Chapter Seven
London, England 1811
Giacomo walked through his mother's rose garden while he thought about his promise to his mother about not hunting the creatures that roam the night and his stomach churned in a tight knot. Knowing about what had happened to Marcus made his resolve to destroy all things that prey on innocent people burn in his heart as he rested his hand on the handle of the sword at his hip and his heart thudded hard against his ribs. He walked along the path when he heard something and looked up to see a falcon sitting on a branch in the old elm tree. Giacomo slowly walked closer as the falcon looked at him when it flew down then landed on the arm of the marble statue of Athena. His mother had statues commissioned to represent the Gods of Olympus and he would tease her about her naming them wrong, seeing that his family originally came from Rome.
"Considering that's really Minerva," he softly said when he looked at the falcon and noticed there were five black feathers forming a cross on the falcon's chest. "Cross?"
The falcon seemed to answer to the name as it titled its head to one side and Giacomo carefully reached out and stroked the feathers on the top of Cross' head. They locked eyes as Giacomo sensed there was more to the falcon than met the eye when the falcon flew into the air and Giacomo watched the falcon fly away. Sighing, he placed his hands behind his back and started walking back to the house.
"Darcy, did you see where the bird went?" Peter shouted as he led Cassandra toward the young woman and Darcy pointed toward the top of one of the light fixtures. Cassandra walked to the fixture when she whistled and Cross flew down and landed on her wrist. She hushed Cross while looking at Peter and he was pacing back and forth, grumbling to himself.
"What the hell happened?" Darcy asked as he looked at her then at Cassandra and sighed.
"I'm not sure, but I'm going to find out," Peter said then walked to Cassandra and held his hand out. "Care to join me?"
"Ah, no, I think I'll just go get out of this outfit then go home," she said as Peter nodded his head and headed for the lift. She watched his ass swaying side to side as a small smile crossed her lips and Darcy gently nudged her.
"Look but don't touch. You don't know where he's been," Darcy said as Cassandra watched her walk away then flipped her off. Cassandra felt like there was more to Peter Vincent then just bad attitude when she headed for the women's dressing room and sighed.
The ping of the lift door opening made Jane look up as she watched Peter walk into the living room and removed the wig, placing the wig on the top of the statue of a naked woman straddled on a snake.
"What happened?" she asked, getting up off the chair and followed him to the bar. He removed the sideburns, moustache and beard and placed them on the top of the bar.
"I don't know. Where's Charlie?" he asked and she saw concern in his eyes.
"He's upstairs," she said when Peter pour some Midori in a glass then drank a mouthful and headed for the stairs.
"Charlie, get your ass down here!" he shouted as Jane walked to stand next to him and they heard Charlie coming down the stairs. He stood in front of Peter when he saw the concern in Peter's eyes and folded his arms over his chest.
"I didn't do it," he said while Peter paced back and forth then looked at him and frowned.
"You didn't do what?" he asked and Charlie sighed, rolling his eyes.
"Whatever it is you're pissed about," Charlie said and Peter gave him a blank look.
"Ooooh-kay, well, whatever you think you did, I forgive you. Now, I need you to come with me because…." Peter said then looked at Jane and she smiled, rolling her eyes.
"Ah, this is fang business. I'm going upstairs," Jane said then went upstairs and Peter looked at Charlie with a confused look on his face.
"What the hell is she talking about?" he asked and Charlie smiled.
"She means whatever you want me to help you with has to do with vampires," he said and Peter arched his eyebrows up and gave him a slightly stunned look on his face.
"Ah, well, that's what I want to find out. Come on. We're going down to security," Peter said as Charlie sighed then nodded and they walked toward the lift.
Peter had made friends with all the security guards that worked at the Hard Rock and he softly whistled while he and Charlie walked down the hallway and he had his hands behind his back. He had washed the tattoos off his neck and chest and changed into his blue and white windbreaker and smiled at the looks some of the women had given him while walking through the lobby.
"Guess I should have changed out of my leather pants," he thought when they came to the door that lead to the hotel security room when he heard voices coming from behind the door and stopped Charlie.
"Then you explain what's going on," one of the voices said while Peter knocked on the door and the voices stopped. He stood back when the door opened and a tall, young man with blonde hair cut close to his scalp looked at him and Peter smiled. The young man was wearing a black t-shirt with SECURITY on the front, tight jeans and white converse sneakers and he looked at Peter then at Charlie and sighed.
"Evening, Jack. Is there something wrong?" Peter asked and Jack Becker sighed, looking back in the room.
"We were looking at the footage from your show, Mister Vincent," he said and Peter nodded.
"And you were having a wank while watching my girls again?" Peter teased and Jack glared at him. "Sorry, what's wrong?"
"That's what we're trying to find out," Jack said as he opened the door to let them into the room and Charlie looked around the room. The walls, tile floor and ceiling were stark white with light fixtures embedded in the ceiling and a shiver moved through Charlie as he thought about the hidden rooms in Jerry's house. Several chairs sat in front of a table that was under the multiple monitors showing the entire hotel. The penthouse and guest rooms were the only thing not on the monitors and Charlie saw the dance room. He hadn't been in there since what happened with Jerry and Amy and he felt a hand on his shoulder, making him look at Peter, who gave him a sympathetic look.
"I'm ok," Charlie whispered as Peter nodded then walked to the table and looked at the screen. On the screen was the show room and he looked at himself, Cassandra and Cross on the stage.
"Do you have audio?" he asked the young man with black hair that was sitting to his left and the young man nodded. He heard his voice ask for a volunteer and his skin crawled when he heard the voice saying "I'll do it." and a cold shiver moved through him.
"Fuck, that sounds like a growl," the young man said and Peter nodded. Peter sat on the chair when he looked at Jack then at the others and sat back in the chair, folding his arms over his chest.
"Look, this might sound like bullshit but can you guys leave?" Peter asked as they looked at each other and Peter sighed, rolling his eyes. "I'll give you the cell numbers for my girls if you do!"
Charlie got out of the way as the young men bolted out of the room and Charlie closed the door then walked to the chairs. Peter had hit the pause button to stop the video before sending the others out of the room while he watched Charlie sit down next to him and he pushed the play button. They watched Peter and Cassandra backing up but what they didn't see was what was making them back up and Charlie looked at Peter, who wiped his face with his hands.
"Oh shit, I was right," Peter sighed as he hit the pause button and sat back in the chair.
"It was a vampire?" Charlie asked and Peter gave him a look.
"Yeah, Genius, it was a vampire," he said as he looked at the screen then placed his elbows on the top of the table and placed his chin on his knuckles. "The question now is who is he and what does he want?"
"Did you get a good look at him?" Charlie asked as Peter looked at him and nodded. "Then I think I know how we could figure out who he is."
"What? Are you saying there's a vampire Who's Who out there and we can just skim through it until we find his picture?" Peter asked as Charlie softly laughed and nodded his head. "Oh, come on! I was kidding!"
"Well, I'm not. Eddie used to have this photo shop program in his computer that we used to make these shop pictures of the assholes that picked on us and put them on the web," Charlie said and Peter gave him a slightly stunned look.
"And he what? Got descriptions from vampire attack victims, kept a file and used it when he needed to find a vampire?" Peter asked.
"It's one of things he used to find Jerry. I found it when I was looking through his computer," Charlie said and Peter smiled,
"Shit, this Eddie guys sounds like a pip."
"He's the one that…" Charlie said when Peter remembered the kid that killed Ginger and his eyes went wide. Charlie nodded as Peter sighed and sat back in the seat.
"Do you think you can get his computer?" Peter said and Charlie nodded his head. Peter looked at the screen when he thought of something and stood up, walking to the door.
"Where are you going?" Charlie asked as Peter stood in front of the door then turned, walked back to the table and hit the delete button, erasing the footage.
"Come on. I need to check something," Peter said as Charlie nodded and they headed for the door, leaving the room after he opened the door.
Cassandra headed for her car as the cage gently thumped against her leg and she placed the cage on the ground after she arrived at the car. She opened the back door when she felt like she was being watched and Cross growled. She looked around the semi-empty parking lot when she knelt down and opened the cage. Cross hopped onto her wrist when she stood up and her heart nearly stopped when she saw someone standing on the other side of the car.
"Oh fuck," she thought as she looked at the man from the show room as he looked at her and his dark eyes locked with hers.
"Hello, cheri," he said with a hint of a French accent to his voice and Cross growled at him.
"Who are you?" she asked as the man walked around to her side of the car while she backed up and he placed his hands behind his back.
"Do names really matter?" he asked as she looked toward the stage door and wondered if she could make it to the door before he did anything. She gasped when she saw him standing right in front of her and she swore she didn't hear him walking toward her. "Hush, cheri, I'm not going to hurt you."
"Well, I might hurt you!" she said when Cross flew at the man and the man hissed as Cross flapped its wings at the man's face and raked its talons on the man's shirt. Cassandra turned as she ran toward the stage door while an inhuman scream filled the air and she ran faster. She made it to the stage door when she started pounding on the door and looked back at Cross and the man, who seemed to be floating slight off the ground and she whistled. Cross flew to her when the security guard opened the door and she ran by him and shouted for him to close the door.
"What the hell's going…" the security guard said then gagged after a hand grabbed the back of his neck and a loud snapping sound filled the air. Cassandra wanted to scream as the man let go of the security guard and the security guard crumbled to the ground. The man smiled then wiped his hand against his shirt and titled his head to one side.
"Oh, cheri, that was not nice!" the man said as he walked inside and his eyes were glowing in a red light. "Not nice at all."