Blade walked in and looked around.
" Your hot guy?"
"Nope. We're both free agents." Blade smiled at me but didn't stop to speak to me. Well, hell, we weren't so free that he could practically ignore me. I know, I'm perverse. I've done nothing but push Blade away. So when he stays away? I resisted the urge to send him a mental message. He was busy speaking to each vampire individually, obviously acting as a leader. A role he was born for.
A waiter in a tux circulated around the room with fresh crystal goblets of pig piss, I mean Bloody Merry, on a silver tray. I'd passed the first go round. This time I snatched one and sipped gratefully. I was so not going to think about the last night Blade and I had made love. Here. Right upstairs.
Or the night Damian and I had checked out his coffin and each other. Here. Right upstairs. I drained my glass and grabbed a second. At least the waiter was a distraction. How long had it taken Damian to find a Lurch look-alike named Lex Luther?
"People. Can we start this meeting?" Blade. Impatient as always.
Damian nodded. "Bring him in, Luther."
Luther opened a door and Tony Crapetta strutted into the room. The strut was marred by the visible shaking in his knees. And then there were the crosses… He had at least six of them around his neck. Religious medals too. He clutched a rosary in his hand and looked nervously around the room.
Diana rushed forward. "Darlin', relax. We're all friends here." She looked around and grinned. "Who wants the first bite?"
Chapter Eleven
"Oh, Jesus, Mary and Joseph." Tony crossed himself and sank to his knees.
"Diana, behave." Damian gave her a stern look and pulled Tony up to shove him into a chair. "No one's going to bite you, Tony."
"I might." Another woman walked in from the entry. Her red hair pulled back to show killer cheekbones, Mara MacTavish was dressed in expensive black, cut down to there. She was tall, model thin and a reminder that life is not fair. She strolled over to Tony and ran her fingers through his thin brown hair. She stared into his eyes and licked her lips.
"Mmmm. O positive. Am I right?"
"Our Father—" Tony gasped and closed his eyes.
"Wimp." Mara looked at Blade. "Are we so desperate for help that this is what we use?"
"Yes." Blade gestured for Mara to sit, but she just shrugged.
"I don't believe it." She looked around the room. "Gloriana. Frederick. Countess. I don't know the rest of you. Well, Florence of course. Everyone knows Florence. I'm Mara MacTavish."
"I don't like the way she said that, Glory. Is she calling me a slut?" Flo clutched her crystal goblet. "How would she like to wear a little Bloody Merry?"
Blade looked over at us. Of course he'd heard Flo, every vampire in the room had heard her, including Mara. That lady just smiled and walked to Blade's side.
"Florence, Mara, can we get on with this?" Blade pulled out a chair which Mara ignored. She frowned at Tony who was busily saying a rosary. "I think you're wasting our time with this sniveling mortal."
"He's not as useless as he looks." Damian took Mara's hand and pulled it to his lips to give her a fang job. Never let it be said that he wasn't an equal opportunity letch. "Damian Sabatini, Mrs. MacTavish."
"You fang me again, demon, and I'll knock your choppers down your throat." She jerked her hand back to her side.
"Whoa. I like this woman," Diana whispered.
I had to admit Mara was rapidly becoming my heroine, despite what had been a slam against Flo. Mara was taking control of the meeting. And the men hated it. Blade was obviously sending her mental commands to cool it. She ignored him. Damian wasn't taking rejection well. He turned his back on Mara and focused on Tony, jerking him to his feet in mid-Hail Mary.
"Get up. Be a man. Tell us what you found out today."
"Yes, sir, Mr. Sabatini." Tony wiped his forehead on his sleeve. He was sweating as if it was a hundred degrees in here instead of a cool seventy.
Blade stepped forward. "Report."
"Yes, well, Brent Westwood's got a ranch just north of town. He's made that his headquarters. Surrounded himself with hired muscle and high tech security."
"Why Austin?" A dapper man, sort of a scholarly type with a neat mustache and goatee, stepped forward. "There are a lot more vampires in New York City or even San Francisco."
There were murmurs of agreement around the room.
"Westwood started his fortune with a computer company in Austin. He's owned the ranch for years. I got a contact on the inside." Tony let go of his rosary long enough to pull a paper out of his pocket. "The guy says Westwood got a call a while back that there was, uh, a coven of you people here, two dozen or more."
Flo marched up to him. "We're not witches, you oaf. We don't do covens or clubs or even gangs." She threw up her hands and snatched the paper. "What's this? Your grocery list?" She handed it to Blade then turned to examine Tony like he was something stuck on her high heel. "I can smell your fear. Is it because you plan to betray us?"
"No! No, ma'am." Tony swallowed and held his rosary in both hands. "It's a list of names, ma'am. The hired muscle Westwood's got inside." Tony put the rosary up to his neck.
"I wouldn't bite you if your veins were pure champagne." Flo flounced back to my side. "Mara's right. Is this the best we can do?"
"Flo, some cities do have covens," Diana felt compelled to say. Flo gave her a withering look. "Not in Austin, though. Obviously."
Tony wobbled and Blade shoved him into the chair again.
"What are we supposed to do with this list?" Blade glanced down at it.
"I figured you might get to one of Westwood's goons. Pay him off to take out Westwood." More murmurs. Some vampires actually whipped out their checkbooks.
"I don't like it." Mara looked around the room. "Are we going to rely on mortals to take our revenge?"
"I got other stuff. Valuable information." Tony obviously saw his fat paycheck shrinking. "My contact says Westwood's got pictures. He's keeping a kind of shooting gallery." Tony looked around the room. "It's his hit list." I shuddered. I bet I could name five on Westwood's list. Blade looked at me and moved closer. Mara stepped between us and grabbed Blade's arm.
"I have an idea."
"She would." Diana had just decided Mara was not so hot.
"Some of us can shape-shift. We go in as a flock of birds, though bats are common enough around here."
"They are." The scholar spoke up. "Millions live under the Congress Avenue bridge downtown."
"Okay, then." Mara walked over and patted the man's cheek. "You do the bat thing, honey?" She gave him a sultry look. "I'm sorry I don't know your name."
"Jason. Jason Morgan." He grinned. "Actually, I run with them sometimes. There's a great place called The Devil's Hole a few hundred miles from here—"
"Fine. Who else is up for a flight?" Mara looked at me. With pity? Or disdain? "Not you, of course, Gloriana. I know how you feel about shifting."
"I'd like to shift you." Flo, my new champion.
"I'm sure you'll have fun spying on Westwood." I looked at Diana. "Di, Derek and I are working on a more technical approach."
"Technical?" Blade looked interested.
"We think we've figured out how Westwood's vamp detector works. It's got to be a heat seeking device." Derek stepped forward with a sheaf of papers in his hand. "He can make us because we don't give off enough heat."
"So?" Mara looked around the room. "We can't raise our body heat, you know." She glanced at me, then touched Blade's cheek. "Just slightly warm. Perfect for a healthy vampire. Heat us too much and we die. That's why sunlight fries us."
"Not necessarily. Fire doesn't do us permanent harm." Derek wasn't giving up. "I'm no scientist, but I'd say there's something special in the sun's rays that gets us." Other vamps nodded.
Mara frowned. "Whatever. We still need to take out Westwood."
"I'm not disagreeing with you, Mara." I touched Derek's arm to show my support. "But Westwood's not the only one out to stake us. We need to be able to protect ourselves."
"I get that. But right now Westwood's our biggest threat." Mara had her fierce warrior woman face on. "I say we fly out there. We may get lucky. Get the drop on Westwood." Mara grabbed Blade's arm. "This man, at least, can change in an instant, tear Westwood apart and problem solved."
"Westwood's pretty well protected." Tony shrank back when Mara glared at him. "Good plan."
"Sure. Go, Mara. Just watch out for the guano, bat girl." I was pretty proud of that zinger until Blade shot me a warning look.
"Oh, excuse me. Who's going with them?" Five more vamps stepped forward, including Flo.
"No, honey, stay here." I grabbed her arm.
"The bastard shot at me, Glory. I get a chance to rip his throat out, I take it." She walked over to Damian. "What are we waiting for?"
"I'm staying here." Damian came over to my side. "I want to see what Glory's got."
"I'm still going." Flo tossed her hair and looked around. "Is this it?" Tony jumped up and pulled another paper out of his pocket. "Here. A map. I marked the ranch with a red X. You guys can really change into bats?"
Mara took the map. "Vampires have many powers, mortal. You'd be smart to remember that."
"Yes, ma'am." Tony sat again and groped for his rosary.
Diana and I stayed out of the way. I'd had visions of being the heroine tonight. Screw that. At least Damian was being attentive, his hand on my shoulder as Derek laid out his papers on a mahogany table.
