The performance started, and I allowed myself to be swept away in the music and the dancing. But I stayed aware of the fact that I held a portion of Mietzner’s attention.
When the intermission came, Blair introduced me, and Mietzner introduced his companion. She was a norm, and from her dress and jewelry, it didn’t require a wild guess to figure that she didn’t ever worry about paying her rent.
“I’m very pleased to meet you,” Mietzner said to me, holding my eyes with his own. “Jordan has been holding out on all of us.”
“I’m new in Westport,” I said, giving him a thousand-watt smile. “Jordan was kind enough to invite me tonight.” I reached out behind me, taking Blair’s hand and squeezing it—the kind of gesture meant to reassure him. But all my attention was on Mietzner, and all his attention was on me. His companion didn’t look especially pleased.
“Well, welcome to Westport,” Mietzner said. “I hope you find our city to your liking, and I hope that I’ll see you again.”
“I do like it here,” I said, “and I’m looking forward to meeting new people and seeing more of the city.” I held his eyes with mine, doing everything I could to project an invitation.
During the second part of the ballet, Mietzner leaned close to me and muttered, “I would enjoy learning more about you.”
“If I had your phone number, that might be possible,” I murmured back. When the performance ended, Mietzner shook my hand as we were saying goodbye, and left a small piece of paper with a phone number in my palm. His touch was almost electric. The man was definitely plugged into the ley line.
I put my arm through Blair’s while we walked back to his car. He seemed happy, and when he walked me to the door of my apartment building, I leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek.
“I had a wonderful time tonight. Thank you so much for inviting me.”
“Perhaps we can do it again,” he said.
“I would like that.” I used my key and entered my building, climbed the stairs, and reached my apartment. My wards were still in place, but sitting in the hall in front of my door was a head. A vampire’s head. She was blonde and macabrely grinning at me.
I whirled, casting a personal shield, but I was alone in the hallway. Not sure what to do, I cautiously made my way back downstairs, expecting to encounter the Hunter at any moment. To say I was freaked out would be a massive understatement.
I couldn’t see anyone in the parking lot, so I took off my heels and set them by the door. Opening it, I sprinted across the short distance to the office where Eleanor’s apartment was. I could see a light on in one of her windows. There was an emergency button next to the office door. I pushed on it and let it buzz, not caring if that was rude.
“What is it?” the box next to the buzzer asked.
“It’s Erin! It’s an emergency. Let me in!”
The door buzzed, I pulled it open, jumped inside, and pulled the door shut behind me.
“What is the matter?” Eleanor’s voice said from behind me.
I whirled around and said, “There’s a vampire’s head sitting in the hallway in front of my door.”
She didn’t waste any time, rushing behind the counter and picking up the phone. I could tell from her end of the conversation that she didn’t call the police, and that was confirmed about ten minutes later when Sam’s SUV pulled into the parking lot.
He came to the door, and Eleanor buzzed him in.
“Are you all right?” he asked, looking back and forth between Eleanor and me. We both nodded, and he gave me his full attention.
“You sure clean up damned good,” he said. “Now, what happened?”
“There’s a head in front of my door. A vampire’s head.” Even to my own ears I sounded a little shrill. I gulped some air and tried to calm down. I knew meditation exercises to calm myself, but practicing that sort of thing and actually doing it when confronted with someone’s bloody head were two different things.
“I tell people not to do that,” Eleanor said.
“Do what?” My voice rose almost to a shriek.
“Buzz people in if they don’t know them. People, salesmen mostly, will press all the buttons hoping someone will let them in without checking to see if it’s someone they know.”
More vehicles pulled into the parking lot. I recognized some of the people getting out of them as regulars at the bar. Others I had never seen.
“Well, let’s go see,” Sam said.
We waited for Eleanor to get some shoes on, then went outside. Sam held a brief conversation with the people outside, and a number of them fanned out, some going around my building and others checking out the area around the other buildings.
I led a small group to my apartment. Sam was huffing a bit by the time we reached the third floor.
He walked up to the head and lifted it by the hair, revealing a black stain on the carpet.
“Not much blood,” Sam said. “Looks like she was killed somewhere else and bled out before he brought her here.” He sounded so matter-of-fact. Maybe that was good, because I was freaking out and his manner calmed me down a little bit.
“Are your wards still intact?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“Open up,” he said. “I want to make sure there aren’t any surprises.”
I stepped around the black stain and opened the door. Sam started to follow me in, and I said, “You’re not bringing that thing in here.”
He looked at the head in his hand as though he’d forgotten he was carrying it, then carefully set it down on the black spot.
Sam and Eleanor followed me into the apartment and watched as I checked the place out. I even looked under the bed.
“No, as far as I can tell, no one has been in here.”
“What are you going to do with that?” Eleanor asked Sam, indicating the head.
“Give it to Blair. Where do you want me to tell him I found it?” he asked me.
“Not here.”
He nodded. “I’ll tell him I found it at Rosie’s. Close enough to the truth.”
I got a trash bag and he deposited the head in it.
Sam looked pointedly at the stain, and Eleanor said, “Don’t worry about that. I’ll take care of it in the morning.”
I reset my wards, and we trooped back downstairs where I retrieved my shoes.
The people who had deployed around the apartment complex trickled back and reported they hadn’t found anything or anyone suspicious. Soon, everyone got back in their vehicles and drove off. I went back upstairs to my apartment, stepping gingerly around the black stain.
I poured myself a double shot of whiskey, then undressed, put my clothes away, washed my face, and went to bed. It took a long time to fall asleep, and the dreams weren’t good. In one, a Hunter with the vampire’s head chased me around my apartment.
Chapter 23
I had told Lizzy and Jolene that I was going out with Blair, and they showed up at my place about ten o’clock in the morning.
When I opened the door, I looked at the floor. Eleanor obviously got up earlier than I did, and whatever spell she used on the carpet did the trick, because there wasn’t a trace of vampire blood.
“Let’s go to brunch,” Lizzy said, “and you can tell us all about your hot date.”
They took me to a restaurant overlooking the ocean, bright and open, with all-you-can-drink mimosas and a fantastic buffet. How they managed to land a table next to a window, I didn’t know, but the view was great. It was a rare bright and sunny day, with sailboats out on the water and gulls flying overhead. The sun sparkled on the whitecaps and the windows of the houses on the islands dotting the bay.
“So, spill,” Jolene said. “How was the ballet?”
“And how was Lieutenant Dreamy?” Lizzy asked. “Did you kiss him?”
My face flamed, and they both laughed.
“Are you going out again?” Jolene asked.
“Maybe. He has season tickets to the opera.”
“Ooo,” Jolene said. “A mutual interest in opera. Must be serious.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. I mean, I don’t know what love is supposed to feel like, but I don’t get all hot and bothered when I’m with him. Aren’t you supposed to do that when you’re in love?”
I told them about dinner and the ballet. They sobered when I described meeting Mietzner. Then I told them about the head, and their shock was obvious.
“Oh my God,” Jolene breathed. “Well, obviously you can’t meet with Mietzner. That’s far too dangerous. I mean, if he’s the guy who called in the Hunter, then he’s the one who’s trying to kill you.”
“I wouldn’t go alone,” I said. “I’ll arrange some kind of backup.”
That got me a couple of very skeptical looks. To change the subject, I pulled out the sketch Blair had given me. “This is the guy who hired the thugs who attacked Frankie. Is there any way you can use this?”
They both leaned forward, studying the sketch.
“Police artist?” Jolene asked.
“Yeah.”
Lizzy’s eyes seemed to cloud, and her face lost all expression. She sat like that, staring at the picture, for about five minutes. During that time, Jolene sat back and sipped at her mimosa, casually looking out over the view outside.
Eventually, Lizzy leaned back in her chair, her eyes cleared, and she reached for her glass.
“Anything?” Jolene asked.
“Maybe,” Lizzy said. “Possibly. I think I can feed you something to fuel a finding spell. Whether we come up with anything…” She shrugged.
Jill, the late-night bartender, came in an hour early that night. She ate dinner at the bar and we chatted. She was interested in hearing more about the vampire riot in the alley, and she laughed when I told her I had waded in using Sam’s magical bat.
“Yeah, I’ve only had to haul that thing out twice in all the time I’ve worked here,” she said. “I had a troll come in one night, and after he drank a couple of bottles of whiskey, he decided to bust up the place. I kneecapped him with than bat, and he went down like a chopped tree.”