I can’t read vampire minds, but I didn’t have to. Miriam had died today. Looking at the set of Pam’s shoulders I knew better than to say anything. It went against my nature to resume my seat on the couch without offering her comfort, a Kleenex, a few words of solace. But it would be Pam’s nature to strike out if I offered those things.
I touched my belt, where the cluviel dor made a hard impression on my stomach. Could I wish Miriam back alive? I wondered if that would satisfy the requirement that the wish be for someone I loved. I was very fond of Pam, but wouldn’t that be too indirect?
I felt like I had a bomb strapped to me.
I heard the shimmery sound of the gong. Eric had installed one in the bar, and the bartender rang it fifteen minutes before closing. I didn’t even know who’d taken over the bartending duties since Felicia had been killed by Alexei. Maybe I hadn’t been interested enough in Eric’s business lately. On the other hand, he himself had been abstracted from his normal absorption in his little kingdom by Victor’s predations. I realized that lack of conversation about ordinary things was one of our problems. I hoped we’d get to correct it.
I got up and went down the hall to the main area of the bar. I couldn’t stand sitting in Eric’s office anymore, not with Pam suffering the way she was.
I spotted Colton and Audrina dancing on the tiny floor, arms around each other. Immanuel was sitting at the bar, and I climbed onto the stool next to him. The bartender came to stand across from me. He was a brawny fellow with ringlets cascading down his back, total eye candy. A vampire, of course.
“What can I get you, wife of my sheriff?” he asked ceremoniously.
“You can get me a tonic and lime, please. Sorry I haven’t had a chance to meet you before. What’s your name?”
“Jock,” he said, as if daring me to make a joke. I wouldn’t dream of it.
“When did you start work, Jock?”
“I came from Reno when the last bartender died,” he said. “I worked for Victor there.”
I wondered which way Jock would jump tonight. Interesting to see.
I didn’t know Immanuel well — in fact, I barely knew him. But I patted his shoulder and asked him if I could buy him a drink.
He turned and gave my hair a long look, finally nodding his approval. “Sure,” he said. “I’d like another beer.”
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly, after I’d asked Jock to bring Immanuel a beer. I wondered where Miriam’s body was now; at the undertaker’s, I assumed.
“Appreciated,” he replied. After a moment, he said, “Pam was going to do it tonight, without permission. Turn Miriam, that is. But Mir just . . . breathed out one last time, and then she was gone.”
“Your mom and dad . . . ?”
He shook his head. “It was just us.”
There was really nothing else to say about that.
“Maybe you should go home?” I suggested. He didn’t look like much of a fighter to me.
“I don’t think so,” he said.
I couldn’t make him leave, so I drank my tonic and lime while all the human customers left. The bar grew quiet and relatively empty. Indira, one of Eric’s vamps, came in, wearing a full sari. I’d never seen her in traditional clothing before, and the pink and green of the pattern was really fetching. Jock gave her an admiring look. Thalia and Maxwell came out of the back and moved around the club along with the human staff, busy cleaning the place up for the after-party. I helped, too. This was work I was used to. The tables circling the little dance floor and stage were moved away, and two lines of chairs were arranged instead. Maxwell brought in an elaborate sort of boom box. Bubba’s music. After I swept the dance floor and stage, I got out of the way by resuming my stool at the bar.
Heidi, whose specialty was tracking, came in, her hair in narrow braids. Lean and plain, Heidi always carried an air of grief around with her like a cloud. I had no idea what she’d do tonight when the shit hit the fan.
While Jock was cleaning up the supplies on his side of the counter, Colton and Audrina came over. Jock looked surprised to see humans he didn’t know. Their presence had to be explained; I didn’t want Jock becoming suspicious. I said, “Colton, Audrina, meet Jock. Jock, these two lovely people have agreed to donate in case Victor wants local hospitality. Of course, we’re hoping that won’t happen on the premises, but Eric doesn’t want to fail in his welcome.”
“Good idea,” Jock said, eyeing Audrina appreciatively. “We can’t give the regent less than he expects.”
“No.” Or less than he deserves.
After forty-five minutes, the place looked pretty good again, and the last of the human employees went out the back door. The only breathers remaining were Colton, Audrina, Immanuel, Mustapha Khan, and me. (I definitely had that conspicuous feeling.) The Shreveport vamps I’d known since I’d started dating Bill had assembled: Pam, Maxwell Lee, Thalia, Indira. I knew all of them to some extent. Victor would be instantly alert if all Eric’s vampires were there, or if they were all Eric’s heavy hitters. So Eric had called in the little Minden nest: Palomino, Rubio Hermosa, and Parker Coburn, the Katrina exiles. They trailed in looking unhappy but resigned. They stood against the wall, holding hands. It was kind of sweet, but sad, too.
The jukebox cut off. The near silence was instantly oppressive.
Though Fangtasia sits in a busy shopping and dining area of Shreveport, at this hour — even on a weekend — there was not much city sound outside. None of us felt like talking. I didn’t know what thoughts occupied other heads, but I was considering the fact that I might die that very night. I was sorry about the baby shower, but I’d gotten things as ready as I could get them. I was sorry I hadn’t gotten to have a conference with Mr. Cataliades to get everything straight in my head, all this new information I’d hardly had time to assimilate. I was glad I’d given the money to Sam, and sorry I couldn’t have been frank with him about why it needed to be done this very day. I hoped if I died, Jason would move back into the old house, that he would marry Michele, that they would raise kids there. My mother, Michelle-with-two- ls, had been completely different from Jason’s Michele-withone- l, at least judging by my childhood memory of her, but they were alike in loving Jason. I was sorry I hadn’t told him I loved him the last time we’d spoken.
I was sorry about a lot of things. My mistakes and offenses crowded around me.
Eric drifted over and turned me on the stool so he could put his arms around me. “I wish you didn’t have to be here,” he said. That was all the conversation we could have with Jock in earshot. I leaned against Eric’s cool body, my head resting on his silent chest. I might not ever get to do this again.
Pam came to sit by Immanuel. Thalia scowled, which was her fallback expression, and turned her back on all of us. Indira sat with her eyes shut, the graceful folds of her sari making her look like a statue at Pier 1. Heidi looked from one to the other of us very seriously, and her mouth became set in a grim line. If she was worrying about Victor, I figured she’d go to stand by Jock, but I never saw her speak to him.
Maxwell apparently heard a knock at the back door, inaudible to my human ears. He jetted away and returned to tell Eric that Bill and Bubba had arrived. They were staying in the office until the moment came.
Very soon after that, I heard cars pull in front of the club.
“Showtime,” Pam said, and for the first time that evening she smiled.
Chapter 15
Luis and Antonio came in first. They were clearly wary. It was like watching a cop show on television; they came inside in a rush, immediately separating to flank the door. I almost smiled, and Immanuel actually grinned, which was not a good idea. Luckily, humans are the last creatures vampires will worry about when they’re anticipating trouble. The two handsome vamps, clad in jeans and T-shirts instead of leather loincloths, quickly searched the club, checking out places other vampires could hide. It would have been a severe breach of etiquette to demand body searches, but you could tell they were eyeballing each local vampire for guns or stakes. Maxwell had to give up his gun, which he did without a second’s protest. He’d expected it.