Fallen Ever After (10 page)

The unknown was always scarier than the things we could label and confront. It occurred to me that if I had drunk the Puncture, I could have been one of those charcoaled causalities lined up in front of the bar. My stomach heaved, and I closed my eyes to keep its contents where they should be.

“God, what if the next batch they cook up is more potent? The damage that could do…” I trailed off and took another sip of water. If I could just keep it down.

“Arie’s right. We need to know what this is,” Tessa said. Her cat-like eyes held an emerald fire that made me glad that I was on this side of the battle. “And until we know what we’re dealing with, extra security measures will need to be taken. Absolutely no fae will be allowed entrance to the club.”

“Even Luna?” Victoria asked, returning with a file folder wedged under her arm.

“Yes,” Tessa said. I could tell by her tone that she was adamant about, it and that no amount of persuasion would change her mind.

“We know her and can trust her,” Victoria said. “Christ, I’ll vouch for her.”

Tessa crossed her arms. “It’s not a matter of not trusting her. It’s for her protection. We all know her father is Victor Monti, and we all know what that means.”

“I don’t know what that means,” I muttered as I shook my head.

“They call him Big Vinny for a reason. There’s been a long-standing feud between vampires and the fae that work for the Chicago Crew,” Arie said.

“But what happened?” I asked.

“Well Victor was using his daughter for control. Since she’s a moon faerie, she has the power to influence anything that happens during the night,” Victoria said. “The trouble started during Prohibition, when Victor got greedy and decided that he should have a slice of the profits from the jazz club downstairs.”

“
My
club,” Tessa said.

“But this has always been vampire territory,” Arie said.

“My territory, and when I refused,” Tessa said, “he cut off the supply of alcohol to the club and bribed our source at the blood bank to cut off the supply which provided Puncture upstairs. Except that he forgot one thing…”

“What’s that?” I asked.

Tessa flicked a red-manicured nail. “I don’t like being told what to do. I had drained him within an inch of his life when Luna begged me not to kill him. She agreed to servitude in exchange for sparing her father’s life. Without his daughter’s magic, he lost a valuable resource and control over half the city.”

Arie grinned. “But be honest, Tessa. You’ve never taken very kindly to women being controlled, and you’ve always had a soft spot for Luna.”

“Perhaps when you’ve been around as long as I have you learn one thing…” Tessa smirked. “One way or the other, shit sucks when you’re a woman. Especially one that misbehaves.”

Having worked at the Coffee Grind, I couldn’t argue with her there. And Tessa had once been a courtesan, so I imagined that she’d seen and done things that I could only imagine. Her words reminded of a quote about well-behaved women, something about them not making history. “If it is Luna’s father who’s responsible for the attack, I don’t understand…why now? Why risk another falling out?” I asked, because even if it was obvious to them, I still couldn’t wrap my head around it.

Victoria frowned. “We stayed up talking late last night. One of her father’s informants told him about her recent proposition to Tessa—that her servitude would be put to an end if Holly wanted to go back to being human and Luna used her magic to make it happen. Luna’s father came to her apartment to tell her that she was to return home immediately and go back to working for him. Luna doesn’t want that, and for good reason.” Victoria slid onto one of the barstools, placing the file folder on the bar. “Who would want to work for a guy like that? Tessa should have killed him years ago when she had the chance.”

“She had no life at all working for Victor, and the things that she had to do for him...her half-sister took off six months ago because she couldn’t stand the prick,” Arie said. “He views both his daughters as nothing more than means to an end, with little regard for what it costs them.”

“This is why I’m glad I never really knew my family. There’s always one crazy nut-job to make everyone else miserable,” I said. My father had followed his dreams of the NFL on the wings of a football scholarship rather than deal with raising a daughter. At least that’s the way I saw it since I’d learned the truth from Rue. “Her father sounds like a dick.”

Tessa half-smiled in agreement before turning her attention on Victoria. “Well, now that we have Naida’s file, we should go see Luna before anyone else gets the same idea. Yes?”

Arie grabbed my hand, but somehow I didn’t find it very reassuring considering that we could find Luna any number of ways or with any number of fae once we got there. The unknown was some scary shit. I only hoped that we could find Luna in one piece, and perhaps she could explain things. Even Tessa looked a little worried. I knew things were bad when someone like her suddenly looked serious. Something in our world could nuke us from the inside out, but we had no idea what it was, and no one wanted to face the same fate that had killed five vampires tonight.

“Holly, go with Victoria. I’ll catch up. I want to check the surveillance footage to see what this fire faerie looks like. If the image is clear, maybe I can have Luna take a look at the guy.” Arie gave me a quick kiss before heading toward the security room.

“Yeah, that’s a good plan,” Victoria said.

“It’s the only plan until I get there and shake some answers out of that girl,” Tessa said.

Victoria looked at Tessa like she could kill her with her bare hands if she messed with Luna. I didn’t doubt it.
Fuck.
This debriefing wouldn’t end well for anyone if those two couldn’t get it together. And Tessa looked like a sand shark that had just been stepped on by a belligerent vacationer who’d drunk one too many Bahama Mamas. I wished that Arie and I hadn’t come tonight. We should have just stayed home and curled up in each other’s arms.

“We’ll take my car,” Tessa said. “The backseat is kind of nonexistent, but someone as tiny as you should be able to fit without a problem.” She nodded in my direction.

I shrugged into my brown suede flap coat, which hung over a nearby barstool. The three of us were turning toward the elevator when one of the waitresses grabbed my arm. “Hey, wait a sec. You’re Holly, right?”

I bit my lower lip. “Yeah.”

“I’m supposed to give this to you. I was going to bring to your table, but then…” She shrugged and handed me a piece of paper that was folded over. Both Tessa and Victoria were looking at me, so I shoved it into my pocket. “Let’s go.” I wasn’t sure what was on the paper, and it was killing me to not open it right then and there.

Chapter 6

Tessa drove a Mustang GT, ruby-red like the color of her nail polish. The tires squealed as she pulled out of the parkade and headed toward Victoria’s townhouse on the North Side of town. Victoria was in the passenger seat next to her, where she was being grilled about her interview with Naida. Victoria clenched her jaw, not saying much as Tessa chewed her out for not being more thorough in checking her background. Victoria knew as well as I did that arguing would be completely pointless.

It wasn’t hard to tune them out when all I could think about was the note that the waitress had given me as I was leaving the club. I folded my fingers around the paper in my coat pocket. When it was abundantly clear that they were absorbed in discussion, I couldn’t wait anymore. I had to know what was written on it. I pulled the note from my pocket, glancing toward the front seat as I unfolded it.

Neat block print lined the page. I quickly scanned the text. It had been meant for someone else—someone that the person who had written the note knew quite well, from the looks of it.

I heard you were dead. I’m glad to see that you’re not. I need to see you again. I’ll be in touch. Hoping you’ll be dressed like you were tonight. You always look good wearing nothing.

—T

Who the hell was ‘T’? Whoever ‘T’ was, they’d obviously mistaken me for someone else. Someone they thought was dead. Perhaps the vampire sitting at the bar was ‘T,’ and that’s why he’d been staring at me. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end as a sudden thought occurred to me. There was one person that he could have mistaken me for very easily.

Katarina.

I looked like her in almost every way. The only difference was that her eyes had been hazel, while mine were brown. But the vampire who’d been sitting at the bar was sitting far enough away from me and in the dim lighting—he probably wouldn’t have noticed such a small detail.
And Katarina is dead.

My mind reeled at the thought of this stranger watching me with Arie and thinking of me as someone who he’d known and perhaps been intimate with. What
did
she mean to him, anyway? Was she his friend, lover, or more than that? If I saw him again I’d have to tell him that she was dead, and surely he’d want to know how she died. Then I’d have to think up some lie rather than tell the horrible truth to someone who had known her. The truth was that I had killed Katarina.

Whoops. Sorry about that. Better luck next time.

Nothing that I could say would change what happened, and I’d be lying if I said I’d take it back. She was psychotic. When it came down to it, it had been me or her. No way could we have both walked away from that night. But even if I’d had no other choice, there was no telling how this person would react to hearing about her death.

My stomach churned.

How could I tell him she was gone? I’d never killed someone before, and the memory of that night was still so fresh that I could remember the tiniest details; it was etched in my mind like waking up from a nightmare, drenched in cold sweat with my adrenaline pumping. It had only been a little over a week, but I didn’t think I’d ever forget the moment when pixels of light had poured out of her, like sunlight shattering a vase. Tessa and Victoria had stopped talking.

You always look good wearing nothing.

Heat rushed to my face, but the embarrassment didn’t quell the desire pooling in the pit of my stomach as I thought back to Arie cuffing me around the pole at the club. This stranger had watched us fuck, and then wrote to me. A conflicted swirl of emotions that I didn’t want to consider washed over me. I crumpled the paper and shoved it back in my pocket.

The sound of crinkling paper drew their attention from the front seat. Tessa met my eyes in the rearview mirror. “Is there anything you’d like to share with the rest of us, pet?”

It wasn’t worth arguing over her nickname for me, which apparently hadn’t changed just because I was a vampire. I really couldn’t stand it, and it irritated the shit out of me that she refused to call me by my name.

“Not really.”

“Fine by me. Tessa pursed her lips. “But just remember that now isn’t exactly a time for secrets. Do you understand me?”

Victoria shifted in her seat.

I sighed. “It has nothing to do with tonight. If it was something that you needed to know about, don’t you think that I’d tell you?”

“If you know what’s good for you.” Tessa returned her attention to the road.

“I have nothing to hide. If it was something that mattered, you’d be the first to know.”

“Good. I like you, and I’d like to keep it that way, but don’t think for a minute that just because you’re with Arie and I find you useful, I’ll tolerate secrecy,” Tessa said. “Loyalty is everything.”

“It is to me, too. I never thanked you for taking care of those two who were helping Katarina,” I said, meeting her eyes in the rearview mirror. “So, thanks.”

“None necessary, pet.” Tessa met my eyes again in the mirror before looking back at the road. “Those two Ancients have been causing problems for centuries, and it’s not like two against one is really a fair fight.”

I thought back to the night of the gala. Two Ancient sisters had restrained Arie and kept him from coming to my rescue. Apparently, I hadn’t needed it. Then again, I never really cared for being a damsel in distress—I’d rather rescue myself.

“Still…I appreciate what you did for me,” I said.

We drove the rest of the way in silence. Scenery flew by as I tried not to dwell on the stranger who had left me the note. The note said he’d be in touch, but I didn’t know how that was even possible. I wondered if I should tell Arie. But I didn’t relish bringing up any topic that concerned Katarina, even if I felt guilty for not telling him, especially after we’d talked about being honest with each other.

Tessa pulled off the highway, and we were gliding through neighborhood side streets until we came to West DePaul, where the houses often started at half a million dollars. She stopped in front of a brick-front building, and we all fell out of the Mustang, filing up the steps to Victoria’s townhouse. My thoughts turned to the tragic events of the night. How would Luna take this?

Victoria unlocked the front door and let us in. Her townhouse was airy and filled with white contemporary décor. Bright splashes of color broke up the whiteness: a throw pillow here, a well-chosen piece of artwork there. Had it been daytime the skylights above would have illuminated the open space with natural light. I closed the front door behind me, and it slammed a little louder than I had intended.