Bloody Heretic (3 page)

     "Yes, we're all doing well so far. It seems to be a routine snatch and grab. If we can catch the son of a bitch Aleksandrov then all the better," he said.

    "Excellent. Well, I'll let you get back to it. Don't forget to check in with us when yo
u can. Sarah and I worry you know." Dom smiled at the King
’
s fatherly tone.

    "I won't forget," Dom assured him. "I'll check in a few days, Your Majesty."

    "Alright. Good hunting." With that he hung up. Dom kept an eye on the club for the remainder o
f the night. He paced the length of the building knowing that it would be safe from prying eyes
as it was the tallest on the four block parameter
. They had timed the
admittance
of the Other
clientele
for the first few days. They always
entered
at midnight
and left an hour before dawn. He left his post
with
just minutes to spare before the first few Vamps and Weres were leaving. Claude looked up as he entered their shared room.

    "No one new tonight," he commented. They had been watching for new faces but
so far it was always the same fifty or so men and women.

    "No. It's such a tight nit group I'm surprised they were let in at all," Dom said
referring
to the cover the team was using to get them into the club. They were posing as tourists
, using their r
eal names, supposedly on vacation,
but Boris's staff was well trained to watch
the
new comers. As he was thinking on it Adam, Vic, Ethan and Alex walked into the room, followed by Master Orleans and Gloria. Dom sat down on the desk along the far wall while
everyone else found space around the
sparsely
furnished room.

    "Alright. Anything new to report?" Dom asked.

    "We've got Alexis Cunningha
m and Blanche Beauchamp identified
," Vic answered. Claude picked up the list of women suspected of being kidna
pped
, marking the two women off
.
They all knew
Vic had it memorized.
That made twelve identified so far.

    "There are at least twenty women working the club, you said?" Claude asked.

    "
Yeah. It's slow going but I I
.
d
.
’
d
at least Alexis and Blanche fo
r sure
tonight
." She hung her head in her hands. Dom didn't want to notice that her glittery contraption of a shirt gaped enough to show her cleavage but he did. Adam was too distracted by rubbing he
r back to notice anyone ogling
. He looked away, and happe
ned to see Jeanne in the corner watching him. He jumped just a fraction, not having known she was there. He looked quickly away. Jeanne walked up to Vic and offered her a
cigarette
. Without acknowledging Adam's huff of
annoyance
she
excepted
the offering a
nd let Jeanne light it for her. 

    "Any
clues
to the girl
’
s daytime location?" Claude asked. The girls never left the site, so common sense said they were kept in the building somewhere. As soon as they found out where, they could get them out.

    "Not yet. They force everybody out before the girls go anywhere," Vic answered, taking another drag from her
cigarette
.

    "We've got another problem besides the lack of daytime locations," Ethan spoke up.

    "What's that?" Gloria asked.

    "The
guard
s
are starting to get suspicious. We haven't been sampling the cuisine, as it were."

    "You mean because you're not drinking from the women?" Jeanne asked.

    "Yes. It's come to our attention that simply drinking from each other isn't cutting it.
When one goes to a Blood Club they go to drink. Every time we turn down a girl we stick out," Ethan said.

    "What are we going to do about it?" Dom asked.

    "I'm glad you asked." Ethan and Adam shared a look and Dom became nervous. "We think you and J
eanne should take our place tomorrow night," Ethan answered.

    "What?" Dom stood up. "Why?"

    "We can't afford to lose days be backing off. We need someone in there every night searching. You and Jeanne can infiltrate
separately
and blend in."

    "B
lend in?" Dom croaked. He knew before Ethan said it what they had planned for him. It was unthinkable.

    "I know it goes against everything we're trying to prevent, but you're going to have to drink from them."

    "
Outrageous
! You can't be serious," Ma
ster Orleans declared.

    "I wouldn't bring it up if I didn't think it was
necessary
. They'll kill us without a thought if they think we aren't legit." Ethan looked to Dom.

    "And if I refuse?" Dom tried.

    "Please, Dom, just listen to him," Vic said
. "We tried to blend in but..." she trailed off. Adam squeezed her shoulders.

    "It's too hard for me. Ethan and I both find even the smell of another female distasteful. You and Jeanne are unattached. It won't be as difficult to stomach for you," Adam
explained. If he only knew. It would be all too easy to stomach. That was the problem. He looked to Jeanne. She shrugged, the gesture looking
entirely
appropriate on her slender French shoulders.

    "Think of it like this, man. Sometimes undercover cops
have to taste the product so the drug runners trust them into the gang, you know?" Elliot tried to comfort him by explaining.
And
sometimes the undercover cops ge
t addicted to the product,
he didn't reply back with.

    "I get it, I really do. But is this
really
necessary
? I mean can't you fake it for a while longer?"

    "The guards patrol the rooms. They have cameras installed in the walls. It's extremely hard to get away with faking. There's another reason why I think you and Jeanne should go," Ethan sai
d.

   "Why?"

   "With you both being unattached you're less likely to be
come
distracted," he answered, looking almost
embarrassed
.

    "Are you distracted?" Dom asked looking at Alex. She looked down at her bright blue painted nails.

    "I think we all
were tonight. It's getting worse. The atmosphere is too much to take night after night." Ethan wasn't
exaggerating
. The
intensity
of a Blood Club could turn the most pious of men into a debauched criminal. "Adam and Vic disappeared at one point and Alex an
d I seem to spend most of our time on the dance floor instead of searching the club."

    "We didn't disappear. We were chatting with a couple from Denmark in the Velvet Room," Adam declared.

    "Chatting. Right," Ethan snorted.

    "Oh, and you're a Sai
nt! You're style of dancing could hardly be called restrained," Adam shot back.

    "Enough!" Dom shouted. "I'll do it. Someone has to keep a level
head;
it might as well be me."

    "I knew we could count on you, Dom," Vic smiled up at him in thanks.
He swallowed his first reaction to tell her not to thank him just yet.

    "Why didn't anyone ask if I wanted to go?" Elliot demanded. There was a five second pause before everyone burst out laughing. "What?" He looked around.

    "You're under age," Vic e
xplained, flipping a curl out of her eye.

    "That's a load of crap." He folded his arms. "Well, why didn't you ask Gloria and the Master to go?" Elliot asked. You could cut the
tension
in the room with a kni
fe. No one made eye contact. Elliot had just p
oked the
elepha
nt in the room
with a stick. Claude rescued them all.

    "Right. Gloria would have every person there beat to a pulp before we get any useful
Intel
." They all laughed appropriately. Gloria and Master Orleans managed to shuffle a few feet ap
art.

    "If you don't mind, I think I'm going to hit the hay. It's been a long night." Alex stood, Ethan following suit. Adam and Vic followed as well.

   "I'll get back to you before you go tomorrow, Dom," Adam said. Dom nodded. After they left Master O
rleans walked up to him. He looked to Jeanne as well.

    "Are you really going to go through with this?" He asked.

    "If it comes down to it, yes. It won't really hurt the girls and if it's our ticket to stay
ing long enough to save them the
n so be it."
Things were slightly more complicated than that but he wasn't going into it with the man.

    "It's a terrible burden they've placed on you both, but you have my respect for carrying it." He placed a giant hand on Dom's shoulder and then walked away. "Co
me, pup," he called to Elliot. The Master had yet to acknowledge the change in Elliot but it obviously didn't affect him because they were sharing a room. Much to Gloria's
annoyance
, Dom was sure. She shared a room with Jeanne. They followed Elliot and the
Master out and finally he was able to sit and think.

    "Well, aren't you a lucky son of a bitch," Claude said. Dom look
ed
up at him.

    "Lucky?" He asked, surprised.

    "Yeah. You get to go to what amounts to be an all night blood orgy and I get to si
t here,
again
, and watch Gloria and Master Orleans go at it. Or listen to Elliot ask if I will teach him to hack a thousand more times. Nobody ever asks me if I want to go to an orgy."

    "For crying out loud, it's not an orgy." Though that wasn't far off
. "It's a dangerous fucking mission. If they suspect anything, I could be killed." He scrubbed a hand over his head in agitation. He needed something to do. Something to research, to keep his mind occupied. "Hand me my laptop."

    "What's up? You think o
f something?" He asked, handing it over.

    "No, I just need something to do." He booted it up and ran his fingers over the keys, marveling again how far technology had come in the last century. "You said you didn't come up with anything on Jeanne when y
ou checked her background."

    "Nothing. Why?"

    "She told me she owns a bar in New Orleans. The Orchid." He typed it into Google.

    "If she does it isn't under J
eanne Darke or any other alias
I could find."

    "Here it is," Dom said when the link p
opped up. He click
ed
on it and the page loaded. The buffering screen showed a pink Orchid which bloomed as the page fully loaded. Claude
came round
the other side of the desk and sat beside him. There was a front page, a contact page, and an events calenda
r which showed upcoming concert dates and shows performed by dancers and such. He clicked on the photo link, curious to see what the bar looked like. Photo after photo revealed a classy yet edgy club, with mostly female
clientele
.

    "Seems to be a lot of chicks at this bar," Claude mentioned casually.

    "Mmm hmm," Dom agreed. But they quickly became aware that it was quite dominated by female
clientele
. There were a few photos of women kissing and holding hands. Claude looked a
t Dom, one eyebrow raised. Dom looked to the laptop and back up.

    "You don't think," Claude started.

    "No. It just a
coincidence
." But after clicking the reviews page which in large and bold letters excla
imed The Orchid to be the best l
esbian bar in
New Orleans, Dom couldn't deny it.

    "Well, I'll be damned," Claude muttered.

    "That doesn't make her a lesbian," Dom stated. Sometimes these things just happen of their own accord, it didn't mean she meant to open a lesbian bar.

    "Oh my God! She
's sharing a room with Gloria! Do you think they..."

    "Claude!" Dom snapped. "Even if she is," he waved a hand at the laptop, "it doesn't mean she's sleeping with Gloria. It's none of our business." He slammed shut his laptop and rose to his feet. Claud
e snapped his mouth shut but his eyes were still large as saucers. Without a word between them Dom quickly went about pulling out the mobile shutter they had packed away and got it set up in front of the window. After the seal was closed around it he went
to the bathroom to wash up, very purposefully not thinking about the implications of his discovery.