“We’re almost there.”
They reached a set of stairs that led to another door, this one newly painted.A much different series of scents tickled Silas’s nose: the spicy tang of cologne, the oaky scent of barrel-aged cognac and bourbon, the rich scent of tobacco, the musk of desire.The smooth crooning sound of a cool jazz tune grew louder as Grateful opened a door at the end of the corridor.
They entered a speakeasy lifted straight out of the 1920s.Waitresses milled through the crowd in flapper dresses and bobbed hairstyles.Red velvet fabric contrasted with dark wood furniture and mirrored walls.A dance floor was surrounded by a few dozen tightly spaced cocktail tables, each laden with guests dressed to the fang in jewels and couture.One face turned toward them, then another, until the entire establishment was staring at Grateful.
The music stopped, appalled expressions on the band members’ faces.Fangs dropped.A female ran for the back exit.
“What are they staring at?”Silas whispered.“Is it because you’re pregnant?”
“No.It’s because I could end them in a heartbeat.”Grateful sheathed Nightshade and held up her hands.“I’m looking for Julius,” she said in a loud, clear voice.
The bartender pointed to a staircase at the back of the establishment.“He’s in his bedroom.”
“Please, as you were!”Grateful said, hands still in the air.Gradually, as she led the way to the back staircase, the music started up again and the place came back to life.“Being a Hecate does not always mean a warm welcome.”
“I guess not.”
The second floor was enormous.Grateful stopped at one of twelve doors along a lengthy hallway that looked like something out of a modern-day castle.
“How do you know which one is his bedroom?”Silas asked.
“That’s a story for another time.”Grateful raised an eyebrow before rapping three times on the six-paneled mahogany door.There was no answer.“Hold on to your ass.This could get ugly.”
She whispered a spell, and the knob turned a bright shade of purple.It opened easily at the turn of her wrist.
Inside, Silas gaped at a room that belonged in a movie.Two stories high, the walls were lined with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves filled with leather-bound volumes from an age gone by.A massive four-poster bed wrapped in red velvet stood at the center of the room, oddly out of place among what otherwise could be a library.A fireplace blazed near a pair of Louis XVI-style chairs.And between those two chairs, a tall, dark vampire drank from the neck of a twentysomething human.She wore a medieval-style dress, the bodice of which had been pulled down to reveal her breasts.Silas averted his eyes.
Julius came off the girl’s throat with a pop and whispered something in her ear.She covered herself and staggered from the room.Silas assumed her drunken swagger was more likely due to blood loss than alcohol.The vampire wiped blood from the sides of his mouth with his thumb.
“Grateful Knight, to what do I owe the pleasure?”His eyes flicked to her enormous belly and he grimaced.
“Is she going to be okay?”Silas interrupted, gesturing in the direction the human girl had hobbled.“She could barely stand up.”
Julius leaned an elbow against the mantel.“Not that I owe you an explanation, wolf, but Stephanie is a professional blood donor.Believe me, she can take care of herself.”
“Since when do you hire out for blood?”Grateful asked.
“Are you here to talk about my love life, or would you care to explain why you’ve brought a werewolf into my home?”
“This is Silas.I think you’ve met before, at my wedding.No?He’s a detective for the CCPD.”
Julius ran a hand through his longish, dark brown hair.He reminded Silas of a petulant rock star, good-looking in a cologne model sort of way with a perpetually brooding air.“I’m hungry, Grateful.Get to the point.”
“Soleil is dead.The Book of Flesh and Bonewas taken from her room.It’s out there again, and we think Alex Bloodright has it.”
Julius stilled.Silas hadn’t spent much time with vampires, but he found his lack of movement unsettling.He didn’t even breathe.But then, vampires didn’t need to breathe, did they?
“Would you like a drink?”the vampire said.“I suddenly feel I need one.”He paced to a bar behind the giant bed.“Silas, can I get you a brandy?I take you for a brandy man.”
“Brandy would be fine.”
“Water,” Grateful said.“While you’re pouring, what do you think Alex is doing with the book?I take it from your reaction that you know who he is.”
Brandy gurgled from the decanter, Julius intent on its dark flow into the snifter in his hand.“I know who Alex is.Everyone in the vampire district knows of Alex.”
“Where is he?”Silas growled.
Julius returned to where they waited by the fire and handed them their drinks.“Down, doggie.If I knew, I’d tell you.Alex and I are hardly besties.I know of him, that is all.”
