Baited Blood (20 page)

TWENTY-THREE

L
eopold’s,” Joni began, “is a lot like Vegas. You know,” Joni tossed Madison a sly grin, “
whatever happens at Leopold’s, stays at Leopold’s
.”

The confusion on Madison’s face caused Joni to elaborate.

“Leopold’s estate in Bulgaria is really a sort of vacation resort for vampires. He provides any kind of amusement a vampire could want, free from the prying eyes and laws of humans. Anything from sexual adventures to feeding orgies to the actual hunting and torture of mortals.”

Madison stopped petting Boo and sat at attention. “You mean beaters are hunted and killed?”

“Just like big game in Africa, although most vampires these days are pretty mundane in their appetites. Most go for the non-stop, no-holds-barred sex and gaming.”

“So gambling, too?”

“Yes, but not like in Vegas. At Leopold’s there is a very popular sport called running. A vampire picks a human, called a runner, and pits himself against him out in the wild on Leopold’s estate. Other vampires bet on the outcome. The vampire hunts the runner against the clock. No weapons for either, just brain and brawn. If the vampire catches him in the allotted time, he wins a substantial purse and can do anything he wishes to the runner, just short of killing him, although some runners have been killed in the process. If the runner wins, either by outlasting the clock or by dominating the vampire, he wins the purse. The most successful runners become quite famous, like an NFL or NBA player here in the States, and are given celebrity status and other perks such as luxury living quarters, additional financing, even access to Leopold’s pool of consorts. When a runner reaches that level, vampires from all over the world flock to Leopold’s to challenge him, and Leopold becomes all that much richer. So do the star runners.”

Madison pictured Hyun running for his life, trying to outwit a bloodthirsty vampire who thought of it as sport. “Hardly seems fair,” she said. “Vampires have enhanced powers and senses that a mortal doesn’t have.”

“Runners aren’t run-of-the-mill people, Madison. Mostly they are well trained in survival, with professional backgrounds in military special forces. Many have been mercenaries. They are thrill seekers, and this is the ultimate thrill.”

“Any women runners?”

“I’ve heard of a few, but generally it’s men against men.”

So
, thought Madison,
Hyun had been a runner
. Probably an excellent one who had gained the right to Leopold’s V-girls and to Libby.

Joni pushed off from the table and stood. “Let’s go eat. I’m starving, and I’m sure you are, too. The stew should be ready in a few minutes.”

“I’ll be with you in a minute, Joni. I need to check in with Samuel.”

Joni hesitated, obviously wanting to hear the conversation. She stared at Madison, pitting her will against Madison’s in a bid to force an invitation to join in on the call. When the intimidation didn’t work, Joni chuckled and started for the door. “No wonder the council’s in love with you.”

Boo followed his mistress out of the room.

The text to Samuel read simply
found both lady and libby.
Before she sent it, she added
maybe
.

A few seconds later, her phone rang. “That was quite a bombshell,” Samuel announced. “Why didn’t you call?”

“I didn’t know if Joni had that super hearing or not, and I wasn’t sure you wanted this information broadcast.”

“Joni’s hearing is not intensified. She has speed, and I believe that’s it. Even so, you’re correct: I don’t want this information out. Not just yet. Are you in the computer room at her house?”

“Yes.”

“If the door is closed, it’s nearly soundproof.”

Madison got up and closed the door. “Okay, the door is shut.”

“How are you learning all this, from the database?”

“No, from what I do best: eavesdropping. The database is just providing confirmation. I know where Lady is holed up. Libby is one of the consorts hired to keep Lady’s male vampires happy.”

“Are you sure it’s Mike Notchey’s sister?”

“Pretty sure. At least she matched the information in the database. I haven’t told Notchey anything yet.”

“Good thinking. What about Lady? Have you learned why she’s doing this?”

“Not exactly, but I have my suspicions. I also think I have her identity. And Samuel, if it’s true, you’re not going to like it.”

“I already don’t like it.” When Madison hesitated, Samuel added, “I’m waiting.” His voice was low, almost a growl.

“It may be Julie Argudo.” Madison gave him the name with no frills—just laid it out there for him to decide how he was going to react.

“Can’t be.”

“I’m afraid it is, or at least could be.”

“Did Colin tell you about Julie?”

“No, I’d heard her name at council meetings. When her name came up in the database, I asked Joni. You told her to tell me anything I asked.”

“That I did.” He took a deep breath. “Well, it was just a matter of time before you did learn about her.” He paused. Madison kept still, knowing his silence usually meant he was formulating a plan.

“Let’s not discuss this now. I’ll be in the car when Hyun picks you up tomorrow.

“No,” she said, a bit too quickly. She slowed her mouth down. “I’ve asked Notchey to pick me up. I also had him take me to the airport. I wanted to clear the air between us.”

“I figured as much when Hyun told me you’d cancelled with him. However, this time, you cancel Mike, and we’ll pick you up.”

“That’s not the best idea.”

Another long pause. “Is there some reason you do not want Hyun with us?”

“Yes, but I’ll tell you when I see you.”

Another pause on Samuel’s end. This time Madison jumped into the middle of it. “And don’t go imagining the worst,” she told him. “Wait until we talk.”

Madison thought about Hyun’s plans to meet Libby the next day to make sure she was well. “In fact, give him the afternoon off tomorrow.”

“A day off isn’t exactly what I had in mind.”

“I’m sure it’s not, Samuel, but please trust me on this.”

Another growl, then, “All right, you win. But I’m still picking you up at the airport, so call off Mike. Text me when you board your plane so I’ll know it’s on time.”

When Madison left the computer room about twenty minutes later, she found Joni setting the large pine dining room table in the great room for supper. Places were set for three at the table. At two of the place settings, large white bowls rested on woven place mats. At the third was a large thick, blue-green glass.

“You having company?” Madison asked.

“Yes, I called Chuck and asked him to come by. He loves rabbit stew.” Joni hesitated, two soup spoons in her hand. “Something tells me,” she added, placing a spoon by one bowl, “you found what you’re looking for in the database.”

“Connections, Joni, and possibilities, that’s all. I still want to do some more searching after dinner. That database may not be complete, but it’s a lot of help.”

“Chuck will be taking you to the airport tomorrow morning, so he might as well spend the night.” Joni finished setting the table. “And since you now know how to use the database, you won’t need my help, so I intend to amuse myself while you work.” She winked at Madison. “You don’t mind, do you?”

“Not at all, but, um, didn’t you already feed off of Chuck today?”

For a moment, Joni looked bewildered, then understanding brightened her face. “You mean that young stud you met earlier?” Joni laughed. “That wasn’t Chuck. That was Brian. He lives at the end of the dirt road just past my driveway. He’s a former New York stockbroker who now farms pot. Good stuff, too, I’m told. At least it gives his blood a certain delicious earthiness. He’s the one who brought me the rabbit for your dinner and the rabbit blood for mine.”

Joni adjusted a napkin before turning to Madison with a sly smile and a wink. “Chuck’s my boyfriend, but Brian’s my V-boy. If you’re interested, I’m sure Brian would be happy to attend to you when you’re through playing with the computer. He takes care of my female guests whenever I ask, both vampire and mortal. You can think of him as dessert.”

Madison tried not to appear provincial, as if proposals like that were commonplace in her life. “Ah, no, I’m good—but thanks for the offer.”

TWENTY-FOUR

T
he parking lot of the motel on Agoura contained only three cars when Madison pulled into the lot in the nondescript rental car. In the back seat were Doug and Dodie Dedham. In the front was Samuel. It was two hours before Hyun was supposed to meet Libby.

She backed the car into a spot by the targeted room, then walked to the motel office while the others waited, each with a hat on to shield them as much as possible from the midday sun.

“Hi,” she said to the pudgy, middle-aged woman at the front desk. “I’d like a room.”

“Just for yourself?” The woman pushed a stray lock of graying hair out of her eyes and put on the eyeglasses hanging around her neck by a beaded chain.

“No, there are four of us. My husband and I and my grandparents.”

“Two rooms or one?”

“Depends on whether room 107 has two beds or one.” Madison leaned forward and lowered her voice. “My grandmother is very superstitious and insists on room 107 whenever we stop somewhere.” She rolled her eyes to emphasize the nuttiness of the request.

The woman suppressed a small smile and checked her room register. “I’m sorry, but room 107 is taken. How about room 106? It’s right next door and has two queen-size beds. Room 107 only has a king.”

Madison shrugged. “Sounds great to me. It’s only for one night anyway. Maybe she’ll get room 107 tomorrow night when we stop in Phoenix.”

Madison took out the fake driver’s license given to her in the last hour by Samuel. It stated that her name was Nancy Dodd and she lived in Henderson, Nevada.

“I’ll just need to see your credit card,” the woman told her.

“I prefer to pay cash. Is that all right?” Madison looked at the women with wide eyes. “My husband and I are trying to pay them off. You know how that is.”

“Absolutely; however, you won’t be able to make outside calls or order in-room movies unless we have a credit card or a cash deposit toward expenses.”

“No need. We have our cell phones, and regular TV is fine.”

The Dedhams and Samuel were relieved to get inside the room and out of the sun. The first thing Dodie did was close the drapes.

“Oh, look, dear,” she said to Doug. “They have room-
darkening
drapes. How thoughtful. We’ll have to remember that.”

Madison stared at Dodie like her brain had done a wheelie. “Like when,
Grandma
, are you ever going to come back here again?”

“You never know,
Nancy
,” the old woman answered. “Didn’t ever think I’d be here now, but here I am.”

The plan Madison and Samuel had put together on the way home from the airport was in motion.

When Madison emerged from the terminal at LAX, she didn’t have to wait long before Samuel pulled up to the curb in his beloved Mercedes sports car and hopped out. He was driving and alone. A baseball cap was pulled down low over his forehead, and his sunglasses were in place. He wore faded jeans and a gray sweater. He looked like a celebrity trying to escape notice but too vain to give up the flashy car for the purpose. Madison looked around. No one was paying a bit of attention to them. It would be different if they knew that the man with the wide smile and casual elegance was a thousand-plus-year-old bloodsucker. Bet showing fangs would get the TSA folks to move the security line a little faster.

Samuel grabbed her bag from the curb and flung it into the area behind the passenger’s seat. When Madison started to get into the car, he stopped her.

“No, you drive.”

“Me?” Madison looked the hundred-thousand-dollar car over with concern.

“The sun is making me weak, and I want to reserve my concentration for what you have to say.”

“Okay.” Once in the car, she asked, “Are we going to your place or to the Dedhams’?”

“The Dedhams’.”

They rode in silence until they got away from the airport. After a couple of miles, Madison forgot about the expensive machine she was driving and began to enjoy the muscle beneath her.

“You can begin any time,” Samuel finally told her. It was an order, not a request.

Keeping her eyes on the road ahead, Madison started at the beginning, explaining how she’d called a realtor about properties resembling a castle.

“Very resourceful of you,” Samuel commented, with obvious pride on her behalf.

She ended her long narrative with the various connections she’d followed in the vampire database. The entire time Samuel remained silent, staring straight ahead, not giving away the slightest hint of what he was thinking or feeling, not even when Madison mentioned Hyun.

“So you don’t know for sure Lady is Julie Argudo?”

“Not a hundred percent, no. But I am sure that Olivia Himmel is Libby Notchey. I’m also sure the only reason Hyun didn’t say anything about the castle and Lady to you is because he was trying to extricate Libby before something nasty erupted.”

She glanced over at Samuel. He seemed relaxed. He continued to stare straight ahead, his left arm stretched out, with the hand against the back of her seat. But Madison knew his brain was as honed and humming as the engine in the powerful car. He was considering all the information from different angles.

“Did you know Hyun was a runner at Leopold’s?”

“Yes, I did. He was among the best. It’s one of the many reasons I hired him. A successful runner has the highest dedication to survival. His instincts are sharp, his mind always on alert. He’s never sloppy in his actions. In this case, Hyun was willing to put his own life on the line and risk angering me to save his woman.”

“That doesn’t say much about his instinct to keep himself alive.”

“Maybe not, but it does say a lot about his selfless loyalties.”

“Are you going to kill him for not being upfront with you?”

“I don’t know. He’s worked with vampires a long time. He knew the risk going in.”

It was a brutally honest answer and not the one Madison had hoped to hear, but she had expected it.

“I also think,” Madison said, moving the conversation along, “that it’s possible Ann Hayes knew Parker Young. She might even have been the one to turn him.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Joni said it’s highly unlikely that there’s a group of vampires branding potential newbies without the council hearing at least a rumor about it.”

“She’s right.”

“We know Lady is branding, and we know Ann used to brand. If Parker is older than Lady, then it could be that Ann branded and turned him, and he eventually hooked up with Lady. He might even have been the one to give her the idea about branding.”

“Nicely thought out. Though didn’t you say Ann Hayes was also in Bulgaria? Maybe she mentored Lady at one time, and that’s how Lady got the idea to brand.”

Madison considered that angle. “It could be that we’re dealing with two angry vampire bitches. If Lady is Julie, then she could have returned to the States to seek revenge on the council. Ann, on the other hand, wants revenge on Doug and Dodie.”

She turned toward Samuel. “Do you believe for one minute that Ann Hayes is over Doug Dedham?”

Samuel laughed. “I’ve met my share of grudge-holding women in all my years, so no, I do not.”

“Speaking of which, were Joni, Isabella, and Stacie once your mistresses?”

“Stacie, no, though I turned her. The others, yes. In fact, Joni and Isabella were with me around the same time.” Samuel’s mouth opened in a shit-eating grin. “Joni always refers to it as my blond period.”

“But Joni is much older than Isabella.”

“Joni wasn’t turned right away. She wanted to marry and experience a human life first. When her husband died, she came to me to be turned.”

“She’s a hoot. At first, I wasn’t sure I liked and trusted her, but by the time I left, I liked her quite a bit.”

Samuel pulled down his sunglasses and looked at Madison. “And did you change your mind about trusting her?”

Madison took a deep breath before answering. “No, and I’m not sure why. It’s not that I think she’s malicious or would betray you or anything, but she’s sort of like that half-wolf pet of hers. Tame enough face to face, but I wouldn’t turn my back on it.”

“You are very intuitive, Madison. Another of your qualities the council and I value.” Samuel stared out the window before asking, “So what do your instincts say I should do about Hyun?”

“Wow, that’s a tough one. Not sure I want to be a part of that decision.”

“You’re not, but I’d like your gut feeling.”

“Okay.” Madison weighed the options before speaking. “First, I think we need to make sure Hyun is not involved in the
murders
of the two vampires. If he’s only trying to protect Libby, then we need to help him do it.” She cut her eyes to the passenger’s side. “And I’m saying that partially out of friendship to Notchey.”

They were almost at the turnoff from Pacific Coast Highway to Topanga. To the left of them was the Pacific Ocean. Samuel looked across Madison to take it in through her window.

“Did you know that sometimes, right before I retire, I sit out by my pool and watch the sun rise?”

Madison remained quiet, understanding he wasn’t looking for a response.

“A few times I’ve stayed so long that Foster and Enid have had to help me back into the house and put me to bed.” He lowered his window and stuck his arm out, letting it feel the heat of the sun on his skin, but only for a moment. “After all these years as a vampire, I still miss the glorious feeling of the sun on my face every day.”