Rise of the Blood (11 page)

I shot Nick an amused glance, which he mirrored back to me. “Well, I try, ma’am, but it isn’t easy.”

“And who is this?” Dad barked, jutting a chin at Jesus, who smiled, bowed deeply and introduced himself.

“I’m Jesus, Christos and Tori’s executive assistant at the agency. When trouble calls, I’m the one who takes the message.”

I didn’t think that came out quite the way he’d intended, since it didn’t puff up his importance the way he liked. I blamed jet lag.

“Shall we?” he asked.

Christos made an “after you” gesture, and Jesus led the way to the meeting room—where I was jumped immediately upon entering.

“
There
you are!” Tina said, mugging me. I’d have called it a hug, but her arms were like steel bands propelling me forward, leaving the others in the dust. “Come on, they want to meet my bridesmaids.”

“
They?”

She paused in her manhandling to give me a quick once over. “You look good, except for some puffiness around the eyes. Flying always makes me water-retentive too. Don’t worry, we’ve got a cream for that. Remind me to give you a sample.”

I bucked out of her embrace. “Good to see you too. Congratulations, by the way.”

Just like that, the disapproval left her face, and she beamed like a prison searchlight. “Sorry. I’m just…nervous. I want everything to be perfect, and I know the film stuff is paying for my dream wedding, but…OMG, the stress!”

A young blond man with a pompadour, a shiny vest and a clipboard bustled up to us. “This the last bridesmaid?” he asked, giving me the same critical stare I’d gotten from Tina. “Let’s get her with the others.”

It was his turn to hustle me about the room…or try to, anyway. When I growled, he drew back his arm and instead crowded me toward Althea and Junessa.

He eyed the three of us—the Amazon, the wispy wood nymph and
me
, the wild woman, probably still smelling of onions and tzatziki sauce. His face scrunched when he looked at me, but all he said was, “I can work with this.”

This
.

“
Hello
. Living, breathing person right in front of you,” I snapped.

“As if I could miss you breathing,” he sniped back.

Damned onions.

“Okay,” he said, clapping to get our attention as if we were wayward children. “Tomorrow you’re due at eleven a.m.
sharp
for hair and makeup,” he said to Althea and Junessa. He pointed to Tina and then to me. “You and you, ten a.m. You’re getting the works.”

I started to protest that I’d just gotten “the works”, courtesy of Christie, and I still wasn’t over it, but Tina looked so happy that I bit it back.
Not my day, not my day
, I chanted over and over to myself.

“Also tomorrow—no alcohol. No caffeine, if you can manage it. Makes you bloaty and adds to those dark circles under your eyes.” Why was he looking at me? “Now, off with you. The meeting will start momentarily, and that should tell you everything else you need to know.” He made shooing motions, and I stood my ground until Tina bumped my shoulder. “Thanks for this,” she said to me. “I know it’s not your thing.”

I looked down, feeling like a behemoth next to her, just like I had my mother. Tina, too, was a tiny little thing, small and wiry, the better to fold herself into impossible spaces as the contortionist for the Rialto Bros. sideshow, where Yiayia performed as the bearded lady and where Pappous, rest his soul, had once been the strong man.

Something was different about Tina. I struggled to put my finger on it.

“Your overbite!” I exclaimed. So tactful. And oh-so-observant. How had I not noticed right away?

But she didn’t slap me down as I deserved. “You like it? Jason is amazing! Did I tell you how we met?” Of course she had. She’d told anyone who would listen…twice…but I let her go on. “I had my jaw reset. Jason did the work on my face and then fell in love with it. That’s what he said. Have you met him yet? He’s unbelievable. Tori, I’m so in love!”

The wedding had pretty much tipped me off to that, but once again I bit my lip. Tina and I hadn’t always been close—the dainty flower and the tomboy—but we had always been family, and it was good to see her happy. Good to see
everybody
all together again after I’d been away for so long. For a second I was able to forget death threats and mysterious priestly stalker guys and think familial thoughts.

Tina’s gaze shifted suddenly to something—someone?—behind me, and I whirled, ready for a fight, only to see an unassuming man with his hands up in the universal “don’t hit me” sign.

I hadn’t realized I’d swung around into a ready stance. Twitchy. Hair trigger. I was going to have to get better control. I glanced back at Tina for assurance that she knew the stranger before me, and from the look on her face, figured that I’d just met Jason. Good thing he wouldn’t have a mark from the impression I’d just left on him.

“Whoa,” he said. “Down girl. I’m just here for my beautiful bride.”

I quickly got out of the way of the lovers as Tina leapt into his arms.

I studied them as they clung to each other. Jason was a head taller than Tina, with light brown hair. He was handsome in a baby-faced kind of way men often grew facial hair to disguise. No piercings or prison tats that I could see. No psycho, serial killer vibe that I could pick up, and my internal alarms didn’t buzz, which might not mean anything at all. They tended to be pretty danger-focused, and at the moment he looked like a lover, not a fighter.

Prissy blond boy with clipboard called the production meeting to order before I could be formally introduced, and I re-found Nick and Jesus and sat with them to listen to an hour about how we shouldn’t look right at the camera, interact with the stars, mug for shots, wear patterns that would strobe on film, drink too much, yada yada, etcetera so forth.

Even so, the room was buzzing with excitement when it was all over. The coffee, tea, fruit and cookies on the food service table at the back of the room gave people an excuse to linger and compare notes on what they’d wear and who might be willing to do who else’s hair or lend a hand on makeup.

Althea and Junessa were quick to offer miracle makeovers, though I had no idea when they’d find time to provide them between the rehearsal, dinner and eleven a.m. makeup call. I wondered if they could write off the wedding as an Eterné business expense. I’d bet they’d make a small fortune among the guests.

“I’ll catch up with you,” I told Nick as we left.

“Where are you going?”

“I have to check in on Apollo and see if he’s got a list for me yet of potential enemies. Plus, I want to see what he might know about the men in black.”

“I’ll go with you,” he said, putting a hand to my lower back to escort me.

I panicked. “No,” I said, and then thought furiously about what excuse to offer, since I couldn’t tell Nick about needing my ambrosia fix.

“I mean,
yes
, that would be great. But I have a better use for you.”

“Oh yeah?” he asked suggestively.

“Interviewing Serena.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t say ‘oh’ like it’s some hardship. I’m sure she’s recovered from her dead faint by now. But no seducing her secrets out of her.”

“What if she starts it?” he teased.

I hoped he was teasing, anyway.

“I’ll leave that up to you. Just know that while I’m currently unarmed, I’m still dangerous.”

“Aw, jealousy, the sincerest form of flattery. I’ll try not to be too irresistible.”

“Too late,” I told him. I stood on the balls of my feet to give him a kiss. Then I called Apollo to find out where he was and if he could tell us where Serena might be, but as soon as the call connected, I felt a zing of forewarning streak through my body and instead of “Hello,” I heard, “—answer that!” in a sharp female voice. I was pretty sure what had come before was the command, “Don’t.”

“I sent it to voicemail,” Apollo said on the other end of the phone line.

“Liar. Hand it over.”

I didn’t know the other voice, but she didn’t sound friendly, and my sixth sense sent me running for the stairs, once again ignoring the perfectly good elevator. Just recently, my precognition had developed its own GPS, and when I hit the top floor of the hotel, I looked left and right, and raced in the direction that made my heart pound. Nick pounded along behind me.

Just as we hit the door to Apollo’s room, we heard, “Well then, I’ll scream.” It was the same voice I’d heard on the phone. I had no idea what was going on, but I was going to find out.

“Hotel Security,” I called through the door. “Open up.”

“Your choice,” the woman inside said, too quietly to be intended for my ears, which meant whatever happened next would be up to Apollo.

“Mr. Demas, are you all right in there?” I called.

I reached for the door handle, even though I knew that it wouldn’t budge. I hated always being right.

“Help me!” the girl inside suddenly screamed. “He’s a beast!”

I planted one foot on the floor and lashed out with my other, like I’d learned in kickboxing class. The door didn’t give, but my leg did, pain arcing up like a lightning strike from my heel to my hip. I staggered back, into the far wall, using it to hold me up. Nick checked to see if I was okay and then took a running start at the door himself. As he struck, it seemed to buck on its hinges, splintering around them. He bounced back from the blow and took another shot at the door. This time it gave way, and Nick burst into the room. I pushed myself off the wall and staggered through behind him.

In the center of it, between a bed and a desk the size of an old mainframe computer stood a nearly naked girl, her dress torn and fire in her eyes. I thought she was aiming for fear, but what I saw there was triumph. She launched herself into Nick’s arms, sobbing and ranting about how Apollo had attacked her, while I looked from the girl to Nick to Apollo with shock written all over my face.

“Dare I ask what happened?” I said to Apollo, who watched the girl like she was a viper who might suddenly strike.

“Nothing, I swear to you! She did that to herself. Well, first she tried to seduce me for a part in the movie. When that didn’t work, she tore her dress and said she’d cry rape if I didn’t go along with her.”

The sobbing had quieted significantly, I noticed, while the girl listened for what Apollo would say.

“Liar,” she yelled, turning on him, but staying within the protection of Nick’s arms. She raised tearful eyes to me, squeezing out a drop of moisture. “He saw me in the hotel and said I’d be just perfect for a part in his film. I didn’t know I’d be auditioning in his bed. When I refused, he went crazy. He tore my dress and he…he…he would have…if you hadn’t come along…”

Disgust made me want to backhand her, but that would only give her a mark that might help with her story. With all the actual abuse that went on in the world, the thought of someone using a false accusation to get ahead made me more than sick. It made me mad. And I knew it was false. Apollo might not have the best reputation in the world, but if his condition didn’t make assault highly unlikely, what I’d overheard of their conversation certainly did.

“Get out,” I said to her.

She looked utterly dumbfounded. I was a woman. I should believe her. She turned watery eyes to Nick. I had to admit, she was quite the actress. “Please, you have to believe me. You have to help. What if he does it again and you’re not here to stop him?”

Nick took this one. “I don’t know the penalty
here
for filing a false police report, but in the States there’s jail time.”

Her eyes got really wide. “But, I’m telling the truth.”

“Uh huh.”

“Tell them,” she said, appealing to, of all people, Apollo himself. “I’ll drop the whole thing, if you’ll just—”

“No,” he said.

“
Freeze
,” I said, not prepared to take any more.

She froze, her mouth opened in mid-protest.

I looked from the girl in her ripped dress—sleek chestnut hair straightened to within an inch of its life falling in a shining curtain down to her waist, not at all mussed as if there’d been a struggle over her virtue—to Apollo—looking a lot less spooked now.

“I swear, I never touched her,” he said again.

I believed him. But still, she could cause trouble if she really wanted to. “I’m not sure the press will care. It’d be juicy enough to hurt you and the film Uncle Hector’s so invested in.”

Nick shook his head at me. “You can’t just go around freezing people.”

“What would you suggest?” I asked.

Because freezing her had been the
most
civil of my thoughts. The ease with which we could hide her body being the least. Not that I’d been serious about that idea.

“Sadly,” said Apollo, “this isn’t the first time something like this has happened. But last time was back in the States, and I was, uh, with someone already when the girl broke in.”

I rolled my eyes.

“We’re calling hotel security,” Nick cut in, offering that suggestion I’d asked for. “Or the police.”

Apollo and I exchanged a glance. That would be the by-the-book way to play it. It was also a likely path to accusations and tabloid headlines. We’d both been there and done that.

“Or I could switch clothes with the girl and we could put her out into the hallway,” I suggested.

Nick’s eyes narrowed at me, and I didn’t think it was just because of the disparity in our sizes. My clothes would likely swim on the girl. “If you strip her down,
that’s
assault.”

I sighed. I could see his point, even if I didn’t like it.

“Serena could cover for you,” I told Apollo. “You’re trying to bulk up your ‘romance’ to promote your film, right? Would she say she was with you when crazy-girl broke in?”

Nick threw his hands into the air and paced to the phone over on the desk. “You will
not
suborn perjury,” he said, reaching for the receiver.

I turned on him. “Oh, like you told Internal Affairs that Detective Lau flew off on the back of a dragon? Or that Zeus and Poseidon were ancient Greek gods?”

His tension didn’t ease. “I left things out. I didn’t lie,” he said. “And
you
,” he accused Apollo, “are awfully blasé about this whole thing.”