Save the Last Vamp for Me (5 page)

My stomach flip-flopped at the sensation of flying through the air then roiled as the sword struck flesh, slicing through it with a muted growl. Or maybe the sound came from the guy using it. The sword’s impression of its wielder was definitely male.

No images, just sensations. Opening my eyes and pulling my hand away, I wiped it on the towel. “Not much, other than the person who used it was a man. Do you have any hand sanitizer?”

The vampire flicked his fingers, and Stone left the room again. “If you handle it more, is there a chance you’ll learn something else?”

“Yeah.”

“Then feel free to take it with you, Miss Jones.”

Whoopie. “Thank you.”

Derrick cocked his head. “You’re being quite courteous for someone who intensely dislikes my kind.”

“You’re a client. I’m being professional.” I covered up the sword as Stone returned. The big vamp handed me a small bottle of hand sanitizer. “Thank you.”

After squirting a healthy amount in one hand, I rubbed my hands together while thinking. We could start checking the scenes. I might have a retro-cognition vision, or see something useful via psychometry. My tracking ability might kick in. It would be nice if it did, and led us right to the killer or killers.

That had actually only happened once though, and in this case, if there were more than one killer, anything I picked up from each scene might end up confusing things more. “I think we’ll look at the first scene tonight, work each murder through if possible, before moving to the next.”

“Methodical,” Derrick said. “Not something I’ve heard often in regard to your work habits. I believe ‘fly by the seat of her pants’ is the most common opinion.”

“I do whatever works.” As a psychic, following the PI rulebook usually went out the window. I nodded at the sword. “Can that be bagged?”

“Certainly, and Stone will escort you to Lady Esme’s home.” He stood, a faint curve appearing on his lips. “He’ll keep me informed of your progress unless you require a meeting with me.”

“Fine.” The less time in face to faces with him, the better. “Thanks for the info.”

“You’re welcome, Miss Jones. Gentlemen.” With a nod, Lord Derrick vacated the library.

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L
ady Esme had been a petite, blue-eyed blonde turned when she was sixteen. Arriving at her “home” I thought she may have been overcompensating for her attractive appearance. It wasn’t a castle with turrets, but what looked like a fort of some sort with a lot of really ugly gargoyles lining its stone walls, as well as the outer wall. Gargoyles littered the gardens, and two that somewhat resembled lions stood guard at the huge front doors.

“Spooky.”

“
They live, mistress
,” Leglin said, and I shivered, edging away from the one to the left of the door that I’d been looking at. We were waiting for someone to answer Stone’s knock.

“They’re real? That’s just creepy.”

“Lady Esme had a talent for taming gargoyles.” Stone smiled, and I noticed his fangs didn’t show. “One of the reasons her family is few in number. She didn’t need to turn many, with such a large number of gargoyles under her command.”

Vamps called their groups families? I turned, craning my neck to look up and around. “How many are there?”

“Possibly as many as two hundred. There are more inside.”

“So she had all these gargoyle guards, and someone still managed to kill her in her own home.” That seemed to point to magic, but all the suspects were vampires and it was generally accepted that vampires couldn’t do magic. Either some could, or the killer had the ability to teleport. That was the best psychic ability for getting in and out anywhere fast. “Hm.”

“It’s dark. They should be awake,” Soames said. “Why aren’t they?”

“Perhaps they’re mourning the death of their mistress.” Stone grasped the metal ring of the knocker and banged it a few more times. I glanced back at the open gate. There hadn’t been any vamps on guard.

“Derrick said she’d turned Lira and Dawson about three months ago. Was she replacing, or growing her family?” I scratched Leglin’s neck, trying to decide if it was the gargoyles or something else causing my uneasiness.

“As I said, she kept her family quite small. With those two, she had five fledglings.”

Growing then, and there should be three vampires inside. I closed my eyes and scanned with my telepathy, picking up nothing but a low, grinding hum. “I don’t think anyone’s home.”

The big vampire glanced at me before shoving one of the doors open. A pile of ashes lay ten feet beyond it, ruining the dark green carpet runner lining the main hall. He took two steps toward the ashes before I said, “Wait. Let me take pictures first.”

“Of course. I’ll inform my master of our discovery while you do so.”

We both pulled out our cell phones, and I tapped the camera icon to turn it on. First, I took still shots, beginning with the view of the grand hall from the doorway. Once I’d finished taking all the shots I wanted, I took a few minutes of video for good measure.

By the time I’d finished, Lord Derrick himself arrived, with a passel of vampires behind him. I hurried toward the door before he stepped inside. “You hired us to do the investigating.”

“Of course, but we can locate the others more quickly if they’re here.”

“Yeah, and mess with the evidence if it doesn’t support the ‘politically motivated’ theory.”

He glared, squaring his shoulders. “Excuse me?”

“This,” I waved a hand toward the ashes. “Might be something else entirely, and I don’t feel like going off on a wild goose chase if it’s not related to the case you hired us to handle.”

“Are you suggesting....”

“I’m not suggesting anything. Let us do our job, and once we’re finished scoping things out, you and your people can do yours.” I jerked my chin toward Stone. “He can go with us. I’m done with this scene, so your people can do their thing here.”

We had a stare off, but Derrick finally agreed.

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T
he guys, Leglin, Stone, and I walked past the ash pile to the foot of the stairs. There were two gargoyles perched on the newel caps, not twenty feet away from the pile of ashes. They looked like misshapen dogs with wings and smushed Pekinese faces. “Those two just stood there and watched?”

“Gargoyles are stone during the day.” Soames sniffed the air. “They’re supposed to come alive at nightfall.”

“Okay. But can they see during the day, or are they completely unconscious?” Neither he nor Stone knew. I pulled out my cell phone and called my boss.

“Arcane Solutions, how may I help you?”

“Hi, it’s me. What can you tell me about gargoyles? Specifically, do they know what’s going on while they’re stone?”

Mr. Whitehaven said, “The young have less patience with being constrained by daylight. They often do not sleep as deeply as their elders do.”

“Okay.” Maybe there was a gargoyle kid or teen I could talk to. If they were able to talk. “Any tips on figuring out which are young and how to talk to them?”

“The smaller the gargoyle, the younger it is. I wouldn’t recommend attempting telepathic contact with an elder, Discordia, unless one approaches you.”

“They’re all still rocks.”

“Interesting.” He was quiet for a moment. “Look for one near the size of your smaller four-legged houseguests, and speak to it out loud so that the others will realize you have no intentions of harming it before you attempt telepathic communication. Don’t touch it unless it invites you to. Gargoyles can be quite protective of their young.”

“Right. Thanks, boss.” I ended the call and put my phone away. “Mr. Whitehaven said not to touch the gargoyles, and I need to find a Chihuahua-sized one to try and talk to. Upstairs or down first?”

“The safest rooms would be downstairs, and if they were aware they were under attack, they should’ve gone to them,” Stone replied.

“Then down we go.”

“This way.” He led us down the grand hall to an archway. Inside was an open wooden door, and a table holding oil lamps. The big vamp lit two, offering one to Soames. Beyond the wooden door were stone steps leading down into darkness.

“I thought vampires could see in the dark.”

“Some habits are difficult to break,” Stone said as he started down the steps. Nick scuttled a step ahead, to put himself between the vamp and me. I rolled my eyes before following him, Leglin beside me, and Soames brought up the rear, holding his oil lamp high. At the foot of the steps, we found a second pile of vampire remains.

“Great. Let me through, I need to get pictures.” It took a minute to slide past the two in front. After snapping one shot, I checked the result. “Soames, will you pass that lamp to Nick? I need more light.”

“Turn the flash on,” Nick said.

“It’s on, but the picture sucks. More light.”

He took the lamp from Soames and held it out. I took as many shots as I could, and noticed a faint glint of something in the pile when shooting from one angle. “Found something. Hang on.”

After digging a pen out of my purse, I crouched down and used it to fish out a gold signet ring. Holding it up for Stone to look at, I asked, “Know who this belongs to?”

“Ramon. He was Esme’s heir apparent to her council seat.”

“Okay. Did anyone grab....” Stone whipped out a plastic baggie from his pocket and opened it. I let the ring drop into it. “Thanks. Keep it for now.”

The men and Leglin edged around the late Ramon, and Stone retook the lead. We followed him down a low-ceilinged stone hallway, turning right to take a second flight of stairs down. “Esme’s chambers are at the end of this passage.”

One of Esme’s family had met his or her end in the same room, and hadn’t been old enough to turn to dust. A brownish skeleton lay sprawled through the doorway, its skull detached. I looked at what I could see of the room. The skull, not a foot away from the large bed dominating the chamber, was facing the door as if it had watched its body turn to bone. A pair of emerald and diamond earrings lay to either side of the skull, signaling the vamp leftovers were female. “Ugh.”

“Gia,” Stone murmured. “You should’ve listened to me.”

“What did you tell her?”

The big vamp glanced at me. “That she should request sanctuary with my master.”

“Oh. And you think he’s safe with all of this going on?” I peered into the room. “Are you sure it’s her?”

“I gave her those earrings.”

“Oh. Um, my sympathies.” Sympathy wasn’t what I felt. Irritation over more complications in the case? Oh, yeah, I was totally feeling that. “Why would she run in here? It’s a dead end.”

Nearly the instant I finished speaking, a flash illuminated my mind and a pale gray thread appeared, leading into the room. I groaned and felt Nick touch my back. “What’s wrong?”

“Another new color.”

“Excuse me?” Stone said.

“Psychic thing. Can we get some light in there?” The light from the hallway fell in a rectangle from door to bed. The rest of the room was dark, thanks to the lack of windows.

“Of course.” The big vamp stepped over his late girlfriend and began lighting candles. I followed, Nick behind me, but not before handing Soames my phone and indicating the skeleton with a jerk of my chin. He began taking pictures, and I tried not to make a face when I realized they’d left Lady Esme’s ashes on her bed. The gray line led around the bed and to the far corner of the room, where a wardrobe sat against the wall.

“Maybe it’s a door to Narnia,” I muttered, and Nick gave me a blank look. “You only read paranormal romances, right?”

“No.”

I was beginning to suspect he didn’t read at all, or at least not for fun. The wardrobe’s doors were cracked open. Waving Nick back, I used my telekinesis to open them all the way. It was full of evening dresses and shoeboxes. “Lady Esme, fashionista.”

Nick surveyed the contents with narrowed eyes. “I don’t see anything useful.”

“Well, it’s still showing, so something in there is a clue or leads to a clue.” I stepped forward and began looking through the dresses. “Ooh, this one’s nice. Wonder where she bought it?”

A soft screech was my only warning before something shot out from under the dresses and began flapping around my head. We both ducked, but whatever it was grabbed hold of some of my hair and started burrowing. Tiny claws scratched my neck and scalp. “Eww, get it off, get it off!”