“But you have enough pull with their masters or you wouldn’t have used them in the first place to try to kill Ivy.”

The master vampire thought about that for a moment, his lips twitching when Nina regained her balance and glared at him, her fear for Ivy overpowering her fear of him. “Clear the building,” he said gruffly, gesturing. “Make sure the apartment in question is secure.”

The vampires began to break up, some jogging to the apartments, but most simply vanishing into the night. Cormel waited, as still as, well, the undead, the wind moving the hem of his coat the only motion about him. Frowning and tucking the bottle back in my shoulder bag, I turned to Trent. Nina jerked away, snarling when I tried to take her other arm, and I backed off.

“You sure you don’t have any other ideas?” I asked Trent as we started across the grass, Nina’s aggressive stalking held in check by the vampires around and behind us.

“Not any you’re going to like,” he said. “You never know. It might work just fine.”

Or it might kill Felix outright, I thought, but I didn’t say it as we made our way to the road. But I’d do anything for Ivy. What happened after that was not going to be my problem.

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Felix sat on the couch not four feet from me, not breathing, not moving, creeping me out as he stared with red-rimmed, hungry eyes while I wiped the glass coffee table with a salt-soaked rag. The three heavies by the door weren’t helping, even if the undead vampire was bound and gagged. I wished Cormel would get up here so we could get on with it.

I jumped at the thump from the bedroom, but Jenks gave me a thumbs-up before darting to the open kitchen. Trent, too, had started, and he turned from the vampire graffiti sprayed on the inside of the closed blinds. His eyes roved over the space, evaluating the lifestyle of the average living vampire, calculating the difficulty of getting out of here in a pinch, generally doing his warlord/businessman elf thing.

Apart from the ominous jagged and swirled vampire graffiti, the apartment looked the same as when I’d last seen it. I wondered if Marsha and Luke were still alive and running. It was possible, seeing that the real intent behind it all had been to get Ivy involved.

“Hey, Trent. Be a pal, would you?” Jenks called, and Trent went into the kitchen to take the top off a jar of peanut butter. It had been an exhausting night for everyone, but I thought it interesting that he’d asked Trent. He’d never asked me to help with anything remotely connected to his admittedly high caloric needs.