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No one shot Bill through the peephole. No one tried to batter the door down. No one screamed.
The continuing silence was breaking me out in goose bumps. I didn't even see Bill move. His cool voice came from right beside my ear. "It is a very young woman. Her hair is dyed white or blond, and it's very short and dark at the roots. She's ski
She wasn't the only one.
I tried like hell to think who my middle-of-the-night caller could be. Suddenly I thought I might know. "Fra
"Let me in," a girl's voice said. "Oh,please let me in."
It was just like a ghost story I'd read once. Every hair on my arms stood up.
"I have to tell you what's happened to Qui
"Open the door," I said to Bill in my normal voice. "We have to let her in."
"She's human," Bill said, as if to say, "How much trouble can she be?" He unlocked the front door.
I won't say Fra
"What's happened?" I asked sharply as Fra
"Youwould have a vampire here," she said. "Can I have a glass of water? Then I'll try to do what Qui
I hurried to the kitchen and got her a drink. I turned on the light in the kitchen, but even when I came back to the living room, we kept it dark.
"Where's your car?" Bill asked.
"It broke down about a mile back," she said. "But I couldn't wait with it. I called a tow truck and left the keys in the ignition. I hope to God they get it off the road and out of sight."
"Tell meright now what's happening," I said.
"Short or long version?"
"Short."
"Some vampires from Vegas are coming to take over Louisiana."
It was a showstopper.
Chapter 11
Bill's voice was very fierce. "Where, when, how many?"
"They've taken out some of the sheriffs already," Fra
Bill was on his cell phone before the words had finished leaving Fra
"How did this happen?" I asked the girl. "How did Qui
"Of course he sent me here," she said, as if I were the stupidest person she'd ever met. "He knows you're tied to that vampire Eric, so that makes you part of the target. The Vegas vamps sent someone to have a look at you, even."
Jonathan.
"I mean, they were evaluating Eric's assets, and you were considered part of that."
"Why was this Qui
"Our mother, our goddamned screwed-up, screw-upmother," Fra
"And Qui
I knew Qui
"Okay, well, my mom was pregnant with me after the rape," Fra
"I get that," I said, trying to keep my voice level. Bill seemed on the verge of thumping Fra
"Okay, so she was in a nice place that Qui
"Oh, no." But I had a feeling I hadn't heard the bottom line on this incident yet.
"Yeah, what's worse, right? The escape, or the killing?"
Probably the tourists had had an opinion on that.
I vaguely noticed that Amelia had entered the room, and I also realized that she didn't seem startled to see Bill. So she'd been awake when Bill had taken Pam's place. Amelia hadn't met Fra
"Anyway, there's a huge vampire cartel in Vegas, because the pickings are so rich," Fra
Of course. I exchanged a glance with Bill. The offer to "employ" Fra
"Then they said they knew of a really weak kingdom that was just about up for grabs, and they meant Louisiana. Qui
Bill flipped his phone open again and began punching in numbers. Whoever he called, he didn't get an answer. His dark eyes were blazing. He was absolutely revved up. He leaned over to pick up a sword he'd left propped against the couch. Yep, he'd come fully armed. I didn't keep items like that in my toolshed.
"They'll want to take us out quietly and quickly so the human news media won't catch on. They'll concoct a story to explain why familiar vampires have been replaced with strange ones," Bill said. "You, girl—what part does your brother have to play in this?"
"They made him tell them how many people you-all had and share what else he knew about the situation in Lousiana," Fra