with that sliding, easy grace of the vampire, something I had forgotten or gotten so accustomed to while living among them that I no longer noted it until now, when I had been away from them so long. He had a long, lean face and long pale hair, reminding me of Legolas in The Lord of the Rings movie, except cruel, hard. He wore slacks and a dress shirt and city shoes, with a long winter coat that made him appear even more broad-shouldered and slim than he already was. The color sharpened, to show the lipstick red of the Range Rovers and the gray of the gorgeous coat.
Onscreen, the vamp lifted his head and sniffed the air. Snow pattered down onto his coat and hair, not melting. Cold-blooded for real. The other vehicle’s front window lowered and Lego spoke to the other one, whose face was hidden. I regretted not having audio on the cameras.
“Eli has the driveway mined in two places,” Alex said, “but farther up, not at the street.”
“We don’t know who is in the vehicles,” I said. “We couldn’t detonate anyway.”
I returned my attention to my cell. Speaking slow, with a care for the meaning of each word, I said, “Wrassler, two groups of vamps have moved out of Europe. One group may have been in New Orleans for a while—long enough to snatch our missing people. Withdraw all of Clan Yellowrock into HQ and invite the other clans. Go on lockdown. Send word to Koun requesting that he accept the position of Acting Enforcer to the Dark Queen, New Orleans District, in addition to his position as chief strategist of Clan Yellowrock, until such time as Derek is able to resume his duties. If he isn’t interested in the job, send me a list of candidates. Alex will send a letter instructing all blood clan masters to defer to Koun, Acting Enforcer to the Dark Queen. So speaks the Blood Master of Clan Yellowrock”—I took a breath, claiming my political power—“and the Dark Queen.”
“Yes, my mistress,” Wrassler said, with a breath of relief.
On the screen, the lone vamp standing in the snow turned toward the camera recording him, as if he knew it was there. Snow fell on his face. He was green-eyed and now I could see the nearly white platinum blond of his hair. He stretched out an arm and snapped his fingers. The back door to the second vehicle opened. A girl was shoved into the brightness of the headlights: she fell to her hip, skin white as the snow. Long, straight red hair slapped down. “No,” I whispered, placing a hand on the screen. Lego grabbed the girl’s arm and yanked her up, against his chest. Dark red smears were left in the white behind her. Blood. Her blouse had once been white. It was dull with brown stains.
She was still bleeding freely and there were vamp-bite marks in her throat.
He jerked her hair, pulling her face up, into the meager light. Snow fell on it, unmelting.
Shiloh Everhart Stone. Of course it was.
“He’s got Shiloh. She’s hurt bad,” Alex said softly to Eli.
Wrassler cursed, hearing the words over our connection.
Sooo . . . one group of vamps or two? I had told the Flayer where I was. If a second group was, or had been, in NOLA and bleeding and reading my people, then they may have figured out where I was too. Either way, this was bad.
Eli put on a burst of speed. But the drive was uneven and unpredictable and he couldn’t run flat out without risking a broken ankle. The snow suddenly fell harder as a sideways blast of wind shunted it horizontal. We weren’t supposed to have wind at all. Brute put on a burst of speed, bounding high through the drifts.
Through the blustering snow, I watched as the vamp raised his hand and ripped out Shiloh’s throat. Blood splatted and dribbled, bright in the whiteout. He didn’t drink. He held her up by the neck and wasted the blood, a vamp insult. Lego dropped her to the snow and got back into his Rover. Sedately, the two vehicles backed out of the drive and pulled into the night.
“You are dead,” I whispered to him.
Shiloh raised a hand. Gripped her throat. And squeezed. Shutting off the meager blood loss. Meager because she had already been drained so completely. Blood oozed through her fingers.
Brute dashed after the Rovers, a flash of white wolf on white snow, and out