Murder in Vein (2010) (40 page)

No!

Colin ignored her cry and continued. "To turn a human into
a vampire, a vampire must suck the blood of a human with a
bloodline. At the exact moment the human is about to die, the
vampire forces the human to drink his-the vampire's-blood.
It's like a transfusion. It's very dangerous, and if it's not done correctly, the human can die. If the human survives, he will come
back from the brink of death a new vampire." Colin reached out
and touched Lady Harriet's left hand. "All along you had the
power to become a vampire, but only a real vampire could have
turned you. Humans have no ability to do it without one of us."

Looking down again at her bound left hand, Lady Harriet
stared at it as if seeing it for the first time. "All this time." She
looked back up at Colin, her eyes red and wet, yet bright with
new eagerness. "Colin, please-I beg you-turn me. It's all I've
wanted my entire life."

"It's too late for that, Lady Harriet." Colin turned away and
took his seat with the other council members.

"It's not too late!" the high priestess of Dark Tidings shouted.
"Turn me," she begged. "My son is dead because of wanting to be
a vampire. Turn me so that his death was not in vain."

"And what about the innocent blood you shed in your ignorance?" Samuel demanded, standing at his place at the head of
the table.

Now Lady Harriet really did look surprised. "What do you
care if people were killed? You're vampires. Surely you understand my desire to become one of you-to live for eternity." Passion filled her voice as she pled her case. She stopped to sniff as
her nose started to run from her tears. "What's a few deaths when
you're seeking the higher calling of immortality?"

When she received no answer, Lady Harriet snarled at the
vampires before her. "It's not like a single one of you have clean
hands. How dare you judge me for killing so that I can have what
you have."

Samuel addressed the council. "Lady Harriet, high priestess
of Dark Tidings, is charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder against bloodline holders. You've heard the accused.
What is your verdict?"

Samuel went around the table, asking each council member
to verbally cast his or her vote. It was a unanimous vote of guilty.

Samuel nodded to Isabella, who lifted Lady Harriet to her feet
to stand before the council. The legs of the high priestess shook
in terror, but her face was set in anger and disbelief.

"Lady Harriet," Samuel pronounced, his rich voice steady and
stern, "you are found guilty as charged and are hereby sentenced
to death."

Isabella and Colin lifted a struggling Lady Harriet to the table
and secured her to it, then proceeded to tear her clothing away
from her body.

"You can't do this," the condemned woman shouted at the
council. "If I'm guilty, then turn me over to the police."

Samuel leaned in close. "When it comes to vampires, we're
the only law that matters." He unleashed his fangs. "And besides,
if we handed you over to the police, it would spoil our fun."

With a nod from Samuel, the remaining council members
rose, unfurled their fangs, and approached the table.

The Lady Harriet's screams went unheard by a single living
soul.

Lord Wilhelm parked behind Bat Beauty. Being Monday, the club
was closed and the parking lot deserted. He'd just come from a
date with a promising young acolyte and had a spring in his step.

Wilhelm was about to unlock the back door to the club, the
door that led to his private quarters, when he heard a soft weeping coming from the alley. Curious, he followed the sound until
he found a woman crouched against the wall of his building. She
appeared to be in her late sixties and didn't look homeless.

"May I help you?" he asked.

"Bless you," the woman sobbed.

Wilhelm held out a hand and helped the woman up. Her outfit was smart but dirty.

"I was coming home from playing bridge and took a wrong
turn," she explained. "When I stopped a young man to ask for
directions, he pulled me from my vehicle, stole my purse and the
car." Her crying increased. "I'm so confused. I've been walking in
circles for hours."

"Come, dearie," Wilhelm told her, taking her arm. "Come in,
I'll make you some tea, and we'll call the police."

"I don't know how to thank you."

As soon as Wilhelm turned his back to unlock his door, the
old woman jumped him, pushing him down to the ground with
surprising strength.

Stunned, Wilhelm tried to get up but couldn't. Then the
woman turned him over and flashed her fangs at him.

"You're ... you're...," Wilhelm stammered in horror. "You're
real?"

"You bet your hiney, she's real," said a tall, good-looking older
man stepping out from the shadows. He looked down at Wilhelm
and flashed his own fangs. "And so am I."

"Oh, dear," said Dodie, still holding Wilhelm down. "I do
believe he's wet himself."

Doug Dedham shook his head in disgust. "Don't you just
hate it when they do that?" He moved in toward their prey, but
Dodie stopped him.

"Samuel said he's mine. He gave permission to me, not you."

"Then by all means, my love." Doug gallantly bowed to his
wife. "I don't mind taking sloppy seconds."

Dodie studied Wilhelm. "You really should be ashamed of
yourself, Lord Wilhelm, for taking advantage of impressionable young people. But your fatal mistake was sinking your fake fangs
into our granddaughter."

Wilhelm, speechless with terror, looked into the burning eyes
of the vampires, something he'd wanted to do all his life. As the
first bite ripped through the flesh of his thin neck, his eyes rolled
back in a mixture of excruciating pain and ecstasy. Then the
irony of the moment hit him, dulling both his pleasure and pain:
he knew he'd never live to tell anyone.

THE ID

Read on for a sneak peek
at the second book in the
fang- Mystery series
by Sue Ann

he dead body floated facedown in the pool like an inflatable
joke, something meant to scare people at parties and on
Halloween. But to Madison Rose's eye, it didn't look like
some plastic gag. It looked real. Dead real.

"Mike," she said into her cell phone. "We have a problem at
the Dedhams."

"What kind of problem?" he asked.

"Urn, it's not something I want to discuss on the phone. Can
you get here sooner rather than later?"

"Hmmm" He paused, thinking about his schedule. "I could
be there in a little over an hour. That soon enough?"

"Not really." She looked at the body, wishing it would swim
away or vaporize into the December daylight. "But I guess it'll
have to do."

"Sorry."

"I'll have fresh coffee waiting for you," she coaxed.

"Then I'll see you in an hour."

"And there's leftover pot roast."

"Make that closer to forty-five minutes."

Madison went back out onto the patio and stared at the body.
Lifting her gaze to the surrounding trees and foliage that covered
the surrounding hillside, she scanned them for signs of peeping
eyes but noticed none.

It was just after two in the afternoon. Madison had spent the
night at Samuel's after working with him until almost four in the
morning on council matters. Samuel La Croix was the head of
the California Vampire Council. Madison was employed by the
council to assist it and Samuel in its day-to-day business affairs
-things that were often best handled by a live person during
the day. She also helped Samuel with some of his personal business matters. It was a good job-a lot better than her last job
as a waitress at Auntie Em's, a diner in Culver City. The council job paid better and was more interesting, although at times it
was lonely, and she missed being around the people at the diner.
Madison usually did her work for the vampires during the day,
depending on e-mails and voice messages for direction, but once
in a while she'd have to work through the night with Samuel or
attend middle-of-the-night council meetings.

When she'd returned home from Samuel's, Madison had
grabbed the Sunday paper and her iPod and headed out to the
patio to read and relax. Doug and Dodie Dedham lived in a
charming and spacious home tucked into a hillside of Topanga
Canyon. She'd come to live with them last October when her
own apartment had been destroyed by killers. The Dedhams had
adopted her as their granddaughter, and that was how she was
introduced to outsiders. Like the job with the council, living with
the Dedhams was much nicer, but at times it was lonely because
of the opposite hours the Dedhams kept to hers. Doug and Dodie were upstairs now, suspended in what passed for vampire
sleep. Their bodies wouldn't revive until the sun started to set. It
was the same with Samuel. She'd gone to sleep in one of his guest
rooms while he was still awake, then left his sprawling villa in the
hills above Los Angeles long after he'd gone to bed. Except for the
couple of hours between sundown and her own natural bedtime,
Madison and the vampires were often like ships passing in the
night.