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Just inside the window, the room opened into a large living and dining room combo with a wide staircase rising to the second floor. But the elegant Biedermeier backdrop paled in comparison to the foreground freakiness.
The walnut dining room table served as a makeshift stage for a midget stripper. She wore a pink spangled bikini and teeny tiny Lucite stilettos. Her two fans wore artfully ripped heroin-chic ensembles. Between bong hits, their indolent hands flipped dollar bills in the air. A third guy— this one oddly Rockabilly among a gaggle of industrial scarecrows— snorted white lines from a mirror at the end of the table.
Just beyond this charming tableau, three more members of the Lollipop Guild performed many and varied sex acts with a cluster of musician types on the antique furniture. On the periphery of the off-scale orgy, a man with spiky black hair surveyed the scene from a red Empire armchair. He wore dark aviators and took frequent, methodical pulls from a bottle of Jim Beam.
I scooted in for a better look. “Am I hallucinating?”
“Depends,” Adam began. “In your hallucination is the lead singer of Necrospank 5000 watching a midget give his drummer a golden shower?”
My head swiveled toward him. “Huh?”
Adam nodded toward the sunglasses guy. “That’s Erron Zorn.”
“Who?” Giguhl’s pink nose smashed against the glass in front of his face.
“Necrospank is a shock rock band. Erron Zorn is the lead singer. He’s also a mage.”
I jerked in shock. “A mage? What’s he doing in New Orleans? Rhea and Orpheus called all the mages to court.”
Adam shrugged. “He’s a recreant.”
“What’s that?” Giguhl asked.
“An outcast mage. They’re shunned by the Hekate Council.” The scorn in his voice indicated Adam’s opinion on recreants in general. He paused and hit me on the arm. “Oh, shit. Is that a gimp?”
“Awesome,” Giguhl breathed with reverence. “This is way better than the Temptation Channel.”
“Seriously,” I said. “Too bad we didn’t bring snacks.”
We all went silent as one of the ladies mounted the gimp. He wore assless chaps and a zippered mask. The ball gag prevented any protests as the midget slapped at his haunches with a whip, like a miniature jockey. She urged him to turn and crawl toward the couch. The second his ass swung around, we got an unobstructed view of his—
“Oh!” We all yelled in unison. I jumped away from the window, rubbing at my eyes as if I could erase the image burned into my retinas. But some things can never be unseen.
Adam blew out a breath and swung his arms around like he was trying to shake them off. Even Giguhl looked a little green around the whiskers and refused to look in the window again.
“All righty then,” I said. “So I think it’s safe to assume there’re no vampires here.”
“After that I almost wish there had been,” Adam responded.
A crash reverberated inside the house. “I think that’s our cue to leave,” I said, turning toward the gate. The three of us skulked back to the street with postures that could only be described as penitent. I’ll admit, the irony of our little trio of badasses being embarrassed by some kinky antics burned a bit.
“We must never speak of this again,” Adam said.
I nodded. “Agreed.”
“I never thought I’d say this,” Giguhl said from Adam’s arms. “But what I just saw makes me never want to speak of sex again, period.”
Adam and I stopped walking to shoot him “bullshit” looks.
He sighed. “Okay maybe not never, but definitely not for the next five minutes.” He shuddered and snuggled against Adam’s chest.
For the next couple of minutes, we quietly made our way back up the street toward the car. With each step, my horrified amusement over the midget p**n gave way to darker musings. Yet again, I’d hit another dead end. I’d made so little progress in finding Maisie I was tempted to put the blame on Tanith’s door. It’d be so easy to just throw up my hands and believe she’d withheld some vital piece of information. Tempting, but unrealistic. Tanith had good reasons for wanting Lavinia dead, too. If she had information that would aid in that goal she would have told us, right? Which brought me right back to Sabina being a failure.
Adam fell into step beside me, with Giguhl tucked in his elbow like a football. “Uh-oh,” he said. “You’ve got that look again.”
Frowning, I looked at him. “Which one?”
“The one you get when you’re blaming yourself for something.”
I snorted. “I wasn’t aware I had a specific look for that.”
“Sure you do,” Giguhl chimed in. “Your eyes get all squinty, and you get these lines between your eyebrows.”
My hand flew up to the spot. Sure enough, a furrow had formed. I smoothed the skin and heaved a deep sigh. “I can’t help it. I’m getting nowhere fast.”
“See, that’s the real problem,” Adam said. “You’ve got pronoun issues.”
The furrow reappeared as I stared at him. “What?”
“Mmm-hmm,” G said. “Unlike that freaky butcher, you only speak in the first person.”
I frowned at the demon. “No I don’t.”
“You just did,” Adam said with a small smile. He nudged me with his arm. “Come on, Red. It’s frustrating Mac’s lead didn’t pan out, but it’s not the end of the world or our only lead. Whatever comes next, we’ll face it together.”
“Right,” G said. “Go, Team Kickass!”
Adam and I shot the demon bemused looks.
“What? You like ‘Team Awesome’ better?”
My lips twitched. “Definitely.”
“Okay,” Adam said. “Now that we have that important matter out of the way, what’s next?”
I took a deep breath and let the cool night air cleanse the last of the guilt. The breeze brought with it the perfume of entropy that clung to New Orleans like a tattered cape. The sharp scent of browning magnolia leaves, the dank richness of the soil, the heady musk of sex.
Just as the air started to work its magic on me, the putrid scent of dirty pennies hit my nose like a sucker punch.
I grabbed Adam’s arm to still his progress. My heart hammered behind my ribs. “Do you smell that?” I whispered.
He shook his head. Not a surprise he couldn’t. I owed my keen sense of smell to my vampire genes.
