My Familiar Stranger (29 page)

“Right.” That sounded like a good plan. “I don’t know who to call.”

Baka pulled his phone out of his pocket and speed dialed a number. “One of your knights just bagged a vamp, but she didn’t have the clean up number.”

Baka held the phone away from his ear. Elora could hear Sol shouting curses on the other end. “She? What the great father of fuck do you mean she?”

“You didn’t intend to turn the Lady Laiken loose on a poor, unsuspecting population of vampire who’ve been running amuck, digging in and planting roots in the community? Surprising considering that she has to be the best weapon you’ve got.” There was quiet on the other end of the line. He glanced up at Elora. “We’re in an alley off Broadway between 38th and 39th. The package is semi-concealed and I will stay here to make sure the scene is secure from discovery until your people arrive.”

She could hear the murmur of Sol talking, no longer shouting. Baka said, “Okay,” and hung up.

“He wants to see all four of you when you get back. No matter how late it is. His office. He’ll be waiting.” Baka tilted his head as his lips spread into a beautiful, white fangless grin.
Captivating.
Then, he held his phone up saying, “Did that qualify as being a good vampire?”

Elora studied him for a second, then reached out and took the phone from his hand as casually as if she was taking hot chocolate from The Hub barista. She programmed her number into the phone and handed it back. “Don’t make me sorry.”

“Cross my heart.” He took the phone and slid it back into a jeans pocket.

“Oh very funny. So you’re a painter, a musician, an author, an interior decorator, a vampire, a spy, a possible stalker,
and
a comedian.”

With the hint of a sardonic smile he said, “At a lounge near you. Shows nightly at ten and twelve.”

While Elora was trying to process this bit of cognitive dissonance, he went on. “You’d better get back to the cafe. If bits of Bad Company come back and find you missing, at least two of them will turn Manhattan into a state of chaos, bedlam, and pandemonium.”

Well, what could be said to that? “Thank you for your help with the, uh, mess.”

With a flourish he executed an old world bow with grace and a lack of self-consciousness that could only be managed by someone who had lived during the time when such things were en vogue. “I live to serve.”

“Uh huh.” She started toward the mouth of the alley then looked back to say, “By the way, that was bad ass bass tonight.”

Through the darkness she could see white teeth flash. “I take requests.”

She chuckled half way back to the bistro replaying in her head Baka’s dry humor, quick wit and sexy mannerisms, asking herself what she was doing semi-flirting with the most infamous vampire in the annals of The Order.

She ran into the bistro just as B Team had finished its first sweep of the place and realized she wasn’t in sight. They were wearing a range of expressions from worried to perturbed. She could see relief wash over Ram’s face when he spotted her. He hurried toward where she waited just inside the door.

“What part of stay here and do no’ move did you no’ understand?” he demanded.

Elora grabbed the sleeve of his leather jacket and urged him toward the door. “Get them now. Let’s talk outside.”

Ram motioned for Storm and Kay who followed them outside onto the sidewalk. Elora urged them into a huddle where she could talk quietly and began to explain that a vamp left on their tail, that she didn’t want them caught unaware, so she followed and killed him before he could become a problem for them.

Storm just stood there without expression shaking his head back and forth like he was choosing to simply not accept this as part of his reality. She had the inappropriate passing thought that he reminded her of a bobble head. So she turned to Ram whose color had left his face.

He spoke so quietly it seemed like he was talking to himself. “You went after a vamp with no back up.”

“Well, somebody needed to do it!” Seeing that Ram was growing steadily paler, she became alarmed. “Do not start hyperventilating!” That admonition infuriated him, but did not rob him of air.

“Somebody needed to do it?” Kay repeated. “Elora, that was truly a dumb ass thing to say, but maybe it fits because I’m starting to think you are one.” In an exquisite moment of irony, it seemed the berserker was the only one present who was capable of controlling his emotions. “Why don’t you just take us to the scene?”

Elora nodded and started walking that direction. She was explaining exactly how it happened; that she hadn’t been sure how to verify beyond question that a suspect is a vamp. “So I asked to see his fangs and he showed me. Then I gave him wood.”

They were just turning into the alley when she finished that sentence. Baka, still there waiting for pick up, started laughing all over again.

“Gave him wood!” He shook his head and reached for moisture at his eyes. “This just gets better and better.” All three members of B Team tensed when they realized Baka was in the alley. “She killed him with a toothpick that she grabbed out of some fellow’s mouth as she ran by. Did you know that?”

Ram, Kay, and Storm forgot being wary of Baka and simultaneously turned to look at Elora like she was an alien which, technically, she was. But they were looking at her like they’d never seen her before. Finally, she raised her hands.

“What?”

“And did you tell them that Sol is waiting to see all of you in his office as soon as you get back? No matter how late?” Baka was thinking she is very cute when her nostrils flare.

“I hadn’t gotten to that part,” she said through clenched teeth while glaring at Baka like the traitor he was. “Yet,” she said while giving him the finger.

Storm wheeled on Ram with seething accusation written all over him.

Ram recoiled and gaped in response to Storm’s seemingly irrational behavior. “Why be glarin’ at me? She’s the one who gave him the bloody finger!”

“Because. Rammel. Somehow I see
yer bluidy
influence all over this.” Storm was unrepentant about mocking Ram’s accent. “I don’t think she even knew what a rude gesture was before she started spending time with you!”

Baka broke apart in new waves of laughter. “Better and better. I haven’t had so much fun in… well… ever.” He patted his shirt pocket. “I need to take notes. I’m putting this in a book.”

Kay decided to intercede before things escalated. More. “Okay. Everybody settle down. Let’s hitch a ride with clean up. We’ll get back faster and sort this out.”

“You mean ride with the, uh, body?” Elora glanced at the corpse feeling inclined to balk at the idea.

Storm’s black eyes settled on her coldly. In a mercilessly detached tone he said, “If you can kill it, you can ride with it.” Then to Baka. “You’re relieved.”

Baka tilted his chin up at Storm in a reverse nod, said, “Fine by me,” and strolled away leisurely casting a grin back over his shoulder at Elora.

Needing to have the last word in this exchange, Elora looked over the trio and said, “By the way, you’re all bloody welcome.” Too exasperated to argue further, she found a place several yards away to lean against the brick wall, arms crossed in front of her, and have a miserable wait for a ride.

The van arrived in a few minutes. It took two trips in the elevator to get everyone, living and dead, up to the whister pad on the roof. They rode in silence back to the base. Elora couldn’t decide whether she was more creeped out about riding with vampire remains or angry about the confusing reaction she’d gotten from her friends. She really was just trying to watch out for their well-muscled behinds. Why didn’t they get that?

As promised, Sol was waiting in his office, rolling a small black cigar between his fingers, and staring straight ahead. She had never seen facial features cast in such rock hard planes. As they crowded into the office Storm opened his mouth to speak, but Sol held up a hand to stop him. “I want to hear it from the young lady.”

Letting the sarcasm slide, Elora recited the events that occurred following her companions’ departure from the bistro in detail, including her rationale.

Sol then asked if anyone else had anything to add, but nothing more was forthcoming. Without further comment and without visible fluctuation in his stern attitude, Sol declared the report concluded and said that he would let them know if he had further questions. Storm and Kay went off to share a whiskey without so much as a good night. Ram half-grudgingly walked Elora to her apartment, looking at the floor and not saying a word until they reached her door.

“Will you be the death of me then?”

Elora turned and was brought up short by the sorrowful, almost haunted look on Ram’s face. She had scared him. Again. “I didn’t do it to worry you, Ram. I did it because I was worried
about
you.”

Before she could protest, he put both hands on her waist and pressed her back into the door with his body that was so perfectly aligned with her own. He buried his face in her neck, closed his eyes and filled his lungs with the deeply intoxicating scent of night blooming jasmine. His cock filled so fast it made him jerk in response. When he felt her tense beneath his hands he straightened, resolutely pushing away from her with a soft growl of frustration. Without another word, he walked on to his own door leaving her standing there in the hallway breathless, missing the warmth of his body against hers.

Elora had tensed to strangle the moan that wanted to escape her throat. He didn’t know how close she had been to giving up the tenuous hold she had on her own impulses, how close she was to letting herself go soft and pliant, molding to his shape, and parting her lips to invite a kiss. She took a hot shower, washed the spray out of her hair, creamed the blood red lipstick off her mouth, dried her hair, pulled on a tank top and flannel pajama bottoms and climbed into bed.

She had just turned off the light when her phone rang. Looking toward the bedside stand where she’d set her phone, she read the caller ID. “White Fang.” As tired as she was, she couldn’t help but find that funny.

“Hello?” There was no response. “Hello?” No response. “Isn’t it bad enough to be a vampire? Now you want to be a heavy breathing pervert as well?”

There was a quiet rumble that could have been soft laughter under his breath. “No. Just thinking I should hang up.”

“Something wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Okaaaaay. Soooooo…”

There was a deep sigh on the other end of the phone and that's when it happened - the Baka epiphany.

An epiphany is a surge of comprehension that pulls together loose ends of experience with tidbits of information and flashes of intuition, then rearranges them into a moment of perfect clarity. It only takes a heartbeat for the mind to grasp a new perspective and shift to accommodate a different way of thinking.

Something about Baka’s sigh caused such an epiphany. He was her. He had reawakened to life in a strange new world. He was lost, with no family, no friends, and no clear imperative as to how to proceed. He was lonely. Who wouldn’t be?

“You know I’ve wondered where you, ah, stay when you’re not working. I know it’s not here.”

“Hotel. The Sherry Netherland.”

“Oh. Is it nice?”

There was a little snort of amusement on the other end of the phone while Baka stifled a laugh. “Yes. It’s nice.” After a slight pause he said, “Maybe you could sneak out of Swanville and come visit. We could share sparkling cider, conversation, and… other things.”

Having never experienced the ordinary pleasures of being pursued as a teenager, Elora was a late bloomer who had been making up for lost time in the past few weeks with an advanced education on the nuances of flirting. Now she was learning that there is a super bonus thrill attached to late night, clandestine conversations with bad boys.

“Maybe sometime I’ll say yes to the cider and conversation if we can agree that there will be no ‘other things’.”

“Would it sound vain if I said that would be your loss?”

She smiled. “Yes. It would sound vain. Nonetheless, I'm sure it's true. No doubt the loss is mine and shall remain so.” She was fading. “It’s been a long day. I’m going now.”

“Good night gone wrong?”

“Yeah,” she sighed. "Exactly."

“It may not make you feel better, but it was
really
good for me. Adieu, Lady Knight. Don’t let bed bugs bite.”

"You made a rhyme," she yawned, "add poet to the list."

Baka called every night thereafter. He said he liked hearing her voice on the phone. Elora knew she’d be in big trouble with B Team if they discovered she was carrying on a phone flirtation with White Fang, but part of her felt sorry for him and part of her enjoyed his company, however bizarre that might seem... even to her.

***