Always the Vampire

“Wait, we’re just leaving this guy here? Don’t you want to question him later?”


Saber sighed. “Honey, I doubt he knows his own name half the time, and he’ll just be passed out here or somewhere else tomorrow night.”

“I-it’s just so sad.”

“Then I’ll phone the cops. What to do with him will be their call.”





When Saber opened the sacks to place the liquor bottles on Cosmil’s island counter, the stale, sour smell overwhelmed the herbal scent of the cabin. Lynn coughed from her cross-legged perch on the sofa, and I fought a gag.

Lia paled as she gazed at the bottle of ouzo. “Merde, I should have remembered.”

“So the ouzo means something to you?” Saber demanded.

She sat hard on the bar stool Cosmil had conjured earlier and gulped. “Starrack had a great weakness for ouzo. He loved all things Greek.”

Lia looked past me, past all of us in the room. Her expression a little wistful, a lot rueful, she shook her head.

“It was a very long time ago. In my youth, I spent a great deal of time with Starrack.”

I took a quick peek into her mind and my jaw dropped. “You mean you dated the psycho?”

“Far worse, I’m afraid. I married him.”

You could’ve heard dragonfly wings beat in the profound silence.

“You were married,” I said slowly, “to public enemy number one?”

“Handfasted, actually, but it amounts to the same thing.”

“When was this? And why the hell are you just telling us?”

Cosmil moved protectively closer. “Lia’s past with Starrack has nothing to do with the present, Francesca. I resent your implication that it does.”

“Past and present are colliding, Cosmil, and I resent being kept in the dark. You told me you wouldn’t withhold information.”

“Please, both of you stop. It was not Cosmil’s story to share, Cesca, and I have not shirked my duties to you, to any of you, because of my past association. But I’ll give you the short version now.”

She paused and glanced up at Cosmil. He gave her a subtle nod.

“I first met Cosmil and Starrack many years ago. We even trained together with the same master on and off. Starrack and I became involved. For twenty years, we lived all over Europe, but I finally had enough of his philandering and his self-centered ways. I left him, and I’ve not seen or heard from him since the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789 when I fled my country.”

“You chose the wrong brother, didn’t you?” I said softly.

“I did. I hope to correct that error now.”

Cosmil smiled and pheromones flared. Gads, love certainly wafted in the shanty-house air. Triton and Lynn. Cosmil and Lia. No wonder Pandora hadn’t been hanging around inside as much as I’d expected. But that didn’t absolve Lia of withholding information.

“Lia, if you knew Starrack that well, you must know something more about him beyond his being a Grecophile and ouzo drinker.”

“Think back,” Saber said. “Did he have any habits we could use to track him? Fascinations or compulsions? Did he ever use an alias?”

“No aliases that I knew of. He was compulsive about his ouzo, although he wouldn’t pay for a bottle if he didn’t have to.”

“You mean he’d steal the liquor?” Triton asked, he and Lynn joining us at the island.

“By bespelling shopkeepers, yes. Stealing ouzo and anything else he wanted was a game to him.”

“That’s good information,” Saber said. “I’ll contact the liquor stores in area. Show them the sketch and see if they’re missing stock.”

“Even if they have Starrack on security cameras, that won’t tell us where he’s staying.” I turned to Lia. “What about the COA’s records? Don’t you keep a database of supernaturals and where they live? Please, we need to find him before he kills again.”

Lia shook her head. “That’s what doesn’t fit. The murders. Starrack was a con man. He delighted in playing people, not in killing them.”

“He must’ve diversified since then,” Triton said darkly, “and not in a good way.”

“I’ll make a call to the Council records department,” Lia promised, “but you must understand that it is early morning in France. On a Saturday at that. And research will take time.”

“Time we don’t have,” Triton muttered.

Lynn cleared her throat. “Isn’t the St. Augustine Greek Festival being held soon? If this Starrack guy is a Grecophile, maybe he’d show up there, and you could catch him.”

Fear punched my stomach so hard and fast, I almost doubled over. “Oh, no. No, no, no. We can’t confront Starrack at the festival.”

“Why not?” Triton snapped. “It’s a perfectly reasonable suggestion.”

“But Maggie and Neil are taking the wedding party to the festival after the wedding rehearsal next Friday. If Starrack is there, they’ll all be in danger.”

“Then get her to change her plans.”