Vampire Babylon - Night Rising Part 5

"Hmmm." Dawn thought that The Voice might be cheap.

"No," Kiko said, catching her thoughts. "He pays good. If there's one thing the boss isn't, it's a tightwad."

Dawn shot her hand out to grab Kiko's wrist. He tried to whip away from her, but she was on him before he could move.

"I told you I'd do damage," she said through gritted teeth.

"Why?"

Oh, like he didn't know.

Point made, she let go of him and he turned back around, rubbing his wrist and hopefully promising to himself that he would never jack with Dawn's mind again.

"Are we expecting Mr. Pennybaker to be at home when we get there?" she asked.

Kiko didn't answer. Was he pouting? How mature.

"Hey," she said, raising the volume to eleven. "Mrs. Pennybaker hasn't told him we're coming tonight. He'll be there."

"Thank you."

"My wrist hurts. You're strong."

"I barely touched you." p.u.s.s.y.

He was still nursing his tender wound when they arrived at the Pennybaker residence.

After pulling up to the gate, where roaring iron lions greeted them, Breisi ditched her earphone with a few, rapid-fire, muttered complaints that she never got to relax, then accessed the gate speaker. A female voice told them to wait while the barrier was opened.

The black grating parted, and Dawn would've felt welcomed if it weren't for a couple of details: the expansive manicured lawn.

The landscaped rock waterfalls and bronze statues that danced in frozen action under the flood of spotlights. The fact that there was no one to greet them outside. h.e.l.l, even the porch light wasn't on.

At first glance, the Pennybaker residence looked like a museum that carried modern art: two stories, streamlined white facade, boxy with angles and sleek sterility. Bushes and trees surrounded the structure: a copse of oak and pines on the left and a hedged maze on the right. All Dawn could hear through Kiko's gapped window was the lap of water flowing over granite and the night wind keening through the pines like a lonely pack of animals howling, calling.

Breisi got out of the car, but Kiko just sat there.

"Hey, are you mad at me?" Dawn asked.

"Shhh."

As she moved forward to look at him, she saw that he had his eyes closed. Oh, right. Hocus-pocus time.

On Dawn's left, Breisi was hyper-fluffing her bobbed hair. Earlier, she had taken off the ap.r.o.n, revealing a black T-shirt to go with her parachute pants. There was a picture of a teddy bear holding a bubbling beaker on the front.

Don't even comment, Dawn thought. It wasn't like they were trying to get into the Viper Room, so she'd let the wardrobe pa.s.s- especially after Breisi shoved herself into a shoulder holster and then a lightweight black jacket.

Dawn kept staring at where the jacket was covering Breisi's gun. A real gun loaded withrealammunition, no doubt.

Kiko undid his seat belt and strapped himself into his own rig and light jacket. "Breisi's the good cop. I'm the unpredictable one, like Mel Gibson inLethal Weapon."

Dawn tried not to freak out any more than she was already doing. "This should be fascinating."

Kiko stood on the floorboard, and even he had to duck. He swept his arms out dramatically, dismissing any hurt feelings from Dawn's wrist s.n.a.t.c.h.

"You're in good hands," he said. "We have trained with the best. It's all in theacting."

s.h.i.t. "So she's one, too. An actor?"

"Aren't we all?"

Dawn held back all her opinions about what a joke actors were, especially ones who thought they could do their own stunts...and carry their own guns.

"Breisi is also a thespian in her day hours," Kiko added. "Up until a year ago, she was...o...b..ndito."

"What's that?"

Kiko pulled a superior look out of his a.r.s.enal. "Bandito? It's only the most popular Mexican soap ever. Breisi was a virgin who got gunned down before the Bandito could ravish her."

No wonder she had such att.i.tude. Lack of s.e.x would sure make Dawn testy, too.

He lowered his voice. "She got written off because they said thirty-one-year-olds make bad ingenues. Ouch. I'm twenty-seven, myself, and I'm scared that I'll get the shaft whenIreach the big-"

Breisi had obviously been listening. "Kik, could you maybe tell her about my last Pap smear, too, since you're spilling my whole life?"

"Sorry." Kiko opened his door and climbed out.

Dawn followed suit, marveling that a loquacious little person and a teddy-bear-shirt-wearing grump were the ones who'd been appointed to find Frank. She'd already talked to the police about his disappearance, but hadn't been a.s.sured by their blase tone that they were invested in finding him. Maybe she'd call again later tonight, now that there was officially no hope left.

Everyone shut their doors quietly. A dog barked in the near distance, mingling with the wind, making the night seem that much more unfriendly.

"Just out of curiosity," Dawn asked, "how did my dad fit into a..."whacked out"...place like Limpet and a.s.sociates?"

Breisi tucked her thumbs into her belt loops and looked off into the bushes. Leaves rustled, dancing to an eerie song.

"Mr. Frank Madison was our best PR man," Kiko said, his voice still hushed. "He was good at taking people into his confidence, and he could fight, too. Real good, and believe me, that's a nice skill to have handy in this job."

As the bushes rattled, Breisi opened her jacket and slid her hand into a pants pocket at the same time, like she was tuned in to a frequency Dawn couldn't hear. But Kiko was looking at Dawn like she should already know what kind of life her dad led.

She didn't. From what Dawn knew of Frank, he was a good-time guy, a former bar bouncer who'd managed to charm his way into Eva Claremont's pants one vulnerable night. The scandal had rocked the tabloids because this was before Madonna got busy with her personal trainer and made the whole star-falls-for-normal-mortal trend "the thing."

"Yo, Kiko." It was Breisi. She'd gone stiff, one hand poised near her gun, the other near a pants pocket as she watched the bushes. "Be prepared."

Spurred by her sharp tone, he immediately turned into Serious Kiko and stuck a hand in an open cargo pants pocket. There was a bulge there, something Dawn hadn't gotten a bead on before.

"Wasn't expecting this," he muttered.

Both of the PIs were focused on the strangely silent foliage. When had the rustling stopped?

Slowly, Dawn dragged her gaze there, too.

Three pairs of red eyes were staring, blinking.

Waiting.Holy...

"Here," Breisi whispered.

Dawn felt something solid, steely, nudge her left hand. She opened her fingers and grabbed whatever the other woman was giving her. It didn't feel like a gun or a knife, items Dawn had been trained to use.

"And stop looking into their eyes," Kiko added. "Rule of thumb in this business? It's never a good idea to do that."

She followed his advice and glanced just above their steady red gazes. Were they guard dogs? Had Marla Pennybaker gotten defensive about them coming over to see her husband and set the hounds loose on them? Maybe looking into their eyes sent some kind of predatory message that would rile them up.

Dogs. Okay, she could handle this. She'd dealt with canine actors before.

Dawn raised the object she was gripping, ready and willing to fend them off.

But when she saw what Breisi had given her, she froze.

A silver crucifix.

And as one of the creatures moved forward, to the edge of the darkness, she realized that these sure as h.e.l.l weren't dogs they were facing.

FIVE.

THEd.a.m.nED.

EVENbefore Dawn could choke out a question-What are these things?-Bresi shoved what was clearly a gun, a .45-caliber revolver, into Dawn's right hand.

"Listen, you must hold up the crucifix, cover me with the gun-you've been trained to use it,si?-and don't you bleeping move from that spot..."

Her voice trailed off, and Dawn had the bad feeling that Breisi was hightailing it back to the SUV, deserting them. When she heard a door pop open, her fears were confirmed. But then it sounded like Breisi was rooting around in that back storage area. For what? s.h.i.t! She'd left Dawn standing all alone with Kiko, who'd thrust out his own crucifix and gun and...

The red eyes were getting closer, framed by the hint of pale faces outlined in the darkness.

d.a.m.n it, what was she doing here again?

Dawn's gun and crucifix started shaking in her hands.

Gradually, moonlight revealed three black-clad creatures hunching out of the trees, moving in a way she'd never imagined possible. It was like they were wildly palpitating heartbeats, stopping and starting in a fluttering stalking motion that iced her blood.

More out of panic than anything else, Dawn pushed her crucifix at them, corrected her grip on the revolver.

Closer. Dear Lord...

Even bent over, they were hulking, like jittering shadows looming against a pale wall. Their skin was white and shot through with blue veins, their heads hairless, their hands shriveled into sharp claws. When they hissed at the crucifixes-a throaty whistle that rose above the wind-a peek of dull gray caught the faint light: fangs. Iron, sharpened to points. Dawn's legs wobbled, but she stood, d.a.m.ned if she would back down from anything-even a...whatever these were.

Just cowboy up, she told herself. Just do it.

Surprisingly, Kiko didn't seem to be much affected. He took a cool step toward them, brandishing his weapons. "Talk to us before we mess you up."

Talk?

Dawn's head scrambled into itself, dizzy cuts of nightmare flashes. Not real, she kept thinking. Make-up, prosthetics, fake movie monsters...

As Kiko took another step forward, the things cringed and shrieked at his crucifix. It was like the silver symbols provided some sort of force field, pushing the creatures back.

Dawn imitated him, emphasizing her own crucifix. In the background, she heard Breisi's feet hit the ground running.

Kiko was mere yards away from the things now. "Not a chatty crowd? Fine. If you're capable, just tell me why you're here, that's all."

That's when Dawn did something stupid.

Out of habit, a split second of forgetfulness, she looked one of them in the eyes.

Red fire, sucking her in.

She dropped her crucifix, helpless.

Kiko and Breisi yelled something at the same moment, but she had no idea what they were saying. She just knew that she wanted to jump into the fire, wanted to end it all because everything was so, so hopeless.

Her dad was missing; she was a pariah in the movie industry; she was a loser...

Unable to stop herself, she raised her gun, wanting to point it at her head, wanting to fill all the empty s.p.a.ces inside of her with lead and peace. Wanting- A million jagged shards through her mind-the memory of this evening in The Voice's office...fighting off the personal intrusion...

struggling to get back her body, her mind...

Get out of my head, you a.s.shole.

With a determined cry, Dawn jerked her gaze away, feeling her sanity rush back. Separating from the eyes had been like tearing away from an umbilical cord that had given her dark serenity and direction, even for a muddled instant.

Stumbling backward, she sucked in a choking breath, focusing back on reality with sharp, growing horror.

Wouldn't you know it? The creatures had backup plans.

Without missing a beat, the things all turned their backs at the same time, and that's when Dawn, even in her fl.u.s.ter, noticed a detail she'd missed from the frontal view.

Tails. Long, barbed, whip-fast.

One tail whooshed out to knock the crucifix from Kiko's hand. The others sang through the air, propelling the remaining two creatures skyward into stop-and-start-motion flight.One barreled toward Breisi, who was aiming what looked like a crossbow at it.

And the other was zooming toward Dawn.