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14
“This is a nice neighborhood for a vampire,”Dimitri remarked as we drove along winding roads that had once been out in the country but were now lined with well-lit McMansions with impeccable grassy lawns and immaculately trimmedhedges.
“Vampires are usually a few hundred years old. That’s a long time to accumulate wealth. Though it sounds like the house is vacant and he may be a freeloader.” I pointed to a driveway with a real-estate sign staked into the grass next to it. “That’s it. Park anywhere. Nin said the vampire lives in the barn outback.”
“You sure it’s vacant? All the lights are on, and there are two cars in thedriveway.”
“I suppose just because it’s for sale doesn’t mean that it’s vacant. Park over there. It looks like someone’s having a party.” I waved to the house across the street with cars filling the driveway and parked along the curb. “We’ll do our best to avoid notice. Insomuch as we can in thisvan.”
“What’s wrong with Bessy?” Dimitri pulled up behind aTesla.
“It’s not part of the neighborhood’s typical autodemographic.”
I left the smelly hooded jacket in the car, doubting we’d run into the police out here, and crossed the street. Dimitri caught up with me as I headed up the long driveway. The grass was wet from an earlier rain, so I didn’t want to walk on it and hoped for a path around the house fartherup.
“You and your cervical collar don’t have to come.” I sensed the aura of someone magical in the distance, out back behind the house somewhere. The vampire washome.
“I’m still waiting to see the tiger. You’ll have to bring him out if a vampire tries to bite yourneck.”
“True. I’m thinking of bringing him out right now.” I reached for thefigurine.
Once Dimitri rubbed Sindari’s ears, I could send him back to the van. Even though he didn’t look like the damsel-in-distress type, it would be stupid to take him to see a vampire. He wasn’t evenarmed.
As I was about to call Sindari forth, the front door opened. Hell, we should have veered off across the lawn, wet grassregardless.
“Wonderful, wonderful,” a woman said, walking out and guiding a couple to the parked cars. “No, no, I don’t mind the late showing. I’m happy to work with people’s busyschedules.”
I shifted my hand to my cloaking charm but realized that would leave Dimitri standing alone in thedriveway.
The woman spotted us before I finished debating if we could dart off across the lawn without beingnoticed.
“Uh, can I help you?” Somehow, she managed to smile and wave the couple into their Mercedes at the same time as she frowned atus.
“Yes.” I spotted the RE/MAX logo on her SUV. “We saw that you were showing this house and wondered if we could also lookaround.”
Her frown deepened as she looked at Dimitri and his metal T-shirt. “Did you see the price on the flyer outthere?”
“Of course. We’re pre-qualified.” I smiled. “My fiancé works at Microsoft. Gamedesigner.”
“You injured your neck as aprogrammer?”
“Uh,” Dimitrisaid.
“No, he did that while spring skiing up at Whistler. We have a condo up there. Vacation place, you know. We’re looking to buy a new house down here, close to hiswork.”
“Look, lady, my bullshit detector is spot-on.” She pointed a finger at my chest. “There’s nothing in there to steal. The owners moved all of their stuff out two years ago. You two get out of here right now, or I’ll call the HOA securitypatrol.”
Oh man, the HOA security patrol. That had me quivering in my boots. But I didn’t really want to crack a real-estate agent on the head with the flat of my blade, so I led Dimitri back across the street. We found some dark, damp hedges to smoosh ourselves into while we waited for her toleave.
She called someone before getting in the car. The security patrol, nodoubt.
“Sorry,” Dimitri said. “I’m not that good at lying. There was never any point when I got caught doing something as a kid. Nobody believed I was innocent no matter what Isaid.”
“Where’d you growup?”
“South Bronx. My parents immigrated from Russia. Dad beat me up at home, and the big kids beat me up outside of it. Until I got big enough to take care ofmyself.”
I opened my mouth, about to ask if that had been when he was seven or eight, but a few shadowy figures stepped out of hedges similar to ours farther up the street. Had they come from the party? They all had their hoods up and were wearing long dark jackets or maybe cloaks. Who the hell wore cloaksanymore?
