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“Here, use mine,” I said, slipping between the two of them and handing it over. Cormac lowered the stake.
Henry called Boss, and in about ten minutes, the Cadillac arrived and parked by the curb with its emergency lights blinking.
Joe stepped out of the front passenger seat and barely glanced at us before moving straight to Henry. “When you didn’t come home this morning we just about wrote you off. What happened?”
Henry put his hand on the other vampire’s arm and leaned. “It’s a very long story.”
“Hell, you’re a mess.” Joe propped him up.
Henry nodded in agreement.
Joe turned to me next. “Kitty. Boss was hoping you’d survive so he could talk to you.”
“Yeah, I just bet,” I said.
“So. You coming?” He nodded back to the Cadillac.
I looked at Ben and Cormac, my pack. Neither of them seemed thrilled.
“This wasn’t what I had in mind for a debriefing session,” Ben said.
“I think I have to warn him,” I said, and Ben nodded. “Will there be coffee?” I asked Joe.
“I think we can manage that,” he said.
Chapter 18
JOE SAT IN front with Henry and the driver. The three of us sat in back, quiet and dubious. Henry was pale, glassy-eyed; Joe kept a hand on his shoulder. Their mood had the quality of one friend driving another to the hospital for stitches after a minor mishap. Some amusement, which was mostly to mask the palpable concern.
We drove north through Chinatown to the next neighborhood. Abruptly, the signs stopped being in Chinese, the streets widened, and the dim sum restaurants turned into Italian bistros and bar and grills.
The car turned a corner and pulled into a parking alcove hidden behind a low brick building. The front showed the blue and red neon lights of what looked like a popular bar—a line of people waited to get in. We went through a back door and down the stairs to a private club.
The place was nice, kind of retro. Red color scheme, polished wood trim, brass fixtures. A jazz trio played on a tiny stage off to one side. The bar was long, lacquered, and a mirror reflected lights off hundreds of liquor bottles. The clientele seemed well-to-do, dressed up and drinking expensive-looking martinis and wine, and relaxed. Most of them were human. I wondered if any of them knew a vampire ran the place?
Boss occupied a leather booth in the corner. Tonight he wore the complete ensemble: suit and tie, tapping a fedora on the table in front of him. Master of all he surveyed. His two previous companions were with him. The bobbed-hair woman wore a clinging red silk number tonight. Jaw-dropping, really. None of them had drinks. Thank God.
“Have a seat,” Boss said, while Joe guided Henry to an unmarked door in the back.
“Is he going to be okay?” I said, nodding after them.
“Joe’ll fix him up. He’ll be good as new in half an hour.”
Cormac said, “You have voluntary donors or what?”
He must have had some kind of professional need to ask. I wondered where he was hiding that stake and if he planned on doing anything with it.
Boss quirked a grin. “Nobody dies feeding me and mine. We don’t even raid the blood banks like some people.”
Cormac’s expression didn’t change. He studied the trio of them as if he was still considering using that stake.
“Nice place you got here,” I said in a blatant ploy to interrupt whatever standoff was developing.
“Thanks,” Boss said. “The kitchen makes a very nice rare steak. Interested?”
My mouth started watering. I hadn’t eaten anything since Xiwangmu’s rice crackers the night before. A bunch of Power Bars were still piled up in a hidden room in Chinatown’s nonexistent tunnels.
I glanced at Ben, who had such a look of hunger in his eyes it was almost lustful. “I think that’s a yes,” I said, glancing over his shoulder to Boss to accept his invitation.
