and you in particular, but she said no one had approached her. I then showed her the photograph of Seneser’s host, and she studied it thoughtfully.
“I’ve never seen him, but a friend of mine who still escorts said he had a client who was asking him about bodies. How you might go about getting one. Said it freaked him out.”
Perhaps Seneser wanted to take up permanent residence in his human host or another one.
“Would you be willing to give me your associate’s contact information so that I might make an inquiry myself?”
She arched one eyebrow. “He’s a friend, Henri. And a nice guy.”
“I won’t hurt him,” I assured her. “You can trust me.”
She bit her lower lip and nodded. “I guess I can trust you. I don’t know where he’s living now, but I know where he’ll be tonight.” She wrote an address on a slip of paper. “It’s one of his regulars.”
“What type of establishment is this?” If it was a drug den or a gangster’s hideout, that information wasn’t always apparent from an online search.
Vivie hesitated again.
“I like to know what I’m walking into,” I said by way of explanation.
She nodded, relenting at last. “It’s a church.”
“Ah, I see.”
I thanked her for the information and offered her a short stack of fresh bills, which she pocketed enthusiastically. We parted ways with a handshake and a loose promise to meet up again in the future.
“What’s your friend’s name?” I asked.
“Julio Ramírez. Nicaraguan. He has a scar.” She drew a line from the corner of her mouth to her earlobe.
I nodded, committing the name to memory. I checked my watch. We had a couple hours yet before this rendezvous. Enough time to grab a bite to eat.
“Are you hungry?”
We were sitting in my car in the parking lot adjacent to Our Lady of Virtue with a clear view of its entrance. I’d placed sensors at the back and side entry points of the establishment that would alert my phone if anyone entered or exited. Nothing yet. We’d been waiting for nearly an hour already, and I worried Julio might not show.
“A little bit,” you said and picked at the frayed end of your shirt.
We hadn’t had time for a bloodmeal. Now it was nearing midnight, and I didn’t want to test your willpower. “We’ll go hunting after this.”
You nodded, zeroing in on my forearm where you’d fed the night before. The mark was hardly visible, which was too bad for I rather liked the reminder. I’d gladly offer my blood again, but with your appetite, it wasn’t sustainable. You had to get comfortable feeding from strangers.
“Why would your contact be coming to a church at this hour?” you asked. I’d told you there was a man we needed to interrogate, but I didn’t tell you his occupation or the nature of this visit. I supposed I was still trying to protect your innocence.
“Our contact is a sex worker, and I believe his client is a man of the clergy.”
“A priest?” you asked, abhorred.
“The demands of the church are quite stringent,” I said.
“Is that why my parents wouldn’t let me be an altar boy?”
“Yes. Persons in pursuit of spiritual enlightenment, in particular, are drawn to our energies.” I’d had to guard Lucian closely for the same reason when we were young, until he began using it as a lure for his own personal gain.
“That’s… fucking wrong.”
In theory, it made sense to deny oneself carnal pleasure when trying to reach a higher spiritual plane, but willpower was fallible and those in positions of power often abused it.
“Is that him?” you asked. I glanced up to see a man walking toward the entrance of the church. I couldn’t see his face clearly, but he matched the description Vivie had given me.
“I believe so. Let’s give them a few minutes, then we’ll go inside.”
You sighed in disappointment. “It’s like, you grow up believing in all these good, pure things, and then as you get older, they just crumble right before your eyes.”
Were we still talking about religion?
“We tried to shield you,” I said. “But morality is a spectrum, dependent on any given circumstance. No one is all good.” You looked at me as if I was the exception. “Not even me, Vincent.”
Especially not me.
“Let’s go,” I said before I made any more confessions.
Inside the church, I did a sweep of the area, including the altar where I ducked behind the pulpit to make sure nothing suspicious was lurking there. We were the receiving room’s