Hard Bitten - Chloe Neill [73]
And now I was starting to sound like Jonah. Maybe his talk about the RG was getting to me, after all.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
THE BUCKET LIST
As dawn neared, the rest of the vampires began emerging from the bar, stumbling a little amid the strobelike lights of the police cruisers and the snap of camera flashes. They were covered in bruises that were already green, the result of the speedy vampire healing process. I bet the community wounds would take longer to heal, unfortunately.
My grandfather and Catcher talked to the cops, probably sharing notes and theories. Jeff eventually carried the laptop into the bar, probably to find out what he could about the security tapes.
When the police removed their tape and the cruisers began to depart, I headed to the spot where Lindsey and the unaffected vamps were waiting.
She stood up as I approached. “Do you know anything?”
“Not yet. Crime scenes apparently involve a lot of waiting and standing around. You?”
Lindsey glanced back at the vamps, who looked shell-shocked by the combined drama of cops, detectives, rainbow alcohol, and paparazzi. “Nothing yet. I heard from one of the EMTs that your grandfather brought in a counselor to talk to the humans.”
“It was a bar fight,” I grumbled. The humans were certainly entitled to their feelings, but none of them had actually been injured—they hadn’t even really been involved.
“But it was a bar fight with crazy, scary vampires,” she exaggeratedly said, wiggling her fingers like a menacing monster.
I humphed, but recognized it wasn’t an argument I was going to win, not when the humans were surrounded by reporters and cameras. I glanced back at the bar. “Maybe we should head back inside. Clean up a little. Do you want to round up the troops?”
“God, yes, please. Luc wanted us to stay put until the cops gave us the all clear, so I’ve been here and bored. I’m going to consider your request the all clear.”
That rationalization worked for me. “Give me a minute head start. I want to take a look around.” She nodded, so I headed back inside.
The floor of the bar was in shambles, not unlike Cadogan after the shifter attack, albeit with more casual decor. The Cubs memorabilia, thankfully, made it through the onslaught, although the tables and chairs were mostly upended. I scanned the room for anything that might give me a clue as to why our vamps were losing it, but assumed anything that would have helped had long since been picked up by the cops. And there was no short man with rave invites to be found.
If Celina was involved and she was somehow leading the vampire mass hysteria, she’d managed to get us kicked out of our own bar. It was just the kind of thing she’d have enjoyed. As I stood there alone, I imagined Celina popping up from behind the bar, awash in balloons, arms raised in victory.
“Ah, the power of fantasy,” I murmured, and began picking up overturned bar tables. Lindsey came through the door, her flock of vampires behind her.
“All right, boys and girls,” she said. “Let’s get this place back into fighting shape. So to speak.”
The vampires grumbled but obeyed, righting chairs and tables. Colin groaned as he walked back through the door as he surveyed his place. He glanced over at me. “You gonna figure this out?”
“I’m working on it,” I assured him. “And speaking of, I need one more favor. I don’t suppose you can whistle?”
He put two fingers in his mouth and let out a high-pitched trill. It took only a moment before I had the attention of all the vampires in the bar.
“Discretion is the better part of valor,” I said, “so I’m going into the back office. If anybody’s got information, this would be a good time to come talk to me.”
Like an irritated elementary school teacher, I stared them down until I began to see a few sheepish expressions crossing their faces. This