Page 5 of Heart and Soul
The woman screams as the vamp shakes her with rage. “Hey! Hey, what is this? Who’s that?”
“Concierge,” I answer. “I’ve come to take the coffee order. Tide us over while we wait fordaylight.”
“Not a chance!” he shrieks, his voice pitching high. “I walk now, or she’s dead! I’ll open her up!”
“Stop that,” I say, annoyed. “That doesn’t even make sense. Look, to be honest, I never understood the whole hostage thing.” I point the bullhorn at the gray moustache, even though he’s only three feet away. He covers his ears. “Like, isn’t that lady the only thing keeping us from lighting him up?” Back to the vamp: “She’s the only leverage you got. If she goes, we take you out without a second thought. So here’s what’s going to happen. I’m coming over there, and we’re gonna have us a talk about some Nick Gorgeous.”
With a shudder, the vamp groans.
Gray Moustache snatches the bullhorn away. “Are you insane? You just undid the last hour of progress we made with this maniac.”
“He’s a crackhead, is all. Out of his mind on a bad trip. You saw how he reacted to the mention of sunshine? Asshole thinks he’s a nightwalker.”
“A what, now?”
I lower my voice. “Avampire. Look, you can’t make this shit up. You got officers that were attacked?”
“Two.”
“With what? A gun? A knife?”
“No, he…” A light dawns in his eyes. “He tried to bite them.”
“See? He’s a loony. I’ve dealt with these guys, and I’m telling you, he doesnotrespond to kid gloves. The only way to get through to him is with fierce aggression. Total dominance, got it?”
He still seems unsure. “Who’s Nick Gorgeous?”
“Not awho. Awhat. Nick Gorgeous is code for this guy’s particular cocktail of drugs. Nasty shit, too. Straight-up hairy-ass gutter ball, take you to the moon and back. Know what I’m saying?”
Clearly not. He closes his mouth, at a loss for words. Mission accomplished.
Striding across the street, I summon every ounce of alpha dominance I can muster, which isn’t much, but I sure as hell know how to fake it from all those years running with the Cody boys. Shocked whispers follow me from the ranks of cops. The vamp tenses. He jerks the woman’s head back, exposing her neck to his bared fangs. Her mouth gapes open, but no sound comes out. Sheer terror has taken her voice away.
“Do it, already,” I bluff. “How on earth are you holding back? By now the fever must be burning a whole in your black, undead heart.”
“You’re FUA,” he hisses.
“I’m every damn letter of the alphabet. That’s why Nick sent me, and not an army.”
“Hisarmyis busy cleaning up the mess they made of my clan.” He makes an anguished whining sound, like an injured puppy. “My master.”
Here we go. Suck it, Gorgeous, I can get my own damn answers. “Henry Stadther?”
His face crumbles. I’m close enough now to see that he’s definitely Henry’s type. A strong but sensible look. Well-dressed. An accountant, or business strategist, something soft like that. “Henry only wanted to help. To offer her protection. He had already formed a connection with her. How could she embrace all those other men, but reject one so much their superior?”
“Ah. So that’s what happened. Nora Jacobs.”
His lips pull tight with a sneer. “We should have torn her apart the first time he brought her home, but the damage was already done. She had bewitched him. She…” He squeezes his eyes shut, as though fending off a pounding headache. “Do you have any idea how it feels? To be connected to somebody, your guardian and king, your very life force, youreverything…and then to have that connection severed? To have your life taken, only you’re not dead?”
His words strike me right between the eyes. My mind flashes to a beautiful naked man asleep in a bed that washis, but is nowours. Needing to stay aggressive, I shove that thought away. “Sounds exactly like how it must have felt when Henry first turned you. I bet you weren’t so fond of him then.”
“That was two hundred years ago. Twocenturies. The twenty years I lived before that is but a blink.”
“Give me a break. It’s not even Henry you’re missing; it’s the sire bond you crave. The second you lay eyes on another master, you’ll be like, ‘Henry who?’ You guys are as loyal as a knife in the back.”
Proving my point, his eyes glitter with desire. “Is there another master?”
“There’salwaysanother master, but look, the last thing you want to hear after a nasty breakup is that there’s plenty of fish in the sea, so let’s get back to the part where you tell me if you do or do not want your body attached to your head when I take it into the Agency. And stop hiding behind that meat shield. You know full well I’m authorized to disregard collateral damage. In fact, now that she heard all this, it’s better if she dies.” Turning to the police, I motion for them to move in. A handful of SWAT men creep toward us with rifles raised, fingers on triggers.
