Murder in Vein (2010) (18 page)

"Ethan Young," Wilhelm began, as soon as Miriam was out
of the way, "is quite delicious. He's in his prime and quite the
stud." Wilhelm sighed. "Unfortunately, he's only into females."
He grinned at Colin and flashed Madison a wink. "Like you."

"Is he a good coven leader?" Madison asked.

Wilhelm screwed up his face as he thought about it. "I suppose so. A bad leader can't keep a coven together. He's a bit too
rah-rah for my taste, but he has certainly shot to the top quickly."

Colin played with his tea, pretending to drink it. "That was
also something Lilith said, that Ethan had pretty much come out
of nowhere."

Wilhelm picked up a glass of wine from the table beside him
and swirled the red liquid in the glass. "It might have seemed
that way, but I don't think he was new to the vampire culture.
He knew too much about it, even a lot of the inner workingsthings even someone like you wouldn't know, no matter how
close you are to us, because you don't belong." Wilhelm took
a drink of wine. "He might have been new to the area, but he
was not new to vampirism. Or he had a very good and informed
mentor." He paused. "Personally, I think he came to LA with the
intention of starting his own group. He did his networking with
us, got to know the lay of the land, then started his own group.
His coven is more modern. More flash than velvet. More black
and silver than black and red."

Wilhelm took another drink of his wine. "Ethan Young is
more Twilight. We're more Bram Stoker."

After Bat Beauty, Colin headed to a house in Mar Vista, a neighborhood not far from Culver City, where Madison lived and
worked. It was an unassuming but large ranch-style home on a
double lot at the top of a hill. The house and the neighborhood
were quiet. The circular driveway held four or five cars.

"This," he explained to Madison, "is the coven known as Dark
Tidings."

"There's a club here?"

"Not all covens operate clubs," Colin whispered to her as
they parked the bike and made their way up the driveway to the house. "Though many do. They raise money by catering to
the goth music and dance scene. That's how the leaders support
themselves. Others hold salons a few nights a week, where their
members can gather and discuss poetry, literature, and things
concerning their lifestyle. Dark Tidings is one of those. It is very
serious in its pursuit of the intellectual side of vampirism."

At the door, Colin rang the bell. The chimes were soft and
heavy, like a gong muffled by pillows. A few moments later, the
door was opened by a short, plump, middle-aged woman wearing a flowing velvet caftan in dark burgundy, with black velvet
side panels. Her faded red hair was streaked with gray and worn
in a braid that hung almost to her waist. Circling her head was a
wreath made of black silk roses. When she saw Colin, her dour
face remained immobile but her eyes crinkled noticeably around
the edges.

Although Madison had found Colin annoying and aloof, it
wasn't lost on her that the people they'd met tonight each adored
him in their own way. He'd made friends with these people, or at
least had them thinking he was a friend.

Colin smiled at the woman. "Greetings, m'lady. I've brought
you a young friend to meet. This is Madison." He turned to
Madison.

The woman looked Madison up and down like a school
teacher appraising a pupil. Upon reaching a verdict, she held out
both hands to Madison and said warmly, "Welcome to Dark Tidings, Madison. I am Lady Harriet."

As Madison took Lady Harriet's hands, she saw that the
woman had a bloodline across her left palm.

t was almost four in the morning when Colin and Madison
returned to the Dedham house. Doug and Dodie were waiting
for them like anxious parents.

"Did you learn anything?" Doug asked as soon as they came
through the door.

"A bit," Colin answered, settling on the sofa in the den. "We
visited three havens and talked to the leaders of each. Seems
there's a new coven with a hot new club in Hollywood"

"That would be Bloodlust," Doug said, taking a seat in the
leather chair. Madison sat next to Colin. Dodie excused herself.
"Mike told us about that place. He says it's growing like crazy."

Colin nodded. "Seems it has pulled members from the
three covens we visited, as well as clientele from the two with
nightclubs."

Before the conversation went any further, Madison asked a
question that had been haunting her since Dark Tidings. "Are
you," she asked Colin, "like an underground spy for the vampires?
Everyone seemed to know you, but from what I saw, they had no idea that you're a real vampire." She paused. "Except maybe my
theory about Lilith."

"And what theory is that, dear?" asked Dodie, who'd returned
with a tray of refreshments-tall glasses of blood for them and
tea and cookies for Madison. "Here," she said, urging Colin to
take a glass of blood. "You look positively peaked. This will help."

"It's just her nonsense, Dodie," Colin said, taking the glass.
He pressed his lips together, then his mouth contorted, bunching his bearded cheeks up on one side as he thought of what to
tell Madison. "I keep an eye on things for the council," he finally
explained to her. "I monitor these groups, making sure our way
of life is safe and that these folks don't get too close to the truth."

"Do they really believe that vampires exist?"

"Some do," Colin answered after taking a big swig from his
glass. "Others follow what they believe is a vampire lifestyle,
like drinking blood, coming out only at night, sleeping in coffins. And still others believe that they are vampires themselves."
He looked over at Dodie, raised his glass, and smiled, his perfect
teeth gleaming white against his black beard. "First-rate, Dodie."

"That's my Dodie," Doug said with pride. "The Julia Child of
blood."

Dodie beamed and hoisted her own glass.

Madison looked up at Colin and tried to forget that the others
were dining on blood. She took a quick sip of her hot tea to wash
the imagined taste from her mouth. "Wilhelm had fangs," she
said after swallowing. "Does he believe he is really a vampire?"

"What do you think?" Colin asked her.

"I'm not sure if he's playing a part or believes the part he's
playing. I know he's not a real vampire like the three of you." Madison paused to consider her answer. "Fangs or no fangs, his
hands were warm, and he was drinking and eating."

"Some people," Dodie told her, "have fang dental implants
inserted."

"For real?" Madison shuddered at the thought. She hated
going to the dentist for any reason.

"Yep," confirmed Doug with a short laugh. "And they aren't
retractable like ours."

"Wilhelm," began Colin, "believes that he was born to be a
vampire. He drinks human blood from time to time and even
sleeps in a coffin on occasion-a coffin with air holes drilled into
it."

"I bet he'd freak if he knew you were a real one." Madison
leaned back on the sofa. She was tired and wanted to go to bed
but knew they needed to talk about the evening.

"My guess is that he'd be insufferable, pestering me all the
time to become one" Colin said the words with a slight smile.

"Yes, it was quite obvious he had a crush on you." It was Madison's turn to laugh. "Maybe you should fix him up with a gay
vampire and see what happens." She gave some thought to what
she'd just said. "Are there gay vampires?"

Dodie was the first to answer. "Yes, of course, just as in real
life. Eddie Gonzales is gay. He's on the council but wasn't here for
the meeting."

Madison turned to Colin. "Why don't you introduce Eddie to
Wilhelm?"

"They've met." Colin's answer was chopped. "Eddie has gone
to Bat Beauty a number of times. It has a large gay following due
to Wilhelm. Eddie has even done some financial consulting for
Wilhelm on my referral."

Doug shook his head with amusement. "Two vampires so
close to Wilhelm, and he didn't have a clue."

"There's more than that," Madison said. The three of them
looked at her with curiosity. She looked at Colin when she spoke.
"You didn't see the bloodline on Geoff's hand?" When he looked
blank, she continued. "Geoff was the cute young guy sitting on
the floor at Wilhelm's feet most of the night. The one in the loose
white shirt."

Colin looked at her, his dark brows a solid black line across
his forehead. "Are you sure that bloke had a bloodline?" Even the
Dedhams leaned in, their attention sharpened.

"Positive," Madison said. "After you went off to talk to
those people over in the corner, Geoff took the seat next to me.
He's quite nice, but rather shy. He told me he came here from
Nebraska just six months ago. We got to talking, and he noticed
the line on my hand and showed me his. Said I'm the only person
he's met with the same birthmark."

Doug zeroed in on Madison. "He called it a birthmark?"

"Yes. Said he'd had it all his life. Was surprised to see I had
one, too."

Colin drained his glass before turning to Madison with serious concentration. "Did anyone else hear this conversation?"

"Probably. Wilhelm was nearby and some of the others, like
Miriam." Madison looked quizzically at Colin. "You've never seen
any bloodlines on anyone at these covens?"

He shrugged, half lost in his own thoughts. "Once or twice
over the years, but that's it. There was a woman in Wilhelm's
coven with one a few years ago. She called herself Sylvia; I'm not
sure if that was her real name or not. I kept an eye on her, but
last year she stopped showing up. I asked Wilhelm about her. He laughed and said she had gone off to marry some executive and
have a normal life."

"Did you believe him, Colin?" The question came from
Dodie.

"At the time, yes. It didn't seem odd at all. To a lot of these
kids it's just a phase, not a true lifestyle. But now, with these killings, who knows."

"How old was Sylvia?" asked Madison.

Colin thought about it. "About your age, maybe a bit older,
but not much. She was rather plain in the looks department,
but a pleasant sort." He smiled. "What I remember most was her
incredible hair. Tiny, tight natural blond curls all over her head."

Dodie didn't look happy. "You think she might have ended up
like the others, but her body was never found?"

Colin shrugged, his leather jacket making a soft sighing sound
as he did. "It's possible."

"Well, Geoff wasn't the only one with a bloodline," Madison
announced. Dodie and Doug looked at her with surprise, but not
Colin. "Lady Harriet had one, too."

"Lady Harriet of Dark Tidings?" Doug asked.

Madison nodded, then looked at Colin. "You knew that, didn't
you?"

"Of course. I've known her for years."

"And she doesn't know what it means?" Madison looked
down at her own fake bloodline.

"Not that I know of. Did she notice yours?"

"I don't think so."

Madison then remembered something from the evening.
"When I was at Dark Tidings, I asked to use the bathroom. When I came out, a man was waiting in the hall to use it next. I
recognized him, but I'm not sure from where."