Vampire Babylon - Night Rising Part 17

He squirmed under her, but she rapidly cleared the table of cut gla.s.s with her jacketed arm, saving a fragment. As alcohol dripped to the tile, she held the shard to his face, knowing how to really threaten an actor.

With his disfigurement-real or imagined.

The picture of Frank, happy and healthy on the pier, swam in front of her eyes.

Rage muddled her judgment, drove her heartbeat until it pounded in her ears. "What do you know about Frank Madison?"

The bartender didn't move.

Smart guy. He realized he couldn't overpower her without the risk of getting cut first.

"Take the gla.s.s away!"

"Tell me!"

"All right." He was panting, his face smashed against the table. "He was hanging around here near the time you said he disappeared. A big guy, asking a lot of questions about Robby, too. He...never came back."

"Bulls.h.i.+t!"

"I swear, I swear! That's all I know. Please, let go!"

With her other arm, she increased the pressure on his neck, then let up when his face reddened. "And what about Robby?"

"The kid hung out here. They say his dad used to party here, too, but Robby ran around like it was his playhouse while his father lurked in some corner. It was a long time ago, back before this was a Goth hang out, but the staff still talks about it. It's history though...Please, my face." Something wasn't ringing right here.

Dawn inched the gla.s.s over him, the edge dancing on his smooth cheek. Rage squeezed at her, choking her conscience.

A voice yelled from behind her. "Dawn, what're you doing?"

It was Kiko.

"Interviewing." She didn't take her eyes from her subject. "And just wait 'til you see me with Nathan Pennybaker."

"Get off of him," Breisi said.

"He's a servant," Dawn announced.

She felt the bartender go stiff beneath her.

"Aren't you?" she added, tone jagged. "You've got bite marks on your chest, and you're not careful about hiding them."

"I like to be sucked every once in a while," he said, words m.u.f.fled by the table. "Go back into the bar and you'll find a hundred other people just like me."

A fine tremble wavered in the pit of her stomach, where her memories of Frank had settled. The gla.s.s grew unsteady in her hand, so she pulled it away, but not by much. She told her a.s.sociates what the bartender had relayed so far.

"Dawn," Breisi said again, "we're going to have to teach you how to finesse an interview from now on."

"I don't know." Kiko walked to the other side of the table where Dawn could see him. "Her way seems to be working just fine."

He climbed onto the surface, put his hand on the servant's back. "Are you a servant to vampires?"

The man closed his eyes, as if darkness would make them all go away. He sniffed again, probably digusted-but not broken-by their garlic.

Kiko sat up. "Yes."

"Good," Dawn said. "Time for some turkey carving."

"Stop! I'll tell you anything! Just don't...oh, G.o.d." The bartender looked like he might weep.

Breisi came to Kiko's side of the table, arms crossed over her chest in displeasure.

Concentrating on the servant instead of Breisi, Dawn moved the shard ever so slightly. It did the trick.

"Okay-Robby's been around," the bartender moaned. "That's really all I know!"

The vibration of the ba.s.s from the club's music buzzed the room, jittering around the outline of her heart. Slowly, Dawn glanced up at her cohorts. Kiko's and Breisi's eyes had gone wide.

"Don't you meanFrank'sbeen around?" Dawn asked the servant, needing to hear it again.

"No, Robby. Robby Penny-"

The jangle of something like spurs interrupted.

Tossing aside her shard, Dawn flew up from the table, her hand going for her revolver instead. Kiko and Breisi did the same, crouched for action, their weapons aimed.

Adam Antette was standing in the doorway, her hands up. A crowd of Goths stood behind the woman.

"This isn't the bathroom, I take it," she said.

Hand to his face-probably to check for damage-the bartender scuttled away from Dawn. He crashed through the back entrance, a blast of outside air was.h.i.+ng into the room.

"Facilities are down the hall." Breisi's gun was still poised.

"No worries, babe, I'm just a drunken lout who stumbled into this on her way to a leak." The woman glanced at each of them in turn, as if committing their faces to mind.

Dawn felt ready to explode, loaded with frustration and the remnants of Frank's memory. Vamp paranoia reaching a peak, she reached her free hand into her jacket pocket. Then, with quicksilver speed, she whipped out the crucifix.

Everything flew into fast-forward motion.

All of the Goths reacted, jerking backward. A change licked over them, like pale flame rus.h.i.+ng up a curtain. Sharpened nails, metallic eyes, white fangs, and skin with such a moon-glow that Dawn choked in a breath.

Before her gaze could take in their strange beauty, they all raised their hands at once, because Breisi and Kiko had followed Dawn's lead, brandis.h.i.+ng their crucifixes, too.

But while the others hid their faces, the braided woman reacted by glaring at Dawn, her eyes folding into red slits of fire, just like the vampire from last night.

Mental fury scorched into Dawn, a flash of hopelessness, a reminder of failure. Her body weakened, crumbling to ash...

Lessons. What did you learn in your lesson- With a burst of wrath, she used her mind as a wave, flinging the hypnotic energy back at the vampire, making the woman clutch at her chest.

She hadn't expected Dawn's lightning-fast parry.

Like an atomic shudder, the vampires broke apart, leaving faint imprints of a black cloud that had dissipated. Dawn took off after them.

"Are you crazy?" Breisi yelled, grabbing Dawn. The older woman was digging her fingers into Dawn's healing burns.

Snarling in pain, she gathered all her strength and wrenched herself away, revolver and crucifix in front of her as she blazed into the hall.

The empty hall.

"s.h.i.+t!" Dawn kept aiming around, hoping to find them.

Needing to find them.

I had something, Frank. d.a.m.n it, I had something!

Breisi and Kiko marched into the hallway, the tech geek taking hold of Dawn's jacket and dragging her toward the club and the exit. "We're no good to the boss if we're dead." The look on Kiko's face almost echoed Breisi's sentiments, but Dawn couldn't be sure.

His expression was as fleeting as the silver in those vamps' eyes.

FOURTEEN.

THEHAUNTEDHOUSE.

ONCEthey were in the car, Breisi turned around in her driver's seat and let loose. "You're out of control, Dawn."

"We had them." Dawn held up her hands in impotent fury. "We should've given chase before they disappeared."

"No. We gather information for the boss. We don't exterminate, not unless we're attacked and we have to. Besides, that's how Frank got into trouble-not thinking and pursuing things at a whim, the fool."

Scolding was bringing out the mother in Breisi, or at least, close to what Dawn thought a mother might sound like. The fine wrinkles had deepened around the older woman's narrowed eyes, her tone final and nonnegotiable.

But Dawn didn't need a parent-never had. As soon as she was old enough, she'd a.s.sumed that role in a household where Frank needed someone else to take care of the bills, cook the meals, tuck him into bed after he pa.s.sed out.

Staring out the window, Kiko wasn't saying a word, so Dawn didn't know whether or not he was agreeing with Breisi. h.e.l.l, it'd be nice to have an ally here, seeing as Dawn had done some good and gotten them major information, right?

Robby's been around,the bartender/servant had said. But he'd uttered something else that had disturbed her much more....

A big guy, asking a lot of questions about Robby.

He...never came back.

Frank. Dawn closed her eyes, dug her nails into her jeans. Her dad had been at Bava earlier this week. She could almost still feel him in the air. So close. So G.o.dd.a.m.ned close.

Finally, Kiko said something. "Those silver-eyed vamps weren't as tough as the red-eyes. Think they know each other? They both like to hang around Robby's turf."

Dawn opened her gaze to find Breisi still glaring at her, jaw tight as she answered her a.s.sociate.

"It wouldn't be a leap to think they're somehow connected."

"And they all ran away." Kiko motioned to the window, outside. Somewhere, the vamps-and the servant with the answers- were on the loose. "Wimps."

"We should've gone after them," Dawn repeated, like saying it again would give her another chance at them.

Breisi held up a finger, the terse gesture demanding silence. Slowly, she allowed her hand to drop as she spoke.

"There are times when weakness covers desperation, and that's even more dangerous than strength or skill. We might be very lucky that those creatures ran away. Very lucky." She turned to Kiko. "Maybe the boss is right about giving Dawn more training, or maybe..."

"Maybe what?" Dawn sat forward, her hands on the front seats, frustration skimming her nerves.

Breisi hesitated. "If Frank knew you were involved with this business, he would've made you stop anyway." "I am not quitting." Dawn sat back in the seat, a.s.suming the determined, easy posture of a person who was going to stay around awhile, even if she knew she was in over her head. Even if she knew, deep down, that all her fake fighting skills might just be succeeding on borrowed time and that, one day soon, her showy talents might not stand up to a bigger crowd of vampires who stayed to face the rock music instead of running away.

The other woman wasn't letting up. "Now that it's come to this, I don't know how many times Frank told me howlocohe'd get if you found out what he was doing for a living."

"You know my dad well enough to speak for him, do you?"

It was like Dawn had cracked a whip over Breisi's head, missing by inches. The woman flinched, then remained still, her dark eyes suddenly explaining more than Dawn wanted to know.

There was a softness there, a tenderness. As Dawn recalled the strange flash of emotion on Breisi's face when they'd first talked about Frank's disappearance with The Voice last night, livid shock tore through her. Then she remembered more: Breisi angrily jerking the steering wheel after Dawn had mentioned that she'd often picked Frank's "drunk b.u.t.t" up from the Cat's Paw; the emotion in Breisi's voice as she vowed to Dawn that they would get Frank back, no matter what.

Breisi's eyes got watery, like she was holding back tears. Dawn slumped, numb, the strength sapped out of her.

Frank, she thought, who else have you hurt? What other damage did you do while I was gone?

In the face of Dawn's non-responsiveness, Breisi glanced at Kiko for aid. "I know we have to go along with this, but..."

Kiko touched her shoulder, and she bit her lip.

"Drive," he said. "Just drive for now."

She ran a hand through her bobbed hair, gave a clipped nod, wiped at her face, then started the SUV. It squealed onto the street, mingling with the traffic.

Dawn barely heard Kiko trying to melt the ice that had frozen the air. He was saying something about the waitress he'd talked to at Bava, how he hadn't gotten much information from her....

G.o.d, Frank.

Dawn's mind drifted, hiding in the memories that had been triggered by the bartender.

He...never came back.

So where was he, huh? Where was the widower who'd taken responsibility for a newborn baby as he mourned his young, dead wife? Where was the father who'd invited over friends he'd met during a couple of light stunt gigs for football Sunday-men who'd enchanted little Dawn with their laughter and exciting stories while making her dream of getting paid to have such fun someday, too? Where was he, d.a.m.n it?

Dawn's voice came out in a battered whisper. "Take the one-oh-one." The highway.