Vampire Memories #5 - Ghosts of Memories (7 page)

Was he asking what Rose meant?

Eleisha tried to answer as best she could. “Maxim, we need to go away for just a little while. But Rose will stay here with you.”

His alarm grew, and his dark eyes widened. “Leisha…Wade go away? No! No go away!” He started shifting his weight between his feet.

Eleisha jumped up and moved to him. “It’s all right. Seamus found two other vampires like you once were. They’re alone, and they don’t know we exist. We’re just going to go and get them…or at least see if they want to come here.”

His body stilled, and he looked into Eleisha’s face. “Like me?”

That seemed to get through to him, but it made her feel guilty. He was so grateful that they’d found him and brought him here that he would not begrudge them going after someone else. However, the situation of this Christian and Ivory didn’t sound anything like Maxim’s.

Suddenly, watching Maxim, Wade seemed to waver. “I don’t know, Eleisha. I need to come with you, but if I’m gone, who’s going to watch over them during the day?”

Well, what was the alternative? Take them both along? What would Maxim do all night in a hotel room in Seattle? And would he and Rose be any safer there in the thick of things?

“Not worry,” Maxim said quietly. He pointed down to the dog. “Mr. Boo be awake. He protect Rose during day.” He paused. “You go and get vampires who are alone.”

While he did not look happy about the situation, he seemed to understand the importance of this mission. But Eleisha didn’t think Wade would agree to letting a tattered old pit bull take his place.

To her surprise, Wade was watching the dog thoughtfully, and he nodded. “Okay. I think he can protect you.”

“Good,” Philip said, cutting off the discussion, but his voice was strained. “Then it’s just you, me, and Eleisha. Let’s get packed.”

Poor Philip. Too many times now, one of these missions had led him right down a memory lane he desperately wanted to avoid, but he always kept on going.

“I’ll book the plane tickets,” Eleisha said.

Philip shook his head. “No, Seattle’s only a three-hour drive. It’ll take us longer than that to get through airport security. Just rent us a car.”

She wanted to groan but stifled herself. Seattle was only a three-hour drive if Philip drove eighty miles an hour the entire way…and she knew he would insist on driving.

But she wanted to make this trip as easy on him as possible. “Okay,” she agreed.

Wade didn’t bother to stifle his groan.

Julian was alone in his study. He was agitated—and he hated feeling agitated. A part of him longed to drag one of his new housemaids off alone and feed on her. But he managed to refrain.

He’d looked through
The Makers and Their Children
three times in the past few hours, searching for any hint, any reference to the name Christian, but he’d uncovered nothing.

Now he was just pacing back and forth in front of the fireplace, as there was no telling when Mary might have something to report.

To his surprise, the air shimmered and she materialized by the table.

Although he rarely noticed her demeanor, she seemed agitated to him as well. Her transparent magenta hair glowed in the firelight.

“Seamus found two of them in Seattle,” she blurted out, “running some kind of scam together.”

Julian froze, taking in only a few details of her rushed words.

“Stop,” he ordered. “What do you mean ‘two of them’?”

Her eyes narrowed, and the hatred he’d come to expect glinted out. “Two vampires, a man and a woman, named Christian and Ivory. They’re both in Seattle.”

“Are either of them telepathic?”

“Yeah…or I think so. Seamus was there, so I couldn’t stay long or get too close. He’s sensing me pretty fast these days. From what I picked up, this Christian does séances, but Wade thinks he’s just reading minds, not really talking to ghosts.” She paused. “So that means he’s probably old, right? He’s the elder Eleisha was talking about?”

Julian turned away. Yes, he knew by now they were dealing at least one elder: the man. He didn’t recognize the name Ivory either, so he wasn’t sure about the woman, but earlier, Mary had recounted a verbatim statement from Eleisha.
At least we know. We know there was an elder named Christian…who wasn’t listed in the book.

Somehow, this Christian had escaped being listed in Angelo’s book.

“So are you buying a plane ticket or what?” Mary asked harshly.

Startled by her manner, he turned back and glared at her. “Excuse me?”

“I don’t know what you’re waiting for. You’ve got a target and a location. Get your sword and buy a plane ticket. Let’s get this done.”

For the first time since swearing to her absurd bargain, he felt uneasy. He’d thought that once she was working with him again, once some time had passed, she’d realize how fortunate she was to be on this plane, in the world of the living. Not only had that not happened, but she actually seemed to want him to accelerate the hunt.

Well…in truth, she was right. There was nothing left to wait for.

“Meet me in Seattle,” he said coldly.

“Where?”

“The Grand Hyatt.”

Without another word, she blinked out. Still feeling uneasy, he headed for his room to pack and get his sword.

chapter four

S
EATTLE
, W
ASHINGTON

A
s Eleisha nearly fell through the door into a suite at the Renaissance Hotel in Seattle, she was just glad for the prospect of not moving for a few minutes, and she dropped onto the closest couch.

“Good idea,” Wade groaned, dropping beside her. “I have to use the bathroom, and I don’t even want to get up.”

Philip came in behind them, set down his suitcase, and closed the door.

“What’s wrong?”

Eleisha couldn’t bring herself to look at him, even though he wasn’t to blame for all the difficulties she’d been through tonight. Back at the church, they’d managed to pack quickly enough, but then Wade spent nearly forty-five minutes going over several lists with Rose regarding how to properly care for Mr. Boo and Tiny Tuesday…down to his preferred method for cleaning the cat box and how to warm a bowl of wet cat food for ten seconds in the microwave. By the end of this, Philip was ready to jerk him out the front door.

Once Philip decided to go someplace, he had a penchant for wanting to get there as fast as possible.

Eleisha had been able to find only one car-rental facility open this late at night, and they’d had to take a taxi to reach it. By the time Philip was finally behind the wheel, he was in so much of a hurry that he’d raced straight to Interstate 5 and then gone eighty-five miles an hour all the way from Portland to Seattle while Eleisha clutched the backseat, expecting to hear police sirens at any moment. He’d refused to stop for anything, including a bathroom break for Wade.

By some miracle, they’d not been pulled over, and at least for now they were safe inside a hotel room. But dawn was not far away, and although there wasn’t much they could do tonight, she couldn’t help pondering their next step.

“So where do we start?” Wade asked aloud, as if reading her thoughts. He hadn’t been reading her thoughts—or she would have felt him—so her face must have been an open book.

“What do you mean?” Philip asked. “We’ve got an address. We just go and talk to them tomorrow night. These are not like Maxim or Simone. They live in secrecy among wealthy mortals. They would not do anything to jeopardize their position.”

Eleisha watched him as he finished. That was quite a speech for Philip. He’d been unusually quiet, even for him, since that ugly scene in their bedroom earlier, but he seemed to be recovering. At least she hoped so. As yet, she’d not been able to tell Wade what she’d seen in Philip’s memories.

“Well…yes,” Wade answered. “But I already checked, and Vera’s phone number isn’t listed. Seamus said the house was in a wealthy neighborhood
and
it was heavily gated. If we just drive up and introduce ourselves at the gate, no one’s going to let us in. And even if we just climb over, we have no idea what kind of security is in place. If Christian decides he doesn’t like us, he’d be well within his rights to suggest having us arrested for breaking and entering.”

Philip frowned. Normally gates and locks didn’t stop him from doing anything he wanted, but perhaps even he could see the sense in what Wade was saying. And this wasn’t like “the old days,” when Philip would just kill any arresting police officers without a second thought.

“Besides,” Eleisha put in, “if we’re trying to win Christian and Ivory’s trust, the last thing we want to do is break into the house where they’re staying. No, we’ll need to arrange a proper invitation…or get them to come out and meet us somewhere.”

“How?” Wade asked.

The air beside the couch shimmered, and Seamus materialized. But his normally vivid colors were faded, and Eleisha could see he was exhausted. “You need to get back to Rose,” she said.

“I’ve got a phone number,” he answered. “I was just at Vera’s house. Of course the vampires are still up, but so is Vera. I overheard her leaving a message on someone’s answering service, and she gave her home number. You could try calling and asking for Christian. If you can get him to come to the phone, maybe he’ll listen to you.”

Eleisha looked at Wade. “It’s a worth a try,” she said.

He nodded. “You do it.”

Suddenly nervous, she stood up. Everything just seemed to be moving too fast. She hadn’t planned on launching into making contact tonight, but if she could get him to listen, perhaps they could go and see him in person tomorrow night.

“Okay,” she said, glancing at her bag with her cell phone inside. She wished she knew more about the situation. Her experience with the socially affluent was pretty limited. Before picking up the bag, she turned to Philip. “Do you know…I mean, what exactly are Christian and Ivory doing there? Why would someone like Vera Olivier invite them to come and stay at her mansion and let them use it as a base to hold séances?”

He unbuttoned his long coat, dropped it on a chair, and unstrapped his machete. “As an attraction to others of her class,” he said. “She’s probably a widow, lonely, with few attractions of her own. But now she’s the toast of the town, with other rich friends banging on her door. Christian needs access to the wealthy. She provides it. He provides company and entertainment for her.”

Wade was listening with an intense expression. “So…Christian and Ivory are basically high-paid companions?”

Philip nodded. “In a way. It sounds like they earn much of their own money, but they owe their position to Vera. They’ll need to keep her happy.”

“Huh,” Eleisha said thoughtfully. What an odd arrangement. But at least she had a better idea of the situation now. Reaching down into her bag, she pulled out her cell. “Seamus, what’s the number?”

He wasn’t looking well at all, and as this soon as this phone call was over, she was sending him home.

He gave her the number, and she punched it in.

After three rings, a prim-sounding male voice answered. “Ms. Olivier’s residence. How may I help you?”

Suddenly Eleisha’s mind went blank. He sounded like a butler of some kind…and so superior!

“May I please speak to Mr. Lefevre?” she asked.

The line was quiet for just a second. “Mr. Lefevre does not accept calls.”

Grasping for anything, anything at all, she blurted out, “Tell him I know Julian Ashton. He’ll want to speak to me.”

This was a gamble. Threatening Christian with Julian’s name would hardly earn his trust, but she couldn’t think of anything else to get him to come to the phone.

Another quiet second passed. “Wait one moment.”

Relief flooded her stomach, but it vanished when a voice with a thick French accent came on the line and said, “Who is this?”

Again, she was at a loss. This was just all happening too fast. “I’m a friend,” she said. “I’m like you. I’m here in Seattle with Philip Branté. He’s standing right beside me. We need to speak with you, in person.”

“With Philip…” The shock in his voice was profound, but then he trailed off and his voice dropped low. “Whoever you are, stay away from me. Do not call this number again or I’ll have you traced and arrested. If you come near me or this house, I will have you arrested. Do
not
call here again.”

Click
.

He’d hung up.

She looked at her cell, then at Wade, and shook her head. “He told me not to call again. I don’t know what to try next.”

It wasn’t as if they were a crack investigative team with a plan B ready at hand. They had a tendency to do almost everything by the seat of their pants.

But of them all, Seamus seemed the most frustrated. His eyes narrowed. “I might have an idea,” he said.

They all turned to him.

“While I was there tonight,” he said, “I heard that Vera’s arranged for another séance tomorrow. I need to go to Portland now and be near Rose, but I’ll come back tomorrow night. If Christian wants to call up a ghost, maybe we should give him a ghost. Maybe we should keep on giving him a ghost at his fancy little parties until he agrees to talk to you.”

Eleisha shook her head in confusion, but Seamus just smiled.

Less than an hour later, just before dawn, Philip was covering the windows of the suite’s one bedroom with spare blankets, making sure no light would come in. Out in the main room, he could hear Eleisha speaking softly to Wade.

“Be sure to order yourself something to eat,” she was saying. “You’re so good about feeding the animals, but sometimes you forget to feed yourself.”

“I will.”

“You’ll be all right here on the couch?”

“I’m fine, Eleisha. Go to bed.”

Her light footsteps approached, and she came inside and closed the bedroom door. Philip turned to her. She was still wearing the same long skirt and little red T-shirt, and this struck him as the only proof that just a single night had passed since she’d walked out to find them arguing over the fate of Mr. Boo.