Garnet Lacey - Tall, Dark And Dead Part 23

The first part of the day pa.s.sed slowly. William spent much of our downtime trying to get me to relate the story of dealing with the police over the break-in, but rather than make up lies, I told him I just wasn't up to talking about what happened. When he wasn't asking about that, he wanted more information about vampires.

"So," he said, while polishing the silver jewelry with a cloth, "where do you find real vampires?"

I had the case open and was spraying window cleaner on the underside of the gla.s.s top. I ripped off a paper towel and started wiping. "I found my first at an all-night cafe near Banning State Park."

"In Minnesota?"

"Yeah," I said, spritzing the top. "I was visiting my folks, and, well, there's nothing to do in Finlayson, so I'd driven down to the casino in Hinckley to hang out with some old high school friends who were working there. Anyway, I stopped in the truck stop on the way home. For some reason the place was crowded. I ended up sitting at the counter next to him." "How did you know he was a vampire?"

"Honestly I didn't at first. We just started chatting and hitting it off, and when I found out he was from Minneapolis, too, I gave him my phone number." In hindsight, that should have been a clue. I was ultra paranoid about giving out my number, but Parrish had worked his glamour on me... or maybe just his charm, since if he'd just wanted to lure me off for some tawdry s.e.x and a nip on the neck, he probably could have convinced me to take him out to the back of my car.

"So he was totally pa.s.sing as average?"

I nodded, though I knew Parrish would bristle at the idea of being referred to as average anything.

"So anyone could be a vampire."

I wasn't sure where William was going with this. "I guess. Why?"

He'd finished his work and waited for me to complete dusting the interior of the case. "I want to find one," he said, leaning back against the register.

"Why don't you ask Feather?"

"I did," he said. "We had a huge fight about it."

"She didn't want to share her needle, eh?" I hadn't meant to say it, but the words slipped out.

Before I could apologize, William shrugged and said dejectedly, "Yeah."

William changed the subject shortly thereafter, and we didn't talk about vampires for the rest of the morning.

I'd just let William go for his lunch break when Matyas Von Traum walked into the store.

He stopped the moment he noticed me behind the counter, and he slowly replaced the scrying mirror he'd been examining. Matyas still courted the Euro-trash look with a burnt-orange silk shirt and black trousers. The bright color should have been gaudy on him, but something about the fabric brought out the vaguely golden cast to his skin and the deep blackness of his hair. Give the boy a bit of curl, tie a scarf over his head, add some gold hoop earrings, and he'd have looked stereotypically gypsy.

"If it isn't Daddy's Witch-for-hire. How nice to see you again," he said, making it perfectly clear he felt it was anything but.

"What are you doing in my store?"

Matyas gestured at the arrangement of curios meaningfully. "Browsing, I believe."

"Maybe I can help you find something," I said, trying to play the part of courteous store manager between gritted teeth. "Did you have something specific in mind?"

"Actually, I'm looking for a vampire, about this tall," he said, holding his palm out flat about three inchesover his head, "looks a bit like me, only far less attractive, and he dresses like an auto mechanic."

"That's a very popular item," I said. "Had a customer in earlier looking for the same thing."

"Really?"

He managed to pull off "surprised" convincingly. The man should have been an actor, because I suspected Matyas knew all about the Vatican's interest in Sebastian. Someone had to have told the agents to look for Sebastian at my place. Sebastian must have told Matyas his plans at some point.

"Yep," I said, feigning interest in arranging the pens near the register. "Actually, there was so much interest in that particular item last night that it was nearly pulled off the shelf permanently."

"That would have been tragic," Matyas said. "I take it I could still get my hands on it for the right price?"

Lilith twitched restlessly across my stomach. I took a deep breath to contain my swelling anger.

"Depends. If you're purchasing for resale, it seems to me you stand to make a tidy profit. Maybe I want to be cut into the deal."

He laughed. "You want the Pope to perform an exorcism on your mother, too?"

I couldn't even begin to form a response to that. I was taken aback on so many levels, but mostly by Matyas's colossal stupidity. "Do you really think that the Order is going to make good on a promise like that?"

A tiny crease appeared between his eyebrows.

Even though he hadn't said anything, I continued as if he had. "Okay, you're right. Maybe they will. I mean, why would they lure a dhampyr to Rome on a false promise, especially one that'd be transporting his magically preserved Witch mother?"

Matyas stiffened slightly. "My family is Catholic."

"I'm sure that will spare you. I mean, clearly, they're taking Sebastian's Catholicism into consideration, right?"

He had no response.

"Doesn't matter," I said. "I'm not going to roll over on Sebastian."

"No?" He returned his attention to the display of jeweled palm-sized mirrors. "I'd hoped you were at least a little serious when we started negotiating price. Are you interested in money? Because I stand to inherit a lot of it."

I wondered if there were estate laws dealing with people who were already dead, but I imagined if the government had any say in the matter, as long as you were making money and paying taxes, they'd consider you some sort of version of alive. No, get serious, Garnet. If the government knew about vampires they'd make sure inheritance laws favored the living and that they somehow got double-taxed for being dead.

"If not money, something else?" Matyas continued when I didn't respond. He turned to look at me."How about a chance to be off the books? Clear your name with the Order? Surely a life unmolested holds some kind of appeal."

I shook my head, though I had to admit that the idea of not being constantly hara.s.sed or chased from town to town for the rest of my life did interest me. "I don't think you have that kind of power-"

I stopped myself. A picture was forming in my head. "But Rosa does, doesn't she? She's your handler.

She's the mastermind behind this whole thing. Leader Guy isn't in charge at all, he's just the muscle."

Matyas looked a little shocked that I knew Rosa by name, but he quickly composed himself. "She's got the ear of people in power. She could smooth things out for you."

"It's not worth Sebastian's life."

Matyas put his hands in his pockets and sauntered over to stand opposite the register. There was a raised platform behind the counter, so I stood a few inches taller than him. He pulled his bangs away from his eyes and gave me what I imagined pa.s.sed for a sincere look for him. "Let's get serious, Garnet.

You don't even knowmy father. How long have out two been going out? A month? A week? Days?"

Somewhere around sixty-two hours and counting didn't seem like a good response, so I said nothing and concentrated in not giving away the answer with a blush. "I'm telling you, Matyas, I'm not interested in giving Sebastian up."

"I could make your problems go away, Garnet. Painlessly."

"So, you're leaving? Great." I turned away and pretended to sort receipts. I got kind of into it for a few seconds, especially when I didn't hear anything more from Matyas. Maybe it was being in the zone, but a crazy thought struck me. I put down the pile of receipts and turned to find Matyas leaning against the jewelry case. "You didn't join the Order, did you? Please tell me you didn't."

"I'm not sure why you care, but I didn't. Not yet, anyway. They offered when they found out I was Catholic. Their sensitives get a lot of dispensations."

I leaned in close enough to smell his aftershave or hair product. Whichever it was, he smelled faintly of roses and frankincense. "Don't do it. Seriously, don't fool yourself into thinking you're safe with them.

You're always going to be a dhampyr in their minds, Matyas."

"I, my dear lady, am G.o.d's judgment on vampires. Born of a vampire, impervious to vampiric magic.

Designed perfectly to hunt and kill that which gave me life. Poetic, isn't it?" I could see the Church liking the sound of that. "Still,"

I said, sounding less convinced even to my own ears. "Why would they perform the exorcism? Your mother was"-or should I say-"is, a Witch."

"They're thrilled with the idea. The exorcism will drive the demon from her soul. She'll be free to move on. They get two birds, don't you see? My mother will be finally and completely dead."

Of course. He had this whole thing worked out. Even so, I thought he was a fool to trust them. I shook my head. "Maybe so, but you're a magical. The Order is your enemy. Always."

We held each other's gaze for a moment, and I thought by the crease between his eyebrows I might begetting through to him. Then he opened his mouth: "A very impa.s.sioned speech, Garnet. Bravo."

"I'd like to say that you and the Order deserve each other, but, you know what? I hate seeing anyone played so thoroughly by them, even a jerk like you."

William chose that moment to return from lunch. The bells on the door jangled. If Matyas had planned a witty retort it was lost in William's enthusiastic greeting. "Hey! Guess what I just found out? I can hire a vampire for s.e.x!"

Ninth House

KEYWORDS:.

Faith, Justice, Misjudgment

William stood in the doorway of the shop looking extremely pleased with himself. I tried to imagine what Matyas must see: a scrawny, pale Goth boy with hair so newly dyed that it was, quite literally, shiny.

Then, noticing Matyas standing beside the counter, William flashed me an oops-I-didn't-notice-we-had-company face. But the damage had already been done.

"I'm surprised you have to pay," Matyas said, then turned his cold amber eyes on me. "Or is Daddy charging a fee these days?"

"William isn't talking about Sebastian; he's talking about-" I stopped myself just in time. Did I really want to give Matyas the ammunition that I had another vampire lover who was probably the hustler in question? No, I didn't think so. I feigned confusion and turned to William. "Whatare you talking about?"

"Oh," he said, clearly surprised that I decided to continue the conversation. "Well, I was talking to these guys on campus-like, Goth guys-I'd seen them around before but never talked to them. I always thought they were poseurs, you know? So, we were talking about how to find real vampires, and, anyway, one of them shows off his bite marks. Says he got them last night here on State Street in an alley for fifty bucks."

Ugh. I felt embarra.s.sed for Parrish. "Just biting, though, right? Nothing else."

Matyas shot me a glance, which I pointedly ignored.

"That's extra, I guess," William said with a shrug, though his eyes darted back and forth between Matyas and me. "Who's your friend?"

"Extra?" I blanched. "You mean, you can buy... ?" I couldn't finish it. It was hard enough to think my ex was giving out a bite for cash.

"Oh!" William said, with a nervous glance at Matyas, who grinned at him mischievously. "Not that I'd want the extra. I mean, I just heard." "I've heard the bite is plenty s.e.xual," Matyas said.

William came up to join me behind the counter. He stood just slightly behind me at the register, and all but leaned over my shoulder to stare at Matyas. The spicy/greasy smell of the Mexican food he'd had for lunch permeated his clothes. "Yeah, that's what the other guy said, too, but he might have been just trying to, you know, freak us out." He reached over me and held his hand across the gla.s.s counter-top to Matyas. "I'm William, by the way."

They shook. It was all very manly. "Matyas Von Traum. Sebastian's son."

"Sebastian? Like, Garnet's Sebastian?" When Matyas nodded, William added, "Hey, how's he doing?

He left in a bad way last night."

"Actually, I'm not sure. He never came home. You don't know where he is, do you?"

William shook his head.

"Nice try," I told Matyas. "Anyway, Matyas was just leaving."

"I was," Matyas said, but instead of turning to go, he leaned an elbow on the countertop. "But I'd love to stay and hear more about this vampire for hire. How old? What's the pedigree?"

William brightened. He put down the prayer beads he'd been distractedly rearranging and crowded near me again. "Hey, I just learned about the significance of all that, but, thing is, he's new to town. No one knows for sure."

"He can't be that old, if he's willing to sell so cheap," Matyas said with an air of knowledgeable disdain.

"Why not?" William asked over my shoulder.

"Because the older the biter, the bigger the kick," I supplied.

Matyas nodded. "Yes, any vampire over, say, a hundred, would be worth way more than fifty bucks per. Besides," Matyas said with a shake of his head, "prost.i.tuting yourself seems very New World, don't you think? I'll bet he's just some American who was turned in the late twentieth century."

"Nah, Todd, the donor who I was talking to, he said the guy definitely had a British accent of some sort."

Matyas shot me a glance, as if to confirm that we weren't talking about Sebastian. When I shook my head, he continued, "He could be faking it. I doubt Todd and this vampire really did all that much talking."

William shifted his feet. I could almost feel the blush radiating from his cheeks.

One of Matyas's evil grins spread slowly across his face. "Why, William," he said. "I do believe you're a virgin donor."

"Not a donor at all," William said grumpily, turning away. "I'm going to reshelve the astrology section."

Crossing my arms in front of my chest, I gave Matyas my I-hope-you're-satisfied glare. Matyas, for hispart, looked somewhat disappointed at William's hasty retreat. He watched William make his way to the back of the store, then turned his attention to me. "So, you know this new vampire?"

"I might," I said. "You certainly know how to talk groupie, don't you?"