The Vampire Always Bites Twice | Wattys 2022 Grand Prize Winner

30

"She was friends with Lily."

The valet wiped his nose on his sleeve. "I don't like her."

"The dead woman?"

"Lily!"

I snorted. "Not helping your case, buddy."

"She's a scammer! A Tourist."

Isla groaned in a distinctly agreeing tone.

"Has everybody fooled," Julian continued, slapping the wheeling for emphasis. As he spoke, I dug my notebook from my pocket to keep track of the details. "She always acts all sweet and sunny, but that's all it is, an act. She doesn't give one bulb of garlic about my Liege, the Lord of Darkness and Terror and Mistress Sloane. Not like I—I take care of them. Of their affairs. They trust me."

He slammed the brakes to keep from running a red light. I held tight to the driver's seat to keep my face from crunching against the dash. Isla skid forward and collided right into my ass.

"Trust you to drive the murder van," she grumbled.

"Do you have any idea what an honor it is to serve a lord as powerful as My—"

"If you say darkness and terror one more time, I'll stub a cigarette out in your empty eye socket, and you don't even want to know how I plan to empty it."

I bit back a laugh.

"You're a peasant. I'm his confidant." Julian pouted in the mirror. Don't think Isla noticed. Her face was practically against my back. "I earned this, okay? I worked for this privilege. All that skinny bitch Lily had to do was shake her breasts and pretend to be some frail Victorian harlot my Liege, Lor— he hardly remembers, and he goes and drops hundreds on her. Maybe thousands of dollars! All from their savings account. Their savings I've managed to increase by 75% over the last two decades, mind you. And don't even get me started on the stupid gifts and the promises."

The rolling and frequent, sudden, jerky stops of the van made it difficult for Isla to regain her balance. I presumed. Why else would she lay such a steadying palm on my right ass cheek?

"Did you, and your liege, know Lily was an escort?" I said.

"Ha! They met at the club. That was her whole schtick. Reincarnation reunions, or something just as stupid sounding. Sloane thought it be fun and nostalgic for some older vamps. It backfired. My Liege followed her right out the club to her day job at that coffee shop. She worked mornings till he made her switch. You know one, the nerve of these kids, one time she had the audacity to ask him for rent money. Flat out ask and he just gave it to her. Why don't young people want to work anymore? Ugh. My Liege made me take her home that morning too, except she didn't go home. She made me drive her all the way out to Grays Ferry. She lives on Spruce Street! I confronted her on it, and she said it was an errand. She had to stop off to pay the landlord. Promised my Liege she'd stop working at the club too. What a load of batshit."

Julian blushed. "Hey, don't tell my Liege I said that, okay? He prefers to think of her as a barista. A 'humble milkmaid.' She's purer that way. Like he remembers her as Rosemond."

He took a turn. I let him breathe and waited. His story wasn't over yet. Not by a long shot, I guess, by the way he was working himself up. When his shaking breaths settled, I asked: "Did you plan this with Sloane? To hide Lily from Dmitri?"

He laughed. "Sloane hates her guts. She's fine with my Liege having fun once and awhile, with other escorts from the club, but when Sloane caught them together she lost her temper. Thought she was going to rip the homewrecker's head off right then."