" You want me to tear him apart?" Valdez growled at the closed door. " Open up,"
"No. He might hurt you." Damn it, I had to go back to the living room.
"I'll take my chances."
My eyes filled with tears and I shook my head. "He's not worth it." I took a deep breath, pasted on a smile and forced myself back into the living room.
The living room… I rubbed my eyes and, hello, the bat patrol was still in the room discussing strategy. Tony still cowered in his chair and Damian grinned and winked. What the hell had just happened to me?
I heard Derek explaining the virtues of Kevlar. Apparently I hadn't gone to Damian's library, hadn't had mind-blowing sex with an audience. I sent Damian a mental message to go screw himself since screwing me was never going to happen. "What do you think, Glory?" Diana was obviously waiting for me to answer. What did I think? That Damian Sabatini was a dead man.
Chapter Twelve
Twenty-four hours had passed since the bat patrol had returned with the bad news that Westwood wasn't taking midnight strolls around his property. Apparently he knew enough about vampires to stay locked inside his ranch house after dark, surrounded by thugs armed with stakes, guns and anything else he thought might slow down what Westwood considered a predator. Twenty-four hours had passed since Damian had used the whammy on me and I was still freaking out. Damian had taken mind control to a whole new level. Could other vamps alter reality so completely? This could be good defense. Something I should learn to do. But not with Damian as teacher. I was avoiding him like the bird flu. And if I did have to be in the same room with him, I was throwing up a block the size of Mount Rushmore.
At least Diana, Derek and I had been a hit with the non-flying vampires. Derek had found out that wooden arrows couldn't come at enough velocity to penetrate Kevlar, even if Westwood started using a crossbow. Some vamps were already ordering Kevlar vests. Others who hadn't been spotted by Westwood yet were investigating heat generating devices. We'd found battery operated socks that hunters wore, surely there were other heaters we could wear on our chests. Maybe a battery operated T-shirt. Of course in summer this might present a problem. Austin has really hot summers. The female vamps had decided to work on developing a Kevlar bra. You knew I wasn't going to wear a bulky vest, didn't you?
I mean how many pounds would that add? But a bra, with ample coverage over the heart region. That might be workable. I'd ordered some Kevlar material from the Internet. Expensive and when it came I'd have to find a seamstress. But I'd already developed a cover story. Worked with a knife thrower in the circus. Sometimes he missed. Unfortunately it would take at least a week to get the fabric and I had this one night off before I would be back in the shop again. I could lock myself in my apartment, but how wimpy was that? And new boots were calling my name. So Diana, Flo and I decided to head to the nearest mall.
" Forget it, Blondie. You're not going anywhere without me." Valdez hopped out of the car before I could shut him inside.
"I see a sale sign." Flo tugged on my arm.
"And I see a sign that says service animals only." Diana patted Valdez. "Sorry, fella, that means you stay in the car."
"Not necessarily." I looked around the dark parking lot. As long as I had Valdez by my side, I knew no one could sneak up on me. I dug in my purse. Yep, the sunglasses a customer had left in the shop were in there. I put them on and grabbed Valdez's leash.
"See? I'm a service animal."
"Just behave. If I have to play blind, you have to play serious guard dog."
" Don't I always?" Valdez pulled me toward the entrance. " Let's get out of the open." Flo and Diana followed us. And didn't I feel like a fool groping for the door?
"Would one of you lead the way? Flo, take us to the nearest shoe store with a big sale going on."
"You got it, girlfriend." Flo stepped out with Valdez right behind her.
Diana grabbed my arm like she was steering me through the crowd. I got a few sympathetic looks and felt like a total fraud.
"What color boots do you want? High or low heels? Ankle or knee high? Suede or leather?"
"Gee, Diana, I'm blind not dumb. I can tell the salesman—" I was sounding bitchy. This blind thing was going to be a pain.
"Sorry." I gave Diana a rundown of what I was looking for.
"Here we go." Flo stopped in front of a store with a Sale sign, then stepped inside. "Please excuse my blind friend and her guide dog. Poor thing hardly ever gets to go shopping."
Poor thing? Valdez took exception to the salesman blocking the aisle and showed his teeth.
"Uh, sure, guide dogs welcome." The man backed away and knocked over a display of evening shoes. Apparently metallics were in and I stopped myself just before I picked up a particularly cute pair of bronze sandals. I groped my way to a chair.
"Valdez, sit." I smiled and pushed Valdez's butt down until he sat, unfortunately on my left foot. "Ouch!" Diana took his leash and shoved him off me. "She wants a pair of brown suede boots, knee high, medium heels, size seven and a half. Right, Glory?""Sure. Thanks." I took off my left shoe and rubbed my toes, sending Valdez a mental message to behave.
"Feel this boot, Glory. Isn't that just the softest thing?" Flo pushed a boot into my hand. Valdez jumped up and started barking wildly.
"Oh, my God!" I dropped to the floor. Diana crawled under a table and Flo scrambled behind the counter with the bewildered salesman.
"Is it Westwood?" Diana reached out to drag me under the table with her. Yep, her vamp strength was working. Thank God we were the only customers in the store. "Valdez, what is it?" I watched him sniff around the floor, then sit down and scratch his ear.
"False alarm. Damned boots are lined with rabbit fur. I thought I smelled cat."
"Thanks a lot." I crawled out and stood. "Flo, do your thing, honey." She grinned and put the salesman under a whammy. He silently headed to the storeroom to find my boots. Diana dusted off her jeans and shook her head.
"You scared the life out of me, you hound. You better be dang sure we're in danger before you go off like that again." Diana was paler than usual.
Hey, my heart was pounding too. Flo collapsed in the chair next to me.
"Valdez, you must understand. Shopping is serious business, especially a shoe sale." Flo fanned her cheeks. "No noise now unless you see a man with a bow and arrow."
"You're cramping my style, lady."
"Consider yourself cramped." I pushed him back down, careful of my feet this time, just as the salesman came out with three boxes. And wasn't that a treat, going through the whole charade of trying on and groping my way around the store? But I did feel safe. And Flo and Diana both agreed that my new brown boots were cute and a bargain. Diana fell for some Prada pumps. And at half price, how could Flo resist the Ferragamo slides? Three pairs in three colors. We were headed for the hearse in the parking lot when Valdez barked again and knocked me flat on my back, my package and purse flying in two different directions. Diana cried out and grabbed her arm. An arrow stuck out of it.
" Down. Everybody down." Valdez hit Flo and she landed on her behind just as another arrow whizzed past us.
" Dios mio. What's happening?" Flo crawled over to rescue the three pairs of shoes flung across the pavement.
" Damn it, woman. I said stay down." Valdez barked and other shoppers heading to their cars paused to watch. A few seemed inclined to come help us, but Valdez's wild barking and growls discouraged them. He finally stopped and sniffed the air. We heard tires squeal like a car couldn't get out of the lot fast enough.
" All clear. He's gone." Valdez stayed by my side as I got to my feet.
"Diana, are you all right?" I helped her up. She was bleeding and I wrapped my sweater around her arm. We both stared at the arrow.
"Hell no, I'm not all right." Diana took a shaky breath. "It hurts like the Devil." She put her hand on the shaft and pulled, her face going white.
"Stop it, Diana. Leave it alone." She was swaying and tears streamed down her cheeks.
"Can't. It's got to come out." She sniffed and wiped away the tears with the back of her hand. "Just break it, Glory, then pull it out."
I swallowed. Obviously I can deal with blood, but I hated to hurt her even more.
"Can't be helped, hon. Just do it." She bit her lip and looked around. More people had stopped to watch. A security guard was headed toward us. "Flo, take care of him, will you?"
"No problem." Flo got to her feet and limped toward the guard. I could see she was using the vamp whammy on him. He just stopped and stared unseeing while I pulled Diana to the other side of the car. Thank goodness it was fairly dark. My guess was that Westwood had taken out the light we'd parked under. He'd obviously followed us to the mall, then waited for us to come out.
He'd taken a big chance hitting us in such a public place. A bystander could have called the police. But being a big game hunter, he probably got off on taking chances. I looked around to make sure I didn't need to erase some memories. I saw Flo take care of the few shoppers closest to us. No one else seemed to realize what had happened and went on to their cars.
"Glory, come on. Get this arrow out of my arm."
"You sure you want me to do this? It's going to really hurt."
Diana was obviously in some serious pain but she nodded, biting her lip.
"Here goes." I grabbed the arrow. I'd have to break off the feathered end and then push the arrow through her arm.
"Quit thinking about it and just do it." Diana had tears running down her cheeks again. "And tell Flo to pick up my new shoes." Shoes? To hell with shoes. I had to do this quick. I sucked in a breath and snapped off the feathered end. One sharp tug and I had two pieces of really bloody olive wood arrow to dispose of. I thought I was going to be sick.