Knees, don’t fail me now, I thought to myself. If he was starting up the car, that meant he might be bending forward. I needed to wait until he was reclined all the way back in case my reflexes weren’t fast enough.
The engine purred, and Frank Sinatra crooned about having some woman under his skin.
“You never can win,” Salvator sang out of key.
I rose up and circled the dagger around his neck. He made a strangled sound, and the singing died in his throat when I pricked his nape with the smaller push dagger.
“Peekaboo.” I exerted pressure on both blades. “I have a little question for you,” I said. “Go ahead and swallow those onion rings first before you choke.”
I heard a loud gulp as he swallowed what was in his mouth.
“You’ve got some nerve getting in my car after calling the cops on me,” he snarled.
“Did you make any new friends in jail?” I asked, some of his greasy black hair threatening to get in my mouth. “One move and I’ll cut your neck two ways. I want to ask you something, and it’s in your best interest to answer correctly. Don’t bother going on about witnesses; we’re in a tinted car and I don’t really care. Do you understand?”
“Yeah,” he bit out.
“Good. I need to know what happened to a certain Vampire.”
I watched in the rearview mirror as he furrowed his brow. “What Vampire?”
Either Salvator was the best liar, or Darius had kept him in the dark.
“The one Darius got rid of. Think carefully before you answer.”
I pressed the tip of the stunner into the back of his neck just enough to dull some of his senses and give him a taste of paralysis.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he grunted.
“Then maybe you’re not that important in the chain of command.”
His eyes flashed up in the rearview mirror. “Fuck you. He tells me everything.”
Salvator carried out human murders, so it didn’t make sense that Darius would have kept him in the dark and had one of his bumbling guards carry out the task. Either Salvator was lying, or Darius was lying.
“Tell me the truth. You have ten seconds to decide your fate. Ten… nine… eight…”
“Fuck, I’m telling you I don’t know anything about a Vampire! You’re just wasting your time.”
“Seven… six…”
“Why don’t you call Darius and ask him yourself? One of the other guards might know something.”
“Five… four… three…”
“You’re just going to have to cut me.”
“Two… one. Time’s up.”
I pressed the push dagger halfway in, and he cried out, “Wait! I know.”
I pulled out. “Excuse me? I didn’t quite catch that.”
A rivulet of blood trickled down the back of his neck, and he winced when the long blade dug into his flesh. “Darius wants me to find some guy who called him out of the blue and said he caught a Vampire driving around in one of our cars with the guard’s body in the trunk. Said he’d take care of it if Darius held a favor in his pocket for him to collect on.” Salvator tried to calm his panicked breaths. “The Vampire was buried in a cemetery, but that’s all I know.”
“Which one?”
“I don’t know!” he shrieked. “What do you care about a corpse? I didn’t have anything to do with it. Darius doesn’t like being in anyone’s debt, but he had no choice. I’ve told you everything I know.”
Poor Salvator. I almost felt sorry for how easily he caved, but not sorry enough when I thought about all the humans he’d murdered for money.
“You did real well, Salvator. Take a deep breath and relax. That’s good. Lights out.”
I drove the push dagger deep, and he slumped over to the passenger side, crushing his burger sack. The stunner had penetrated his spine, but he’d survive. It took a lot more than that to kill a Mage. At least for now he was under my control, so that bought me some time. Since the front windshield didn’t have as much tinting as the other windows, I used a sunshade to give us privacy.
A phone peeked out of his back pocket, so I palmed it and stepped out of the car. As I sat on the trunk, a group of teenagers across the street caught my attention. Their boisterous laughs made me wistful, remembering what it was like to be that age when I had all the answers. Monsters didn’t exist; life would get better; and someday I would die, so I needed to make every moment count. A cold chill ran down my spine when I realized that some of that humanity was slipping away from me. Was it inevitable with immortality, or was I allowing it to happen?
“Do I know you?” Wyatt said on the line.
“It’s Raven.”
He snorted. “That’s a world record. I didn’t think I’d hear from you for at least a hundred years. I thought maybe we’d bump into each other at a rodeo and reminisce over old times when you almost got me fired. Whose phone is this?”
“A man who works for Darius.”
“Hmm. Should I ask where this man is?”
My tone became somber. “I just called to let you know that I have information on where Christian’s remains are.”
“Son of a ghost.”
Chapter 17
Two Nights Earlier