Charlaine Harris - Deadlocked

“You didn’t tel Eric that, did you?”

Bil shrugged. “I didn’t need his permission. It doesn’t matter now, anyway. Felipe won’t have Colton after tonight.” He brandished the bag he’d brought.

“Why?”

“Because you and I are going to kidnap him back.”

“And do what with him?” Colton was a pretty nice guy, and he hadn’t had what anyone would think was an easy life. I didn’t want to rescue him from Felipe only to find that Bil planned to remove Colton as a witness in a very final way.

“I have it al planned. But we have to act quickly. I’ve texted Harp to tel him we have to reschedule. I think this is more important than asking him questions about Kym’s parents.”

I had to agree.

“Say we get Colton out,” I said, as we hustled toward Bil ’s car. “What about Immanuel? Can they track him in Los Angeles?” Immanuel the hairdresser, also human, had been there that night, since Victor’s cruelty had led to his sister’s death.

“He got work on the set of a television show. Ironical y, it’s about vampires and most of the shooting takes place at night. Two members of the crew are actual y vampires. I put Immanuel under the care of one of them. He’l be guarded.”

“How’d you arrange that?”

“Coincidence. It happens,” Bil said. “And you’re the other human, but you can’t be glamoured. So if we can just get Colton away and find Warren

…”

“Since Warren never came into Fangtasia the night we kil ed Victor,” I said, “I don’t believe his abduction has anything to do with Victor’s death. I think Warren was snatched just to force Mustapha to let Kym Rowe in the back door of Eric’s house.” I had enough lightbulbs popping over my head to il uminate an operating room. “What do you think?”

“I think we have a lot of questions,” Bil said. “Now let’s go find out some answers.”

Our first stop was my house, where I left Jannalynn’s jacket and opened the bag Bil had brought.

“Good God,” I said in disgust. “I got to wear that?”

“Part of the plan,” Bil said, though he was smiling.

I stomped into my room and pul ed on the blue “flirty” skirt, which began wel below my navel and ended about two inches below my happy place.

The “blouse”—and it was a blouse in name only—was white with red trim and tied between my breasts. It was just like a bra with sleeves. I put on white Nikes with red trim, which was the best match I had on my shoe rack. There sure wasn’t any pocket in this outfit, so I stuck the cluviel dor in my shoulder bag. While I was preparing for this secret mission, I put my phone on vibrate so it couldn’t ring at an awkward moment. I looked in the bathroom mirror. I was as ready as I’d ever be.

I felt ridiculously self-conscious when I came into the living room wearing the abbreviated outfit.

“You look just right,” Bil said soberly, and I caught the corner of his mouth twitching. I had to laugh.

“I hope Sam doesn’t decide we ought to dress this way at Merlotte’s,” I said.

“You would have a ful house every night,” Bil said.

“Not unless I lost some weight.” My glance in the mirror had reminded me that my stomach was not exactly concave.

“You look mouthwatering,” Bil said, and to make his point his fangs came down. He tactful y closed his mouth.

“Oh, wel .” I tried to accept this as an impersonal tribute, though I don’t think any woman minds knowing she looks good, as long as the admiration isn’t expressed in an offensive way and doesn’t come from a disgusting source. “We better get going.”

The Trifecta, a hotel/casino on the east side of Shreveport, was the closest thing the town had to “glamorous.” At night it glowed silver with so many lights I was sure you could see it from the moon. Since the lot was ful , we were forced to park outside the fenced employee parking area. But the gate was open and unguarded at the moment, so we simply walked through the lot and right up to the very prosaic beige metal door that was the employee entrance.

There was a keypad outside. Though I felt dismayed, Bil didn’t seem worried. He looked down at his watch and then knocked on the door. There were some faint beeps inside, and Palomino swung the door open. She was balancing a room service tray on one hand. Laden as it was, that was an impressive achievement.

The young vampire was wearing the same outfit I was, and she looked mouthwatering in it. But at the moment, her appearance was the last thing on her mind. “Get in!” she snapped, and Bil and I entered the grungy back corridor. If you got to enter the Trifecta as a guest, it was glittery and gleaming and ful of the constant machine noise and the frantic human yearning for pleasure that fil s al casinos. But that wasn’t for us, not tonight.

Wordlessly, Palomino set off at a fast clip. I noticed that she was able to balance the tray perfectly, no matter how much her speed picked up. I scurried after the two vampires along the beige-painted corridors, marred with scratches and chips. Everyone back here was in a hurry to get where they needed to be, either at a work station or out the back door to go somewhere more pleasant. They were saving their smiles for people they cared about. I saw a half-remembered face among the grim horde, and after I passed I recal ed that she was one of the Long Tooth pack. She didn’t let on by a twitch or a smile that she knew who I was.

Palomino strode ahead of us, her light-brown skin looking warm even though she’d been dead for years, her pale hair bouncing over a depressingly tight butt. We hustled onto a huge elevator. Instead of being lined with mirrors and shiny rails, this one was padded. The staff elevator was obviously used for bringing up palettes of food and other heavy items.

“I hate this fucking job,” Palomino said as she jabbed a button. She glared at Bil .

“It’s only for a little while,” he said, and from his voice I could tel he’d told her the same thing many times before. “And then you can quit. You can quit dating the Were, too.”

She was mol ified and even managed to smile. “He’s on the fifth floor, in 507,” she said. “I walked al over this damn hotel tracking him, but since they didn’t station guards outside the room, I couldn’t pinpoint it until last night when I took in the room service tray.”

“You’ve done a good job. Eric wil be grateful,” Bil said.

Her smile glowed even brighter. “Good! That’s what I was hoping! Now Rubio and Parker may get a chance to show their skil s.” The two vampires were her nestmates. They were not great fighters. I hoped they did have other skil s.

“I’l present that to Eric in the most urgent terms,” Bil promised.

The staff elevator stopped, and Palomino handed the tray to me. I had to use both my hands. Lots of food and three drinks weighed it down. She pressed the Doors Closed button and began to talk very quickly.

“Keep your head turned away, and they’l think you’re me,” she said.

“No one would think that,” I said, but after a second I could sort of see it.

Palomino was natural y brown, and I was very tan. Palomino’s hair was paler than mine, but mine was as abundant and long. We were much the same height and build, and we were wearing identical outfits.

“I’m going to go be conspicuous out front,” she said. “Give me three minutes to get within sight of the security cameras. I’l meet you at the back door ten minutes after that. Now, get off the elevator so I can go.”

We got off. Bil held the tray for me while I took my hair out of its ponytail and shook my head from side to side to increase my resemblance to the vampire.

“As long as you had her here, why couldn’t she have done this?” I hissed.