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Demakis.
 Shit. That was just great.
Rand squeezed my leg under the table. I looked at him, and he raised an eyebrow in
question. I made a face, but nodded.
 A man named Roger Barstow came into our office today. He asked us to look for
his sister, who had been missing for nearly a week. Rand flipped through the photos,
turning the ones around that had her in them.  We ve just found her.
Walt and Dave each took a picture.  What s she doing with a bunch of vampires?
Dave asked.
 She s a professional, I replied.  I found bags of blood in her freezer, so she s
entertained them enough to keep a supply on hand.
 Any idea where this is? Rand inquired.
 We re working on that. Walt started gathering everything up. I snatched the papers
and skimmed them quickly.
 Christ, I hissed.  This is too easy. What s the catch?
 That s the thing, Walt stated, his voice flat.  There is no catch.
 Just how easy? Rand reached for the pages, which Walt snatched out of my hand.
 All a vampire has to do to become a daywalker is drink from a mortal s vein that
has been opened with peridot. They don t even have to drain the mortal.
 They do have to refrain from using their fangs. Dave added, as though that would
make a difference.
 Big deal, I snapped. Of course, a vamp would never think of getting blood out of a
body with a tool.  Say, Walt, why are you looking into a bunch of vamps?
 Isn t it obvious? He waved the pictures at me.
 No. I shot a glance at Dave when he squirmed in his seat.  Not if all they re doing
is enabling themselves to tolerate sunlight.
 Tell them, Dave said.
Walt glowered at him, but relented.  They either didn t know, or weren t taking any
chances, in the beginning. FandS was practically swamped with missing persons requests.
A few of their bodies turned up. The ones we saw didn t show any bites, nothing that
would connect them, or their deaths, to the vampires. Investigating them, Demakis kept
running into links between those reported missing and the vampires. He d started a more
in-depth investigation in that direction when he disappeared.
 Now would be a good time to tell me where he is, T.J., he snarled at me.
 I don t know where he is. I really didn t.
Walt jumped to his feet, his fists smacking down on the top of the table.  Don t lie to
me, little girl, I know, now, that you were telling me the truth the other day. You really
did spend four hours fucking one of my employees. One that you knew I was looking for,
and had specifically told you to avoid.
I leaned into his fury, knowing full well he d never hurt me.  You know damn well
why he isn t coming to you himself. So don t give me any righteous shit about it.
Walt took a deep breath, then stalked around the table, grabbing me by my upper
arms, and shaking me.  Where is he?
 I don t know. We were face-to-face and screaming at each other. Walt s
fingers were digging into my flesh so tightly that my bones hurt.
 Fine, he snapped, and I could see the effort it took him to get himself under
control.  If I find out you re lying&  He shook his head, and started for the back door.
Dave came up to me and gave me a hug.  Sorry about that.
 You re not his mother. I hugged him back.
 What he needs is a keeper. Dave grinned, then he slid a look at Rand.  Though
we d all be happier if you could stay out from under the wonder-dick.
I punched him in the shoulder.  Get out of here.
I didn t move until the door had shut behind them.  How are we going to find her
now? Walt was never going to tell me where this group was located.
 Let s go over to my apartment, have a drink, Rand said, slinging his arm around
my back and steering me towards the door,  and take a look at this picture, and see if we
can t figure out where these guys are.
He showed me one of the pictures that Walt had brought, but snatched it out of my
reach when I went to grab it.
 Rand. I gave him a warning growl.
He laughed, and took off across the back yard.
I gave chase, but he made it into his apartment, and was pouring drinks when I
bounded in.
 One for you. Rand handed me a glass half filled with amber liquid.  And one for
me. He picked up his tumbler and gestured towards the couch.
Once we were seated, he brought the picture out and we both stared at it. He d
managed to get one that showed a lot of the surrounding area. There was the large house
in the background that might provide us with some information. There were a couple of
outbuildings to the left of the house. There was a large area on that same side that was
paved, and numerous vehicles were parked along its outer edge. A large detached garage
stood behind the vehicles, with a smaller outbuilding to the left of that, and slightly
behind.
The entire plot of land was composed of softly rolling hills, small dense groupings of
trees, then further out a solid line of forest. The house and buildings stood on the highest
part of the parcel, the yard and drive gently descending away from them. Landscaping
around the house and throughout the front of the property was pretty typical of the
Midwest. I had several of the same plants around the main house here.
I kept searching, but nothing in the picture was really standing out to me. The house
could be a couple miles from where I sat, or it could be in Pennsylvania.
 I m not seeing anything useful here, I grumped.
 We can tell it s in Ohio, Rand said, still studying the image.
 How can we tell that? I leaned closer, trying to figure out what he saw.
 License plates. Ohio has that red stripe on top, and white below.
 So what does Pennsylvania have?
 Blue stripe on top, yellow stripe on the bottom, and white between.
Huh.
 I ll do a search on the internet tomorrow for the house. He sat back, his eyes
drifting down the side of my body.
 Did you pick up anything else at the apartment today? I scooted away from him,
trying to keep the conversation on track.
 Barstow wants to fuck you. He ran a finger down my arm, raising goose bumps.
 Besides that. I rolled my eyes. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]