Murder in Vein (2010) (16 page)

Madison snatched the bag from his hands, gave him a salute,
and started back up the stairs.

Dodie followed her up. "I'll help you, Madison."

When she came back down the stairs thirty minutes later,
Madison was dressed in a short black leather skirt, her boots,
and a tight black sleeveless tee shirt with a skull printed on the
front. The skull had a tiny pink bow jauntily stuck to the side of
its head. With Dodie's help, Madison had applied thick eyeliner,
dark eye shadow, and extra mascara. She topped it off with lipstick borrowed from Dodie. She wore her long hair loose.

This time when Madison came downstairs, Colin gave her a
thumbs up.

Doug looked at Colin and Madison, then said to Dodie,
"Don't you feel like we're sending them off to their prom?"

"A prom with a Halloween hooker theme, maybe," Madison
quipped. Looking at Colin, she pointed to the skull on her shirt.
"Nice touch with the bow," she told him.

He gave her a half grin. "I thought so." He held out a hand to
her. "Let's see your hand." Madison put her left hand in his, palm
up, for inspection. "Looks real," he said, then dropped it.

Madison donned her jacket and slung her bag over her shoulder. Colin reached out and took the bag away. "Leave this," he
told her, handing the bag to Dodie.

"But I might need it."

"Stick some emergency money in your skirt pocket if it makes
you feel better," he told her. "But I don't want you carrying anything that might identify you."

"What if I'm carded at the door?"

"You won't be. You're with me."

Outside in the Dedham driveway stood a Harley. Colin
handed her a helmet.

"We're going on that?" she asked.

Without answering, Colin straddled the bike. "Get on," he
ordered as he started it up.

"Why in the hell did you get me a skirt if you knew I would
be on a motorcycle?"

Again, a slight grin. "I thought it would be interesting. Now
put your helmet on." As he put on his, Madison followed suit
with her own.

"Now hold on," he called over his shoulder.

As the bike took off, Madison wrapped her arms around Colin
Reddy, noticing against her will the muscles of his back against
her. She also noted that as the cool wind whipped by them, Colin
gave off no body heat.

Their first stop was in a seedy area of Sherman Oaks. Colin
pulled into a lot near an alley. He got off the bike and helped
Madison dismount.

She took off her helmet and looked around, confused.
"There's a nightclub around here?"

"Yes. But since it's Tuesday night, it will be low-key."

"Maybe we should come back on Friday or Saturday."

Colin took off his helmet and shook his head, running a hand
through his thick hair. "During the weekend, places like this get
packed with kids from the suburbs playing dress-up. The weekends bring in enough money to keep the doors open the rest of
the time. Tonight, the real members of the coven will be here.
They're the ones we're interested in."

"Coven? As in witches?" Madison remembered Samuel referring to the vampire clubs as covens and wasn't sure she liked the
idea of witches mixing in with the vampires.

"Similar meaning, in this case. Stands for a group of people
organized for a common purpose. The physical clubs, or locations where they meet, are called havens." He started off for the
alley. "Come on," he called over his shoulder, "and bring your
helmet. Don't want it stolen."

They walked halfway down the alley until they came to a door
painted red, with shiny black trim. It reminded Madison of the
entrance to the restaurant called Scarlet. There was a light above
the door, shining on a sign. Madison read the sign and rolled her
eyes.

"This place is called Fang Me?" she said to Colin. "Give me a
break."

Colin took her by the upper arm and hissed into her ear,
"Keep smart-ass remarks like that to yourself in these places.
These people are serious about their beliefs."

"Any other orders?"

"Only give them your first name, nothing else."

"Should I give my real first name or a fake one?"

Colin gave it quick thought. "Your real one. We don't want
them to sniff out a lie the first time they meet you, not even a
small one. But just give your first name. They aren't big on last
names anyway. I'll do most of the talking. But make sure you
don't hide that bloodline."

Colin knocked at the door. It was opened by an averagelooking guy in his twenties, dressed in black. When he saw Colin,
he nodded to him and let them in.

Inside, the walls were painted black. Dim track lighting
cast shadows throughout the place. As soon as Madison's eyes
adjusted, she saw clusters of chairs around small wooden tables
scattered across the floor, and tall tables without chairs along the
walls. Toward the far end was a riser holding sound equipment,
and in front of the riser was a dance floor. Against the right wall
was a short bar with stools. The place wasn't large, and tonight
there were only a few people seated at the bar and two occupied tables. Everyone was dressed in black. Haunting rock music
played over the sound system.

Madison followed Colin as he walked over to the bar and
addressed the bartender, a scrawny, tall guy in a black tee shirt
with Fang Me printed in bright red across the front. "Kind of
quiet in here tonight, huh, Bernard?"

The bartender shrugged. "Been like this a lot lately, except on
weekends."

"Where are the regular members? They used to be here all
during the week."

The bartender leaned in close. "A lot of the coven have
defected. Gone over to Bloodlust."

"That's the new place in Hollywood, isn't it?"

"Yeah, over on Gower, near Hollywood Boulevard."

"I was there once," Colin told him. "Didn't look like much.
Just an old warehouse turned into a club."

"It's become the rage all of a sudden. The leader of the Bloodlust coven isn't shy about marketing. Heard they redid the place
and even bought celebrity endorsements."

"Where's Lilith?" Colin asked the bartender.

"Right behind you, handsome."

Colin and Madison both turned at the sound of the voice.
Standing just behind them was a tall, slender woman with
severely short, dyed black hair and ice blue eyes made more
prominent by the heavy black eye makeup she wore. She had on
skin-tight leather pants and a leather halter top. Her skin was
pale, her cheeks high and sculpted above full lips stained dark
red.

Colin leaned over and gave her a light kiss on the cheek. "Nice
to see you, Lilith"

"It'd be nicer if you came around more." Lilith wrapped her
arms around Colin's waist and let one hand drop down to cup
his ass.

Madison cleared her throat.

Lilith turned slowly toward Madison. "What's this, Colin, you
dating your little brother's babysitter?" She laughed, turning her
attention back to Colin.

Colin disentangled himself from Lilith's clutches and held out
a hand to Madison. She took it and moved in close to him.

"Well," Colin said to Lilith, "if I did have a little brother, she'd
make a damn cute nanny, wouldn't she?" Before anyone said
anything more, Colin introduced the two women. "Lilith," he
said, dropping Madison's hand and putting an arm protectively
around her shoulders, "this is Madison. Madison, this is Lilith,
the high priestess of this coven."

Madison was stunned by Colin's lightness. She didn't know
he had it in him. As she turned her face from him to Lilith, she
plastered on a strained smile.

"So," Lilith said to Madison, "you're the reason we never see
Colin around anymore." The tone was accusatory, not friendly. "You are a pretty little thing. You interested in the vampire
culture?"

"Colin has been teaching me about it," Madison answered,
keeping her eyes pinned on Lilith, letting her know she was no
pushover.

Lilith met Madison's visual challenge. "Maybe the two of you
will join the coven together. It's been years and we've never been
able to convince Colin to join us officially."

Colin shrugged. "I'm not much of a joiner. I prefer to keep
my options open."

Lilith placed a hand on Colin's chest. "I hope that goes for
women, too. I always promised you a trip to a real blood bar. The
invitation's still open." She gave Madison a sideways glance. "But
it's only good for one guest."

Once outside Fang Me, Madison stomped to the motorcycle. "I
can't believe that woman. She came on to you right in front of
me.

"What's your problem?" asked Colin. "It's not like we're really
seeing each other."

Madison pointed back down the alley. "But she doesn't know
that. She wouldn't have cared if we were married and had three
kids."

Colin was amused. "You're jealous. It's rather cute."

"I am not jealous. I'm just pissed that she dismissed me
like ... like some inconvenient child who got to stay up past her
bedtime."

"Come on, we got what we came for-information."

Madison started to put on her helmet but stopped. "You
think any of it will be helpful?"

Colin shrugged. "Hard to say."

After the touchy introductions had been made, the three of
them-Lilith, Colin, and Madison-had sat down at a table on
the far side, away from the bar and the few customers.

"What can I get you to drink," she asked Madison in a flat,
bored tone.

"Thanks, but I don't drink," Madison replied.

A catty smile spread across Lilith's face. She turned to Colin.
"As I recall, you don't drink either, Colin. Now I see the attraction. You're just a couple of straight-laced goths."

Lilith caught Bernard's eye. "A couple of Cokes for the kiddies
and the usual for me. And bring some butts."

"So what's going on with Bloodlust?" Colin asked, getting the
ball rolling.

Lilith casually waved a slim hand with long, tapered fingers
capped with bright scarlet lacquer. "Bloodlust is the flavor of the
moment, that's all. Give it a few weeks, maybe a month, and the
hype will fade."

Colin pushed for clarification. "Are you talking about the
nightclub or the coven?"

The drinks came. Bernard put down two glasses of soda and
one short glass filled with an amber liquid but no ice. He left and
returned with a pack of cigarettes, some matches, and a small,
clear glass ashtray.

Lilith picked up the cigarettes, pulled one out, and stuck it
between her crimson lips. Then she waited, an eyebrow cocked
in Colin's direction, until Colin picked up the matches. He struck
one, the smell of sulfur momentarily invading the table space. Cupping the lit match, he held it out toward Lilith, who cradled
the hand holding the match while she took her time lighting her
cigarette. Colin pulled his hand away and shook the match until
it went out. Lilith chuckled deep in her throat.

Taking a deep drag off of her cigarette, Lilith arched her neck,
sending the smoke toward the ceiling. She turned to Madison. "I
do hope you're not going to lecture me on how smoking is illegal
in bars. You seem the type."

"None of my business," Madison replied, picking up her soda
and smiling at Lilith. It was then that Madison realized she had
seen Lilith before. Her photo had been among those shown to
her by Mike Notchey. Lilith hadn't been as heavily made up in
the photo, but Madison was sure one of the women in the group
had been her.

Colin got back down to business. "Who's the leader of the
Bloodlust coven?"

Lilith took another drag from her cigarette. "Some guy named
Ethan Young."

Colin frowned. "I've never heard of him. He new to the
area?"

"Not sure," Lilith said, raising her angular shoulders. "Seemed
like one day he started coming around to the various covens,
next thing he had his own. Doesn't believe in keeping it low-key,
either. A lot of the local covens have lost members to Bloodlust,
not just ours."

"Maybe cranking up the name of this place would help,"
Madison threw out. Lilith glared at her.

"What's he like?" Colin asked after sending Madison a look of
warning. "You have met him, haven't you?"

"Yes." Lilith took another puff. "We even had a fling when he
first starting coming to Fang Me." Lilith shot Madison a scowl
as she took a sip of her drink. "Ethan is very virile." She emphasized the word, hoping to get a reaction from Colin, but was disappointed when he remained impassive. "Powerful body, about
average height," she continued. "Bald, goatee, fabulous scrolling
tattoo across his back and down over his shoulder, toward his
stomach."

"Charismatic?" Madison asked, remembering what Notchey
had said about whoever was calling the shots in the murders possibly being able to control people.

"What makes you say that? Have you met Ethan?" Lilith
looked at Madison with real interest for the first time. "He'd
probably find you quite fetching."

"No, I haven't, but he must have some sort of personal magnetism to rise as quickly as he did."