Catching her breath, Christine spoke up. She said brusquely, "Tell Val what happened. I'm going after him." And before Lucy could argue that the incubus was too much for a lone vamp to handle, the vampiress was gone.
Pulling herself out of the garbage, Lucy stood. The pounding footsteps and bright lights neared. Instinctively, she knew that it was Val running to her rescue.
She almost groaned. In spite of her recent fall, the box was still stuck to her foot. A banana peel rested on her right shoulder, along with smashed grapes all over her clothes and knees. Large gobs of fruit were dripping down the side of her cheek from her hair. She had always been told she had a peaches-and-cream complexion, but this was ridiculous.
Taking a clomping step forward, she wiped slimy juice out of her eyes. She was an unappetizing mess of fruit cocktail, looked as bad as she possibly could look… and yet she had never been gladder to see Val in her entire life.
Chapter Fourteen
The Grapes of Trash
Val ran down the alleyway, his flashlight bobbing, his movements fast, and he hoped his expression was a grim reminder to not mess with anything that went bump and bit really hard in the night. Lucy and Christine were in danger! His heart was pumping double-time in his chest as he burst onto the scene.
He saw Lucy standing slightly bent over, as if from a blow to the stomach. Her heart was beating a fast two-step; Val could hear it from where he stood. Once again, she was in the thick of things—covered in grape goop, a banana peel on her shoulder, and somewhere she had picked up a box she was now wearing on her foot. She looked like someone with a bit of a fetish for fruit, but otherwise seemed unhurt.
To the right of her, a young woman lay moaning softly. Good, Val thought, the victim was alive, and so was the lack-witted Lucy.
"Where's Christine?" he asked.
Lucy stared at him, then replied, "She chased DeLeon."
She took a step closer, the cardboard box clumping along with her.
Lucy wanted to throw herself into Val's arms, but his grim expression stopped her. Besides, she looked like a vegetarian nightmare. Despite the fact that this strong, handsome knight had come running to rescue the fair maiden, this was certainly no Hallmark moment. An insidious killer was on the loose, Val's partner was chasing him, she owed Val a big apology for her years of mistrust, and she looked like some sort of rotting fruitcake.
"How do you know it was DeLeon?" Val asked brusquely, moving to check on the other girl. Two more policemen had just arrived on the scene.
"Violet eyes, a scar… and the guy really needs some major dental work. His teeth are this really awful red, and they aren't as sharp as yours. They're kind of thick, and longer." She hoped she hadn't hurt Val's feelings by the bigger-teeth bit. Men were so sensitive over the subject of size—or at least her mother had always said so.
Val nodded, then motioned the patrolmen over, commanding the two officers, "See to the lady and watch out for Lucy here. Don't let her get into any more trouble than she's already in." He gave her fruit-smeared body the once-over.
"Wait, Val. Where are you going?" Lucy asked, her tone high and scratchy, revealing just how frightened she was. She wanted to cringe, thinking that she sounded like a scared mouse, some silly female waiting to be rescued. But then, she was a silly female waiting to be rescued. Lucy knew she might be able to handle some paranormal creatures, but a monster like a Ka incubus was big time.
Val looked grim as he replied, "After Christine. DeLeon's too much to handle alone. She could be killed."
"No need, partner," came a voice. Christine materialized out of the shadows at the back of the alley and added, "And I'm alive because Lucy here helped out. She drew DeLeon's attention away when I was down. He would have gotten me." Walking up to Lucy, the vampiress gave her a hug, in spite of the garbage hanging off Lucy's clothing and in her hair. "Thanks, Lucy, you saved my 'tite ole vampire butt."
Lucy hugged Christine back, surprising herself. This was the female vamp she had hated for over four years, the coffin-wrecking femme fatale! But she had been wrong about Christine. She had been wrong about a lot of things. Guilt was gnawing at her insides like a hungry mouse. She owed Val, huge.
"How's the victim?" Christine asked.
Val looked away from his partner and the princess of pandemonium over to the ground where one of the policemen had lifted the young woman into a sitting position. "She's okay. She may have lost a few years, but at least she's not dead."
"I don't think she was raped," Lucy remarked hopefully.
Val sniffed the air carefully, filtering through the smells of rotting garbage, urine, and dank decay. "No. She wasn't," he agreed.
"Good," Lucy stared at the victim, but she was secretly wishing Val would take her in his arms. She was wishing this was four-plus years ago, and that she hadn't been a major-league fool.
Christine moved closer, saying, "He got away, Val. He's fast. Really fast and strong. I followed him down the last few blocks of Pirate Alley, but lost him in the warehouse district."
Val nodded. "I'm glad you weren't hurt, and that you knew better than to try and apprehend the suspect by yourself. One vampire isn't quite strong enough for a Ka incubus!" he said accusingly.
"I had help," Christine protested. "I had Lucy."
"Ah. Lucy." Pointing a finger, Val turned his attention from his foolish partner to the source of his real anger. His voice taut with suppressed rage, he hissed, "She's a civilian. A chaos-causing, accident-prone civilian. Merde, Chris—look at her!"
The vampires turned in unison, staring at Lucy. She had been listening to their conversation in ire, tugging the box off her foot and almost toppling over. To think she had thought Val was a knight in shining armor. Hardly!
"Well, thanks a bunch, Val!" she snapped. "I might look like a tossed fruit salad, but I can take care of myself." And with that, she threw the offending box over her shoulder. Her eyes opened wide when she heard a yelp.
Glancing quickly back, she winced. She had hit one of the policemen on the head. "Sorry about that," she mumbled, busying herself picking her purse up off the ground. Reaching inside, she withdrew a gun and thrust it up in the air.
The second policeman went for his pistol. Val quickly stopped him, blocking his view of Lucy. "Just what the hell is that thing supposed to be?" he asked. "It looks like a water pistol."
"It is," Lucy replied, stung by the disdain she could hear in his voice. Four minutes before, he had desperately wanted to save her. Now he seemed to want to strangle her—a meddling, muddling mortal.
"You're running around the Big Easy with a water gun, and that's supposed to protect you?" he asked. "How easy do you think it would be for a criminal—or a paranormal, especially—to spot a water pistol?" He bit out the words. This daft woman was impossible! And why did he care? Just sign him up for the Dumbest Dick of the Year Award.
"I'm not stupid! Just because you think so doesn't mean I am. How stupid would I have to be to carry around a water pistol with just plain water in it? Pretty stupid, huh? Well, don't hold your breath." Lucy snorted, shoving the pistol back in her purse. "Oh, that's right. You don't have to hold your breath, do you, you big dead dufus!"
"Dead dufus?" Christine repeated, trying to keep a straight face. What a comedy of errors. Val was livid—and that really meant something for the normally stone-faced detective.