Part 29 (2/2)
They wove their way through the packed, humid s.p.a.ce, heading toward the back. On the way, Dawn inspected the crowd, finding the normal dispa.s.sionate glances from the Goth clientele, the usual underage suspects snorting white lines from mirrors in the corners, the bartenders and waitresses working their a.s.ses off to serve.
And speaking of serving...Dawn glanced at the bar.
No Brandon Lee/Crow look-alike. Maybe when the human servant had run away the other night, he'd never come back.
Too bad. She scanned some more. Tall guys, short guys, all kinds with black hair like Robby's who mingled, pierced and sullen.
The sight left her p.r.i.c.kly, dreading what she might discover here.
In the relative quiet of the back area, a line for the women's bathroom stretched out the door. Typical. But all the employees seemed to be working the weekend-crowded floor, so Dawn and Kiko took advantage of the freedom and started down the opposite side of the hall. They were checking storage rooms, going past the one where she'd encountered the servant the other night-the one that housed the liquor.
”This is it,” Kiko said when they came to the next room. It was just as big as the other one, but it looked like they stored food in the refrigerators, paper products like napkins on the shelves. ”I recognize it from the vision.”
From his zippered cargo pants, he took out a pair of latex gloves, gave them to Dawn, but didn't cover his own hands. He probably needed them uncovered for readings.
”What're we looking for?” she asked.
He began searching the shelves. ”You look for blood spatters. It'd give us a better hint as to how Frank was abducted-by physical means or mental. d.a.m.n, I wish Bava had security cameras. That would make this ten times easier.”
While she went to work on the shelves, she remembered being attacked by the Goth vamp the other night. ”Do you think one of those silver-eyes mind screwed Frank? I imaginethatcould feel like a two-by-four.”
She didn't hear him working anymore.
”Ah, Dawn?” he whispered. ”What? You see something?”
She flared around to find Kiko staring at the door. His face was leeched of color, his mouth in an O.
Slowly, Dawn turned her head, her pulse quickening, beating until it took over the tattoo of faint music from the bar. Her blood lurched.
Robby Pennybaker stood there, his skin flushed with life, his ears glinting with piercings, his eyes like pools of fascinating colors Dawn couldn't even identify.
”Are you looking for my dad?” he asked.
TWENTY-THREE.
THECHILDWITHOUT.
ROBBY?” Kiko asked.
”No-brainer,” Dawn whispered. Her closed throat made her sound like the tense, quick drag of a record needle when it's yanked off the vinyl.
At first glance, the boy looked absolutely human, but there was one big difference-his indescribably colored eyes. They were as magnetic as envy. They made her want to get closer to him, touch him, cry just because he was standing there and he wastheRobby Pennybaker from the covers of magazines and the heaven of movies. Was Kiko unable to look away, too?
”You've been over at my house,” the boy said, tilting his head in curiosity. ”You've talked to my dad. You know him?”
Not a child, Dawn kept telling herself.
This boy, who was dressed to go outside and play in a striped soccer T-s.h.i.+rt and jeans, would be a thirty-five-year-old man by now. She wasn't talking to a kid here, even if he still looked twelve.
Robby repeated himself. ”So are you looking for my dad?”
”No.” Dawn's fear gathered itself in anger. ”I'm looking for mine.”
Seeming to consider this, Robby entered the room. He moved in such a way that you weren't aware he was walking at all, you just knew he was coming closer, and you were the luckiest soul in the world to be in his presence.
Though Dawn resisted, her skin fluttered, awakened by his force, his steady gaze.
Vampire. Mind screw. Shut him out!
Behind Robby, the door moaned closed, leaving only a strip of the hallway visible. He sniffed the air, c.o.c.ked his head at Dawn, Kiko, then wrinkled his nose.
A garlic reaction? Was it working?
He took a step forward.
No.Notworking.
”Your dad's gone, too,” the boy said, his gaze caressing her, making her feel wanted, loved. ”Was it because he ran away? My father did.” Frantically, Dawn summoned a stronger block, forcing inner energy outward. Robby stopped in his tracks, as if held back.
There!
Maybe he wouldn't be so hard to face after all...not like those red-eyed vamps.
Kiko had casually put his hands in his pockets. ”So you've been following us, Robby?”
”No.” In spite of his stature, the boy/man seemed larger than life. ”When I saw you the first time, it was the night Dad came home and you paid my parents a visit. I'd been waiting near the maze the past couple of nights, looking for my dad, watching my mom.
But then the Guards came.” Robby stiffened. ”They just happened to get to you before they got to me.”
”Guards.” Dawn clenched her teeth to keep them from chattering. She was s.h.i.+vering in her gut, her limbs.
”Those vampires with the iron fangs and the red eyes,” Robby added.
Guards...so theywereconnected to Robby. How?
”I was running from them,” he continued. ”But they always found me at night, and I had to run faster, then hide in a place they couldn't get into. You haven't seen any around, have you? They're trying to take me back, but I don't want to go. Ineverwant to go back.”
”Go where?” Kiko asked calmly.
Robby c.o.c.ked his head to the other side, suspicious all of a sudden. ”Are you with them? Are you Servants?”
”Nope,” Kiko said. ”No bites on this body. Me and Dawn here aren't a.s.sociated with vampires, Robby. We're investigators, and your mom hired us to look for you. She'll be real happy to see you again.”
”Mom.” It was like Robby was tasting the word, the concept, then discovering he had no emotional link with it.
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