I agree that Alec is being made to look like he is the Ilargi. I believe we can kill two birds with one stone by searching his house for information on both fronts.
Magda punched the address Kristoff gave her into the car’s GPS, making a little face at the results. “With the traffic, it’s going to take us a while to get there. Maybe we should go to the hotel first, then visit the house, then prepare for the onslaught?”
“Alec’s house first,” Kristoff said stubbornly.
“House it is.”
It took exactly two hours and twenty minutes to get there, but as I gazed in awe at the building, I decided it was worth it.
“ Et voilà. Casa Alec. Ooh. And it is a very nice casa.” Magda pulled up outside of an arched gate that spanned a drive that curled around to the back of a pale yellow chiffon-colored house.
“That’s one heck of a house,” Raymond said as we all got out of the car. He took a few quick photos. “Not at all what I expected a vampire to live in.”
“Gothic castle with bats circling a bell tower?” I asked, smiling.
He flashed a grin. “Well, maybe. But this one . . . hoo. Must have set him back at least a mill. Maybe two. Do you think it has a view of the valley below?”
“Shall I ring?” Magda asked, poised to ring the visitor’s bell.
“Won’t do any good. There’s clearly no one home,” Raymond answered from where he was peering through the brown metal fence to the house. “Looks deserted. Maybe we should come back.”
“Not after all we’ve been through,” Magda answered, pressing the bell. “Let’s see if anyone answers.”
We waited a few minutes, but when it became clear that no one was either home to answer the ring or willing to do so, we decided we would have to rely on our own resources.
“Boost me over the fence, and I’ll see if there’s a way to open it from the other side,” I told Kristoff.
“No,” he answered, just as I figured he would.
“You know, I’m not sure that that’s not technically breaking and entering,” Raymond answered, his voice filled with reluctance. “It might be better if we waited until we can get hold of someone who can legally give us permission to go in the house.”
“Don’t be so straitlaced,” Magda told him with a grin. “A little light breaking and entering is good for you. Besides, I want to see inside. I’m dying to see how a vampire really lives.”
“I assure you, we live just as a mortal does,” Kristoff said dryly.
“No coffins?” Raymond asked, his curiosity clearly getting the better of him. “No odd servants undertaking mysterious tasks late at night? No mirrors draped in black to hide the fact that you don’t have a reflection?”
“He has a reflection,” I said, coming to Kristoff’s defense. “How do you think he shaves without being able to see himself?”
Raymond’s mouth opened and closed a couple of times, like a confused fish. “Well, I . . . I . . . I guess I never thought about it. I just assumed that vampires didn’t need to shave. No one on Angel ever shaved.”
“You mortals watch entirely too much television,” Kristoff said as he approached the gate.
Raymond murmured a vague excuse while Magda giggled.
“I just hope the fence isn’t electrified or anything like that,” I said, standing next to him, eyeing the large brown metal gate. “I assume you want to go first. Just be careful in case Alec has booby-trapped it somehow.”
“I don’t need to climb the fence; I know the code,” Kristoff answered with a long-suffering look at me.
Don’t even think of lightening your eyes, Boo.
I don’t have the slightest idea what you’re talking about, he answered.
Oh, don’t you try to tell me you aren’t aware vampires can change their eye color.
Some can, perhaps. I wasn’t aware I shared that trait.
You do. It’s like a barometer for your temper. Light is pissy, and dark is . . .
I stopped and waited.
Dark is what? Happy? he asked.
Aroused. Allow me to demonstrate. I sent him a few memories of our time spent in the Blue Lagoon. His eyes darkened from their normally flawless teal to a deep navy. See? Your eyes are dark now. You’re aroused.
A fact that will become evident to others if you continue along that particular memory. And that one.
I smiled.
That one, my little temptress, is likely to get you bent over my lap.
Promises, promises, I purred, suddenly standing up straight when Kristoff spent a few moments indulging in just how I was going to be punished.
Luckily, Magda’s impatience distracted us before Kristoff’s pants grew too tight and I started squirming in earnest.
“Let’s go. What are we waiting for? It will be getting dark in another hour.” She poked Kristoff in the arm.
Kristoff punched in some numbers on the recessed panel, and the gate slid open with a nearly silent hiss.
“Take the car or leave it?” Magda asked, poised to do either.
“Leave it,” Kristoff said.
“It would be safer inside the gate,” Raymond said, looking pointedly up and down the street. “This might be an affluent neighborhood, but you never know. Someone might try to steal it, and I’d hate to have to explain that to the rental company. You’d lose your insurance deposit.”
“Stop being such an accountant,” Magda said with a fond squeeze of his arm.
“Not that I suspect it’s likely to be stolen here, but if we leave it where it is, anyone who comes by will see that someone is here,” I pointed out.
“It’s easier to get away with the car on the road,” Kristoff said with a grim note to his voice.
“Fast getaway,” Magda said, nodding her head sagely. “Makes sense. I could always move it down the road a smidgen. There was a spot I could pull off the street, where it wouldn’t be quite so obvious it was this house we were at.”
Kristoff agreed that would be smart, and accordingly, Magda and Ray moved the car down the road half a block or so.
“I can’t believe we’re doing this. I can’t believe I’m here with a vampire and a sparkling-light lady, and we’re breaking and entering a house so expensive, we could go to jail for at least fourteen years,” Raymond said as we all trooped up the drive to the house. “This is something straight out of The A-Team .”
“Sweetie, your middle age is showing,” Magda said.
Alec’s house, I had to admit, was impressive. It was of modern design, shaped like several square blocks had been stacked one upon another, with bits of it jutting out in an odd but pleasing formation.
“What are we going to do about the lo-”
Before I could finish asking, Kristoff opened the door and gestured for us to go in.
I frowned at him. “How did you know it would be unlocked?”
“I made sure it was.”
“Huh?” For one moment I had a vision of some strange, magical long-distance locksmith abilities known only to vampires.
Now that is so far-fetched, it isn’t even in the realm of television.
Then how . . . ?
“The associate who was in California checking on Alec’s movements opened the house up for me. And no, I don’t know how-I didn’t ask him. Does it matter?” he asked.
“Why are we here if you’ve already had someone search the house?” Magda asked as she and Raymond walked slowly down a couple of slate steps into a vast living room.
Kristoff evidently knew Alec’s house security code as well, since the alarm never sounded after he tapped in a few numbers. “He didn’t search the house for anything but Alec. It’s our job to see if there is anything here that can tell us whether or not Alec is involved with the reapers.”
“Well. All I can say is, viva las vampires,” Magda said as she turned slowly in a circle to take in the sights.
I had to agree with her assessment. The house had an open, breezy layout, and I found myself just as curious as Magda and Raymond as to how a vampire lived.