Demon Night

fingers. “You’re awful twitchy for someone who doesn’t need to be hassled.”
    Manny’s hand immediately dropped to his side, and he gave a short laugh before it, too, dropped away and left a hunted expression in its place. His voice had an edge of a whine to it. “I just came by to see if what I heard about a dead man walking was true.”
    Ethan frowned. “What dead man?”
    “Just some dead white guy.” A passing car’s lights caught the flash of chrome teeth and gleamed off the silver ring on his middle finger. Manny was absently rubbing the band with his thumb, spinning it around. Another tell, but Ethan wouldn’t call the vampire’s attention to this one.
    “You, me, we’re all dead men walking,” Manny added with a grin and a shrug.
    Now, that was just nonsense. Was Manny thinking to distract him? The ring went round and round. Ethan’s gaze narrowed, and he inhaled deep. “Put your hands on the hood.”
    “Aw, man—” Manny’s lips pressed together, and he turned around.
    Ethan quickly patted him down, pulled the small bag of sweet-smelling marijuana from the vampire’s front pocket, and vanished it into his cache. Unfortunately for Manny, vampires couldn’t carry or hide items the same way. Another sniff led Ethan to the giant trunk. He popped the lock and dug out what he figured was about five thousand dollars’ worth of goods from beneath the spare tire.
    “You Guardians are worse than the pig cops,” Manny said with an expression more resigned than angry.
    “And here I thought we were such good friends, Manny, considering that I saved your life and all.” Ethan slammed the trunk closed. He confiscated Manny’s stash each time they met up; this couldn’t account for the vampire’s jumpiness. “You hear of any vampires—one female, two males, black hair, a lot of black leather—talking about being in this area? Maybe hunting down a human girl?”
    “You’re describing half of the community, Drifter. Them white boys like to go around looking like dead freaks.”
    Not all of them, but too many to make those that had gone after Charlie remarkable. “Any word about demons, maybe vampires who are thinking of working for them?”
    Manny shook his head. “The only thing everyone talks about is how nervous they are.”
    “Why is that?”
    The vampire’s eyes hardened into weasely little beads. “Well, we’ve been hearing about these other cities being wiped out. Then you Guardians come in with your Rules, and talk about these demons.” His fingers started working the ring; the whine came in again. “It was better back when only I knew about you, Drifter—Vladimir and Katya never had to deal with everyone wanting to know what you Guardians are planning to do, what you are, what all of us are. And then comes that fancy vampire up from San Francisco, talking about changing the way things are done, telling us we should align ourselves with you Guardians—though you’ve never given me anything but shit.”
    Ethan didn’t figure Manny had earned anything but shit. “Maybe you ought to talk to that fancy vampire.”
    “Vladimir and Katya did. No one got anywhere, except they got dead. So I don’t think I’ll be rushing into that, Drifter.” Manny looked away from him. “Was that fancy boy the same one that girl was talking about?”
    Ethan stiffened. “What girl?”
    Manny grinned. “I thought I could hear you coming, so I went on over to take a look. Fine bit of ass there. You should get a piece of that.”
    Manny’s grin slowly faded under Ethan’s stare.
    Ethan didn’t disguise the menace in his voice. “You get back on your side of town right quick.”
    He didn’t wait for Manny to slink away, but Manny was fast enough that Ethan had just turned from him when the squeal of tires split the night.
    Halfway back to Cole’s, Ethan caught the presence of another vampire. And another. They were mostly shielded—he couldn’t get a strong fix on their location.
    He’d have to wait for them to come for Charlie. Going out and hunting them would only leave her vulnerable to any he hadn’t sensed.
    And he’d gone off half-cocked once in his life, hunting down men who’d transgressed against those Ethan considered his. But although Ethan had handed some of them what they’d deserved, he wasn’t certain it had been worth it in the end, and he’d lost more than his life.
    Now he knew that Caleb had lost, too.
    Hell and damnation, he could have done without