Night Prayers (10 page)

Not even an Episcopalian Heaven would look like this.

Hell, maybe.

She was still damned.
Oh goody
.

Grabbing the sides of the day bed, Allison got as far as her elbows before the room and all its marvelous decor started doing laps around her. First clockwise, then counter clockwise,
then
diagonally… just to be different.

Allison managed to regain her prone position before the blood in her belly finished its migration up her throat.

"Then I'm
not
dead?" she moaned.

One of the "Angel's" snowy eyebrows rose as she giggled. "Well, of
course
you're dead," she said, "you're a fucking vampire."

Oh shit.

Allison braved another attack of vertigo and pushed herself up against the brass rails. Swallowing hard, she stared into the woman's deep green eyes and felt the room merry-go-around them.

How the hell does she know I'm a vampire? Oh, shit… what did I do while I was drunk?

"What do you mean
drunk
?" the woman asked as she reached out and slowly brushed a wayward lock of hair out of Allison's eyes. "You can't get drunk, baby-cakes. Don't you know that? And as far as the other thing…"

She smiled — and pear white fangs gleamed in the soft light.

"You're a…"

"Vampire," the woman finished, "same as you. Guess you could call us
blood
sisters, huh?"

She chuckled again and Allison tried to join in, shutting her eye as the queasiness shot through her belly like molten lead.

"Stop it!"

Allison's head cleared instantly.

When she opened her eyes, the blond nodded. Smiling through her fangs.

"Now, isn't
that
better."

"Yes ma'am."

"Yeah, I think we'll get along just fine," the woman said, taking Allison's hand in both of hers and patting it gently. "But there
is
one thing you have to remember… you lie to me or cause me or mine any grief whatsoever and I'll have that tight little ass of yours tossed out on the Hollywood Freeway at high noon. Understand?"

"Yes ma'am."

"And the name's Luci."

"Yes ma'am. Luci."

"And
you
are?"

Allison sat up and straightened her shoulders, just like her mother always told her to do when she introduced herself to someone.

"Allison. Allison Garrett."

"Well, pleased to meet you Allison Garrett," Luci said as she pulled Allison's hand into the baggy shirt folds laying across her lap and held it there. "But around here we don't use last names.
That's
part of the real world, not ours. We're free… free to do
anything
our cold little hearts desire."

Smiling, Luci reached out with one hand and slowly trailed it up along the inside seam of Allison's vest until it came to the safety pin.

"I'm sorry I yelled back there, Allison, I'm not really such a bitch when you get to know me. And I hope we'll get to know each other real well."

A low grumble, like a pit bull ready to attack, suddenly echoed through the room.

"What was that?"

"Oh, don't worry about
that.'"
Luci said, chucking her gently under the chin. "We're all friends here."

A throaty
HAH
! bounced off the walls. Luci ignored that, too.

"Now, why don't you tell me all about that little one woman show you were putting on for the tourists."

Allison licked her lips and tried to move away without being obvious about it. There was
something
in that room that didn't like what was happening on the day bed any more than Allison did. "I… I didn't know about… not being able to get drunk." Allison scooted higher on the bed and managed to remove both her hand and Luci's from their previous locations. At least for the moment.

"I'm… kind of new at this."

This time, the empty room produced an exaggerated sigh.

"You're telling me." Luci clasped her hands and folded them, ladylike, in her lap. "Who the hell turned you, anyway? Probably some stuck-up, butter-wouldn't-melt macho asshole, right?"

"You know Seth?" Allison asked.

Luci giggled and slid across the fur until their hips touched. "Like I know every stuck-up, butter-wouldn't-melt macho asshole vampire in L.A." Shaking her head, Luci laughed like it was the funniest thing she'd ever heard. "You
hear
that Gina? Our little Fledgy got done to by one of the
brothers
. Didn't I tell you they were nothing but bad news?"

"Specially the one what done
her
. Man, he musta been
really
runnin' on empty. Musta just done her tonight, too. Left her staggerin' an starvin'."

The woman's voice was as disembodied as the other sounds had been.

The back of Allison's head and spine made direct and immediate contact with the plaster wall as she pressed herself into a corner and scanned the room for the owner of the voice. There was nothing…
no one
there who hadn't been there a moment earlier.

"Naw," Luci said, apparently not concerned that she was talking to thin air… and having it answer her. "She got that way feeding on some drunk. Poor little thing thought since alcohol is absorbed through the blood that she'd get drunk too. That's so
sweet
."

"
Shit sweet
, you mean," the voice snarled. "God damned Fledgy. You shoulda left her for the sun… served her right! Don't know nuthin' 'bout nuthin'. Her Maker done right by leavin' her… hell, she's so dumb she don't know the first thing about bein' free."

Luci glanced back over her shoulder and continued talking to… nothing. "Oh, like
you
were all knowing when you first turned, right Gina?"

"I knew 'nuff't'stay away from folks less I was feedin' off 'em.
That
much I knowed!"

Luci turned back to Allison and shrugged.

"You have to forgive Gina," she whispered. "The guy who caught her collar tonight doesn't look like he has a full pint of blood left in him. She was aiming for this fat dude.

"Come on, Gina… come on over and say hello to our new little sister."

The pile of clothes that Allison had thought was nothing more than casually tossed costumes, suddenly stood up and walked over. Black as a starless night, her hair and eyes the color of a raven's wing, the woman tightened the sash on the multi-colored satin robe she wore and glared down at Allison.

"Little sister, m'black ass!"

"This is Gina," Luci said — the perfect hostess. "Gina's a natural chameleon… so you'd better be real careful about what you say or think, because you never know if she's around or not."

Allison almost thought about asking her about the skill then immediately sucked the thought back into the depths of her brain when Gina's eyes flashed red.

"Pleased… to met you. Gina."

"Why don't you go find yourself some dumb Breather to live off and leave us alone?" Gina snarled, looking at the hand being offered like it was a soup-bone and she was the pit bull Allison first mistook her to be. "We got us a nice little thing goin' here an' we don't need no brain-dead Fledgy who still thinks like a Breather to screw things up."

Gina took another step forward and stopped — sniffing the air.

Like a pit bull.

Gina's glare told Allison she'd heard that loud and clear.

"Who was that drunk you done, bitch?" she demanded.

"Oh, no, Gina… there must be hundreds of drunks out there." Luci smiled back at Allison, but there was a trace of worry in the green eyes. "What are the chances of her getting him?"

"What are the chances o'her endin' up
here
." Gina's face transformed into something that would have been more at home peering out onto a jungle clearing. "Talk, Fledgy… or I'll fuckin' tear out your heart and stuff garlic down your throat m'self!"

"Better tell her, kiddo," Luci said, taking her hand. This time Allison didn't mind. This time it almost felt comforting.

"I don't know what drunk," she said. "It was just this skinny guy in a vacant lot off the street."

"Damn it!" Gina yelled, spinning in a cloud of satin and sleek black fur. "DAMN it! I knew it… I fuckin'
knew
it! She did Big Mike. I can smell him all over her. FUCK!"

When she turned back, the ivory colored fangs were almost touching the point of her chin. Clenching her claw-tipped fists, Gina threw back her head and howled.

"MIRIAM!"

Allison tightened her grip on Luci's hand as the Angel-faced vampire turned and shook her head.

"Well, you done it now, Alley-cat."

It wasn't Piper.

Mica stood next to Luci's cut-out as if he were also made out of cardboard. Furverts came and went unnoticed; the uninitiated tourists got by without being verbally assaulted.

It wasn't Piper.

Gypsy had handed him a cup of coffee liberally laced with corn whiskey a few
minutes after he'd carried the drunk woman —
who wasn't Piper
— into the dressing room and slapped him on the back.

Asked Mica to find one for
him
.

And laughed.

Mica finished the coffee before he got a quarter of the way through the club.

It wasn't Piper.

Then
why in Hell
did he feel so responsible for her?

"MIRIAM!"

If there'd been any glass in the make-up mirrors it would have shattered from the force of Gina's shriek. When the last echo died, Allison heard the heavy clump of boot heels coming down the hall.

Toward the dressing room.

I'm fucked
, Allison thought.

"You can say that again, bitch," Gina snarled, pointing a talon at the door. "But you won't know
how
fucked 'till Miriam gets here."

Allison swallowed the dry lump that suddenly materialized in her throat and tried
not
to think about what to expect. If Gina and Luci were any indication of the kind of vampire Amazons she was up against, Allison would have been more than happy to put off meeting Miriam.

Indefinitely.

She was scanning the room for a viable exit — gazing longingly at the mouse hole in the corner — when the door burst open.