silk pants and matching top left nothing to the imagination. Ari rather liked the boots, but not in vivid lime green. A neck scarf, color-coded to the boots, completed the eye-popping outfit. Rita’s face was deeply shadowed; lines creased her forehead; her shoulders slumped. A neglected drink stood on the table. Ari cringed. This wasn’t going to be an easy conversation.
Ari pulled out a chair. “Rita?”
The vampire looked up. “I called his friends again. While I was waiting,” she said in a monotone. “Still no show.”
“Well, that’s good you checked. Now, let’s see if I’ve got this right. You met Gordon, another vampire, right?” Rita bobbed her head. “Two weeks ago, and…”
“No, months ago. We hooked up two weeks ago.”
“So when did you last see him?”
“Friday. Well, Saturday morning, I guess. He left just before dawn. But he never got home. I didn’t know that, until Saturday night.” She looked at Ari. “Someone snatched him.”
Or staked him, Ari thought. Only something drastic would keep a vampire from the safety of his nest when the sun rose. “What makes you so sure someone took him? Couldn’t it be an accident or a fight, maybe?”
Rita started shaking her head before Ari finished. “Uh-uh. It’s just like the other vamp. The wolves got him.” Rita shivered.
“What other vamp?” Ari demanded, leaning forward. “Are you talking about Marcus? Do you know what happened to him?”
Rita nodded eagerly. “Gordon told me. Killer wolves are using voodoo to capture vampires. And making them slaves. Now they’ve got Gordon too,” Rita wailed.
Ari tried to sort out the grains of truth. She suspected the tale had grown with the retelling. “Where did Gordon hear this?”
“His nest mates told him.” Rita was positive on this part. “Two nestlings saw it happen. The wolves were after him, and Marcus never got home. Just like Gordon,” she whispered, her eyes round.
“What wolves? Where?”
Rita’s mouth turned down. “I don’t know.”
As Ari absorbed this unforeseen answer to Marcus’s disappearance, she fired off follow up questions, but the young vamp had told all she knew. “What did Andreas say about this?”
Rita ducked her head. “Nobody told him. Bad things have been happening. Andreas could be part of it. We were afraid somebody else might disappear if he thought they knew too much.” Confusion deepened the lines of Rita’s face. “Gordon said to keep my mouth shut. But that was before…” She stopped, swallowed hard, and finished in a rush. “But I’m telling you. I have to trust someone.”
In a way, Ari was flattered. Vampires didn’t trust easily, and Rita’s faith in her was rather touching. But Ari wasn’t sure she could live up to the expectations. If Molyneux’s wolves were behind this, Gordon and Marcus were probably dead.
They talked awhile longer; mostly Rita talked, about Gordon. Ari sipped a glass of seltzer, her head only half in the conversation. Why would anyone kidnap vampires? And almost as interesting, how would they even do that?
She stole a glance at Rita. Having unburdened herself, turned over the problem, the vampire was sitting a little straighter, sipping her drink. She’d quit sniveling and had noticed the cute guy who’d walked in the door. It was a distinct improvement in attitude, and Ari figured it was a good time to leave.
On the walk home, she considered her best course of action. Should she call Andreas and tell him what she’d heard? He was worried about Marcus. On the other hand, she didn’t owe him anything. He didn’t trust her, might not even believe what she said. And the potential fallout of repeating Rita’s story was something to think about. She didn’t want to set the vampires against the wolves. Not without proof. For the present, she’d keep the information close, confined to a select number of people. Which did not include Andreas.
A twig snapped, and Ari spun into a crouch.
“Who’s there?” Her eyes searched both sides of the street. She’d been aware of the faint smell of wolf for five or ten minutes but not close enough to be alarming. She’d assumed it was a passing stranger. Now, she wasn’t so sure. When no one answered, she walked on home. Maybe it was nothing, but she vowed to be more alert in the coming days.
* * *
Ari knew Rita’s story might be another example of the paranoia sweeping the Otherworld community, but she alerted Martin and Steffan to the rumors. They’d heard nothing but agreed to ask their usual sources.