Chapter 9 #3
That’s it. I refused to open up my awareness, I clamped down, and narrowed my focus.
It didn’t matter what people thought of me.
It didn’t matter that I was wearing unreasonably high heels and next to nothing.
Everything else floated out of existence.
It was just me, my questions, and the god-awful knife.
Thunk!
Seven points scored by Carmen.
Thunk!
Eight. Ha! My shot was better. Much better.
It also meant I won my first question, and I dove in without hesitation or courtesy. “Do the names Mercy, Dorian, Celeste, Kian, and Zayd, sound familiar?”
“I’m going to ignore the familiar pun.”
“So, you do know them?”
“Of course, they were at the fang ceremony last week. Their vamps got their teeth. They were bitten. Zayd cried, I remember that, but I didn’t really pay much attention after the fact. When I’m not the center of attention, things get rather boring.”
Carmen decided she’d answered enough of my question to fulfil the requirements of our bargain and threw her blade again.
Thunk!
Seven points.
Thunk!
Nine. I was getting better at this. Time for my next question. “Is there anyone that would want to harm familiars? Vamps included.”
“God, no,” Carmen scoffed, still absorbing my last throw. “Familiars are sacred. Their role is essential. What is a vampire without their familiar? Half of the vampires in our club, darling, are here because of that dynamic.”
She threw again.
Thunk!
Nine. Nine was going to be hard to beat. But I didn’t have a choice, I had to best her. I needed to earn my last question. If she flaunted her throw, I didn’t notice. My focus was on the frayed silhouette swaying twenty feet away.
I didn’t let my mind think beyond that as I stepped, pinched, and threw—
Thunk!
Bullseye. Right in the heart.
Now, that was more like it. My pulse skipped in a happy steady beat. Accomplished. Complete. In control.
I turned to Carmen with the final earned question on my lips, when I realized just how many people had gathered to watch our ‘little game’.
A roar of applause prickled to life in my ears to match the moving hands. Clapping. Whistling. I had worked so hard to tune everyone and everything out, beyond my task, that I hadn’t noticed we had been the center of attention.
Just how Carmen liked it.
Blood pounded in my ears, the applause rumbling alongside the quickening pulse in my chest. I needed to get my last question out before I was overwhelmed by my surroundings. “Have you or anyone else noticed any unusual activity—”
“What we do here is anything but ordinary, darling. Being a vampire, the life I claimed for myself, is the definition of unusual. Now—”
“Ah,” I chided, lifting my hands to hold the conversation in place. “You didn’t let me finish. Have you noticed anything unusual…for a vampire?” I flickered my attention to Xander. “Or familiar?”
Carmen paused, mulling over my question, her fangs poking into her bottom lip. Over her shoulder, Xander shook his head. It was barely noticeable, but it was there all the same.
The attention from the crowd dwindling as Carmen constructed her response, she shifted in a way screamed conflicted. Her inner turmoil likely connected to the pressure to perform, but tell me the truth in the process.
“No. Nothing.” She flicked her hair in an elegant cascade of copper, drawing herself closer, lowering her voice a hair above a whisper, “Being a vampire is one of the greatest joys of my life. But when I’m on the outside…
very few people see it that way. No matter how much money I make. This way of life is not for everyone.”
People always judged what they did not know.
With the prominent scar on my face, I knew the feeling better than most. Even though the vamps chose, and paid exorbitant sums for, this lifestyle didn’t make it any easier.
Vamps still interacted with the outside world beyond the gatherings put on by Lenore, fangs and all.
Which required commitment. It required confidence to stand in the face of all those who didn’t, or wouldn’t, understand.
Feeling sympathy for vamps now, Delilah?
I most certainly was not. The vamps were in charge here.
They had power. A power so palpable the air was thick with secrets, and sex, and subservience.
And…. I needed to get on with the case, away from the crowd, while I still felt in control.
“Well, thank you Carmen. The game was fun, but I best be off now.”
Before I could leave Carmen grabbed a hold of my arm. “Won’t you tell me what this is all about? What happened?”
Damn it.
If I shared the details, word would spread fast. Information I received from anyone I questioned later on would be useless if I gave all of the pieces away.
Given the desperation of those in the waiting room, my gut told me people would involve themselves in the case to get attention. Even if they had nothing to do with it. No knowledge. No involvement whatsoever. But they’d willingly make something up in order to look useful. To be seen.
I could trust Jezebel, given our history. And Lenore would know soon enough, but she wouldn’t let the details spread like wildfire within her membership. After all, that wouldn’t be good for business.
“I’m afraid, I’m not at liberty to discuss, but do let me know if you come across anything…”
Carmen, still holding onto my arm gave me a once over, as if I had just taken off a mask and revealed an entirely new person beneath. “Who are you?”
Now she wanted to know who I was. How convenient. So, I smiled, really smiled, and despite the knot of nausea in my belly, I felt more like myself than I had all day as I said, “No-one-of-consequence.”
And with that I disappeared into the crowd. It was time Todd and I had a little conversation with Lenore.