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“Snakes,” Talbot answered too quickly. “Reptilian skinchangers are vulnerable to gold, not silver.”

  Phillip wrinkled his nose. “Yes, snakes. These bullets would still hurt them, though, lock their form.”

  “Magbidion already told us about that part.” I clapped my hands over my mouth. Lord Phillip didn’t appreciate interruptions and Talbot and I had both managed to cut him short, back to back.

  “Then I won’t bore you further.” Phillip snapped his fingers and the room brightened so swiftly that spots danced in front of my eyes. “Surely Dennis won’t be much longer,” he added.

  I looked at the clock and suppressed a yawn. It was only 04:17 and I was already starting to feel tired. Shit! What was going to happen to me when the sun came up? Would I just pass out? I gave Talbot a concerned look, but he gave a slight shake of his head. Did he mean I shouldn’t mention it or that it was okay and he’d take care of everything? I stared at him for a few more seconds until he finally nodded toward Phillip. Not knowing what to do, I turned my attention back to the elder vampire.

  “So,” I began, “based on what you said earlier, you’re kind of your own sire? How does that work?”

  Phillip stiffened for a moment, but then chuckled and relaxed. “After a fashion, you could say that, yes. I was a wizard during my human days, but as I grew older, I became obsessed with immortality. The prospect of what lay waiting for me in the great beyond was a bit too chilling. At first, I sought out a true immortal, one of those lucky souls who walk the earth born to immortality: human, but unending. I spent decades searching, but never found one. I had a ritual, you see, that would have allowed me to steal his immortality. Along the way, I made certain discoveries about vampirism and as time grew shorter for me, I decided that vampiric immortality was better than none at all and so, here I am.”

  “That’s interesting,” I said. I stilled another yawn as I stretched.

  “How about you?” Phillip asked gently. “I assume you were sired in the more conventional manner?”

  “Yes, by Eric,” I answered.

  “Oh, yes. If I’m not being too bold, are the two of you involved?”

  “I’m in love with him,” I blurted. I hadn’t meant to say that, but it came out anyway.

  Phillip didn’t look surprised. He smiled warmly and closed his eyes. He stood and waltzed himself in a little circle. “Ah, young love.” He put his hand to his heart. “I hope it lasts. Lady Gabriella and I were in love once. Now we are waging a merry little war of intrigue against each other.”

  There was a knock at the door and Phillip rushed over to it. “That should be Dennis,” he pronounced. Checking the little peephole, he clapped his hands together excitedly. “It is!”

  He opened the door and invited the man in. As he had the last time, Dennis declined.

  “What do you have for me?” Phillip asked.

  “It seems that the Gryphon Suite houses a Master vampire named Roger. According to security, Master Roger hasn’t been home since Friday, but his girlfriend, who answers to the name Veruca, has been in and out of the apartment at odd hours for several days.”

  “How interesting,” Phillip said gleefully.

  “She returned Friday in the early evening with an assortment of bites and scratches that prompted the security guard to ask if she needed help. According to his report she responded with a rude gesture. She went out again on Saturday. On both days she carried a pistol Master Roger had registered with security.”

  Outrage washed over me. That bitch! She was a part of it. And Roger…what an asshole! How could he do something like this to his best friend?

  “And why, may I ask, did security not alert me to the presence of El Alma Perdida?” Phillip asked.

  “Greed, milord.”

  “Greed?” I asked.

  “He was bribed,” Dennis explained.

  “His name wasn’t Fergus Jenkins, by any chance?” Talbot asked.

  “No, sir. Salvadore Belino,” the man replied. Shifting his attention back to Lord Phillip, Dennis smiled. “He awaits your pleasure in the lower galleries, milord. I’ve also taken the liberty of sending a car around to collect his family.”

  Thinking about Veruca, the spiked blood, and the way I’d had to cover her set made me really mad. My eyes flashed red, but I shut them down quickly. Dennis was a little taken aback, but Phillip just laughed it off. “Ah, the impetuousness of the young.”

  “I’m sorry; it’s Veruca…not you.” I looked at Dennis. “Did she come back here?”

  Dennis looked questioningly at Phillip before answering my question. When Phillip nodded, he proceeded. “She returned just after dawn looking much worse for the wear. More scratches, I’m told, and some burns.”

  “Is she still here?” I asked.

  The same series of looks was exchanged between man and vampire, and then Dennis hesitantly answered my question. I guess he didn’t want to ruin his chances of being Phillip’s newest son. “As a matter of fact, she is still here. She hasn’t left Master Roger’s apartments since she returned this…that is, yesterday morning.”

  “How do I get to the Gryphon Suite?”

  “Not so fast, milady,” Phillip said, holding up his hand. “Everything in its own time.” He walked around to his desk, opened a drawer and came back holding five one-hundred-dollar bills. He folded them carefully and handed them to Dennis. “Thank you, Dennis; that will be all.”

  Phillip closed the door, turned and leaned against it with a tired look on his face. “I’m afraid I can’t allow you to go rampaging through my building, knocking down doors and dragging people from their apartments, my dear. Neither you nor your mouser will be allowed to behave that way within these walls without earning my most sincere reproach, as did my dear friend Percy.” He gestured to the vampire in the glass case, the one with the stake through his heart.

  “Then why even bother to tell us she’s here?” I complained, stomping my foot. “God, that’s infuriating!”

  Phillip clasped his hands. “Anyone who has been granted access to the common areas of the Highland Towers may call upon any resident by simply approaching their rooms, wings, apartments, or floors, whichever is appropriate, and knocking upon the door in a polite manner.

  “It is forbidden for one of my guests to physically assault a resident.” He acted like I was supposed to be going “A-ha!” From his tone, I knew he was trying to give me a hint, but I sure as hell didn’t know what it was.

  Talbot walked over to me and put his hands on my shoulders. “We’ve taken enough of Lord Phillip’s time, milady. Perhaps you could assure him that we wouldn’t dream of physically assaulting any residents of the Highland Towers, but would be quite happy to pay a call on a good friend of ours by the name of Veruca. Perhaps we’ll find we see eye-to-eye on a few things.”

  Talbot stressed the word residents and the phrase eye-to-eye when he spoke, but I still didn’t get it. Still, Phillip seemed to understand and he carefully explained how to go about getting an elevator to the Gryphon Suite. I gave Phillip a kiss on the cheek and, by virtue of our comparative heights, a really good look down my top, and walked out wearing the diamond necklace he had given me. As the door closed, I stifled a yawn and started to ask Talbot what was going on, but he shushed me and walked over to the elevators. We waited a few seconds for the doors to open. Dennis was not inside. Talbot pressed the correct button and when the doors closed he winked at me.

  “Not bad, Tab. I think he wants to go steady.”

  “Whatever!” I liked Phillip, but I wasn’t going to date a balding little short dude no matter how much money he had, not unless I was in love with him; and since I was currently in love with an attractive, not to mention quite wealthy in his own right, vampire, things didn’t look good for Phillip.

  “He told you everything you need to know to get Veruca out of this place and wherever you want her.”

  The elevator slowed and we walked out into one of the building’s elegant waiting rooms, crossed to
a set of elevators that served the correct floors, and waited for another elevator to show up. After the doors closed and the button was pushed, I asked Talbot what the hell he was talking about.

  “You’re a Vlad and she’s a Soldier. All you have to do is lock eyes with her and you can make her leave with us.”

  “Oh. If you wanted to make me feel stupid, you succeeded,” I told him.

  Now all I had to do was get Veruca to answer the door, lock eyes with her, get her into the car, and restrain her somehow before I passed out from vampiric sleep deprivation. Great.

  So there I was, a few minutes later, in front of Roger’s door, doing my impersonation of Mr. Fuzzy Bottom. It was a silly plan, but I didn’t have a better one. If Veruca hadn’t eaten, then a cat might seem like a tasty treat to take the edge off. On the other hand, if she didn’t want to eat a cat, she might want to cuddle with one and enjoy the body heat. Heck, she might even like cats for all I knew. It was worth a shot.

  Talbot was waiting down the hall next to the television playing in Roger’s waiting area. Which, incidentally, was nothing compared to Phillip’s. There were no comfy chairs, no stashes of bottled blood. It looked like a waiting room in a doctor’s office, right down to the magazines that nobody interesting would want to read. They were all about money, or people who have money, or what was happening to other people’s money. Even the station the television was turned to was all about money. I wondered what Eric’s waiting room would have looked like if he’d decided to live here. Lots of strippers, maybe, or a giant neon sign that said, Go away!

  Stifling a yawn, I meowed at the door and rubbed up against it. Pacing in little circles, I rubbed against the door eight or nine times, meowing, before the sounds of someone stirring in the apartment reached the doorway. Footsteps started for the door, followed by cursing and the sound of something clattering down to tile and shattering. Yet more cursing and then the handle on the door began to turn. I stopped and sat in front of the door flipping my tail back and forth. No wonder cats do that; it’s fun. The doorknob stopped turning.

  “Meow,” I complained, by which I meant, “Open the door, you stupid bitch!”

  Veruca stood on the other side of the door and waited. “I know it’s you, Tabitha,” she gloated. “And tell Talbot that I can smell him, too.”

  I turned human and looked incredulously at Talbot. “Any other bright ideas, Sensei?”

  “Just one. She’s not really a resident.” He grinned and walked closer to the door. “Here, Froggy, Froggy, Froggy. Here, Froggy!”

  “Stop it, Talbot!” Veruca snarled.

  “I’ve got a hundred-dollar bill out here if you’ll give me a lap dance, Froggy. Here, Froggy, Froggy, Froggy!” With each “Froggy” Talbot grew incrementally louder.

  “I’m serious, Talbot,” Veruca shouted. “I’ll call security.”

  “You know, Froggy,” Talbot continued. “I was just talking to Lord Phillip about you. Did you know Veruca means wart? I thought warts were what you got from frogs and toads, not—”

  That did it. She charged out at us in a rage.

  22

  TABITHA:

  CAT FIGHT

  I expected Talbot to do all of the fighting, so I hung back, watching as he and Veruca tore at each other. Talbot’s claws popped right out of the tips of his fingers like a cat’s. Veruca’s were scarier; her fingers curved and hardened, like talons. Talbot tore a chunk out of her side and smoke billowed up from the wounds. He tried to pull her in close, using the leverage to bite her, but she spun free, slashing open his forehead.

  “What the hell?” Veruca yelled. She fell back into a crouch, gripping her side. “You burned me!”

  “My claws are holy.” Talbot took a step closer. “I’m a noble hunter, a sacred guardian. You’re just a damn vampire.”

  “Hey, watch it,” I blurted, slightly offended. “I’m just a damn vampire, too.”

  “It’s just an expre—” His attention left his opponent for only a second, eyes flickering in my direction, but Veruca took advantage. She dove between his legs, rolling to her feet on the other side and flaying open his back with her claws. Talbot stumbled forward away from the door, cursing loudly. I stood in front of Veruca, hands out in front of me to ward her off.

  “Stop her,” Talbot ordered. “Don’t let her back in the apartment.”

  “Look, uh…Froggy—” I shouldn’t have said that. It slipped out. Naturally, it pissed her off even more.

  “You think it’s fucking funny, huh? That you can do a kitty cat and I can’t?” She barreled into me, face contorted with rage, literally tackling me through the apartment door.

  “Look out, damn it!” Talbot reached for my arm, but we fell, entangled, into the apartment and down on a throw rug in the center of what seemed to be a sitting room, with tacky chairs and a coffee table. Veruca kicked the door shut with her foot.

  “Lock!” she shouted, and the door flashed blue for an instant. Talbot hit it from the outside and the wall shook, but it didn’t give. “Tabitha! The rooms are warded; I can’t get in.”

  “Unlock! Unlock!” I shouted at the door, but it didn’t want to take orders from me.

  “Talbot may be too much for me to handle,” Veruca snarled, baring her fangs, “but I can still end you!” Time slowed as she stalked toward me, claws at the ready. I slid across the floor, got to my feet and tried to force the door from the inside. It wouldn’t budge.

  “It won’t open!” I yelled.

  “Not until she or Roger opens it.” Talbot’s voice sounded like he was leaning against the door. “Just fight.”

  I turned in time to see Veruca’s claws slashing my way again. I dodged in the nick of time, but only because I don’t think she expected me to have time to react. Her claws slashed the door, leaving large furrows in the dark wood.

  Veruca growled, then spun with terrible speed and lunged at me again. Her claws were larger than mine and the tips were hooked. Brawling wasn’t my thing; I misjudged her range. Both sets struck home. Getting hurt felt weird: an initial shock of pain that immediately faded, as though the nerve endings registered it once, then forgot about it.

  “Get off of me,” I screamed. My own claws came out and I used them as best I could, scratching at her eyes with one hand and her neck with the other. She might know how to kill, but I knew how to hurt a woman like her. She’d always been vain and petty. If she didn’t have her looks, then, at least as far as she was concerned, she had nothing. Flesh ripped away from her face in jagged ribbons.

  Veruca rolled away from me as we both howled in agony. Vampires aren’t supposed to bleed much, but the chunks of flesh she ripped from my sides as her claws pulled free sent a shower of bloody spray across the living room, dappling the ceiling and the walls. This time the pain was jagged, raw and angry, pulsing.

  “My face!” she screamed, launching herself back at me.

  I moved with vampiric alacrity. Heartbeats faster than she could strike, I rolled backward and to my feet with a grace I hadn’t had since ballet class, pressing my back against the door.

  “Your claws may be bigger, but the wounds mine make don’t heal,” I lied. “When I’m done with you, you’ll be lucky if you can pay a man to look at you, much less touch you.”

  I took a step forward, claws raised to strike. She reared back, feinting with her right hand. I dodged to the left to avoid her deadly claws, and fell right into her trap. As I moved, she dropped into a low crouch, knocking my feet out from under me with a leg sweep. She got in two more slashes before I landed. The first slash caught me in the belly and wasn’t too deep, but the second dug into my left breast and I heard her claws scratching against my breastbone.

  I hit the floor right on top of the broken vase and then rolled up into a ball, clutching my breast. Veruca slashed at my back, cutting easily through my sequined top and flaying me open to the spine. I knew Eric could take injuries like this and laugh them off, but I wasn’t Eric and it hurt more than anything I
had ever felt.

  “How do you like that, pussycat?” Veruca taunted.

  I didn’t like it at all, not that I could have replied anyway. Pain was my world and I wallowed in it. Veruca continued to slash at my exposed back, but the more she hurt me, the more I began to drift away from the pain. It was there, but it was being replaced with another feeling. Outrage, maybe? I was a queen, after all, and she was merely a Soldier.

  Then a funny new sensation rose in my chest, the outrage mixed with something else: disdain. Before, when I had lashed out verbally at the Drone, I had felt the same thing. I lashed out with it again, now, but not verbally; more than voice and yet less. My mental voice screamed, not in terror, but in utter fury that a lesser vampire would dare to treat me this way. Me—her better! I may be only two days old, my mental voice proclaimed, but a queen is still a queen!

  She paused for three seconds and three seconds only, but three seconds can be an eternity when you’re fighting a vampire. It was more than enough time for me to roll over and lock eyes with her. “Who’s the badass now?” I shouted.

  My vision tinged with red and I knew my eyes were glowing. I pushed my will right in through her eyes and down into her little brain, just like Eric had done to me the night before. In my mind’s eye, tiny invisible strings affixed themselves to her arms, legs, and head. She fought back, but she had no depth. There was hardly anything to fight.

  We stayed there, eyes locked, while my wounds healed. I don’t know how long it took, a minute, two minutes, five, but once I felt whole again, I stood slowly, making sure to keep eye contact with Veruca the entire time. I grabbed the sides of her head and pulled her to her feet, willing her to stand. I walked us over to a large framed photograph of a marina that hung on one wall, feeling like a puppeteer working a life-size marionette.

  Talbot was saying something outside, but I didn’t have time to answer. I could feel Veruca fighting me, trying to buy a second or two of freedom so she could tear out my throat. Smashing the picture with my left hand, I snapped the bottom of the wooden frame loose and thrust it through Veruca’s heart to immobilize her. Or at least, that was the plan.