“You had sex with Damian?” Blade's chin jerked up and he looked around like he wanted to punch or tear or rip something or someone apart.
“No! I mean I thought I did but it was a trick. One of Damian's stunts. A mind game.” Oh, God. I should have known Blade wouldn't stop reading my mind.
“Do you
want
to have sex with Damian?” Blade's hands were fisted. “He's seduced many, many women, Gloriana.”
“He won't seduce me. Not after last night. He pulled some kind of whammy.” Why didn't a customer come in? And I had the distinct feeling that Emmie Lou and Harvey were all ears.
“I know I have no right to even ask you about this. You've made it very clear that you're on your own.” Blade turned away as if he couldn't bear to look at me.
“Jerry.” I put my hand on his shoulder. Like iron.
“Damian's not for you, Gloriana. But I know you're a passionate woman.” He whirled around in one of his vamp moves. “And that you don't want to be committed to me. But if you need . . . release, I will always be available to you. No strings, as you wish.”
Oh, gee. The back was much easier to deal with than the front. His x-ray eyes raked over me. Need release? What? Use him instead of a vibrator? And was passionate woman another way to say whore?
“By God, you are
not
a whore.” He jerked me into his arms and took my mouth, kissing me until I grabbed his hair and opened my mouth to taste all of him. The doorbell tinkled. Oh, great.
Now
I get customers.
“Sorry.” A deep male voice.
Blade tore his mouth from mine because I simply couldn't.
"Collins.” Blade put me away from him. All business. "What's wrong?”
I smoothed my hair and pulled down my sweater. I couldn't remember Blade reaching under it, but obviously one of us had felt up my breast.
Kenneth Collins stood just inside the door, looking around. He was obviously upset. “Have you seen Marguerite? She was supposed to meet me next door. At Diana's coffee shop. Then we were going to come here.”
“No, she's not here. Maybe she's running late.” I put some space between me and Blade because he was seriously interfering with my thinking.
“Her car's outside. But Diana hasn't seen her.” Kenneth started toward the back of the store. “Maybe she's in the dressing room.”
“No. No one's here.” I looked at Blade. “Maybe you should help Kenneth look outside.” I had a queasy feeling in my gut. Nowadays when a vamp went missing, it was only natural to fear the worst.
“Outside. Yes.” Blade put his hand on Kenneth's shoulder. “You check the vacant lot across the street and I'll go around back and look in the alley.” Blade and I exchanged a look. “Have you tried to call her, with your mind? She
is
your mate.”
“Yes! That's the first thing I did. We always communicate in our minds.” Kenny took a shuddering breath. “She's not answering me. I'm afraidâ”
“Maybe she's mad about something. Not answering on purpose.” I reached for the Open sign and flipped it over. “I'll help you look.”
“No, you will not.” Blade turned the sign back over. “We have enough to worry about without you presenting a target.”
“Okay, then.” I recognized that this wasn't the time to quibble over whether I'd take orders or not. What Blade said made sense. “If she shows up, I'll tell her to call you, Kenneth.”
“Thanks.” Kenneth headed across the street. From the look on his face, I could tell he was calling Margie in his mind. He also pulled out his cell phone and hit the speed dial. I held my breath and listened, but didn't hear another cell phone ring.
“I don't like this.” Blade said what I was thinking. “Unlock the back door and I'll go out in the alley. I can't imagine Margie would be back there, but it can't hurt to look around. Be sure to lock the door behind me.”
“Jerry, be careful.”
“Of course.” He touched my cheek, then stepped outside.
I locked the door behind him and leaned against it. The front doorbells tinkled. Customers? I hurried out in case it was Margie. No such luck. Just a pair of night owls shopping for antique furniture. I tried my best to work up enthusiasm for a Victorian washstand, but I was almost relieved when the two left without buying.
I really wanted to close, but another customer came in, so I occupied myself with shop business, ringing up a sale, answering a phone inquiry. An hour went by and I was going crazy. I was alone when I heard pounding on the back door.
“Who is it?” I wasn't about to just open the door, even with Valdez at my side. At least he wasn't barking. Good sign.
“Blade. Open up.” I turned the locks. Blade stepped inside and looked around. “Are you alone?”
“Yes. No customers at the moment.”
“Put the Closed sign up and lock the front door.” He had such a grim look that I got sick to my stomach. I didn't say anything, just walked over to flip the deadbolts and the sign.
“Bring her in, Kenneth.” Blade stepped aside.
Kenneth staggered through the door with Margie in his arms. He was crying, his dark cheeks wet. Margie was limp and, oh, God, a wooden cross stuck out of her chest.
“My baby girl.” He wept as he laid her on the floor. “How can she be gone? We were supposed to have forever together. Who would do this?”
I held on to Blade, not sure what to say. There were no words of comfort adequate.
“We'll find out. This must stop.” Blade pushed Valdez out of the storeroom and closed the door. “Whatever it takes. We'll find out.”
Kenneth looked up and his eyes hardened. “Westwood?”
“No, this hunter has struck before. Two vampires in Houston were staked this way the night MacTavish was killed in Lake Charles.”
I had the presence of mind to pull out a fifties vintage chenille bedspread, a pretty rose color, and hand it to Kenneth. “Why don't you wrap MâMargie in this?”
Kenneth just stared at me, obviously in shock. “Would you leave me alone with her first?”
“Of course.” I pulled Blade out of the storeroom and shut the door again. He put his arms around me and buried his face in my hair.
I couldn't let him go. Oh, God, he was shaking. I rubbed his back. How horrible to find Margie like that. She'd been so beautiful, so alive. Full of vamp power. Valdez pressed his warm body against my skirt. We were like a huddle of shell-shocked soldiers after an assault.
Blade raised his head and touched my cheek. “It could have been you, Gloriana. You see why I want you to be careful?”
“Yes. I'll be careful.” I didn't want to think about Kenneth saying good-bye in my storeroom. He'd been with Margie for over a hundred years, but that was nothing compared to the time I'd spent with Blade. I brushed Blade's jaw with my fingers.
“
You
stay safe.” I patted his chest. “And if I say wear a vest, damn it, wear a vest.”
“I don't understand why Margie was in the alley. How did someone lure her there?” Blade ignored my demand and was already into his “Find the enemy and eliminate it” mode. “And what do the crosses mean? I know mortals think we can't tolerate them, but to stake with a cross, that's strange.”
“Do you think it could be another vampire? He denied it, but Richard Mainwaring, Flo's lover, I mean ex-lover, matches the description of the praying vampire. The one who fed from the Goth who came to my shop that night. The vamp prayed while he fed. Like he was asking forgiveness or something. Maybe he's got a hate on for other vampires.”
“A vampire taking out his own?” Blade stared at the closed storeroom door. “Why? And Marguerite wasn't exactly a rogue vampire. She was as into blending as you are.”
“Exactly. So who would know she even was vamp, except another one? Or someone with one of Westwood's vamp detectors.”
“I hope to hell Westwood's not selling those things.” Blade looked really, really grim. “Another vampire. Maybe. But I don't see a motive.”
“It could be another vampire.” I hoped I wasn't sending Blade in the wrong direction. I rubbed my aching forehead. None of this made sense. But hate crimes never did. “Listen, I may be all wrong. But when Flo and I saw him at church, Richard looked at me with so much hateâ”
“Did he threaten you?” Blade's fingers bit into my arms. Yes, he was still holding me and I wasn't about to push him away.
“No. He didn't even speak to us. But Flo broke up with him because he was sneaking around, didn't want anyone to know he was in Austin. That's suspicious right there.” This find-the-perp mode was contagious.
Blade let me go to pace in front of the storeroom. “I won't ask what you were doing in a church. But, Glory, why would Richard be killing other vampires? He's a very old vampire himself.”
“He's decided he hates what he is. And he hates
us.
Flo says he doesn't want to be vampire anymore. But we can't kill ourselves. That vamp code thing.” The vamp code's not written down anywhere, but there are some unwritten rules. Don't bite another vamp without permission. Hah, Damian! Never deliberately endanger another vampire. And we keep our secrets. It's a close knit community and when one of us is attacked, we all go on high alert and do whatever it takes.
“It's not just code, Gloriana. I knew a vampire once who tried to commit suicide.” Blade looked grim, obviously remembering a bad time. “He couldn't do it. Even though you know vampires are fearless.”
“Most of them anyway.” I grabbed Blade's hand and made him look at me. “What happened?”
“He simply couldn't put a stake to his own heart. He begged me to do it.”
“No!” I squeezed his hand. “Who was it, Jerry? Anyone I know?”
He shook his head. “He died before I met you.”
“You didn'tâ”
“No, but he had no trouble finding a hunter to oblige him.”
Blade turned away, obviously not interested in sharing any more about this with me.
I shivered and picked up a paisley challis scarf to throw around my shoulders. Had I really wasted years with my own suicidal thoughts? Am I dumb as dirt or what?
“I have no idea if Mainwaring's the one who killed Margie, but you should question him.”
The storeroom door opened and Kenneth came out with Margie wrapped in the bedspread. He didn't say anything, just walked to the door and waited for Blade to flip the locks to let him out. He walked out into the night. A few quiet words and Blade stepped outside to open a car door. Blade came back in and put his arm around me.
“Where will he take her . . . body?” I nervously pulled the glass door closed and locked it. We could still see Kenneth as he tenderly placed Margie's body in the backseat of his car. It was really late and the street was deserted, thank God.
“I'm sure he'll find a place.”
Vampires don't exactly buy cemetery plots and plan funerals. You think you'll live forever. And when a vamp does die, it's usually horrific and a loved one or another vampire will take care of burying the body. We don't melt like the Wicked Witch of the West. Or turn to dust. Instead we get a lonely unmarked grave. Forget about a headstone. What would you put? Born 1580, died 2000-and-something?
“What happened to Mac's body, Jerry?”
He looked at me and let me see his pain. “I don't know. I had Mara to deal with.” He looked down at his black boots. I knew he must have a knife tucked in one. “That's another mark against that bastard Westwood. He takes fangs and then God knows how he disposes of the body. I went back later . . .” He ran his hand over his face. “No sign of Mac.”
I wrapped my arms around him again. “How horrible for you.” I leaned back and looked up at him. I've never seen Blade cry. Not in hundreds of years. And he didn't cry now. But his face could have been carved from stone.
“If something happens to me, Jerry, cremate me. Take my ashes back to England. Scatter them around the Globe.” I didn't have to say it was where I'd met Jerry. He knew. Grief makes me sentimental, I guess.
“You won't die, lass. I'll see to it.” His hold on me tightened and he rested his chin on my hair.
“You can't promise that, Jerry.” I saw Kenny's car pull away from the curb. “You just can't.” I looked back in the storeroom. The wooden cross lay on the floor in a puddle of blood. Kenny must have pulled it out.
That did it. I ran to the bathroom and was violently ill for the first time in decades. It's pretty harsh since our stomachs are basically empty.
When I came out, glad I'd had a toothbrush back there, Blade had cleaned the linoleum. He carried one of my shop sacks. The cross.
“What are you going to do with that?” I couldn't bear to think about where it had been. Margie. I swallowed, hard.
“It's evidence. I'm no forensic scientist, but I can hire one. I'll take it to one for analysis. Maybe he can discover a clue that will help us find this killer and punish him.”
Vigilante justice is the only kind vampires can get. And Blade had obviously nominated himself as leader of the posse. I kissed his stiff jaw. He grabbed me and kissed me with all the emotion that he kept pent up inside him. I leaned into him, savoring his taste and his strength. Finally Blade pulled back.
“I don't suppose you wantâ”
I put a hand over his mouth. I don't think he meant to be insensitive. It's just that Jerry is such a guy. Naturally he'd think sex would be a great comfort for both of us.
But passionate woman or not, I wasn't ready to climb into Jerry's bed. It was a slippery slope. Next thing you knew, I'd be sleeping over. And he'd figure I'd come to my senses and had decided to give us another chance. I just wasn't ready. And wasn't sure I'd ever be. But, damn, the man could kiss.