How do I know that’s not how Christian found me? How do I know one of them didn’t tell Christian where I was?”

“One of who? Megan didn’t tell Christian where you were, Jacob. Trust me—she didn’t. She’s never even met Christian. Not to mention the fact that she came here to help me kill him.”

“What about her? How sure are you about this one?” Jacob again pointed at Marie, this time getting up the courage to give her the once-over as she sat, hands in her lap, her eyes safely watching Bryan play his game.

“Marie? Marie had no idea where you lived until she came with us to save your ass. You do remember she’s the one that kept us from baking in your safe room, right?”

Jacob’s frown deepened as he continued to stare at her. “She looks familiar.”

I knew what he meant, but our context was different. Since drinking Marie’s blood, I’d felt an affinity to her. Like I had known her my entire life, and was comfortable in her presence. Not only that, but I could feel her emotions, which so far had radiated an eerie sense of mellow calm. It was strange, and I hoped it would fade quickly.

Marie glanced up from Bryan’s phone a second time. “Do I really? I don’t think we’ve ever actually met in person. But maybe we have. Some years are clearer than others. Anyway, it’s nice to finally meet you, Jacob. Face to face, that is. I’m Marie.” She smiled, got up, and extended her hand.

Jacob recoiled, averting his eyes, leaving a smiling Marie holding her hand out to empty space. “Marie?
You’re
Marie? Holy shit! Chance, you brought the master vampire of Texas into my house!”

Lacey snorted and said something unladylike in a skeptical tone. She immediately followed it with “No, I wasn’t talking to you. Why would I want ass on my pizza? Double pepperoni and fungus on the first one and… Wait! No! Don’t put me on hold! Argh.”

“Master of Texas? What are you talking about, Jacob? She’s not the master vampire; that’s some idiot who calls himself Nocturne. Besides, Marie’s a bim—” I stopped myself before completing the word. She had done us a lot of favors. I didn’t need to insult her. I tried fast to think of an alternate ending I could throw at the end of “bim” and failed, so I left it hanging—like Marie’s hand, which she was still holding out to Jacob.

“Oooh. Like, sorry, Chance, but actually, Jacob’s right. Technically, I
am
the master vampire around here. Though I don’t like that title; it’s so authoritarian, you know? And with Christian back in town, I’m not sure how long it’s gonna last.”

“What?” I said.

Marie shrugged, choosing to misinterpret my question. “Well, the term ‘master’ has a lot of negative connotations. I prefer plain old Marie. Or, if you insist on something formal, My Lady. I think that one sounds the nicest, don’t you think? And it reminds me of better times.

“Also, to be fair, Chance, you
were
the one that brought vampires both to Jacob’s house and then here. And you
did
leave his nephew with Megan. Who
is
wounded. So he’s right on all counts.” She nodded to punctuate her point, hand still dangling out there.

“You are the head vampire?” I couldn’t believe it.

“Yes. And I can forgive what you said about me—I’ve been called a lot worse things than a bimbo over the last several centuries—but what you said about Nocturne isn’t fair. He’s not an idiot. He’s actually a smart guy.”

She sighed. “Unfortunately, I’m afraid he embraced the whole goth culture a little too much. He tends to jump into things with both feet. Last time it was zoot suits. He went by Slick back then, if you can believe it. I mean, he’s an okay fellow once you get to know him.” She spoke like she actually cared about convincing us that Nocturne was indeed an okay fellow.

Marie stared up at the ceiling and continued, as if writing herself a to-do note to act upon later. “I need to have a talk with him, maybe ask him to tone it down a teensy bit. At least lay off the outfits. I think he gets excited at being able to wear them again after all these years. Do you know he’s had them in storage since Phillip the Fifth was in power?”

I cut in before she continued her soliloquy. “Wait, I thought your name was Marie. The head vamp is supposed to be someone named Mirari.”

“Oh, well, my name
is
Mirari. But back when I came to America, everyone butchered it. Anyway, it’s easier to blend in with the crowd when you have a common name. And blending in can be tough enough when you’re diurnally challenged, so I started using Marie. Nowadays, of course, everyone has strange names. Most of them seem made up.” I didn’t miss her not-so-subtle glance in my direction.

“Mine is not made up,” I said.

“Neither is mine. It’s Basque. I’m sure there wouldn’t be anything unusual about my given name in this era, but once you’ve been called something for a couple of centuries, it sticks. I’ve grown attached to Marie. I think it suits me, don’t you?”

Her inquisitive look begged for affirmation, so I gave it. “Yeah, it does.”

She looked pleased. I said the two names together a couple of times in my head. The similarity was obvious, and I felt stupid.

“I told you, Chance, she’s vampire royalty!” said Jacob, an expression of awe and terror still on his face.

“Vampire royalty?” This was going from hard-to-swallow to impossible. Being in charge of a group of vampires was hard enough to imagine, but a member of the aristocracy was pushing it. Though, they did tend to inbreed, so maybe….

My question had been directed at Marie, but Jacob answered. “We’re talking about vampire society, Chance. Up until now, you’ve been clearing out the dregs. Those vampires you killed over the last six months—they were feral. The vamps were happy you got rid of them because their type draws too much attention. Most vampires are different: they can blend in.”

Marie nodded in agreement.

“I kind of figured that out all by myself. I met my share of the non- feral type out in California.”

“You don’t understand,” Jacob said, completely ignoring what I’d said. “Back then we were hunting the same types of vamps you were. The ones that weren’t cleaning up their messes as well as they should have. That’s how we found them. We never discovered that whole feudal society… not until we got lucky, so to speak, and stumbled onto Christian. That’s when I started digging, and you won’t believe what I uncovered.”

Marie cleared her throat, then smiled and jiggled her still- outstretched hand at Jacob. He clearly had no idea why.

“Okay, so mainstream vampires have this whole structured society going on. I gathered that back in California. Same as the werewolves. What’s your point?” I asked.

“My point is that there is a hierarchy. It’s like the old-time royalty. It’s all very formal, and Marie is a master—she’s at the top of that hierarchy. She’s a member of the council.”

Marie cleared her throat again and this time it elicited an irritated “What?” out of Jacob. He was too upset at having his lecture interrupted to worry about snapping at a vampire.

“I’m not on the council. Few masters are. The council only has thirteen seats, and over fifty masters live in the United States.”

He waved her off. “Whatever, fine. Anyway, my point is, she’s high up.”