Always the Vampire

I swallowed back my concern and my urge to fix Saber a can of chicken soup. Instead, I hollered the high points of discovering Triton through the shower door as I washed the salt water from my hair and body. Saber stopped my tale to ask if I’d smelled anything distinctive, and I relayed that I hadn’t and Triton didn’t remember a smell.

“I hope those jerks weren’t carrying the Void infection,” I added as I stepped out of the shower, and Saber handed me an oversized white bath towel. “I know we don’t have a handle on how the illness spreads, but if it got into his blood stream through those cuts, that would be beyond bad.”

“If Triton was severely injured, how’d you get him down those stairs?”

“I didn’t. Two other vampires did, and why didn’t you tell me they were being relocated here when I first mentioned them to you?”

He straightened, his shoulders tense. “What two vampires?”

“Oh, hell. You don’t know.”

“Cesca, tell me.”

“The old couple Gorman thought could fly? Turns out they can. Clarence and Imelda Clarke are vampires. And they’re planning to open a B&B. Want to take a guess who they’ll be catering to?”

“Damn it.”

He wheeled, heading for the living room. And my laptop, unless I missed my guess. I threw on undies and my long pink flamingo sleep shirt and followed, mopping at my hair with the towel as I went. Sure enough, Saber sat at my desk, the computer booting up.

“I’m sorry I dumped the Clarke info on you, Saber.”

“It’s okay, but you know I wouldn’t keep that from you. The Jacksonville VPA office should notify me of every new vampire moving into Florida, especially when we’re on alert.”

I frowned. “Alert, why? Because so many vampires in the state are ill?”

“Exactly. My last printout listed 157 vampires. None were newcomers. Did the Clarkes say where they relocated from? Did they sound southern, northern?”

“A little British, a little southern, and very upper-crust.”

He logged into the VPA website then into the restricted pages, fingers zipping over the keyboard. He typed in “Clarke” as I peered over his shoulder. Clarence and Imelda’s photos and vitals filled the screen in living color. They hailed from Charleston, and the first lines recorded that the senior center where they’d lived had reported them missing fifteen years earlier. The rest of the data read pretty much as they’d told me. Except for the side note that both had worn dentures before their Turning. Afterward, they’d grown fangs. Now they wore specially designed dentures with spaces for the fangs to extend.

I learn some new, wacky thing every day.

“Jo-Jo would love that denture bit,” I said, grinning.

“He still uses that joke in his act?”

I shrugged, and Saber shook his head as he clicked to the next page.

“All right, the Clarkes passed their physicals and are GPS implanted.”

“Whoa. I never had a physical.”

“It’s a new policy.” He shut down the computer as I perched on the coffee table. “With the nests closed, vampires are free to stay in the same city or move almost anywhere within the U.S., so long as the area isn’t already loaded with vamps. But we’re checking for symptoms of infection with questionnaires, physicals, and psychiatric profiles. By the way, your dancing buddies, David and Ken, passed their physicals, too. Candy confirmed it.”

“Good to know. So these physicals will work like an early warning system to scout potential infectees?”

“And Rampants. Whether these precautionary measures will work, or work well, is yet to be seen.”

Rampants were rogue vampires, those Saber was licensed to kill. A run-of-the-fang rogue is dangerous. An infected vampire is insanely dangerous.

“Will the Clarkes be allowed to open the B&B?”

“If they screen their clientele, I don’t think we can stop them.” He arched a brow. “The Clarkes do know that St. Augustine isn’t exactly the nightlife capital of Florida, right?”

“They should, but that’s their problem. Saber, why didn’t I sense that the Clarkes were vampires during the tour?”

“Honey, you saw what you expected to see. Typical tourists.”

“What about tonight? Shouldn’t I have picked up a vampy vibe?”

“You might’ve if you hadn’t been preoccupied with Triton. You’d already pegged them as elderly tourists, and they obviously don’t project otherness.”

“So you don’t automatically know a supernatural when you see one? Would you have known I was a vampire if you’d first met me on the street?”

“Oh, yeah, I would’ve known.” He waggled his brows. “You were too gorgeous to be anything but a vampire or a supermodel.”

Cobalt blue eyes twinkled with that special look.

I smiled and shook my head. “And here I thought you were tired.”

“Maybe I’m getting a second wind.” He stood and held out his hand. “Besides, I believe I owe you a dance.”

That’s all it took for my body to go liquid with heat. I put my hand in his, and it was a very long time later before I thought about anything but Deke’s hands and mouth and murmured endearments. I simply reveled in his maddeningly slow lovemaking, and returned every kiss and caress until we found that long, intense release.