I kicked her three times in quick succession, contacting her high on the chest, moving her backwards several steps each time. When her heels hit the lip of the roof I jump-kicked her right over the side. She fell loud and long, her body making a spectacular watermelon-under-the-sledgehammer whump when it hit the pavement.
Oh no, it wasn't over. People wouldn't be willing to pay such a high price for immortality if it didn't come with some major perks. Her screaming might have stopped when her body met asphalt, and she'd be in no shape to demand anything more of me tonight, but she'd heal. Quickly. Bed rest and fresh blood would put her back on her feet by tomorrow night. But for tonight, I had won.
I peered over the edge of the roof. The headlights from a couple of stopped cars lit the scene like something out of a Hitchcock movie. Liliana's body sprawled on the street, twisted and disjointed as a scarecrow's. One driver yelled into his cell phone while the other checked her pulse. Liliana's car pulled up, screeching to a halt from its short trip around the block. All four goons piled out and went to work.
Two held off the protesting drivers with handguns while the others grabbed the unconscious vamp by the wrists and ankles and carried her to the car, reminding me of the deer Albert and Dave used to haul out of the woods after a good morning's hunt. They'd barely gotten her stowed and driven off into the night when sirens announced the arrival of cops who, having seen damn near everything, would probably believe every detail of the drivers' stories.
Considering the noise we'd made in the room before coming to the roof, I decided even my I.D. might not stand between me and a visit to the police station. Not a comfy thought with Vayl due any minute and dawn following him like a stray dog.
I ran down the stairs, gritting my teeth against the pounding my poor feet were taking. When I got to the room I went straight to my socks, pulled them on and wrapped my jacket around my feet before punching into my phone the special combination of numbers that would provide me with some semblance of privacy while I talked. Ignoring the blood spatters on the wall, I stared hard at the drawer pull on the end table next to my chair while I waited for an answer. I got one on the 12th ring.
"Hullo?"
"Pete? It's Jasmine."
"Don't tell me you wrecked another car."
"Okay."
Medium pause. I heard rustling, probably him checking out his bedside clock because the next thing he said was, "Do you know what time it is?"
"Not really."
Silence. I half expected him to start snoring.
"So why did you call at nearly four in the morning?"
"I didn't wreck the car."
"Spit it out, Jaz."
I winced. "Please don't yell at me."
"I'm not yelling."
"I know. But you might be. Soon."
"If you don't start passing on some real information soon I'm going to yell at my wife. Then you'll have guilt."
"Manipulator."
"Spill."
I ran a hand through my hair and got Cirilai caught in some tangles. As I tried to free myself I said, "I pushed a vamp off a roof tonight."
"Not part of the mission, but acceptable."
"Not really. The cops are coming up here soon, and they're not going to believe I'm innocent when they see the bloodstains."
"Bloodstains?"
"I shot her first, here in the room. And her goons came and took her away while I was still on the roof, so I have no proof she and I fought."
"Your badge—"
"—could be faked. I don't have the time to talk myself out of this situation, Pete. Dawn's coming."
"All right, let me talk to them."
"I heard sirens. They'll be here in a sec. In the meantime—"
"Don't you dare sing me a lullaby."
"I wouldn't dream of it. I just wanted you to know, we think one of the senators on our oversight committee might be dirty."
"They're politicians, Jaz. It kind of goes with the territory."
"You're tired, I get it." I told him about our suspicions, wondering how much really sunk in. The guy might actually still be asleep. Dave could do that, carry on a perfectly logical conversation with you in the middle of the night and then not remember anything about it the next day because he'd been mostly asleep the whole time. "Pete, are you awake?"
"Yes, Jasmine, I'm awake. It's your fault too, I want you to remember that."
"Believe me, I will. And, um, we've got the senator thing covered from here, okay? If you get nosy and get yourself killed I'm gonna have to put your kids through college or something, so do me a favor and steer clear."
"You know, last week Ashley was talking about getting her Ph.D. at Yale, so I have to say I'm a little tempted. But don't worry. There's a reason I hire the best."
Wow. If only I deserved that remark. "Hang on, somebody's at the door."
I opened it mid-knock. The cop on the other side looked slightly stunned that I'd responded so quickly. Even more so when I handed him my badge and the phone and said, "It's for you."
He took it like it might be rigged to blow, and held it about six inches from his ear. "Hello?" he said while his partner hung back, his Glock out but pointing at the floor for the moment.
The first cop listened for awhile and when he gave me an amused look, I relaxed. When he chuckled I started to fume. No doubt Pete was telling him all about my tendency to leave a trail of wrecked cars and blood-spattered walls that a blind dog with a cold could follow.
"Did she really?" asked the cop. He laughed louder and motioned for his partner to listen in on the call. All told, Pete kept them entertained for another three minutes and 25 seconds while I leaned against the wall and timed them. At 3:26 the cop handed me the phone and my badge.
"He wants to talk to you," he said, then he nodded, headed out the door and down the stairs with his partner close behind.
"I take it I'm off the hook," I said as I shut the door.
"Yup."
"Thanks."
"No problem."
We hung up. Since my toes still felt like icicles, I went into the bathroom, shucked my socks, plugged the tub and ran in enough hot water to soak my feet. I could see the front door from where I sat, so I was aware of the chiseled marble look on Vayl's face when he entered the condo a few minutes later. That all changed when he saw the blood on the walls.
"Dear Christ!" He staggered sideways, caught his balance on the stove and pulled his phone from his pocket with shaking fingers. "Jasmine, be all right. Please be all right," he whispered as he dialed, his face suddenly very human, and extremely worried. He jumped about three inches off the floor when my phone rang. I answered it.
"Make it quick," I said, "there's somebody else in the condo with me and he looks alarmed."
He didn't say a word, just dropped his phone, came over and picked me up off the edge of the tub. It's a little disconcerting being dangled effortlessly. Plus, I generally equate bear hugs with lumberjacks and friendly purple dinosaurs, not with suave, sexy vampires who savor a daily dose of necking.
"I thought you were dead," he said.
Ah, that explained the momentous show of affection. "So you knew Liliana was coming after me?"
"I… had a feeling." I let his evasion stand for now. But in my mind I drew the line. One more and I would raise hell. Or, smarter but less satisfying, ask him to come clean. He let me slip through his arms until my feet touched the carpet. But he wasn't quite ready to let go. "I am sorry that I left you. I suspected she would come after you, only not so soon. She has always coveted Cirilai, first because she was my wife and thought she deserved it. Then because our sons were dead and she thought I did not."
"So… you've never… taken it off before?"
"No. Not for Liliana. Not for anyone. Until now."
I started to squirm and he let me pull away slightly. Okay, don't panic. Every time you panic all hell breaks loose so do-not-panic.