“Is that important?”He said that he didn’t know, but it must have been someone old, as young vamps usually kill their victims when they try to change them, and he’d been sickly all his life.“So he somehow tricked someone into changing him, and now he’s a vampire too.He looked sort of sickly.Like he was suffering from something.I thought that once you were changed, you became a healthy person again.”
“That’s what I find so weird.He did look like he was sickly, now that you mention it, and he smelled of old blood.Like he’s not feeding well, and when he does, it’s from the dying.”That part was true; they couldn’t feed from the dead, or it would likely kill them.He told her that in passing so that she’d know if he ever changed her.“Oh well, I suppose that he’s no longer my concern, but I’d like for you to keep an eye out for him.There is no telling what he’d do if he found out you were my mate.I don’t know what he’d do, but there is no point in taking the chance.You know his face now, and that’s a good thing.”
For the rest of the day, they talked about some of the rules that he had to follow, even as an older vampire.There weren’t many that he didn’t follow, but he was sure that if someone were to go over his life, they’d see that he didn’t follow a great many of them.He’d gotten old by his wits, and he wasn’t going to change his ways about that and get himself killed at this late in the game.Tabitha seemed to be in a better mood all the way around after the day they’d spent together.He was happy too.It had gotten him out of the house and around others, which was both a good thing and a bad thing.He didn’t much care for people as a whole and would just as soon not have to bother with them at all.But he did have his Tabitha, and that was enough for him right now.
Tabitha was nearly standing on her feet, asleep when they got back to Brew’s home.After talking with the other couple for a few minutes, telling them of the house that they’d gotten, she went up to bed.He couldn’t wait until they shared a room together, even if it was just so he could be near her.But that time would come, and he’d not rush her.She was his world right now, and Sirous was going to do his best to make sure that she was happy with whatever came between them.He loved her, and that was enough for right now.
Brew and he talked through most of the night.He’d told his best friend that Tabitha had been feeling lonely and explained how that had happened.Brew felt bad for that and said he’d try to refrain from talking solely about vampires from now on, and he appreciated it.He then told him about Ruby.
“I can find out who changed him.It might have been someone that we know, and it’ll be easy to get the information.I have access to a lot of things now that I’m getting better at my job.Even Calla is getting better with her magic.But I’ll look into it and see what I can find.”He said that he didn’t know why it was important, but he just felt in his gut that it was.“Then I’ll look into it for sure.There is no point in ignoring your gut when it so strongly tells you something.I’ve learned the hard way about that sort of thing.Don’t put it off if you can help it.I’ll look into it tomorrow.I promise.”
With that promise, he made his way up to bed.He didn’t need to rest, but he was reading a good book and wanted to get back to it.He loved to read and was happy that Brew had such an extensive library.
Chapter 6
“He was changed, then he killed his maker.”Brew didn’t like giving bad news to people, and giving it to his friends was twice as hard.“Ruby wasn’t charged because he claimed that he’d not realized that he was going to be starving when he woke up, and that’s why he killed him.We’re talking a seasoned vampire here.One that had been around a few hundred years, and he didn’t warn him that he’d need to be careful?I don’t buy that.”
“Neither do I.Something else is going on, and I don’t like it.Do you know why he’s so sickly looking?”He did and told his good friend why.“So he’s had some of his magic taken away from him, like glamor.I would imagine that it would be hard to get next to someone when you look like he does.Not to mention the ability to pull shadows.That’s the only thing that saved me when I was out looking for someone.”
“I don’t remember a time when I didn’t use shadows around us when we fed.It’s the only thing that keeps you safe when you’re hungry.No wonder he’s only drinking from the dying.If he gets too much of that blood, he’s going to end up getting himself killed one day.That’s a dangerous sort of habit to get into.”Sirous agreed with him and then asked him who had changed him.“Donald McGee.You might remember him being on the council at one point.I don’t think he lasted all that long, but he did make some changes that are still around to this day.Like the money we give to the council for vamps that are struggling.That’s helped a great many younger vamps who think that money just comes to them when they’re turned.”
“They also think they’re going to be good-looking as well.I knew one vamp that had been changed, and she thought that she was going to be younger-looking and thinner.That only happens if when you change and you looked like that before.”They both had come from a long line of vampires and didn’t have those issues.They would stop aging around the time they turned twenty-five.Not even their hair grew longer after that.It was as if everything stopped, and they would look as they did at that age.Or in the case of the vampire that Brew knew, when she’d been changed.
“What do you want to do about this?I don’t know the man other than what I’ve read about him, so this would be in your ballpark.”He told him that he didn’t know just yet, but he didn’t believe for a moment that he’d killed his maker by accident.“I don’t either.But what do we do about it?”
“I guess nothing for now.But can you keep an eye on him?Just to see if there are any more unexplained deaths surrounding him?I have a feeling that he’s been making the rules up as he goes along.”Brew asked him what he meant.“Pulling out the rules as they suit him.And when they don’t, he suddenly doesn’t remember that one being told to him.I have a feeling that there is going to be a string of bodies attached to this guy when you start digging.”
“I will because I trust your gut as well as I do my own.”He pulled up the information on Ruby and told Sirous what he’d been able to find.“The two deaths that have been reported are just as you said he’d say.He’d not been told of those kinds of rules, so he couldn’t be prosecuted because of them.What new or even, for that matter, old vampire doesn’t know all the rules?They’re force-fed to us from birth.And if you’re changed, don’t you have to sign something that says you read over the rules that govern us?”
“Yes, and I have it signed right here.Good thought that one.”He laid the report next to his computer and pulled out other paperwork from the file.“He’s been in trouble with the council before.Something about making money by talking to humans about vampires.I think he was talking to some author who was writing a romance book about our kind, and it got around.”
“Those books have saved us a great deal when it comes to us blending in.I don’t know how many times, when I was younger, eating garlic has gotten me overlooked.”He shivered then.“Nastytasting stuff if you ask me, but it worked.Then there is the no reflection issue that’s simply not true.How would we even know how we looked when we left the house if we couldn’t see what we looked like?Do you suppose he’s feeding this person lies to keep our kind safe?”
“He can’t be both good and bad, and I think you know that.”Sirous said he knew that but didn’t want to jump to conclusions about anyone.“I’ll keep an eye on him and see what we can find out.If he’s just selling information that’s not true, there isn’t much I can do about that.But the rest, his selling true information will get his ass killed.And I’d be the one to do it to him.”
“Thanks.I don’t know why I have a feeling about him being in trouble, but if the little bit you’ve found out now is true, there is no reason not to believe that he’s not doing anything else wrong as well.”Brew made some notes on the man and decided that he was going to do a deep dive into his life.It couldn’t hurt, and if he didn’t find out anything, no one would be the wiser.He told Sirous that he had it covered.“I know you do.I already feel better with you on the case.”
After Sirous left him, he began working on the file.There were some petty things that he’d been doing, but nothing that anyone else hadn’t been up to since being a vampire.Just as he was ready to close the file on the man for now, he saw a note from the council that talked about looking into his life as well.He decided to get with them to see what he could find out.
It didn’t take him long to get with the three of them.There used to be five on the council, but when one of them retired, one of the ones left had to be fired.There could only be an odd number of people on the board, and he liked just having three of them.Much easier to get with them when you wanted them around, and they seemed to get along better, too.He asked about Ruby, and they knew who he was talking about.Not a good start for the man, he thought.
“We’ve been keeping an eye on him as best we could.There are times when we get busy and forget about him for decades at a time, but we get back around to it when he’s done something that will gather our attention.”He asked what that was the last time.“He claimed that the man he’d been living with had taken liberties, but he’d never say what they were.He’d killed him one night in a rage after the man had done this.He claimed that to repeat it gave him nightmares, and he wasn’t sleeping well at all.But the thing is, he left him all his money when he passed on, and we found that to be suspicious.He’d been left a great deal of money from another source, too, that we couldn’t find any wrongdoing of.”
“Why haven’t I heard about this before?I could have had one of the faeries looking after him to see if we have a pattern.Though it sounds like we do anyway.”Brew listened to their complaints about being overworked, and there were just too many easy cases that they could solve.“So, just because this one is hard, you decided that it wasn’t worth your time to look into it.Is that what you’re saying?”
“Pretty much.If you knew the workload that we had, you’d be exhausted too.Why, just the other week I almost didn’t get my time off from being too busy here to make the time.”Brew had no idea why, but he could almost fire the lot of them.“We get a lot of easy cases in our hands that we solve.And restitution is done immediately.That’s the way that most of the other vampires like it.”
“Well, I don’t, and since I’m king, I want the harder cases done as they come in.There will be no more vacation time unless I approve it.And that’s only after you show me how you’ve worked on some of the harder cases to have them resolved.”He said that he couldn’t do that.“Oh, but I can.As king, I can have all of you fired and bring in a crew that I hand-picked.Then I’ll be looking into what you’ve done around here to see if there are some disciplinary actions that need to be taken out against you three.”
“We get things done around here.Why, just yesterday, I got three of the easy ones resolved, and the money was paid to the vampire in question, minus our fee.We take a little off the top in order to have enough money to live.None of us has had a pay raise in decades.If you were a better king, you would have figured that out while you were looking into Ruby Frank’s life.I told you that we looked into things and didn’t find anything at the time.”
“It’s the ‘at the time’ that bothers me.I wonder what else he’s been up to when you’re not looking.Do you perhaps tell him when you’re looking into his life?”They said that was one of the rulesthat they followed.A person needed to be notified that they were being investigated.“Show me that rule.I want to see how it’s worded.”
None of them could produce the rule on paper or in any other form.Then he was told it was easier to watch him when he wasn’t doing anything wrong.Christ, he wanted to kill the lot of them before he left, but he wasn’t going to do that.He needed them there for now.But he was going to find someone that he trusted to do the paperwork on vamps if it was the last thing he did.
After dismissing them, he sent three faeries on Ruby without his knowledge.Of course, it would be easier to watch someone if they were being on their best behavior.He’d bet anything, too, that he was told when they were finished with the investigation as well.And he was sure that it didn’t last all that long either.They’d watch for a couple of days, hell, even a couple of hours, and when he didn’t do anything, he’d be able to go right back to what he’d been doing before.If they did that to every case that came in, it’s small wonder anyone was fined or arrested who had been wrong-doing.He didn’t understand why they’d bothered to take away some of his magic if he wasn’t doing anything wrong.Well, he was going to take care of it today if he had to work all night to get it done.For now, however, he was going to keep it to himself on what was going on so that he could catch the young vamp at something he shouldn’t be doing.
It was nearly midnight when he had all the information that he needed on Ruby to take care of him.He’d been buying up insurance policies on humans, then killing them off.It had taken him a bit of effort to find his method on how he would kill them off, but once he had that, it was only a matter of finding unsolved deaths that had to do with carjackings.Several hundred of them appeared, and Ruby’s name was on all the policies that had been taken out.Christ, the man was making a million dollars a month by using his scheme.
