Skin Trade(197)

When I came out, dressed in black from head to toe to match my mood, Crispin was awake and so was the redhead. Okay, not red, like human red, or even orangey tiger red, but red. His hair was actually more red than Damian’s, my vampire servant back home. Yes, vampire servant, you heard me. To our knowledge, I’m the first human servant to ever manage that. Damian’s hair was the red of not having seen sun for centuries, but with lamps lit, the tiger’s hair was the red of a Crayola crayon. It was the red that they tell you in school is red, except there was an edge of black to it, like someone had thrown a little bit of extra color into the pot.

The face was a little long for my taste, but he was handsome enough. His eyes were yellow, as if someone had melted autumn leaves into his face. It was when he turned and I saw all that muscled grace walking toward me, that I blushed and turned away. I got busy putting on weapons.

Crispin came up to me and hugged me briefly. “You okay?”

“No.”

“My father and mother are missing,” Victor said.

I turned to him. “What?”

“The Master planned on taking them. I told Victor, but it’s too late, they’re gone.”

“How the hell did he take Max and Bibiana? I mean, your parents aren’t exactly easy pickings.”

“He said he would wait until he was powerful enough to take them both together.”

I looked at Sebastian. “How much has he regained?”

“I do not know.”

The red tiger came over to me. I wasn’t embarrassed anymore. I was too worried for that. “I’m Hunter,” he said.

I nodded. “Good for you, sorry I don’t remember much. It’ll come back to me.”

His face went from arrogant to disappointed. “You don’t remember?”

“Look, Hunter, if that’s your real name and not a stage name, do you understand that the Master of the City and the head of the local tigers are missing? I’m about to call SWAT and go vampire hunting.”

“Sorry, just trying to be nice.”

“We’ll be nice tomorrow. Today, let’s stay alive, okay?”

He looked a little hurt, and I wondered how bright he was-or how unbright. But, again, not important this minute. I asked Victor, “Do you want me to tell the police about your parents, or do you guys want to handle it yourself?”

“Don’t tell them yet. If he’s got them at the daytime lair, great, they’ll be rescued, but we may want to be a little less legal in the search.”

“Okay, it’s got to be your call; I’ll leave it out for now.” Then I called the first number in my phone that I’d put in for SWAT. It was alphabetical, so it was Lieutenant Grimes.

“Marshal Blake, we’ve been trying to call you for about an hour; are you all right?”

“Yes, in fact I’ve got the daytime resting place of Vittorio.”

“Give me the address,” he said.

I did. “We can roll a team now. The other marshals are already here.”

“Shit, I’d rather you wait for me.”

Grimes spoke to someone off the phone, then came back on. “Ted seems confident that we can move without you.”

“Really? Okay. Can you put Ted on the phone for just a second?”

Edward came on. “Forrester here.” He sounded cold and not himself.

Fuck it. “Edward, Vittorio isn’t his real name. It’s the name he took after the Mother of All Darkness stripped him of his powers and cast him out. He’s originally the Father of the Day, or the Day Father. He’s as old as the dark, and he’s been gaining powers as she’s been losing them.”

“How do you know all this?” he asked, and he didn’t sound mad now.

“He visited my dreams last night, and so did she.”

“Anita, are you…”

“Okay, for now. Someone else took your job, and I think they blew her up last night.”

“Can he walk in the day?”

“Not last we know, but if he can’t, he’s close, but that’s not the worst part.” I told him about the jinn.

“If he gets all his power back, we’ll have a vampire in this city as powerful as the Mother of All Darkness,” he said.

“Yeah,” I said.

“Grimes sent Rocco and Davey to check on you. I wish we had Davey going in with us if the jinn show up.”

“Why, what’s his skill set?”

“He can do weather change, but what he really does is move air.”

“What?”

“He can harden air to make temporary shields that are bulletproof.”

“Well, fuck, that’s nifty,” I said, “like a combination of weather magic and telekinesis.”