Blood Noir - Laurell K. Hamilton [116]
The phone rang. I jumped. God, who could it be?
Jason said, “It might be the hospital about my dad.” He looked at Richard, as if for permission.
Richard nodded. It made me feel a little bit hopeful. He was still Richard, somewhere in there.
Jason picked up the phone and said hello, then, “Just a minute, I’ll see if she’s available.” He held the phone against his chest. “It’s Peterson. He says he’ll answer your questions now. Do you know what he means?”
“Yeah.” I went for the phone.
“Who’s Peterson?” Richard asked.
“The head security guy for the Summerlands,” I said.
“And you’re going to take his call, now?”
“I need to know how much danger we’re all in. This call may tell us that.”
“And that’s more important than this?” Richard asked. His otherworldly energy grew a little hotter.
I kept walking for the phone; farther away from his power was better right now. I remembered another reason he and I had broken up. He never could understand that emotion, no matter how strong, shouldn’t make you forget the bad guys. “Just because the metaphysics has hit the fan, Richard, doesn’t make the other problems go away.”
“How can you do that, Anita?”
“Do what?” I was at Jason’s side now. All I had to do was reach out and take the phone, but I was afraid of what Richard would do.
“Concentrate on business, on bad guys, when you may be pregnant with someone else’s child?”
“And why can’t you concentrate on business in the middle of the crisis, Richard?”
His handsome face went angry, sullen. “Because I’m not a coldhearted bitch.”
That was it. I held out my hand to Jason. He gave me the phone, but his eyes stayed wary and focused on someone behind me. I was betting on who. As for me, I didn’t want to see Richard right now.
“Blake here.”
“This could lose me my job,” Peterson said.
“Then why tell me?”
“Because Schuyler seems like a better person than Keith. I don’t want him dying for that little bastard.”
“Talk to me, Peterson.”
“Keith is hiding, even from us and his family. Last we heard he eloped to Vegas and married a vampire.”
“Shit,” I said.
“Yeah, but it’s not legal. He can still marry his fiancée, and his family is determined he go through with it, if we can find him.”
“So far, it’s a scandal but it won’t endanger Jason.”
“Ask me why it’s not legal.”
“Okay, why isn’t it legal?”
“The vampire bride is already married. She’s married to a Master of the City.”
I was quiet for a second, then said, “Seriously?”
“Deadly serious,” he said.
“No master would take that kind of insult.”
Jason looked at me, eyes a little wide; maybe it was my “master” comment, but truthfully he probably was picking up at least some of the other end of the conversation. He was standing that close, and his preternatural hearing was that good.
“The Master of the City in question has put a bounty out on Keith. He wants his wife alive and Keith dead. He’s sent people to do the job; we just don’t know who they are. Until you and Schuyler surfaced they were looking elsewhere for Keith, but if they think he’s trying to hide in plain sight…” He let it trail off.
“They’ll come for us,” I said.
“Maybe.”
“Is Keith this stupid?”
“Yes, but she pressured him. It’s not an excuse, but she seemed to know him. Not him, but she seemed to know his great-great-whatever-grandfather, Jedediah. Something about him being the love of her life.”
“Didn’t Jedediah die by vampire attack, something about him either trying to convert the vampires to his faith or seducing the wrong vampire lady?”
“Those are the two versions,” Peterson said.
“Are you saying that Keith has gotten himself mixed up with the same vampires that killed Jedediah Summerland?”
“Maybe.”
“Well, shit.”
“Shit about covers it,” he said.
“What Master of the City is it, Peterson?”
“No, I won’t tell you that.”
“I might be able to take care of both our problems.”
“No, we can’t let this go public, Blake. It will sink the governor’s chances of the nomination. We have to find Keith, and get the