She shook her head. “I was planning on stopping by the library this evening, so I might not be home before you leave. If not, then tomorrow morning be prepared to tell me everything!”

  “Will do! Have a good day,” I said. I slung my bag over my shoulder and headed out.

  As I slid into my car, it occurred to me that my brother and father would surely notice the difference in energy. But maybe embracing my demonic heritage might actually help. I might be able to convince them easier. I felt more sure in myself, and that could only help lay the groundwork for my deception even further.

  On the way to work, I passed by a new building site. I stopped at the light next to it—it had just turned red—and took a moment to glance over at the massive sign. It was fated to be Skylark Towers, a Vampire Collective Community.

  Well, that was new. There were a few vampire safe places to live above ground in Seattle, but this looked like a full scale community. Of course, it wouldn’t have the windows required for egress that houses did, so nobody alive could live there, but apparently zoning laws for vamps were different.

  I made a note to mention the complex to Lazenti, in case he might be interested, then let up on the brake as the light turned green. Traffic was unusually light this morning, and I reached the office a good ten minutes earlier than usual. I parked and headed into the building, dashing up the stairs.

  “Good morning,” I said, stopping beside Sophia’s desk.

  She stared at me as though I’d grown another head. “You’re cheerful this morning.”

  “Not really, but for once I got enough sleep and didn’t have any nightmares.” I took the mail she handed me and thumbed through it. Nothing important, so I dropped it in my backpack to deal with later. “Meeting at eight-fifteen, promptly,” I said, then headed toward my office.

  Once we were gathered around the table, I started off as we usually did, by asking everybody how they were. I found that a little bit of interest helped jog people out of their heads and got them to participate.

  Orik yawned. “The twins—the babies—are loud. I swear, they have the healthiest lungs I’ve ever heard. The other four weren’t this loud when they were babies.”

  “Well, you know…every kid’s different,” Sophia said.

  “Yeah, but…” The massive Viking sighed. “I got four hours of sleep last night, between their screaming, and Hilda’s swearing when she stubbed her toe on the dresser. We exchange nights, in terms of getting up with them, and last night was her night.”

  “You love it, and you know it. We’ve watched you through three sets of twins now, and you always seem the happiest when Hilda’s brought more baby lumps into the world,” Carson said. He grinned. “How are Hilda and the kids doing?”

  Orik shrugged, but grinned. “She’s doing fine. How that woman manages to have what energy she does after giving birth is a mystery. The children are all fine. Altogether, life is good. Knock wood,” he added, reaching out to rap his knuckles on the table.

  “Good, good,” I said. “Sophia?”

  She snorted. “Good as I can be. Everything’s fine. The dogs are doing well, even that shih tzu that I adopted from…what was his name?”

  “Terrance?” I asked. I still felt guilty about that, but Coco had a great home, and Sophia treated her like royalty.

  “Before you ask, I’m fine, though Maya’s got a cold,” Carson said. His sister had moved up to Seattle and was living with their grandfather. “But I haven’t been around her since before she caught it, so everything should be good to go.” He paused, then said, “By the way, I dug up some more info on the Tetrachordian Temple that you might be interested in hearing.”

  “Right,” I said. “First, Dante, you good to go today?”

  “I’m good to go,” he said.

  “Me too. Tonight’s my dinner with my father and brother, though, and I’m not looking forward to that. But everything should be fine.” I didn’t feel like telling them what had happened to me with Hecate—it didn’t make much difference, anyway, although I’d probably tell Dante later. “Okay, I have a theory about Mark Ryle, but Carson, let’s hear what you found first.”

  Carson brought up his notes on his laptop. “The Tetrachordian Temple has been around for awhile. They’re a very small cult with little known about them. Their leader—Erik Sangale—supposedly channels a spirit guide, Erithkalia. She’s known as the “Mother” of the group.”

  “Who founded the temple?” I asked.

  “That’s also interesting. Erik Sangale founded it. Over one hundred years ago.”

  I blinked. “But…he can’t be human, then.”

  “Right, either that or he’s got one hell of a health routine. What’s also odd is that cults like this usually fizzle out or rise, they seldom just stay small like the temple has. But apparently all members abide by the Mother’s teachings.” Carson shook his head. “They have some freaking weird beliefs, but I guess no stranger than a number of organizations.”

  “Like what?” Dante asked.

  “I’ve only been able to find a few. Apparently they believe that there will be an event similar to the apocalypse or Ragnarok in the ‘near’ future. It’s always the near future, regardless of what cult you’re examining. Anyway, the members of the temple will rise to power once the old order is thrown down. Same old stuff as most other cults. And initiation to be a full member costs twenty-five thousand dollars.”

  I thought. “Twenty-five thousand. Mark took twenty-five thousand out of their bank.” Which swayed me more toward the temple being responsible, instead of a vampire.

  “Have any other people who belonged to the temple been reported as missing?”

  “It’s hard to say. Apparently the most devout disciples quit their jobs and devote their lives to the temple and the Speaker.” Carson shook his head. “Usually, it’s easy to find people who’ve split off from groups like this. Often, we can get them to talk about the secrets of the cult. But here…no. I can’t seem to find any ex-members. That seems suspect in itself.”

  “Curiouser and curiouser, as Alice said.” Sophia tapped her pen on the table. “Does the temple have a presence on the Dark Web?”

  Carson cleared his throat. “Well, there’s another oddity. The temple doesn’t seem to have an official website. Most of the mentions of it that I’ve found are people looking for loved ones who joined the temple and vanished. In almost every case, they stole money before they disappeared. Then there was the site that Kyann and I found, in a language that can’t be translated.”

  I stared at the series of links he’d accumulated. There weren’t many, but that most of the mentions were from family members searching for their loved ones was one big fat red flag.

  “Well, something’s going on for sure,” I said. “Anything else?”

  When Carson said no, I took a deep breath and said, “There’s another possibility that Penn and I came up with. She did some psychometry on his watch and the flier. We think that there’s a possibility that Mark’s been turned into a vampire.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “What makes you think that?” Dante asked.

  I told them what Penn got off the watch and flier. “Penn and I talked, and latched onto the idea that maybe, just maybe, he was fooling around as a bloodwhore.”

  “That would account for his lack of interest in their love life,” Carson said. “Bloodwhores are addicted to vampiric energy, and the kink of being someone’s play toy.”

  “True that. But it takes a special type of personality to become a bloodwhore,” Dante said. “I wonder how we could find out.”

  “I thought we might ask Lazenti for some advice. Sophia, can you give him a call and see if he’s available to talk?” I asked.

  She nodded. “Will do.” She moved away from the table while we continued to discuss matters.

  “What do you think about our idea?” I asked the others.

  Dante frowned. “You know, you could be right. But the money that he took does align with the initiation fee, and the reports of members vanishing and taking money with them. We need to keep the temple on our radar, regardless of whether it factors into Mark’s disappearance.”

  “I’m tempted to go in undercover and see what’s there,” Orik said.

  “Dude, you’d stand out like a sore thumb. I’m sorry, but you just don’t look like a peace, love, and light kind of guy. Nor do you look like you lack self-confidence.” I laughed. “Dante or I would be better suited. Or Carson.”

  Carson looked up. “You talking about me?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “Because remember? You hired me as your IT guy. Yes, I’m a researcher, but I seldom go out on cases, and there’s a reason.” He shrugged. “I wouldn’t know what to do.”

  “You would, but you just don’t want to.” I shrugged. “No worries, though I would like to get you involved more in the investigative side of things. Anyway—” I paused as Sophia returned to the table.

  “I’m setting up the Meet-Me room now. Lazenti’s fine with meeting.” She unlocked her tablet and brought up the Meet-Me room, and a moment later, she propped it up so we could see Lazenti.

  “Hey,” I said. “Thanks for being available on the spur of the moment.”

  “No problem,” he said. The room behind him was so non-descript that he could have been anywhere, and I understood why Saturn—the unofficial mayor of Underground Seattle—had swept him away to a safe-haven.

  “So, we’d like some advice, if you have it. Would someone, if they had fantasies of becoming a vampire, start out by setting themselves up as a bloodwhore? And if so, do you think they’d keep the information quiet from their family?” I asked. “I know this is making generalizations, but we could use your opinion.”

  Lazenti raised his eyebrows. “What on earth are you up to now?”

  “New case. Woman’s husband went missing.”

  “There are a lot of reasons a woman’s husband could have vanished, including a mistress. He might be a criminal, he could have accidentally drown or been murdered, any number of things that don’t include deciding to join the vampires,” Lazenti said.

  “Right, but…” I told him about Penn’s psychometry, and the nature of the disappearance. “We’re looking into the Tetrachordian Temple, and there’s a dearth of information on it. Given Penn’s psychometry, we’re thinking it might be something as simple as a vampire-wannabe finding someone to turn him.”

  “Well, true. Vampires have to come from somewhere, and barring ending up on the wrong end of a rogue vamp, well…you generally have to petition someone to become your sire. For most vampires, that means presenting a damned good case and creating legal contracts proving that you gave them permission. You have to be of age. The most common reason is the presence of a terminal condition,” he said.

  I thought for a moment. “What would compel you to turn someone? What would they have to say to you?”

  Lazenti hesitated for a moment. “Honestly? I’ve only turned one other person since I became a vampire. I seldom talk about it, but…” He drifted off, looking like he wanted to do anything except answer.

  “If it’s too personal, don’t—” I started to say, but he shook his head.

  “It is personal, but I believe more vampires are like me, rather than raring to increase the population. So I’ll tell you. The woman was my ex-girlfriend. Well, she’d been my girlfriend until I was turned. I just vanished, and she had no clue what happened. One day, about two months later, I snuck around to check on her. I must have tuned in that she needed help, or the gods were merciful, but when I peeked in the window of her house, I saw her lying on the floor, blood all around.” He sounded so pained that I regretted asking him.

  “What happened?” Carson asked.

  “I had been in the house many times while still alive, and she’d never barred me from it, so I was able to break in. She was on the cusp of death. She was still conscious—barely—and she seemed so relieved to see me. She said that she thought I was dead, and she didn’t want to live without me. It was too late to get her help, but I offered her the chance to live as a vampire. She took it. I’m pretty sure she thought we could go on as we had.” He gave a little shrug, wincing.

  “But you couldn’t?” Dante asked.

  Lazenti paused, then said, “It might have been possible, but being turned changed her more than it had me. When she was conscious and had fully transformed, the love had drained out of her. She was more feral than me, and when I asked her to marry me—we could be together forever at that point—she refused. She laughed at me, and then, she left. I’ve never seen her since that night and I never went looking for her. She’s my one regret, twice over. I regret losing her when I was turned, and I regret turning her when I found her again.”

  “Do you think she went rogue?” I asked.

  “I honestly don’t know but I think it’s probable. She had a wild streak in her and I think it took over when I turned her. I’ve never sired anyone else.” Lazenti looked haunted in a way that I’d never seen him look. The glamour faded for a moment, and I saw the regret and pain behind the allure.

  “I’m sorry,” I murmured.

  “I’m all right,” he said. “But I think a number of other vamps have similar stories to mine. Siring vamps they now regret. A few, however, run businesses based on minting new vamps, even though it’s illegal to make it into a business. No money is supposed to change hands. But they’re usually wealthy and stealthy enough to avoid being found out.”

  “Sire for hire,” Sophia said.

  “Money,” Lazenti said. “Money makes the world go round you know. And there’s a lot of money to be made with the wannabes. So many are young, emo kids who only see the mysterious glamour and the dark glittering side of this life. They don’t see the blood lust or the long, lonely decades and centuries, when everyone you ever knew has died. Almost everybody knew back in the days when I was alive is gone now.”

  “Too many people are willing to sign their life away because they think bigger, better…” I paused, then said, “but back to our case. If Mark wanted to become a vampire, how would he go about finding a potential sire?”

  “That’s easy enough. Some of the nightclubs in the Underground welcome bloodwhores, and once you sign up for that, it’s not a far stretch to find the sires-for-hire. The fees for siring someone…that’s what we—vampires—refer to as actual blood money. A bit of a different meaning than on the outside of the culture, you know.” Lazenti thought for a moment. “If you wanted to investigate, you might go undercover as a bloodwhore. But bear in mind, playing that part comes with a lot of danger.”

  I thought about it. I had no desire to play the part, nor to ask anybody else to. “Okay, we’ll wait on.”

  “Can I ask what makes you think this guy wanted to become a vampire?”

  Lazenti hadn’t heard me talk about the case. I explained about Penn and the watch.

  He hesitated, then said, “That would track, but honestly? My instincts are telling me you’re looking in the wrong direction. At least this case. And what’s this temple?”

  “Mark Ryle joined what sounds like a cult. We’re having trouble finding out much about it, except that it’s been around for over a hundred years, and they charge their inner participants plenty. Carson, can you fill him in? I’m going to run to the restroom.” I stood, stretching, then headed out of the breakroom.

  As I took care of business, then washed my hands, I stared in the mirror. Lazenti had hit me hard with the story of his girlfriend. Love was a tough emotion, and it could so easily go south. I loved my friends, I loved my mother, but I couldn’t ever say I’d been in love. I’d dated—and I did enjoy sex—but I’d never let myself fall for anyone.

  For a brief time when I was around sixteen, I had a crush on Dante, but he was smart enough to see it and gently lay it to rest. And I understood, after a bit of disappointment, that my crush had grown as a reaction to his kindness and generosity. He’d been the first man to ever treat me well. I had no father figure, and most of the men I’d encountered while on the streets had tried to take advantage of me.

  Now, I loved Dante more than I loved anybody else except Penn, but it was the love of a friend, of found family. I had his back, and I always would. And he had mine. But any sexual attraction that might have sprung up had long faded. We were brother and sister, at heart. And that made the bond between us even stronger.

  I felt bad for Lazenti. He had lost the love of his heart, and when he thought he saved her, she ended up turning away from him. It must be terribly lonely, loving someone who would die long before you. Was it worth it? That I couldn’t answer. I only knew that I never wanted to fall for someone I would lose too soon.

  Solemn, deep in thought, I headed back to the breakroom.

  “So,” I asked, returning to my seat. “Did you tell Lazenti everything you found out about the temple?”

  Carson nodded. “Which is practically zilch, but hey…”

  “There’s an open meeting tomorrow night. I thought I’d go and check it out,” I said, telling them about the advertisement we’d seen. “I’m going to take Penn with me,” I said. “She’s good at sussing out energy.”

  “It makes sense for two friends to go together. If you go with a man, they might think you’re a couple and avoid targeting you,” Dante said.

  “I doubt that matters—for all they know, Penn and I could be a couple.” I laughed. “You never know.” I looked at Lazenti. “Hey, I know it’s not a good time for you to be prowling around down in the Underground, but can you do some research from your…well…wherever you’re staying and see if you can come up with the name of any vamps in Seattle willing to sire for hire? We should check out any potential option that we think of.”

  “Will do. Say, don’t you have a meeting with your father coming up?” he asked.

  I nodded. “Tonight. Dinner. I’m nervous—this is the first official meeting we’re having, in terms of talking about business. I have no idea what he’s going to say. And I have to deal with my brother as well. I need to put him off Penn—though I think he’s just pursuing her because he knows it makes both of us mad.”