"Fine. I'm outta here." Derek threw the dead bolt on the back door and left.
I quickly locked the door behind him. I heard the tinkle of the bells on the front door, and this wasn't the first hint that the store was filling with shoppers.
"Etienne, I'm not leaving you here by yourself. Come into the shop with Lucky and me." I got a whiff of him. "Did the EVs steal your luggage too?"
"I had to leave everything behind and sneak away. I could tell that I would soon be too weak to be of any use to them if I kept giving them my power." Etienne got up and ran water in the sink. He began washing his face and hands. "I have no money for a room somewhere. I paid it all to Greg Kaplan for the chance to see the sunlight room one more time. Then . . ." He took a shuddering breath. "Then he didn't let me near it." He grabbed a wad of paper towels and rubbed his face dry.
"No surprise there. Greg is a manipulative liar." I won't go into what he did to me during the sixties in New York, but I hate the SOB.
"The worst thing is trying to find a safe place to sleep during the day. I finally had to crawl into a storm sewer." He looked at Lucky, his dark eyes sad. "I'm sorry you are seeing me this way, my dear. Weak. Filthy. Unshaven. Less than a man." Lucky melted and put her hand on his arm. "Hey, you don't look so bad. Maybe we can help you find somewhere to stay." She smiled at me. "Glory lives right upstairs. We're pretty crowded in her little apartment, but-"
"But nothing. Slow down. Let me think." I didn't like the fact that I actually felt sorry for the guy. Hey, I know what it's like to crave something you can't have. I'd risked all kinds of pain and suffering just to eat a bag of Cheetos. And, in some ways, it had been worth it. The lure of sunlight was major. No wonder Etienne looked so haggard. He'd given a hell of a lot of his power away. I shuddered. I'd come way too close to losing my own power recently.
"I don't get the whole fascination with sunlight anyway." Lucky started sifting through a stack of vintage shirts and tossed one to Etienne. "Everyone knows it causes skin cancer, not to mention premature aging. I gave up tanning years ago."
"Miss St. Clair?" Etienne held the shirt out to me. "Do you wish for me to leave?"
"No. I mean, let me think for a minute." I set the shirt on the table.
"Come on, Glory. How can we throw a fellow vampire out without any resources?" Lucky obviously liked the cleaned-up version of Etienne pretty well, especially when he stripped off his dirty shirt and began washing more thoroughly. Hmm. He might feel weak, but he didn't look it. And a few days in the sun had given him a nice golden glow.
"We can at least get Etienne some clothes. I'll pay, of course." Obviously Lucky was already getting into the "all vampires should stick together" thing. Which wasn't a bad idea. I should encourage this.
"Fine. Buy him some clothes. I'll let you have them at cost. But I've got to get back to the shop." I opened the door and almost shrieked. A customer was waiting to pay and Brittany was doing her best to swipe a credit card through the slot in my paper shredder. "We'll work something out." I almost vaulted over the counter, visions of MasterCard confetti making my head swim. Two hours later all I'd worked out was that I needed more help for the holiday rush. Brittany was a fast learner, but she did take her bodyguard job seriously. Every time someone opened the front door, she was on high alert. She almost knocked down one poor man who brushed too close to Lucky in his search for a tuxedo. She kept a close eye on Etienne too, which was a big help as far as I was concerned.
Valdez watched Brittany like she was the last rib eye in the meat counter. Lust? Or didn't he trust her? I couldn't wait to get Brit alone to ask her about the human Valdez, or Rafael as she called him. Sue me, but when you've been with someone twenty-four seven for almost five years, you get curious. Blade makes him stay in dog form. Apparently the dog-shifter-whatever, would lose a significant bonus if he shifted while on duty with me. Since he was just a few months from the end of said contract, I figured it would take a serious something for him to blow it now.
It was close to dawn when Lacy came in to take over. Now I had to deal with the issues I'd put on the back burner. Where were Lucky and Brittany staying? What if Flo needed her own bed? And then there was Etienne. Did I trust him enough to invite him upstairs? Who's to say Simon hadn't sent him to us to try to drive a wedge between Derek and Freddy? He'd played innocent, but could he have been lurking in my alley with that high-tech phone of his?
And speaking of that alley . . . I'd made another excuse to go out to my car and had checked to see that the envelope was gone. So the blackmailer could possibly be another vamp. At least he or she hadn't waited for daylight. Back inside, Lacy and Brittany were ignoring each other while my clerk totaled the night's sales and began to set up the register for a new day. I had to admit sales were good, but even a thousand dollars would put a serious hurt on my budget. No way was I going to keep paying blackmail. I'd seen enough TV dramas to know blackmailers are never satisfied. I had to set a trap. Catch the person. And I needed help. Unfortunately. Knowing that asking for help would lead to endless lectures, I stalled by heading to the back room. There was a small bathroom and a closet with a dead bolt that could hold a vampire during the day. It sure as hell beat a storm sewer. I'd slept in a lot worse myself during some rough patches.
"Glory, honey. There's a ruckus out in the shop." One of my resident ghosts, Harvey Nutt, materialized in front of me. He and his wife like to take care of me. Previous tenants hadn't been as cool with visits from the afterlife as I am.
"I'd say it's more of a hooty-toot than a ruckus. But I bet someone throws a chair before all is said and done." Emmie Lou, Harvey's wife, sat on the table, her red cowboy boots swinging in time to the tune she was humming.
"Would you quit that infernal noise?" Harvey paced around the small room."What? Our song?" Emmie's eyes twinkled.
"Elvis's 'Hound Dog' ain't our song." Harvey stomped his foot.
"Harvey's flat eaten up with guilt. He knows he killed me."
Backed over her with his pickup. Totally an accident to hear him tell it. Apparently the two are stuck here in this store in a kind of limbo until they kiss and make up. Two decades later and there is still more yelling than kissie face. I left the two arguing to check on the ruckus. Sure enough, Brittany and Lacy were toe-to-toe. Their body language shouted, "Die, bitch."
"Hey, what's going on?" I took my life in my hands and stepped between them.
"She was the last client we met before the attack." Brittany looked like she wanted to push me out of the way but thought better of it when Valdez bumped against her and growled. "Back off, Rafe. I won't touch your precious Gloriana."
"You bet your sweet ass you won't." Valdez sat on her foot. "I can take you, Beth. In any form, anytime and anyplace."
"I did not set up Lucky." Lacy slammed the cash drawer shut. "I paid off my loan and left. End of story."
"Not for Lucky, kitty girl." Brittany shimmered, and I thought she was going to shape-shift right in front of us.
"Relax, both of you." I put a hand on Brittany's shoulder and felt a tingle, like an electrical charge. "Brittany, do I have to keep reminding you that this is a place of business? If a mortal saw you change . . ." I turned to Lacy and braced myself in case the back door crashed open again. "Your mother's not going to come calling, is she?"
"She'd better not. I threatened to shave my head if she did. In our world, that's about as 'in your face' as it gets."
"I'm sorry if what happened here is causing problems for you and your mother." I was just happy Lacy hadn't already quit.
"Mom and I are always at each other's throats. Don't worry about it." Lacy frowned at Brittany. "But I don't like being accused of something I didn't do."
"Then let me get these people out of here. You set for the day? Is it okay if we leave now?"
"Yes, please go and take all of your new 'friends' with you." Lacy made a face. "Sorry, boss, that didn't come out right. I hope you believe me. I'll say it one more time. I didn't attack Lucky. And for all we know the same vampire who tried to kill her was the one who left his fang marks on my throat the next night."
"Wait a minute. There might be a way to find out who that was." I left Valdez between the two women and headed for the dressing rooms where Etienne sat reading a magazine. Lucky must have found some scissors and trimmed his beard. He looked less like Grizzly Adams and more like one of the Three Musketeers now in a clean black shirt and black slacks. Interesting. I think he'd also helped himself to a bottle of the Fangtastic I kept in a fridge in the back room because he seemed to have a lot more energy when he threw down Road and Track and jumped to his feet.
"Lucky is changing her look, she says. Obviously she's a very new vampire." He grinned, all charm and surprisingly handsome.
"Wait till you see."
"Yeah, she's been a vampire for about five minutes thanks to me." I frowned. I don't know if I'd ever get used to this concept of being the responsible party. "Etienne, give me your cell phone."
"You will return it, won't you? I told you, it's one of the few things I've managed to hold on to. Fortunately, I paid for a lot of time in advance. Once it's cut off . . ." He pulled it out of his pocket and handed it over. "Something will turn up, it always does." Ah, the mantra of the immortal. I gave him a sympathetic shoulder pat. "I'm sure it will. And of course I'll give it back to you. I just want to show one of those pictures to my clerk. I'll send copies of all of these to my own phone for backup." I turned when the curtain on the dressing room swished open. "Lucky! That's quite a look."