Night Shift(55)

There were arguments you could win with Lemuel, and there were arguments you couldn’t. This was one of those.

Lemuel slapped his pockets until he found his phone, which Olivia had given him the previous Christmas. She had also instructed him in its use, and now, with a glance to make sure she noticed, he checked his list of contacts and pressed one of the icons. He held the phone to his ear, and Olivia could hear it ring.

“Yes,” said a cold voice.

“This is Lemuel Bridger.”

After a pause, the voice said, “A great surprise to hear from you.”

“Please tell Joseph that I need to talk to him this night and that I am on my way from Midnight.”

“I will see if he has time to talk to you, Mr. Bridger.”

“I am coming, anyway,” Lemuel said, and hung up.

“If we’re going to Dallas, we better get on the road now,” Olivia said. “Are we taking the Vette?” Lemuel had a red Corvette, and Olivia loved to ride in it.

“I wish we could, but we have to bring back another person, so we’d better take yours,” he said. “And you’re right, let’s start.” He ran up the stairs to Bobo’s door, told Bobo he was leaving, and in the next five minutes they were on their way to Dallas.

Joseph’s large house was in a neighborhood of similar homes. His predecessor, Stan, had refused to move after the famous massacre several years ago. Joseph, too, had insisted the nest remain where it had been. The house had been carefully repaired. There was no sign that blood and death had ever filled the night in this upscale neighborhood.

Olivia had read all about the massacre, and she scanned the mansion’s façade with some curiosity. She was rewarded at discovering a bullet hole on one of the window frames. Though it had been filled in and painted, it was detectable to Olivia, who knew her bullets. Lemuel rang the doorbell. He said, “Olivia, don’t leave my side in this house. If you have to answer a call of nature, I’d rather you do it in your pants than go somewhere alone with one of these vampires.”

“You might have said that before we got here,” she said, not knowing whether to laugh or make a dash for the bushes. “I can hold it.” Olivia wished he hadn’t brought up her bladder, though, because come to think about it . . .

Then the door opened, and Joseph Velasquez himself greeted them.

He was not a handsome man; short and squat and flat-faced. But he was powerful and intelligent, which was attractive in its own right.

“Mr. Bridger,” he said, with just a hint of an accent. “And perhaps your companion is Miss Charity?”

“I am,” Olivia confirmed.

“Very formidable,” Joseph said, in a voice that conveyed the exact opposite. “Please enter my home.” He stepped aside. Lemuel entered in front of Olivia, to take the first blow if there was an ambush. But none fell, and Olivia stepped inside behind him, trying not to feel shaken by the vibration of power as she moved past Joseph. There were other vampires in the hall, and still more in the room to which Joseph led them. When the house had been built (by humans)

this had been the family room, and it still served that purpose, though for a very different sort of family.

Olivia had never met any other vampire besides Lemuel, and she was surprised by how different they felt. She knew that Lemuel was unusual, but now she understood what a gap it made between him and the blood drinkers.

“Would you like a glass?” Joseph asked. He gestured toward a thin black-haired female who was carrying a tray of wineglasses. “Thank you,” Lemuel said, taking a glass from the central part of the tray.

“Would your human like something to drink?”

“Olivia?” Lemuel turned to her. There was a warning in his face. “No, thank you,” she said politely. Now was not the time to inform Joseph she could speak for herself.

“Thank you, no,” Lemuel relayed.

“We are so pleased to be able to extend hospitality to such a famous vampire,” Joseph said, slowly and carefully. “But since you have banned all such as us from your territory, I am quite interested to find out why you wanted to visit my own territory.”

“I have come to ask for one favor in exchange for another,” Lemuel said, just as carefully.

Their voices, you could hang icicles from them, Olivia thought. She was careful not to meet the eyes of any of the vampires around them.

She’d read enough to know that. The mesmerizing eyes were not a trait of Lemuel’s, and she was glad of that, because it would have been mighty inconvenient to dodge his gaze all the time.

“A favor?” Joseph was able to inject a lot of incredulity into two words. “From us? You astonish me.”