Blood and Destiny (2 page)

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his work.

“Did you want children?” The question popped out before I could think about how offensive it might sound. Doing my best not to cringe at the rudeness of it, I carefully watched my client for whatever clues his reaction could give me.

He blinked and I had a revelation. The news had been that she couldn’t have children, not him.

Dr. Matthew Vincent didn’t intend to stay married to his barren wife. Just like a man. Had she known it? A clue was a clue, so I waved my hand and let him off the hook and asked the next question on my mental list.

“Never mind, Dr. Vincent. That’s really none of my business. I’m sorry for asking such an indelicate question. Do you want me to find her? Honestly?”

He dropped his gaze to his hands clenched in his lap. True emotions flashed across his face. Guilt was prominent, but there was concern and anxiety too.

“Yes.” Emotion made his voice unsteady. It was the first sign of humanity I’d seen in relation to his wife. Nodding, I moved on.

“Okay, then this is where we go from here. I have to ask some pretty hard questions.”

“And those weren’t considered difficult?”

He had a point. All I could do was shrug and acknowledge it. Picking up the pen kept beside the phone, I pulled a pad of paper from the desk drawer and prepared to take notes.

“Let’s say the difficulty level just went up. Did your wife work?”

“No, she was a chemist but stopped working once my practice established itself.”

Making the note about her profession, I marveled at his word choice. Established itself, he said. In short, she had been the breadwinner while he was struggling through medical school, residency and those first painful years of private practice.

“Did she know you were planning to divorce her?”

His gaze slid away from mine. When he finally answered, it was a pained whisper. “No, I don’t think so.”

I added it to the list of facts even though I doubted it would be something I’d readily forget. “Is there anything else you can think of to volunteer that may give me a starting point? Likes, dislikes?

Allergies? Something she was passionate about?”

Dr. Vincent seemed to ponder for a moment before shaking his head. “The only hobby Betsy indulged after she gave up her job was Rodeo Drive.”

I addedtrophy wife shopaholic to my list and did my best not to judge. The Vincents obviously enjoyed a lifestyle far different from my own.

“Okay, Dr. Vincent. Considering it’s been a week since your wife went missing, I’m going to ask for a five-thousand-dollar retainer to grease the wheels of the system. I don’t usually ask for so much, but I may need some serious bribe money.”

“So you’ll take the case?”

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I’d surprised him again. Good for me. From his expression, he’d expected me to send him packing.

I probably should have, but something about this pulled at me. I didn’t know if I could find her, but I had to try. Besides, no one else was going to be able to help him if Frank LeCroy couldn’t. Next to me, he had the best eyes and ears in the underworld.

“Yeah, I’ll take your case, but I’m not making any promises. I’ll do my best to find out what happened to her.”

“You don’t think she’s still alive, do you?” The anguished tone made me think better of him.

“Honestly? I can’t say. There are too many variables in play and she wasn’t in the best mental state when she disappeared. All I can promise is that if there’s a trail to find, I’ll find it.”

“Thank you, Ms. St. George.”

He unfurled his lanky frame from the chair and smoothed his slacks. I stood with him, not out of politeness, but because I hated feeling small. The doctor was too damned tall. He reached into the pocket of his suit jacket and handed me the long white sheet of paper he’d removed. Glancing down, I blinked. The certified check in my hand was made out to cash and was six figures. I dropped it like it was made of lava.

“Dr. Vincent, that’s wayyy too much. I only need enough to offer up some bribes. I can’t promise I’ll find anything at all.”

“Take it, Ms. St. George. It’s only money and if you find Betsy, you’ll be worth every penny.” He turned to go, leaving me gaping like a fish.

“I can’t guarantee I can find her. We should set this up so you can get what I don’t use back.”

“I don’t want it back.” He strode for the door with his briefcase in hand. “Take it, use what you need and keep the rest for trying.”

With that cryptic comment, he disappeared through my empty lobby. I heard the bell above the door ring as he let himself out onto the street. Sitting down heavily, I looked at the check and tried to decide what to do.

In the end, I walked down to the bank and deposited it. Since it was certified funds, I was amazed at how fast my bank account grew. The cashier assured me the funds would be available after the evening posting. Returning home in a daze, I let myself in the office door instead of going up the back steps like I usually did. While I waited for dusk, when the most likely suspects would be out to play, I pulled out my checkbook with some trepidation. For the first time in my life, I paid every bill I had as well as the payoff amount on my second-hand Chevy. Slapping the last stamp on the envelopes, I left them in a stack on the desk and went upstairs to get ready for my night on the town.

Since I was already part of the “in” crowd at the Vantage, no special attire was necessary. Just the little gold pin clipped to my collar in case there was a new set of bouncers on duty. It had been a long time since my last visit, so I wasn’t banking on being recognized at first look.

Now, if I were going to play, I’d have found something that screamed come and get me. Since I wasn’t, I passed over the leather pants and settled on slacks. Pulling on a shirt that was slightly snugger than it should be, I surveyed my reflection. Beauty wasn’t my claim to fame, but I cleaned up nicely when I had to. Makeup was a brush of eyeliner, shadow and lipstick. With a final check on my upstairs locks, I headed downstairs.

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Locking up my office in time to see the glorious sunset over the ocean, I took a moment to appreciate the twilight. My office/apartment sat on a hill with a fabulous view of the ocean. The mortgage was outrageous. But every time I saw that view, I knew it was worth every penny. There was even parking, hard to find in San Francisco. Those of us living in the surrounding buildings shared the tiny lot gladly. The herbalist next door poked her head out of her apartment window above her shop.

“Out to play, Destiny?”

“Always, Susan. You should try it. It’ll keep you young.”

I didn’t know much about Susan’s story. She was of indeterminate age, her black hair going gray at the edges. She was kind and trustworthy, and that’s all that mattered in my world.

“You’re only as old as you feel, Destiny, and I’ll be young forever. Go, have a good time. And make sure you leave the back-porch light on if you bring home a friend so I don’t call the cops if I see someone skulking out before dawn. Hate to have some poor fool locked up for being a prowler.

He’ll never call you back!”

We shared a laugh. She wasn’t going to let me live that one down. The guy really hadn’t called back, which was a shame since he had been a lot of…fun.

“You know it. Can I get you anything while I’m out, though? I don’t think I’ll be very late.”

“No, thank you. I’m probably going to walk up to Ned’s grocery and visit with his sister who’s up from Argentina. We’re sisters of the craft, you know.”

I didn’t know, but I agreed anyway. Calling farewell, I climbed into my beat-up Cavalier. Yasmine liked to remind me that people would make assumptions about me based on my car, but I laughed it off. Let the world assume that I was a struggling college student. College may have been left behind, but the struggling part was still true. Besides, after tomorrow, the only one who owned it would be me since the bank would be happy that they hadn’t had to repossess it.

The drive to the Mystic Vantage wasn’t a short one. It was a good half an hour away from civilization in a converted warehouse in the industrial district. In the daylight, it reflected the neighborhood around it and looked seedy. At night when the neon flashed, it promised wild nights and decadence. Like all things associated with alcohol, sex and fantasies, it seemed like exactly where you wanted to be in the dark; but when daylight came, you had to ask yourself how much was real and how much was desperation? Especially if you woke up with someone you didn’t know.

The huge parking area was filling up fast, despite the early hour. I debated on whether or not to use the valet service provided for the elite members, but decided the walk would do me good. It still made me uneasy to be a part of that set where dues began at the five-figure mark. And that was before the decimal point. Had I paid for mine? No. It was a gift from the owner hoping to lure me further into his world. Was it working? Probably better than I’d like to admit. Or it had been working until I decided to go cold turkey. Even now, after my hiatus from the lifestyle, there was still a certain enticing mystique.

I recognized the vampire at the door and felt the smile dawning despite my unease at being here.

He met it with an answering smile but didn’t move down from his post. He signaled the man in charge of the rope to let me in. I breezed past the gatekeeper, glad I didn’t have to stand in the haze of his cologne.

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“Destiny, come to sample our…pleasures?”

I rolled my eyes at Peter who apparently had drawn the short straw to be put at the door supervising the human bouncers who were holding back the growing line.

“Yeah, your charm just couldn’t keep me away.”

He slapped a hand that could only be called delicate across his heart and made a sound as if he were wounded. The sheer drama of it made my smile widen despite my best efforts. Peter was Roman. As in the Roman Empire, not a citizen of the Rome we know today. He would have made an excellent stage actor, if he could be bothered with such plebian pursuits. In his former life, he had been a senator before being seduced by a mysterious person of the East. That was as much of his story as I’d managed to glean. He was very good at deflecting curiosity.

“Nonetheless,he will be glad you’ve come.” Like the really old ones, Peter didn’t call Marcus by name. In days gone by, the anonymity of the king had been what kept not only him alive, but also helped the group escape when the authorities were set to exterminate them.

The vampires were a lot like a tribe of gypsies. Their king was their authority and the entire system was still slightly feudal. By rights, I should have known more about Marcus than I did. But if Peter was good at deflecting curiosity, Marcus was a master at it. Somehow, our conversations didn’t get around to answering my questions. Maybe he was better at distraction because he had my number in a way Peter never would.

“Let’s hope so.”

Even though I grumbled it under my breath, Peter heard it as he signaled the bouncer to open the door. The heavy base of the club music drowned out the sound of his laughter and I was glad for it.

My last visit had ended badly. Marcus had been content to wait me out. And they said cats had patience.

It always surprised me not to be stepping into a mass of people when I walked into the foyer, but the Vantage was laid out better than that. Most of the people were packed onto the central revolving dance floor on the main level. Two sweeping staircases on the sides of the foyer led to the elevated members-only areas. More public seating ranged closer to the bars stationed on each of the remaining walls on the main level. I took it all in at a glance before sweeping my gaze up the staircases to find the target of my visit.

Marcus Smythe, his latest pseudonym, had a woman pressed against the sweeping banister on the staircase on my right. Closer examination brought the realization that his hands might be around her and on the banister, but it wasn’t him doing the pressing. She had herself practically glued to the front of his silk shirt and designer pants. Having fallen victim to his allure before, I could definitely relate to the feeling. Today, though, I was made of sterner stuff, or at least I hoped so. Crow never tasted good, but I’d be eating it before I could ask him to come down to examine the file photos.

I trotted up the stairs without a second glance at the loitering bouncers beside them. They made no move to stop me thanks to the little gold pin on my shirt. Reaching Marcus, I slipped my hand on his arm and tugged. He let me pivot him as I moved past. Because of her insanely high heels, his would-be body decoration had to let go or risk being knocked down the stairs. Stopping a couple of steps higher, I turned to see a touch of laughter shining back at me from his face. I felt that bright, almost happy look all the way to my toes.

“Pardon me for interrupting your takeout. You can have him back in a second, miss. Can you spare me a moment, Marcus?”

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“For you, always.” Even his voice was smooth as honey and absolutely without an accent. It promised all sorts of sinful things. Having experienced a wide variety of them, my body revved up against my better judgment.

“Well, remember you said that in about five minutes.” I muttered it under my breath, but I knew he heard me. We’d see how far hisalways went after my apologies.

Leaving him to make his amends with his date, I turned to climb the rest of the stairs, veering off toward the private alcoves once I reached the top. If I weren’t afraid he’d take it the wrong way, I’d have gone over to the personal elevator that rode up to his apartment for extra discretion. With my luck, he’d take the change in venue to mean I wanted to totally make up for our last fight. Since I wasn’t ready for that, I chose a private alcove with a sheer curtain where anyone could see us talking because talking was all we were going to do.