One thing about living in a small town: It’s easy to estimate travel time. Five minutes later, I pulled alongside the squad car in the parking lot of Pineview Gas & Convenience.
Leaning over, Cody opened the passenger-side door for me. “So what was this important appointment you couldn’t reschedule?”
I slid into the seat. “None of your business.”
“I heard you broke up with the fake Jamaican,” he said. “I heard he’s not so fake, and his baggage is a problem.”
I gave Cody a sharp look. “Did the chief talk to you?”
“He worries.” Cody gave me a scowl in return. “I just wish the timing was better, Daise. Whatever’s going down with this sister of Sinclair’s, I wish it wasn’t happening around the full moon.”
“Yeah?” I buckled my seat belt. “Me, too. But right now, we’ve got a missing kid to worry about, right?”
“Right.”
The House of Shadows was located on a huge piece of property out in the countryside, not far from the lakeshore. Depending on how far the actual boundaries of Little Niflheim extend, it might be situated atop the underworld itself. It was purchased in the 1940s by the mistress of the manor, the beautiful, wealthy, and undead Lady Eris, who promptly moved her brood of a dozen or so vampires into the place. I’m not sure what their number is today, although it hasn’t grown as much as one might think. Vampires form blood-bonds with their chosen mortals, but they’re very picky about who they actually turn. Bethany Cassopolis’s undead paramour had been stringing her along for eight years.
For the record, I’d done some research into breaking the blood-bond. So far, the only method I’d found other than killing the vampire in question was a massive blood transfusion, which wasn’t exactly a procedure that could be done on an unwilling subject.
Anyway, the House of Shadows was awake for the night, blackout curtains drawn, lights ablaze. I checked the zipper on the collar of my motorcycle jacket as Cody pounded the door-knocker.
“Yes?” The blond vampire who opened the door a crack sounded annoyed. Maybe it was because he’d been stuck on reception duty for years.
“Pemkowet PD.” Cody held up his badge. “We’re looking for a sixteen-year-old girl who’s gone missing. I have reason to believe she may be on the premises.”
Over Cody’s shoulder, I saw the vampire’s eyes narrow. Without thinking, I kindled the merest spark of a shield, holding it in my thoughts. “I assure you, Officer, there are no minors here.”
“I’d like to have a look.” Cody’s voice sounded casual, but there was tension in the line of his back.
“Do you have a warrant?” the vampire inquired, curling his lip to reveal the tips of his fangs.
“Even better.” I stepped out from behind Cody so the doorkeeper could see me, raising my left hand to display Hel’s rune. “He’s got me.”
Maybe it was because I was bolder with Cody at my side and a psychic shield at the ready, or maybe it was because the word was out that I’d used dauda-dagr to dispatch two ghouls since last I’d been here, but the doorkeeper backed down a lot more quickly this time. “Wait here,” he said with resigned disdain, ushering us into the foyer. “I’ll announce you to her ladyship.”
We waited.
The sound of classical music drifted in fits and starts down the majestic stairway that led to the grand ballroom on the third floor. It sounded like a string quartet rehearsing rather than a party in full swing, which is what I’d encountered the last time I’d been here. Periodically the music would stop, and we could hear someone issuing arcane instructions that hovered on the verge of audibility.
The doorkeeper returned. “Lady Eris will receive you in her sitting room,” he announced. “She is not pleased by the early hour of your visit.” He flashed another hint of fang tip. “You recall what passed the last time you displeased her, Hel’s liaison?”
“I remember.” Not as much had happened as he thought, actually, but I’d let Lady Eris save face in front of her minions in exchange for a temporary no-hunting decree. “But it was just after sunset that time, too.”
The vampire heaved a sigh, a disconcerting sound in someone who breathes only in order to speak. “When the nights are short, we make the most of them. As they begin to lengthen, we enjoy a more leisurely pace.”
“Some of us daywalkers don’t have that luxury,” Cody said in one of his more laconic tones.
The vampire glanced at him, his eyes narrowing again. At a guess, he’d identified Cody as eldritch, but hadn’t placed him yet. “Follow me.”
We followed him up the staircase to the second-floor landing, turning off down a hallway lit by sconces with fluted lamps of mauve glass. It made Cody’s healthy complexion—and probably mine—look sickly, but it created a pleasing effect on the bloodless alabaster pallor of our guide. I wondered how any non-Caucasian vampires in the House of Shadows felt about Lady Eris’s choice in lighting.
Our guide halted before the door of the master bedroom, knocking on it once. “Hel’s liaison,” he intoned. “And some cop.”
Huh. Maybe he wasn’t quite so ye olde world as he acted.
The door was opened from within. Lady Eris—which, no, I don’t believe for a moment is her real name—was seated on an ornate padded stool being groomed for the night’s revels. She wore a deep crimson satin dressing gown trimmed with black lace that, frankly, reminded me a lot of what the Fabulous Casimir was wearing tonight. One attendant was brushing out her long, jet-black hair while another knelt with one of her ladyship’s elegant white feet in her lap, assiduously applying toenail polish.
“Daisy Johanssen,” she said in flat acknowledgment. At least she wasn’t pretending not to remember my name.
“Hi,” I said.
Her ebony-dark gaze shifted to Cody, one eyebrow arching. “And Officer . . . ?”
Cody’s nostrils flared. “Fairfax.”
“Fairfax.” She echoed him, smiling a little. “How very interesting! A lycanthrope on the local police force?”
Apparently she didn’t have any problem identifying him, but if she was trying to use a touch of hypnotic vampire seduction on him, it wasn’t working. Maybe werewolves were immune to it. Ignoring her question, Cody showed his badge again. “We have reason to believe there’s a minor on the premises.”
Lady Eris’s eyelids flickered ever so slightly. “I’m sure that’s not the case. My people are under strict orders.”
“People make mistakes, my lady,” I said.
Her gaze shifted back to me, and this time I felt its weight. “Last time, you came seeking a favor and I granted it freely, Hel’s liaison,” she said in a silken voice filled with playful menace. “What will you give me for this one?”
Oh, gah! That shouldn’t be effective, but it was. I could feel my skin getting warmer, my blood rising. Clearing my throat, I let my mental shield grow from a tiny spark to the size of a mirror in a makeup compact and held it between us, trying to play my cards close to my chest. Lady Eris gave me the eyebrow arch anyway. “The courtesy of your response was noted in Niflheim, my lady,” I said to her. Total lie, but I needed to put my own spin on it. “However, I am tasked by Hel herself to mediate between eldritch and mundane authorities, and this matter pertains directly to the House of Shadows.”
I thought that was pretty damn diplomatic of me, not to mention well phrased, but the mistress of the manor was unamused. “In other words, this is not a request.”
Inclining my head a few degrees, I kept my mouth shut.
“No,” Cody said bluntly. “It’s not.”
Lady Eris came off her stool with blinding speed to slap him across the face with an open hand, her nails raking his cheek. Her attendants scattered out of the way. Cody’s head snapped sideways, his face distorting in a snarl, his mouth suddenly full of too many teeth, hands clenching into fists. Hairy, hairy fists. She stood imperiously before him, unmoving, unbreathing. “Mind your manners, wolf. This is my territory.”
He growled at her in response, blood trickling down his cheek.
“Whoa!” I found my voice. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, people! Let’s not go all Underworld here.” No one was listening to me. “Cody!” I thumped him on the back. He glanced at me with a low growl, his face still distorted and his eyes glowing with green phosphorescence. “Hey! You’re in uniform.”
I’m not sure what made me choose those words, but they worked. His features shifted back into human form. “I could arrest you for assaulting an officer,” he said in a hard voice. “You’re not above the law.”
“You could try.” Unimpressed, Lady Eris sat back down on her ornate stool. She raised her hand to taste Cody’s blood on her fingernails with the tip of her tongue, then made a face. I guess werewolf blood wasn’t yummy. She gestured to an attendant, who scrambled to bring her a bowl of water in which to dabble her fingers. “Is that what you really want?”
“No, my lady.” I got the words out before Cody could respond, elbowing him in the ribs for good measure. “Just the chance to look for the child.”
Lady Eris and I did the locked-gazes thing. What can I say? It was big in the eldritch community. I kept my expression neutral and my miniature shield shining between us. “Naturally, I have no desire to be in violation of Hel’s order,” she said at length, snapping her fingers at her attendants. One hurried to arrange her hair in a loose chignon, while the other eased a pair of open-toed mules onto her feet, careful not to smudge the fresh nail polish. “Come! Let us review the latest acolytes.”
Once acceptably attired, she swept out of the room before us, down the mauve-lit hallway and up the grand staircase to the ballroom on the third floor, where her early arrival—not to mention Cody’s and my presence—provoked consternation.