The Real Werewives of Vampire County - By Alexandra Ivy Page 0,65
with my stun gun and reached for the last thing I had—mace—for all the good it would do us.
But Tia had the tiger in a death bite. Blood poured from the animal’s neck.
“E-yah!” I turned just in time to see a bloody Vinny move up behind Gaston and stake the vampire in the back with a broken windowpane.
I stood for a moment, in shock, as Vinny helped Lucien pick his way through the pulpy mess formerly known as Gaston. Meanwhile Tia was using the tiger for a chew toy. I wiped my dagger on the curtains and resheathed it.
Yip-yip-yip!
“You okay, Sparky?” I scooped up Chi-Chi and together we surveyed the damage. Someone was going to need the services of about a dozen Vinnys in French maid costumes to clean up this place.
Gaston was clearly no more, which was a shame. I would have liked some answers. Then I saw a hairy tiger paw twitch.
“Tia, hold back.”
The werewolf growled.
“Oh yeah, now you get pushy.”
“What is it?” Lucien asked behind me.
“I think Bliss is alive.”
Between Lucien, Vinny, and me, we managed to tempt Tia away from her prey. Actually, it was Chi-Chi’s idea. We used the steaks from the refrigerator, on a white plate for presentation. Tia was a sucker for white.
Bliss shifted back to human faster than any of us expected, but she was still weak enough that we managed to handcuff her to a pole in her garage.
I leaned against a silver Bentley while we waited for the Vampire Council police to arrive.
Bliss was blubbering by this time, although more for her vampire lover, it seemed, than for herself.
“He was the only man who ever loved me,” she sobbed, clutching the housedress we’d thrown around her.
I almost felt sorry for her.
Almost.
Gaston was not only a drug dealer, he was also a cheat.
“He had a wife,” I reminded her.
“He didn’t love them!” she wailed. “He was impulsive. He didn’t mean to marry them!”
Say what? “Exactly how many wives are we talking about?”
“Only eight”—she sniffled—“mostly in Europe.”
“Busy guy,” Vinny said, feeding Chi-Chi yet another slice of steak.
She stared off dreamily. “He was supposed to take me to Italy next month.”
I snorted. “Watch out for blue pills.”
“You might not be too far off,” Lucien mused. “What if he put them to sleep while he was gone?”
“That’s sick,” I said.
“Makes cheating easier if wifey doesn’t know you’re gone. We’ll have to investigate further, but I’ll bet some of these women are literally sleeping their lives away.”
“You’d think they’d know.” I’d know if I was married to a seven-time bigamist. I hoped. I felt my gaze harden as Tia strolled up to the weeping tiger.
Blood streaked her arms and she wore a pale pink dressing gown Vinny had found in one of the closets. “My Thomas found out about the drug, didn’t he?”
“He was high and mighty about it. He wanted to spill the whole thing to shareholders. Gaston didn’t kill him,” she said, as if that made a difference.
“No, he just put him to sleep,” I said.
“What are the side effects?” Tia demanded. “How do I bring him back?”
“I don’t know. You could ask Gaston but you killed him!” Bliss collapsed into another round of sobbing.
That’s when I knew. “Sunny figured it out, didn’t she?”
Bliss sniffled. “The bitch. She couldn’t just be happy being one of his wives. She had to be his only wife.”
“Did she know you were sleeping with him?” Wild guess, but I wasn’t about to try to enter her mind right now.
“No,” she gulped, “but Sunny was going to tell about his other wives. She was going to bring in her wolf pack. She told me and Francine all about it.” Her eyes were wild. “She was going to take him from me!”
“So you killed her,” Lucien said.
She nodded, gulping. “You don’t understand. I need a man. I have nothing. The damned dog has more than I do!”
Chi-Chi growled.
Damned straight.
“The only money I had came from Nina,” she said.
Right. “You mean from blackmailing Nina.”
Who wasn’t blackmailing Nina?
Bliss shrugged. “She had the money. And she’s a slut.”
Err ... pot calling kettle?
“Sunny’s husband, Gaston. He was giving you money, wasn’t he?” asked Lucien.
Bliss stiffened. “He could afford it.”
Maybe. Still, “You didn’t love him. You just needed a sugar daddy.”
“I loved him!” she wailed. “And I hated Sunny.”
“How’d you kill her?” Lucien demanded.
She cowered, trapped.
“You already told us you did it, Bliss,” I reminded her. I could see how getting clocked with an ornate medieval chandelier would kill Sunny. But how had Bliss