Authors: Linda Wisdom
“How did this happen?” he demanded in a low voice that chilled Jazz to the bone.
“Your colleague said she was able to learn about the house using her ghost partner. I found a way to use a ghost to enter the premises,” Esme said coolly. “While the walls were heavily warded, it seemed there were many weak spots in the house. They had grown too complacent.”
“Fine, you didn't like them, but did you have to kill them? Kill the girl? An innocent in all this?” Jazz gasped, staring at the lifeless body drooped in Esme's arms and finally seeing the twin marks on the girl's neck and one tiny drop of blood on the flawless skin. “What kind of monster are you?”
Esme turned her head and smiled. “Ashley isn't dead.” She tenderly stroked the girl's hair. “She's merely asleep. She will wake up soon and she will have no fear of dying.”
Nick stiffened. “You turned her.” If possible his voice turned even colder. Jazz looked at his icy features and saw a Protectorate enforcer.
She looked up, her lips still curved in the faint smile that hinted at a madness that had to have been simmering underneath but she had managed to hide well. “She's safe now. No one will ever take advantage of her.”
The realization struck Jazz like a mighty blow. She pressed her hand against her stomach. “How could you do that? She was a child! And what you've done will
keep
her a child. She has no chance of becoming an adult, of finding love, of having a full life!” she shrieked at the vampire.
“And she will never die,” Esme said in a level voice.
“You know our laws, Esme,” Nick stated flatly. “You turned an innocent. A child. You will die. And she will die because she cannot be allowed to exist like this.”
Esme shook her head. “There are no enforcers here and you wouldn't allow that to happen. You know what I did was right.”
Jazz stumbled to her feet and lurched her way toward the love seat. She couldn't keep her eyes off the delicate features of a woman who thought nothing of sentencing a child to such a horrid fate. “There is
nothing
right about what you did and you have to pay for this crime.”
Esme continued to smile and shake her head. “I thought you two would say that, so I came prepared.”
“No!” Jazz shouted just as the other woman raised her hand then threw something to the floor. A puff of oily smoke erupted, sending Jazz and Nick stumbling backwards. “Be gone!” she shouted, but by the time the smoke dissipated, it was too late. Esme and the child were gone.
Nick took off in a blur of speed.
“Great, leave me with the bodies!” Jazz took off after him but she knew she couldn't catch up. She stopped at the open front door.
A few minutes later, Nick returned. Anger rolled off him in waves.
“She had help,” he muttered, brushing past her.
“Do you have any ideas how we're going to explain this to the police?” she asked. “They're not going to believe our story about an insane vampire, some nasty magick, and all these dead bodies.”
“We're not calling the police.” Nick continued back to the drawing room.
“Then whoâ?” Jazz followed him. The minute she saw his expression she knew what his answer would be. Her stomach dropped into a freefall. “Oh no, not
them.”
“I already called it in and a unit will be here in about five minutes.”
She walked over to the stairs and sat down. “Maybe they were lying, cheating scum, but there had to be a better way to deal with them.”
“After all these years, Esme felt there was no better way.” Nick spun toward the door as a faint sound of heavy-duty engines sounded outside. “They're here.”
“Oh boy. Protectorate lackeys. I'm such a lucky witch.”
“Behave,” he warned her, heading for the door.
“I always do.” She groaned silently when Nick opened the door to a tall man dressed in black leather including fingerless gloves. His heavy bulk easily filled the doorway and he had the sort of face children ran from. He was also not one of Jazz's favorite vampires.
“Wow, Reinhold, look at you!” she gushed with all the enthusiasm of a rabid fan. “You're all fierce and danger-ous dressed up in black leather like a
Matrix
wannabe. There's just one hitch with that look. I've got to say you're no Keanu Reeves.”
The man easily stood six-foot-seven and was pure muscle. The fact that he had been a vampire for almost 1000 years meant power rolled off him like a living thing. Jazz heard he had been a solider in the principality of Galicia where he died in battle and awoke as a vampire. His bald head, mashed-in nose, heavily scarred bull-terrier features, and dogged personality made him the perfect enforcer for the Protectorate.
Jazz hadn't seen the big bad, not to mention highly insane, vampire in about 140 years and as far as she was concerned she didn't care to see him for another 140.
“The bitch witch.” His growl would have sent the most ferocious Were running. “I should have known you would have something to do with this mess. Wasn't it enough you caused Clive Reeves' mansion to implode and end up in the fires of Hades? Did you have to make sure an entire family was destroyed? Amazing that no matter where you go you end up in a bloody mess. Literally.”
“Ah, ah, ah...no names.” She wagged her forefinger at him. “Didnt your mother teach you any manners where a lady is concerned?”
“I don't see a lady here and I ate my mother's bones for breakfast.”
Nick walked past and grabbed Jazz's errant finger that had begun to glow a dark red. He lowered the digit before something happened. “The bodies are in the drawing room,” he said tersely, cocking his thumb over his shoulder. “I checked the rest of the house and there's no one else here.”
Reinhold nodded and jerked his head. Four men, also dressed in black leather dusters over black leather skintight pants and leather shirts, walked past him.
“Clean-up crew?” Jazz asked.
“She does not belong here,” Reinhold told Nick with a curl of a thick upper lip. His matte black eyes shifted in her direction.
“Trust me, I fit in these surroundings a lot better than you do.” She tried for the same curled lip but couldn't get the right effect. “And I'm not dressed as if I was ready to do some B&E in the local neighborhood like some vampires I could mention.”
“Will you be quiet for just one damned minute?” Nick murmured in her ear before turning to the enforcer who looked as if he wanted nothing more than to tear Jazz into tiny pieces. “They are the last of their lineage, so no one will be looking for them.”
Reinhold nodded. It was clear he didn't like Nick any more than he liked Jazz, but at least he was moderately civil to the vampire.
“The director will want a report from you by next evening,” he said.
Nick nodded. He turned away when his name was called and he returned to the drawing room.
Reinhold's smile when he stared at Jazz wasn't the least bit pleasant. “You stink of magick,” he growled.
“Gee, and here I thought my new perfume had one thinking more of spring rain,” Jazz drawled. Her smile remained fixed but her moss-green eyes betrayed a cold hard steel that echoed the large vampire's gaze. “But better to stink of magick than of death.”
He leaned in until they were nose to nose. “You've always been a pain in the ass, witch. Too bad no one thought to drown you at birth.”
Jazz almost reeled from the fetid stench of his breath, but she refused to show any weakness. “Do us all a favor and greet the dawn.”
Reinhold took another step further into her personal space. “I could tear out your throat before you could scream.”
“And be dead a second later from my blood,” she reminded him, wanting to think he wasn't serious with his threat but pretty positive he was.
“Nothing more than an old wives' tale.” His eyes glowed a dark red as he moved another step forward, his fangs dropping.
A blur flew between them and Reinhold found himself tossed across the entryway. His body slammed against the wall, leaving a deep crater in the wallpaper. The air rumbled as if an earthquake was looming.
“You will never threaten her again,” Nick stated in a low deadly voice. “The next time you do you will not live to see the following moonrise.”
Reinhold jumped to his feet. “I never knew a witch could lead you around by the balls, Gregorivich.” He used Nick's original surname. “Maybe it's better you're no longer an enforcer, after all.” With a last killing look at Jazz he walked into the drawing room.
“Well, thank you...
whoa!
” Jazz yelped as her arm was almost yanked out of its socket as she was dragged outside so fast she couldn't come up with enough breath to utter a spell to keep her dry. She winced against the rain coming down in an icy sheet, soaking her in seconds.
“You just can't let it go, can you?”
“He started it,” she muttered, cringing at the sound of tired resignation in his voice. She didn't mind if Nick was mad at her, but she didn't want him disappointed.
“And you're not five years old,” he reminded her, not slowing his pace even as her heels literally slid across the wet slick surface. “Reinhold would have torn out your throat without a second thought.”
“And died from ingesting my blood. Too bad we can't have his death without mine.”
Shut up, Jazz. You're making matters worse.
But, as usual, she was ignoring the good gargoyle in her brainâthe one that tried to keep her on the right track even when she tended to veer off.
Nick stopped so quickly Jazz slammed into him. “Fates preserve me,” he muttered. He rounded on her, his forefinger pointed at her like a teacher reprimanding an errant student. “Let's review Vampires 101. We don't need our fangs to tear out our victims' throats.” By now, his fury turned his eyes a glowing red.
Jazz tried to step back, but the fingers bracketing her wrist wouldn't allow her any room to escape.
“Got it. It's just that he's so nasty and what happened in there was so...” she realized she couldn't come up with a good enough description without comparing it to all the major slasher movies thrown together in one gory bloody mess. She turned green and pressed her hand against her stomach. “I don't feel so good.”
Nick swiftly pushed her toward the Jeep and sat her down, gently pushing her head down to her knees.
“Better I throw up here than inside where
Herr
Reinhold can see me,” she muttered, pulling in deep breaths. She waved a hand around. “Okay, better now.” She slowly lifted her head.
“You didn't blink an eye at the carnage at Clive Reeves' mansion, yet you're ready to drop from seeing six bodies.” Nick kept his hand resting against the back of her neck.
“Yeah, well, there was a lot more blood in there and since I was pretty much the cause for what happened at the mansion I couldn't go all girly there.” She suddenly moaned. “How can you handle it? All the blood, I mean? Why didn't you go all fangy?”
“I fed before I left.”
She straightened up more, his hand falling away. “You knew we'd find them all dead, didn't you?”
He looked at the house, his gaze distant in thought. “I had a gut feeling we'd find something bad.”
“Bad? Bad is my hairdresser giving me bangs. Bad are Fluff and Puff finding my wand and waving up unimaginable spells. What we found in there was horrific. Was so ghastly that...” she shook her head. “I think I just experienced my nightmare for tonight and I didn't have to go to sleep to have it. I'm not sure if that's good or not.”
Nick looked up and noticed Reinhold standing in the doorway. The vampire's dark expression wasn't much different than before.
“I'll be right back.” He headed back to the house.
Jazz watched the two vampires. While it was tempting to use some magick to eavesdrop on their conversation, she didn't want to do it only to discover they were discussing the number of body parts found. Nick's expression had darkened and his features looked as if they had been carved from stone. He appeared to snap something to Reinhold then walked away, his body straight and tall. Reinhold watched him leave, a definite sneer on his face.
“Whatever it is I didn't do it,” Jazz said as Nick moved closer. She yelped as he picked her up and tossed her fully into the passenger seat.
Without saying a word he started up the engine and navigated his way around two large black SUVs parked in a wide V.
“What did he say to you?”
“Nothing you need be concerned about,” Nick said, tight-lipped.
Jazz sighed. She glanced over her shoulder and watched Reinhold still standing in the doorway. She might not know what the two vampires had said to each other, but she did know she liked the chief enforcer even less than she had before, and she'd hated him before.
“What are they going to do in there?” She figured Nick would answer that question.
“You don't want to know,” he said tersely. “But they'll basically make it all go away. By the time the clean-up team finishes their part of the job no one in the neighborhood will ever know any murders occurred in there. The house and grounds will be put up for sale and life in the neighborhood will go on as before.”
“The Protectorate will make sure no one finds out a vampire killed a wizard and his family,” she murmured.
“And the enforcers will hunt down Esme.”
“And destroy her.”
“And the child.”
“That is so not fair,” she argued. “She's only a little girl.”
“It is fair, Jazz. Otherwise, she will be six years old forever. As she grows in power she won't be able to handle the restrictions of her looks versus her age. I've seen it happen before and each time the young vampire grew insane because there was no way for the creature to deal with what went on. It's absolute cruelty to allow a vampire to exist in such a fashion.”