A Taste of Love and Evil (16 page)

It seemed a friendly house in the morning sunshine, but a sleepy one, blinds drawn upstairs, curtains closed below. Ah, except for a small window at one side of the door, behind which sat a calico cat, a real one this time. The cat closed and opened its eyes at her and began to wash.

Rose watched and stewed for a moment or two, until a
black Mercedes sporting a
TONY’S PIZZA
sign on the roof pulled up across the street. Rose’s alarm signals stirred. Mercedes owners didn’t commonly deliver pizza, and pizza wasn’t usually ordered for breakfast.

She stole a quick glance at the driver, but he didn’t look her way until he’d exited the car and taken a couple of pizza boxes off a rack in the back. When he lazily took stock of her, her alarms went ballistic. An older guy with grizzled hair, a former bruiser by the look of him. Black T-shirt with rolled sleeves showing his forearms, barrel chest, and a lavish moustache beneath a nose that had been broken more than once. So much for no thugs.

The bruiser left the pizzas on the roof of his car and strolled across the street toward her. He didn’t look threatening, and the tantalizing aroma of fresh, hot pizza reached Rose through the closed window. She hadn’t taken even a bite of muffin, and she was ravenous.

She frowned down the street. No sign of Jack, and no way of knowing if he was there. Maybe she should have listened to him. She put a hand on the gun in her purse.

“Problem, lady?”

The bruiser had a gorgeous grin. Whoa. It took all Rose’s strength not to grin back. The alarms he sent up now were of a totally different kind, but he had an endearing twinkle, and far as she could tell, he wasn’t carrying. She shot another glance down the street and caught a flicker of movement by a massive live oak.

She rolled the window down an inch. “Is this Violet Du-pree’s place?”

“Who wants to know?” The guy’s grin was mesmerizing.

“I have an appointment with her.” Rose glanced down the street again.

“Not at this time of day, you don’t,” the pizza guy said. “Vi’s never up before noon. Better come back later.” He followed the direction of her eyes. “What are you looking at?”

Crap. “Not at,” Rose said. “For. Signs of danger.”

The guy scanned the street. “Nobody dangerous here but me.” He winked and went back to his car for the pizzas.

Jack slipped partly into view in shades of gray and brown under a canopy of Spanish moss. His arms were folded, and his posture calm. So, the pizza guy was okay.

Rose looked away. It hurt to meet Jack’s eyes, even if she couldn’t feel their intensity at this distance; it hurt to know he only cared from a sense of obligation. The memory of that kiss intensified the pain. Deliberately, she focused on this older guy, whose grin was to die for and whose body language promised incredible, incomparable sex—

Oh!

She jumped down from the van and leaped up the walk after the pizza guy. “Excuse me, but are you by any chance a vampire?”

The man tossed a smile over his shoulder, revealing gleaming fangs.

“That is so cool. I don’t know why I find it so reassuring,” Rose said, as much to herself as to the pizza guy, “but I do.” She hurried up the steps beside the first male vampire she’d ever seen. “If Violet’s not awake, why are you delivering pizza to her place?”

“It’s not for Vi.” He rapped on the door and the cat stalked away from the window, its tail in the air. Turning to Rose with an appraising expression that shouldn’t have been reassuring at all, he stuck out his free hand. “Tony Karaplis. Pleased to meet you.”

She gripped it briefly: firm, warm, strong. “Rose Fairburn.”

Tony chuckled. “You feel reassured because you know that although I’m unbelievably attractive, I won’t come on to you.”

“I do?”

“Vamp-vamp sex? Hell, no. Nobody sticks their fangs into me. Besides, my specialty is hard-up women, and although I
can see you’re susceptible right now, no vamp’s hard up except by choice.” He rattled the doorknob, banged on the door, and bellowed, “Zelda! Open up!” He reached out a rough finger and gently rubbed Rose’s forehead. “Don’t look so worried, baby. Why do you suppose I hang out with Vi and little Zelda? Because they don’t come on to me.”

Rose goggled. “How did you know I’m a vamp? I didn’t smile, and I thought I had my allure clamped down.”

“I’ve been around,” Tony said. “You’ve got a glow.”

The curtains swung partway open, a pale face appeared, and the door was flung wide by a scrawny, freckled teenybopper with orange hair sprinkled with black dots. “Finally,” she said, “I’m starved,” and then her face scrunched into a dubious evaluation of Rose. “I don’t mean to be rude, but—”

“Then don’t be,” Tony said. “There’s plenty of pizza for three.”

Zelda hooked her thumbs in the pockets of her jeans and blocked the doorway. “Tony, I need to talk to you. I can’t do that with one of your girlfriends here.” She reduced her voice to a whisper. “She’s young enough to be your daughter. Mom will be so mad.”

“She’s not one of my girls,” Tony replied patiently. “Her name is Rose. She has an appointment with your mom.”

Zelda’s face opened into a huge, dazzling, definitely vampire smile. “You’re Rose? Whoopee!” Just as abruptly she closed down, peering through the doorway at the van, then scanning the street. “You’re
not
Rose. Rose drives a Toyota. Do you see a Toyota? I don’t see a Toyota.”

“Because I don’t have one anymore,” Rose said.

Zelda stuck her chin out. “I bet you don’t even have Illinois plates. Imposter!”

Cripes. “I can explain that,” Rose began.

“If you’re here to mess with my mom—” Zelda’s fangs popped down. She squeaked and clapped her hands over her mouth. “Oh, crap!”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Zelda, you’re acting way too much like Vi these days.”

Zelda slumped. Tony gave her a gentle shove and motioned Rose ahead of him. Before he closed the door, Rose glimpsed a dark blue Porsche passing by.

She followed Zelda into an elegant living room with a toile de Jouy sofa and drapes. Tony set the pizza boxes on the coffee table. “Even your mom knows better than to lose it in front of a complete stranger. Fortunately, Rose is a vampire, too.”

“I hate being a vampire.” Zelda’s voice throbbed. “I don’t want to have a temper. I hate my fangs slotting down about nothing.” She rounded on Rose, fangs still partway down. “Not that I’m saying this is nothing. You’ve got some explaining to do, and you’ll have to get past me to get to my mom.”

“Cool it, Zelda. If she means Vi any harm, I’ll deal with her.” Tony turned a perfectly terrifying gaze on Rose, and then winked.

“Since I don’t mean any harm, that’s fine with me.” Rose positioned herself on the couch where she could see her van out the big front window. The calico cat reappeared, its nose twitching toward the pizza.

Zelda dumped paper plates on the table and opened the pizza boxes. “Thank you, Tony. You’re the best.” She squeezed off some melted cheese and gave it to the cat.

After a couple of bites of what must be the best pizza outside of Chicago, Rose felt a hell of a lot better.

So did Zelda, it seemed. “Sorry, guys. I’m overtired. I was up half the night, because Mom came home all pissed off and freaked out and worried about Rose. The
real
Rose.”

“Hey! I am the real Rose.” Rose explained the purchase of the van and dug a business card out of her handbag. Zelda read it skeptically, but Tony didn’t seem to care.

A male vampire. Out of the corner of her eye that wasn’t keeping watch on the van, Rose scoped Tony out. He wasn’t
any where close to handsome, but…No wonder her mother had been so smitten she’d forgotten common sense and, unfortunately, birth control. Except that if she hadn’t forgotten birth control, Rose wouldn’t have been born.
Thank heaven for male vamps.

Zelda said, “If you’re a vamp, why do you keep gawking at Tony? That’s, like, practically incest.” The cat leaped onto the coffee table, and she pushed it off again. “And if you’re the real Rose, why are you sneaking looks out front like your reinforcements are coming?”

“You are the most suspicious kid I’ve ever met. I’m scoping Tony out because it helps me finally understand why my mother ended up pregnant with me. I almost find myself sympathizing with her.” She considered. “It also helps me understand why guys go so nuts about me. I’ve never been able to see it from the other side before, and it makes me feel like less of a freak.”

Zelda pushed the cat off the table again. “You never saw a guy vamp before?” She fed the cat more cheese.

“Nope,” Rose said. “I’ve never met my dad. I don’t even know his name. Until today, I’d only met two girl vamps, and I wasn’t impressed by either of them. I’ve been a misfit since I sprouted my fangs, and if your mom hadn’t been so wonderful to me in the online vamp group…” Rose shook her head. “She helped me out when I was really low.”

Zelda nodded wisely. “It’s the vamp destiny to help those crossed in love. Or just in trouble.” She focused her teenybopper eagle eye on Rose. “Which is why I won’t let anybody mess with Mom, because she’s the greatest. Why are you looking out the window?”

“I’m keeping an eye on my van. If you get to be paranoid about your mother, then I can be paranoid about the dress I slaved over for her.”

Zelda shrieked. “You’ve got the dress?” The cat skittered back from the table.

“Of course I’ve got the dress. Why else would I be here?” “Wahoo!” hollered Zelda. “Go get it! I’ll wake up Mom!” Two minutes later, Rose brought the gown and mantle indoors, with Tony carrying the tailor’s dummy. Rose assembled the dress on the dummy, stuffing the sleeves with cardboard tubes and adjusting the skirt over the bum roll. It would look even more impressive with the wings, but she hadn’t had time to make them yet. She draped the mantle across a chair just as Zelda clattered down the polished wood staircase from the upper floor.

“Oh, wow,” Zelda said. “That is so unrepentantly cool.”

A curvy lady floated down the stairs dressed in a sheer white cotton nightgown, red hair flying around her shoulders. “Oh, darlings,” Violet Dupree said as she stepped off the bottom step. “It’s perfect. What a dreadful shame I can’t use it.”

Fury roiled up and Rose’s fangs slotted down. Her fingers curled into claws and she spoke through a wall of rage. “You
what?”

Violet stood her ground, hair billowing, breasts quivering under her nightgown, and opened her eyes incredulously at Rose. “Now, now, don’t get all worked up.”

“Not get worked up?” Rose advanced toward Violet in a haze of allure, keeping her hands at her sides by sheer willpower. “Do you have any idea what your scheming does to other people? Do you even
think
about the consequences?” She towered over Violet, seething, and Violet’s own allure gathered in response.

“Tony!” Zelda cried. “Vamp fight! Help!”

“Stay out of this,” Rose snapped. “This is between your mother and me.” The cat tore out of the room.

She snarled at Violet. “You should be ashamed of yourself. You’ve driven poor Miles into bankruptcy, but of course I can’t let that happen, so I’ll have to sell myself to some mobster to rescue him. And you almost got Jack killed!” It was all Rose could manage not to spit in Violet’s face. “Jack was right. You
should
be flogged!”

“Nah,” Tony said. “Violet’s not into punishment. She hasn’t even come round to bondage yet.”

“Don’t make dumb jokes, Tony,” Zelda pleaded. “Do something!”

“That insufferable two-bit jerk!” Violet’s fangs slotted down as well. Hands on hips, she glared at Rose. “So he
did
find you yesterday. I spent the whole day worrying about you because you didn’t show up and didn’t show up, and I didn’t have your number, and Jack didn’t answer my calls, so I worried about him, too. I’d like to cut him in pieces and sear him on the grill and eat him up. How dare he mess with me like that.”

“How dare you mess with me?” quivered Rose. “I slaved over this dress, and now you tell me you don’t want it? I should deck you, here and now!” She shook with the effort to hold back.

“All right, all right,” Tony muttered. “You take your mom.”

Before Rose could process anything, because all she could think was how to get out of there without slugging Violet, Tony had his arms around her from behind, and she couldn’t move. “Let me go!” she panted, twisting and turning in his grip. He tightened his arms so she could scarcely breathe. Zelda grabbed Violet’s arm with both hands and dragged her toward the couch.

Rose went slack and dug an elbow into Tony’s ribs, and it almost worked.

“Jesus.” Tony tightened his arms again. “I don’t want to hurt you, baby, but I can’t let you attack Vi.”

“I trusted her. I kept her secrets and protected the gown for her. I thought she was my friend.” She swung herself off the floor, but Tony hardly budged. “Let. Me. Go.”

“This doesn’t work for you, I guess,” Tony said. “It always helps Vi get it under control.” He sighed. “Promise you’ll calm down if I let you go?”

Zelda squashed her flailing mother into the sofa. She grabbed a porcelain giraffe just before Violet threw it. “Tony, help me!”

“Come on, Rose,” Tony said. “Vi’s about to make a godawful mess, and she’ll be grumpy as all get out when she has to clean up after herself. Do you promise?”

“I will not calm down!” Rose let out an ear-shattering shriek. “Jack was right. Vampires are self-centered, manipulative, violent freaks.”

“Uh-huh,” Tony said. “We all suck.”

“Stop with the
jokes
already,” panted Zelda, as Violet’s fingers curled around the stem of a Tiffany lamp. “She’ll never get over it if she breaks this lamp.”

“I don’t give a damn about your lamp!” Rose hollered. “I thought I would find—find
friendship
here in Bayou Gavotte. I thought I’d find people who would love me, and who wouldn’t shun me because of my fangs, and—” Her voice broke on a sob.

Silence blanketed the room. Slowly, Tony’s arms loosened. Violet’s fingers relaxed. Zelda, tight mouthed and white, straightened the lamp and set it in its place.

Rose burst into tears.

“No, no, darling!” Violet started crying, too.

Tony turned Rose to face him, and his arms closed gently around her. His voice tickled her ear. “Hey, sweetheart, we do love you.”

Violet’s arms came around them both from one side. “We
would never shun you,” she said, a throb in her voice. “Never,
ever.”

Zelda snuggled up to them on the other side. “Group hug! Vamps stick
together.”

The cat purred and rubbed against Rose’s legs.

That did it. Rose wept all the way down Tony’s shirt.

“We’re your
family,
darling,” Violet said, and Rose sobbed even harder.

Violet patted her on the back, let go, and said in a wobbly voice, “Tea. We need tea.”

“Greek coffee,” Tony said, his big, kind hand caressing Rose’s hair. “Or mud, as Zelda calls it. Go get your checkbook, Vi, and set the girl’s mind at rest. You don’t have to screw any more mobsters, Rose.” His shoulder shifted under her cheek. “Unless you want to. Your choice.”

Rose pulled slowly away. Her voice emerged as a paltry squeak, and she blinked at Violet. “You don’t want the dress, but you’re still going to pay me?” She wiped her eyes.

“Of course I’m going to pay you,” Violet huffed. She straightened her nightgown, eyes mournful on the Elizabethan gown. “I could kill Titania for wasting all your wonderful work, but I’ll make it up to you. Was Iachimo rude to you? Don’t believe a word he says about vamps. His only experience is with that bitch Titania and her horrible friends.”

Juma was most of the way down the stairs when Jack parked in the courtyard again. “Where are you going?”

“Away.” Juma headed for the alley. “You don’t like me and Rose is gone, so why should I stay?” When he followed, she rounded on him. “Back off, dude. If you so much as touch me, I’ll scream rape!”

Guys usually freaked at this. Jack pinned her with his harsh eyes and said irritably, “I don’t dislike you, Ms. Porcupine, or I didn’t until you threatened me.”

“Whatever. I’m leaving, so you can forget me and my one stupid chance.”

“Unfortunately, I can’t do that without upsetting Rose. She doesn’t give up on people as easily as I do.”

Juma snickered. “I get a second chance ’cause you want to get laid?”

The jerk actually reddened a little. “Look at it that way if you like. I’m trying to reach a friend in Baton Rouge, a professor at LSU, who might be able to take you in.”

This sounded promising—
really
promising—but Juma couldn’t let that show. “So you’ll be able to maul Rose without being interrupted by a teenage bitch.”

“That would be an added advantage,” Jack said. “What happened to making breakfast?”

“I started it, but then I thought you’d gone for the cops.”

“Cops are a complicated, red-tape-ridden last resort that I avoid at all costs. Come on, let’s go eat.”

She
was
hungry, and judging by his extremely cool car, Jack wasn’t such a bum as he’d seemed yesterday. He also noticed way too much. Two minutes later, he said, “If I take you to Baton Rouge, you have to promise not to steal my friend’s books.”

Now it was Juma’s turn to blush, which was weird, because what did she care what Jack thought of her? She rummaged in her backpack, took out Jack’s copy of
An Old English Grammar,
and put it on the bookshelf where it belonged. Resentment swelled up, but he was already cracking eggs into a bowl.

“I’m going to be straight with you,” Jack said a minute later. She huffed at this standard lie and considered walking out again, but the grits bubbled and spat and the bacon smelled great, and Stevie wasn’t likely to show up at this time of day.

“You couldn’t have a better ally than Rose.” Jack whisked the eggs. “Not only does she give second chances, she refused to tell me what you confided to her yesterday.”

“Go, Rose!” Juma said, then realized she’d been had. “Give me a break. I’m not really surprised she blabbed.” That was a lie, and of course he knew it, which made it even worse. She’d lost her edge with Rose; now she was losing it with Jack, too. “How else could you know I told her anything?”

“She’s the kind of woman people confide in,” Jack said. “It didn’t matter in the end, because I went to the Threshold last night and had a talk with Stevie.”

Juma sprang up. Her chair clattered to the floor. “He’s on the way here to get me? I could have gotten away!” She grabbed her bag and made for the door.

“Juma.” Something in his tone made her turn. “I am not in cahoots with Stevie. I rescue people. I don’t give them up to creeps who handcuff girls to their cars. Perhaps I should have said I
forced
him to talk.” A smile lifted one corner of his mouth. “With a gun sticking into his ribs and my other arm choking him.”

Cool! “He deserves to be choked, but that doesn’t change anything. You had to be nosy and find out about me, instead of letting me live my own life.” She slumped, letting her bag fall. “What did he tell you?”

“That your last name is Loveday-Smith, that you come from Destrierville, and that your grandma owns not only a hairdressing salon but half the town. Given a little time, I would have found that out on my own. Far more important, he told me she doesn’t want you to go to college.” He picked up her chair and set it for her. “What I want to know is, why not?”

Nobody ever believed
her,
but what Stevie said was gospel? “Because she wants me to be a hairdresser. I told you that.” She sat again.

He went back to the stove. “Does she want you to take over the store when she dies?”

“How should I know? Anyway, with my luck, she’ll live to be a hundred.”

“Have you considered going to hairdressing school first, then to college afterward?”

Every adult asked that. “It’ll mess up my chances for scholarships, and Grandma won’t pay for me to go to college. I said I’d go to a state school if she insisted on being cheap, but she refuses to pay for anything. She says education is a dangerous waste of time and I’ll have a better life at home, but I’ll die of boredom in the boonies.” She glared at Jack’s unbelieving expression. “You don’t understand. If I give in one little inch, I’m doomed. I
can’t
let Grandma win.”

After that, it was question after question, but the food was good, and he had plenty of Crystal sauce.
Why did you quit school? How long have you been out? Where do you want to go to college?
She told him what she’d told Rose. “I’m totally screwed as far as scholarships are concerned. I can’t enroll in school anyway, because Grandma will find me the minute the new school sends for my records, and she’ll make me come home.”

“No, she won’t,” Jack said. “I’ll enroll you in a private school and have them ignore the courses you had to drop midsemester. You’ll be put on a fast track for graduation, if that’s what you want. And if you’re afraid of staying here because of your grandma, I’ll send you to school in Europe.”

Jack bit back a smile. This was the advantage of offering something awesome: now Juma couldn’t help wanting to believe him.

“You can’t send me to school in Europe. You can’t even send me to a private school here.” But her tone was less incredulous than her words, due, Jack assumed, to her having seen his Porsche.

“Sure I can,” he said. “My rescue operation gives me access to special scholarships for that sort of thing.”

She worked her way silently through breakfast, her mind
clearly far away. He lost a bit of ground when Nan, the professor in Baton Rouge, e-mailed that she would be at a conference all day but that tomorrow would be fine. When he showed Juma the e-mail, she scrutinized the address, checked the LSU Web site to verify Nan really was a prof there, and calmed down again.

“You can stay with Gil while I run errands,” Jack said. “He’ll give you some work to do. I assume a little money for books would come in handy.”

Juma gave him one of her skeptical looks, but she couldn’t disguise the eagerness behind it. The kid was such a literature freak. He would have to confront the grandmother and find out what was really going on.

They found Gil fiddle-farting around in his store preparatory to opening. Juma went straight for a shelf with books and magazines.

“I couldn’t ignore what my voice revealed,” Gil said before Jack had a chance to open his mouth.

“I understand that, but I don’t have to like it.” The hypnotic quality of Gil’s voice might be useful, but his interpretation of women’s confessions wasn’t always accurate.

“Violet is skewed, but she means well,” Gil said. “My voice and I were in complete agreement about how to handle her.”

Jack snorted. “You think you did the handling?”

Gil said stiffly, “My voice and I, yes. Just because you can’t deal with a vampire doesn’t mean no one can.”

Jack let that pass, but as always he wished his partner wouldn’t talk as if his damned voice were a separate being.

“She wouldn’t deliberately harm a rescue,” Gil said.

“Perhaps not, but as long as she’s feuding with Titania, anyone in her orbit is endangered.” Jack called Juma away from the bookshelves and introduced her.

The girl’s eyes widened—women’s always did—as she looked Gil up and down. “Hey, Gil. For an old guy, you sure are cute.”

“Poor old Gil’s always fighting off one woman or another,” Jack said. “Be kind to him this morning and don’t join their ranks, okay?”

Juma made a face. “I don’t really like sex. I only do it if I have to. This is a majorly cool store.” She wandered to a display cabinet, but not out of earshot.

Gil whispered, “You’re leaving her here?”

“Just for today. Nan will take her, but not until tomorrow. Juma wants to earn money for books, so give her something to do.”

“What if someone from the underworld shows up?” His voice rose. “Did you hear the news? There was a riot at Constantine Dufray’s concert last night. Ten people killed and thirty-seven injured! They’ve cancelled the rest of his tour. There’s a TV news van outside the Impractical Cat, and the paparazzi are cruising up and down the street.”

That explained Constantine’s behavior last night. “Big drag, but what does it have to do with us?”

“It’s the violence. He carries it around with him wherever he goes.” Gil rearranged the pottery animals in the window. “He lives here, Jack. How can it possibly be safe? Even Violet says he’s dangerous. By the way, she wants me to make figurines for her garden.”