Downbeat (Biting Love) (29 page)

Scythe watched. “Doesn’t matter. They’re all blood cattle in the new order.” A sly grin replaced the belligerence. “The Right Hand has come and passed his first and second tests. It’s only a matter of time.”

The Right Hand…he meant the megavamp. Good heavens. The first test must have been the ball.

Dragan’s face went white. He’d realized the same thing. “It’s only been an hour. What was the second test?”

“Invading a bastion of the rich and powerful.” The Lestat’s hands slowly came down. “Armed humans attacked him. But it was foretold: no human can defeat Nosferatu’s Right Hand.”

Triana’s words came back to me: “No human or nonhuman”—meaning vampire—“can defeat him.” But if the second test was the ball, then what was the first?

“And the first test?” Dragan echoed my thoughts, his eyes narrowed on the Lestat.

Scythe laughed, a hideous sound with his brutal voice. “He killed a human—and drank all the man’s blood. The human police are stumbling all over themselves trying to explain it. The Right Hand drank his fill, thumbing his nose at the Alliance which would suppress us, and, even better, throwing suspicion on their vampires. I always did hate those goodie-goodie Steels.”

I gave a start. He was talking about Dr. Vilyn’s murder? I made a mental note to tell Elena. If Gravloth had killed Vilyn, that put Luke and Dragan in the clear.

Dragan glanced at me. He was thinking the same thing.

The moment Dragan’s attention was off the Lestat, Scythe wrapped an arm around the still-hypnotized boy’s neck and turned to spring off.

Dragan snapped out a hand without looking and seized Scythe’s shoulder. A tug slammed the Lestat straight into Dragan’s waiting fist. Scythe’s jaw broke with a crack and hung loose. His arm dropped, releasing the boy. Jakub staggered back, shaking his head. Scythe grabbed his broken jaw two-handed and wrenched it into place.

It gave Dragan time to lift his pants leg and grab a handle of polished antler topping an ankle sheath. In a single smooth motion he drew a gleaming two-edged blade and spun it up into a muscular chop that cut the Lestat’s throat. Blood gushed.

I stood frozen in place, my eyes wide with shock. So I couldn’t avoid seeing the blood.

And I couldn’t avoid seeing Scythe’s eyes, on his half-hanging head, turn with malicious glitter onto Dragan. The blood stopped running. The throat wound…began to heal.

I screamed Dragan’s name. Only a whisper came out. Dragan heard and swept the blade two-handed into the Lestat’s neck, severing it and half the hood.

The head rolled back, weighting the hood. The body collapsed to the pavement with a heavy thud.

“The blood will call others. We haven’t much time, not in this neighborhood.” Dragan snapped his fingers in front of Jakub’s face. “Wake up.”

The boy blinked. “Mr. Zajicek?” His face fell and he groaned. “My mom.”

“Yes. She sent me. She cares about you. Too bad you don’t care about her in return.” Dragan stowed his knife, grabbed Jakub’s upper arm and dragged him out of the alley. “Come, Raquel. Quickly now. You’ll have to share a seat with this child.”

The boy said, “I’m not a child.”

“Then stop acting like it. Take responsibility. Make good decisions.”

Jakub rolled his eyes. “You sound like my mother.”

“Fine. Don’t be a dick. Or I’ll let Scythe finish what he started.”

“Yes, sir,” the boy mumbled.

“I’ll be checking on you, Jakub.”

“Yes, sir.” He winced.

We managed to both cram into the passenger seat. The kid didn’t look that big, but he was heavy. I could barely breathe.

We dropped him off at his mother’s apartment. She had a nice tidy place, not fancy but obviously well-tended. I saw a corner cabinet that would have looked good with a ceramic gnome and made a mental note to bring one by after all this was over.

Before we left, Dragan took the boy by his shoulders. “Your mother deserves better from you, Jakub. But more, you deserve better.”

You deserve better
. It reverberated inside me. Dragan was right, if it weren’t for my fears I could have been playing in a larger orchestra or even soloing. Certainly I wouldn’t have been working three low-paying jobs to make ends meet.

My mom deserved better of me too, and so did I.

But how?

And when? Because right now I was on my way to be stashed at Steels’ house.

Well, one thing I could do, courtesy of Scythe’s revelation. I phoned Elena to let her know Gravloth was Vilyn’s murderer.

Zinnia’s blue eyes widened in surprise as she opened the door to the Steels’ complex. “Mr. Zajicek and Ms. Hrbek. Come in. You’ll have to wait for a bit.” She held a hand toward the sitting room.

“I called Steel and told him we were coming.” Suspicion frosted Dragan’s tone. “I have vital news.”

“He mentioned it.” She pointed again. “If you’ll just wait here, Mr. Steel will be with you soon. Soonish.”

“Not good enough.” Dragan pushed past her, hard enough that she spun one-eighty, his elegance apparently supplanted by expediency.

“Mr. Zajicek! Mr. Steel said you should wait—”

“I’ll find him myself.” He strode down the hallway.

She gave me a confounded look. I shrugged and ran after Dragan. The hallway took a right jog off the entryway, then went straight back.

“Wait!” Zinnia’s footsteps scurried behind us. “Where are you going?”

Dragan didn’t answer. He swept through a large open area with an odd jumble of both electronic and martial arts equipment. I had to hurry not to lose him. He glided all the way to the back of the building, where he opened an orange metal fire door, revealing a stairwell.

He leaped up the stairs two at a time. I did my best to follow.

“Wait,” Zinnia wailed, all chirpiness gone. “You can’t go up there!”

I caught up to him on the second floor landing, where he’d paused near the exit door to scrutinize a large expanse of wall.

“Aha. Here it is.” Briskly, he knocked on the wall.

A hidden half-size door sprang open.

“What are you doing?” Zinnia’s head poked into view as she trotted up to the landing. “The secret room?” She groaned. “You can’t know about the secret room.”

“Please.” Dragan glanced over his shoulder, his profile a silhouette cut from arrogance. “Every Alliance post in existence has at least one hidden meeting room. Not only did I know about the secret room, but the moment I entered I could hear exactly where it was—in the center of this floor.”

“Hear it? It’s soundproofed! With state of the art dampening equipment and bug blockers.”

“Exactly. I listened for, not the sound, but the silence.” He disappeared through the doorway.

She gave me a lost look.

“Musicians hear the darnedest things.” I shrugged. “Maybe you should add some state of the art white noise.” I ducked through after Dragan.

I found myself in a narrow passageway. He was nowhere in sight. I scurried forward.

The passage turned abruptly right—and dead-ended. Dragan faced the wall to my left. His back was to the only door; a hum of machinery came from behind it.

He was studying the patterned wallpaper. I stared closer. It had an old-fashioned barbershop theme, red-and-white striped poles and soapy bristled brushes. Not what I’d expect for the hidden hallway in a computer and security center.

Suddenly he smiled. “Clever, Steel, very clever.” He pressed a picture of a man being shaved with a straight razor. He pressed a picture of a man getting a haircut with long, sharp-nosed shears. Then he pressed the coin payment bowl which contained a quarter. He turned his grin on me. “The old shave-and-a-haircut. No toon can resist it.”

A door-size panel slid open in front of him.

“Or a pun-loving Steel, apparently.” I peeked through. Beyond Dragan was a small windowless room with a center table ringed by men and women I recognized.

They didn’t look happy to see us.

Liese and Logan Steel sat at the head of the table, Logan with his arm around his wife. To Liese’s left were Detective Elena Strongwell and her husband Bo, a blond Viking of a man; Julian and Nixie Emerson; and Logan’s two lieutenants, sexy librarian, Sissy, and samurai, Rounin. Sissy wore jeans and tee but Rounin’s combat vest was festooned with armament from guns to hand grenades. Two sword handles made a V behind his head.

“What the hell?” Bo said.

“Pax.” Dragan held up both palms.

Julian’s gaze swung to Dragan and went blood red. He leaped to his feet. “You! How dare you show yourself here.” His normally cultured voice was a rough growl.

“Cover him, Elena.” Next to Julian, Bo slammed a first on the table as if for emphasis. “Blast him if he even looks the wrong way.”

Elena stood, fitting what appeared to be a rocket launcher to her shoulder.

“Please,” Logan said in a pained voice. “Could you
not
aim that thing at my server room?”

She jerked her chin at Dragan. “It’s aimed at him.”

Logan sighed. “Zajicek, do me a favor, will you? Move about two feet to your right? On that wall, please.”

“I have no wish to alarm any of you.” Dragan kept both hands raised; if he was concerned at the size of Elena’s gun, his easy stance didn’t show it. Slowly, he moved toward the indicated wall. The business end of Elena’s weapon followed him. “I’m simply here to drop off Raquel for safekeeping.”

“You could have done that downstairs.” Bo growled.

“I also thought to fill you in on Nosferatu’s new candidate for first lieutenant. I’ve seen him in action.”

“The megavamp,” I added.

“Damn you, Zajicek,” Julian said. “Why’d you take her to that damned ball in the first place?”

“Be reasonable,” I said. “He didn’t know Gravloth would be there.”

Julian’s gaze switched to me, cooling to a frustrated violet. “That’s not my point.”

“Do we care right now?” Nixie said. “We’ve got bigger pots to fry.”

“We know about the monster,” Logan said. “Luke already filled us in. Oh, Rocky.” His gold gaze switched to me. “Luke’s at your place, watching over your mom.”

“Thanks.” A weight lifted from my shoulders. “I knew they were together but it’s good to get an update.”

“We have Luke’s intel,” Julian said. “We don’t need—” he swept a finger to point at Dragan, “—his.”

“Really?” Dragan raised mildly sarcastic brows. “You know everything about this vampire?”

Julian planted knuckles on the table and half-stood. “We know enough.”

“Peace, Julian.” Logan waved him down. “We know that the SWATed-up guards tried to destroy him at the ball and failed.”

“Humans,” Julian said. “He’ll be no match against us.”

“Humans with flamethrowers,” Dragan said. “Ladies and gentlemen, I think you should be worried. I’ve heard not even vampires can kill him.”

Bo rolled his eyes. “Rumors. Big deal.”

Dragan shrugged. “That’s as may be. More importantly, the ancient Enkidu says Gravloth is a Soul Stealer.”

“He is the one who killed my master?” Rounin stood. His eyes blazed. “If it takes my life, he will die.”

“Enkidu?” Julian’s eyes boiled for a different reason. “What the fuck are you doing dealing with him?”

“He’s a client,” Dragan said. “He’s also Elias’s friend.”

“That trickster is no one’s friend.”

“Boys,” Liese said. “Could we vampire rampage later? If humans can’t kill this Gravloth, and vampires can’t kill him, we have a problem. What can kill him?”

“That’s the question.” Dragan’s slight nod said he appreciated her intervention. “I’m trying to discover the answer. One piece of good news for you. Camille is not at all happy with this turn of events. I think you can use that. Giuseppe doesn’t care, but he plays the long game. He’ll have plan embedded within plan.”

“You know an awful lot about the bad guys, Zajicek.” Julian’s fangs were emerging and Bo’s low growl underlined the lawyer’s words. “Know what I think? I think the reason you know all this is because you’re working with them. You’re in cahoots with Camille and Giuseppe, and in bed with Nosferatu.”

“No need to get insulting,” Dragan said mildly.

“Settle,” Logan said. “He’s only bringing us information.”

“In our secret room in the middle of a secret meeting,” Bo said.

“He plays both sides,” Julian said. “Maybe he’s here because he’s also gathering info on us.”

“I’m simply here to drop Raquel off,” Dragan repeated. “I thought to give you information in exchange for your help, but if you’re not interested…” He lowered his hands and turned to go.

Julian pressed something on the underside of the table. A click was followed by a low buzz.

All the hairs on my arms stood straight up.

Julian whipped out a switchblade, a long wickedly pointed thing. “The room is electrified. No way out.”

Dragan’s eyes flashed red as he glared over his shoulder at Julian. “This is quite rude.”