The tone came again. I swung open the door. Located their positions by scent. Leo was immobile to my right, Bruiser to my left. I said, “How you doin’, Leo, Bruiser? You planning on jumping me when I walk in, or is this a social call?”
I heard a click and the phone didn’t ring again. There was a sigh in the dark, from Leo, breathing for effect. “Come in, Jane Yellowrock.”
It wasn’t exactly a command, but Beast and I weren’t in the mood to let a vamp take a dominant position in any kinda way. “You asking or telling?”
After a moment, Leo said, “Please.”
I figured that was the best I was gonna get, so I took a breath, pushed the pain down somewhere deep inside, and gripped the head in the towel. It would make a squishy but effective weapon if needed. I stepped inside and turned on the light. Leo was sitting in a yellow floral chair in the living room to the right, elegant legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles, fingers steepled over his chest. No weapon. A suit and tie. Silk shirt. Bruiser was standing in my bedroom doorway, equally weaponless, unless I counted his body as a weapon, which I did.
“You been going through my undies?” I asked. Bruiser’s mouth twitched. “ ’Cause all I got with me are the travel undies. The leather, silk, and lace stuff is all in the mountains.”
“You got leather undies?” Bruiser asked, intrigued. The guy wasn’t here to kill me just yet. He was too relaxed. He crossed his arms over his chest. Nice arms, well-defined pecs and biceps, and the forearms of a man on a very lean diet. Slender, muscular.
I smiled, showing teeth. “Nope.” I held up the bloody towel and indicated it with a minuscule movement of my injured hand. Which hurt like a mother. Bruiser’s arms came free fast. “No weapon,” I assured him. To Leo I said, “I think this is what you want.”
I knew he could smell what I carried. Leo nodded, the gesture imperious; Bruiser relaxed. I lobbed the wrapped head at Leo. The towel fell free in midair. Leo caught the head, watery blood showering over him. The towel landed in a bloody heap on the hardwood. Leo was holding the vamp’s head upside down. Showing great restraint, he raised an eyebrow. I grinned.
“You took the head with you. Why?” he asked, conversational, civilized, a bit . . . droll. Yeah. Droll. The guy was having fun. You coulda blown me away with a feather.
Seeing as how he was sitting in my house, and surely could smell my blood from where he sat, the decision to make off with the head and wash it up to remove traces of my blood on it turned out to be wasted. And not one I wanted to defend. Part of the reason I applied for the New Orleans’ job was a vague hope that an old vamp might know what I was, but being sucked on wasn’t part of my plan. I shrugged, the defense of a recalcitrant teen.
Leo held the head to the side. It was dripping. “George. Would you be so kind.”
George paused. Maybe it was the first time his boss asked him to take a severed head. “There’s dishes in the kitchen, Bruiser,” I said. “I’m sure Katie wouldn’t mind, long as you bring it back all squeaky clean.” Bruiser and his boss shared a look that probably had all sorts of meanings, and the henchman went to do his master’s bidding. Maybe I should call Bruiser “Igor”. I didn’t say it, but I couldn’t help the grin. My sense of humor is going to be my death.
“You are bleeding,” Leo said. His pupils went vamp black. My grin disappeared. Leo Pellissier was probably as good at sniffing out stuff as Beast. He pulled the air into his lungs through his predator nose, little sniffs, like he was at a wine tasting. Which he was, to a vamp. I had an image of glasses of fresh blood and a bunch of vamps sitting around sampling. Or maybe just passing around humans, comparing vintages. Warped. I’m warped. The whites of his eyes bled crimson. And I am so in trouble.
“You went after a young vampire all alone,” he said, his voice silky. “You cost me the use of a good man as he heals and the temporary use of another as he goes after the maker of the male, bent upon revenge. I am not pleased.”
“You let a young, uncontrolled vamp into your place of business,” I said. Leo’s brows went up a half notch, as if surprised I knew he owned the place. I hadn’t till now. But it had been his scent there, and I figured if he had been there enough times to leave his vampy fragrance on the furniture, then he probably owned the joint. Some of the red in his eyes bled away, but I wasn’t about to relax. Bruiser was taking a bit too long in the kitchen and he wasn’t making enough noise to still be searching for a container.