Real Vampires Have More to Love (13 page)

“Lousy and reformed. I don’t play at all anymore.” Long story. I’m so bad I had to join Gamblers Anonymous and pay on credit cards for years as part of my recovery. I still can’t be around a game without feeling dangerous urges.

We walked into Damian’s spacious living room with its breathtaking view of the Austin skyline. But it wasn’t the city that made me gasp, it was the sight of Jerry’s daughter, her boyfriend Dracula and his two best buddies, Benjamin and Luke, all in various stages of undress. They were surrounded by empty bottles and crystal goblets. Their cheeks were flushed too.

“Don’t look, Dad. I’m not very decent.” Lily giggled and covered her bare breasts with a throw pillow. She’d obviously been losing because she was down to a thong and two high heels. Leave it to Lily to keep on her shoes while discarding her top.

“You’re more than decent, my love.” Drac made a grab for the pillow but toppled over. He wore stretchy black briefs that left nothing to the imagination and a knit cap. Benny and Luke had fared better, both of them still in pants and socks, but shirtless. Somehow Damian was the only one fully clothed, unless you counted a missing belt. Cards were scattered across the glass tabletop.

“Ante up, you two. One article of clothing to start.” Luke gave me a wicked smile. “Do us all a favor, Glory. Take off that sweater.”

“In your dreams, sweetheart.” I grinned back, not above noticing that all three male vampires were beautiful men. “Are you sober enough to remember the night I killed Brent Westwood? The night Israel Caine’s house burned down?”

“How could we forget?” Benny jumped up, swaying before striding over to sling his arm around my shoulders. “You took down the baddest man in the whole damn town.” He grinned at his mates. “Hey, that’s a song lyric. ‘Leroy Brown,’ eh?” He started to sing, Drac and Luke joining him for the chorus. Their group had been a singing sensation in the seventies. I waited until they’d run out of words, stopping Jerry with a look when it was obvious he wanted to shout at them to shut the hell up or knock their heads together. The guys were that good.

“Brilliant. Now we need to know where you stashed Westwood’s body.” I turned to Lily, who’d put her head on Drac’s shoulder, her pillow slipping to show most of her left breast. “Lily, cover up, girl. You were in charge of getting these guys to clean up the mess when I took out Westwood. Remember?”

Damian came in with a tray of full bottles. I read the labels. B-sotted. Blott-O. Oh, and my favorite, Undead Drunk.

“Here we go. Refills. Glory, Blade, try one. You look like you need a pick-me-up.” Our perfect host picked up one for himself.

“Maybe later.” I had to admit I was tempted. After the night with the Vamp Viagra, I wouldn’t mind a little experimentation. But business first.

“Don’t give them any more until we get some answers.” Jerry put his hand on Damian’s arm.

“Wait a damned minute. Who put you in charge?” Benny turned to face Jerry. Or tried to. He lost his balance and landed in the middle of the card table. Glass broke, cards went everywhere, and everyone except Jerry and me thought this was hilarious. When Benny got a cut on his foot trying to pull himself up, a growl went around the room that made Jerry try to put me behind him.

“Stop it! Calm down and answer me.” I pushed Jerry out of the way, grabbed another throw pillow and jammed it against the cut on Benny’s foot. My own fangs were down, but I ignored them. He did have a delicious blood type. I grabbed one of Damian’s bottles and took a swig. Self-preservation. It wouldn’t have been cool to lick Benny’s big toe.

“Gee, Glory. Watch how you chug that. It’s got a powerful kick.” Lily grinned at me. “Dad, you may want to take her home after this. It also makes you, um, horny as hell.”

“That’s enough. Now answer Gloriana. Where did you dump Westwood’s body that night?” Jerry picked up a bottle and took a sip. Clearly I wasn’t the only one thirsty.

“Nowhere. The guys were messing around. Wanting to cut off his head, take a trophy, which I knew you wouldn’t like, Dad. See how loyal I am?” Lily rubbed Drac’s knee, and I looked away from his obvious response.

“Where’d you take the body, Lily? And don’t say nowhere.” I wanted to slap some sense into her. Especially when she let Drac grope her in front of all of us.

She at least had the good sense to shove him away and stand. “I’m telling you. I don’t know where in the hell the body ended up. Another vamp came along. He offered me big bucks if we’d let him have Westwood. Said he’d do the cleanup.” Lily shrugged and took a bottle Drac snagged for her. “Hey, I could use the money. The guys here are loaded, but I’m not. It was expensive moving here from Transylvania.” She wrapped a rich black velvet throw around her, toga-style, and dropped her pillow.

“Sorry, Dad. Since I got here, you’ve been nice, but even though I’m your one and only child, you haven’t offered me an allowance or a place of my own. I had to look out for myself. So I decided we should take the cash and split. What did we care what happened to that body anyway?”

“Yeah, I remember now.” Drac took a long draw from his bottle of B-sotted. “Man, that’s fine. Oooh, baby.” He grabbed Lily’s hands and pulled her close. “We’re gonna have to find Damian’s love shack soon. I’m hard and hurtin’.” He laid a kiss on her that was triple X-rated, his hand moving up her thigh.

Damian rolled his eyes at me. “Young vampires. No manners. Blade, your daughter is lovely, but the company she keeps ...”

“I couldn’t agree more.” Jerry took another hit from his bottle and put his hand on my hip as if to show he wasn’t just Lily’s old man, but in need of a love shack too. “But I can’t believe you couldn’t handle this one simple task, Lily. Why the hell did you palm it off on a stranger? You had to know this was important to me.”

“To me too.” I swatted Jerry’s hand away. “Who was this man? You don’t know where he took Westwood’s body? Of all the irresponsible, stupid . . .” My great plan was slipping away just like Lily and Drac were toward the French doors that led outside. “Where are you going?” My voice was nearing screech level.

“Let them go, sweet thing. They are lucky enough to have each other. We didn’t know the guy or care. Like Lily said, the girl needed cash. The price was right. You took off in a tearing hurry, now didn’t you? If it was so important, why didn’t you stay around and see to it yourself? Eh?” Luke looked me over.

“I should have. Valdez and Ray made me leave, and I was shook up. In shock, really. I don’t go around plugging men with crossbows every day.” I took another gulp of the synthetic and appreciated the heat of it going down. “We should have stayed and handled it ourselves. Jerry, you weren’t even there. You met us at the car.”

“I didn’t want to leave you either. That’s why I delegated. Obviously to the wrong people.” He glared at his daughter and Drac, making out by the glass doors.

Luke smiled at me. “That’s old news. Glory, don’t suppose I could interest you in a little two on one with Benny and me.”

Blade had Luke up and off the couch in a heartbeat, glass crunching under his leather boots. “The lady is spoken for. You and Benny satisfy each other. I’m sure that’s your usual way.”

“Hey, man, chill.” Luke blew him a kiss from his landing spot on the floor next to the wall. “Benny and me swing either way. No problem. And if you want to join in, I’ll take on a hairy Scot, though Glory’d be my first choice.”

Lily giggled and stopped at the glass doors. “You’re propositioning my dad? I’d pay money to see that video.”

“Is there even one of you that has something useful to say?” I wanted to scream with frustration. Just when I thought we’d found a solution to our problem, we’d entered the twilight zone and I was surrounded by pod people.

“Maybe this’ll help. The guy with the cash was a dealer. Gave us some of that cool drug. Vampire Viagra.” Luke grinned at me. “Oh, look at you, Gloriana. I can see it in your eyes. You’ve tried it. So you know what I’m talkin’ about, sweet thing. Good stuff, isn’t it?”

“No comment.” I flinched when I felt a hand on my shoulder, relaxing when I realized it was Damian beside me.

“It must have been an Energy Vampire, then, who took Westwood’s body. Don’t know why you want a pile of bones, but you’ll have to deal with the EVs to get the information you need. Maybe Lily will give Blade a description of this dealer.” Damian nodded toward where Jerry was talking to his daughter.

Vamp hearing let me know it wasn’t that night he was asking about. No, the allowance comment had struck a nerve, and he was offering to support her if she’d find a better set of friends. That was met with a string of profanities, and Lily jerked Drac outside to Damian’s gazebo a.k.a. love shack.

I turned to Damian. “Well, no help from those two.”

“Why do you want Westwood’s body?” Damian took a swallow of his drink and looked around the room. “Never mind. Tell me later. Right now I need to call my own woman. These thugs are right. The drinks are an aphrodisiac. And I figure Blade would cut out my heart if I made a move on you, Glory.”

“Damned right.” Jerry slung his arm around me. He finished his bottle of Blott-O and slammed the empty down on a table. “One lead. I guess that’s more than we might have gotten from this bunch.”

“Yes.” I walked up to Luke, who was arguing with Benny about whether to leave or call some women they knew to come over.

“Luke, Benny. Focus a minute.”

They stared at me, their smiles making it clear they’d taken my command as an invitation. Benny held out his arms.

“Knew you couldn’t resist the two of us. Come closer, darling. We’ve got some Vamp Viagra if that works for you.” Benny blinked, like focusing was beyond him. I could relate. I’d drained my bottle of hooch, and though it had been delicious, I was a little woozy myself.

I stayed out of reach. “What did this drug dealer look like? The guy who took Westwood’s body?”

“That was months ago.” Benny leaned against Luke. “Tall? Kind of hot, I guess. Give us a kiss, Glory, and I might remember more.”

“Not a chance. Luke? You remember anything else?”

“Benny’s right. He
was
hot. I wouldn’t kick him out of bed.” Luke’s grin was sexy and knowing.

“You wouldn’t kick a were-hyena out of bed, you horn-dog.” Benny collapsed against the sofa cushions, laughing so hard he choked.

“Stupid sod.” Luke pounded him on the back. “Glory needs our help.” He looked at me, suddenly almost sober. “He was blond, blue-eyed and, oh, yeah, had a sweet ass.” He grinned and opened his phone. “Here, call him. I’ve got him on speed dial.”

I realized my mouth had dropped open. “Are you kidding me?” I grabbed the phone and heard ringing then the voice mail for Greg Kaplan. Well, well. I left a message for him to call me, then handed Luke his phone.

He grinned and slipped it into his pocket. “Now you owe me.”

Jerry stepped between us. “We’ll keep that in mind. Come on, Gloriana. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

“Yes. Thanks, Luke. I do owe you.” I didn’t wait around to play any more verbal games, just followed Jerry to the door. “Much as I hate the thought, looks like we’ll have to meet with Greg Kaplan. I’m doing business with him anyway. Maybe Greg will tell me where he dumped Westwood’s body.”

“I hate for you to deal with one of those devils too. But Kaplan will tell you what you need to know if I have to beat it out of him.” Jerry ran his hand through his hair. “Damned drink. Right now all I can think about is getting you naked.”

“Naked sounds good. Race you to the car.” I slipped out of his grasp and hit the door. We were in the car in seconds and speeding toward Jerry’s house again. I felt guilty for abandoning the shop again, but not much. And I hadn’t checked in with Rafe. He deserved to know what was going on after worrying about me. First thing tomorrow. Flo too. Then Jerry had his hand inside my pants, and I felt obliged to do the same for him. One thing led to another, and we were doing the wild thing in his car inside the garage.

Forget the kitchen. This time we made it to the den and the leather sofa in front of the fireplace. Ridiculous to keep using artificial stimulants. We’d gone centuries without them. But I had to say the extra boost added a new level to our lovemaking. It had certainly cut out the need for small talk this go-round.

I climaxed for the fourth time and lay atop Jerry, listening to his heart beat. “You’re incredible.”

“Back at you.”

We both jumped when we heard the back door open. Jerry grabbed a furry brown throw and tossed it over us.

“Lily!” I sat up and covered both of us reasonably decently.

“I took your advice, Dad. I dumped Drac, and I’m moving in.” Lily dropped a bulging leather bag on the floor and grinned. “Guess you’ll have to move your action to the bedroom from now on unless you like an audience.” She yawned. “We can work out those details tomorrow. See you in the evening.” She picked up the bag and headed for the stairs. “Usual room? Down the hall from yours?”

“Sure.” Jerry shook his head. Poor Jerry. He hadn’t even known he had a daughter until a few months ago. Now she’d be living with him. And taking an allowance since that had obviously sealed the deal.

I kissed his cheek. “Buck up, old man. You’ll do fine. The girl needs guidance. Obviously she’s never seen how a decent man goes on. Look at the company she’s been keeping.”

“Trash.” Jerry’s jaw tightened.

“Exactly. So you’ll show her how it should be.” I stood and held out my hand. “Dawn’s coming. Let’s to bed.”

“Aye. You’ve fair worn me out.” Jerry yawned and lifted me up in his arms. “Well worth the effort, lass.”

“I hope I always will be.” I leaned against him as he walked up the stairs.

Eight