Lee Child - MatchUp

“What do you think you’re going to do with that?” Lucan asked, confident that the terrified human wouldn’t be able to squeeze off an accurate shot, much less one that could stop a member of the Breed.

Grainger’s fearful, bug-eyed gaze bounced between Lucan and Lilliane. “What the hell are you two?”

Lilliane’s answering smile was cold. “We’re your worst nightmare.”

Lucan nodded. “If you’re lucky, when you wake up tomorrow, that’s all this will be.”

“Fuck both of you,” Grainger shouted, overcome with a sudden burst of bravado and stupidity.

The barrel of the gun wobbled, his finger tightening on the trigger.

With his mind, Lucan whisked the weapon from the human’s hands and sent it clattering away. Grainger let out a high-pitched scream and threw himself out of his chair, frantically crawling for the door. Lilliane planted the heel of her boot in the center of the mortal’s back, pinning him to the floor.

“You’re not going anywhere,” she said. “We need to have a little talk about why you’ve been following me.”

“It wasn’t like that. It wasn’t you I was following,” Grainger sputtered, his cheek mashed into the filthy commercial tile. “Not at first, that is.”

They exchanged looks.

“Explain,” Lucan growled.

“I was on a job. Tailing a cheating husband around the Quarter.” His terrified eyes rolled up to look at Lilliane. “That’s when I noticed you and that fancy briefcase you always carried with you. I saw you going into a candle shop with it one day. And while I was watching you, I swear to God I saw the place just disappear.”

“What else did you see?” Lilliane asked.

The investigator squirmed under her foot, but she gave him no room to break loose.

“What else did you see?” Lucan demanded.

Grainger wheezed beneath her boot heel. “I started following you after that. Shadowed you for a couple of weeks. And I saw you go into that same shop again. Feu de Coeur. Except the shop was in a different place than before. An entirely different part of the city. And then I knew I wasn’t imagining things. Something odd was going on. I knew there was something odd about you. And I figured it had—”

“You figured it had what?” she asked.

“Look, we’ve all heard the rumors. Some place out in the swamp where rich folks go to get their jollies on. Either it’s some club or some weird cult. But they do all sorts of crazy stuff. Some folks come back saying it’s the drugs they were given. Others, they say it’s some crazy shit. People who can lay their hands on them and make their fantasies come true. Almost like they’re transporting them to another world. Look, I didn’t make this stuff up, I’m just saying that is a great story. We’re talking Pulitzer quality.”

Lucan grunted. “Since when do third-rate PIs give a damn about winning Pulitzers?”

“Fame is fame, my friend,” Grainger said.

“And so you decided to hire a couple of stooges to knock the lady over because you didn’t have the balls to get your own hands dirty?”

“I needed to know what would happen.”

“You needed to see if you could profit from it,” she said. “Who were you planning to sell your tape to?”

“You,” Grainger said. “I figured I could sell it to you, to protect whatever secrets you were keeping.”

Lilliane’s eyes narrowed in fury. “You weren’t out to expose the Desire Exchange. And you couldn’t have cared less about fame. All you cared about was blackmail?”

“I never expected to see everything I did tonight,” Grainger said. “I never expected to see a vampire.”

Lucan reached down and freed the man from under Lilliane’s heel. Holding him by the throat, he made sure Grainger got up close and personal with his razor-sharp canines and smoldering amber eyes. “Take a good look, because my fangs are going to be the last thing you see tonight. Right before they shred your carotid.”

“Oh, God, no. I’m begging you.”

“Then you’d better give us every bit of video you took tonight. And if I find out you already sold it to anyone or made a bunch of copies—”

“I swear, I didn’t.”

“I don’t believe him,” she said. “I vote you sever his artery anyway.”

Grainger’s eyes popped in horror. “I’m telling you the truth. You’ve got to believe me. The only footage is what’s on the card in my camera. Please, don’t kill me.”

Lucan wouldn’t murder a civilian in cold blood, no matter how tempted he might be.

He glanced at Lilliane and she arched a knowing brow. “Oh, come on, vampire. Can’t we just play with the mortal for a little while?”

He knew her well enough now to realize she was only kidding, but Grainger didn’t know that. He’d already pissed on himself once, but from the way he trembled now, Lucan wouldn’t be surprised if Grainger wet his pants all over again. Before his grin could betray him, Lucan reached out and pressed his palm to the human’s forehead.

The touch put the man into a deep trance.

“You’re no fun,” she grumbled.

“Remind me never to piss you off, Radiant.” He nodded to the video camera lying on Grainger’s desk. “You grab the memory card out of that camera and I’ll make sure we’re not leaving anything else behind here in the office.”

As she moved to carry out his instructions, Lucan called Gideon at the Order’s headquarters and explained what happened. “Grainger swears he didn’t make copies, but that’s not good enough for me. Can you wipe out all the video files he has on his computers?”

“You seriously did not just ask me that. I can do this blindfolded and with one hand tied behind my back.”

“Just do it,” Lucan said. “I’ll give you five minutes to make it happen. I’m overdue at home and I’ve got a plane to catch before sunrise.”

THANKFULLY, GIDEON ONLY NEEDED THREE minutes.

With the video camera memory card confiscated and Grainger’s hard drives infested with a virus that no one without a PhD in advanced computer science could untangle, Lucan and Lilliane stepped out of the private investigator’s office and locked up behind them as stealthily as they’d arrived.

“Mission accomplished,” she said as they paused together on the darkened street. She held the small video card between her thumb and forefinger. “To think this little piece of circuitry could’ve proven a disaster for us both.”

He arched a brow. “Not to mention for your candle maker and his unusual shop. And this Desire Exchange place.”

“You heard the man. The Desire Exchange is just about people getting together to have a little fun. It’s just about sex.”

“And whatever you do out there with your rich clients, that’s where the jars come from? And then you take them to this Bastian Drake guy so he can make more candles out of them. Even though it’s one of his candles that made you what you are.”

“I didn’t say it was a perfect arrangement. But what can I say?” She threw him a warm smile. “Extraordinary people have to find ways to work together. Right, vampire?”

“You’re working for the man who made you what you are. You’re working for the man who stole your ability to love.”

“Twelve hundred,” she whispered.

“What?”

“Twelve hundred people. That’s how many have accepted his little gift of candles. That’s how many people followed the instructions on the card and suddenly found the courage to embrace their heart’s desire. Do you want to know how many there are like me?”

He nodded.

“Twenty-three. Twelve hundred people find true love thanks to Bastian Drake and his shop. Twenty-three end up never aging another day in their lives and leaping seven-story buildings in a single bound. Whatever magic governs that shop, whatever Bastian Drake is, maybe it’s a fair trade-off in the end.”