Secrets in the Shadows (4 page)

Drake cocked his head. “And why, pray tell, do you feel a need to protect Squires?”

“I’m not protecting him, per se.” He heaved a heavy sigh. “You know more about vampire societies outside Philadelphia than any of the Guardians. You know how … territorial … master vampires can be.”

It was true that before he’d encountered Eli, Drake had had dealings with the outside world that the Guardians knew nothing about. In every major city he knew, there were one or more vampire “families”—a master vampire and his or her fledglings. In some cities, these families acted remarkably like street gangs, claiming territory and fighting amongst themselves to expand their boundaries. It went without saying that Jules, as a foreign vampire, would not be welcomed with open arms in the city of Baltimore.

“Yes, I know,” Drake agreed, his mind still trying to puzzle out what Eli was getting at. “Jules will step on toes the moment he sets foot in Baltimore. What of it? And why does it matter if he kills Squires?”

Eli squirmed and looked remarkably uncomfortable. “I have an agreement with the Master of Baltimore,” he admitted. “A non-interference agreement. If Jules kills one of her fledglings, that will most definitely break our agreement.”

Drake sagged in his chair, more shocked by Eli’s confession than he’d like to admit. He’d always thought he himself was the only Killer Eli would tolerate, and that he was tolerated because of his strong moral code. But a master vampire wouldn’t have the same kind of scruples. He’d thought Eli’s commitment to destroying Killer was unshakable. Of course, Eli had refrained from killing Drake, so that should have been his first clue that the Founder was more flexible than one might originally have thought.

“I’ve disillusioned you,” Eli said, with a sad little smile. “For that I’m deeply sorry.”

Drake waved the apology off. “No need. I understand that the world isn’t painted in black and white.”

“I’ve had to make certain concessions to ensure the survival of the Guardians. I don’t like it, but there you have it.”

“So you have agreements with other masters as well. That’s why you never send the Guardians out of the area.”

But to Drake’s surprise, Eli shook his head. “I don’t send them out of the area because they’re not strong enough to overcome a master with a gang of fledglings. My only special agreement is with the Master of Baltimore, with whom I was … acquainted long ago.”

Drake’s curiosity was most definitely piqued, but Eli continued before Drake could ask any questions.

“Camille could destroy the Guardians if she wanted too. She’s quite old, and quite powerful, and she knows—” Eli cut himself off with a frown. “She knows how to exploit our vulnerabilities.”

But that hadn’t been what he’d originally meant to say. A suspicion crept into Drake’s mind and took root. All the years he’d known Eli, Drake had managed to keep his suspicions to himself. No doubt he should do the same now, but his tongue seemed to have a different idea.

“She knows you’re a Killer,” he said, and saw Eli tense.

Personally, Drake was amazed the thought never seemed to occur to the rest of the Guardians. How could someone who didn’t feed on the kill possibly have the kind of massive power that Eli had more than once demonstrated? But the Guardians didn’t want to know the truth about their Founder, and so they allowed themselves to believe he was some kind of mysterious anomaly, an immensely powerful Guardian who’d never killed a mortal soul.

Now that he’d opened his mouth, Drake figured he might as well keep talking, despite the noticeable chill in the air. “I would guess that you’re old enough to venture out and about in broad daylight, so you can kill when your Guardians don’t know about it. And you’ve built this fable that you never leave the grounds of your house to provide yourself a ready alibi.

“I’m not one to throw stones, Eli. I’m certainly not going to tell anyone, if that’s why you’re glaring at me like that.”

A long, tense silence followed. The air had grown positively arctic, and Drake wondered if he’d overstepped his bounds. Perhaps now that Eli realized the extent of Drake’s knowledge, he’d decide Drake had to go. But even in the face of Eli’s anger, Drake didn’t quite feel afraid of him. Wary, yes, but not afraid.

With another heavy sigh, Eli swallowed the bitter pill. “My authority has been weakened enough already. If the Guardians were to suspect me of any hypocrisy …”

Drake knew exactly where Eli was coming from. In the outside world, master vampires held their “families” together via the bond between master and fledgling. Eli had no such bond with his Guardians. As he’d said in the past, he led only as long as the Guardians let him lead. If the Guardians were to learn the distasteful truth, he might not be able to hold them together anymore.

Eli was right. Jules couldn’t be allowed to kill Squires, not when the Master of Baltimore held such a terrible threat over Eli’s head. The Guardians’ mission was too important, and they’d never survive without Eli.

“I’ll go to Baltimore,” Drake said, “and I’ll do my best to bring Jules back.”

“And if you can’t persuade him to come back?” Eli’s face had gone impassive again, his thoughts and emotions shuttered tightly.

“I won’t kill him, Eli. I have to draw the line somewhere.” Jules was an arrogant, annoying prick, but at heart he was relatively decent. Not someone Drake’s conscience could handle killing.

Eli nodded. “All right, then. You’d better be at your most persuasive. And keep in mind what’s at stake.”

Drake knew Eli hoped that if push came to shove, Drake would make the “right” decision and kill Jules if he refused to abandon his vendetta. But that just wasn’t going to happen. He’d find some way to get Jules out of Baltimore, even if he had to tie him up and stash him in the trunk of a car to drag him back to Eli. It would be up to Eli to decide what to do with him then.

***

It had been one hell of a hectic day. After contacting all her clients to let them know she’d been called out of town for an emergency, Hannah’d gotten right to work figuring out where Jules was staying in Baltimore. A surprisingly easy task, actually. He wasn’t making any particular attempt to be sneaky. She’d guessed—correctly—that someone as fastidious as he would stay at a high-class hotel.

She’d called two hotels and asked to be connected to Jules Gerard with no success. Then she’d called the Harbor Court hotel. After the operator’s “one moment, I’ll connect you,” Hannah had hastily hung up. Funny—if she’d called the hotel and asked if Jules was staying there, they would have refused to tell her.

As she packed her bags, she thought long and hard about whether to take her gun with her. After the Banger incident, when her lucky shot with Carolyn’s borrowed gun had saved the day, she’d reluctantly decided it was time to get a gun of her own and learn to shoot it. But she hated the damn thing. When she was ten, she’d gotten hold of her father’s gun and almost shot her brother’s foot off while playing with it to prove she wasn’t a sissy. She still occasionally had nightmares, hearing her brother scream, seeing the blood oozing from the wound. He bore the scar to this day, but now the damn fool thought it was a funny story. Ever since that day, she’d decided she and guns were a bad combination. But now that she knew about vampires, she found she felt safer armed and dangerous.

Of course, she had no permit to carry a concealed weapon in Baltimore. She could get into deep shit if she was caught with it. But how could she possibly go down there with no weapon?

Crossing her fingers, she tossed the gun and a box of bullets into her suitcase.

Her lemon of a car was in the shop for the umpteenth time, so she decided to rent a nice, shiny Taurus for the trip. She loaded up with maps at the rental place, but she was a tad … directionally challenged. Three hours, and too many wrong turns to count, later, she gratefully pulled up to the front doors of the hotel. The gratefulness turned to unease when she got a good look at the place. She’d known from her research that it was a nice hotel, but she hadn’t realized how nice. She made a good living, but this place was definitely not in her price range. She almost lost her lunch when she found out parking would cost her twenty-one dollars a day. Maybe she should have taken the train after all.

Her discomfort rose another notch when she stepped into the lobby. “Holy shit,” she muttered under her breath. The place was a freakin’ palace. Her shoes made soft clinking noises as she crossed the floor of creamy ivory tile. The gorgeous flower arrangement that dominated the room was bigger than Hannah, and overflowed with sunflowers and lilies and exotic greens. A graceful curving staircase, complete with red-patterned carpet, gave the lobby a Gone with the Wind feel. And there was a crystal chandelier. In the lobby. Motel 6 this was not. Why couldn’t Jules have been a cheapskate?

Trying not to look awed at her surroundings, she made her way to the reception desk. She could just use a house phone and ask to be connected to Jules’s room, but thinking about what this trip was going to cost her made her grumpy enough to want to give him a hard time. So instead of calling his room, she went to the front desk and asked them to leave a message, saying only that an “old friend” would meet him in the bar. No doubt Jules would think the message was from Squires.

As she should have expected, the bar was as classy as the rest of the hotel. It was called the Explorer’s Lounge, and was decorated in an elegant safari motif, with murals on the walls and antiques everywhere. She felt like some kind of barbarian ordering a beer—this was more of a cognac kind of joint. But a Corona was about as high falutin’ a drink as she could handle, so she ordered one and tried to look inconspicuous as she waited for Jules to make an appearance.

Minutes ticked slowly by as she nursed her beer. She smiled faintly to herself, trying to imagine what kind of face Jules was going to make when he saw her. And how grateful he was going to be to have her help. Not!

Some of her self-assurance fled when she glanced at her watch and noticed it was six-thirty already. She’d thought sure he’d be down by now. Certainly he was awake. Maybe he hadn’t noticed the message light on his phone? She debated calling, but decided against it, at least for now. She ordered another beer and settled in to wait some more.

She’d just decided she’d have to call after all when Jules finally made his appearance. No attempt at stealth—he was striding toward the bar with calculated purpose, his face set in a deep scowl that would be unbecoming on anyone else. Damn, she’d forgotten what eye-candy he was. He didn’t see Hannah at first, so she took a moment to ogle before the games began.

It was no wonder it had taken him so long to come down—he’d obviously spent a good deal of time in front of the mirror. His dress was casual—for Jules, at least—but screamed of money and good taste. Hannah imagined each item had a designer label on it, but not being a connoisseur of men’s fashion, she couldn’t have said which ones. His long-sleeved forest-green shirt had the sheen of fine silk. The color was a perfect complement to his artfully tousled auburn hair. She couldn’t help wondering how much mousse it had taken to get those fine locks into such perfect disarray. Charcoal gray trousers hugged his hips, and she knew if he turned around the rear view would be spectacular.

His features and his clothes should have given him a pretty-boy look, and yet Hannah would never dream of describing him that way. Maybe it was just his expression, his sensuous lips pressed into a thin line of anger, his expressive eyes narrowed as he scanned the small crowd at the bar. Or maybe it was just that she knew he was a vampire, and therefore supremely dangerous.

When Jules finally caught sight of her, Hannah smiled brightly and waved. His expression darkened even more, and something inside Hannah quailed. Instinct told her to run like hell as he stalked toward her table, his anger a palpable force. But from long experience, she’d learned to hide her vulnerabilities well, so instead of cowering, she raised her beer bottle in a mock toast.

He came to a stop directly in front of her, glowering down at her ferociously.

“Yeah, glad to see you too,” she said. “Have a seat—I’m getting neck strain looking up at you like this.”

One corner of his lips raised in something like a snarl. He jerked a chair out from under the table and sat. “What do you think you’re doing?” He leaned forward to crowd her space, and his voice was a low growl he expected to intimidate her.

She sniffed the air and grinned at him. “You know, you’d be much scarier if you skipped the mousse and perfume.” She sniffed again, catching the warm, spicy scent of him. “Not that I’m complaining.” Whatever he was wearing smelled damn good!

A muscle ticked in his jaw. “It’s aftershave, not perfume.” He sounded like he was one step shy of strangling her.

She shrugged. “Whatever. It smells nice, anyway. But it really detracts from your terror-factor.”

“All right, how about this?” He pulled his lips away from his teeth, giving her a glimpse of the long, sharp fangs he’d lowered.

She shuddered deep inside. She’d seen vampire fangs before, of course, but that didn’t make the sight of them any easier to swallow. “Ooh, I’m scared,” she mocked, though she wasn’t sure she was entirely convincing. “You planning to use those on me?” An image came to her mind—her neck stretched out and vulnerable while Jules lowered his head to her throat. The image was strangely, unnervingly erotic.

He leaned back in his chair, shaking his head at her. “I’d forgotten what a pain in the ass you were. What do you want?”

“I’m on assignment in Baltimore and thought I’d look you up.”

“Conasse,” he growled.

Jules got a great kick out of insulting people in French, or Quebecian, or whatever it was he spoke. Hannah figured he did it because he always got such a reaction from people—there was something creepy about being insulted but not knowing what exactly the insult was. Well, she wasn’t about to give him the pleasure of reacting!

“I’m here as your guardian angel.” She giggled. “Guardian angel. Gee, I made a joke and didn’t know it.”

“Your clever wit astounds me.” A cocktail waitress made her way to their table and asked Jules if he wanted anything to drink. He waved her off. “Ah, for the days when I could drown my sorrows in alcohol!” he said when she’d wandered away.