“Giving me my walking papers? Did you have them notarized?”
“Just open it, smart-ass.”
I tore the envelope open with my short thumbnail, quickly checking the black polish for chips before dumping the envelope’s contents onto the counter.
A key, a swipe card and a folded piece of paper.
“Gee, however will I be able to repay you?” I said woodenly, not understanding his gift.
He picked up the key. “This opens the basement door to the vampire archives.” He showed me the slide card. “This opens the front door after hours and this”—he waved the paper in my direction—“is the Tribunal Security schedule for a special delivery.”
I looked at him blankly.
He sighed in exasperation. “If you look at the schedule, you will notice that the library will be unoccupied for two hours. No one, living or otherwise, will be in the library during that time. There is a new display I think you will find very interesting.” He looked at me meaningfully.
“Oh!” I sat up straighter, finally catching his meaning. Carl was giving me access to the ancient scripts in the library without Colby or any other vampire knowing about it.
I grabbed the paper from him and looked over the schedule carefully. “Won’t you get in trouble for this?”
“Only if you’re caught. You can manage to do this without getting caught, can’t you?” He made a threatening gesture to grab the paper out of my hand.
“Of course I can do this without getting caught. Sheesh, what poor faith you have in my abilities.” My stomach knotted up at the thought of breaking into a vampire library. Colby was the brave one. I was sort of the sarcastic sidekick. Heavy on wit, light on actual daring.
My face must have relayed my fears because he seemed to waver. “Piper, you don’t have to do this. I know you want to help Colby with this whole Prophesy thing but there is no need for you to, uh, take any unnecessary risks.”
I threw him a disgusted look. “I won’t be taking any risks if your schedule is right. It
is
right, isn’t it?”
It was his turn to look disgusted. “Of course it’s right. You don’t think I would put you in danger, do you?”
“I don’t know.” I pretended to contemplate his question. “I mean, you
could
get rid of a Breather …”
He laughed at me. “True, there is that. But then I’m leaving anyway, so I get rid of you either way, don’t I?”
I instantly sobered. “So you’re leaving soon then?”
“Yep, tomorrow.”
“Do you really have to go? You’re needed here.” It was the closest thing to a confession I was going to make. Carl was, well, Carl. Tall, dark, handsome and Undead. Not boyfriend material but he was a great Vampire Investigator, and after our run-in with those stinky vampires, I didn’t want one of the best headed to New York City.
“Surely they have Investigators there.” I didn’t like the way my voice took on a whiny quality, almost like I was pleading.
Carl walked around the bar and took both my hands in his. As always, I was surprised by how cool he was to touch. I used to wonder if things would be different between us if we were both living. Not that it mattered. He was Undead and I wasn’t and things weren’t going to change. Still, I cared about Carl and wanted him to be happy. Ever since Thomas found Colby, there was a restlessness in Carl. Much like the restlessness that invaded me at odd moments. A sort of discontent that I just wasn’t willing to analyze further. I didn’t need someone to make me complete. Did I?
Still, having someone to go out with, to call and be with didn’t sound like such a bad deal either. Like what Colby and Thomas had. I couldn’t believe I was envying Colby. I mean, even dead the girl managed to still have it all.
“You and Psi Phi House are going to be fine, Piper. New York needs help. I wouldn’t be going if it weren’t an emergency. Rogue vampire activity is at an all-time high. There’s something in the air,” he added cryptically.
“Yeah, I know and a lot of it’s still here in Seattle.” I tugged my hands out of his and jumped off the bar stool. “It’s like you don’t even care.”
“I don’t care? You think I’m leaving because I don’t care?” His mood changed abruptly and he threw up his hands in frustration. “Between you and Thomas I can’t seem to win.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that I’m a Vampire Investigator. It’s not just a job, it’s who I am. I swore an oath to protect all vampires and that includes half-bloods now, as well. New York has a desperate need for Investigators. I have to go. It’s my job. Thomas understands that. Sure, I had reservations about leaving but he made me see the light. He can handle things here. I have to go where I am needed. And right now, that’s NYC.”
“Wait a minute.
Thomas
wants you to go?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Did Thomas really think everything was so safe and secure here that he was going to send one of his best Vampire Investigators away?
“He said they needed me and that’s why I’m going. I trust his judgment, Piper. You should too. Anyway, Thomas will be here and he has the entire Tribunal Security at his beck and call. Colby can take care of herself, and she’s got your back too.”
I nodded, but doubt filled me. Why would Thomas send Carl away? Didn’t he think these attacks were something to be concerned about? Colby said Thomas wasn’t getting enough sleep and was plagued by bad dreams—maybe it was affecting his judgment? No, I was being ridiculous. I just didn’t want Carl to go away. He was one of the few people who “got” me.
I stepped toward Carl and wrapped my arms around his torso. At first he stood still; then slowly, he awkwardly put his arms around me, as if afraid I would break with the least amount of pressure, and we stood embracing in the middle of his apartment. He smelled wonderful, clean and rugged at the same time.
Carl was dear to me, though we could never be more than friends. He held a special place in my heart.
“You be safe,” I whispered into his chest.
He stroked my hair and I felt his lips brush the top of my head. “Everything’s going to be fine. You’ll see.”
“I hope you’re right,” I murmured. I was afraid things were going to get worse. Much worse.
Five
COLBY
E
ntering the offices of the Vampire Tribunal was much like entering any law office in downtown Seattle. They enjoyed sprawling views of the Sound, were located on the upper levels of the Columbia Tower and felt stuffy and respectable. No one would suspect that they housed the most powerful vampire leaders in the Clan.
Margaret Durham was seated at the reception desk, like always. Neatly put together in a St. John knit pantsuit, hair swept up and tidily clipped to her head, she gave the impression of prestigious gatekeeper to the influential men seated behind the doors. And she hated me. A lot.
“Hello, Margaret,” I greeted her.
She didn’t even bother to look up from her computer monitor. “Go away, he’s busy.”
This was our relationship in a nutshell.
“Come on, Margaret. He actually
asked
to see me. I’m not just dropping by unannounced.” Which was kind of the truth. Mr. Holloway said I could come by anytime I had a problem. And today, well, I had a problem.
“He’s in a meeting,” she replied, not even pretending to check his schedule.
I made a loud groaning noise as I advanced to the glass fortress she called a desk.
“Please,” I whined.
“No,” she said, but her lips held a ghost of a smile. She loved it when I begged. She was a full-blood vampire bigot and I was trying to be nice. It was killing me.
“Fine, I’ll just hang out here with you and catch up on all the Undead gossip.”
She continued to type away at her computer, ignoring me. Yeah, like I could be ignored for long.
“No news? Okay, well I have a ton of stuff to share. Did you know PSU has a sorcery degree program? Yeah, I know. I had no idea either. So the girls are calling PSU Para-Super U. Get it? Instead of Puget Sound University they are nicknaming it Paranormal Supernatural University and shortening the name to Para-Super U. How funny is that? Oh, and that Sophie keeps collecting cats and as you know, I’m terribly allergic to—”
She slammed her hands on her keyboard.
“Fine, you win. Go see him. Just leave me alone.” She buzzed to let me through.
“Thanks, Margaret!” I maneuvered through the reception hall to Mr. Holloway’s door. I was an expert on not being ignored. Ask my mom. Whenever she was busy with house listings and I needed something, she’d learned to stop what she was doing and help me. I could be that annoying. Call it a gift.
I rapped on the heavy mahogany door, and then turned the knob.
“Mr. Holloway?”
He was seated at a large, impressive desk, going through paperwork. I kind of felt sorry for vampires now. Once they were primal beings, feeding and battling for supremacy, and now they were a bunch of bureaucrats, sifting through red tape and making laws to ensure their existence. It was no secret that the older a vampire got, the crazier they were likely to become. They got paranoid, reclusive and untrusting. Only the vampires with lifelong companions, friends or lovers seemed to keep it together.
“Colby, my dear. What brings you to me?”
That was a favorable start. He was usually so busy with vampire business I rarely got more than a moment of his time.
“I was hoping you had a minute. I have some interesting news that I’d like your take on.”
“I hope it’s more pressing than the renaming of PSU to Para-Super U or your cat allergies.” He offered me a chair.
“How did you … ?”
“Vampire hearing, Colby.” He tapped his ear.
“Ah, well, sorry about that.” I was a bit embarrassed being caught acting like such an obnoxious brat by the boss man.
“I believe you two have a bit of a blind spot about each other.”
“Why, Mr. Holloway,” I declared, doing my best Scarlett O’Hara impression. “Whatever do you mean?” I fanned myself lightly.
He chuckled. “My dear, you are amusing. I’ll give you that. Now what news have you brought me?”
I settled into the chair he offered and debated the best way to begin.
“I had an unusual encounter this evening. Not my typical kind,” I rushed to assure him before he could tell me to take it up with Thomas and dismiss me. “But with a different type of vampire.”
“Go on.”
“Well, you see, these vampires were kind of squishy. Sort of decaying. In fact, if I had to call it something, I would say they were zombie vampires.”
I peeked up at him through my lashes, ready to be thrown out of his office for wasting his time.
“I see,” he said, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over his torso. My eyes were immediately drawn to his right hand, where he wore his vampire license. I could see the scar under his ring at the base of his finger where he’d cut it off so many years ago and then put it back to knit together.
Shaking my head, I continued with my story. “They also smelled bad. I mean really bad. Like rotten eggs, expired dairy bad. And when they were staked, a white mist escaped into the air.”
“How many have you encountered so far, Colby?” He didn’t seem the least bit surprised by my description. I wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or not.
“There were five total, all dead now. And I mean really dead, not like Undead,” I felt the need to clarify, then coughed to clear my throat.
“I understand the distinction.”
“I was kind of hoping you could shed some light on what these guys were.”
Please don’t say zombies, please don’t say zombies,
I chanted in my head.
“They are demon-possessed vampires. Zombies, by a more common name.”
Crap, I asked you not to call them that.
“Do they want to eat my brains?” I had to know.
“I wouldn’t think so. Zombies have no need of sustenance, so have no desire to consume anything. They are merely a vessel being used by the demon possessing them. They have no agenda of their own.”
Well, there’s another great horror-movie myth shot down by cold, hard fact. I mean, I was glad there weren’t zombies roaming the earth eating brains but at the same time, I wanted to believe pop culture got some things right once in a while.
“I don’t understand. Why would demons want to possess a vampire if they didn’t want to eat my brains? I have rogue vampires trying to kick my butt on a regular basis—why do demons want in on the action?”
“The Prophesy, of course.”
“I thought you didn’t take stock in the Prophesy. You said it was a bunch of superstitious nonsense.”
He stood up and walked around the room. “Colby, it doesn’t matter if I believe the Prophesy. It doesn’t matter if you believe it either. What matters is that
they
believe it.” He swept his arm out toward the window, with its breathtaking view of the city.