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I hadn’t meant to flirt, just to make Sansouci feel better That was an Our Lady of the Lake convent school girl-graduate problem We alanted to make everyone feel better … in an abstract, selfless, spiritual way Not a good ploy with vampires

Sansouci was about as spiritual as a machete

"You don’t want to talk ‘points’ with rin broad enough to showcase the strong white canine teeth he usually kept under lip and key "That why Shez calls you Deliverer?"

Mistake Another one

Trying to distract Sansouci to give Shez and Grizelle some one-on-one time, I’d upped the sexual and homicidal tension in the shop so you could cut it with a diauess Shez hadn’t been off a pillar for aloose tee and shorts, the tourist uniforas Strip showgirl with a Siegfried and Roy pedigree She was the oddess, much as I hated to admit it

"What’s off between you and Grizelle?" Sansouci whispered, standing way closer than necessary

"We tangled"

"Seriously?" He leered at her, not irl I’d have liked to see that"

"Rein it in, Roirl and walked aithout bone-deep tracks in your face?" He stepped back to eye rown a unicorn horn "Hey, Delilah I know you have the nerve act sharp with Christophe and Cicereau, but Grizelle? Tell me another fey tale"

"It was one of my more desperateover the Cadaver Kid, I bet"

I just nodded Sansouci didn’t need to know Ric had still been coo for the Latin lover type," he said, frowning at Shez When I just stared, disbelieving, he added "What? This Shez guy is Mediterranean, right?"

"Just barely" Egypt did border the southern seashore, but the ancient population came from the cradle of Africa, not Asia or Europe

"And what’s with the major eyeliner?" Sansouci asked "He looks like the Rudolph Valentino CinSim at the Karnak"

"It worked for Johnny Depp Re-creating his ancient beauty potions is like a religion with Shez He isn’t shy about et mixed up with him? What kind of super is he?" Sansouci asked

"Ah … his job for his big boss was about the same as what you and Grizelle do for yours"

"So he’s paranormal muscle of some kind"

"You could say that"

"And his hobby iswine and … perfumes?"

"That’s his physical therapy"

"For what?"

"PTS"

"Post-trauuy doesn’t look like an ar me, Delilah, not that I wouldn’t like to find you in a dark, deserted cul-de-sac"

"Don’t you have enough women in your blood-bank harem already, Sansouci?"

"Yeah, but I can always use a fresh item on the menu"

Sansouci was aladyloves to live without killing, at least just for blood

"See those cobra-headed gold taps Shez was er to distract hiet, me

"Yeah Not beer on tap, I hope," he said "That wouldn’t be sh prices on the beauty potions Just the bottles are worth a bundle Malachite, lapis lazuli, tiger’s-eye" His gaze had drifted to Grizelle, as interrogating Shez without hi it

"Sterile artificial blood," I whispered in Sansouci’s ear this ti creature’s circulatory system Interested?"

"Hell, no Would I drink near beer on a bet? Blood on tap? You’ve obviously never had vaer? Where’s the war heart, the heat? Where’s the fun, Street? Huh? You like it hard, don’t you? You don’t like life, or death, too easy"

His eyes were on the hair covering my neck His eyelids had almost closed as one outer upper lip lifted over his teeth in a classic Elvis-sneer, but his voice went so low and deep I felt the vibration intoward him like a cobra to a snake charmer

I jerked away "Where’s the profit, you should be asking"

He hissed out a sigh of frustration, and then finally gave the gilded faucets a serious survey

"Those look like real gold," he said

"Right"

"Okay I give Metrosexual Boy that Blood would look deliciously tasty flowing fros It would appeal to the kind of upwardly mobile vamp who sniffs cocaine" His eyes narrowed to malachite-hard slits "Your sponsor at the Inferno could e your amateur cocktails off his featured drink board"

Yeah Christophe, aka Cocaine of the Seven Deadly Sins rock band, aka Snow, kne to er and death And he’d stolen my Albino Vampire and Brimstone Kiss cocktails recipes for his bar after I’d invented them there on the spot

But there were other rich entrepreneur hoteliers in town, and only one of them was undead for sure And only I kneho he was for sure Did I want to share with Sansouci?

He claihes would never have been capable of, man or vampire We both were at odds with his boss, Cesar Cicereau I could use an ally on the dark side

Cozying up to SansouciCicereau, had been a major player in Ric’s rescue party So had Snow Which one did I prefer to confide in? Sansouci rong about me The answer I liked was easy Him

"Try the tap," I advised Sansouci "You’re a new breed of vamp This is a fresh type of blood from an inventive new source What can it hurt?"

He eyed my mouth while I spoke as if he wanted to eat it

Holy Hathor! Shez’s seductive ancient scents sure brought out new hormone levels in the old town

"If I lived on brewed blood out of a golden spigot," Sansouci said, "I wouldn’t need to sup on a nightly harem I could concentrate on one lady Would you like that, Delilah?"

"Would you?"

"You’re the ht like your type for a change of pace I confess I find fidelity really hot, but it’s not available"

Fidelity? From a vampire with a harem? I suppose the novelty would last … for a while We were back to talking sex and blood, again, and a deep nagging doubt tugged at my composure

"Look," I said "Try the ne Sorin was lethal "Yeah Some vamp has to be the first Why not with you?"

"I’m taken"

"Granted" Sansouci eyed the cobra-headed spigot "I’m taken too, indentured by Cicereau’s Blood Price I don’t expect that condition to last forever Co? Glass What’s this Shez to serve his make-believe blood in?"

"I have no idea" I turned to our host "Shez?"

"At your command, Deliverer" His ili over his bare red-bronzed shoulder

"We have a first custoe," I said "Can you pour a … draft?"

"With pleasure" Shez swept a gold-band-wristed arm over Sansouci’s broad shoulders and old cup fro the cobra neck to a broken right angle with relish

A thin ruby streaoes to the police lab, right?" Sansouci asked

Grizelle snorted

Sansouci took the cup from Shezmou’s dark hands into his own pale ones For the first tinized Sansouci as Black Irish, like me Just how old was he? In pre-vampire years?

He lifted the rim to his lips, threw back his head with the abandon of a howling wolf, and downed the liquid in one gulp like a shot of booze

Three previously held breaths suddenly whooshed through the s-style "Brewer Another round Most satisfying," he declared, eyeing me, "but not quite up to what one finds at the Inferno Bar"

This was a reference to ed closer to tower overfeline whisper, "you betray my master, Christophe Now you hoodwink Cicereau’s security chief, who is apparently a blood addict When will you abandon your beloved Ric? You fought me for his redeht for his death"

When it came to Mean Girls, Grizelle was top of the heap, clan

"You’re just annoyed at not being the center of attention," I answered "Shez is now the prize impressive supernatural on display on the Strip"

"When does he join the Chippendales show at the Rio?"

"Never Trading on his nity He’s an artist of the old school, a wizard with herbs and spices and wine grapes and sometimes … souls"

"Soiled souls, like yours?" Grizelle asked, her contralto voice sinking to an even more sinister whispered hiss

"I knohat you owehis very skin for your lover’s pleasure," she told rowl "Montoya’s scars were old and no longer pained him physically My master suffered the fresh and brutal physical burden of years’ worth of whipping in one session I only realized you had to be the source when it was far too late Christophe is more than Cocaine or Snow He’ll call in your debt one day, believe it I can’t wait to help that happen"

Lordy! I’d been besieged by two sets of seething green eyes that wantedWay too irl

Someone loomed behind me "If you talk of souls," Shez told Grizelle, "I don’t wish to hear it This is only etting the lingo fast

"You don’t wish to see ht job," he told both his corporate suitors "It is too rough for the likes of you"

Sansouci’s dark eyebrows peaked like Mephistopheles’ with curiosity, while Grizelle hty Delilah," Shez went on, to otiate with her I weary of deciding tooswift action This talk of business and percentages and of ‘cloning the shops’ is annoying My workplace is not … isn’t the place for discussing such boring things You ain, or irl, Faartz, if you wish to purchase"

Shez withdrew through the tinkling glass bead curtains

"How rude," Grizelle growled

I senius"

"‘Mighty Delilah,’" Grizelle spat

"You had to have been there"

"Where?" Sansouci asked ioing to be unavailable for a week or so I suggest you two meet with your principals and each draw up a business plan I can review onback to deal directly with Shez He looks like a big, easygoing lug, and does indeed have a softer side, but he has quite a demonic temper and I can’t be responsible for your safety unless I’m present"

"You … responsible for our safety?" Shadows of Grizelle’s white whiskers were co on her dusky face as her hue to shift barely under her control Her long red fingernails fanned in and out "I could eat you alive, and alround again, and donned his deep black sunglasses "Looks like the hty Delilah could use an escort to see her safely out"

I jerked my arm out of Sansouci’s firm custody No way did I want it to look like I needed male intervention in front of Grizelle

She re the young clerk with a thoughtful, hungry look

Sansouci ledover a deserted doorway

"What did you do to frost Grizelle’s whiskers?" he asked, ad into the lion’s den, but she is no cat to mess with"

"We had a discussion It ended in a draw"

"I don’t believe that"

"That’s all I’ave yourself away to Grizelle as a vampire, not the presumed olf everyone takes you for"

"I wouldn’tmyself away to her, were she a client of ossip, Delilah Besides, she respects vamps more than wolf boys"

"You need her respect?"

"It’ll help negotiations when you return, remember? Come on, Delilah I’m your pal I was in Montoya’s rescue party I went into that damn fey maze under the Gehenna with you You will award otiations’ It’s not prearranged, even for frenemies like you"

"I’ve been pro Love-hate relationships can be da"

"Cool it I don’t want phone-line chat I only ca about Ric’s time with the Karnak vampires"

"Beyond nasty"

"I know that"

"He has the stones of a statue, I’ll say that, to resist giving them the information they wanted despite the leeches and the va every vamp in the place on him"

"I know that I don’t need a play-by-play I’et what they wanted They’ve been quiet since then"

"Montoya did not give them a word, I’d never believe that," Sansouci said

"Your faith is touching," I said,crooked even as I produced it I took a deep breath "What if they weren’t just torturing hi every last drop of blood?"

"Yeah, they did that He was dead, Delilah, until you put those ruby-glossed lips of yours on his Your CPR chest-thurew grave "Now that I think about it, a kiss than can revive a corpse ht off a vampire Maybe you and I don’t have a future, after all"

"Of course we don’t! What I’ot exactly what they wanted"

His forehead wrinkled under the rakish forelock of silver-streaked black hair, but his eyes remained an unread mystery behind the shades

Then he nodded ever so slightly and slowly

"Ric dowses for the dead He can raise theet Ordinary people can do that for water, or even ge and inglorious past Finding is one thing, but raising the dead as zo rod and Ric’s special talent do the finding It takes a few drops of his blood on the dowsing rod to actually raise the bodies"

Sansouci did what I wanted from him He speculated like a predator "And if one had pints and pints of that dead-raising blood?"

"Oh,Ric’s blood They had their own inbred stock for that then They were taking it For use later to raise any dead they wanted resurrected"

"You’re just feeling , but useless I have no idea why they’d want that power, but their having it can’t be good for the rest of us"

"And Ric"

"Always Ric with you" He swept off the sunglasses in the shade, those e in reen with envy," he said wryly, "but I can’t deny he’s a good man in a bad world If he’s still ‘just’ a e of a soul-shifter as well Once he’d been mortal and human, and he remembered that time Noas immortal and unhuman He kneay more about merciless adaptation and accommodation than a fierce shape-shifter like Grizelle had ever had to learn

That’s why he scared etting out of town this afternoon, even if it eymen in the face