The Priest (The Original Sinners #9) - Tiffany Reisz Page 0,58
Baltimore,” the vampire continued. “Older lady. Shut the shop last year and moved home to help with her grandkids.”
“This witch wasn’t very old,” Nora said. “Thirty to thirty-five. Really pretty.”
“Was your reading good? Or a bunch of bullshit?”
“How do you tell the difference?” Nora asked.
He smiled like Satan’s cat. “Did she tell you only what you wanted to hear?”
Nora shook her head.
“Mercedes,” the vampire said. “That’s her name, not her ride.”
Cyrus pulled out his notebook. “Mercedes. Spelled the same as the car, though?”
The vampire nodded. “The name comes from an old Creole family in town. One of her ancestors was a rich Irish banker who bankrolled half the city. Married a Creole lady and had thirteen children.”
Nora’s eyes went wide. “Thirteen?”
“Mercedes is in the bloodline of the thirteenth. That’s the story she tells, and I believe her. She has a new shop now, all hers. The Good Witch on Tchoupitoulas and Alphonsus.”
“Irish Channel,” Cyrus said.
Nora glanced at him. They had just been over there yesterday with Father Ike’s abandoned car.
“Mercedes at The Good Witch,” Nora said. She slipped the man a fifty, to Cyrus’s obvious chagrin. “Thank you so much.”
The vampire held the bill between two needle-sharp fingernails. “She’s the real thing,” he said. “I hope you didn’t lie to me.”
“Are you scared of her?” Nora asked.
“No, but you should be, little girl.”
“Bite me,” Nora said.
“Nora,” Cyrus said.
“I was being literal.” She tilted her head to the side to bare her jugular vein. The vampire leaned in, teeth bared, as if to actually bite her. Cyrus threw up an arm between her and the man.
“Let’s not do that,” Cyrus said. The vampire only chuckled fiendishly, pocketed his fifty, and walked away to gather his next tour group.
“If that was my only chance to become a vampire, and you blew it for me, I’ll never forgive you, Cyrus Tremont.”
Cyrus was clearly not in the mood for it. He had his phone out again. “Closed right now,” he said.
“The Good Witch?”
“Yeah. Opens at eleven tomorrow. Meet you there?”
“Meet you there,” she said. “What do we do until then?”
“Go see my fiancée.”
“Great. Can’t wait to finally meet her.” Nora slapped money down on the bar.
Cyrus stared at her.
“Oh, you mean alone.”
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s get you and me both home.”
They returned to Cyrus’s car without incident. Although on their way to his Honda, she had to ask, “How the hell do you know a vampire?”
He laughed. “Uh…wish I had a good story. Cousin of mine visits from Atlanta every now and then. He loves vamps and ghosts and all that voodoo shit. We took Lord Chaz’s tour last time. I remember him saying he’d been doing it for twenty years or more. And everybody in the Quarter seemed to know who he was. He’s a nice guy.” Cyrus paused. “You didn’t have to tip him to answer one question, though. Remember, this is a pro bono case.”
“I told him my real name. And you better believe he’s going to talk about me to someone. When he speaks of me, he will now speak very fondly.”
“I think he would’ve anyway. You two were kind of simpatico.”
“I get along well with weirdos.”
“I noticed that. After Doc and the Dark Lord of Bourbon Street, I’m done for the day. For the week.”
“Oh, come on.” She playfully shoved his shoulder. “We had a good day. So many clues. I feel like Scooby-Doo. Never solved a mystery before. Give me a Scooby Snack.”
“We haven’t solved it yet.”
“The witch gave Father Ike my card. She’ll tell us why tomorrow. Then we’ll know what he wanted with me and that’ll solve the case.”
“Hope so,” Cyrus said. He didn’t sound certain of that and talked little on the way to her house. He pulled in front. Nora saw Father Ike’s car had been towed while she was out.
“Anyway, thanks for the lift,” she said.
“You really live here by yourself,” Cyrus said. “Kind of big for one person. Or does it just look big?”
“Three bedrooms, two bath,” she said. “Sounds like a lot for one but one room’s my bedroom, one’s my dungeon, and one’s my guest room.”
“Wait. You’ve got two dungeons?”
“One’s business. One’s personal.”
Nora reached for the door handle.
“You’ll be okay?” he asked.
“Yeah?” The question had caught her off-guard. “Oh, you mean because of the guy? I’m okay. Little shaky but I’ve survived worse, I promise. Comes with the territory.”
“Bourbon can be pretty wild.”
“No, I mean ‘comes with the territory’ of being a woman.”