Luscious Craving (33 page)

I followed the line of his gaze and stared in
dis
-belief. The senator was standing in front of the grand piano, with the Peter
Lawford
vampire next to him. Whatever their ultimate plans, the vampires weren’t about to try anything with the major news media around. Their clever disguises would finally work against them. They were simply too noticeable.

“Have you given any thought to a running mate, sir?” another reporter asked.

“Senator
Hamlyn
,” called Lance Weatherly. “What do you want to tell your fellow Americans on the night you make this special announcement?”

Chet appeared at my side, looking worried. “Are you okay?” he said. “What happened to that Jerry Lewis clone?”

“Chet, I’m so happy you’re okay,” I said. “Jerry’s toast…”

“This is amazing,” Chet said. He gestured to the crush of reporters and cameras. “You did it.”

“Thanks to you,” I said. My con, with his help, was going down exactly as I had planned. By calling the last twenty numbers in my voice mail, he had reached all the reporters who tried to get me for a sound bite after the interrupted photo op at the hospital. Chet had given them a tip they couldn’t ignore. He said that the senator was announcing here and now that he was running for president.

“I can’t believe we really stopped it,” I said, realizing that I was trembling with exhaustion. I was relishing the moment. Vampires operate in the dark. Light is always their enemy….

“It’s like nothing ever happened. It’s all fine,” Chet added.

Sure enough, everything was fine. The senator’s security men were in their places. Reporters stood in a half-circle around the senator.
Hamlyn
was in his element, deflecting questions with practiced ease. And I was nearly floating on a private little cloud of elation. I had done it! I had stopped the Bat Pack and Ash.

As I silently said his name, I saw Ash approaching. I tensed and began to move toward him. To my surprise, Ash didn’t even look at the senator. Instead, he came straight to me.

“Candace.” A half-smile tilted up one corner of his mouth.
“How nice to see you.
You look lovely.”

“You manipulative bastard,” I said. “You think I don’t know what you are up to…I…”

Before I could get another word out, his mouth swooped down, covering mine. His arms enclosed me as they had so many times before. My senses filled with the spicy scent of his skin.

“Happy New Year, Candace,” I felt him murmur against my mouth.

As if from a million miles away, I heard a voice yell, “Senator
Hamlyn
. Watch out!”

I yanked myself out of Ash’s grip, desperate to push him aside. In front of me, standing directly in front of the senator, I saw my old pal Dean Martin. He was holding the last weapon I would have expected a vampire to use: a gun.

There was a flash of light, an almost deafening explosion. Bright blood bloomed on Senator
Hamlyn’s
immaculate white shirtfront. He dropped like a stone.

The crowd in front of him erupted.
Some trying to reach him.
Most trying to get away from the possibility of a maniac with a gun.
I hurled myself forward, using my elbows viciously to force my way through. Dropping to my knees beside
Hamlyn
, I stripped off my short tux jacket, tore his shirt open, and pressed my rolled up jacket to the wound, desperate to stop the flow of bright crimson blood.

In the center of his chest, right above the place where his heart worked so frantically to beat, was a tattoo of an image I had seen before: head of an ibis, body of a man. The same symbol as on the back of the picture Ash had given me in
San Francisco
. And it was red.
Blood-red.
The color flowing into that of
Hamlyn’s
own blood.

“Miss Steele.” All of a sudden, I realized that
Hamlyn
was speaking. I leaned down close. “It seems you are too late this time.”

“Don’t say that,” I protested. “Help is coming.”

Senator
Hamlyn
closed his eyes. When he opened them again, I knew he was right. Help would never get here in time.

“I think it may be better this way,” he said. Then, on one long, slow breath, he gave up the fight for his life.

Twenty-three

Las Vegas
, three weeks later
Candace

“Two vodka martinis and whatever beer you have on tap,” I said to Abe, the bartender, as I put my tray on the counter.

“Coming up.”

I looked across my section of the casino. It was busy; I had been going nonstop all night, taking drinks to gamblers. In the past week, everything had returned to normal at the
Sher
. The tourists were coming in to try their luck now that the computer “glitch” had been resolved. A new Magic Carpet Club card was being rolled out in a big promo with giveaways and promises of better comps.

Not that there was any reason to worry about Michael Irons and his partners in crime. They had vanished. In the chaos of New Year’s Eve, they had just slipped out.
Randolph
told Al not to pursue them because he didn’t want the news getting out that the
Sher’s
security had been breached.

“Buy a drink for a lady?” asked
Bibi
as she sat on the stool beside me.

“One sparkling water,” I told Abe, knowing
Bibi’s
preference.

Bibi’s
eyelids were bright turquoise mixed with glitter and her lips a garish red.

“You know, your stage makeup is scary up close,” I said with a smile. “Are you trying to keep guys away?”

“Just one.”
As Abe handed
Bibi
her water, she added, “He came looking for me this afternoon to tell me he’s lonely…”

“And what did you say?”

Bibi
sighed. “I’m holding my ground. Going back to
Randolph
won’t get me anything but heartache.”

I leaned over, gave her a hug. “You know what? I’m really proud of you.”

She gave me a lopsided grin.
“And what about you?
I’m sorry about Michael. We sure know how to pick ’
em
, huh?”

We sure do
, I thought.

Bibi
set her glass of sparkling water down on the bar. “Well, I’m off to kick up my heels. Every time I bring my foot down, I’m going to imagine I’m stomping on
Randolph
.” She sashayed off.

If you were smart you’d use
Bibi
as inspiration
, I told myself. She was doing her best to meet her demons head-on. I was still hiding from mine.

In the weeks since Senator
Hamlyn’s
death, I had heard from virtually every media outlet in the country. What could I tell them? That a
United States
senator had been killed by vampires? That a secret organization called the Board had something to do with it? Not too helpful. After a while the press stopped calling, and I was left with my questions and my anger. I had not heard from Ash. Not once. Clearly, I was a fool to expect him to offer an explanation, but the way he had used me burned in my gut.

I had feared for him, been afraid enough to warn him of the very plot of which he, himself, was the mastermind. And he had let me do it. The fact that he hadn’t lied to me outright didn’t change what had transpired. He had used my fear, my love, to get what he wanted: me in his bed. Ash had made me feel many things. Never before had he made me feel like a whore.

It’s time to stop running, Candace
, I thought. I was proud of
Bibi
. It was time to return to being proud of myself.

Su Li passed me through with just a simple phone call this time. When I stepped off the elevator into the glass-walled living room of Ash’s condo, soft music came from speakers set in the high ceiling, and the scent of fresh roses suggested I had entered a strange, night garden. The lights were off, but they came on faintly as I crossed the floor to where a chair faced out to give the occupant a view of the lights on the Strip. Ash was there, holding a champagne flute filled with liquid that captured the reflection of the multicolored neon on the streets below.

“
Champagne
, Candace?” he inquired, rocking the glass gently.

I resisted the impulse to knock it from his hand. I was here to regain, not to lose, control.

“No, thanks.
This isn’t a social call, Ash. I’ve come for what you owe me.”

He took a deliberate sip, and I had a sudden moment out of time.
How long had he been sitting there
? I wondered.
Watching the lights of the city, waiting for me to come.
He had known I would come, of that I was certain.

“And what is that?” he inquired.

“An apology,” I said. “Not that I’m likely to get one. So I’ll settle for an explanation instead.”

“Why the hell should I bother to offer one? You’re so certain you have all the answers. Pick whichever one you choose. I’m always the bad guy.”

“Of course you’re the bad guy,” I all but shouted. “You’re a fucking vampire!”

With one swift, violent motion, Ash threw the champagne glass straight at the window before us. It hit hard enough to make the pane quiver. Shards of the champagne flute sparkled like diamonds as they fell to the floor. The champagne dripped down the glass pane as clear and cold as winter rain.

“That’s right,” he said. “That’s exactly what I am. I’m a fucking vampire. And you know who I fuck, Candace? I fuck you. And you like it. You come to me, knowing what I am, and then you blame me for it. Well, guess what? It’s an old game, and I’m tired of it. You have no idea what drives my actions.”

“That’s the truest thing you’ve ever said,” I blazed back. “For all I know, it’s the only one.
I came to you, Ash
. I thought you were in danger and I came to you, to warn you. I simply could not do anything else.
Because I love you.
Tell me something: Did it bother you to make love to me that night, knowing I had slept with Michael Pressman? Oh, excuse me, I mean Michael Irons.”

He made an inarticulate sound. And I laughed then, the sound wild and bitter. “What’s the matter?” I asked. “Did you think I wouldn’t take up the bait you offered? Or maybe you thought I wouldn’t figure out what you’d done at all.
That the whole thing was one big con.
It took me a while, I must admit, but I got there in the end. Michael Irons was your little distraction, your little errand boy. You set us up so I wouldn’t guess what you were really up to. He seemed so different from you. Funny, how you two turned out to be alike. He’s a two-faced lying
sonofabitch
and so are you.”

“No!” he said, striding toward me to seize me by both wrists. Even in the dim light, I could see his face tightening with anger. “What happened between you and Irons is something you did on your own. I used him to set up the con at the casino. He used me to bankroll his entry into the poker tournament. It was business.
Nothing more.”

I thought this over for a minute,
just business
.
The suite at the
Sher
, even the limo.
All my “fun.”
Ash paid for all of it.