Fire Within - By Ally Shields Page 0,85
way.” Ari sighed, reined in her temper, and backtracked. “At least not until it’s safe to release the story. Talk with your bosses, tone down the inflammatory stuff. Maybe even get the story off the front page.” She forced herself to be reasonable, conciliatory. Eddie wasn’t the enemy, and she didn’t want to make him one. “Your paper’s being manipulated by a clever killer. Please don’t feed into the public panic it seems to crave.” She’d said all she could and maybe more than she should. But Eddie would think it over, and she hoped it would influence his discussions with the newspaper management.
“You know who’s doing this, don’t you? Can’t you give me a hint?” Emotion simmered in his voice. “No, I suppose not. I’ll do what I can, but the story sells papers. Maybe I can find a positive angle, but no promises. Hey, what did you mean by it?”
Ari faked a hesitation, as if she were reluctant and hadn’t deliberately dropped the hint. “Off the record?”
Eddie groaned. “That good, huh?”
“Off the record,” she repeated to make sure he understood. “Suspects from the drive-by were apprehended. It was an attempted hit, and the money man isn’t human.”
“By not human, do you mean a werewolf or vampire?” When she didn’t answer, he asked, “Was that the standoff yesterday afternoon where one of the suspects died?” Renewed interest sparked in his voice.
“I’ve told you all I can, but I think you see the problem. Your article incorrectly fed the community belief that the killer is human. You can’t tell them that’s wrong. Just back off on the hate crime rhetoric.”
“What about the fire? Is that part of this? Or something personal?”
“We’re working on it. Give us a chance.” Impatience seeped into her voice.
“A vendetta?” he persisted. “Maybe Sebastian again?”
Ari hit the disconnect. She didn’t have the answers and was tired of saying so. Eddie wasn’t going to quit digging, but maybe he’d spend time on the personal angle. It could minimize the stalker talk. At least he couldn’t print anything about a demon or even a mysterious creature. Not unless he broke faith with Ari, and she didn’t think he’d go that far. She couldn’t imagine how bad it would be if the public suspected there was a demon in Riverdale.
She was getting sleepy again, but before she crawled into bed for a few hours, she called Ryan back, then spoke with Russell and Lilith. Although the club staff would be busy with the fire marshals and cleanup, she wanted them to show Andreas the article as soon as he woke. With forewarning, maybe the vampire court could head off disaster before it started.
That wasn’t exactly how it went.
* * *
It was Friday night, bar night. Shortly after the sun set, the fighting began. Members of the vampire court were active on the streets and had recruited the more reasonable members of the vamp community to assist. In fact, the majority of the vampires weren’t involved in the disturbances that kept popping up all over Olde Town. A dozen of the older ones helped to control the clusters of combatants that roamed the bar district. Even with those efforts, by midnight the PD decided to block off Olde Town from the rest of the city. Barricades went up; riot gear came out of storage.
Ryan and Ari had just broken up a fight on lower State Street when dispatch paged them to the Sin & Skin strip club. A disturbance there had turned into a brawl. Fists, clubs, and beer bottles were flying. Five older vampires had formed a protective ring around a rowdy crowd of young human males, but the humans weren’t helping the situation. They were throwing bottles and attempting to break out and rejoin the fight. Ari assumed they were too drunk to grasp the danger. The young vamps had used their superior strength to bash and toss their human opponents around, but none had yet resorted to fangs or breaking necks.
Ari spotted Andreas right away. He had a neck hold on two vampires he was dragging toward his silver Lexus. Ryan jumped from his cruiser, announced the police presence, and shouted for everyone to stop fighting, but no one heard him. He and Ari waded into the milling mix of combatants and gawkers, finally joining the older vamps’ protective circle. A black-haired human male was about to break free, so Ari hit him in the nose with her fist and followed through with a knee to the