Burke and the Vampire Read online

  “Where are we going,” the woman asked when the man turned into it.

  “To get the car, silly. It’ll be faster this way.”

  She started to protest but then nodded. Burke was sure the vampire had taken control of both of them, sending them into the dark alley where he could feed without anyone seeing him. Burke took his gun from the waistband holster hidden under his shirt, following them.

  The couple, blissfully unaware the vampire was a few feet away, went down the alley until they were behind the restaurant, where the alley dead-ended against the back of another building. The instant they were there, the vampire sprang, slamming the man against the side of a dumpster while gripping the woman’s arm to restrain her. Before either of them could react, he pulled the woman’s head back, his fangs dropping. She screamed in terror.

  That’s when Burke shot—twice. The first bullet hit the vampire in the side. He spun around, shrieking in pain as he searched for his attacker. The second bullet pierced the creature’s chest seconds later.

  * * * *

  Reynaud had barely landed on one of the rooftops along Magazine when he heard a woman scream in fear. Rising aloft again, he flew toward the sound, descending onto the roof of a building overlooking the back of a restaurant. Below him, he saw Morra had captured two humans and was about to feed on the female.

  Then, the unbelievable happened. Burke stepped into view, holding a gun. He shot once, hitting Morra but not killing him. Then, he shot again when Morra turned toward him and the rogue disintegrated, dust floating down to the alley floor.

  It can’t be. He can’t be…If Reynaud hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn’t have believed it.

  He dropped to the ground in front of the man and woman, asking Burke to stay where he was. Burke shrugged, holstering his gun while remaining a few feet away from Reynaud and the couple. Reynaud took control of their minds, wiping away any memories of what had happened, replacing them with the suggestion they had thought they were taking a shortcut to the next street and found out the alley went nowhere.

  “I told you this wasn’t the right one,” Reynaud heard the woman say as the couple returned to Magazine Street. Not that he cared, he had another problem to deal with—once he used the telepathic abilities all vampires have to communicate with each other to let his team, and Antoine, know that Morra had been eliminated.

  “Now you know,” Reynaud said, approaching Burke cautiously.

  “I knew the first time I saw you, but then you’ve probably figured that out already.”

  “Well, in the last few seconds, yes.” He crossed his arms, staring at Burke. “I’m presuming you don’t plan on killing me, since you had the chance while I was dealing with that pair.”

  “Of course not. Why would I? You haven’t attacked anyone that I know of.”

  “Is that your criteria for killing us?”

  Burke nodded. “Once I figured out some of you vampires are, well, I call it benign, I decided to leave them alone.”

  “Nice to know,” Reynaud replied dryly. “We have a name for you, you know. The Hunter.”

  “I didn’t know. How would I?” Burke looked hard at Reynaud. “Are you going to kill me, now that you’ve found me? I won’t go down without a fight.” He put his hand behind his back and Reynaud knew he was ready to pull his gun if he felt he had to.

  “I—” Reynaud tapped his chest, “—have no desire to eliminate you. Unfortunately there are others who might not be quite so lenient. You have killed some of us who didn’t deserve it.”

  “Then they must have been feeding,” Burke replied angrily.

  Reynaud shook his head. “They were…” He paused. “Look, unless you like hanging out next to a very odiferous dumpster, how about we find somewhere else to talk.”

  Burke sniffed. “It’s not that bad.”

  “Try it from the standpoint of a vampire with a very sensitive nose.”

  Burke nodded. “Point made. If we want privacy, which we do, my house isn’t too far from here.”

  “That sounds good to me,” Reynaud replied. “Give me the address and I’ll meet you there.”

  “Where did you park?” When Reynaud hesitated, Burke said, “I bet you flew here, or whatever you call it. You can ride with me. It might not be faster, but at least I know you’ll show up.”

  “I said going to your place was okay with me,” Reynaud replied disgustedly. “Don’t you trust me?”

  “Strangely enough, I do. Okay, fly away.” Burke flicked his fingers. “I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

  “No, no, I’ll ride with you.”

  “Jeez, make up your mind. Come on. I’m parked a few blocks from here.”

  * * * *

  “Nice house,” Reynaud commented when they were seated in Burke’s living room, once Burke had invited him inside. “At least what I’ve seen of it.”

  “I’ll give you a guided tour later. Right now, however, we need to talk about other things.”

  “Such as how you are able to find us,” Reynaud replied.

  “And why you think I’ve killed vampires who weren’t feeding, which I never, and I mean never do.”

  “I disagree. That said, I have the feeling I know why you took out one of my team. They’re searching for you, at my orders, because we decided the only way to bring you out of the shadows was to make it appear as if they were going to feed on an innocent human and then kill you before you could take out any more of us.”

  “Not exactly your smartest move, all things considered,” Burke said dryly.

  “I’ll admit to that, although the members of my team are well trained in avoidance. Apparently, in his case, not as well trained as I would have liked.”

  “He may have seen me close by, but to any vampire I’m just another ordinary human until it’s too late for them to realize otherwise.” Burke chuckled. “That’s undoubtedly how you think of me, as ordinary—or did before tonight.”

  “Hardly ordinary or we wouldn’t have become friends, which I think we are,” Reynaud replied with smile before he sobered. “Why are you able to tell who is or isn’t a vampire?”

  “Four years ago I was attacked and ended up in a coma. The best I can figure is that the damage to my brain awakened something. Why, and why me, I have no clue. All I know is, after I recovered I discovered, much to my horror at first, that there are creatures…” Burke hesitated when Reynaud grimaced. “Sorry. Probably not a word I should use to describe vampires, now that I know you.”

  “To most humans that’s exactly what we are,” Reynaud replied bitterly. “We aren’t terribly fond of that designation, but it is what it is. Believe it or not, most of us are what you’ve been calling benign.”

  “I’ve figured that out,” Burke told him. “Again, how I know which ones are is something I don’t understand, but I do.”

  “Can you read our minds?”

  Burke shook his head. “No. Can you read mine? That is an ability vampires have, from what I understand.”

  “I haven’t tried because I never had a reason. Do you want me to?”

  “Good God, no!”

  “Then I won’t, unless I think the situation warrants it.”

  Burke nodded before saying, “The vampire I killed tonight felt much more vicious than most of the ones I’ve dealt with.”

  “Because he was. He was a true rogue, not just a vampire who likes to feed from humans, which, by the way, is forbidden.”

  “Then how do you survive?” Burke asked, puzzled.

  “Apparently whatever you read while researching us, and I’m presuming that’s what you did, didn’t mention bagged blood. It’s been well over one hundred years since we’ve had to rely on feeding from a live host.”

  “In that case, why…?”

  “The ones you’ve killed, excluding that member of my team, were probably either Fledglings who wanted to find out what it was like, in spite of the fact their Sires would have told them it was forbidden. Or, they were older one
s who miss the thrill of the hunt.”

  “Those ones should be eliminated,” Burke replied emphatically. “I mean the older ones. The kids?” He frowned.

  “That is on their Sires’ shoulders. They should have kept better track of them,” Reynaud said sourly. “They may only have been experimenting because they were curious, but there’s a possibility they may have decided they liked the taste of fresh blood from the source. After that, if someone saw them feeding or if they didn’t successfully wipe the mind of their victim, our presence in the human world could have been revealed. Not something we want to happen, for obvious reasons.”

  “The one I killed tonight, the rogue you called him, must not have cared.”

  “His name was Dario Morra, and like most rogues he didn’t give a damn. They are out for themselves for whatever reason, enjoying both the hunt and the terror they instill in their victims. In general, they kill them and then leave the bodies for humans to find. If we’re lucky, we find the bodies first and either dispose of them or make it seem as if the victim has been attacked by rabid dogs or hungry rats.”

  Burke shuddered. “Wouldn’t a coroner be able to tell that wasn’t the case?”

  “We do know what we’re doing. It’s a tried and true trick we’ve implemented over the centuries.”

  Studying him, as he had several times since he’d met him, Burke asked, “How old are you?”

  “I was turned in 1699 by my lover, to save my life.” Reynaud smiled. “I suppose some would say I’m not alive now, but I am. All of us are. We’re just different from what we were before our turnings.”

  Burke did a quick calculation. “So you’re three-hundred and nineteen, plus however old you were before that happened.”

  “Twenty-seven, making me almost three hundred and fifty.”

  “Not that old, for a vampire.”

  Reynaud grimaced. “Not all that young, either. It’s not as if there are thousands of us who are Old or Ancient ones. I am merely Middle Aged.”

  Burke snorted. “I should look so good when I reach middle-age. I have another question. You mentioned your team. What are they, specifically?”

  “Vampires, of course,” Reynaud replied with a grin. “Other than that, they work with me to keep our presence a secret from humans. It includes patrolling our territory to look for the same problems you do. If we’re too late, and the attacker stupidly did not wipe the memories of their victims or heal the bite wounds, we do that to their victim before hunting them down.”

  “Do you kill them?” Burke asked.

  “We try to show them the error of their ways, first. If we can’t, then yes, we eliminate them.”

  “You said your territory. Does that mean the whole city or part of it?”

  “The part my King controls, from the French Quarter through to the western edge of the Garden District.”

  “Ah, so you’re not the big boss. Is he the guy you claimed you worked for as a bodyguard?”

  “Yes,” Reynaud replied ruefully. “It was the first thing I could think of when you asked. After all, I needed a reason why I wouldn’t be around during the day.”

  “Like when I asked if you’d taken one of the riverboat tours.”

  “Yes. Especially for that. While vampires are able to cross running water, over a bridge or on a boat or a plane, we don’t like to. Falling into it, or being pushed, is not a good thing. Our soul will become trapped there forever if that happens.”

  “You have…? Never mind, of course you have a soul, stories to the contrary. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t care about anyone, human or otherwise.”

  “Precisely,” Reynaud agreed. “Now, what else would you like to know?”

  “Are we still on for tomorrow night?”

  Laughing, Reynaud replied, “That was somewhat of a non sequitur. We are as far as I’m concerned.”

  “Good. That means you won’t be telling your King you’ve found me.”

  “Unfortunately, I have no choice. He is my King and I owe him my allegiance. We are also good friends since well before he became the King. When that happened, he made me his second-in-command.”

  “In that case, if he tells you to eliminate me you’ll do it,” Burke said angrily—and fearfully as well.

  “No. I’ll convince him it would be a waste of a good human who can be a help to us.”

  “Me? How?” Burke replied, his anger abating somewhat, although he wasn’t ready to relinquish it, or his fear, until he knew what Reynaud meant.

  “You’re very good at what you do and you have one advantage over us. As you said, vampires don’t know you’re around until it’s too late.”

  “Doesn’t the same hold true for you?”

  “Only if the one in question is a good deal younger than me. If I had been close, well closer, when Morra attacked that couple he would have sensed me. That doesn’t mean he would have fled. In fact, he probably would have killed them outright in order to prove he was powerful enough to do it in front of me before I could stop him, and then he’d have escaped.”

  “You’d have gone after him, right?”

  Reynaud shook his head. “He would have vanished to who knows where while I dealt with their bodies. As I told you, I’d have needed to. If I arrived before he killed them, we would have fought.” He smiled dryly. “Hopefully I’d have come out the victor. Then his hold on them would have been destroyed, at which point I’d have wiped their memories and sent them on their way.”

  “Does fighting happen often?” Burke didn’t like the idea, especially when it came to Reynaud.

  “No. But when it does, it can be brutal. If vampires could scar, I’d have quite a few to show you.”

  Burke shuddered. “I think I’ll stick to my hit-and-run method.”

  “You do it very well.”

  “Says the vampire with grudging admiration.”

  “Not really,” Reynaud replied. “True, I lost a good man because of you, but that was our fault for not planning things down to the last detail. We should have realized there was a great deal more to you that we thought.” He pressed his fingertips together, studying Burke. “Would you…do you trust me enough to allow me to take you to meet the King?”

  “I think so. You haven’t killed me, and I’m quite certain you could have at any time since we got here. I don’t know if you can mesmerize me, but as fast as you can move, I couldn’t even reach for my gun before you were on me.”

  Reynaud smiled slowly. “Put that way it does give me an interesting image.”

  It took Burke as second to get what he meant. “You’re kidding, right?”

  “I am. Even if I was interested in you in that way, and I’m not admitting I am, it wouldn’t work. We’re too different.”

  “No shit.” Burke said the words, but in the back of his mind he wondered if he would accept it if Reynaud…Propositioned me? Wanted to expand our friendship to something more? He won’t, though. As he said, we’re too different—in too many ways to count. “Back to your question. If you can guarantee I’ll come out of it alive, I’m willing to meet the King. Does he have a name beyond that?”

  “Of course. It’s Antoine.”

  Chapter 5

  “Turn right,” Reynaud said, gesturing to a heavy gate imbedded in a tall cream brick wall. “Then stop.”

  “No. I thought I’d crash through it,” Burke replied sardonically, trying to hide his apprehension.

  “You’re afraid, aren’t you?” Reynaud patted Burke’s leg. “Don’t be. He’s not stupid. He wouldn’t be the King if he were. He’ll understand why I brought you with me.”

  “If he doesn’t, I’m toast.” Burke smiled weakly as Reynaud got out of the car to enter the code in the security box by the gate. By the time he’d returned, the gate had swung open.

  “Damn.” Burke whistled in amazement when he saw a plantation house, lighted by the car’s headlights, at the end of a long driveway. Two flights of stairs curved up to a veranda, which ran the length of the hous
e. Tall pillars rose from it to a balcony with a white, wrought iron railing on the second level. “It’s exactly like the houses you see in movies about the old South,” he said.

  “Probably because it’s been here since the Civil War,” Reynaud replied. “Pull up and park in front, please.”

  Burke did, and then Reynaud escorted him up the stairs to the front door. It opened as they reached it, revealing a vampire in black livery.

  “The King is in the library,” he told Reynaud.

  Reynaud thanked him and he and Burke walked through the huge entryway, past a large and very ornate living room to a doorway beyond it. Opening it, Reynaud ushered Burke into a room that had floor to ceiling bookcases on the two long side walls. Directly in front of them was a large bay window with heavy drapes which were open, letting in the moonlight. A slender, dark-haired man was seated at a desk in front of the window. He stood, coming to greet Reynaud with a hug. Then he turned his attention to Burke, one eyebrow raised in question.

  “Antoine,” Reynaud said, “I’d like you to meet Burke Gareau or as you know him…” He paused, putting his hand on Burke’s shoulder. “The Hunter.”

  “I hope you have him under your control, Reynaud,” Antoine replied, scowling at Burke.

  Burke took a deep breath. “No, I’m here of my own free will.”

  “Before you think I’m crazy,” Reynaud said quickly, “As you know, Morra has been taken care of, but what I didn’t tell you was that Burke was responsible for his death. He did it in front of me although he wasn’t aware I was there until after he’d killed him.”

  “That does not excuse the fact he had murdered quite a few of us before tonight.”

  “Hear us out, please,” Reynaud said.

  With a sharp nod, Antoine gestured to a cluster of armchairs at one side of the room. When they were seated, he said, “Explain.”

  Reynaud did, with Burke’s help. Antoine listened, frowning occasionally, but remained silent until they were finished. Then he said, “How can I believe a word you’ll telling me, Mr. Gareau, when I’m unable to read you to know if you’re telling me the truth?” He turned to Reynaud. “Why do you believe him?”