‘Wait a minute,’ I said, glancing towards the front door. ‘How could you use my front door without the media seeing you?’ I listened to the heavy silence. ‘Where are they? Where are the cops? We should have been invaded by now.’
‘Yeah, that’s another weird thing about the bald guy. As soon as he materialised inside, the mortals ran away. Gross dude has one helluva nasty vibe. It saturated the air and terrified the poor little humans. They shot outta here like missiles, and they won’t even know why they bolted.’ She gave an evil laugh. ‘I’ll bet they all pissed their pants.’
I know the feeling.
During the short time we’d been talking, the wounds on all of the vampire bodies had healed, and if you didn’t count the blood splashed all over every part of my living room, you wouldn’t have known a life-or-death situation had just occurred. That I’d almost been dinner for a crazed vampire zealot.
How can Brother Luther have festering sores on his body? Why doesn’t his body immediately heal them? Why didn’t it occur to me he could be a vampire? Not too bright, Kismet!
There was blood all over my living room.
A trashed office and a living room that smelled like a used sanitary pad.
Luna rose in a fluid motion, without the aid of bones, and brushed off her black ensemble.
I scrambled to my feet, not nearly as gracefully, and noticed all the vampire eyes staring at me.
I was in room filled with vampires. Blood-drinkers. Children of the night.
Well, hell. What am I supposed to do with a roomful of vampires?
I couldn’t offer them coffee and bagels. Should I offer them the use of my shower? My washing machine? Should I open up a vein?
The problem was solved when one of them – the huge one the crazy vampire had sucked on – stalked over, bowed from the waist and said, ‘We serve the Master. We will hide ourselves outside again and keep watch over you until sunrise. I will send someone to replace your door lock.’ He raised his hand, made a ‘come on’ gesture, and a dozen undead walked out of my front door.
Luna surveyed the wreckage of my living room and said, ‘Do you want to stay here, or would you rather spend the rest of the night at The Crypt?’
On automatic pilot I’d already started picking up papers and books that had fallen off my desk. I was too emotionally wiped out to deal with her prickly attitude. If anyone was in dire need of psychotherapy, it was Luna. Anger and hostility rolled off her in toxic waves. It was a good thing there were rules against doing therapy with someone you know, but even if there weren’t, I wouldn’t be caught dead having her as my client. Oh, wait. Bad choice of words. I probably would be dead.
I sighed, my voice shaky. ‘I’ll stay here. There’s no blood upstairs and I need a shower.’
‘Then I’ll stick around, too. Devereux would stake me if I left you alone tonight.’
Swell.
She walked to the kitchen door and looked around. ‘Where’s your washer and dryer?’
I pointed, and reached down to retrieve another pile of papers. When I turned to see if Luna had figured out how to operate the washing machine, she was walking back into the living room, naked.
She put her hands on her hips. ‘Do you mind if I take a shower first if you’re going to clean up down here?’
‘Uh, sure. That’s fine. Make yourself at home.’
And it just keeps getting weirder.
I heard the little popping sound that indicated some vampire or another had just made an unscheduled arrival or departure, and then the sound of the shower running.
What was up with all the naked vampires? Was nudity a requirement to join the club?
The mentally ill sometimes act out childhood shame issues by getting naked and being sexually aggressive. Masturbation as an anxiety-relieving and self-soothing technique was common. That didn’t surprise me.
And I wasn’t a prude. I’d spent as much time as any other woman in health club locker rooms, making small talk with other naked women. Still, a naked vampire built like a silicone enhanced supermodel calmly cruising around my kitchen was a little out of my comfort zone.
It was natural to be curious about a body that perfect, but actually gawking at it had to be out of the question. What was I supposed to look at while I spoke to her? I wondered how many times Devereux had seen her naked. Geez. Together they’d look like a god and goddess.
Insecure? Me?
CHAPTER 23
It probably made sense that a vampire wouldn’t worry about human rules. I mean, once you were undead, who were you trying to impress? Who would get in your face about anything, anyway, if the result would be having your throat torn out?
Luna glided down the stairs, moving with feline grace. Her calm exterior only partially camouflaged the power and violence lurking just under the surface. She was still naked. She strolled over to the washing machine, noted the cycle wasn’t complete and sat down at the kitchen table.
How weird was it to have a sky-clad vampire wandering around your house?
I’d replaced the lightbulbs and done everything I could in the living room. Now it would be up to the cleaning crew. I heard the washing machine spin cycle click off and walked over to shift her clothes into the dryer.
Like the moment in a horror movie when the forest goes strangely silent and we know the monster is watching us through the trees, a chill ran through my body, sliding an ice cube down my back. I turned to look at Luna.
She was watching me, eyes narrowed, the tips of her fangs peeking out through parted lips. ‘I need blood.’
Terror took me hostage. In three seconds, I’d gone from being in denial about the predator padding around my kitchen to having every ancestral alarm bell in my psyche clanging madly. My stomach contracted, I felt hot and cold at the same time and my knees were suddenly rubber.
Smart-mouthed, cynical Luna was gone and in her place was a vampire. A creature that drank human blood – a hungry predator.
I only had one card to play. My mouth had gone totally dry and I was only partially successful at keeping the fear out of my voice. I knew she could sense it, anyway. ‘If you’re thinking about having my neck as your entrée, you’d better consider what Devereux will say. He is, as you said, some what attached to me.’
My anxiety escalated. Her intention saturated the air. I knew exactly what she meant to do.
She stood and stalked very slowly across the room, closing in on me. She locked her eyes on mine, which caused me to get the fuzzy, floating feeling that meant she was pulling me into her gaze, taking control of my mind.
I visualised the protective wall that usually kept me from drowning in other people’s energy and felt it collapse. Nothing in my repertoire could hold up against the kind of power Luna wielded.
This wasn’t vague energy. It was laser-sharp mind control.
I threw my hands up, palms out, in a reflexive action which did nothing but give her something to grab.
Pinning me against the washing machine with her lower body, she ran her hands up and down my arms, holding me still. Her silver eyes were large and foggy, as if the lights were on but no one was home. Her pointy fangs elongated as she caressed them with her tongue. She leaned in and slowly licked the side of my neck.
I braced myself for the shock of pain I was sure would come and was surprised to hear a scream.
She’d slid her hand across my chest and encountered the necklace. It had the same reaction to Luna that it had to the bald lunatic. There was a flash of light and a sensation strong enough to cause her to drop the necklace and leap away from me.
As she stood snarling, the fog in her eyes cleared and her fangs retracted into her gums.