“Everybody here?” I asked.
“Yes. This isn’t something that Old Rossi will take lightly.”
“He shouldn’t. Someone in his family is dead.”
His eyes flashed that odd blue unique to angry fangers. “It’s rare to happen. Not death, but the manner of it.”
“Gunshot and blood symbols?”
His lips pressed together and I could see the slight indentation of his fangs pressing into his bottom lip. Leon was angry, and more than that, uncomfortable.
“Gunshot,” he said.
All right. I don’t know why he didn’t want to acknowledge the blood symbols. Maybe it was a vampire thing.
“Were you close to him?” I asked.
“Never saw him outside of family gatherings. Didn’t talk to him much then. He was nice. Followed the family rules.”
The Rossis weren’t related. The clan was made up of individual vampires Rossi had approved and given his family name. They passed themselves off as cousins, in-laws, and distant relations. They didn’t make a big deal about it, and the mortals in town didn’t question it. Since Old Rossi presented himself as a man who would rather make love than war, people expected him to help out his family members, take them in, line up employment, and help get them on their feet.
What most mortals in town didn’t know was that Rossi carefully vetted every vampire who came into Ordinary and upheld a strict set of rules for vampire behavior. If a vampire stepped outside those bounds, Rossi took them down, quietly, and with no trace left behind.
That was another of Ordinary’s agreements: Rossi took care of vampire behavior and violence, and Granny Wolfe took care of werewolf behavior and violence. As the police in town, we could arrest either type of creature if they were breaking the law, but if they dissolved into gang war or racial violence, Rossi and Granny put an end to it by putting an end to them.
Leon gestured me toward the interior of the house, and I followed.
“Where was the wedding?”
“Spokane. One of my coworkers needed a date. It was her sister’s wedding. Since it was at night, it worked for me.”
One of the reasons so many vampires came to Ordinary was because of the living conditions. Not only was it a quiet little town, it was also one of the few places in the world where daylight didn’t harm vamps.
Vampires in town could go out in daylight, though they usually kept most of their skin covered and wore sunblock. I’d asked Old Rossi why daylight in Ordinary didn’t hurt vampires and had gotten a vague lecture on geology, meteorology, and I’m pretty sure the Bermuda Triangle.
It didn’t make sense then, and I hadn’t asked again.
Outside of Ordinary, vampires accepted by Rossi could also move in daylight for limited times. That had something to do with his claim as their prime, the connection between them and him, and him and Ordinary.
If not for that, vampires would be night creatures only just like in the legends and movies.
“Her sister was furious she had a date.”
“Sibling rivalry?”
He grinned wide enough to show fangs. “Had to break up a fight. Between the bridesmaids.”
“Sounds like fun.”
“Open bar and a show. I enjoyed it.”
“By open bar you are talking alcohol, not jugular, right?”
“Sure, Chief.”
Vampire activity outside of Ordinary was beyond my jurisdiction. Over state lines it was definitely outside my jurisdiction.
“You tell me anymore, I’ll have to take you in, Leon.”
