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“Wade.” I stood beside the booth for a moment as he jerked his nose out of the book and stared at me. I couldn’t tel whether he was scowling or whether it was bewilderment. Either way, I couldn’t just stand here al night. I slid into the booth and leaned back, gauging his reaction.
He dog-eared the corner of the book, folding it precisely, before he closed the paperback and slid it back into his bag. “What do you need, Menol y?” His voice was smooth, no longer the happy-go-lucky vampire—if any vamp can be cal ed that—I’d first met at Vampires Anonymous.
“I’ve got a message for you. I wouldn’t bother you—I know what your opinion of me is right now
—but this is important. Bear in mind, I could have ignored it. I could have just walked away and let nature take its course.” I propped my elbows on the table, resting my chin on my hands.
“Okay, you’ve made your point. You’re doing me a favor. What is it?”
“If you don’t withdraw from the elections, there’l be a big red bul ’s-eye painted on your heart and a stake fol owing through to dust you.”
Al sound fel away as Wade’s eyes grew red and his fangs began to descend. “Are you threatening me?”
I shook my head, the beads in my hair making a faint clicking sound, like bones rattling. “Get real. I haven’t got the time or the desire to start a personal little war. And I’m not involved in the elections anymore, am I? Thanks to you, I have no place in the current race. No, Wade, this comes from higher up than me. From higher up than you.”
With a sul en look, he asked, “Are you working for Terrance?”
The question hit me like gasoline on flame. “Are you a fucking idiot? I’m the one who wanted you to take Terrance down, to dust him. But no . . . you refused. Or you couldn’t. Believe me, I want to see Terrance out of the gene pool, too, and he wil be if things work out right. But if you stay in the race, I guarantee that you’re going to meet the sharp end of a long stick and I won’t be able to help you then. It wil be out of my hands. I’ve been given a chance to warn you. I didn’t have to do it.”
Wade’s eyes lingered on my face. “I believe you. You wouldn’t work for Terrance. And you don’t want to run for the office yourself. Who’s pul ing your strings? It’s got to be somebody higher up.”
“I can’t tel you, but I am tel ing you that if you want to save your fucking life, you’l withdraw from the election. Believe me, what you think you’re fighting for isn’t what you’re real y fighting for.
Honestly.” I leaned back in the booth and crossed my arms. The bal was in his court.
Wade wasn’t stupid. He cocked his head to one side. “It wasn’t Sassy that put you up to this. It has to be someone with power. Someone with enough power to make you jump. Who could that be . . .” He began to run over names in his head—I could see the wheels turning—and then stopped. “No. Not him.”
I kept my mouth shut. Roman hadn’t given me permission to drop his name. And name-dropping with vampires wasn’t just tacky, it could be deadly. “I promise you, Terrance won’t gain the position.”
Pul ing a couple packets of sugar from the tray on the table, Wade played with them, snapping them together as if he were going to pour them in a cup of coffee. After another moment, he said,
“I’l let you know. I’l cal you tomorrow night with my answer. Now, you said we have a vampire serial kil er on the loose? I saw the reports on the news. Bad scene, if it’s real.”
“Oh, it’s real al right. I’ve seen the victims, and I found one of them. Hey”—I pointed to his hand
—“put the sugar down unless you’re planning on eating it, and since I know just how sick you’d get, please don’t. I don’t need you vomiting blood al over my bar.”
He tossed the packets at me. “This is bad. For al of us. What are the details?”
“He—and it is a he—targets young women, FBHs, under thirty-five, with long brown hair. They’re al average build, a little curvy, and average height. Hair is straight, bone structure delicate. The victims could be related by looks. Al exsanguinated. Raped. I found a cross drawn on the forehead in water on one of them. We’re thinking he’s a newly coined vampire, either that or something triggered him off a couple weeks ago.”
As I ticked off the salient points, it occurred to me that Wade had lived in Seattle al his life.
“What do you know about the Greenbelt Park District?”
“Stay away from there. Bad energy. Lots of reported hauntings. When I was around twelve, I rode my bike too far from home and ended up near there. It was late afternoon and rainy. I ducked into one of the abandoned buildings for cover and was hiding from the rain until I saw a shadow move against the opposite wal . There was nothing to make the shadow—that I could see clearly enough—and it was coming toward me. I ran out of there so fast I tripped and broke a tooth. My mother found out where I’d been and freaked. She’d heard the stories.”
I suppressed a grin. His mother was a piece of work and one of the main reasons I’d given up on dating him. She was also a vampire, and she hung around his neck like an albatross. Think George Costanza’s mother off Seinfeld combined with Fran’s mother off The Nanny, and you have Belinda Stevens. Oh yeah, she was a piece of work, al right.
“How is your mother?” I couldn’t help it. The words just slipped out.
He arched one eyebrow and then broke into a short laugh. “Luckily, she’s currently obsessed with putting together a moonlight garden club, no less, of matronly vampire women. Not many takers, especial y since it’s winter, but she’s managed to find a few members. They currently play bridge every Thursday night and cultivate night-blooming indoor plants, I guess.”
Snorting, I gave him a shrug. Things almost felt back to normal between us. “At least it’s a hobby.”
“Yeah, I guess. So what do you need to catch this freak?”
“Any information you have on vampires around the Greenbelt Park District. Any info on new vamps to the area. Or someone in the life who had a traumatic event happen a couple weeks ago that could have triggered their behavior.” Suddenly feeling conciliatory, I reached out one hand.
