By Blood We Live

Finders Keepers by L. A. Banks

Atlantic City, New Jersey

She kissed his forehead, tasting the thin sheen of salty moisture that still lingered on his skin, considering him before she gently closed his eyes. He had a handsome face, that of a Roman; dark lashes that rested against his now porcelain-pale skin; a strong, aristocratic nose; rugged square jaw. But he wasn’t a keeper.

Slightly forlorn, she peeled herself away from his nude, lifeless body with a sigh, studying the tall, athletic form in repose on the bed as she took her time to dress. A thread-width finger of crimson seeped from his wound, the scarlet beacon drawing her back to his side to taste the last of him. His body twitched from the invasion; she kissed his lips as a goodbye and a thank you, leaving a red print of his essence against his mouth. But he wasn’t a keeper.

Death was like delicious prose when delivered with elegance and style. It had a prologue, a body, and then an epilogue, no less than fine dining replete with an appetizer, entrée, followed by dessert. The composition of it all was quiet, pleasurable, and perfect. She felt no guilt as she turned toward the terrace doors and faced the moon. She would shower later, back at her lair. This man’s death was an elegant kill, as always. Society was the better for it, she was the better for it, and if there was an Ultimate Maker, then the drained man on the bed could hash out the particulars with the judge of creation regarding whether or not his life had been lived in vain.

It was always a philosophical question that niggled her-would a so-called victim dare ask the Divine for recompense, after having killed so many men himself for blood money? One less mob enforcer lost at a casino would not imperil the world. Perhaps she provided a true service to mankind. The man her feed would have killed tonight had been given a night of reprieve… an honest man would therefore get one more night to live-she just hoped he’d made the most of the time.

A slight smile graced her lips, exposing a hint of fang as she retracted them. Her logic was sound in her own mind as she leaped up on the terrace railing, balancing on it for a moment before allowing the night to pull her into its dark folds of freedom.

Wind rushed through her hair and buffeted her face. Plummeting helped her remember being alive, the joy, the fear, the pain.

But after a few moments, she finally allowed the fierceness of the wind to abate so she could hover on the gentleness of the evening breeze. Floating high above the Atlantic City boardwalk, her thoughts drifted to her human days. Back then, it was the humans who were beasts. Things were not so different now, she reasoned, spying the antlike creatures that dotted the boardwalk and streets below. Humans killed more of their own than her kind did, and for much more senseless reasons. Men who’d wanted her called her a witch-when she denied their advances; women who’d envied her beauty joined in their persecution. Murderous group thinking prevailed over logic, as was the human way.

The verdict was simple and heartless. It was in everyone’s best interest that she be exterminated, everyone’s best interest but hers. Mysterious deaths had been blamed on her sorcery, when all she’d had was the gift, or curse, of second sight. No one had given a single thought to the nobleman stranger that had recently come ashore with his ship and largess. He was above the law and above their suspicion or contempt. They had been elegantly glamoured.

People. She hated that she even needed them for blood.

The midnight blue horizon drew her attention. Moonlight sent shards of opalescence to ripple against the blue-black water. It was so beautiful. If she could stay airborne all night, she would.

Memories rolled across her mind in unrelenting waves. Haiti was a small lush place then… too small to hide in. Who would risk their life to give sanctuary to a motherless child? No one was that brave when a mob came calling. They’d easily found her, had mercilessly beaten and violated her, and then dragged her to a pyre to cover their shame. Already half-dead from the abuse and hemorrhaging badly, they’d lit tinder around her. Flames quickly caught the hem of her ragged dress. Heat raced up her legs, but she was too weak to move and could barely scream. Her protest came out as a deep, resounding moan of agony. She would have been their bonfire that night, had a man with honor not shown up. Maybe that’s why she loved the weightlessness of vapor so.

That was how Alfonse had come to her, as vapor.

Searing heat had given way to cool relief. The jeers and curses all around her had turned into screams of terror. Something that no human mind could fathom had rescued her from the flames, and now the townspeople knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that there was more on the island to fear than her. The least likely person, the nobleman of means, wielded the wrath and destructive power of an entity that they were horrified to name.

Humans fled. The beach had returned to a place of peace beneath the moon. A gentle hand had cradled her skull, lifting her throat to his mouth. A gentle whisper offered her a choice with a promise, "I will not hurt you; do you want to live?”

Something human within her recoiled as she swallowed her own blood, but that feral, primal animus within knew she was dying, and it fought with all its might to survive. Blood choked her words; all she could do was nod. But her mind screamed a thousand questions as his beautiful lips parted and the moonlight glinted off his fangs.

Yet, his murmur was so serene. "Relax. I must do this now before your heart stops beating or it will be too late, chérie.”

She remembered her

making as though it were only moments ago. More than two hundred years still could not eclipse the horror of what people had done to her, nor could she ever forget what Alfonse had given her.

Through his sanguine kiss, her broken bones and violated flesh had begun to knit as her muscles relaxed. Raw nail beds from fighting rapists and aggressors began to heal. Pain literally ceased with his kiss, and then there was only sweet pressure at her neck. Life was draining out of her with each suckle; the world slowed down, her hearing dulled, her eyes closed against the moon. The burns that had engulfed her legs cooled, the puffiness of her swollen face eased. For a moment, there was a velvet cloak of dark peace that enveloped her, a totality of nothingness so peaceful that if she could have, she would have wept. Initially, she could feel him, then see him within her mind’s eye as he threw his head back with his eyes closed, ecstasy staining his expression, chest heaving from the exertion, moonlight casting crimson prisms in saliva and blood against porcelain canines. He was horrifying and gorgeous, this nobleman that had claimed her.

“Breathe,” he’d commanded.

A gasp shuddered through her and relief made him hug her.

Tears stung her eyes as she searched for a place to discreetly land amongst the modern day humans that strolled the Atlantic City boardwalk so carefree at night. It was time to return her thoughts to the present. Without Alfonse, the past was a place of pain.

But the memories had a stranglehold on her. Her first question upon her awakening in Alfonse’s arms had been so naïve.

“I will live?”

His dark eyes had flashed with both triumph and remorse. ”

Non. You will exist.” He’d then touched her disheveled hair with reverence. "I’m sorry, it was the only way.”

Even then she hadn’t fully understood. All she was sure of was that a strange nobleman had found her and had saved her at her darkest hour. His handsome face still haunted her… deeply intense, dark eyes… thick brows furrowed in a frown of concern. Square jaw owning a slight cleft. Strong, Romanesque nose. A shock of glistening brunette hair spilling across his shoulders when the wind tired of it. His mouth lush and ruby-stained, punished by the suckle.

“Why didn’t you just let me die?” It had seemed fair enough a question then.

“Because you’d fought so hard to live, and what they’d accused you of was a lie. I am a man of principle. Without principles, we are all just animals.”

His admission became a sensual murmur that bonded them forever. "I have watched you since I came to this island… you are an exquisite beauty that I could never allow to endure the sentence for my sins. Even being what I am, there is a code of ethics. Never take more than you need, never take from those who are innocent,

ma chérie. Break no hearts; cull the herd of its own beasts. Feed from the damned and don’t allow them to wake up. They’d blamed you for my feeds, a convenient scapegoat to give them license to act out their lusts and anger. Fools, the lot of them. How could they think a woman who walks in the sunlight amongst them could be capable of such crimes?”

Still, she wasn’t sure of what he’d admitted, but she did understand how a woman of no pedigree, no social standing, born at the wrong time to the wrong majority could be blamed. Her response had pained him as she’d taken up his hand within hers.

“Look at my hand, look at yours. What do you see? Look at your clothes, look at mine. That is enough of a reason for them to excuse you and to lynch me.”

She’d expected him to snatch his hand away in offense, but her simple truth had gentled his expression from outrage at the mob that had violated her humanity to something else that she, even now, couldn’t describe. His words had become tender like his touch, his fingers dappling the pleasure of a caress against her cheek as he’d spoken in a gentle timbre.

“I see beautiful, cinnamon-hued skin perfumed by oils and flavors of the earth. I see deep, amber-brown, expressive eyes, so gorgeous and with depth so vast that they rival the jewel-blue sea. I see thick, lush tendrils of mahogany hair that appears to be as velvet under the night sky. I see a face of an angel, a mouth so inviting I tremble.”

He looked away out toward the surf, his voice becoming distant as he spoke a truth that was hard to bear. "I’ve also sadly witnessed a soul that was pure have to flee its earthly housing well before its time, heard a heart that was loving stop beating while you were in my arms… then, as now, I see a body created in majesty that is still yearning for affection beyond lust. I see a brilliant mind trapped in an era of ignorance, straining for recognition and release. I see a woman held captive by circumstance and accident of birth, a hostage of men who have no right to own another living soul. The small attention I gave you upon arriving here at night caused them to hate you more… jealousy is a tireless monster that no one can understand.”

It was her turn to look away then. Tears mixed with rage as she remembered the respectful attention the new nobleman had given her, and the way men with lesser wealth had resented her reciprocated charm. Women on the island, black and white, hated her because of the attention she’d garnered from the wealthy stranger. Men on the island seethed with outrage, those of all hues taking offense that she would be so enamored with a stranger that she’d deny their advances.

She hadn’t thought she was better, or that they were lesser; Alfonse duBenet had given her a jewel that no man had offered. Respect set in kindness. He didn’t presume to own her, hadn’t presumed that due to her station versus his that he could simply take her. He’d actually tried to begin the slow process of courting her. That is what had been viewed as scandalous. That was where the true crime had been committed, according to the locals. And she’d blossomed under Alfonse’s gifts of emotional tenderness. She’d seen that as his difference, the respect and tenderness he’d offered. Not until the night he’d rescued her had she realized that he was something beyond human. But, then again, so were they.

It was humans that had ultimately abused her, had tried to murder her. A vampire had killed her, but in so doing had saved her. The simplicity of it was both profound and perverse.

Alfonse had released a sigh of frustration when he saw her thinking too hard and had then given her his hand. "Be my bride and let us seek our revenge by outliving them all. We will have to go to the mainland. They now know what I am, as well as will correctly assume you are that, too. If we stay on this small island, they will find us by daylight… we must leave tonight, chérie.”

His human crew was already waiting. The ship had been loaded, the hull of it prepared. Protection sealed it. That was the first time she’d crossed the sea. New Orleans eventually became her home, but not before he’d shown her the world. She missed Alfonse so terribly that her heart still contracted with phantom pains when she thought about him.

Shaking the memory, she alighted on a deserted section of boardwalk. The night was still young as she considered the moon. Only a little after midnight. Normally she didn’t hunt so early and preferred being out in the ocean breeze as long as possible. But the man she’d fed on so reminded her of Alfonse. Yet his physical attributes were where the similarity had begun and ended. The man’s mind was repugnant. His thoughts pedestrian… common. She had done a good deed-freeing a beautiful body of a stagnant soul. At least the physical work of art could decompose in peace and not be mocked by adulterous misuse from the banal mind that had controlled it. He wasn’t even a good lover, thus not worthy of being a vampire.

The shadow of a building provided her reentry into solid form near humans. A quick autumn breeze took up the edges of her little black dress as she stepped into the light, giving passerby men a glimpse of her long, sleek legs and a flash of red thong. Brief curiosity and lust filled their eyes. She dismissed them mentally while she listened to their life stories in her head as she walked toward the boardwalk rails to stare out at the ocean. All average Joes; none worth pursuing, and she’d just eaten. Never take more than you need. The casinos here were just not like those in Monaco. The beaches here so unlike the Caribbean or the Mediterranean. Losing Alfonse was a tragedy.

Tears rose in her eyes and then burned away. Time had bled out the tears, but not the pain or the memory. Nightly survival was a game of chance; the casinos were that as well. The baccarat tables and high rollers’ dens were filled with men who thrived on risk and survived. That was the energy that drew her and ignited her. That was the energy that disappointed her.

Bored insane she wondered if she might try a new milieu this century… politicians, perhaps. Most were duplicitous, foul creatures that were predatory in nature, so why not? It would be no different than hand-picking criminals to feed from.

However, hiding their deaths would be more problematic. Siphoning a hit-man dry would not create a full-scale investigation. It would go into a cold-case homicide file; police wouldn’t expend too much manpower on it. The organization her feed hailed from would retaliate, if necessary, against their assumed enemies, which would allow her to feed off the opposing side for a while until they retaliated-and the authorities would be none the wiser. A beautiful cycle until she moved on. It would all remain in the province of organized crime. Simple, elegant. Going after white-collar political criminals with high-profile posts would be messy, even if more satisfying. Maybe one day.

For now she was stuck in North America until she could develop a foolproof plan to cross the forbidding sea. Daylight was the barrier. One could travel as vapor only so far before depleting one’s energy. The specter of being lost at sea at sunrise, decomposing and burning in the water, was compelling enough of a reason to stay on shore. Alfonse had taught her that, too, had taught her how to glamour human helpers to keep their coffins closed in the cargo hull until night. But with new technology and Homeland Security, new maritime laws, as well as the ineptness of this era’s baggage handlers were she to dare a plane flight, would mean she’d surely fry in their care. She allowed her shoulders to slump. For now she was not just stuck, but trapped on this continent since Alfonse’s demise.

Pushing away from the rail with renewed annoyance, she headed toward the bright lights, not caring which casino she entered. They were all the same; just like the feeds had been. Vegas was a notch up from where she was now, but it lacked a beach, and being a spawn of the Caribbean, the night air for her required surf. Down in the delta the feeds that came into the casinos were so po’boy-southern fried that they threatened to make her kill sloppily in outrage. She’d had to move from there, and her beloved New Orleans just wasn’t the same since the flood.

Miami had potential, but there was so much competition to feed on the drug lords that often territorial plunder wars broke out amongst her kind, and she didn’t need the hassle. Each coven was so protective of its land rights. Same with LA; California was another world. The northeastern seaboard held the greatest potential at the moment, as did the Connecticut tract, or going up into Michigan and over into Canada. Still, one had to be careful of regional vampire politics. She was older than most, but was also made by Alfonse-whom many had ill feelings about because he’d been merciless in enforcing his code of ethics:

Never the innocent, never take more than you need. Gorging orgies had been put to a stop in his region. Making children was considered heresy in Alfonse’s book.

He had garnered formidable enemies because of his extreme views… because of his extreme mercy toward humans. For that mercy, they had colluded to mercilessly expose him to sunlight in a devastating coup. The only thing that had saved her was another male wanted her for himself. Her face became tight as thoughts of vengeance tainted her mood. Yes, she’d played along until she could return the favor of sunlight exposure, but that had left her alone, an outcast from polite vampire society. That was the main reason she couldn’t trust a cargo ship or flight abroad.

However, Montreal was beautiful and Quebec was her refuge when she needed a taste of Europe, albeit neither was a seaside town. But up there, any death of a local human was a big deal in that pristine environment and created too much attention. So, until circumstances changed, or her code of feeding off those who’d been predators changed, she was stuck.

How did one stop missing a man that she’d loved for more than two hundred years?

She kept walking until the click of her high heels against the marble pierced her senses. Sometimes she lived so deeply inside her own head that she had to remember where she was and had to remember to keep up the tedious façade of being engaged in the moment, caring about the mundane goings on of human existence. Had to fit in, be unobtrusive in their world. Had to stay away from the mirrors and reflective surfaces that were all the rage in the chic hotels. Wanted a vodka martini and hated that she had to find a feed who was drinking one and then had to entice him somewhere for just a sip from his veins. All this waiting, when she was a woman of action. Tonight, she wanted to be anywhere but here, but Atlantic City would just have to do.

Frustrated, she found a black jack table and sat with a flop.

“Bad night?” the dealer asked with a smile.

She stared at his warm hazel eyes and dark brown skin, enjoying the way his mouth moved for a moment before she materialized a stack of chips in her clutch bag and then withdrew them to slide them onto the table. "Just a slow start, but the night is young.”

He nodded, appraising her physique for a second and then dealt her cards. She studied him before looking down at her cards; he couldn’t have been more than twenty-five, with his sexy chocolate self.

“Black jack,” she said quietly, and then pushed the five thousand dollars worth of chip winnings back in his direction as a tip. He was cute. Too young with too much of a future to dine on. She stood as he gaped.

“You sure, Miss?” He looked from the stack to her and then over to his pit boss.

“As ever,” she murmured, blowing him a sexy kiss. "Do something positive with it. A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” She made eye contact with the older pit boss to be sure the young dealer wouldn’t get in trouble-he hadn’t stolen the chips, it was her tip, her choice. The pit boss nodded. Now she could leave. This is what acute boredom did, made one find little stupid things to engage in to give one’s life meaning.

She turned to leave but the young dealer’s energy reached out to try to hold her. She could feel him summoning the nerve to ask a simple question, curiosity about to cost him dearly. Curiosity always killed the cat, and sometimes satisfaction brought it back. He was a handsome cat, even if curiosity had the potential to kill him. But he wasn’t a keeper, not likely to get brought back.

“What’s your name?”

She half turned and offered him a half-smile. "Not important. And… no… I don’t want to meet you later when you get off your shift. Just enjoy the cash and stay healthy, baby.”

“Okay, I can do that,” he said, seeming disappointed as she strode away.

She shook her head and chuckled softly to herself. Men. They always wanted more than the bargain. Five grand wasn’t enough; he wanted sex, too? Maybe she would just head toward the poker tables… or just go out to sit under the stars to allow the night to pass without incident.

He stared at the security monitors, running back the images that didn’t make sense. A chair had moved away from the table by itself. Chips had appeared on the table and the dealer looked as though he was talking to himself. He’d dealt, and cards flipped where no one was seated. Then what looked like five thousand in winnings had gotten pushed back to the dealer. The kid had even checked with the pit boss, who nodded. Chips slid toward him as he spoke to the nothingness.

It was time to take a break.

Obviously his head was all screwed up. Either someone had slipped him a mickey or he was finally having that nervous breakdown that he should have had five years ago. But he was so fuckin’ close! No one else had seemed to notice; it had gone by in a flash.

“Yo, Tony, you okay?” A burly member of the security team stared at him seeming worried. "All of a sudden you don’t look so good. Like you seen a ghost, or somethin’.”

He dabbed at the sweat beading his brow. "I’m cool, man, just need a few. Cover for me? I need to go take a walk.”

Several pairs of eyes regarded him, eyes he knew he could never fully trust. He wasn’t one of them, but had worked his way inside their organization through years of deception. And still, he was only in the outer layers of their hierarchy.

“Sure thing, man. Take ten.”

He nodded, studying their predatory eyes before slipping out of the casino floor monitoring room. Maybe he was losing it, if they could see it so clearly. Sharks could always sense blood in the water from miles away, and from what Fat Joe had said and the expression on his face, it was obvious he was bleeding to death. But the big question was, had his cover been blown somehow? And ultimately, did that matter? If he was a traitor, he was dead; if he was perceived as a liability, he was dead. Sharks would eat their own if one of them was weak or injured.

Right now he seemed weak, seemed injured. He knew his eyes had given him away. His sweat in a cool, air-conditioned room had telegraphed to them that something out of the blue had made him freak. He could have replayed the images, but what if what he saw was all in his head? Then there’d be questions, deeper digging into his background. He couldn’t fully trust his own, either. There had been a leak back at the Federal Task Force on Organized Crime, Jersey Division.

After what they’d done to his Meghan, his partner, and his partner’s wife, there was no time for so-called healing. He kept walking. If they snuffed him in the men’s room, then he’d take several of them with him.

Checking the stalls briefly, he walked past the urinals and went to the sinks splashing water on his face quickly so that his senses remained alert. He grabbed a paper towel and stared in the mirror as he wiped away the water, not seeing himself, but the fire before he turned away.

His partner, Nate, was the inside man, he’d worked the logistics in the office. Their wives were dear friends. That day, Meghan had gone over to personally tell Carol the good news… she was pregnant. Tony briefly closed his eyes. The kids, thank God, were in the yard when Carol turned on the burner under a tea kettle. Both women were at ground zero when the blast rocked the kitchen. Nate heard it on the police band. Evidence of the charred radio told them that. He’d never made it home to collect his devastated children or to bury his wife. They’d duct-taped explosives to Nate’s chair, and then allowed the warehouse to go up like a Fourth of July display.

He needed a drink, even though that was thoroughly against casino policy. Fuck it. No wonder he was seeing things. Following the rules had never been his forte, at least not after what went down had gone down.

Heading toward the elevators, he kept his gaze scanning.

He’d known all along that there had to be a leak, no matter what the internal investigation revealed. His own personal investigation told him otherwise. Some people even suggested that he rest, stop asking questions, take a vacation, take time off to grieve Meghan. There were a lot of people who didn’t want the Gambiotti family to have any legal problems. Political incorrectness was entrenched in the system, as was payola. He took their advice for three months, took time off to do what he had to do. So when bodies within the department started dropping, they never suspected it was one of their own making a surgical strike. It wasn’t murder, in his mind; it was a matter of principle.

Chaos bred panic. Those within the department left in the chain of command wanted the loose ends tied up quickly before death came to their door. They wanted him back on the job, back in play; suddenly, they didn’t care about his healing or his loss. Survival instinct was a motherfucker. They knew that a man with nothing to lose was a dangerous thing, so they set him on the other side like a rabid dog-never the wiser about who was hitting dirty feds-and they sicced him on the side that had given the hit order. He could go after the Gambiottis with impunity, as long as he yielded results… but if he was caught doing anything outside the scope of the law, he was on his own, a rogue that they would necessarily disavow.

The bell sounding the elevator arrival gave him a start. He stepped inside, glad it was empty, and went down to the casino floor. He had to talk to that black jack dealer and pit boss before he left to go out for a smoke. A small dive bar around the corner was calling his name, but so was the need to know.

He approached the table carefully, watching the patrons and the dealer until the young man noticed him. After the hand, he shut the table down.

“Yo, man, I knew y’all was coming-ask Stan, the chick said it was my tip. Y’all ain’t breaking my legs for no bullshit. I don’t steal from the house, never have.”

“The kid is clean, Tony,” Stan said, his voice low as he entered the quiet but intense conversation.

“I haven’t said a word and you all have jumped to a defense,” Tony said coolly, regarding both men.

“C’mon, Tony. What are we supposed to think? One of you guys comes down here from the monitoring booth, shuts down the table, and whatever, right after the kid gets a big tip.” The old man lifted his chin. "It ain’t right.”

“What did the woman look like?” Tony waited, knowing the cameras were now on him. If there was something shaky going on, then he had to solidify the family’s trust in him by going to handle it directly. Maybe he would run back those digital images. He could show the boys in the room the thing that had triggered his reaction, and they would see him now down on the floor.

But both men looked puzzled for a moment.

“You saw the broad from the monitors,” old Stan challenged, running his thick fingers through his snow-white hair.

“She was fine,” the dealer said, keeping his voice low and his eyes darting around like a trapped rabbit’s. "You know, man, the money type. Five ten, skin flawless. Designer black dress on. Diamond earrings, the real shit, not no CZs. Single gold bangle with some real weight. Legs that go on for miles, stilettos making her ass even hotter when she walks. Beautiful set of tits, V-neck serving it all up, but not in a hoochie type of way. But she didn’t remind me of a pro, at least not the ones around here I’ve seen. She had a real classy vibe, man, like she wasn’t from around here-belonged in fucking Vegas or Monaco, or off some runway in Paris, but not down at the damned Jersey shore… like she had money to play with. Seemed like she was bored as hell, too, if you feel me. Hey, if she stole it, y’all can have it back—but I didn’t steal it.”

“The kid is only twenty-six, Tony. He didn’t steal from the drawer; that I witnessed with my own eyes. He’s not lying, the broad was old money.”

The desperation in the young man’s voice and fear in his eyes told him what he needed to know. One-there hadn’t been a theft. Two-there was a woman at that table. But then why hadn’t she shown up on the monitors? That was the part that made him question his sanity. Unnerved, he let the two men waiting on his judgment off the hook.

“All right. Keep the chips, but point out which way she went. I have some questions for her.”

“Shit, you shut my table down and I’ll walk you to her over by the poker tables.” The young dealer seemed unconvinced that his life was no longer in jeopardy. Stan nodded and he quickly came around the edge of his table. "I don’t want no problems, man, no bullshit whatsoever. Aw’ight. So, I’ma take you to her, you can ask her yourself whether or not she gave me the tip. Cool? Then you guys will have that on tape and I don’t have to worry about getting into my car in the parking lot, right?”

“That’ll work,” Tony said calmly as the young dealer came to his side, looked around, and then shook his hand.

“There she go,” he said, beginning to walk. "Can’t miss her… ain’t nothing like her in this joint.”

Tony stared behind the kid for a moment before he began walking. Again, he hadn’t lied. Sensuality personified oozed from her very being. The way her graceful hand took up a card and added it to her fan, the way her mesmerizing eyes studied them and the dealer, sent the temperature of the entire casino up a notch. Her face was gorgeous, and that added to the unbelievable curves she owned made her a knockout, drop-dead, to-die-for beauty. Not since Meghan had he been so drawn to a woman. A roll in the hay with a pro was one thing, simply a matter of releasing the primal-something he’d indulged in when he had more drinks than advisable. But this woman…

Then, as though sensing his approach, she looked up and stared at him. There was no question she was staring at him-it was more than a visual recognition,

he felt it. He watched her fold her hand, rake in the winnings, and stand, leaving the game.

She’d sensed someone staring at her, but until the crowd parted a bit, she wasn’t sure of where the energy pull was coming from. She spotted the young dealer, whose entire aura radiated stress and flight-or-fight hormone that was palpable. Yes, he’d been the one staring at her, but there was a darker presence, a more sensual, mysterious creature behind the kid. The moment she saw the source, she froze.

His dark brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail; she wondered if it was held by a dark leather thong or a simple rubber band. She briefly closed her eyes, no longer than a slow blink, perceiving as much as she could about him in seconds. Leather held his hair. Broad shoulders filled out his black leather jacket and concealed a gun. She could taste the metallic change in the air and smell the gunpowder in the clip. He wore a black t-shirt beneath the butter soft leather, black slacks, black slip-on Cole Haans. No jewelry, just a fine gold watch made by Rolex. A pair of intense, dark eyes pierced her, asking questions in a thunder of human thoughts. A strong jaw was set hard, but his mouth was still beautiful, not a tight line of anger. His athletic body moved through the crowd with the stealth of a cat… he was hunting her… interesting. Yet there was no guile aimed at her to be found in his presence, but this was a man of mysteries.

As he neared her, it all became so clear-he was the honest man she’d saved earlier by feeding on the assassin. The irony made her smile.

“Excuse me, Miss, may I have a word with you?”

She turned and regarded the near breathless dealer and then the man that stood behind him.

She nodded, already knowing what the problem was. "I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this,” she said, looking past the dealer into the eyes of pure intrigue. "I was bored, gave him a large tip of my own volition. He didn’t steal anything from your casino.” She flashed a purse full of chips worth close to fifty thousand dollars. "Look, I have more.” She pulled out another five grand and handed it to the dealer. "Just so you gentlemen who watch transactions can be clear that I did tip the man.”

“See, see what I mean, Tony!” The dealer held the chips out to Tony to take, still nervous.

“You’re straight, you can go back to your table and open up,” Tony said quietly, not looking at the dealer, his eyes transfixed on her. "Buy you a drink?”

She gave him a half-smile. "Mind if we get out of here and go somewhere less frenetic? This place is giving me a headache.”

“Great minds think alike. I’m Tony.”

“Pleased to meet you, Antonio. I am Odette.”

“How did you know my full name was Antonio and not just plain Anthony?”

“Because you are a complicated man and Anthony is way too simplistic for you.”

“How about that drink… somewhere out of here?”

“I would adore a Vodka martini.”

He nodded. "My favorite.”

“Good,” she murmured. ”

Très bon.”

Fat Joe took the phone away from his ear slowly, every man in the booth watching Tony leave the casino alone after money had again changed hands. "They just found Donny all fucked up in his room over at the Trump. Can’t figure out what the fuck happened to him. Wasn’t an ounce of blood in ‘im.”

“That shit is crazy,” Lou said, standing. "Tony had to know Donny was gonna do ‘im tonight… ‘cuz look at the segment of floor activity he was checking out before he got all weird on us.”

Fat Joe came around the desks, moving his heft swiftly to lean in and see where Lou pointed. Other henchmen in the room joined in.

“Look at that shit. I don’t understand it, but somehow he must have either erased the person’s image or somethin’. The dealer looks nervous, five large goes across the table. The dealer asks old Stan something, and then our boy shuts down his monitors, goes downstairs, right. He has a little talk, the dealer walks with him away from the black jack area over toward poker, they put more cash in the dealer’s hand and he leaves.”

“So, the black kid is working undercover with him and they got old Stan to turn a blind eye, you think?” Fat Joe stood up straight, outrage making his face turn red.

“Yeah, and helping himself to a little pocket lining just like the other feds… but how he got to Donny, that’s what I wanna know.”

Fat Joe looked at Lou. "Does that matter how they did it? They tried to infiltrate us, are stealing money from us-even if it is a punk ass amount, and they killed a good man. The boss said to be sure that crazy bastard Tony got put down hard tonight. We can’t have undercover cops thinking they can violate us like that. So, it’s good he’s off the premises. Saves us the trouble of having to ask him to go for a little ride.”

“I’ll round up the fellas,” Lou said with a slight smile.

The place where he’d taken her was a dive, but it was quiet. The short walk away from the casino district had allowed her thoughts to gather along with her impressions of him. Pain so deep and so profound cloaked him and she’d almost reached out to touch him to try to dispel it.

“You’re an honest man,” she said, once the bartender had taken their drink orders. "Noble.”

“No man is without sin,” he replied, staring into her eyes. "Sin stains nobility.”

“I didn’t say you were without sin, I said you were an honest man. To kill those who have brutalized those you love is an honest emotion.”

Her words made him draw back and a frown replaced his once serene expression. "You need to talk to me-quickly.”

She smiled. "I am not your nemesis, nor your enemy.” She released a sigh as their drinks came, knowing she’d never be able to sip hers without a bit of blood mixer. "There was a man in the hotel, over at the Trump Taj Mahal… Donny, I think his name was.”

“Was?” Tony leaned in to her and grabbed her arm.

“Was,” she said flatly. "He knew who you were; they all do, I suppose, if they sent him to kill you.”

“He’s dead?” Tony slowly let go of her arm and then cautiously downed half his martini. "How do you know all of this?”

“Because I eliminated him.”

Incredulous, he simply stared at her for a moment. "You work for them and you’ve now set me up?”

She shook her head no. "Have the rest of your martini. I don’t work for anyone, haven’t in

years. He was an asshole, a very bad man, the type I despise, so…”

“Then how do you know all of this-like how you knew my name?” Tony’s voice was a low, threatening rumble.

“If I told you, you’d never believe me.”

“Try me. You just told me you killed a man and know way too much about me for comfort.”

She searched his face, seeing kind eyes behind their angry veneer, seeing where the pain began and what had chased him into the arms of fate.

“They took your wife’s life,” she murmured. "Your partner’s and his wife. The baby.” Odette shook her head and then shivered. "Beasts. Humans can be animals-I’ve died at their hands, had that which was precious taken from me. You and I are not so different.”

“Lady, stop talking in riddles,” he said, now grabbing her arm again as he roughly set down his glass.

“You aren’t ready for the truth… ask yourself, didn’t you find it strange that you couldn’t see me on the monitors? The moment I saw you pushing the young dealer in my direction, with you dressed in security staff black, I figured that the technology had betrayed me.”

“What

the fuck is going on, lady?”

She inclined her head toward the mirror behind the bar, motioning toward it with her chin. "I don’t show up in reflections, mirrored surfaces, or even in photographs. I don’t exist, but I do exist. I don’t appear dangerous, but I’m deadly. And I’m so much older than you think. But I’m not evil, although everything you’ve been taught says that I am… even though some like me definitely are. You and I are the same, rogues, an enigma, cloaked in pain and invisible to most others. We cull the herds, you and I, in our own way; we keep the beasts away from the innocent. Be careful tonight-it’s getting late, I need to go.”

His hand had fallen away from her arm as his jaw went slack. He didn’t offer protest as he stared in the mirror and she stood and walked away, too stunned to immediately gather himself. By the time his body and mind caught up to each other, allowing him to toss a twenty on the bar and dash out the door to find her, she was gone.

But a black Escalade careened over the curb, its door opened before he could draw his weapon, and beefy hands had him. Duct tape went over his mouth; nylon cuffed his wrists as the vehicle sped to a deserted section of beach. Hardened eyes told him Odette hadn’t lied. How could he have been so stupid!

His shoulder collided with the ground, the searing pain racing through his skeleton. A pair of dead, young eyes stared at him, open, glassy… the kid was only twenty-six. Hell, he was only thirty-seven. Struggling just made the men around him laugh. Trying to speak made them draw their weapons.

“Take the tape off and lemme hear what this sonofabitch has to say,” Lou growled, leveling a nine millimeter toward Tony’s face. "We’ve known you were a cop for months.”

Another henchman ripped off the tape. Tony took a huge inhale, and then began shouting, spittle flying.

“Fuck you!” he yelled out, trying to sit up. "You kill my pregnant wife and think I’m not coming for you? You kill my partner and think there’d be no retribution?” Chest heaving, death eminent, he refused to beg them, wanted them to know that he’d take this grudge with him to hell and back. "I’ll haunt you motherfuckers! This ain’t over!”

The men around him laughed and shook their heads.

“Sorry, I ain’t superstitious,” one said.

“Yeah, me neither,” Lou said, shrugging his shoulders and poking out his barrel chest. "But sorry about the wife, little bitch wasn’t supposed to be at the house when it blew. Our bad.”

“I’ll kill you!” Tony shouted.

“Yeah, we’re so scared,” Lou said, and then squeezed the trigger twice.

The back of his head exploded in pain and colors for a second and then everything went dark. There was no light, no sound; he could no longer feel the sand or the wind. The chill of the night air was gone. He’d failed. It was so quick, a blink of time. He was floating and weeping inside his shattered mind. Pressure at his throat made his muscles twitch. Something tightened around him and then became light, making him feel like he was flying away. Time stood still and yet he could feel its passage. Water now pelted his body, his forehead rested against something soft. He opened his eyes slowly to a dark angel, the shower spray blurring his vision.

Butter-cream-soft hands traced his back; cinnamon-hued breasts cushioned his chest as his knees buckled. A warm mouth sought his in a tender kiss. He had to be in heaven, because he’d just left hell on the beach. Everything was now surreal. His stomach churned and then pain soon gripped him, making him stagger backward to claw the wall, his wail an agonized echo that bounced off the tiles.

“I tried but got there too late to save the boy, that young dealer. They are animals,” a familiar voice murmured. "You must eat to regain your strength, and then heal today… tonight we will work together.”

Frantic, he looked around at the exquisite marble and gold fixtures, and then his gaze settled on Odette. "Where am I?”

“At my home, far away from them.”

“You saved me?” he panted. "The last thing I remember is Lou unloaded two slugs into the back of my head.” Tony’s hand gingerly touched his skull and then when he felt no wound, panicked.

“I perceived that you wanted to live more than anything else, in order to avenge this travesty of justice.”

“I did, but… but how?” He stepped out of the walk-in shower, bumping into the glass and staggering to the far side of the spacious bathroom. "I heard the shots, felt the impact, passed out. How in the fuck don’t I have a huge hole in my head!” He looked around, noticing something was missing. "Where’s the mirror? Where’s the goddamned mirror, Odette!”

“I don’t have any in the mansion,” she said calmly, turning off the water and covering her nudity with a large, white Turkish towel. "They upset me.”

“Why! What’s going on?”

She tossed him a towel and watched him grab it swiftly. "I’m sorry, it was the only way to save you. But once you eat, you’ll understand all.”

“Eat? Eat! Are you insane?” He wound the towel around his waist and struggled to stand without the aid of the double sink. "I’m not hungry, I’m about to lose my mind. My brains just got blown out, but I’m not dead, this ain’t a hospital, and I don’t know why I’m even alive.” Pain doubled him over again.

“You’re not. Eat,” she whispered, offering him her wrist.

He seemed confused, and then became horrified as her French manicured finger broke the skin and fangs filled his mouth at the first sight of her blood.

Tears stung his eyes but the scent of blood saturated the bathroom, drawing him to her beyond his control. He closed his eyes as he took her arm and brought it to his lips, her fingers threading through his hair, petting him as he greedily suckled, colors staining the inside of his lids, pleasure careening through his system until he could stand it no more. He threw his head back and released a moan. Her embrace opened the floodgate on years of hurt along with a torrent of tears.

Sobs of remorse choked him, a tender mouth swallowed them away. Velvet tresses were in his fist, his fingers wending their way through dripping curls. Hands so graceful, so soft removed pain from his aura with each gentle caress until towels fell away and skin burned against skin. This woman had saved him, had pulled his essence of existence away from the blackness. He had another chance to complete the mission he’d begun. Her story exploded inside his mind and he wept for her as his story entered her and she wept for him, their honesty becoming raw passion that slammed against the walls and melted down to body-slicked heat on the towel-strewn floor.

The storm of emotions and pleasure was so swift that it left them both breathless. He stared down at her, tracing the edge of her beautiful brows and then cradled her cheek.

“Why did you come back for me?” he murmured, still out of breath.

“Because you were a keeper. I found you after a very long search. A nobleman… and it has been centuries since I’d found someone worth saving.” A gentle smile eased out of hiding on her face. "Plus, I so badly wanted a Vodka martini.”

He paused to catch his breath, his mind laboring under the new knowledge it had just received. "What they did to you was unforgivable.”

“I became what I am, much like you did tonight,” she murmured, touching his cheek, her smile fading. "Someone cared enough about me to give me another chance and I loved him for that… and for whom he was.”

He understood what Odette was telling him, he loved Meghan that way. But it was becoming so difficult to hold onto the memory or to nurse it to life.

“Imagine after more than two hundred years… the memories fade and all you have left is the pain.” Her stare was so hypnotic, so open, and for all that she was and all that she had done, she possessed serenity.

“I have to finish this, tomorrow night, then I can move on.”

“I know you have to redress what happened to you,” she said quietly, briefly closing her eyes. "Just as one day I’ll route out the rest of those in the coven that participated in the coup against Alfonse.”

“I know,” he murmured, moving against her slowly and now appreciating the unhurried pleasure of their union. She was a beautiful woman, but there was something beyond that, something still so genuine inside her very being. It had been so long since he’d witnessed that or had allowed himself to experience the possibility it existed beyond Meghan. The fact that he felt the way he did almost seemed like a betrayal.

“It’s not a betrayal,” Odette murmured, brushing his mouth with hers. "They would have wanted us to go on, to thrive, and not merely survive. If we exist tortured, then the others have also won.”

A gasp escaped him as Odette’s slick sheath tightened around him. He studied her face as he loved her slowly, kissing her throat, then her breasts, paying delicate homage to her erect Hershey nipples with tiny suckles until she moaned. Satiny legs encircled his waist as she arched and offered him her throat. The strike into her jugular was swift but tender, her gasp sending a shudder through him that made him cry out.

The night wore on, their lovemaking an anthem, to survival, to renewal, that took them from the floor of the vast bathroom to the sprawl of her king-sized bed. He watched semi-dazed as the steel door to the basement sanctuary closed and pure darkness surrounded them, but yet he could still see.

“Rest,” she whispered. "Later tonight will be ours. We have the benefit now of time, power, and stealth.”

He pulled her against his chest in the darkness, finding it new that no heartbeats meshed and only cool skin now touched. The heat was gone, but not his loyalty to the one who’d saved him. The seeds of a long-time love had been planted. One that wouldn’t grow old, one that understood him more than the former love of his life ever had, one that shared his altruism and even his dark side.

“I’m glad you found me,” he said quietly. "I didn’t want to die.”

She nodded and kissed his chest. "I am glad, too. This is rare… it is magic.”

“Finders keepers.” For the first time in years, he closed his eyes with a smile.

They entered the casino just as they had left, but no monitors could perceive them. Old Stan looked at Tony and then glanced away.

“Wait here,” he said to Odette. "I have to clear this up.”

She nodded and perused the floor watching as her lover tried to make an old man understand. But that was pointless, people believed what they wanted to. Finally, she saw Tony hail her with a slight lift of his jaw.

“Ask Odette,” he said calmly, placing a hand on Stan’s shoulder.

She already knew the direction of the conversation. "He didn’t kill the young dealer, they did. Tony used to work for the feds.”

Stan straightened. "Then get the fuck away from me, would ya!” He spoke through his teeth. "I don’t wanna wind up like that kid, and I don’t wanna know what’s going on-but I don’t want them to see me ever talking to you.”

Tony nodded. "No problem, you live well.”

Odette took his arm. "There is much I have to teach you about the use of your power.”

“Just get me up into the security area without them seeing me.”

“Vapor?” she said with a wide grin. "Follow me to the shadows. You just don’t do that on an open casino floor in polite company.”

She took his hand and then pulled him into an alcove, kissing him passionately as passersby glanced at them once, and then they were gone.

Drifting replaced body weight, and then vents became passageways. Silence echoed all around him until Odette’s voice entered his head.

Bullets will hurt but not kill you. However, the rage is controlling you right now, you must control the rage. Decide before you go in there whether or not you want to rip them to shreds with your bare hands and start an entirely crazy investigation, or if you want to just shoot them all so that it looks like a human-on-human crime.

Before he could answer her, he was standing inside the room and could feel her presence invisibly monitoring his first foray as a vampire.

They were eating take-out from the restaurants below. Laughter filled the room, total entitlement to joy surrounded them like his life and death and that of an innocent kid’s never matter, never happened. They didn’t even see him.

“I told you I would haunt you,” Tony said in a low growl.

“Oh, shit!” Lou jumped up and grabbed his gun.

Four henchmen cursed and scrambled for weapons.

“I thought you whacked this bastard!” Fat Joe shouted.

In that moment, Tony decided. He didn’t want to shoot them. Hand-to-hand combat just felt too good. Ripping Lou’s arm out of its socket and then shooting him in the head, just felt like the right thing to do. But wisdom and vampire speed prevailed, as he unloaded his clip.

“Feed before you leave,” Odette said, materializing behind him. "Or else, it’s a waste.”

They sat hand in hand under the stars on a bench watching the surf. A thousand questions pummeled his mind but he was grateful he didn’t have to verbalize any of them for her to understand.

“It is a sexy, glorious emotion, revenge, but just like sex with a lover you don’t love, once you climax, it all feels so hollow.”

He nodded. Leave it to a woman to so eloquently define what was raging within him. "Now what?” he whispered. "There are so many more of them, so many I could go after, and will… but it all seems so pointless.”

She laid her head on his shoulder. "This is why I haven’t destabilized the coven. After I repaid Gustav for what he’d done to Alfonse, I sadly realized, it would never bring him back.” Her soft palm stroked his chest as she looked out to the moon. "Alfonse and I decimated the town back in Haiti before we left that fateful night of my

making. We settled all old debts, but in the end, none of that made us feel better beyond the moment of the blood-letting.”

“Sorta like a crack high… for the moment it’s an adrenaline rush like you cannot believe, and then…”

“And then you crash.”

He stared at her. "So how do you go on living now?”

“As time passes you’ll realize that the greatest thing you have is someone to share that passage of time with… for what felt like eons I focused on the ugliness so much that I could never see the beauty of life. Once I died I forgot how to do that.”

“I had forgotten that while I was still living,” he said in a sad murmur.

“I have seen the dawn of so much, though… cars, telephones, airplanes; I could go on and on. But also wars.”

He smiled, and then chuckled sadly. "So, what do we do, become philanthropists?”

She smiled and shrugged. "Why not. We can be whatever we want to be, can right wrongs, can help or hurt. What do you want to be?”

“I don’t want to hurt people,” he said quietly, his voice so sad that it drew her.

She stared into his eyes and nodded, touching his lips with one finger. "Enough lessons for one night. Enough vengeance for one era. Let us focus on beauty.”

He took her mouth in a slow dissolve of pleasure. He was her greatest find, something precious that she would vow to keep, and she knew that she was that for him. The irony of that truth not lost on either of them.