Authors: Toni Kelly
He acted so nonchalant, when Luke possibly killed a man less than fifty feet away. “Why do you need food? I mean, you’re not completely a human. Shouldn’t you be drinking blood or something?”
“I prefer the taste of food, but I need both.” He sipped his coffee. “Blood’s a bit sour for my tastes and unlike pure vampires, I don’t crave it unless I’m desperate for its nutrients. It’s like certain wines or spirits. Takes a bit of getting used to, you know?”
No, she didn’t, nor did she care to know. Still, Broderick’s description sounded more likely than strawberries and cream. Ugh. “I think I’m going to be sick.” A sudden churning unsettled her stomach and she slid from her stool. Moisture beaded on her forehead.
Broderick stopped eating and stared. “Shit.” Moving quickly, he rushed forward and slipped his arms around her. “Damn it.” He carried her outside, propped her up, over the railing.
Savannah emptied her stomach of the coffee she’d drunk and dry heaved for another couple minutes. “I’m dying.”
“I beg to differ,” Broderick said as he helped her stand upright. “Right now I’d say you’re very much alive.” He took a step back. “Want to go inside?”
She shook her head, wiped sweat from her temples. “I can’t stand to hear the screaming. What is he doing to him?”
He guided her to a chair and sat down beside her. “Don’t ask questions you don’t want to hear answers to. You know what Luke is. You can’t accept part of him.”
She shivered and bit her bottom lip. Broderick was right.
“Look, try not to think about it,” he said. “And if you can’t help yourself, remember the halfling is the bad guy. We need information from him.” He stood. “You’re cold. I should get you a blanket.”
“No.” She placed a hand over his. “Please don’t leave me alone right now.”
He settled back in his chair and rubbed his quadriceps. “What do you want, Savannah?”
“I want to sit here for a moment.”
“I’m not asking what you want now. I’m asking what you want with Luke.”
“What do you mean?” She held her breath. Maybe he’d drop the subject if she avoided it.
“Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about,” he said, meeting her gaze. “He needs blood to survive and though he is selective about his victims, he has victims nonetheless. Can you live with that?”
Savannah released a long sigh. How she wanted to shout
yes
. But it would be a lie. Good or bad, nobody deserved to die, not in such a monstrous way. “I don’t know.” She shook her head. “No, I lie. I can’t. I just can’t.”
“Have you told him this?”
She rubbed her brow. “He knows what I think of vampires.”
“If it’s any consolation, the man there is not a human. He’s a halfling like me.”
“It’s not a consolation.”
“Luke wants to help you, Savannah. He wants to discover who sent the halfling.”
“I know.” She wrapped her arms around herself.
“Come on, we need to go.” He rose to his feet.
“Where are you going?”
“To check in on Luke, talk to him about this. Please come inside. You’ll get sick out here and I don’t want to take any chances in case they sent more than one man.”
Shivering, she went with him. A hot shower would chase away the chill.
* * * *
Luke sat and stared at the lifeless body lying on the floor. He wiped his lips with the back of his hand. Blood streaked across his skin. Sloppy, but what did it matter? He was tired of trying to be something other than what he was.
“And so the pity party begins.” Broderick entered, handed him a rag. “Get yourself together. And I’m not only referring to the blood.”
“Where is Savannah?”
“She’s fine. I left her to take a shower. She, uh, wasn’t feeling good.”
“She believes me to be a monster.”
“Your behavior lately hasn’t exactly shown her otherwise. Today was a bit much to take.”
Luke wiped his hands, bent his head and rubbed the back of his neck. “This is reality. I am no Romeo.”
“That’s for sure.”
“What do you expect me to do? Woo her with wine and chocolates? Love notes and flowers? Do not be absurd.”
“And why not? You’re a vampire, not a vegetable. Why don’t you tell me what the hell you are planning? You certainly don’t appear productive, leaving your scraps everywhere.” Broderick waved a hand at the body on the floor. “You’ll have to burn him.”
As if he had forgotten. “Thanks, detective, for stating the obvious.”
“Get anything worthwhile from him?” Broderick asked.
“More than I wanted to hear. His name was Giovanni. He worked for Lorenzo.”
Broderick’s eyes widened. “What did you say?”
Luke rubbed his eyes, suddenly more tired than he’d felt in decades. “Lorenzo wants Savannah. He has been playing me this entire time. The worst part is, I suspected something was wrong. He has been moody of late—even more so than usual.”
“The halfling admitted Lorenzo wants Savannah?”
“No. He works for Lorenzo, but I recalled him from the night at the blood auction. He shot at us. I only saw him for a brief moment but his face shows up distinctly in my mind.” Luke smoothed a hand over the stubble on his jaw. “I have seen him at Blood Bar. Lorenzo lied to my face.”
“I’ve never liked Lorenzo.”
What kind of bloody mess had he gotten Savannah involved in? “I do not understand why he spent this time under some sort of pretense. He had several opportunities to attack Savannah and yet he waits until now. Why?”
“Sounds like Lorenzo. Backhanded and cowardly, if you ask me.”
“I did not
ask
you.”
“Obviously, otherwise you wouldn’t be in this mess.”
Grinding his teeth, he met Broderick’s gaze. “Need I remind you, your investigative abilities have contributed to our current predicament?”
“No, you needn’t remind me,” Broderick said. With a sigh, he sat on the edge of the bed. “I don’t understand why Lorenzo would have hired someone to shoot at you. A stupid risk, especially if he was trying to get on Rafe’s good side.”
“Agreed. Whatever the reason, it will cost him. At least now I know how he got hold of the blood.”
One of Broderick’s brows shot upward. “What blood are you talking about?”
“My arm. You remember seeing what Savannah’s blood did to it. At Rafe’s auction, there was a vial of blood supposedly used to cure our kind. Lorenzo’s men must have stolen it and used the attack as a distraction.”
“Why?”
What did Lorenzo truly want? He had to be crazy if he actually believed he could take on the Ancients. “It was supposed to be an antidote.” Quieter he whispered, “I think I was his bloody experiment.” He recalled Lorenzo’s expression of wonder as he’d said
vampire killer
.
“Lorenzo has been on the outs with Drago for a while.” Broderick paused. “Do you think he wants Savannah to start some kind of street war with her blood?”
“I had not thought a street war, but since you mention it, the idea is plausible.”
“Insane,” Broderick said.
“Not from Lorenzo’s viewpoint.” Luke sighed. “He already feels cornered. Think about it. The possibilities are endless. He could use Savannah herself to draw others in.” His muscles tensed at the thought of her as a sex slave. “Her blood could be given to enemies he wants to rid himself of. He might even come up with a way to use her blood in some kind of weapon form, killing vampires from a distance. Christ, he would be untouchable. Even more so, now that we know Rafe’s so-called cure is a hoax.”
“What do we do? They already know you’re here and if Lorenzo has a lick of smarts, he’ll soon know his man is dead. I have a friend who has a villa at Lake Como. We could head there.”
“No.” Luke shook his head. “We are going back to Rome.”
“Rome, are you crazy? You’ll walk right into the middle of a disaster.”
Luke nodded. “We cannot keep running. We will attend the charity auction tomorrow. Vampire society will be there, including the Ancients.”
“Um, I don’t see how this is going to protect Savannah.”
“I told you.” Luke stood up and lit a match, then tossed it onto the dead halfling. Giovanni’s body caught fire quickly. “I am going to turn her. As a vampire, her blood will lose its usefulness to Lorenzo and anyone else who decides to hunt her. As a vampire she will be meaningless to them.”
“You better clean up the mess his body is going to create.” Broderick threaded his hands through his hair. “I still think you’re overlooking a few huge issues here. One, if this works and you somehow survive, Savannah will kill you for turning her. Or two, if this goes how I think it will go, her blood will kill you. How are you going be with her if you’re dead?”
Luke sat on the bed, the orange and blue flames of Giovanni’s burning body dancing before him. “I never said anything about being with her.”
25
One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can’t utter.
—James Earl Jones
“Hello?” Savannah shivered despite the fact the scalding shower had heated her skin. No matter what she did, nothing made her feel clean, calm. She ran a hand over her arm, caressing the thick sweater Broderick had loaned her and tiptoed down the hallway to where she heard voices. Luke and Broderick were arguing.
“Luke?” She pushed open the bedroom door then screamed. The charred remains of whom she assumed was her attacker crumbled into a shapeless puddle in the middle of the floor.
“Bloody hell!” Luke shouted, shoving Broderick toward her. “Get her out of here.”
Savannah took a step backward and tripped on the hall carpet. Broderick caught her and cradled her to his side. “You okay?”
No, she wasn’t. “I-I...”
“Shit. Let’s get you packed.” He guided her into her room and sat her on the bed. Uncontrollable trembling wracked her. He folded back the comforter. “Get beneath the covers.”
She did as he asked, too tired to protest.
He pulled her small suitcase from beneath the bed, opened the closet and folded a few articles of clothing into the open case. “Remember what I said. He was a bad guy. One of Lorenzo’s goons. Understand?”
She sniffled and gazed up at him through tears, hating herself for feeling so weak and helpless. Something didn’t make sense. “Lorenzo?”
“I guess for once, Luke is fortunate he doesn’t trust easily.”
She settled against her pillow, unable to block the sight of the charred halfling from her mind. “What’s he going to do with the remains?”
“Clean them up. Despite certain parts of our nature, we aren’t filthy creatures.”
“I wasn’t suggesting you were.” She frowned. Broderick acted annoyed. How dare he? She hadn’t asked for any of this and certainly didn’t deserve his attitude.
“You don’t have to say anything.” He closed the lid to her case and zipped it up. “You’re an open book, Savannah. Everything is displayed in your eyes. Luke didn’t choose what he has become, nor did you or I choose much of what has happened to us. We are who we are. I would think someone who’s been through what you’ve been through would understand being dealt an unfair hand.”
“There’s quite a difference between being a vampire and being hit by a car. I don’t kill people by drinking them dry. That’s what he did, isn’t it?” She held her breath, anticipating an answer, hoping against what she already knew to be true.
“And if he did? You’ve never had to drink blood to survive.” A little quieter, he said, “I misjudged you. I expected more. Too much, maybe.”
What did she say now? She always disappointed others.
Let him judge her. She cleared her throat and wiped at her eyes. “Maybe.”
Broderick bent his head and sat at the end of the bed, back to her. “We’re going to Rome in a couple hours.”
Rome? Nothing made sense. Lorenzo was there. She wanted to ask him why, but her mouth wouldn’t form the words. Her throat knotted, and she buried her face in the pillow to avoid any further embarrassment.