“You saw the photos.”
I cut my gaze to his and tried to breathe. “I did.”
“You never wondered how I had over a thousand kills?”
I let out a little sob. “I thought you were very driven.”
Saber snorted. “You would be right.”
“What happened?”
My whisper was more ragged than I wanted it to be, and Saber’s cobalt eyes turned nearly black in the dim light.
“My father and grandfather were slayers, but they moved often to protect the family. To protect me.” He paused, swallowed. “I overheard them talking about a turf war between the vamps and the werewolves one night. I was ten. When they left to do their jobs, I followed them.
“I stayed a safe distance away, and I watched the bloodbath that killed my grandfather and wounded my father. When I thought everyone was gone, I went to help. That’s when a vamp and a were attacked again.”
My gut seized. “They killed your dad?”
“They tortured him. They cut me, and then themselves, and mingled our blood. Then they forced me to suck their wounds and swallow the blood.”
“While your dad watched.” I saw it unfold in his memory as if on a fuzzy movie screen.
“They told my father to remember that what he despised was now in me, that I was now a blood brother to them. Shit, it was the only time I ever knew a vamp and a were to cooperate.”
I gritted my teeth against the pain rolling off the boy in the vision. “Your father recovered?”
Saber gave a shuddering sigh and met my gaze. “Yes. He trained me, and he kept an eye on me for changes, but there weren’t any. Dad never treated me like something he hated.”
Since looking into his eyes had broken the mind connection, I had to ask. “Is he still living?”
He shook his head, a tiny movement. “My parents died ten years ago.”
“I take it the werewolf and vampire who did that to you are also dead.”
“They are.”
I held the silence for a moment. “Does anyone else know?”
“Like the vamps or the VPA?” He shrugged. “I think Ike knew something was different, but he never mentioned it. The VPA knows, and my government records have been altered.”
“Meaning what? You have a fake ID that makes you younger instead of older?”
“Exactly.” He hesitated, then said, “I always planned to tell you, I just didn’t know how. How pissed are you?”
As soon as he asked, my body relaxed. “Not too much. I’m not quite the cradle robber I thought I was, and that’s good.”
“But?”
“But, if you’re not a vampire or a werecreature, what—” I broke off, not sure that I wanted to know.
“What am I?” Saber smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I’m human with enhancements. My senses are heightened, though not as keen as yours. I have more strength and speed, and I’m immune to vamp enthrallment. I heal quickly and age slowly.”
“So you’ll be around for a while yet?”
He began kneading my belly with his warm hand. “As long as you want me.”
I let the last big pieces of confusion fall away. This was still Saber. The man I loved.
“Promise me one thing.”
“No more secrets?”
“No more cracks about bonfire birthday cakes.”
He smiled and moved his hand south until he cupped my mound and squeezed. Oh. So. Slowly.
“The only fire . . .” he crooned, his voice a wicked invitation.
I squirmed under his probing fingers.
“That I’ll mention again . . .”
My breathing grew heavy as wet heat flooded me.
“Is the one right here.”
023
At six fifteen that evening, Saber and I sat with Donita in her modest home on a quiet residential street. Eyes red and puffy, she curled up at one end of an overstuffed couch, hugging her knees. A lost waif.
Judging from the tissues littering the carpet, Donita had been in the same place since she came home. If she’d entertained Ike here, I could see why she’d avoid the bedroom.
“I’m sorry about your arm,” she told Saber for the second time since she’d let us in. “I can’t believe Laurel got away.”
I’d made him wear the sling. Fast healer or not, a broken wrist took a human time to mend. Besides, it might make one of the vamps we’d visit later underestimate him.
“Captain Jackson told me he saw you earlier,” Saber said.
“Y-yes. H-he told me the police would keep my car for a while.” She shuddered and swallowed. “I don’t want it. I don’t even want to be in this house anymore.”
“We know this is hard,” I said, “but anything you can tell us will help. How long had you been with Ike?”
“Only since late May. A client wanted to see the club, so I took her.” She stopped and plowed her fingers through the short curls that lay wilted on her head. “Ike hardly ever came downstairs to the club proper while I knew him, but he came down that evening.”
“Was he doing anything special?” Saber asked. “Checking the bar or talking with customers?”
“No. He came down the main staircase. You know, the one at the front wall of the club. I saw him right away, and I remember he sort of glanced over the crowd until he looked right at me.”
“You started seeing him after that?” I prompted.
“I went back every night for a week. I was nervous as hell, but there was something about him.” She twisted her hands. “I talked a lot about what I did, and what I might do for his business. He finally said he’d hire me if I’d have a late date with him.”
“How did Laurel react?” Saber asked.
“She’d interrupt us while we talked, make catty remarks. I figured she was jealous, but her attitude got worse when I suggested that Ike make some changes in the club. She started stirring up trouble with the others, and that jewelry she asked me to pawn for her? She said they were things from old boy-friends. She blew up when you didn’t arrest me.”
“I believe you, but back up. What changes did you suggest that Ike make to the club?”
“I wanted the on-site sex and biting stopped. Even behind closed doors and consensual, I felt it was dangerous.”
Saber’s cop face was firmly in place now. “What did you see to make you think that?”
She pressed her lips together. “Laurel. The men she bit were still, ah, out of it at closing time. She just laughed and said they weren’t strong enough for her, and that she’d done nothing wrong. But it bothered me, you know?”
Saber nodded. “When did Ike agree to change the policy?”
“After he talked to Ray. Ike didn’t tell me what Ray said, but I guess he agreed with me. Ike stopped the sex and biting just before the end of July.”
“Did you,” Saber pressed, “see the picture of the man who was bitten and robbed?”
“The one from last week? No, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Laurel caught the guy outside and bit him, just to thumb her nose at Ike.”
“That makes sense,” I said, “but how do you know it wasn’t another vamp who bit that man?”
She shrugged. “None of the others wiped out their partners. The few vamps that were having sex with patrons came out of the rooms with the people they took in. Never alone like Laurel. And none of the people were savagely bitten, except Laurel’s men.”
“What did Laurel do when Ike changed the club policy?”
“She raved that Ike was making them all run tame instead of seizing their birthright of fear and blood.”
I shivered. That sounded like Laurel’s battle cry, all right, and now she was out running rogue.
“You told us last night,” Saber said, “that Laurel was pressuring Ike to fire you and break off your relationship.”
Donita sighed. “I’d pretty much made up my mind to quit. The job wasn’t worth the hassle.”
“Would you have stopped seeing Ike, too?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t expect we’d last forever, but I never thought—” Her breath hitched on a strangled sob. I passed the tissue box.
“If you had told Ike you were quitting,” Saber said slowly, “how do you think he would’ve reacted?”
Donita swiped at her nose and took a deep breath. “Honestly? I think he would’ve told Laurel to can it or leave. He was fed up with her and her rants.”
“One more thing,” Saber said. “Was Laurel seeing anyone steadily? Was she out of town much?”
“She was out of town a few times, but I never heard her mention dating. She didn’t even hang out with the other vamps.”
“Good enough. Thanks for seeing us.”
Saber rose, but I lingered another minute.
“Do you have someone to stay with? Someone to help you get through this?”
She shook her head. “I can’t leave while I’m a suspect. Jackson made that very clear. Maybe when I’m free, I’ll move out of Daytona. Go someplace completely different where . . .” Her voice trailed off.
Where she could forget, I thought as we left. But she wouldn’t forget. Those moments with Ike’s dead body were indelibly etched on her psyche and would haunt her dreams for a lifetime.
Ike’s residence was actually north of Daytona and way off the main road. The sprawling two-story house sat on several acres of land, with a split rail fence around the outer border. Between the fence and what seemed to be a barn in ruins, the place looked like it might have been the main house of a working ranch at one time. I did a double take at the rocking chairs on the long, wide front porch.
I glanced at Saber. “Is the place supposed to look like a retirement home for old fanged folks?”
“Maybe it’s a Donita touch.”
“Maybe, but I can’t see Ike kicking back out here.”
“We can. We’ll be able to hear Ray and the gang when they first wake.”
Since we arrived before sunset, we didn’t expect anyone to be stirring yet. That’s why I jumped a foot when the door opened as Saber and I stepped onto the porch.
Ray stood in the shadow of the doorway, lips twitching.
“Forgive me if I startled you, Princess.”
I waved a hand. “I’m just surprised to see you up. Are you a day-walker?”
“Not as you are. I wake half an hour before full dark.”
“Ahh,” I said, my heart still tripping over itself. Startle factor aside, Ray’s looks alone cranked a woman’s heart rate. Ray smiled, as if he knew what I was thinking, but turned to Saber. “You are here to question us?”
“Thought I’d catch you all before you left for the club.”
“The club is temporarily closed,” he said as we entered the house. “It is a time for mourning.”
“It’s a time,” Saber drawled, “to figure out who’s loyal to you and who isn’t.”
Ray inclined his head. “That, too. Come into the parlor.”
Said the spider to the fly? Maybe not, because the place didn’t look creepy. In fact, with all the black leather furniture and cow horns mounted on the wall, it looked like a cross between a kinky bachelor pad and a roundup. Cow horns in a vampire nest? Geez.
“Please, sit,” Ray invited. “We can talk until my nestmates have awakened.”
He dropped into a wide chair with the boneless grace that reminded me of Pandora. Which made me wonder where Pandora was, and if she was all right.
“Now,” Ray said, elbows propped on the armchair and fingers tented, “what do you need to know?”
“Why did you move from the South Beach nest to Ike’s?”
“Because Ike invited me.” A flicker of emotion I couldn’t define crossed his face, and he leaned forward. “The truth is that Ike noticed a change in Laurel in the spring. He wanted to know why she was behaving so secretively, so he hired me to investigate.”
“Like a private detective?” I blurted.
Ray smiled. “I have done many kinds of work, and, yes, I have been an investigator. I moved into the nest as a cover.”
“Did you find out what Laurel was up to?” Saber asked.
“Not entirely.” He paused as if considering what—or how much—to tell us. “She began going to Atlanta as Ike’s emissary but began staying longer each time. We assumed she was having an affair. However, when she returned, she was always more on edge, more—”
“Bitchy?” I supplied.
Ray gave an expressive shrug. “Good sex should have had a more positive effect.”
“Did you follow her?” Saber asked.
“I attempted to. She must have sensed me, because I never confirmed who she was meeting.”
“We’re fairly certain we know who she met, but when was the last time you remember Laurel going to Atlanta?”
“The end of July or first of August.”
Saber and I exchanged a glance.
Yeah, that fit.
“Did Ike have Laurel or anyone else spying on Cesca?”
“Not that I knew of, and I knew everything of importance.”
“What about Laurel’s punishment? Was she really shackled?”
“For four nights, with silver cuffs and chains. Ike wrapped her wrists and ankles in gauze so he didn’t damage her too severely, but she was secured in the shackles.”
“Can we see them?” Saber pressed.
Ray gave us each a long stare. “Why is this important to investigating Ike’s murder?”
“A number of reasons,” Saber sidestepped. “Can we see the shackles Ike used on Laurel?”
Ray cocked his head as if listening, then rose. “I will show you, but you must finish your inspection before the others are fully awake.”
From the parlor he led us down a hall with two half flights of stairs at the end. One flight led up, the other down. I caught the scent of oranges from the space below.
“What’s down there?” I asked Ray.
“Laurel’s quarters, but the shackles are in Ike’s rooms. Up here.”
He preceded us to the landing at the top of the stairs, hit a light switch, and opened the door to a huge suite done in black and white. The furnishings weren’t remarkable other than they were sleek black, edgily modern, and expensive. The bed sat in the middle of the room and was draped in black satin. The bathroom I peeked in was small, more mainstream in decor, but with black towels. When I wandered to the sitting area near a stone fireplace, my nose started itching.
“Are the silver chains stored here?” I asked.
Ray nodded. “In the trunk against the wall. Ike wore special rubber gloves to handle them.”
I rubbed my nose as Saber went to the chest and opened it. With his good hand, he lifted out two sets of cuffs attached to sturdy chains, one at a time. The shackles were the kind prisoners wore with longer chains to allow a modicum more movement. Saber draped one set of shackles over the lip of the trunk, examined them in turn, and then held the locks up to the light.