amber-brown gaze.
“If I must.” Joseph’s body had lost some of its casual alacrity. He stood a few inches taller, still barely scraping his son’s height.
“I’d like to know,” Mark paused, his lips twitching between amusement and disgust, “why you have a decapitated vampire in the trunk of your rental car.”
Chapter 4
Levity returned to Joseph’s pleasantly weathered features. “I don’t believe I heard you correctly.”
“I’m sorry,” Mark said, sounding not sorry in the least. “Perhaps I should have been more clear, given your advanced age. There’s a decapitated vampire. In your trunk.” Mark said, exaggerating the pronunciation of each and every syllable.
The smile fell from Joseph’s face.
“There’s nothing wrong with my hearing,” he growled. “Nor with any other of my faculties, should you care to find out.” He made no move to back his threat, letting his words carry the weight of his challenge.
Mark stared unblinking into his father’s eyes.
“The only thing I care to find out, is why you’ve brought a slaughtered vampire to my gallery,” he said. His voice bore the dangerous calm of an ice-skimmed lake. I knew from experience that venturing onto it meant a swift fall into spinning cold.
But Joseph was intrepid.
He shook his head and dropped a hand on Mark’s shoulder. “Son, I would have thought at four hundred and thirty-one years old you’d know these ploys for my attention are quite unnecessary. Did I not hug you enough when you were a pup? Shall I hug you now?”
He made a move to enfold Mark in his embrace, but was shrugged off.
“Well, if the body in your trunk doesn’t concern you, then perhaps I ought to just call the police and let them look into it.”
This was a bluff on Mark’s part, I knew. He would sooner sew his own leg back on with kitchen twine and a spoon shank than involve authorities of any kind. Not only this, but he employed a crack werewolf clean-up crew to handle just such situations. By my count, they’d taken care of half a dozen bodies without so much as a sniff in the local newspaper. What’s a random body in a trunk compared to reconstructing half the gallery overnight after a run-in with a Mack truck?
“You are certainly welcome to do so, of course.” Joseph’s smile only lacked a few yellow canary feathers poking out from between his teeth. “But, in the interest of fairness, I should inform you that the car is rented in your name. Might make for a tense discussion given your frequent difficulties with local law enforcement.”
I didn’t need to look at Mark’s face. The wall of hostility radiating off him made it difficult for me to breathe. But then, Mark’s presence had that effect on me even under normal circumstances. Or whatever passed as normal around here.
“Why the hell did you rent a car in my name?” Mark asked.
“The same reason I purchased my airline tickets in your name. I thought it best that no one know I’m here. Given the escalating series of recent conflicts, my arrival could seem problematic, don’t you agree?”
“Is that why you’ve come?” Mark accused. “Because I’m not doing your job well enough anymore? Am I making you look bad? Affecting your dates is it?” His rage brightened and sharpened with each successive question.
“Unfortunately,” Joseph said gently, not taking the bait, “it doesn’t matter what I think. The last months have been messy. First Penny, then Van Gogh, and now Wilde. The clans are talking.”
“Let them talk,” Mark spat. “It seems that’s what they do best.”
“Have you thought about what it would mean if they no longer accepted our rule? If they thought the line was broken?”
“Daily,” Mark answered. “For the last four hundred years. And you?”
“Not so often as that, admittedly,” the older man shrugged. “Son, I’m not here to lecture you. God knows you’ve done more than you had to in my stead.” Joseph glanced away then, the light from the gallery’s plate glass windows reflecting in his eyes’ sudden sheen.
“Why are you here then?” Mark challenged.
Joseph searched his son’s face and spoke slowly. “To see how you are. How can I hear of all that has happened and not worry if you’re okay?”
Would this be the ‘among other things’ he had been referring to, then?
“Right,” Mark laughed. “Which would be why you hauled up with a mangled vampire in your trunk. You want me to be okay? Leave.”
At this, I slugged Mark in the arm. Didn’t he see a tender moment when it was