Murder in Vein (2010) (20 page)

efore she'd gone to her apartment, Madison had called Wilhelm. After identifying herself, she'd asked if he would meet
with her.

Madison had the address of Bat Beauty and remembered
vaguely where it was from her visit with Colin. She headed east
on the 10 Freeway and exited on Vermont, the same exit she
remembered Colin taking. It took her several wrong turns, but
eventually she found the club.

During the day, the neighborhood was even seedier than at
night, but not as foreboding. The few businesses in the area had
their security gates up, but none looked very busy. When she
tried the door to Bat Beauty, it was unlocked.

Inside, the club was just as dark as it had been before, but
there was no deafening music, just a soft, eerie instrumental piece
being piped over the sound system. There were a few people having drinks at or near the bar, but they weren't the dancing, heavily made-up revelers of the night before. Today's patrons looked run over by life and left for roadkill, and Madison wondered if it
was the neighborhood crowd.

Walking up to the bar, Madison caught the eye of the bartender, a guy easily in his sixties, with broad shoulders and a
slight paunch, wearing jeans and a tee shirt.

"I'm here to see Wilhelm," she told him. "He's expecting me."

"Wait here," the guy told her. He headed for the end of the
bar, where he picked up a phone.

Madison wasn't exactly sure what she was doing in Bat Beauty,
but after hearing about Sylvia's disappearance, she felt compelled
to find out if the woman had left the Bat Beauty coven to get
married, as Wilhelm had said, or was missing for some sinister
reason. She knew if she'd told the Dedhams or Colin, or especially Mike Notchey, that she wanted to talk to Wilhelm alone,
they would not have allowed it. She also knew on another level
that contacting Wilhelm was stupid from a security standpoint.
But if the vamps wanted to use her as bait, then she was damn
well going to call some of the shots on her own. The sooner all
this was over, the sooner she could return to her life. She'd promised Kyle she'd be back to the diner on Monday, and she intended
to do her best to move things along.

The bartender returned and pointed toward the door with the
beaded covering. "He's in his office. Go right through there."

"Thanks"

There was no one in the room when Madison entered. The
candles were unlit and the lights were up, casting a harsh reality on the furnishings. In the better light, Madison could see
that the sofas and chairs were old, the area carpets threadbare. It
looked more like a warehouse for used, battered furniture than the meeting place of an active coven of vampire worshipers she'd
seen just a few hours earlier.

She stepped over to the coffin in the corner. The lid was still
up. The coffin appeared to be fairly new and was easily the nicest
thing in the room.

"Ever get inside one?" a voice asked.

Madison spun around to find Wilhelm just a few feet behind
her. She placed a hand over her thumping heart. "Oh, I'm sorry,
Lord Wilhelm. I didn't know you were there."

His face was washed of its makeup, and he wore a long black
Indian-style cotton tunic over loose black cotton pants. An
ornate clasp held his silver hair in place at the nape of his neck.
On his feet were huaraches. He looked healthier but older than
he had the night before.

"So, have you?" he asked again. He put out a hand and
caressed the smooth outside of the coffin.

Madison looked at the casket and did her best not to shudder
noticeably. "No, never."

"Every now and then I'll sleep in it," he admitted. "It's a little
snug, but emotionally it's rather liberating." He stroked the shiny
box with love and respect. "Kind of a sneak preview of coming
attractions, you might say."

"But I thought you were a vampire?" Madison gave him what
she hoped was a look of doe-eyed innocence. "Don't they live
forever?"

"There are immortal vampires-those who live forever until
killed by certain means-and mortal vampires, like myself." He
touched his chest with a finger adorned with a heavy silver ring.
"Both enjoy darkness and the blood of innocents." Noticing
Madison's bewildered look, he smiled. "You have much to learn, little one." He moved toward the sofa. "Come, sit with me." His
words were smooth and inviting.

With very little hesitation, Madison took a seat on the sofa
she'd occupied earlier.

"Isn't Colin teaching you any of this?" When she didn't
answer, Wilhelm laughed. "Or is he just fucking you like a wild
stallion?" He looked Madison over, taking in her form-fitting
sweater and tight jeans. "I know I would, were I so inclined that
way." He sighed. "As it is, I'm very jealous of you. I've wanted him
for years, but he won't let me have so much as a nibble, the cruel
boy."

Until now, Madison had never thought of Colin Reddy as a
sexual partner, not even when she was teasing him about Lilith.
But now, sitting with Wilhelm and listening to his lusty talk, it
was all Madison could think about-as if Wilhelm's lascivious
suggestion had implanted the idea in her brain with mere words
spoken in dulcet tones.

Wilhelm reached out and touched Madison's neck with a fingertip. "I'll bet Colin's feasting on you, both sexually and otherwise, like an all-you-can-eat buffet-and from the look of your
unblemished neck, he's being very discreet."

"Colin is teaching me about vampirism," she told Wilhelm,
shaking off the cloudiness of desire. "But he's not into the drinking of blood."

"Oh, no?" Again, Wilhelm laughed and continued to stroke
Madison's graceful neck. "Once a mortal vampire gets a taste for
human blood, he or she must have it. And Colin Reddy thirsts for
blood. I know, I've seen it."

Madison pushed his hand away. "What do you mean?"

Wilhelm leaned back and gave Madison a thin-lipped smile.
"The last time any of us saw Colin was on a holy day, a day of
feasting, about ten months ago. On feast days, one or two of our
acolytes sacrifice themselves to the rest of us."

"You kill them?" Madison started to get to her feet, but Wilhelm moved forward to prevent her.

"No, dear girl, nothing like that at all. Relax and let me tell
you what happened. It may increase your appetite for the worthy
Colin."

When Madison leaned back again on the sofa, Wilhelm continued. "That feast day, only one acolyte was being presented. We
dressed her in a white and gold chiffon Grecian-style gown and
laid her on a table in a circle of flowers. It was a beautiful sight.
Throughout the day, members and special guests could partake
of her blood."

"She let them?" Madison was shocked.

"No," Wilhelm corrected, "she wanted them to do it. It was
her privilege as an acolyte and servant of the coven."

"People bit her and sucked her blood?" Madison fought the
urge to be sick.

Wilhelm had closed his eyes, fondly remembering the event.
When he opened them, he reached over to the table next to the
sofa and opened a small drawer, retrieving a tiny packet. He
opened it and held its contents up for Madison's inspection.
"Know what this is?"

"Yes. They use those at the doctor's office when they stick
your finger for blood."

Wilhelm nodded. "They're called lancets. Diabetics also use
them. And so do we. Generally, when we partake of another's
blood, we stick them with one of these. We don't bite them. On feast days, members prick the acolyte and suck the blood from
the tiny incisions."

Unbidden, the photos of Evie Banks invaded Madison's mind.
Evie's body had received multiple small cuts. Had Evie been a
sacrificial killing?

Madison pushed the memory of the photo aside, but not the
thought. "And they don't mind being stuck over and over?"

"On the contrary, they go into another realm of being," Wilhelm explained with enthusiasm. "They are actually transported
into a state of nirvana as the feasting continues."

"So what does this have to do with Colin?"

Wilhelm put the lancet on the table and turned back to her.
"On that particular day, everyone was taking their turn feasting
on the girl, except for Colin. He hung back, but I could see in
his eyes that he wanted to devour her ... to suck her dry. Finally,
I handed him a new lancet and pushed him toward the table.
He looked the woman over for a moment, then drove the lancet into her neck, right about here." Wilhelm reached out a hand
and touched Madison right where her neck and shoulder connected. Her sweater had a boat neck, and his fingers were hot on
her skin. Mesmerized by the story and his voice, she didn't push
them away.

"So he drank her blood?"

"Oh, my, it was much more than that. As soon as Colin's lips
touched the girl's neck and started sucking, she let out this moan,
guttural and deep, from some dark, untouched place inside her."
Wilhelm continued fingering Madison's neck. "It was beastly and
absolutely fabulous. We all stopped our own feasting and merrymaking and gathered around the table, positively awestruck."

Wilhelm withdrew his fingers from Madison's neck and
stroked his own neck as he spoke, as if sensing it himself. "But
Colin didn't stop with that one snack. Like a man possessed, he
kept sucking on her. Cutting her over and over with the lancet
when the wound he was drinking closed up. Blood dripped from
his mouth and over that sexy black beard of his. And all the while
she kept moaning and writhing on the table in ecstasy. Finally,
right there in front of us all, she had this mind-blowing orgasm."

When Wilhelm stopped talking, Madison had to remind herself to breathe. "The woman was Miriam, wasn't it?"

He nodded. "Until last night, we never saw Colin again. I
daresay Miriam would follow him to the ends of the earth for a
rematch."

Wilhelm studied Madison. "And you're saying he's never
sucked your blood?"

"Never" Though after that story, Madison wasn't so sure she
didn't want Colin to try.

"Then he's a man scared of his true identity. Pity. He has such
potential."

Madison almost laughed, thinking about Colin's true identity
and how it would shock Wilhelm. Then she sobered up, thinking about how close Colin had come to being discovered, and
Miriam possibly killed, in his uncontrolled bloodlust.

Pushing blood sucking and orgasms aside, Madison fought to
put her priorities in line. She'd come to Wilhelm with a purpose.

"Although Colin is teaching me a lot," she told Wilhelm, getting things back to her purpose, "I first learned about the lifestyle
from a friend of mine a few years ago. A friend you might know."

"Oh, really?" Wilhelm arched one eyebrow. "Who, pray tell?"

"A couple of years ago, I met a girl named Sylvia. I never
knew her last name. She was the one who first told me about
vampirism. She was really into it"

"Sylvia?" Wilhelm gave the name some thought. "I don't recall
a Sylvia, but then I seldom become acquainted with the young
people who come here to party."

"No, she was a member of your coven. I'm sure of it."

Wilhelm gave her the cocked eyebrow again.

"I lost touch with Sylvia. Then this morning, when I was looking at your card, I remembered that it was the Bat Beauty coven
that she belonged to, but I don't recall seeing her here last night."

"You're sure it was Bat Beauty?"

"Yes. She was about my age, with very, very curly blond hair."

Wilhelm gave it more thought. "I do remember a girl with
rather gorgeous untamed blond hair."

"I'd really like to contact her again."

"Tell you what, let me go into the office and see if I can find
her name on our past members lists. If I do, I can at least give you
the information we had on her at the time. Although we don't use
last names in the coven, we do keep rosters for some purposes."

While Wilhelm was gone, Madison tried hard to erase the
image of Colin sucking on Miriam's neck from her mind, but the
harder she tried, the clearer it appeared, like a permanent stain
no amount of scrubbing would remove. She clamped her eyes
shut but only succeeded in replacing Miriam's face with her own.