He fought her. She could see how much it was costing him to not answer her. But when he did, she wasn’t even sure what the big deal was. Horatio Mower Graham didn’t sound like anyone of all that much importance to her. But apparently he was to the otherworld.
There were at least a dozen others there with them now. People she trusted, friends of the other world. She still had trouble calling them ghosts when they were so real to her now. As they circled around Kari, Billy came to stand with her as well. The man, a vampire he told her, just stared at her. Hatred was almost palpable as it came off him. Billy put up his hands as if to ward him off before speaking.
“What are you doing here, Horatio? This is not a house you belong in.” The vampire grinned, but she could still see the strain it put on him to be there. “You will be gone from here now.”
“I’ve a reason to be where you are. I have a message for you to give to my little girl. The bitch killed me like I was nothing to her.” Billy told Addie that he was Vinnie’s father. “You got that right, and that’s not the half of it. The kid has no respect for me, none at all. I’ve been trying to get to her for months now, and she won’t have a thing to do with me. Now I’m pissed off. More of an ungrateful brat than I’ve ever seen, let me tell you. But you’re going to take her a message for me; you being a necro, you will do that for me. You tell her I’ve decided to give her what she gave to me. A child should be more honor bound to their father than to stake them out for the sun. Tell her to let me come to her house and I’ll forgive her for doing this to me.”
“I’m sure if Vinnie killed you, then she had a good reason.” At least Addie hoped so. He roared at her that his daughter’s name was Victoria and not that sham of a name her mother called her. “Cool your jets there, buddy, and give me the message. If I think about it when I see her, then I’ll tell her. Otherwise, you have until the count of ten to get your fucking ass out of here.”
“You’ve no right to speak to me like I’m nothing. I was a powerful vampire when I was alive. I am a great man in my own right now too.” Addie snorted. “You will respect me, human, or I will find you and kill you. If you know anything about me, you’ll know that I can do this too.”
“Yeah, good luck with that threat. In the event you missed something, you’re kind of dead. And all your rights have been burned up, right along with your body. So you are now down to the count of five. Four. Three—”
“Tell her I want what’s mine and she had better pay up. As her father, what I want is mine and she’ll learn that or else.” One of the other ghosts got too close, and he reached out and grabbed it by the throat and shook it until it disappeared. “You will do well to remember that I was great as a vampire, and am greater still as this being.”
“So you said before. And she’ll know what the hell you’re talking about, right?” He grinned, and she could see that his fangs, or what was left of them, were rotted and broken. She wondered if it had happened in the fire that had killed him or if something bigger had gotten the jump on him. She shivered when she thought of whatever might have been bigger. “Be gone from this family and their heirs. Never to return.”
With a shove of her hands he disappeared, but not before she heard his laughter. Addie grabbed onto the wall behind her just as Billy walked to the rest of the group of dead. Addie slid down the wall and sat there on the floor with her eyes closed. When Kari said her name, she looked at her.
“What was that?” Addie told her who he was and what he wanted. “So this is the infamous Graham that Steele was telling me about. Apparently this guy is big with the clients he’s been working with. And not so much in a good way. He’s terrorizing a group of them and bullying them into doing things they don’t want to do. I guess he killed some people a while back that got him in trouble with their council.”
“Yeah, apparently Vinnie staked him. With the permission of the council, I guess. I wonder if they know what he’s up to now.” Kari sat down next to her and told her she wasn’t sure. “Do you know if this is why we were here?”