Part 7 (1/2)
Dawn's laugh was cutting. ”A decent vampire?”
”They exist, and that's why I tried to talk with these guys before defending.” ”Holy mother, Kiko, how did you get involved with this stuff?”
He shrugged. ”The boss found both me and Breisi about a year ago, tested us with those mind powers he tried on you today, except our tests were more PG, if you know what I mean.”
Even though she was still in the getting-over-the-monster-attack stage, Dawn whipped up a dirty look at his nosiness.
Kiko offered a cheeky grin. ”When the boss first hired us for 'odd jobs,' as he called it, it was a good paycheck between auditions. We trained, got educated in supernatural lore, trained some more. Little by little, the boss made the paranormal commonplace, even though Breisi had experienced a lot of it when she was younger. I did, too, but my talents weren't nearly as good before the boss showed up. Then there came a night when he thought we were ready enough to hit the streets, to start searching out 'the unexplainable,' as he calls it. Usually, we just report what we find to him. Well, that and a few tangles with a cranky vamp or a sour ghost. Boss is looking for something real specific....”
He shut up, obviously unwilling to go on.
Dawn's temper flared, surprise, surprise. ”Come, on, Kiko, what's he-”
”L.A. is a cesspool of paranormal activity.” He was Serious Kiko now. ”We've been kept busy, but not like tonight.
Jeez,thesevamps...We've never seen 'em before.”
Soft footsteps picked up speed behind them. With one glimpse over her shoulder, Dawn saw Breisi, her head down as she followed them back to the car.
”But if they're hanging out here, it looks like we're getting close to something,” Kiko said.
”Why didn't you prepare me for the vamps?”
As they returned to the car, Kiko looked mortally wounded. ”I didn't feel them coming. My talents don't seem to work on vamps the way they do on everything else. Besides, I was expecting more of a ghost, and I think the boss wasn't sure, himself. Believe me, Dawn, the last thing we want to do is get you hurt.”
A tiny twinge needled her chest, but she shrugged it off-especially when Kiko glanced away from her, abruptly playing with his torn clothes, distractedly trying to put himself together. As for Breisi, she was performing the same number, concentrating oh-so- intensely on stowing the first-aid kit.
Vamps. Ghosts. Things that went b.u.mp in the night.
She nodded toward Breisi. ”What about her?”
”Whatabouther?”
Dawn wanted to know why the other woman wasn't as aching and bruised as she was, wanted to know why a pet.i.te lab rat had trumped Dawn's own tough a.s.s during the brawl.
”How can she deal with all this?” she asked.
Kiko seemed to actually weigh the act of revealing more about the private Breisi against his own raging need to verbalize anything and everything.
Luckily, he couldn't fight his nature.
He lowered his voice. ”Breisi grew up in a bad part of San Diego. I guess her dad was in jail half the time, and her mom was one of those suffer-in-silence types. Breisi told me once that three things got her though those years: the determination to get a college scholars.h.i.+p, the conversations she had with the ghost of herabuelita, and a good right hook.” ”She sees dead people?” Dawn whispered.
”Not anymore. When she got out of that house on a free ride to USC, the visitations stopped. She could have just been using them as a coping mechanism when she needed it the most.” He puffed up a little, the compet.i.tive guy. ”That's what I think, anyway.”
”And The Voice found her...how?”
”He saw her onBandito. She got that job when a producer spotted her waitressing, and she used some of her salary to save up for engineering grad school. The producers used to wors.h.i.+p her. I mean, why not-she's gorgeous and can work the h.e.l.l out of a crying scene. But she never loved acting, just the paycheck. Grad school costs an arm and a leg, even with financial help, and she was sending money to her ingrate mom, too. But”-here, Kiko motioned Dawn closer, and she bent next to him, ear near his mouth-”she eventually got fired and our boss was there to take up whereBanditoleft off. He needed someone who was tech- savvy and she needed...someone. When it comes right down to it, we're more of a real family to Breisi than her other one ever was-”
Kiko cleared his throat when Breisi brushed by them on her way to the mansion's door. Once there, she knocked and sent her coworkers a piercing glance that made Kiko zip his lips.
The house's front porch light blared on, and an old woman, her shoulders hunched, her skin listless, opened the door. Her mouth went agape at seeing the PI team in such disheveled attire.
”Mrs. Pennybaker,” Breisi the good cop said. She was holding a dark duffel bag now, and Dawn could only guess at what the h.e.l.l was in it.
”That was a long trip up the driveway,” the old woman said.
”We had some matters to attend to before we knocked.”
Mrs. Pennybaker broke into an anxious fret. ”Are you here with more news about Robby?”
”Not yet, ma'am,” Breisi said gently. ”I'm sorry.”
That one faint glint of Marla Pennybaker's hope exploded in the crumbling of her posture; it reminded Dawn of how those vampires had disappeared into themselves, peris.h.i.+ng.
When she looked closer, she saw that this wasn't a senior citizen at all. Mrs. Pennybaker couldn't have been older than her mid- fifties, but she'd been so beaten down by life, by the tragedy of her son, that most of her had already died.
A ghost, Dawn thought. Then she pictured her dad-vital and full of smiles-in all his old pictures with Eva. She remembered the reality of how much he'd changed after her mom had died one month after giving birth to Dawn.
Ghost.
She glanced at Marla Pennybaker again, pitying her. Knowing her.
Because, like this woman, both Dawn and Frank had also lost something along the way.
Making them restless, empty spirits, too.
SIX.
BELOW, PHASEONEWORKINGthe whip with skilled ease, Sorin sent one more lash to the bared back of the pale, ma.s.sive Guard as it cowered against the stone wall.
”S...sorry,” the beaten vampire said. ”I'm sorry, Master.”
Sorin relaxed the whip in mercy as the Guard slumped to the ground of its cell-its home. It had been reduced to groans at its punishment for failing so spectacularly on its mission tonight. The iron of its fangs decorated a grimace; the barb of its sharp tail beat against the stone in pathetic time.
Even though it was Sorin's job to discipline the Guards, among other residents of the Underground, he couldn't bring himself to strike at the poor creature again. It already understood what had gone wrong: the drone, plus his two newly created comrades who had gone Above tonight, had been careless while tracking their quarry. Once they had been detected, they had panicked, attacking when they should have retreated.
That was the problem with the Guards-expendable, lower-rank vampires. They had limited intelligence, the better to follow orders with. Starting immediately, Sorin would have to improve their skills in judging a situation, as well as in how to fight more effectively Above,ifrequired.
”You have learned not to attack any humans who will be missed?” Sorin asked, walking to the corner of the cell where he had set down a bowl of sustenance for the Guard.
At the sight of dinner, the creature's tongue lolled out of its mouth in sad antic.i.p.ation of the cold, secondhand blood. ”Yes, Master, yes. Food?”
Sorin tilted the bowl, watching the discarded blood from the feeding he, himself, had enjoyed not ten minutes ago as it lapped against the porcelain. Disgusting, this cold, leftover meal, but it was what kept the Guards alive and happy.