Gumshoe Gorilla (26 page)

I walked into a small room, illuminated by a couple of black lights. An overweight guy wearing too much eye makeup and a shirt that said
Fallen Angel
sat behind a counter. There was a small glass box on it, and an old fashioned cash register. I guess the patrons of this establishment were not putting their entry fees on traceable plastic. The guy behind the register looked at me expectantly.

Luckily, I always carry some cash on me. It has a nice way of inspiring cooperation from desk clerks and maids and such. I passed the guy a fifty, figuring that had to be more than enough.

While he made change, I took a look at the glass box. Something was moving inside it, but it was hard to see in the dim light. A pet snake? I leaned down to look closer and saw what looked like a rat, rolling around on a bed of centipedes. It took me a few seconds to realize that it wasn't a rat at all. It was a kitten. A very young kitten, its eyes still closed. It was pawing at the air, as centipedes crawled over it.

I couldn't help but stare at it. My brain was trying to convince me that the whole thing was a trick. You know, like those robotic parrots that they have in Mexican Bars. It was probably just a wind-up toy that they'd put in there to scare the tourists. But as the kitten rolled around, I kept thinking that I'd never seen a robot move that realistically.

The fat guy passed me a five in change. I tried to conceal my sticker shock, and tucked the bill into my pocket. I took one last look at the spectacle in the glass box, and then finally turned away from it. I pushed aside a big black curtain, and walked into the club.

Inside, the place was a crazy kind of labyrinth. They'd hung up black tarps to carve the space into hallways and rooms. I wandered down the dimly lit passages, not sure what I was looking for. Every so often, I'd come to a little open area. One was full of dead house plants, with a park bench in the center. A man in his late thirties was handcuffed to it, moaning faintly as two women kissed his chest. One of them pulled away for a second, and I saw that she had actually been sucking on a small cut. A few drops of blood trickled from her lips.

Further in, there was a room with a motorcycle in it. A straight couple was on it, engaging in more conventional sex, and periodically kissing small cuts on each other's shoulders. They'd attracted an audience of six or seven people, but didn't seem to mind the attention.

I pressed on. The hallway turned, and then went up a short flight of stairs. I emerged into the largest open area that I'd seen so far. I think it used to be the stage. A small crowd had gathered. A woman in her forties was tying up a blond boy in his twenties, binding his wrists to a set of hanging chains. He looked scared, but he wasn't fighting her, so I guess the fear was part of the game for him.

As I watched, the woman produced a small razor blade, removed it from its sterile packaging, and proceeded to make a series of short shallow cuts in the boy's shoulder. Then she embraced him from behind, taking a long slow drink of him while her arms caressed his chest, his stomach. The expression on the kid's face was hard to read. It could have been fear, or pain, or ecstasy. The hard-on in his pants, though, was a bit less ambiguous. After a few moments the woman stepped aside, and the others moved in to take their turn. A muscular Hispanic guy put his lips to the kid's shoulder, as a woman began kissing him on the mouth.

I must have been paying too much attention to all this, because I didn't hear the man walking up to me. I turned and he was just there, in front of me. Tall and black, wearing a frilly white shirt with a purple velvet vest. He looked me straight in the eyes.

"You're new. There is no smell of the night children on you."

"Uh.... right, I just came to..."

He stepped in closer to me. His eyes were strange. Dark, but flecked with gold, and they caught the dim light in odd ways.

"To me. Because I called you," he said.

"Uh... well actually..."

He put a finger to my lips, and moved his face close to mine.

"Shhhhhhhhhhh. Don't struggle so. It won't help. Just lose yourself in my eyes. Give in to the comfort of the waking dream. You are here because I wished it. You cannot resist. Your will is mine. You are mine."

Well, this was a pick up line that I hadn't heard before. I kept looking straight into his eyes. I wasn't sure what the necro-nerd etiquette was for politely declining a vampire's offer of eternal enslavement.

Luckily, I didn't have to try.

"He's mine Basil," a voice said from nearby. "And if you'd stop your domination long enough to let him speak, he would have told you that."

A woman wearing a black evening gown stepped into view. She had fine asian features and brilliant green eyes. Or green contacts, more likely.

Basil snarled.

"He's not wearing your mark."

She turned and looked at me.

"Hm. You're right. He must have lost it. And he will pay the price for such carelessness later."

She looked me in the eyes sternly for a moment, then winked. She turned back to Basil.

"But the fact remains that I took his will first, my dear Basil. And you know the law of our kind. He has tasted the dark sweetness of surrender at my lips. And anyone who wants a taste of him will have to bargain with
me
now."

Basil looked at her, then looked at me. He looked like he might actually bite her, but then his snarl melted into the most pleasant of smiles. He gave a slight bow to my new found protector.

"Sincerest apologies, my lady. Perhaps we may speak again when I have something to your liking."

And then he turned and left.

The woman with the green eyes smiled at me.

"Sorry Parker, but it was real obvious that you were in over your head."

"Do I know you?"

"Maybe. Perhaps we've met before, and I hypnotized you to forget it."

I raised an eyebrow. She laughed.

"Wow, you really don't know how this game is played, do you?"

"I am a little out of my element," I admitted.

"New to our little world, eh? Well let me explain a few of the ground rules, then. First off, you are obviously not dressed up as one of the "Children of the Night", so everyone's going to assume that you're here to be prey. Which means that when one of the fabulous people walks up and tries to hypnotize you, you're supposed to play along."

"Oh."

That was going to make looking around the club a lot harder, if I had to stop and make a blood donation with every vampire who made eye contact. The woman with the green eyes must have seen the look on my face.

"A little discriminating about whom we surrender our blood to?"

"Yeah, something like that."

"OK, then put this on."

She handed me a pin with a rose on it.

"What's this?" I asked.

"It's my symbol. It tells everybody that you're one of my herd, at least for tonight. That way I have control over who gets a taste of you. You can signal me when you see someone that you like."

I put on the pin. I wasn't wild about being referred to as livestock, but this was no time to get picky about terminology.

She stared at me, looking into my eyes.

"You're not really here for the blood sports, are you Parker?"

"Well..."

I started to formulate a lie, but stopped. It was pointless. I had no idea how much this woman really knew about me. And besides, I needed somebody's help. I didn't know the etiquette, and I didn't know who to go to for the information I wanted.

"No," I admitted. "I'm actually here to check up on a friend."

"Really?"

"He got arrested coming out of here last night. There's been some other weird stuff going on in his life. I just want to make sure that he's not getting in to anything he can't handle. Can you help me out?"

"Maybe. Who is he?"

"His name's Daniel. Daniel Boone."

"Hm. Do you know his night child name?"

"No. But this is what he looks like."

I got out my palm display and had Sherwin pull up a picture of Daniel.

She took the display and studied it.

"He's beautiful. But no, I haven't seen him."

"Well, what about this guy? He was with my friend when the arrest was made."

I called up the picture of Vincent, and she looked it over.

"No. Sorry."

She bit her lip, thinking.

"But I may know someone who could help us out. Shall we meet him for a drink?"

I agreed before I had really thought through the implications of that question.

The green-eyed woman led me off the stage and back into the wings. We went down a narrow hallway and into what must have been a dressing room or an office at one time. Now it was done up to look like an abandoned chapel. Paintings in the style of stained glass windows lined the wall, glowing under the black light. Six benches were arranged like pews, facing an altar with a dark stain running down the front of it. To either side, large broken crosses hung from the ceiling by chains. A nude woman was strapped to one of them, a man to the other.

If green-eyes was even slightly fazed by any of this, she didn't show it. She strode into the room confidently, and walked over to a bench where a guy in a white pirate shirt seemed to be holding court over five or six other night crawlers. Seeing her, he stood up and bowed.

"Ah, my lady Rose!" he said, in a horrifying attempt at a British accent. "How nice of you to grace us with your presence this evening. To what do we owe the honor?"

He was wearing leather pants and boots, with a bright red sash and a rapier. Going for the Errol Flynn look, I guess.

"Why, the pleasure of your company is reason enough, Lucien. And who are your companions this evening? I don't believe that I've met them all before."

Lucien introduced the other blood suckers. They all had names that sounded like they were picked out of romance novels. When he was done, Lucien turned to me.

"And who is your new conquest, my Lady Rose? I don't recall seeing this one before."

"I've been keeping him at home. But I decided to bring him out tonight, just to tease the world with envy. I should have known better, though. As always Lucien, you keep the best stable."

Lucien glanced over his shoulder at the man and woman chained to the broken crosses.

"Yes. Where are my manners. May I offer you a drink?"

He clapped his hands, and two teenage boys who'd been sitting on the floor snapped into action. One grabbed a black iron tool that looked like something from the Spanish Inquisition, and went to work on the naked man's chest. The other embraced the woman from behind and... well, demonstrated that he had a passable working knowledge of a woman's erogenous zones.

Meanwhile, Lucien picked up a shot glass off the altar. He poured some vodka into it, and then grabbed a razor.

"So what is my lady in the mood for this evening. Pleasure? Or pain?"

She licked her lips, contemplating the choice.

"Tonight... I think pleasure."

Lucien nodded, then walked over to the moaning woman and made a small incision on her arm. A trickle of blood ran down her bicep and dripped into the glass, where it mingled with the alcohol. He passed it to Rose, and then filled several more for his other guests. Luckily no one offered me any. When Lucien was done, the boys stopped their activities and resumed their place at his feet.

Rose sipped from her glass. I found myself getting queasy and had to look away. Vegetarianism was starting to sound real good.

"Ah, Lucien, you are such a good host," Rose said. "And while I hate to impose further on you..."

"Nonsense. I am still in your debt for the loan of that most delectable young woman last month. How may I even the scales a little?"

Rose turned to me.

"Picture."

I pulled out the palm display, called up the pictures of Daniel and Vincent, and handed it to her.

"You may sit now."

I bit my tongue and sat down on the floor at her feet.

"There were two young men who caught my eye last night," she said. "Unfortunately, I didn't get the name of their master. Perhaps you'd know?"

Lucien took the palm display and looked at it with interest.

"Ah yes. I remember these two. The dark one is night child, and the blond is in his thrall. I'm afraid that you may be too late to acquire their companionship. They were entertaining Elias last night, trying to win an invite to one of his master's revels. They were being... most persuasive."

Rose nodded, and changed the subject. They talked for a while about other people that I didn't know, and then eventually Rose stood up.