Blood Red (23 page)

“Stacey will know how to manage Heidi. I imagine she's already acting a great deal more like herself already.”

“So being seduced, bitten…doesn't automatically make you become…a vampire?” she asked.

He shook his head. “You become a vampire when the kill is complete,” he said. “Unless you're staked. Or beheaded.”

“How can there be so many vampires and only three murders? I mean…don't they need to feed?”

He slipped into his shirt. “They can feed on many things. Rats, small animals…and a good glut can last a very long time. I'm sure, if we checked the surrounding area, we'd find that a few blood banks had been ransacked.” He hesitated. “Stephan is a monster. Cruel, power-hungry, and he thrives on the pain and torment he causes others. But in the end…he wants to live. He wants me to die, because I'm an enemy who has been on his trail for a long, long time. But he wants you first—and he wants me alive to see it. Maybe he believes he can seduce you, that you'll live a long and happy—and bloodthirsty—unlife together. Maybe he only wants you because he knows he can cut me to the quick again. Maybe it's both. I can tell you this, though. He's using Deanna and Heidi to torment you, to get to you. And I have to stop him.”

He went still when he finished speaking.

She frowned. “What is it?”

He groaned. Suddenly, instead of buttoning his shirt he was pulling it off again. The jeans fell to the floor.

And then he was back beside her, eyes meeting hers, fingers caressing her hair.

“I need to go,” he murmured.

She nodded.

“But not yet. Not just yet.”

Nor could she let him go. They were both fevered, hasty, making love with a fierce and desperate passion.

She was falling in love, she thought. With his face.

With his hands.

His touch.

His kiss.

Not just in love with being in love, with making love. No, with a man.

She barely knew him.

She had to believe that she knew enough.

She ceased to think. She soared; she reveled in sensation. Together, they were cataclysmic, explosive. She could not get close enough to him.

Her heart pounded; her breathing rasped; her flesh was slick and wet; and the moment of culmination was shattering and sweet.

In the end, he held her close for a moment and sighed deeply. Then he was up and gone.

And she was left alone with her thoughts, to if what she felt could be real or was only a dream.

A dream…when all else was a nightmare.

M
ark headed to Jackson Square. He had noticed Susan the woman Lauren had sketched, when he had first come back to the city and had wandered through the Square, seeing what had changed, what had remained the same.

It always amazed him. Take away a few signs, add a few cosmetic details, and the Square was just as it always had been.

There were a few musicians out, a few artists, and one tarot card reader. There was no sign of Susan.

He walked on to the police station, where, with little difficulty, he was ushered in to see Sean. Canady, who was at his desk, bent over some paperwork.

He studied Mark as he came in. “You look refreshed,” he said.

“You got a minute?”

Canady indicated a chair.

“Was there anything unusual about the autopsy?” Mark asked, cutting right to the chase.

“Would you call it unusual to find three headless bodies in the Mississippi in three days? Because I would,” Sean said. “It's obviously the same killer. You can only see one puncture mark on the latest victim—the other went with the head when it was severed. I don't know if Stephan is leaving the marks on purpose—to let those who know in on what he's up to—or if he's just being careless. Thankfully, the ME says they were all dead prior to the decapitations. The state police have set up a task force extending up and down the river.”

“They having any luck?”

“There's nothing to go on. No prints, nothing left behind, and the water is doing a number on any evidence that might have been left on the bodies. They brought in a profiler, who believes we're looking for a man in his mid to late twenties, maybe early thirties, someone with feelings of inadequacy, and a menial day job. May or may not have a wife at home. Everyone is baffled by his ability to decapitate his victims and hide the heads, although it's likely they're in the Mississippi, as well—it can be merciless. Everyone agrees it will be a major breakthrough if we can discover
where
the crimes are taking place. They're looking for something like an abandoned slaughterhouse, since the victims have been practically bloodless.”

“Did you make any suggestions?” Mark asked him.

“Of course. I suggested we were looking for a vampire.”

Mark arched a brow. “And you're still employed.”

Sean smiled ruefully. “I've spent many years now knowing that what we're up against doesn't always fit the normal expectations. Sorting out the crazed human from the crazed
in human.
Since we've had cultist activity here before, sometimes people listen to me. I've told them that I'm personally convinced we're up against a cult, and that they should think as if they were up against real vampires, because that's what this group thinks they are.”

“Good call,” Mark said. “What about your own men?”

Sean shrugged, his smile deepening. “The non-believers have thought for years that I'm a little bit crazy—worse, they believe I can think like a deranged killer. But they've seen things come to a satisfactory conclusion before by thinking my way, so…The men I put in the hospital to watch over Deanna…they've been on similar duty before. They believe.”

“What's your take on Jonas?” Mark asked him.

“Like I said before, seems like he's on the right side. But I don't personally know him.”

“Neither do I.”

“Truthfully, I don't know
you
, either,” Sean said.

Mark almost said,
Your wife knew me,
but he refrained. She had really only known
of
him, and that had been a long time ago.

“Stephan is holed up somewhere. The problem is, I don't think it's in your jurisdiction. He's got to be out of the Quarter somewhere, maybe even out of the city and the parish. I was thinking of taking a closer look down Plantation Row, out past your place. I already took a quick ride out that way, and I didn't see anything that looked empty—that looked like some cultist group was sneaking in and out of it.”

“Maybe it won't look empty,” Sean suggested. “Maybe Stephan made a few contacts before he came here. Maybe, by day, it looks like any other house.”

“Have your guys keep their eyes and ears open, huh?”

Sean just stared at him.

“They're already doing that, huh?” Mark said.

“Yes.”

“I'll be in touch,” Mark assured him, rising.

“By the way, we've got IDs on all the girls. They all have records for prostitution. One from Baton Rouge, one of them from Lafayette, and one from Poughkeepsie.”

“Poughkeepsie?”

“New York state. Maybe she was relocating. She didn't have a known address down here, anyway.”

Mark shrugged. “Working girls will always go off alone with a man,” he said. “It makes sense.”

“Yes,” Sean said simply, then drew a deep breath. “I've got men watching the bars and strip clubs. But I don't think you'll find Stephan that way. He's more subtle. If he's committing the murders himself, I think he's having the women brought to him.”

Mark nodded. “Makes sense. I found one of his minions in a bar when I first arrived. I followed him when he took a woman to a cemetery and killed him.”

“I guess he found someone who thought that doing it in a graveyard would be exciting.”

“Even young vampires can be seductive,” Mark said.

Sean nodded. “We're on the alert for anything unusual. I'll call you, right away if I hear anything at all.”

Mark thanked him and left the police station.

Stephan and his followers were targeting easy prey, he thought. Women who were ready to be seduced—for a price. They just didn't know that they were the ones who would be paying.

Well, he'd hit the bars, and he had found one of Stephan's lackeys, though the young woman he'd gone after had been just a tourist.

But Stephan had an untold number of followers. They could be anywhere. Not one of them, so far, seemed to have acquired the kind of strength and power Stephan had learned over the years, though. By day most of them were probably resting. But maybe not all of the.

During the day, the city was quieter than it was by night. Most people spent their time checking out the historic district, the museums, the restaurants and the shops. Parents took children for carriage rides. The aquarium and the zoo drew crowds.

But the bars were open.

And so were the strip clubs.

He wandered in and out of a few of the bars, catching snatches of live music along the way. At one place, the group was so good that he wanted to forget his quest and stay to listen, but he resisted the urge. Everywhere he went, he sensed nothing, saw nothing. Everything was quiet.

He decided to try a few of the strip clubs. At the Bottomless Pit he found worn carpets, cheap patrons and tired strippers. No one appeared the least bit menacing. In fact, performers and audience alike seemed to be asleep.

He moved on and found a neon sign that promised
Bare, Bare, Bare!

A hawker with bad teeth was out front, trying to lure people in. Mark decided to pay the cover charge and take a look.

It was quiet.

There were a few scattered patrons, including a heavyset man in the front row, with a prime location right next to the pole. As Mark entered, a weary announcer was trying to make his voice excited as he raved about Nefertiti, goddess among women.

She appeared on the walkway, and on contrast to the rather cheesy atmosphere of the place, the ennui of the announcer and the shabby appearance of most of the patrons, she was good-looking to the point of beautiful. Tall, golden skinned, with long, sleek dark hair. She made her way to the pole and eyed the heavyset man who had taken up the catbird seat.

She twisted and writhed. She started out wearing spangly harem pants and a jeweled bra, with finely meshed material connecting the skimpy bits. The mesh went quickly, then the top, and before long, just as promised, she was
bare, bare, bare,
and everything was gone.

She elicited a fair amount of applause for her act, considering the room wasn't particularly well populated.

Then Nefertiti stepped down, and the announcer called out the next girl, Annie Oakley, with a faux hearty “Ride'em, cowboy.

Annie Oakley had clearly been around a while. Her breasts were definitely silicone, and gravity was establishing dominance.

Few people were watching her.

Nefertiti had gotten dressed, though she wasn't exactly ready for church, and gone over to the man in front, offering him a lap dance. Mark kept one eye on the stage and the other on Nefertiti. It was the usual stuff, but the heavy-set man was evidently enamored.

Mark's phone rang. Still watching Nefertiti negotiate, he answered with a soft, “Yes?”

“I've got something.” Sean's voice.

But Mark barely heard him; he swore and snapped the phone shut, staring at Nefertiti. Her hair was a good foil, but not good enough to hide the fact that she was just about to take a bite out of the beefy flesh and pulsing jugular of her heavyset client.

Heidi did seem more like Heidi, Lauren thought. She seemed confused by her own actions, though, almost as if she didn't really remember a thing about the day before.

“Hey,” Lauren said, giving her a hug when she found her downstairs at the breakfast table.

“Hey,” Heidi echoed, then asked anxiously, “Do you think Deanna is going to be all right? I can't…I can't seem to make much sense of yesterday. I guess I was coming down with something. And you're not going to believe this. It's awful”

“What?” Lauren asked, her heart thumping.

“I can't find my engagement ring. How in God's name did I lose my engagement ring?”

“It might show up,” Lauren said.

“Barry will kill me,” Heidi said.

“No, he won't. And…you're still going to marry him?”

Heidi frowned. “Of course I'm going to marry him.”

“I'm glad.”

“When did I say I wasn't going to marry him?” Heidi pressed.

Stacey, coming to the table with fresh coffee, answered flatly, “Yesterday.”

“Never!” Heidi protested.

Lauren looked at Stacey and then at Heidi. “Uh, yes,” she murmured.

“Tell her. You have to tell her the truth,” Stacey insisted.

Lauren stared at Stacey again. Just what
“
truth” was Heidi going to believe?

“You were bitten by a vampire,” Stacey said. “You have to know all this, and you have to get with the program.”

Heidi's jaw fell. She looked at Lauren accusingly, as if Lauren had forced them to move to a crazy house.

“A
vampire?”
Heidi demanded. Stacey was quiet. Heidi picked up her coffee cup, and her fingers were shaking. “A vampire,” she repeated tonelessly.

“Yes, actually,” Lauren told her.

“Who's the vampire?”

“We think you were bitten by a vampire named Stephan,” Lauren told her.

Stacey took a seat at the table and leaned toward Heidi. “Think about it. When you were at the hospital,
you
let him in. Thankfully, he went after you and didn't suck the remaining life out of Deanna.”

Again Heidi's jaw dropped. “You are all stark raving mad,” she said, and started to rise.

Stacey set a hand on Heidi's arm. “Think hard. Make yourself remember yesterday. Remember Bobby and I coming in. Remember Lauren! Think about going to dinner with Mark and then coming back to the hospital. None of it was a dream. None of it was in your imagination. It was all real.”

Heidi looked pale and uneasy. “All right, yesterday was strange. I'm sure I had a fever. Maybe a bit of whatever made Deanna so sick.”

Lauren started to reply, but she didn't get a chance to. Stacey had decided there was going to be nothing gentle about getting Heidi to see the real picture and kept going.

“You bet it's the same thing. Deanna would have died if she hadn't gotten to the hospital when she did. And she could have died again when
you
let that monster into her room. Fortunately he decided he would try poisoning
you
, as well. But luckily Mark recognized your symptoms right away, and we were able to get you back here before anything worse happened. But he's still out there, and you're weak—”

”I am not weak!” Heidi flared.

“Wait!” Lauren spoke at last. “Stacey, this…man is extremely powerful, and Heidi had no idea what she was up against. Stephan has hypnotic powers. I was almost frozen myself when I came across him, and I was armed and knew what I was up against.”