The bike shut off.
“I’m sorry. You were right,” Christophe said.
She smiled and scrubbed the tears off her cheeks before she looked up at him. “My new five favorite words.”
“I can’t pretend this will be easy for me, but I’ll do my best,” he said. “I can’t walk away from you. Not now, maybe not ever. I don’t pretend that’s easy for me, either. You’ve turned my world upside down, so the least I can do is trust you.”
She wanted to throw herself into his arms. She settled for taking his hand.
“Coffee? While we plan our next move?”
“Our next move is clear,” he said. “We’re going to Daybreak, the vampire club. Did you happen to write any vampire stories?”
Chapter 32
The Daybreak Inn, East End
The soulful sound of jazz piano and a sultry female voice singing about heartbreak and the man who done her wrong met them when they walked in the doors of the Daybreak club. Fiona had never been in a vampire nightclub, so she looked around her with some interest.
It was nothing at all like she’d expected.
Soft lighting turned the space a mellow, smoky gold. Deep chocolate walls and dark brown leather booths accented the rich golden tones of the wooden tables and the spectacularly polished bar. It looked like an old world, old money gentleman’s club from a novel.
The people who occupied the space were similarly golden. Too beautiful, too perfect to be real. Or at least too perfect to be human. These were all vampires, she’d bet, and every single one of them had turned to look at her.
“Nice the way you make instant friends wherever you go,” Christophe said next to her ear.
“It’s my natural magnetism,” she murmured.
“Actually, it’s the scent of his blood.” The man speaking stared at them with glowing red eyes across a dozen or so paces of open floor. “There’s something different about it. Not human, not shifter, not Fae. So what does that leave us?”
He was movie-star gorgeous. No, not even that. Movie stars would give everything they owned to look as good as this man. He wore a black silk shirt and black trousers as if they had been made for him. They probably had. That kind of casual arrogance only came with title, money, and position.
She glanced at Christophe and amended the thought. Or Atlantean warrior training and a great deal of magic.
At the moment, Christophe was busy staring down the vampire. Finally he replied. “Alien. I’m a little green man from outer space.”
“We’re not fans of aliens here.”
Fiona put on her best “lady of the manor” smile. Old money, indeed. She could carry her own on this. “We’re just here for a drink.”
“I don’t think so, Lady Fiona. How is Lucinda doing, by the way? Evidently you made quite an impression.”
“You’re very well informed,” she said.
“We simply want to live our lives in peace. The word is out about the two of you, and if I let you drink in my bar, I have trouble with Telios. Nobody wants trouble with Telios, especially me.”
Christophe stepped right up in the vampire’s face. “Does he have Vanquish?”
“Even if I knew, do you think I’d tell you? Whoever you are, whatever you want, get the hell out of my club and stay out. I’m not involved in any of that, and I plan to keep it that way.”
Christophe started to respond, but Fiona grabbed his arm and shook her head. They were slowly, stealthily being surrounded, and this time she didn’t think she could talk her way out of it.
“Let’s go. He has the right to be left in peace,” she said.
The vampire turned his dark gaze to her. “Yes. We do. We are content to live in a society without the fear of mobs with torches for the first time in our existence. Leave us be.”
“If Telios has his way and starts a war against humanity, you’ll be right there with those torches again,” Christophe said. “You’re going to have to choose sides soon.”
“Perhaps. But not tonight. Now leave.”
They left.
Fairsby Manor
“What do you mean, you can’t find him?” Gideon kicked the cringing vampire in the ribs again. “How difficult can it be to find a single insane vampire?”
“I don’t know where he is,” the vampire blubbered. “We lost several of our number when they attacked that human, except he’s not human—no way is he human—and those of us who are left can’t find Telios.”
“No, Christophe is definitely not human,” Gideon agreed. “But what?”
“I don’t know that, either,” the vamp whined.
Gideon kicked him again. “I wasn’t asking you, you pathetic waste of space. Get out. Try again. Follow any rumor or possibility, no matter how far-fetched.”
“Well, there was one thing, but it was ridiculous.”
“What?”
“I heard he was seen entering a shifter hangout, but that’s just stupid,” the vamp said, all but falling over itself in the hope to prove useful.
“Go!” Gideon screamed. “Go now. To that shifter place and find that vampire or I will chain you in a box with silver and crosses for the rest of eternity, you miserable leech.”
The vampire leapt out the window so fast it nearly flew. Or maybe it did fly. Gideon didn’t know and didn’t care. All he knew was that if Telios was suddenly going to shifter venues, then the vampire might very well have discovered the Siren’s secrets. Which could be bad for Gideon.
Very bad, indeed.
At least until he figured a way to fix it. So Gideon did what he had always done best: he started drawing up a strategy to make others suffer and bleed. He would call in another of his minions, this one Fae. They’d put part two of his plan into motion.
And that was very good. Very, very good.
Campbell Manor
“That was a useless night,” Christophe said as they walked up the stairs from the garage.
“No, it wasn’t. We learned what is not true, so we can start to deduce what is true. The shifters don’t have the sword, or they wouldn’t have reacted like that. Telios terrifies even the vampires he might recruit to be on his side. There are even rumors, although I think it’s ridiculous, that he might be the real Jack the Ripper.”
“Aha!” Christophe shouted.
Fiona shushed him. “Aha, what? Also, be quieter, please.”
“Nothing. Just a hunch I had. Anyway, Telios may have the sword. A powerful enough vampire could get past the security in the Jewel House easily enough,” Christophe mused. “He doesn’t seem to be the type who would share the news, either. So we can’t rule him out.”
“So tomorrow we go after Telios?”
Christophe shook his head. “Tomorrow I go after Telios. Alone. A very old, very powerful master vampire is my domain, not yours, won’t you agree, partner?”
She narrowed her eyes, and he tensed for another battle, but then she sighed and smiled. “Yes, I do agree. There’s not much I can do other than get in the way. But I’m going to be working on a plan for how to clear the Scarlet Ninja’s name.”
“Agreed.”
A sound in the hallway alerted them to Hopkins’s presence. “Glad to see you home safely, Lady Fiona. I’ll say good night.”
“You didn’t need to wait up for me, Hopkins,” she said, smiling at him.
“Of course not, my lady.” He bowed and retired to his quarters, leaving Fiona staring after him with a mixture of fondness and exasperation.
Christophe knew how she felt. “Annoying, isn’t it, when nobody does what you say?”
She stuck her tongue out at him and ran down the hall to her room. He gave her exactly three seconds’ head start, and then he gave chase.
He burst through her door and she was nowhere to be seen. Maybe she’d headed to the bathroom to freshen up. He slowed to a walk, trying not to look like a love-struck fool, and someone pushed him from behind, and then laughed.