Always the Vampire

The bald statement psychically launched me into Ken’s head to see the details in his memory.

The room felt dank, and I put it underground. Uncovered oil-burning sconces broke the darkness here and there, but they cast insignificant light in such a large room. A hulking-huge vampire taller than Tower shielded Vlad, and Starrack stood twenty feet away. He threw off the vampires holding either arm, his eyes cold, calculating. Then the wizard pointed, mumbled words I didn’t catch, and a gray beam rimmed in red shot from his right index finger. He flicked his wrist at the bodyguard, and the thinnest of red lines appeared at the male’s neck. Starrack flipped his hand sideways, and the male’s head toppled to his shoulder then to the stone floor. Blood droplets hit Vlad’s face.

I gagged as the vision closed.

“You invaded my thoughts,” Ken accused.

“I did, and I’m sorry I didn’t ask your permission. It was purely spontaneous.”

“Was that,” Saber asked, “the only time you saw Starrack?”

Ken eyed me warily.

“I promise I won’t pop into your head again.”

“It was my sole time to see the wizard, but he returned. This information came from Hank, the vampire who guarded Vlad that night. The rest of us were sent away.”

“Fair enough,” Saber said. “What did Hank report?”

“Vlad and Starrack argued, and the wizard took a black globelike thing from his overcoat pocket. A few minutes later, Vlad struggled to stand. He gasped for breath, and his skin color darkened.”

“Hold it. A black globe, not a big blob?” I looked at Saber. “Could the globe have been the Void in a contained form?”

“Hell, anything is possible. Continue, Ken.”

He did so, though his expression remained puzzled. “Hank said that when Vlad broke down and agreed to do whatever the wizard wanted, including loan out certain resources, Starrack put the globe away and Vlad immediately began to recover.”

“I was one of those resources,” David added. “Starrack contacted me a few days later about the website. He raised hell that it took a month to complete, but he didn’t zap me.”

“Count your blessings he didn’t.”

“Princess, what is the Void?” Ken asked.

Saber gave me a go-ahead nod and I sighed.

“This will sound extra weird, but it’s a thought form Starrack created. It’s an entity in its own right, I suppose, but it’s also the disease that’s infecting vampires. The difference is that you’ve seen it as a globe and we haven’t. We see it as an oily black ground fog.”

Ken frowned. “We thought Starrack made Vlad sick with a spell.”

“A spell could be part of the package, but it’s likely he sicced the Void on Vlad. Did Starrack tap other vampires from the nest to do things for him?”

“He took Hank and Gail away with him one night in April,” David supplied, “but we don’t know what he wanted from them. A week after they left, two bodies were dumped at the nest entrance for the human day guards to find.”

“Hank and Gail.”

“Vlad identified them from their clothing,” Ken said. “The bodies themselves were too blackened and shriveled to recognize.”

I caught Saber’s grim gaze before he spun to pace as he recapped. “So Starrack used David’s skills but killed three other of Vlad’s vampires. Why spare you?”

David spread his hands. “No idea. Once the wizard stopped e-mailing complaints and updates about the website in late May, I feared I would be next on his hit list.”

“Maybe,” I said, “Starrack was holding David in reserve for another website project.”

“Makes as much sense as anything this guy has done.” Saber eyed the vampires. “Did you two know about the extortion payments Vlad was making to an offshore account?”

We’d tumbled onto the extortion scheme a few weeks ago when Jo-Jo tipped us that the Daytona Beach nest was making payoffs to Vlad. Later we’d learned the large nest masters were paying an unknown entity, the money going into a secret account that had since been closed.

“We heard about the extortion in August, after the VPA took Vlad away and confiscated the books,” Ken answered. “Vlad’s accountant, Charlie, filled us in about the protection money scheme, but he said the payments had been going on for years.”

“Years?” I echoed. “They didn’t start with Starrack’s visit?”

“No, Princess Cesca,” David said. “Charlie told us the amount increased after Starrack had been in the nest, but he didn’t know who was receiving the money. When Vlad was taken, Charlie closed the old account and reopened another one to protect what was left in the nest coffers.”

“Damn smart. Was this a vampire accountant or human?” Saber asked.

“A vampire, but Charlie worked with a human to move the account. The VPA allowed him to split those remaining assets among those of us still living there. We got a nice portion.”

I peered at Saber. “You knew Candy authorized the distribution of nest funds?”