Spirit Sanguine (29 page)

“So what do you do for him, other than pimping?”

“I used to do security. Now I’m keeping the shit from hitting the fan.”

“How does Ilario fit into all this?”

“He’s Aleksi’s right-hand man, handling his business dealings. Aleksi doesn’t trust him, but then Aleksi doesn’t trust anyone but the hell bitches.”

“Frida and Greta?”

“Yes, them.” Judging from his tone, he didn’t have much love for them either.

“Where did Aleksi find them?”

“The rumor is they used to be East German athletes, pumped full of steroids. It might even be true. All I know is that they’re sisters and devoted to Aleksi. He turned them, and they worship him. He never goes anywhere without them.”

“They seem formidable as bodyguards.”

“Vicious too. You saw their softer side.”

Harvey, who had been standing quietly in a corner till then, stepped forward. “I don’t get it. Did you plan for us to get invited to the suite last night?”

Hector looked Harvey square in the eyes. “Not you. Only him. The party with the girls was going to happen no matter what, but I knew Frida and Greta would want a bite of Wade, once they got a whiff of him.”

“So what did you plan for me?”

“We would’ve lost you along the way. Neither Aleksi nor the bitches are into fucking guys. I didn’t expect you to show up as a chick. That complicated things.”

“What about Ilario?”

“He’s a smart man,” Hector said noncommittally.

Harvey’s tight expression and narrowed eyes showed how he was getting riled up. “Oh really? What did he think of the free show he got?”

“Only he knows what he thinks.”

“Did you see us too?”

“We all did. Aleksi and the hell bitches were rather disappointed, but I thought you handled the situation smartly.”

“Did it bother you knowing you were watching two men?”

Hector snorted. “It doesn’t get me off, but I’ve been around too long to give a crap. However, you’re lucky Aleksi’s not as sharp as he used to be, and Frida and Greta are dumb as rocks. Shit would’ve hit the fan if they figured you out.”

Gabe put a calming hand on Harvey’s shoulder. “Who knows Aleksi is using?” he asked.

“Frida, Greta, Ilario and me,” Hector replied.

“How about the guards?”

“They don’t have a clue.”

“C’mon. They spend time alone there. You’re trying to tell me they don’t go exploring?”

“The whole place is rigged with cameras, and they know that—they don’t wander beyond the foyer.”

So the knowledge about dirty blood was contained. That was good news, at least.

“How much do you trust Ilario?” Gabe asked, because the handsome vampire with the hard eyes was still a mystery to him.

“He can keep a secret. You don’t have to worry about Ilario,” Hector said with heavy emphasis.

“So that leaves the sisters and Aleksi.”

“I want the motherfucker dead,” Harvey growled.

“So does Hector. Isn’t that right?” Gabe asked, focusing on the vampire.

Hector held his gaze. “Aleksi is a liability. He must go.”

“I need to make a call.”

“You do that.”

Gabe dialed and asked for Ruby. Before he got far, she interrupted him. “I have a message for you:
Trust your friend
.”

“Is that it?” Gabe asked.

“Yes.” The phone went dead.

Fucking cryptic messages
, he thought. He preferred a simple
do this, don’t do that
, but he supposed it was Augustine’s way of giving him free rein. So be it.

First he had to find out what he was dealing with. “Okay. Suppose we agree to go up against Aleksi. It should be a child’s play, right? You coming with us?” He didn’t bother to keep the sarcastic tone out of his voice.

“No, it’ll have to be the two of you, but there are ways I can help.”

“Such as?”

Hector produced a rectangular piece of plastic. “I can provide you with access. And weapons, of course.”

“Seven vamps for only the two of us to deal with.”

“The regular guards won’t be there.”

“Hmm.”

Sticking his hands in his pockets and hanging his head, Gabe took a moment to reflect on the situation. On the one hand, what went on in Vegas was none of his business. All he knew of the lay of the land was what Hector had shared with him. Acting upon the word of a vampire he barely knew called for a helluva lot of trust. Or foolhardiness. On the other hand, Aleksi was exactly the kind of vamp in need of slaying, and that was Gabe’s calling. Right?

However, it wasn’t his decision alone. He had a partner. He looked at Harvey, who replied to the wordless question with a determined, hard nod.

Gabe turned back to Hector. “All right. We’ll do it. On one condition.”

“What’s that?”

“You make sure the old guy, Mr. Vega, is taken back to the hospice where he belongs.”

“Deal.”

“Weapons?”

“This way.”

Instead of taking the SUV, Hector transported them in a van bearing the name of a local package delivery service. Harvey and Gabe sat in the back, in blue overalls over their regular clothes. They even wore matching baseball hats, with the same logo as on the van. The cardboard boxes at their feet contained a crossbow each.

“You’ll be taking a more direct route this time,” Hector explained while driving. “I’ll drop you off in the loading dock. You walk in, don’t look at anyone. The service elevator will be straight ahead. You’ll need the access card to get it moving. The card will also open the door to the suite.”

While Hector was busy negotiating the traffic, Gabe turned to Harvey. “You need to bite me.”

“No, you’ve donated too much blood already.”

“I’m good. You know why I want it.”

If Gabe’s blood made Harvey more alert, more aware during daytime, that was exactly what Gabe wanted. He knew Harvey understood—he didn’t need to explain it in front of Hector. Their secrets were their own.

Gabe brushed his thumb over Harvey’s lips. “Just do it, stupid.”

“You and your idiotic slogans,” Harvey groused, even as he leaned forward and pulled open Gabe’s collar.

Harvey sucked Gabe’s blood for a few seconds.

“Is that enough?” Gabe asked.

“Plenty. Trust me.”

The familiar buzz rushed through Gabe, mixing with the adrenaline. Under the circumstances, the last thing Gabe needed to think of was sex, so he pushed against it. He’d done it the night before when the bitches bit him, so he could do it again. Surprisingly, it didn’t take much at all. Maybe, he thought, he could’ve always done it, if he’d tried. Heightened awareness of his environment and Harvey remained. Without the distraction of sex, he recognized something simple yet shocking. Sylvaine and Augustine had been right. He desperately needed to process this realization, but there was no time. The van pulled into the underground loading dock of the hotel.

Hector looked at his watch. “Wait. One more minute.”

“You really planned this out, didn’t you?” Harvey asked.

“Of course. When you’re done, come back down. I’ll be waiting here. “

“Won’t anybody be suspicious?”

“No, they’re used to seeing this van parked here. One more thing, the elevator has a security camera. It’s in the ceiling. Don’t look up.”

“How about the hallway?”

“Aleksi had that one disabled. Okay, go now. Remember, you have twenty minutes max till the guards get back. Good luck.”

They had a long walk to the elevator, past the laundry. The place was bustling like an ants’ nest, workers busily scurrying about. As Harvey and Gabe made their way across the floor in purposeful strides, nobody looked at them twice. They shed their deliveryman personas and overalls only after stepping out of the elevator on the twenty-seventh floor. With their crossbows and the ammo belts fitted with spikes across their chests, they looked like a couple of low-tech Rambos. Gabe would’ve laughed if his heart wasn’t in his throat.

He grabbed Harvey by the arm. “Okay, as we agreed—I go in first. You stay by the door, make sure nobody gets out.”

“While you take on everyone else by yourself?”

“I’ll be careful. It’s essential nobody gets out that door.”

Gabe lied. A place as big as that had to have at least one other entrance, but he figured Harvey would be safest staying in the foyer. Making sure Harvey got through this scrape unharmed was even more important to him now than half an hour before.

They found nobody outside the suite, so Gabe swiped the card and swiftly moved inside. There were no guards inside either. So far Hector was good to his word.

“Do you feel any regular people around?” Gabe asked.

Harvey shook his head. “Only the old man. Must be Mr. Vega. He’s somewhere toward the left.”

“Good. Give me fifteen minutes.”

Gabe took off in the direction Harvey indicated—he felt Aleksi’s presence that way. Heavy drapes covered the windows, creating a permanent gloom. Gabe’s eyes gradually adjusted as he navigated among the bulky shapes of furniture. He wished Hector had provided them with a map for the fucking place. He kept his senses peeled for the three vampires. Aleksi remained static, but Frida and Greta kept moving around, making his job hard. He almost became trapped when he dead-ended in a guest bathroom. For a hair-raising minute, only a thin door separated him from one of the sisters. Gabe wanted to find Aleksi and deal with him first, so there would be no chance of him calling for help. Finally, she moved on, and Gabe could continue his silent hunt.

Backtracking and following the trail of nastiness, he crept up to a closed door. He felt Aleksi close behind it. The bodyguards were farther away, although not far enough for his liking. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the luxury of time, so he barged into the room, weapon raised.

Someone had converted the bedroom into a hospital room. On a white bed lay a shrunken old man, plastic tubes feeding him with oxygen and drugs. His eyes were closed and his head tilted to expose his neck. Aleksi Radek towered over him, blood still fresh on his lips. He stared at Gabe, stupefied for a nanosecond. It was Gabe’s chance to act, but Aleksi stood sideways, making a heart shot impossible. In the absence of better options, Gabe opted to target the vampire’s throat.

The momentum of the spike knocked Aleksi back. Gabe swiftly rearmed the crossbow, but before he could shoot again, one of the blondes barreled in through the door behind him. He couldn’t tell if it was Frida or Greta, and frankly, he didn’t give a rat’s ass. He whirled around and let the stake fly. The sharp piece of wood nailed her right in the chest, and she burst into a cloud of dust. An enraged shriek announced the arrival of her sister.

Gabe had no time to rearm, so he hurled the crossbow at her, hoping to slow the furious vampire down at least. He might as well have thrown a tennis ball at a charging rhino. She came at him with a butcher knife raised high above her head.
What the hell does a vampire need a butcher knife for?
The stupid question popped into his head. Reflexively, he blocked the knife with his left arm. He heard and felt the sharp, metallic clank. To make things worse, at the same moment, Aleksi grabbed him from behind, curling his fingers around Gabe’s throat. The blonde reared up for another attack.

“Hey, bitch! Hands off my man!” Harvey shouted from the doorway.

As she spun around, the wooden spike shot by Harvey impaled her with such force the tip of it poked out of her back between the ribs before she turned into dust. Gabe pried Aleksi’s hands off his throat and wrestled the vamp to the ground. Aleksi fought back with every ounce of his daytime strength, but Harvey jumped in to help hold him down. Gabe grabbed a fresh stake and unceremoniously plunged it into Aleksi’s heart. The vamp dutifully turned into a pile of dirt, and Gabe sat back on his haunches. His own heart beat harder than a conga drum. From the look of him, Harvey was equally high on adrenaline or whatever vampires had instead. Gabe’s heartbeat slowly returned to normal.

“We did it,” he said.

“I see you’re still a lousy shot,” Harvey snarked.

“He was—” A prickly sensation caught Gabe’s attention.

“Moving?” Harvey finished the sentence, unaware of the danger closing in around them.

Gabe’s heart sped up again with alarm. “Something’s wrong; we must go.”

He jumped up from the floor, dragging Harvey with him.

“What is it?”

“The guards are coming back. We can’t take the front door. There must be another exit here somewhere.”

Harvey, instantly alert, tugged at Gabe. “Probably through the kitchen. I think this way.”

They never made it to the kitchen, instead got trapped in the media room. Two guards blocked one door; another two plus Ilario stood at the other.

“Don’t move. There’s no way out,” Ilario said with a cold air of authority.

With dismay, Gabe realized they all wore bulletproof vests. They hadn’t the night before. On top of it, all four of the guards had crossbows like his own trained on them. This was shaping up to be a trap.

“Drop your weapons,” Ilario commanded.

Frustrated, Gabe raised his arms and glared at Harvey who reluctantly tossed the crossbow and followed his example. Gabe edged in front of Harvey, while the gears in his brain worked at a furious pace. He and Harvey still had several stakes on them—they could have a chance in hand-to-hand combat. Well, there were still the vests, but at least it was daytime. Clearly, Ilario wanted them alive for some reason; he just had to figure out why and use it to their advantage. One thing was for sure—if he survived this, he was going to kill Hector.

Right on cue, Hector walked in with a funny little gun. He raised it and shot Gabe in the thigh.

“Not fucking again,” Gabe groaned at the sight of the dart.

He yanked the tranquilizer dart out, but it didn’t matter—already he was feeling woozy. Harvey caught him as he swayed.

“Motherfucking asshole!” he heard Harvey snarl over his shoulder.

Gabe tried to stay standing, but his knees had other ideas—they’d apparently turned to jelly. He was too heavy, too much of a dead weight for Harvey to hold, and they sank to the floor.