Page 73 of Just Dare Me
As he moves around from behind the couch, I approach Dominique. “See to your new subjects. This one, especially.” I motion to the thin guy now kissing her boots. “You’ll be his third master this year.”
After a respectful nod to me, she glides across the chamber to the crowd of waiting vampires. The thin guy crawls after her on hands and knees.
“Have a seat next to me.” Nora invites Marco Deus. They sit in the center of the couch.
“Not too close,” Ilren warns.
“Mr. Deus wouldn’t harm me. Would you?”
“Never.” He sighs.
“Lend me your hand.” She clasps his fingertips. “Marco, this is Shayne Davies. I want you to answer whatever question she asks.”
“Oh?” He glances doubtfully at me.
Nora pulls on his hand. “Marco, look at me.” Happy to comply, he gazes deeply into her eyes. “Shayne is my friend. I trust her completely, and so should you.”
“Of course,” he answers, and this time when he looks at me, his eyes are round with eagerness. “What would you have of me, Agent Davies? Anything.”
“A billion dollars’ worth of Bitcoin,” I blurt.
Marco blinks in confusion. Nora gives him a nervous laugh through a forced smile. “Shayne,friend, maybe we can hurry up with this one? He feels…”
Ilren steps forward, hand on the hilt of his sword. “What? Does he feel dangerous?”
“No, it’s just…a little different.”
“Because he’s dead?” I ask.
“Because he’s connected,” she says. “I can feel it. Like these vampires, he has a master.”
“Can you sense who it is?”
“No, but they’re powerful, I can tell you that much.”
“I don’t like this,” Oliver says. “Hurry, Shayne.”
I snap my fingers at Marco. “Listen up. I want you to tell me who reanimated you. Who’s your necromancer?”
A slight furrow appears in Marco’s brow, but otherwise he offers no response. I look to Nora. For a moment, she studies Marco’s face, gripping his hand and wrist in different places, as though searching for a pulse. “I don’t get it. He just blanked.”
“What do you mean? What’s he thinking about?”
“Nothing.”
“That’s impossible. Nobody can resist their own thoughts. If he tells himself tonotthink of a pink elephant, that will cause him to think of a pink elephant.”
“And now he is,” Nora says. “He’s thinking of a pink elephant.”
I try him again. “Who are you trying tonotthink of right now? Who’s your master?” Still, I get no response. Marco Deus stares at me, unmoving. “Great, somebody pressed the pause button on him.”
“I apologize,” he says to Nora, taking her hand with both of his. “I don’t mean to resist you. Honestly.”
“That’s okay,” she reassures him. “Just relax. You’re holding a little tight.”
“Let go of him, Nora,” Oliver urges. “Something’s wrong.”
“It’s a compulsion,” Jay suggests. “A vampire compelled his mind to forget.”
