Anthony Francis - Frost Moon

Savannah looked at Darkrose, who just shrugged.

"Good bodyguards are hard to find," she said. "I would never argue with a man who would take a bullet for me, much less a human willing to guard my daytime resting place rather than put a stake in me at the first opportunity. Vickman's word stands."

I stared into my own drink. I knew how important this trip was to them. They were going to Johannesburg, where 'Saffron' would formally petition Darkrose's former master to release Darkrose, so she could join Saffron's court. It had taken a year of delicate negotiations and a huge payout by Delancaster to make this trip happen, but the end result would be the end of animosity between vampires on either side of the Atlantic and… and the beginning of a new life of happiness for my ex-girlfriend and her lover.

I couldn't begrudge them going. But right at that moment, I was scared shitless for Wulf, by Wulf, and by whatever other forces lurked out there around him.

"The full moon is just tomorrow night," I pleaded. "Can't you delay the trip for at least forty-eight hours?"

"We could move the meet to the festival," Savannah said thoughtfully. "It's not too late to charter a direct flight to Sunday-"

"Yes, it is," Darkrose snapped. "Delancaster is already in the air."

"We've been planning for Darkrose to go back to the South African Court for eighteen months now," Vickman said. "This is a coordinated operation. We can't stop now. We especially can't leave your master hanging around in South Africa alone, no matter how good his own bodyguards are."

Savannah scowled, but slowly nodded. Then she looked up at me.

"So…" she asked. "You going to be OK?"

I stared at my coffee glumly. What was the saying? Unexpected danger on my part didn't constitute an emergency on her part? Maybe that was unfair, but until last week Savannah and I hadn't even been speaking, and now here I was asking her to shitcan her trip out of the country, inconvenience her whole entourage, piss off her boss and maybe even screw up her future… just because someone was trying to kill me.

But in all honesty, Savannah's protection hadn't helped me much so far, not even when she'd been standing in the same room as the shooter. Even this damn collar was just a warning to whoever decided to break me that Savannah would pick up the pieces-a deterrent, not an actual shield. Even if she stayed, I was still effectively on my own.

"No, I'll be OK," I said, pulling at my collar. The metal was surprisingly unyielding and the rubber on its inside was damp with sweat. I hadn't realized I was that nervous. "Worst comes to worst, I can always call on the Oakdale Clan-"

"Oakdale?" Vickman said. "Wasn't it one of their fangs that took a chunk out of you? Ain't that why you took the collar?"

"You have it backwards," I said. "They're OK. In fact they punished Transomnia for hassling me. That's why he was pissed and took out his revenge on me."

"Calaphase is on the lookout for him," Savannah said. "You know? Calaphase turned out all right."

"That he did," Darkrose said.

I stewed. At first I'd been infuriated when I'd been forced to take Savannah's protection, but now the thought of her and her coterie being gone for a week was… unsettling. Then a horrible thought hit me. "Wait a minute," I said. "If you're gone next week, how will you vote?"

Darkrose looked confused; Vickman's mouth opened. Vote in the ordinary November elections, as if that aspect of the greater world mattered to their kind? But Savannah just shook her head. "Oh, Dakota," she said, eerily like Jinx. "What am I going to do with you?"

Vickman's watch beeped. "It's time," he said, standing. He carried no suitcase, just a small shoulder bag. Then Darkrose's talldark-and-handsome human servant stood, managing the carry-ons. Finally the vampires rose: Savannah, in her simple red leather dress, goggles hanging about her throat, and Darkrose, in a heavy layered coat and cloak that was practically a burqua when she pulled the hood up.

"Sorry to see you go," I said, standing awkwardly. I still wasn't used to how eerily coordinated the two of them were. Had Savannah and I been that way, once, or was it a vampire thing? "Surprised you don't have Doug pulling a pack."

"Doug's a human grad student," Savannah said, "not my enthralled servant. He doesn't have time for all this gallivanting."

"And you do?" I asked. "Are you ever going to get your Ph. D in vampirology?"

"Some day," she said. "But not today."

We stood there, staring at each other.

"Oh, quit being a pain in my ass and give me a hug," Savannah said, stepping in and squeezing me about the waist so that all my air left with a whoosh. "Take care, Dakota."

I waved awkwardly and watched them walk off. I expected to see Savannah look back and wave to me, but she was lost, chatting with Darkrose, who gave her a warm hug.

I sighed, stared down at the table, at my rapidly cooling coffee. I swept it up and finished it in one forced gulp, then considered finishing the dregs of Savannah's Bloody Mary. What the hell. I wouldn't be driving for at least half an hour. I picked it up, finished it, staring at the grainy tomato juice draining off the bottom of the glass, then slammed it down and tossed a few more coins on top of the tip we'd left on the table. Then I picked up my cane and started limping back towards the MARTA station at the end of the airport terminal.

On the way, I took stock. Rand was already working the angle on the shooter, but he was only good against mortal threats. If Transomnia attacked again, I was toast, but if I had some warning, I could go to Calaphase for help-that little shit was now a big embarrassment to him. If, at the werehouse, one of the Bear King's kindred got rowdy, I could count on Buck. I might even be able to ask for Buck's help if Wulf turned out to be behind the killings. If not. .. the full moon hit zenith in less than twenty-seven hours, and took to the sky in even less. Even if I could get the tattoo prepared, I had no way of finding him.

The train slid into the station, a long, smooth, well-lit machine, a pinnacle of modern technology. Then my eyes lit up.

There was someone who knew where Wulf lived.

"Philip," I said into my cell when he picked up. I sat down in one of the back-to-back seats near the middle of the car, and other passengers filed in, one taking the seat just behind me. "It's Dakota. What's that noise? Sounds like a Starbucks. Can I meet you?"

"Not unless you're willing to ride that Vespa all the way to North Carolina," he said, voice raised slightly to overcome the sound of a blender in the background. "And 'that noise' is a helicopter I couldn't even admit existed until nine months ago."

My skin grew cold. "What's happened?"

"We got a lead, Dakota," he said, sounding not at all happy. "A pizza parlor employee was abducted a few hours ago in Charlotteheavily tattooed, snatched just after moonrise, so… we're riding to the rescue."

"You go, Philip," I said softly. "Did the pizza guy have magical tattoos?"

"Oh yeah, and get this-he had one done by Sumner," he said. "Similar to the one you saw. This is exactly what we've seen before, from the distance between attacks to the victim type down to the lead time to full moon. It fits the profile perfectly."

He didn't say the cliche, but I could hear it in his voice. "Too perfectly?" I asked. "Jeez, Philip, you don't think it's some kind of trap?"

"I want to think it's a distraction," Philip said, sounding angry and disgusted. "Damn goose chase, in fact. But there's a life on the line. I can't let another person die because I sat on a lead."

My eyebrows raised. Another person? "You do what you have to, Philip," I said. But his reference kept bugging at me, and finally I asked, "Another person… do you mean Spleen?"