First Drop of Crimson

The ghost wisely moved aside. Ian looked around before speaking. "You were acting crazed, Charles. Mooning over a human, snapping at anyone who looked at her cross-eyed. Whispering about blackmail and marks. Seeking out Red Dragon. Killing the person I told you sold it - yes, I heard Black Jack ended up murdered. Why wouldn't I bloody be concerned?"

"Then you should have come to me," Spade gritted out, judging if he could knock Crispin away from Ian without Denise being jarred in the process.

Ian gave Spade an unfathomable look. "I did. You refused to trust me."

"For good reason, else Crispin wouldn't be here," Spade replied with a disbelieving snort.

"Um, guys..." Cat began.

"I know I'm a rotten bastard, but there are four people in the world I'd never see come to harm, even at the cost of my own life," Ian said in a steady voice, turquoise gaze clear. "Two of them are here, yet neither of them trusts me. Believe me, even ruthless sods like me can be hurt by that."

"Yet you do lie, Ian, and you do manipulate, even the two of us," Crispin said quietly.

"Over little, insignificant things. Never over something that could mean your lives. Blimey, Crispin, you humiliated me over Cat, yet did I seek revenge? No. I went to bloody war for you less than a year later. I'll own what I am, but don't label me what I'm not when it comes to either of you."

"You know I don't like the man, but he has a point," Cat said, shaking her head. "He was there for Bones when I never thought he'd be, and it did end up almost getting him killed a few times."

"Thanks so much for the accolades, Reaper," Ian replied in a caustic tone.

Spade thought back over his long history with Ian. It had been thorny from their first meeting on the convict ship to when Ian had him changed into a vampire by calling in a favor, despite Spade not wanting that. Over the next centuries, there had been countless other incidents when Ian was as likely to bite the hand Spade extended to him as take it, but whenever things were truly dire...Ian hadn't betrayed him. He was right about that.

Denise caught his eye. "If you insist we keep going after Nathanial, we're going to need all the help we can get," she said.

Spade gave Ian a measured stare. "If you betray me on what I'm about to tell you, it will likely get me killed. And if it doesn't, I will find you, and I will kill you."

Ian shrugged. "Acceptable terms, mate."

Spade looked at Denise again. Her dark brown hair mixed with Cat's crimson strands in the wind, and for a second, seeing that flash of red by Denise's face brought the memory of Giselda's blood-soaked, lifeless image. Not Denise, he promised himself. Not this time.

"The source of Web's Red Dragon industry is probably a demon-marked bloke named Nathanial. I'm stealing Nathanial away from Web in order to give him back to the demon that marked him, and I need to do that before anyone realizes Denise is now a source, too."

Denise tried not to think about the last time she was in a house with Spade and Cat under perilous circumstances - not to mention, there was a ghost here, too. She was already rattled enough without those awful memories turning this into a PTSD attack. For the umpteenth time, she looked at the clock. Almost two A.M. What was keeping Ian? Or Bones?

"Don't you want something to eat?" Spade asked, squeezing her hand.

Her stomach let out a yowl of the affirmative, but with how tense she was, Denise was afraid if she ate anything, it might come back up.

"No, I'm fine."

Cat was clearly wired, too. She'd wanted to go with Bones, but he said it was better if she stayed back. Not because he was worried about her, but the sight of Cat would arouse too much suspicion. Alone, with his power cloaked, he had a chance at not being recognized as he lurked around the streets by Web's property. With Cat, those odds diminished.

And Cat couldn't read minds like Bones could to pick up if Ian was in any danger as he crashed Web's house under the pretense of being in the neighborhood. It was plausible that Ian had come to Monaco to see Spade, and Ian knew Web from a few shady dealings in the past. Denise questioned the wisdom of Ian doing reconnaissance at Web's house, but he brushed it off.

"Web knows I'm a scoundrel," Ian had said with a slanted grin. "He won't think anything of me asking for an illegal substance, whereas Charles or Crispin would make him right nervous. But who'd ever confuse me with an honorable man?"

He had a good point.

"Gotta say, I'm getting hungry myself," Cat remarked, standing up to pace.

"Oh, Spade has a ton of food left over from the party," Denise said, stopping at the look Cat gave her. "What?"

"Crap, I forgot you don't know..." Cat began.

"What?" Denise asked with more emphasis.

Cat's gray eyes turned green. That was nothing unusual; it was a mark of her half-vampire side that Denise had seen countless times. But then Cat opened her mouth in a sheepish smile to reveal two upper fangs that had never been there before.

"Holy shit," Denise breathed. "You did it. You actually did it."

"A few months ago," Cat said, those fangs retracting until just her normal teeth showed again. "At first things were too crazy for me to tell you about it, but then..."

Denise looked away. Yeah. Then she wasn't taking Cat's calls. "I'm sorry," she mumbled.

"It's all right, I knew you needed time," Cat replied softly. She gave Spade a harder look. "You'd better be good to her."

"Or you'll shove something silver in me where the sun doesn't shine?" Spade asked, grinning at Denise.

She looked away in embarrassment at the threat she'd hurled at him just this morning, but Cat nodded.

"You've got it, buddy."

"And same to you with Crispin, Reaper," Spade replied in a mild tone.

Denise stifled her snort. As if Spade's chivalry would allow him to do anything to a woman. The harshest punishment she could imagine him dishing out to Cat would be refusing to open a door for her.

"Shh," Spade said suddenly. His eyes narrowed. "I hear something."

Denise strained her ears, but came up with nothing. Cat cocked her head and then threw Spade an incredulous glance.

"Is that singing?"

Spade let out a snort. "Appears so."

Denise still couldn't hear anything, to her frustration. Again she cursed her brands for not giving her any useful abilities. Finally, after a solid five minutes, she caught the sound drifting from outside.

"...I am the very model of a modern Major-General..."

Ian's voice, loud and off tune. Denise blinked. "Is that code?"

Spade shook his head with disgust. "No. It's Pirates of Penzance."

Bones soundlessly came through the door a moment later, startling her. "He's so bloody pissed, he can hardly walk," he announced.

Denise knew enough English slang by now to know that didn't mean Ian was mad, and there was only one thing that could inebriate a vampire. Had Nathanial been in Web's house? Or had Ian gotten the Red Dragon from a vial, as Black Jack distributed it?

"I'm very good at integral and differential calculus," Ian continued to sing, interrupted by a crash and then, "Where'd that bloody statue come from? Er, imitation anyway. I know the scientific names of beings animalculous..."

After more stumbling noises, the operetta-singing vampire appeared. Ian's eyes were bloodshot, he had a smear of dirt on his face, and his shirt was buttoned up wrong.

"Hallo, all!" Ian announced cheerfully. "That was a capital evening."

"Ian, mate, you look a bit worse for wear," Spade gritted out, glaring at him. "Let's get you tucked into bed before you break anything else."

"I know our mythic history, King Arthur's and Sir Caradoc's," Ian singsonged.

Cat looked at Bones and let out a grunt. "Useless," she muttered.

Spade grabbed Ian, hissing something in his ear Denise didn't hear. Whatever it was, Ian laughed. "Charles, mate, you fret too much. I'm a grown man, I am, and I can blood my handle."

"Handle your blood?" Bones offered dryly.

Ian grinned. "Exactly."

Denise sighed. It was clear they weren't getting any information out of Ian tonight. She, Bones, and Cat followed as Spade supported Ian, almost carrying him up the stairs to then dump him on the bed in a guest room.

"Before you go, mate, turn on the telly. Something raunchy, too. Think I'll rub one off before I sleep."

"God, you're disgusting," Cat grumbled. Denise agreed.

To her surprise, Bones went across the bedroom, flipped through the channels, and stopped on some thing pornographic, turning it up. Moans, cries, and groans filled the room.

Ian sat up like a puppet yanked into action. "He's got someone there with Dragon in his blood," he said low, the slur considerably less in his words. "Couldn't tell if he matched your description, poppet, because they had him covered up except for his thighs, arse, and cock. Too bad you didn't describe one of those, or I'd know straightaway if this was your bloke."

Denise's mouth dropped, both in surprise at Ian's abrupt recovery, and hearing the condition in which Web had the man who might be Nathanial.

Spade didn't look surprised by either. His mouth was set in a grim line. "Package deals," he muttered, throwing a glance in her direction.

Denise's stomach heaved, making her glad she hadn't eaten before. She looked at Ian in horror. He hadn't, had he...?

"I say, look at the melons on that lass," Ian exclaimed, his gaze now on the TV. "And hung like a stallion, he is."

"Focus, mate," Spade muttered.

Ian gave Spade a lopsided smile that told Denise he might not be as affected as he'd pretended, but what he'd imbibed had left its mark.

"Didn't bugger the bloke against his will, of course, so I took a swallow from his thigh and that was all. Cost a fancy bit of quid for a direct taste, too, versus the bottled, mixed version Web sells."

Denise shuddered. It would have been her exposed in that helpless and humiliating position for any vampire to bite or rape, if Black Jack had taken her to Web as he'd planned.

"How secure is the room he's in?" Bones asked, absorbing everything without a change in expression.

Ian's gaze wandered back to the TV before it snapped to Bones. "Hmm? Ah, very secure. Practically a bloomin' dungeon, though more posh. Web blindfolded me so I don't know which door we went through, but it's in the basement. Five vampires in the room, one of them a Master. At least seven more Masters in the house, plus Web. And a bloody lot of silver weapons."

"He blindfolded you? Must not have trusted you as much as you thought he would," Spade mused.

"Everyone acted like it was normal procedure. Foxed me at first how readily Web admitted to having a source at his home, but he must reckon only his people know how rare sources are. If not for her, none of us would know what caused the bloke to have Red Dragon in his veins, right? Other vampires must reckon it's a chemical Web makes and just injects random humans with." Ian paused to shake his head. "Web is rattled about you moving in next door, however...and is this room spinning, or is it me?"

"It's you, now continue," Spade said shortly.

"Web kept going on about why you would up and leave your ancestral home. Did I know what you were about? Who was the woman with you? Right stuck on it, he was. He's goosed enough that he might move that source of his soon."

"Bugger," Spade swore. He met Bones's gaze. "It'll have to be now."

"Now?" Denise blurted, forgetting to whisper.

Spade came over to her and smoothed his hand across her shoulders. "Dawn will be here in a few hours so they'll be winding down, off their guard as much as they're going to be. To wait would be riskier."

It's too soon! Denise wanted to cry out, but she pressed her lips together and nodded. She'd never feel comfortable letting Spade walk into that situation, and if it was safer now, better now than later.

"They have cameras outside the house, alarms, probably the same inside as well," Bones noted. "It won't be a surprise attack, mate. Do you have any other vampires here strong enough and trustworthy enough to join us?"

Spade nodded. "One."

Chapter Twenty-six

Spade strapped on the remainder of his silver knives. Crispin, Cat, Ian, and Alten did the same. The metal tucked away in leg-and armband sheaths or lining the holsters on their backs were the only flashes of color on their all-black ensembles. Fabian carried no weapons, of course, but he was going, too. He might not be able to fight, but the ghost would serve a huge benefit in another way.

Spade felt a surge of gratitude watching them. Crispin's loyalty was endless, as Cat's presence was testimony to. Crispin hated putting her in danger, not that his wife needed coddling. Ian, now that he'd drained the Red Dragon out of himself and drunk deeply of human blood to replenish that loss, was as lethally focused as ever. As for Alten, Spade hadn't even needed to explain the circumstances before his friend agreed to help. Spade was grateful for that day eighty years ago when he'd changed Alten over. Alten would make a fine Master of his own line, whenever he chose to leave.

Nathanial's tainted blood made attacking Web both easier and more difficult. On the plus side, Spade didn't have to worry about the law against stealing another vampire's property. Who would Web complain to? Not the Law Guardians, who'd slaughter Web the moment they found out what he had been doing with Nathanial. Web couldn't risk telling other vampires, either, out of concern that one of them would report his activities.