"Do it. I need more daylight guards for this place and a twenty-four hour watch on Sarah."
Emelie paused in the act of punching buttons on her cell phone. “You think she's—"
"I don't have time to baby-sit her, but I need to know what her involvement is. She's been lying to me all along and I need to know why. Did Simon find anything more on her?"
"Nothing relevant, my lord, but he's still digging. There is one oddity—"
Raj looked at her sharply. “What's that?"
"She doesn't seem to exist before maybe ten years ago. A little less."
"What does that mean?"
She shrugged. “There's no birth certificate, no high school graduation, no driver's license that we can find before then. Of course, it's possible she was home schooled and really didn't drive a car until she broke away from her parental units, but it makes Simon's Spidey sense tingle. He's looking deeper."
Raj frowned. “Let me know as soon as you find something. Where is everyone?"
"Throughout the city, as you ordered, my lord. We've been rotating the blood houses between us, and I can tell you this much. There's no one in charge here. None of the local vamps raised an eyebrow when I showed up, and I don't exactly blend."
Raj nodded. Most vampires were men, although it was more by happenstance than planning. Contrary to what popular fiction would have one believe, there weren't that many vampires in the world. Only master vampires had the power to make and hold a child, and the most common reason for a master to make children was to defend his territory. There was a strong cultural bias among all but the youngest vampires that put women in the to-be-protected category, while males were seen as defenders. And then there was the need for blood—if a vampire had a female lover, even for a short time, he wanted her to remain human so he could continue to feed from her. All of which resulted in more male vampires than female, which in turn meant that Emelie definitely should have been noticed.
"Jozef told me my first night in the city that Krystof was making children left and right,” Raj said. “The local blood house managers are probably so used to new faces they don't bother to question anyone."
"Or maybe they're overwhelmed,” Emelie said. “The houses I've been to are far too crowded. The ventilation systems aren't working properly, and the humans are drunk on vampire pheromones."
Raj nodded, not surprised by this. “The blood houses are the key, Em. I think Trish Cowens was a mistake. Someone meant to grab her roommate and got Trish instead.” He frowned. “And Sarah says she saw Krystof talking to Estelle Edwards at a university reception."
Em's face reflected her shock. “That's pretty damning, boss."
He nodded. “It looks like it, but damnit, Em, it just doesn't fit. Krystof wouldn't have brought me here if he was the one. He knows I'll figure this out. I'm missing something. I just don't know what it is.” He drew a troubled breath. “It doesn't matter,” he said finally. “If it's Krystof, I'll deal with him sooner than planned, that's all. And he can't be the one taking the women from the houses, because the house managers would damn well remember if Krystof had visited. I was out in Corfu the other night and no one said a word to me about Krystof. So even if he's in on it, he's not acting alone."
"Whoever they are,” Em said. “They've got to be getting a little frantic by now with all the press this is getting. We need to find those women before the bad guys start getting rid of the evidence, assuming they haven't already."
Raj shook his head in disgust. “Make your calls, Em. Get some more of our human assets here. And then you and I are going to visit the East Amherst blood house. Jennifer Stewart, Trish's roommate, went there twice. I want to see what it looks like."
Chapter Twenty-eight
The house was pretty much as he remembered it. Built in the early seventies, it was a wood and glass tract house—two stories, with an incongruous A-frame that would have looked ridiculous except for the identical homes all around. A sort of mini-Swiss chalet bedroom community in upstate New York.
The inside was just as firmly stuck in the seventies as the exterior. A short entryway led to a sunken living room with walls that alternated wood paneling and gold-veined mirror. No doubt the carpet had originally been some sort of shag, but that was long gone, replaced by something sturdier, something that wouldn't show blood stains. The interior was dark and smoky, music pulsing with a heavy backbeat that caused the cheap floor to vibrate beneath his feet. And Em was right. The air was foggy with pheromones and human sweat.
Raj stood in the doorway and waited for someone to challenge him, or to at least acknowledge he belonged there. But no one did. He glanced at Em and started toward the back of the house, ending up in a kitchen which had been gutted to make room for two big subzero refrigerators standing side by side. Raj strode over to the units and pulled one open.
Rows of bagged blood were stacked inside. Either the house manager had a deal with the local blood bank or he was draining more from the human donors than anyone knew. He closed the heavy door. He still had not been challenged by anyone. “Upstairs,” he told Emelie.
She nodded and led the way back down the hall, taking a U-turn upward around a flimsy iron banister. The stairway was crowded, but once they got upstairs, the hall was more or less clear as activities were taken behind closed doors. The usual sounds were emanating through those doors—women, men and vampires, in the throes of sexual passion and release. Not a few of the outbursts were punctuated with cries of pain; some vampires didn't even try to be gentle.
Raj felt his own fangs pushing for release. He hadn't fed from the vein since the woman in the bar his first night in the city, and while bagged blood contained all the nutrients he needed, it held none of the visceral satisfaction he craved almost as much. Between the bad ventilation system and the crowds of willing humans, it was like asking a starving man to walk through a McDonald's without tasting so much as a French fry. The door to the master suite opened behind him and he spun around, fangs fully distended. A vampire stood there, his arm around the waist of a young man who would surely have collapsed if not for the vampire's assistance.
"Raj!” the vampire said. “I heard you were in town. What's up, big guy?"
"Lose the human, Kent,” Raj growled.
"Sure thing,” Kent said agreeably. “You go on back inside, darling,” he said to his companion. “You're looking a bit peaked.” He turned the human around in his grasp and gave him a gentle shove toward the big bed in the background. The young man barely made it, falling face down when his knees hit the mattress.
Kent watched, shaking his head fondly. “A sweet boy, but a cheap date.” He pulled the door closed and turned back to Raj with nothing but business on his face.
"Let's talk,” he said. He tugged a set of keys from the pocket of skintight jeans and opened a door right next to the master suite. It was a small office of sorts, with an industrial-looking metal desk and two chairs. There was no window, and from the configuration, Raj figured this space had been chopped off the master next door.