“Good.” Alec disappeared, heading down to his floor. Owen, George, Coco, and I cleared the table.
“Do you want to stay, Sam?” Owen asked.
I shook my head. “I want to get changed and head down to the wharf too. I’ll take Fergus with me as cover.”
“Be careful,” George said, leaning over to give me a kiss on the cheek. “The first woman was running with her dog.”
“True, but I have three vampires watching my back. I’ll let you guys know if I learn anything.”
I said my goodbyes, grabbed my handbag, and headed out to my car. Benvair was on her way back, dressed all in black.
“Goodnight and thank you,” I said quietly.
She nodded. “It’s good for him, you know.” She paused at the garden door and then looked back at me. “Going out. Confronting what scared him. These are all good signs. Know this, though, I will never let anything like that ever happen again, not to any of them. I’ll burn down the world before I let any of them be hurt like that again.” Her eyes flashed red in the dark.
“Good,” I answered.
When I got home, I found Fergus lying in his bed as the elevator doors opened. “We never got to exercise this morning. Feel like going for a run?”
He bounded up and was dancing around my feet as I changed out of my fancy dress and into running gear. Once I had my hair up in a braid, I slid my phone into my hip pocket and headed for the elevator.
Fergus liked to sit his butt on the car’s back seat, with his front paws on the floor, so his head could rest on my shoulder as I drove. When I hit red lights, I’d scratch under his chin. Vlad had said that the Bucharest killings hadn’t taken place in the same location. I wanted to check out all the piers, so instead of the parking garage near the wharf I’d used last time, I parked in The Viper’s Nest parking lot with all the motorcycles.
Since I was leaving my car here, I figured I should stop and say hi. The bouncer on the door looked ready to stop Fergus and me but then he recognized my face and waved us through.
The music was loud and colored lights flashed in the darkened bar. Some patrons were dancing in the middle of the room, a few were making out in booths, but most were standing around, talking and laughing. I headed to the end of the packed bar, near the rotating pie display case on Stheno’s side. Some muscle-bound guy was handling the other end of the bar, which made sense, as Fyr was at The Slaughtered Lamb tonight.
Stheno, one of the three gorgons sisters you might remember from Greek Mythology, glanced over. Her initial annoyance at someone trying to order a drink from behind the pies disappeared.
“Hey, kid. What are you doing here?” Her gaze drifted over my clothes and Fergus. “Since when do you run late at night?”
I leaned in and whispered, knowing she’d hear me even over all the noise, “Do you know about the killings at The Bubble Lounge?”
She nodded, pulling a slice of coconut cream pie out of the display and sliding it to where I was standing. She reached under the bar and found me a fork. Two desserts in one night. Score!
“It looks like a vampire killing, but we’re pretty sure it’s not. Clive, Vlad, and Cadmael are down here, staking out the nightclub. I was planning on checking out the area, undercover with Fergus.”
Stheno’s brow furrowed. “The first victim was a woman running with a dog. I don’t like this idea.” She filled a glass with water and put it next to the plate as I took a bite.
“Mmm, Dave is so good at these.”
Some men were waving, trying to get Stheno’s attention, so while she filled drink orders, I finished the pie and then shared what was left of my water with Fergus.
She took the empty plate from me and put it in the dirties tub under the bar.
“Don’t worry. There are three vampires within a mile and a half who’ll be there if I need them.”
“That’s not helpful if he hits you in the back of the head before he drinks your blood.” She shook her head. “As your former bodyguard, I say just go upstairs, lounge on my couch, and monitor the area from there.” She tapped her head. “You don’t need to be in it.”
“I tried that after the first killing. I didn’t see anything problematic and then he killed again a short time later. And the attacks have been in the wee hours of the morning. It’s not even eleven yet.” I shook my tense shoulders. “I can’t see or smell important clues from your couch—though I do appreciate the offer.”
She tipped her head to the side, her long coils of curly hair seeming to move on their own. “I don’t like it. You’re a grown up, I suppose, so do what you want, but I don’t like it.”
“I can protect myself,” I reminded her.
“Against what, though? We don’t know what we’re dealing with yet.”
“I’m not jumping into a pond filled with piranha. I’m going for a run in an area where there are three vampires and two dragons. Benvair and Alec are here as well.”
