Vampire for Hire (37 page)

 
      
 
The door would have multiple locks, including a deadbolt and no doubt another one elsewhere. Maybe near the floor or ceiling. This wasn’t your standard hotel door. Up here, on this floor, nothing was standard.

 
      
 
Sometimes I wondered how strong I really was. It’s not an easy thing to test, unless you want to draw attention to yourself. A few years back, while out jogging, I paused next to an old Volkswagen Beetle. On a whim, I reached down, felt underneath, and then lifted it three feet off the ground.

 
      
 
A few weeks ago I had punched through a bulletproof prison glass and nearly killed a man.

 
      
 
A steel, ornamental, security door seemed forbidding in and of itself. I could have knocked, sure. I could have called the police and pleaded my case. With luck, an emergency search warrant might be issued.

 
      
 
Think again, Sam. This is reservation land. Things are done differently here.

 
      
 
How differently, I didn’t know, but I suspected the hotel would think twice, or maybe even three or four times, before upsetting a guest who plunks down $250K on a card game...and then loses.

 
      
 
Yes, I could have done a lot of things differently at this moment, but none of them felt right.

 
      
 
None, that is, except this.

 
      
 
I raised my foot, leaned back, and drove the heel of my foot as hard as I could into the door. Obliterating my expensive high heel, and obliterating the door hinges, too.

 
      
 
The steel slab fell inward, landing with a thunderous crash.

 
      
 
Chapter Fifty-five

 
      
 
I instinctively stood to one side of the doorway. The metallic echo of the falling door continued to reverberate throughout the suite.

 
      
 
Hell of an entrance.

 
      
 
But there was no one directly in front of me, and as I slipped inside, kicking off my worthless high heels, the alarm in my head continued to buzz, stronger than ever.

 
      
 
Something was very, very wrong. More wrong than I had previously imagined. What it was, I didn’t know. Yet.

 
      
 
Maybe I should have called the police. Or at least had a gun.

 
      
 
The suite was opulent. Sickeningly so. No doubt it costs thousands a night, although a guy like Captain Jack probably had it
comped
.

 
      
 
I’d never had anything
comped
in my life.

 
      
 
The balcony doors were wide open. Even from the doorway, I had a majestic view of the sweeping southern hillside...and the Ronald Reagan Library.

 
      
 
I had the right place.

 
      
 
Where the door had fallen, it had shattered about a dozen expensive Italian marble slabs. I stepped over the fallen door, crunched over the broken tile, and slipped deeper into the room.

 
      
 
* * *

 
      
 
The suite was designed with two main wings that branched off from the main living room. The hallway to my left led to the back rooms, and a shorter hallway to the right led off to a kitchen space and a billiard room and bar. The bar was big enough to liquor up the entire casino.

 
      
 
So far, I hadn’t seen anyone. Or heard anyone.

 
      
 
But they were here.

 
      
 
I knew it.

 
      
 
Standing just outside the hallway to the bedroom wing, I closed my eyes and searched for them. Or at least tried to. My senses were chaotic, unclear. I needed a clear head to focus, and focusing now was nearly impossible.

 
      
 
They’re in the bedrooms. One of the bedrooms.

 
      
 
I turned down the hallway wing, padding softly over the smooth tiles with my bare feet. There were four doors along this hallway, two on each side. This luxury suite was bigger than three of my houses put together.

 
      
 
They knew I was here. They had to have known. No way that fallen door went undetected. The alarm inside my head continued to sound, a buzzing that surrounded my head like so many wasps.

 
      
 
The doors into the bedrooms were all double doors. Three of the four double doors stood open. The doors at the far end of the hallway were the only ones closed.

 
      
 
They’re in there. Doing whatever it is that they’re doing.

 
      
 
I felt sick, but I continued forward. I paused at each open door, but the rooms, although packed with luggage, were empty.

 
      
 
Now standing at the far door at the far end of the hallway, I heard a little voice whimpering.

 
      
 
Ah, fuck.

 
      
 
I tried the handle. It was unlocked.

 
      
 
I inhaled deeply, took hold of the handle, and threw the door open.

 
      
 
I thought I was ready for anything.

 
      
 
But I wasn’t ready for this.

 
      
 
Chapter Fifty-six

 
      
 
The first thing I saw was a table. A medical table of some type. It was sitting in the center of the spacious room.

 
      
 
The next thing I saw was a little girl on the table.

 
      
 
Maddie
.

 
      
 
Oh, sweet Jesus.

 
      
 
She was dead, or close to it.

 
      
 
Red tubes ran from her arms to plastic bags full of blood. Her blood. She was wrapped in a white robe covered with droplets of blood. Her blood. Her eyes were closed and now I could just make out her little chest rising and falling slowly. A single light shone down on her.

 
      
 
What the fuck was going on?

 
      
 
My first instinct was to run to her. But I resisted. My agency training superseded my natural instinct.

 
      
 
She’s breathing; she’s not dead; stay still.

 
      
 
I knew I wasn’t alone. Other than
Maddie
, I knew someone else was in the room.

 
      
 
Perhaps more than one.

 
      
 
Psychic hits are great. But they only get you so far.

 
      
 
At the open doorway, I paused, listening. I heard nothing. No, wait. I heard breathing from deeper inside the room. Nasally breathing.

 
      
 
Mr. Carl Luck.

 
      
 
So where was Captain Jack?

 
      
 
He’s in here, too. The sick bastard is in here, too. Siphoning
Maddie’s
blood.

 
      
 
For what?

 
      
 
The answer was all too obvious.

 
      
 
He’s a vampire.

 
      
 
“You got that right, little lady.”

 
      
 
I couldn’t pinpoint the location of the voice, but it seemed to come from somewhere above. I was also all too aware that the speaker had read my thoughts.

 
      
 
“Right again, little lady. Now don’t be shy, step on in here. We don’t bite.” The voice chuckled.

 
      
 
My head was buzzing. Danger was everywhere. Perhaps at every turn. I looked down the hall. There was nothing. The danger was all in this room.

 
      
 
I had seen only one other vampire in my life, and that was just the other day. The vampire who had attacked me years ago had done so in a blur.

 
      
 
For the first time in a long, long time, I didn’t know what to do.