Bloody Heretic (15 page)

    “
Damn, we
are all hot,”
Alex quipped.

    “
What about me?”
Gloria frowned down at her black fatigues. “
I want to be hot too.”

    “
Girl, we got together a long time ago and decided you can
’
t come and be hot with us. Your legs would win out over anything we have.”
Vic laughed at the look on Gloria
’
s face. Jeanne smiled. Once upon a time Gloria
’
s height was her greatest flaw. Now she was compared to runway models.

    “
She
’
s joking. You can come be hot with us when we get home. After all this is said and done you g
uys better come to New York and come see me,”
Alex demanded.

    “
I
’
ll probably end up in Adam
’
s penthouse
in the Tower so I
’
ll definitely be near
with you and Ethan
,”
Vic said.

    “
You guys aren
’
t going to get your own place? I figured you
’
d want to be
closer to the country.”

    “
Not right away. I don
’
t want to take him too far away from his job. And Stellan still lives there. Maybe we
’
ll get a
place upstate for the full moon
.”
Vic smiled thinking about it.

    “
Sounds nice. I like the Tower and Ethan
’
s apartment is fine, but I
’
d like a place of our own too somewhere. Maybe just a loft somewhere close by.”

    “
What about you and...,”
Vic trailed off as she almost asked Gloria about her and Orleans. Jeanne looked to Gloria as well, wearing a
‘
Yes, do
tell
’
smile. Gloria smirked back but didn
’
t answer.

    “
I
’
ve never asked Jeanne, but are you seeing anyone?”
Alex changed the subject.

    “
No, not lately. I had my heart broken and I never quite got over it.”

    “
Ah, that
’
s terrible. What was his name
?”
Vic asked.

    “
Marguerite.”

    “
Marguerite?”
Alex and Vic exclaimed.
Gloria laughed at their shock.

    “
How old fashion of them. Now, tell me you
’
ve dated since Marguerite. You were dating her during World War two.”

    “
She turned out to be a spy,
didn
’
t I tell you?”
Gloria shook her head. “
Yes, working with the Italians. I was heartbroken. You
’
d think I would have noticed something like that.”

    “
I said she was a bitch. Did you listen to me? No,
you never listen to me. You get
mad
,
run off and d
on
’
t talk to me for sixty years.”

    “
I didn
’
t talk to you for sixty years because I didn
’
t talk to anyone for sixty years.”

    “
Except Pierre...”

    “
Yes, except Pierre,”
she mocked Gloria as she said it, knowing it was coming. “
I told you he practical
ly attacked me on the street.”

    “
What
’
s up with you guys and Pierre anyway? I have to ask,”
Vic said.

    “
We
’
re just old friends, that
’
s all. Jeanne is
from Orleans
originally, you know?”
Gloria explained, leaving out the part about Jeanne being Pack Master of Orleans for over sixty years.

    “
I am from Lorraine actually. But yes, I spent many years in Orleans. We were both good friends to the Orleans Pack.”
Jeanne could see the wheels t
urning in Vic
’
s brain, so she quickly changed the subject. “
So, are we ready?”

    “
Yep.”
Alex slipped her new shoes on.

    “
I guess,”
Vic smoothed her hands down her new gold dress.

    “
Bon, a
lle
,”
she said. They grabbed purses and coats and left the r
oom, heading quickly toward Dom and Claude
’
s room. As they approach she could hear Dom yelling.

    “
This is bull shit! Where is my silver and green tie?”

    “
You wore it yesterday,”
Claude explained.

    “
No shit, and now it
’
s missing. I always put my ti
es back, right here in this pouch.”
Scuffling as he tossed something. She cracked the door gently.

    “
Are you decent?”
She asked out of politeness. She had
already
seen it all. Not that he knew that.

    “
Not at all,”
Claude complained. But he motioned
them inside. The guys were all there, but being moved around
and
pushed as Dom crashed through the tiny room in search of the tie she was pretty sure he had eaten last night. At least she wasn
’
t sure what had happen
ed
to it either. She watched as his ange
r rose
and things started getti
ng flung across the room. She
’
d
had
about enough when his shoe hit the mirror in the bathroom.

    “
Dom,”
she
said and
put a hand to his arm. He surprised her by snatching it back. His anger was now directed at her. And here she thou
ght she could defuse it with a kind word. She wasn
’
t sure why but she noticed that none of the men in the room were quite themselves. Except for perhaps Elliot, who sat in the corner, feet up on Dom
’
s desk, looking smug.

    “
Did somebody die?”
She had to
ask.

    “
Everything is fine,”
Dom snapped. He turned away, ripping a red tie off of the floor, and stormed into the bathroom. She looked at the girls. They shrugged. Vic went to sit with Adam, who very cautiously wrapped an arm around her. The same with
Alex and
Ethan, he hugged her but in a
n
‘
I
’
m sad at a f
uneral
’
sort of way,
as if
seeking solace. They all felt it. Something had changed.

Chapter Seven

    I don
’
t dance
, Dom thought to himself for the thousandth time
. I
’
m not gay, and I don
’
t dance
. What the hell had given her that
idea? Just because he never fed from wome
n, that didn
’
t mean anything. It was a precaution, not a predilection. And how would she know who he had been feeding on? Again, what had made her think he was gay? The comment abo
ut the way he danced had him baffl
ed
. He tightened his tie for the millionth time, and for the millionth time he almost strangled himself. He ripped it off his neck with a snarl.
I don
’
t dance,
therefore I didn
’
t dance last night.
Therefore the memory was either false or she had some other bit of so called proof that he wasn
’
t gay but that she didn
’
t feel comfortable sharing with Alex. Which brought him right back around to what she coul
d possibly mean by it all. He du
g and dug into
his mind, trying to bring the memories from last night together. All he could focus on was the scene in which they drank from the girls in the Velvet room. He was sure it hadn
’
t happened, if only because of the reaction he
‘
remembered
’
having to i
t and hi
s actual reaction
to seeing it in his mind. They didn
’
t mesh
,
so he knew it was a false memory.
It had been a mistake to follow the girls down to the plaza. Nothin
g good came from eaves dropping;
they should have known better. Not only had they let their c
uriosity get the better of them, they had listened to a nineteen year old kid and his head was now the size of a zeppelin. He had been right of course. They were complaining about their men. Now they didn
’
t know how to act, guilty, angry or upset about th
e
things they had heard. Dom was angry all right, but it was mostly caused by embarrassment and shame. He
could admit that much to himself.
If he could just calm down, he might be able to think straight. He braced his hands on the sink and stared at his ref
lection. His expression said all he needed to know about himself. He was losing his mind. His eyes were crazed, his skin slick with sweat. A flicker of fear coursed through him. He knew this feeling, h
ad been feeling it all evening
but unwilling to acknowl
edge it. It had been so long. He had been so good. But he couldn
’
t hide it from himself anymore, the memory of the last time he had ingested too much blood slammed into him, shaming him. It had been 1957, Little Havana
, and Dom was passed out on the floor
of a dirty hovel. Last he remembered he had been enjoying a little snack, one thing leading to the other and he had had a little too much of the pretty brunette. The next he remembered he was being picked up by the back of his bloody jacket and being flun
g
across the room by the King himself. But the King wasn
’
t after him. He was looking for someone named Joaquin Delgado, a thug that had passed through the area. Dom knew the name and pointed him in the right direction. Afterwards, the King had come back lo
o
king for Dom and finding him in the same dirty hovel, head between his knees, bawling like a child.
Shame didn
’
t even come close to what he felt. Somehow, for reasons Dom still didn
’
t understand and never would, King Niles had taken pity on him and taken h
im back to New York. There he had cleaned up and taken an interest in Investigations. He was good at it too. As long as he kept away from temptations, didn
’
t think about his life before, he could get by day to day.
After Niles died things had taken a turn
for the worst.
It wasn
’
t until Adam had started strutting around the office, bragging about each and every one of his latest conquests that Dom finally snapped. It was easy to forget his addiction when he stayed away from women, away from anything that rem
inded him of what it was like to drown in blood and sex. But Adam reminded him every day. Of course it wasn
’
t malicious. How could it be? Nobody save King Niles knew what he had been like before, and he was gone. And now Jeanne
was here, teasing him into giving
in just by being
. Saint, sinner, demon, angel
, he wasn
’
t sure what she was. What he did know was that he had done something awful last night and she knew something. His body was filled to the brim with blood, he could feel it now. Could remember the emotional highs and lows his body went through aft
e
r drinking his fill, and it was apparent now that
’
s exactly
what was wrong with him. Even
now he could hear Alex asking what was wrong with him.
They didn
’
t know, and he wasn
’
t about to explain it to them. He dropped the stupid tie on the bathroom floor, turned away from the mirror and opened the door. No one looked at him save Jeanne, who stared him dead in the eye as usual. She asked him with her eyes if he was alright. He n
o
dded slowly and sat down at his desk.