Blood and Destiny (6 page)

young man so new he still had acne scars. Give him time and he would be as pretty as the rest of them. I found comfort in the detail nonetheless. The poor boy jumped when we stepped past Peter.

At the sight of Marcus, I thought he was going to break down and cry.

“Hello,” I said with the warmest smile I could muster. “I’m Destiny St. George. I understand you might be able to help me. Let’s go into my office, okay?”

The young man’s gaze latched onto my neck and never rose to my face. He turned even paler if that was possible. He nodded jerkily and moved to follow me, giving the two male vampires an extremely wide berth.

I moved around my desk to pull out the folder. The original photograph Marcus had sent with the driver was carefully centered on my desk blotter, but I was hoping the young man could help in a more direct fashion.

I turned to find him hovering uncertainly in the middle of the room. His gaze darted back to the doorway. Peter and Marcus waited on either side of it. It provided a formidable image. Not exactly the kind of scene to encourage bad little vampires to talk. I did my best to smooth the young vampire’s obvious fear.

“Relax. I give you my word that nothing you say here will put you in danger.”

Marcus gave me a disapproving look. I ignored it. Waving the young man to a seat, I came back around to lean on the front of the desk.

“What’s your name?”

“Sean Thorpe.” His response was immediate, automatically cracking a little around the edges. He had probably been a smoker while he was alive. His voice had that quality.

“Have a seat, Sean. I have a few questions regarding the man Peter showed you last night.”

“It was Ivan.”

“Excuse me?” His correction confused me and I made no effort to cover it up.

“Ivan showed me the picture. He’s the one…who…well…killed me.”

That was one way of putting it. I knew recruitment was carefully monitored, but he was the first newly made vampire I had ever spoken to who referred to his transition as being killed. It made for another question to be dealt with later so I mentally filed it away.

“Ivan, then. You recognized the young man in the photograph?”

“Yeah.”

Somehow, I hung on to my patience and managed a reassuring smile as I watched him continue to hover between the vampires at the door and me.

“Sean, the more you can volunteer, the fewer questions I’ll have and the sooner you can go home.”

“They won’t let me go.” His tone was accusatory as he flung out a hand toward the vampires.

“If there’s a problem between you and the hierarchy, Sean, it’s not over this case. I’m sure they’ll

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be willing to make some allowances for whatever you’ve done if you cooperate with me.”

His eyes lost a little of their wild set, but he still made no move to sit down. Considering his agitation, I didn’t either. Instead, I tried to look casual.

“I don’t know his name. I met him in a hell across town. We were…” He faltered and I knew this was the part he was sure would cost him his head. “We were juicing coeds together.”

A hell was a rave that hosted illicit activities for various sets of patrons. Juicing was another word for random feeding, usually in group settings. The victim was usually high, drunk or impaired some other way. They also didn’t generally survive the encounter. Because the rituals hadn’t been observed, they wouldn’t rise into a new life as a vampire. They’d just be dead. Most of them didn’t realize the difference. The ones that did were suicidal anyway.

Sean was right. I couldn’t save him from something like that.

“How did you meet him?”

“We didn’t meet, exactly. A guy I knew in college who was a junkie had tipped me off. He was trying to make me bring him across. I showed up and he was there with this stripper. My buddy was egging me on while I fed when that guy joined us. I swear to you, I stopped before she was dead.” He ended on a panicked note as he furtively glanced back toward Marcus.

“But you didn’t stop him, did you?” Marcus’s voice cut into the rising panic in Sean’s. He worked so hard to obliterate this kind of thing. People say anger is a hot emotion. Not with Marcus. It was very, very cold.

“No.” Sean’s reply was so low I nearly missed it.

“Moving on,” I said to redirect the conversation to the information I needed. This was a limited-time engagement. I needed to get what I could out of him. “What happened then?”

“We left and he asked where he could find respectable entertainment while he was in town. I told him I generally hung out at the Vantage, but my king wouldn’t allow this kind of thing on his turf.

He came with me to check it out. I got him a red pass at the door claiming he was an old friend of mine in for an extended stay.”

Visiting vampires were given a red pass while they were in town if someone from the tribe vouched for them. It gave them safe passage to places like the Vantage where willing donors could be found so they wouldn’t be reduced to hunting the streets.

“Did he give you a name?”

“He called himself Sam, but that’s not his real name. Damned man lied worse than I do.”

“So you didn’t press him?” I pushed because this was my last chance. It was a good thing that I wasn’t going to need to produce him as a court witness. Dust can’t talk.

“Hell, I didn’t care if he said his name was King Kong. He gave me a cell number and told me to tip him off for the next rave. It rang as out of service about a week ago so I figured he’d moved on.”

I reached around me to grab a pad of paper and pen for him to write the number down. I took my eyes from him for a moment, but he was waiting for it. Only my finely honed feline reflexes saved me. He leaped toward me. I reacted without thinking. Diving to the side, the edge of the desk

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caused a sharp pain as it connected with my hip on my way to the floor.

Sean, with all the finesse of a bull in Pamplona, crashed into the desk where I had stood and nearly flew over it. He righted himself, but the wild movement of his arm scattered the blotter, papers, jar of pens, and telephone over me and the floor. I knew as I ducked away from my flying stapler that I’d never be able to get to my feet in time.

Marcus was suddenly there between us. I could see Peter coming at Sean from behind as Marcus met the charge. It wasn’t even a contest. From behind, I couldn’t see what Marcus did, but the result was a shower of ash-fine dust all over my carpet.

I lay there for a moment with adrenaline racing through me. Inside, the lioness roared and strained against my control. Fight or flight generally meant shift in my case, but I held it back by the skin of my teeth.

Marcus turned to kneel next to me with a soft, “Are you all right?”

Meeting his concerned gaze with an annoyed one of my own, I said the first thing that came to mind.

“You couldn’t have waited to kill him until I had that phone number, could you? I didn’t even get to ask him if he knew Betsy. And you made a mess of my carpet.”

So much for gratitude.

He stared at me as if trying to decide how to take my outrage. Without a word, he rose to his feet and glided toward the door. Sitting up in the middle of the mess, I saw Peter looking torn between us.

“I’ll send cleaners, Destiny.”

“Peter!” Marcus bellowed from the front door.

Peter scrambled after his boss. To see a man like Peter scramble was almost worth the disaster my office had turned into.

With a disgusted look, I inhaled the oily, rank smell of dead vampire. Some of them burst into dust while some of them bled like humans. I’d always thought it was the old ones that dusted, but this proved me wrong. One day, after Marcus stopped being mad at me, I would get around to asking, now that the distraction factor was definitely out of the equation.

By the time Yasmine strolled through the front door, I’d done my best to straighten my office.

Even after three vacuums, the smell remained. The way she stopped in the doorway and wrinkled her nose said it was even more repugnant to her sensitive senses.

“Did you finally have enough of that snake?”

“Yas…”

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“I know, I know.” She held up a delicate hand and my eyes were drawn to the flashing diamond.

“You care for him, though I still say love is pushing it. Someone turned into a dusty bunny in here, though.”

“Yes and it was the very man you’re so busy maligning that did it to save my skin.”

She tossed her mahogany mane and laughed as she put her hands on her hips.

“Then it might be love.” Yasmine and I had agreed to disagree on our relationship ideals a long time ago. In college she had been looking for Mr. Right, even before her first shift, while I was content with Mr. Right Now. She thought every relationship needed to be viewed from the compatibility factors instead of the fun quotient.

There were a lot of reasons she was getting married instead of me.

The thought made me glance at the calendar and groan. It was the bridesmaid’s luncheon and I’d forgotten all about it.

“Don’t worry, sis.” Yasmine laughed as she caught my frantic look. “I couldn’t call myself your sister if I didn’t know you always forget things you don’t want to do.”

Yasmine had been left on the same doorstep as me a few months earlier. Since we’d scared all the families that tried to adopt us, we had become roommates and lifelong friends in the dormitory.

“Hey, I’m proud of you. I’m actually looking forward to the wedding. It’s all the other things I don’t like.”

“Not true. You loved the lingerie shower you hosted at the house. Kale said to tell you he heartily approves of your taste, by the way.”

“So glad I could make him happy.” My tone was tart, but there was affection underneath it. Kale wasn’t my idea of the perfect man, but Yasmine loved him and that was all that mattered.

Standing up, I glanced down at my dusty clothes and cringed. “Come on, you can tell me all about whatever has gone wrong while I change.”

“You probably should shower before we go. You stink of moldy dust with a particularly acrid odor everyone will recognize.”

“Do I have that kind of time?”

I hurried to lock the front door and put up the closed sign. The jingle of the charm bracelet I’d given her for her sixteenth birthday told me she was making too much of a production out of checking her watch.

“Of course you do. Like I said. I had the driver drop me off with instructions to swing back by in an hour to pick us up. That’s plenty of time to get you presentable to the pack witches.”

I felt for her. Kale was something of a prince among wolves. His decision to marry an unpedigreed mutt had meant that Yasmine’s introduction to the pack had not gone smoothly. Her alliance to an equally unpedigreed lioness was also a bone of contention.

An hour later found me washed, styled, dressed and painted in a way I’d only do to help my sister.

I’d bought the blue dress for this and would probably never find a reason to wear it again, but seeing her glow with pride over how well I turned out made it worth it.

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“Now, I think you’ll do.”

I rolled my eyes at the mental pat on the head but hugged her anyway. Tears threatened to well up, but I fought them back. The wedding was going to cement changes in our relationship that had begun when Kale hauled her out on their first run. With the coming baby, she would be well settled into a life that wouldn’t have any room for me.

I started to make a snappy comment, but the ringing of the doorbell cut me off. It was probably better that way as we burst into laughter and she saved me from tumbling down the stairs to meet her driver.

I opened the door laughing over my shoulder at her and ran into a chest. A man’s chest, to be precise. Strong arms swooped in to grab my elbows, keeping me from falling down in my unfamiliar heels. I registered everything just ahead of the strong scent of lion that assaulted my nose.

I froze, trapped between Yasmine at my back and this strange lion holding me fast. Panic welled up, but I fought it as I reared back my head to stare at the face obscured by the brightness of the sun.

“Whoa, sweetie, I’ve got ya.”

The deep drawl broadcasted he wasn’t a local, but I knew that already. I was the only lion in town.

If there had been another, especially a male, he would have found me years ago. He steadied me as he lowered me back on my heels. I was torn between bolting and standing my ground. The lioness instincts wanted to do one or the other. I compromised by stepping away, trying to force Yasmine back through the doorway.

“Happy birthday,” she whispered into my ear as she urged me onto the sidewalk. To the lion, she said, “It took you long enough. You were supposed to be here ten minutes ago.”

“You said about an hour, Yas. If you want punctuality, ask someone to drive you around who wears a watch.”

Betrayal was a bitter taste on my tongue. Whoever this man, this lion was, Yasmine had brought him here. Turning her around, I pushed her through the doorway.

“We’ll be right back, Luke,” she called over my shoulder as I kicked the door closed in his face.

“What are you trying to do?”

She looked down at me with a full pout. I frowned until she gave up the cute act with a heavy sigh.

“You’re lonely. I asked Kale if he knew any lions and he happened to have a friend…”

“Stop! You asked your fiancé to find me a lion? By all that’s holy, Yasmine, what were you thinking? Kale doesn’t even like me.” I threw up my hands and stalked into my waiting room to pace and think.

“Destiny, Kale does like you. He wants to see you happy and settled down as badly as I do.”

And there it was. What was it with couples in those first throes of passion and their need to pair all their friends off? Granted, Kale and Yasmine had been chasing each other around for years, alternating on who was doing the chasing and who was being chased, but they’d only recently established themselves. Yasmine’s pregnancy had been the catalyst to make things permanent