Bite Back: Raw Deal Part 7

She groaned theatrically and rolled back on the sofa, clutching a cushion to her. "You know they have the biggest rail yard in the world?"

"So?"

"They have a tower specially so you can go see it. You know you're running out of things to do when you climb a tower to go look at a railroad junction."

"Sounds real bad," I agreed.

"And being, well, different... You don't understand." Her eyes flicked to me and away again. She sat up. "Imagine going to school and you're related to a quarter of the people in your cla.s.s. You go out to eat and get one cousin waiting the table and another cooking the food. You go to a dance and every other partner is a d.a.m.n cousin. What are you going to do?"

"You can kiss cousins," I pointed out.

"Not of the same s.e.x." She put her head in her hands. "Or anyway, not in North Platte."

I chuckled. "Well, you can't be odd and boring, and hey, North Platte is sort of exotic for a Denver girl like me."

She glared at me, but without much heat.

"Valerie, being bored is a privilege. Tomorrow, pack up and go home for a while. Please. Take a break." I kept the French p.r.o.nunciation of her name-it suited her.

"I can't leave Domine." She saw the expression on my face. "Look, she's been good to me. You don't know what she's really like."

"Hmm. You mean she put on a front for me? Well, people who put on a convincing front usually have a couple more in reserve. Are you sure you've seen her as she really is?"

"Yeah. When she takes you on, she helps you out finding places to stay and getting bank accounts set up, small loans, that sort of thing. And she makes sure we all feel safe. She has those big guys keeping control in case things get out of hand. Kinda have to, I suppose, in a club like ours."

I leaned forward. "Okay, she's probably not as bad as she tries to make out. But she's not good either. And she's miscalculated this time. It's dangerous at the moment. The scars on your neck say it's dangerous. Being scared to walk to your apartment from the parking lot says it's dangerous."

She was scared all right. It barely needed me to push and she was ready to head back to North Platte.

"I'll have to explain to her first," she said.

"Fine. Call in. Explain. Don't tell her where you're going. And don't let her swing some guilt trip on you." I sipped my coffee and went on casually. "Want to tell me about it?"

"I don't..." she stuttered to a halt.

"Valerie, I went through that club tonight and I saw a bunch of people play acting who don't begin to suspect the truth, even in their worst nightmares. I saw a boss who's scared and does suspect the truth. But there were two people there who know the truth and they're both sitting on this sofa."

She nodded jerkily. I could feel the caution that was holding her back dissolve. I leaned forward. If the vampires were that good at staying below the radar, this might be the only chance that came my way. I needed her to give me a good lead.

"They met you at the club?" I prompted.

She took a sip of her coffee and settled back on the sofa, still hugging the cushion to her.

"They came in a couple of times as guests. They aren't members."

"Describe them for me."

"Three of them. All in their twenties or thirties. Rodrigo and Antonio, I reckon come from Mexico. They're built like boxers, not heavyweight, more kinda middleweight, but no scars or busted noses or anything. Rodrigo has a mustache. They both have black hair and dark eyes. The other guy is tall, over six feet. Don't know where he comes from. He's blond, gray eyes, skinny but strong. They call him Raul, but he's not from the same place as them. They're all fit, like they work out."

"They speak English to each other?"

"Sometimes. Other times, a language I never heard before."

"The club let them in, so I guess they were behaving reasonably?"

She nodded.

That made them very different than the ones I'd met.

"Surnames? Addresses?"

She shook her head. Her hand was rubbing her throat and she was staring blankly at the floor.

"So what happened?"

She thought about it. "The first time is kinda blurry, like I was drunk or something." Her lips thinned and she looked over at me. "I don't drink."

"Little recreational smoking?"

She nodded. "Some. Not that night, and it's the wrong sort of feel." She shifted her weight. "Not, y'know, like I was flying. I can't really describe it in words. I think of it like painting. Look, dope is watercolors on soft paper, okay?" I nodded encouragement. "s.e.x is poster paint. Now imagine you smear that sideways, and you can only just make out what it was before. That's what it feels like in my head."

The cat moved, as if he sensed my disquiet. I stroked him gently.

"s.e.x?" I asked. There had been people s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g in the club. I tried to keep my question casual. "Did you have s.e.x with any of them?"

"No. It kinda felt like it though." She huffed. "I'm not into guys, but if s.e.x with them was as good as that, I sure as h.e.l.l would be."

"This was where in the club?"

"They were upstairs in the sofa section. It was early, so the lights were still on. I walked past and I just noticed them somehow, really noticed them. Like they'd called me, but they hadn't."

If I could sense vampires, maybe some other people could, too. I stayed quiet, letting her tell it in her own way.

"I sat down on the arm of the sofa, and talked to them. First off, it was just guy stuff."

"Like what?"

"Oh, they had this joke going. One of them said I was pretty as a picture, he'd hang me on his wall. The next one said I should be in a gallery, and the third one, Rodrigo, told the other two off. But then he said he thought I must have good taste."

I winced.

"I don't think he was making a sick joke then," she said. She finished her coffee. "I said something about feeling they'd called me over. Y'know, just flirting around. They seemed surprised. That's when they started arguing in that language."

"Any idea what it was about?"

"Something about me. Rodrigo wasn't happy I was there. It gets a bit blurry. Next thing I know, I was leaning over Antonio, like we were cuddling. He bit me and there was this feeling. So hot, like I was almost ready to come. Weird or what?"

"He bit you and it didn't hurt at all?" Again, my experience had been different, but I'd been fighting to the death. Valerie's comments about her sensations and the blurring of her memory fit in with a couple of the theories the colonel and I had discussed. If vampires could make humans want to be bitten, that would be dangerous enough, but if they could mess with memories and perceptions-that was a whole different kind of dangerous.

"Yeah." She balled up around the cushion, lowering her face to it. "None of them hurt me." Her voice was m.u.f.fled. "That time."

I reached out and touched her arm gently. Leo twisted around in a flash and latched onto me with his claws. We burst out laughing and had to fuss him until he let go.

"That night was creepy, but I could live with it," she resumed, when the cat had received enough worship to placate him. "I talked to Domine. She didn't like the sound of it and she said they wouldn't get in again. But she was out yesterday. Someone let them in. I was on the door to the Sanctum, where you saw me tonight."

She reached behind the sofa, bringing out a huge art folder and putting it on the coffee table. Pinned to the front was a fresh painting. It was done in oils, and looked as if it was still sticky.

Valerie's mouth twisted, as if she felt sick to her stomach.

"I can't remember exactly what happened. But I can remember what it felt like to me," she said, pushing the painting toward me. The intense colors had been spread with a knife, in sharp, straight lines. It was angry, wounded and violent. "I can remember suddenly realizing what they were and being scared s.h.i.tless. That's the point where things started to happen and it all just gets..." she gestured again at the painting and then pushed the folder away as if she didn't want to be reminded of it. "Marcel was on the door with me. He said nothing happened. He couldn't remember them coming up the stairs at all. They did something to him. Even Domine didn't believe me until she looked at the recording from the security camera."

Security footage? Hard evidence of vampire activity? I felt goose b.u.mps down my arms.

I'd need that recording from Domine and I had to get it to the colonel tonight.

"And you, Amber. You're one of them, but you're different. How is that?"

It felt like I'd been gut-punched. All the stuff from Domine about being like them was so much talk, unsettling but nothing more. Here was a girl who could sense vampires, and she sensed I was one. I'd been sitting here with my Ops 4-10 head on, thinking about nailing vampires in America for the colonel. If I was one too, what did that mean for me?

"What do you mean?" I stalled.

"When you got in my face at the club, I felt the same thing I felt that first night with the three of them. It was as if you'd called out something to me. You're one of them." Leo uncurled and climbed into her arms, b.u.t.ting his head against her chin. "But you're different somehow."

"You're scared of them, but you're not scared of me?"

"I'm not scared of you. Not now. I can't explain. You don't give off the same vibe." She frowned. "You didn't answer."

My lips twitched. No dummy, this one. "I've been bitten. I don't bite."

Valerie thought about this for a while. "If you're not a..." she stumbled over finally saying it, "a vampire, but you've been bitten, does that mean I won't become one either?"

Of course, that was a major reason why she worried, and it was a natural concern.

"I can't say for sure. It's been a year for me, and I'm not a vampire." I shrugged. "I think of it like an infection that my body is fighting."

She thought about that for a while. Leo decided she'd calmed down and he settled on her lap.

"If you're not a vampire," she said, "then why are you looking for them?"

That felt more comfortable for me. Seem like a vampire. Not a vampire.

"It's something I do."

"Oh my G.o.d!" Her eyes lit up. "A real life vampire hunter?" She got up and knelt on the sofa, much to Leo's annoyance. "With stakes and stuff?"

"No stakes, no holy water, no Hollywood."

"But, y'know, the books say the best hunters are part vampire. Does that-"

"The books say a lot of things that aren't true." I ran a hand through my hair. "I hope these guys will vanish and you'll be okay. But while that happens, you need to be in North Platte."

"Message received already." She sat back. "What about the rest of them at the club?"

"You've been bitten and they haven't. I don't care about them."

I didn't really mean that; I was tired and talking carelessly. Valerie didn't like it.

"They're people, Amber. People see they're different and use that as an excuse for all sorts of c.r.a.p. You can't. You have to understand; you're different, too."

She pulled the art folder back and opened it, leafing through until she found what she was looking for and pulled it out.

"There," she said, putting a painting in front of me. It was beautiful: two angels entwined, male and female, rising out of shadow. Their hands reached up into brilliant sunshine. The female model was Giselle from the club, and she was already beautiful. The male model had a face I'd have had to describe as ugly, but the artist had transformed him with an expression of joy.

"I'm no art critic," I said, "but I'd say it's excellent. Is it yours?"

"No. That's Marcel's work. If I just had a tenth of his talent, I'd be happy."

"Never works like that-"

"I know, I know," she said. "We're never happy if we think like that."

"But anyway, you are talented." I waved at the pictures on her walls.

She turned and looked at me grumpily. "I paint funny penguins. I know you say you're not an art critic, so I'll give you a small hint. There's a difference."

I laughed and, after a while, she joined in. It was good to see the tension in her reducing.

But she wasn't finished. "And Giselle." She tapped the painting. "You spoke to her."

"Well, we didn't really speak," I said. "But yes, I met her briefly."

"And because she dresses up in the evening and wears an angoisse, she's not worth any concern."

"No-"

"She used to have another job until someone found out she comes to the club. Guess what it was."

I held my hands up in surrender.

"She used to be a teacher. And-"

"Okay, okay." I stopped her. "But my point stands. You've been bitten. They haven't. I want you out of sight. Go back to Nebraska. Visit your parents." I smiled. "Find a discreet cousin."

She snorted.

I leaned back on the sofa. "Does anyone know how to contact you there? Anyone at the club?"

"Only Domine."