Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

An hour after Kane left, I could still feel the touch of his lips on mine. I felt like a giddy teenager, which was odd because I hadn’t experienced that sensation even when I was one. Living in survival mode meant no first dates or makeout sessions. No homecoming or prom. No typical rites of passage.

Kane felt like all those experiences rolled into one incredible package.

The buzz of my phone snapped me back to earth. Otto’s name lit up the screen.

“Hey, buddy.”

“Buddy?” the vampire queried.

“Pal. Chum. Amigo.”

“I prefer Otto. Any chance you’re free for dinner later?”

“Hold on. Let me consult my staff.” My gaze flicked to Nana Pratt and Ray. “Can I go to Otto’s for dinner, or do you need me here?”

“You’re an adult, and this is your house,” Ray said. “You don’t need our permission to leave. ”

“I know, but you’re both tackling projects in my house, and I don’t want to shirk my responsibilities.”

“It might benefit you to shirk more often,” Otto’s voice emanated from the phone.

I hit the mute button. “Otto serves the best food in town. I promise to describe it to you in great detail.”

“Including the smells,” Nana Pratt said, wagging a finger. “You always forget the smells.”

I held up my hand. “I hereby swear to cover all five senses.”

She jerked her wrinkled chin. “Go on then.”

I unmuted the phone. “What time should I be there?”

“Does seven o’clock suit you?”

“Sure. Are we playing Scrabble? Because I need to warn you, I didn’t sleep well last night. My brain function might fail to meet your standards.”

I’d bought the blind vampire a special tactile edition of the game so we could play together. He’d wanted to teach me chess, but I was more of a Scrabble girl.

“Scrabble is out of commission today. Heidi had to wash the pieces.”

“We’re supposed to wash the pieces?”

“We are when we discover some of the pieces are covered in barbecue dust from potato chips.”

My cheeks burned. “Huh. I wonder how that happened.”

“Snacks with any sort of colorful layer will be banned from future games.”

“Rightfully so,” I lied. If you couldn’t dig your hand into a bag of orange-coated snacks, were you even playing a board game?

“We can play next time. I’m sorry to disappoint you.”

“It’s fine. Like I said, my brain is on the fritz today. What can I contribute to the dinner effort? ”

Otto chuckled. “I appreciate the gesture, but we both know it’s in vain. See you tonight.” He hung up.

“Hmm,” I said.

Ray scrutinized my face. “I thought you were happy about a free meal. Why do you look concerned?”

“Because I sense an ulterior motive.” I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I knew there was more to this invitation than a delicious meal.

“My father always said there’s no such thing as a free lunch,” Nana Pratt said.

“That’s what I’m worried about.” Although Otto had fed me plenty of times without a reason—well, other than the pleasure of my delightful company.

“If you’re concerned, why not ask him directly?” Ray said. “He seems like the type to tell you.”

“Because then I might not get the free dinner.”

Laughing, Ray shook his head. “Nobody can accuse you of not maximizing your opportunities.”

Nana Pratt looked me up and down. “You should run a brush through your hair and change your clothes. If you show up like that, he might reconsider his invitation.”

I ran my fingers through my hair, and they immediately snagged on a knot. “Point taken.”

I swapped the T-shirt with a hole at the hem for one with only the holes required to fit my head and arms. The Great Detangling took longer than expected and involved a string of curse words that chased Nana Pratt downstairs. If I was ever reborn again, I demanded silkier hair.

Once outside, I debated between the pickup truck and the motorcycle. The black cloud directly above the house made up my mind. I had no desire to enter Otto’s pristine house drenched to the bone. Been there, got the wet T-shirt.

Heidi answered the door with her usual scowl. “Good evening, Miss Clay. ”

“I thought we’d be best friends by now,” I told her as I stepped past her into the house.

“Best friends are for teenagers and insecure adults, of which I am neither.” She inclined her head. “Mr. Visconti is in the Collections Room.”

“Is that where we’re having dinner?” It seemed a strange choice; if I recalled correctly, the only surfaces in that room were display tables.

“No, but that is where he asked me to send you first. Dinner will be waiting for you in the study afterward.”

I hoped my rumbly tummy behaved until then. I deliberately avoided any afternoon snacks to allow for more of Otto’s spread.

I walked along the corridor to the Collections Room. I’d only seen it once before; Otto was careful to safeguard his treasures, although it was nice to know he trusted me enough to share them with me.

The vampire sat in a plush velvet chair with his feet resting on an ottoman. Thanks to his diminutive stature, it looked like the chair was in the process of swallowing him whole.

“We’re in the special room today?” I asked.

He glanced in my direction. “All my rooms are special. It’s good to hear your voice, Lorelei.”

“You heard it a couple hours ago.”

“It sounds better when we’re in the same room. Less shrill.”

“Excuse me?”

“It’s your phone voice. It’s higher pitched than your regular one. It’s quite common for people to adopt a different voice tone when using the phone.”

“You agree to never refer to my voice as shrill again, and I’ll agree to stay for dinner.”

Two stunted fangs appeared as he smiled. “We both know you’ll stay regardless, but I agree to remove the word ’shrill’ from any and all descriptions of you.”

“Thank you.”

He popped to his feet. “Come. I have a new acquisition I’d like to show you.” The vampire tapped the glass of an adjacent display case. I leaned over for a closer look. It was a porcelain vase with a white and blue color palette that had long since faded to grayish white.

“Nice vase. How old?”

“Nearly two thousand years, which I suppose is inconsequential to a goddess like yourself. Of course, I had my consultant on hand to confirm.”

“Where’d you get it?”

“The vase was discovered in the province of Shanxi. I acquired it the same way I acquire many of my treasures.”

“An auction?”

“Naturally. I met a woman there.”

“Congratulations. Did you win her, too?”

The corners of his mouth tugged apart. “Afraid not. She lost the bidding war for this particular item and wasn’t pleased about it.”

“Did she make a scene?”

“No, she struck up a conversation and congratulated me on my excellent taste. Her name is Petra Kovac.” He paused, as though waiting for me to comment.

“Should that name mean something to me?”

“I thought it might. She works for your friends at The Corporation.”

My stomach tensed. “The minions of an evil organization aren’t my friends.”

“What about Addison Gray? She worked for them, yet you still welcomed her into your home.” He paused. “My apologies. It must be a painful subject.”

“I’m learning to live with it. ”

Addison Gray was one of the many names of the avatar of Aite, the goddess of mischief and ruin. She’d recently sought sanctuary in my house after trying and failing to get reinstated with the organization. The Corporation came in search of her, but they weren’t the ones responsible for killing her. That honor went to the leader of the Wild Hunt. Aite had died to protect me. She’d also left a big, fat envelope of cash under the mattress of the bed in my guest room. She may have wronged me at the start of our relationship, but she’d made it right by the end.

I cleared the emotion from my throat and focused on the vase. “Any idea why The Corporation was trying to acquire this piece?”

“I suspect they have an entire team dedicated to attending auctions.”

“They seem to have a department for everything. I bet there’s a team assigned to baking birthday cakes for all their employees.”

Otto tapped the glass again. “I still haven’t told you the most important part about the vase.”

“Let me guess—it’s worth a small fortune.”

“That goes without saying, but it isn’t the point.” He angled his head toward the vase. “This beauty was originally dismissed by experts as inauthentic.”

“Why?”

“Because of the angles. They don’t meet the usual criteria. This shape wasn’t used during the Chinese dynastic period.”

“And yet…”

“And yet it is, in fact, authentic. Its purpose was secret, and the angles were deliberate. It wasn’t meant to blend with other vases. It was meant to signal an object that was very special and sacred to the emperor.”

“What’s so special about it? ”

“It contains ten thousand souls of one of the greatest armies ever known. The Yanmen Army.”

“Never heard of them.”

“According to the legend, they were cursed by an unknown entity and trapped in this very container.”

I examined the vase. “Genies should count their lucky stars they don’t have to share their lamps. Ten thousand.” I whistled. “I guess this is how they were defeated.”

“Not quite. They never actually fought.”

My head snapped toward him. “That explains why I haven’t heard of them. How can they be one of the greatest armies ever known if they’ve never been in battle?”

“Had they fought, experts agree they would have been unstoppable. People believe that was the reason for the curse. To avoid guaranteed war and destruction.”

“Is the curse what drew you to the vase?” The vampire, too, was cursed. The intended outcome was that he could no longer drink human blood. The unintended outcome was blindness. In true Otto fashion, he’d taken both in stride and adapted his lifestyle, although from what I understood, he wasn’t popular with the other vampires in the area. Whether that was due to the curse or his crusty demeanor, I wasn’t sure.

“I suppose the curse was the initial reason, but the more I learned about the legend, the more fascinated I became. Imagine being the most powerful force in the world and suddenly finding yourself reduced to an existence in a household item.”

“From glory to hoary.”

Otto snickered. “Well done. All that Scrabble is paying off.”

“If only I could earn a living from the occasional joke.” I switched my focus back to the vase. “It’s a good thing you got your hands on this instead of The Corporation. I can only imagine what their intentions were.”

“They’re collectors, like I am. I suspect they like to amass items of power more than they actually intend to use them. It probably makes them feel more secure to have a warehouse filled with unstoppable weapons.”

“A warehouse? They could probably fill an entire realm with their objects of power.” I knew firsthand they kept offshore accounts in pocket dimensions around the globe. One of them had been accessed through the basement of Bruce Huang’s house, right here in Fairhaven. It had been my very first run-in with their minions. Sadly not my last.

“Among the other gossip I overheard while I was there, a rare item went missing a week before the auction and one of the employees was killed. I wondered whether The Corporation might be responsible.”

“What was the item?”

“A mistletoe arrow.”

“I’m not familiar with that one, but I have no doubt they have plenty of thieves and murderers on the payroll.” Except why bother to bid on items at all when they were clearly willing to kill and steal?

Otto tilted his head. “Have you heard any more from them? I imagine they’ll be curious to know what became of their missing avatar.”

“I haven’t, but I expect it’s only a matter of time.” All this talk of The Corporation would make me lose my appetite if it continued. “Now that I’ve seen the reason for my visit, can we eat?”

“The vase isn’t actually the reason, but yes. Let’s adjourn to the study for dinner, and I’ll tell you the rest.”

The rest. So there was an ulterior motive. Damn my good instincts. A knot formed in my stomach that I sure as hell hoped didn’t interfere with my ability to eat Otto’s delicious food.

The console table in the study was loaded with dishes—chicken salad, tuna salad, assorted fruit, a choice of bread or sliced croissants, and a variety of cheese and crackers. The piece de resistance was a tiered plate stand filled with small individual cakes.

“You’ll have to forgive the lunch-style options. The meat had spoiled, so the kitchen made do with what we had.”

I loved that he considered a spread like this ‘making do,’ as though everybody had fresh croissants lying around, begging to be used. Well, maybe they did in France, but this was Pennsylvania.

“Is that carrot cake?” I asked.

“With cream cheese frosting, yes.”

“Thank the gods. If it had lemon frosting, I might have to rethink our friendship.” With my appetite restored, I loaded a plate with food, trying to calculate in advance how many individual cakes I’d be able to manage afterward.

“I don’t stand on ceremony. If your heart’s desire is to start with the carrot cake, I promise not to judge… much.”

“You know me too well, Otto.” I plucked a tiny carrot cake from the stand and added it to my overflowing plate. “Don’t be jealous,” I told the other cakes. “I’ll be back for you later.”

We sat at the round bistro table that we sometimes used to play chess.

“Are you trying to persuade me to play music for you?” I swilled my water. “Because you may have cracked the code with this croissandwich.”

“I don’t think it was I who cracked that particular code,” he said, smiling.

I ignored his reference to Kane. The details of my romantic relationship weren’t for public consumption.

“Don’t keep me in suspense. Tell me what’s wrong. ”

“Why do you assume the worst?” He nibbled on a slice of cantaloupe.

“Because you’re obviously laying the foundation to share bad news.”

“What tipped you off? It was the cake, wasn’t it? I worried it was overkill.”

“No such thing when it comes to baked goods.”

Otto’s thumb stroked the edge of the table. Whatever he had to say made him nervous. “The woman I mentioned from the auction.”

“Petra Kovac. The Corporation lackey.”

“Yes. She invited me for a drink after the auction.”

“And you wouldn’t be Otto if you turned down a drink from an attractive woman.”

His mouth twitched. “No, I suppose not.”

“Did she offer you more money for the vase?”

“No, she could’ve continued bidding against me if that was her plan.”

“That is strange, isn’t it? No matter how deep your pockets are, The Corporation’s have to be deeper. Why let you win if they were desperate to have it?”

“She admitted she was only authorized to bid up to a certain amount. Her department underestimated the level of interest in the item. They believed they were the only ones fully aware of its value.”

“Typical arrogance. I’m surprised she couldn’t get them to up the budget once she realized she had competition. That’s what phones are for.”

“She said there’s too much red tape involved. The downside of a large organization is its inability to respond quickly to changes in circumstance.”

That fit with the information Aite had shared with me. “Petra seems forthcoming for a member of a top-secret company. Any idea which deity she is? ”

“No, we didn’t discuss her.” He paused. “We did, however, discuss you.”

I nearly spat my water all over the table. Once I managed to force the water down the correct pipe, I spoke. “Me?”

“Yes. I had thought it odd when she mentioned she knew my name prior to the auction.”

“That’s because you’re a fixture there. You stroll in with your paddle and your seersucker suit, and everyone greets you by name.”

He looked affronted. “When have you ever seen me wear a seersucker suit?”

“You should try it. You would rock a straw hat and a bowtie.”

“I would look like a small Southern child on his way to Easter services.”

“You can spread the word that Jesus isn’t the only one to rise again.”

Otto laughed. “Please, no distractions. What I have to tell you is important. Petra made it clear she was aware of my friendship with you.”

“Do you think that’s the real reason she attended the auction?”

“Perhaps, although I do think The Corporation genuinely intended to acquire the vase. Her disappointment when she lost was evident.”

“Did she smash her paddle over your head?”

“And risk a permanent ban? Certainly not. According to my companion, she sat in the corner and pouted like a spoiled grownup.”

“What did the two of you discuss?”

“First, she reeled off a few items from previous auctions. I didn’t know at the time I’d been beaten by a representative from The Corporation, of course, but I recognized the names of the items she mentioned as ones I’d attempted to acquire. ”

My stomach soured. “And then she offered one of them to you in exchange for me.”

He took a sip of water. “The choice is mine. In exchange, I am to trick you into meeting me under false pretenses, where one of their members would be ready and waiting to whisk you away.”

“If they know we’re friends, why would they tell you they intended to kidnap me?”

“Because they don’t understand true connection. They see me as a greedy vampire incapable of genuine human emotion. They are under the misguided belief that possessions are more important to me than you are.”

If this were another vampire seated across from me, maybe that would be true, although I felt confident that Josie wouldn’t hand me over to them either, if only because Kane would never forgive her.

“What did you tell her?”

“That I’d consider her generous offer and let her know.”

“They must have given you a deadline.” The Corporation loved their ticking clocks.

“Midnight tonight. I figured I could stall them while I let you know they’re attempting a sneak attack.”

“Thanks, Otto. I appreciate the heads-up, as well as the amazing food.”

“My pleasure.” He ran the edge of his linen napkin along the contour of his mouth. “What will you do?”

I shrugged. “Nothing. I can’t control what others do. If they keep trying a back door, one will eventually open for them.” In the meantime, I was bolstering the ward and helping people in need. Business as usual.

“I doubt they’ll try this tactic again. Once I refuse them, they’ll suspect I told you and that you’d share the information with other friends. ”

“I’m surprised they don’t try one of the assassins in the guild. Some of them aren’t thrilled by my presence.”

“Maybe so, but they answer to Kane. Even if the assassins don’t mind upsetting you, they certainly mind upsetting him.”

A fair point and, most likely, my saving grace. “I’ll tell everyone to be on their guard, just in case.” I stuffed a tiny red velvet cake into my mouth and chewed.

“Now that business is out of the way, I wouldn’t be opposed to a spot of music.” Two stunted fangs made an appearance. “After you’ve finished your cakes, of course.”

I eyed the tiny caramel cake dusted with salt. “Otto, my favorite vampire, what would you like to hear?”