Cameron Haley - Mob rules

"The big guy? Do you know his name?"

Adan shook his head. "I don't know him, but I think he's like a captain or whatever. Like you, I guess. He comes in here the most, sometimes by himself and sometimes with others. Anyway, he's black and just a really big dude."

There was one gangster in Papa Danwe's outfit who matched that description pretty well. Terrence Cole, one of Papa Danwe's lieutenants. He was the kind of guy who made a lasting impression.

"Did you ever see Jamal talking to this guy-or any of Papa Danwe's boys?"

"No, other than the girls and when he was hanging out with me, Jamal mostly kept to himself."

I guess that would have been too easy. "Okay. Thanks, Adan, this is really helpful."

"Why are you asking? Is Jamal in some kind of trouble?"

I decided not to tell him, at least not yet. If his father wanted him to know about outfit business, he could tell Adan himself. He'd eventually hear about it anyway. I changed the subject.

"Do you have a girlfriend?" I groaned inwardly. It had been the first thing that came to mind.

"No. I did in college, but it didn't work out. It's hard to find someone, you know?"

I nodded.

"What about you?" Adan asked. "Boyfriend? Is there a Mr. Domino?"

I smiled and shook my head. "The only guys I meet are gangsters. It's hard to find someone to bring home to Momma."

He laughed, tilting his head back so the strobes danced in his liquid-brown eyes. "Does your mom know what you do?"

"Yeah, she's always known. She's just glad I have a job."

"She probably worries about you. You're her baby girl. This line of work, it's gotta freak her out."

I shrugged. I didn't tell him my mom was a fortune-teller, a good one. Mom probably knew more about my life and my future than I wanted to think. Then again, maybe not-the fortune-telling game is notoriously unreliable, even for Mom.

I'd probably learned as much as I was going to, and really, that was more than I expected. I'd found a connection between Jamal and Papa Danwe's outfit. Maybe Jamal was doing business with Papa Danwe. Maybe the kid had unknowingly picked up one of Terrence Cole's girlfriends and tied her to the bondage rack in his apartment. I could see Jamal getting himself squeezed for something like that.

And then there was the Vampire Fred. I couldn't probe his mind as I could a normal human's, probably because his brain was as dead as the rest of him. But I didn't like him. I didn't like him lurking around my boss's son. I didn't know exactly what Jamal had been up to in the club, but I didn't like the apparent coincidence of an unaligned supernatural creature hanging out in the place-hanging out with Papa Danwe's guys. I was itching to connect Fred to the murder in some way.

Mostly, though, I didn't want the undead piece of shit with Adan. Maybe it wasn't any of my business, but I thought his father would want me to step up. Okay, maybe I had ulterior motives. Maybe it was some maternal, protective part of me screaming to get involved. Or maybe it was the romantically challenged part. I was sure it was what the maverick in the cop shows would do, so it had that going for it.

"Do you think your friends would mind if we got out of here?" I asked. I'd planned to wait until the end of the song to make my move, but I think the same damn song had been playing since I walked into the club.

Adan's arms tightened around me and he breathed in my ear. "I don't think I care what they think, Domino."

We left the club without returning to the table. Fred, of course, was leaning against my car when we got outside. My vintage 1965 Lincoln Continental convertible with the original Arctic White paint. The vampire gave me the Look-the usual vamp shtick that would make a mortal woman his willing slave or whatever. To me he just looked like a really pale and very gay fashion model.

"Scratch the paint and I'll shove a stake far enough up your ass to pick the blood clots out of your teeth." I smiled and tucked my arm inside Adan's. "Fred," I added.

I'd like to say Fred sensed my great power and backed down. I'd like to say he recognized the more dangerous predator and submitted to the law of the jungle. But he didn't. Fred made a move.

There aren't a lot of vampires in L.A. They don't like gathering in large numbers-too much competition for food. But when it comes to vampires, popular culture is so full of shit I don't even know where to begin. I'll mention just two things in passing.

First, humans haven't believed in monsters for a long time, but in the twenty-first century, we've taken it one step further. We've rehabilitated the bastards. These days, vampires aren't really monsters; they're just tragically hip antiheroes with unusual diets. They sip daintily from cherished and willing blood donors and pine away for their lost humanity.

Well, vampirism isn't a disease. It's not a virus, or a genetic disorder or any other ridiculous pseudoscientific rationalization. Vampirism is blood magic. It's a necromantic shortcut to immortality and a limited range of superpowers. Vampires are just ex-human sociopaths who lacked the juice to become real sorcerers.

Second, in the supernatural food chain of the underworld, vampires are pussies.

The instant Fred leaned away from my car, I triggered the repulsion spell stored in the silver gangster ring on my right pinkie. The ring was a preloaded talisman, allowing me to cast the spell with only the barest concentration and no witty quotation.

So when the Vampire Fred launched himself at me with catlike speed and preternatural fury, the repulsion spell met him halfway and used his own kinetic energy-plus a little extra-to throw him over my Lincoln, across the street and into the storefront of an overpriced flower shop.

"This'll just take a second," I said to Adan, and then I went after Fred.

By the time I crossed the street, the vampire was standing up and brushing flower petals and broken glass from his suit. He saw me approach and dropped into a predatory crouch, fangs bared and ready for battle.

Still about twenty feet away, I casually extended my hand, palm up, toward the Vampire Fred. "Vi Victa Vis," I said. That's Cicero-sometimes I bust out the Latin. The force spell hit Fred in the sternum and knocked him through the back of the flower shop into the skin-care clinic on the other side of the drywall.

This time, Fred was a little slower getting up. It's another myth of popular culture that vampires are fucking bulletproof. They're tougher than humans and they heal quickly when they're fed, but their bones still break when you hit them hard enough. Fred's left shoulder was dislocated and his right leg was twisted at an unnatural angle.

"All movements go too far," I said, picking him up with the telekinesis spell and flipping him back through the flower shop and out into the street. There was the screech of rubber against pavement and a double thump as the Vampire Fred was run over by a Mercedes before he could crawl out of the way. Oops.

I made my way back through the trashed flower shop, pausing to pick out a red rose for Adan. The Benz was stopped but the driver wasn't getting out of the car. Fred was struggling to peel himself off the asphalt. I guess five hundred years of owning mortals had made him a little stubborn.

"A great flame follows a little spark," I said, and a grapefruit-size sphere of fusion fire appeared, spinning like a miniature sun above my upturned hand. I let Fred get a good look at it.

"You might want to stay down, Fred, so I don't have to cook your pasty ass."

Fred's jaw clenched, whether in pain or frustration I wasn't sure. I could see the pride and survival instinct, both honed over centuries, warring in his eyes. He looked at me. He looked at the fire. Survival won.

Like I said, vampires are pussies.