"Okay, thanks. Sorry to interrupt your night off." He closed his notebook and looked at me. He was almost grinning. ""The secretary said you were at a bachelorette party." He wiggled his eyebrows. "Hoochie coochie."
"Don't give me a hard time, Dolph."
"Wouldn't dream of it."
"Riiight," I said. "If you don't need me anymore, I'll be getting back."
"We're finished, for now. Call me if you think of anything else."
"Will do." I walked back to my car. The bloody plastic gloves were shoved into a garbage sack in the trunk. I debated on the coveralls and finally folded them on top of the garbage sack. I might be able to wear them one more time.
Dolph called out, "You be careful tonight, Anita. Wouldn't want you picking up anything."
I glared back at him. The rest of the men waved at me and called in unison, "We loove you."
"Gimme a break."
One called, "If I'd known you liked to see na**d men, we could have worked something out."
"The stuff you got, Zerbrowski, I don't want to see."
Laughter, and someone grabbed him around the neck. "She got you, man . . . Give it up, she gets you every time."
I got into my car to the sound of masculine laughter, and one offer to be my "luv" slave. It was probably Zerbrowski.
Chapter 6
I arrived back at Guilty Pleasures a little after midnight. Jean Claude was standing at the bottom of the steps. He was leaning against the wall, utterly still. If he was breathing, I couldn't see it. The wind blew the lace on his shirt. A lock of black hair trailed across the smooth paleness of his cheek.
"You smell of other people's blood, ma petite."
I smiled at him, sweetly. "It was no one you knew."
His voice when it came was low and dark, full of a quiet rage. It slithered across my skin, like a cold wind. "Have you been killing vampires, my little animator?"
"No." I whispered it, my voice suddenly hoarse. I had never heard his voice like that.
"They call you The Executioner, did you know that?"
"Yes." He had done nothing to threaten me, yet nothing at that moment would have forced me to pass him. They might as well have barred the door.
"How many kills do you have to your credit?"
I didn't like this conversation. It wasn't going to end anywhere I wanted to be. I knew one master vampire who could smell lies. I didn't understand Jean-Claude's mood, but I wasn't about to lie to him. "Fourteen."
"And you call us murderers."
I just stared at him, not sure what he wanted me to say.
Buzz the vampire came down the steps. He stared from Jean Claude to me, then took up his post by the door, huge arms crossed over his chest.
Jean-Claude asked, "Did you have a nice break?"
"Yes, thank you, master."
The master vampire smiled. "I've told you before, Buzz, don't call me master."
"Yes, M-M...Jean-Claude."