“He’s there?” Ellis asked, his normally sunny expression somber.
I nodded.
“God help him.”
“Maybe they’ll be OK. If it’s just Carlo and Giovanni, the three vampires should be able to take them.”
Ellis stared at me, his expression turning to horror.
I gasped as a thought occurred to me, and turned to where the other vampires were putting final touches on their cutoffs. “Armande! You said Carlo auctions off the vampires. Where do they do that?”
“Usually in Rome,” he answered, pointing to a spot one of the others had missed trimming. “No, no, François, not that short. Your balls are hanging out now. No one wants to see hairy balls. If you shaved them like I told you, then it would be acceptable. But as it is?” Armandetsked. “Deplorable.”
An iron hand seemed to grip my insides, squeezing everything until I wanted to scream with frustration. “They walked right into it, Ellis,” I said in a hoarse whisper. “They’re walking into some horrible vampire auction, and Carlo will capture them, three of the Horsemen, and will sell them to the highest bidder. If they don’t kill them outright.”
“Lordisa, I hate to agree, but ...” Ellis’s Adam’s apple bobbed a couple of times. “We should think positive. Perhaps they know what goes on there, and they’ll be cautious.”
“They don’t, or they would have said something. Sweet, glorious grape juice, they’re sitting ducks!” I swayed for a few seconds, seriously thinking of swooning, but just then Kelso bumped my hand with his wet nose.
I patted his head, and strength returned to me, strength and the determination to do whatever it took to save Merrick. “No one touches my vampire and lives to tell about it!” I swore, then lifted my chin and said loudly, “Vampires, assemble! We have to get our butts to Rome and fast. I have a hunky man to save, and you guys are going to help me do it!”
Chapter Sixteen
“I’d just like to know,” I said in an undertone to Ellis while we were on the outskirts of Rome, riding to Villa Luna, “why Merrick felt it was OK to lie to me about the portals.”
“Oooh, he lied? Interesting,” Ellis said, eyeing me, his voice also lowered so that the taxi driver wouldn’t hear us. “Do we think the honeymoon is over already? Has the bloom gone off the rose so quickly? Is it your blue coochie that drove him away?”
I poked him with an elbow. “No to all of those, and there’s nothing blue down there anymore, as you well know since you helped me pick off all the lint.”
“What did Vamp Boy lie about, then?”
I patted Kelso, who had his nose out of the window and was snuffling like crazy. “He said portals wouldn’t take animals, and the shop we went to said that only applied to animals being sent solo, and so long as I was holding tight to Kelso, he’d be fine. And he is. And while we’re on the subject, jumping beans, was that portal neat. I wish I’d known about that before, because I’d have put that right at the top of my bucket list.”
“It certainly was interesting. Have you tried your walkie-talkie again?” Ellis asked.
“Huh? Oh. I’ll try it again, although he didn’t answer when I tried at the portal shop.”Merrick, I know we’re not super near each other, but I’m twenty minutes away, and surely that’s close enough for you to hear me.
Silence was my only answer.
Dammit, don’t shut me out like this! I’m so worried about you that my stomach is all wadded up into a little ball, and I think I may throw up. Please, just say hi, just one word to let me know you’re OK.
“Well?” Ellis asked.
“Nada,” I said with a sigh, worry clamping down tight on me until I felt like I couldn’t draw a proper breath. “What if he’s ...”
“Armande assures me that it’s hard to kill us. Us being vampires, that is.” Ellis patted my knee. “If the boyfriend is protective, maybe he’s just not answering in order to keep you from fretting.”
“I don’t know,” I said, trying to feel Merrick’s presence. There was nothing. It was as if I was on the edge of a deep abyss filled with a complete absence of Merrick.
Armande, who was sitting in the front with the taxi driver, turned around to say, “What are we going to do when we get to Carlo’s villa? It’s fine for you to say that we’re going to fight Carlo, but we have no weapons. We have nothing we can use to fight him or the dreadful Giovanni. We are dancers, not soldiers.”
“You’re vampires,” I told him, trying to sound like I had confidence in them. In myself. “You’re immortal. You drink people’s blood. You can ... er ... I’m not sure what else you can do, because Merrick is kind of reticent to tell me that sort of stuff, and Dante doesn’t mention anything like that.” I glanced at Ellis. “Do you have other powers?”
“You’re asking entirely the wrong person, darling,” he answered, shaking his head. “I’m just the comic relief in this scene. A dashing and urbane comic relief, but one nonetheless. I do like a plan, though, so let’s figure out what we’re going to do once we get to the villa.”
The rest of the journey was spent arguing over whether it would be better to go in with (metaphoric) guns blazing, or if a stealthy attack would be best. In the end, we decided on a three-pronged approach.
“Think of yourselves as bloodthirsty pirates,” I said in a little motivational speech when we were deposited at the villa. “Imagine yourself about to pillage a rich vessel, a dagger clutched between your teeth, and your trusty scimitar at your side.”
