Page 14 of Bishop's Flight
“So he’s safe for now?” Lee was tapping around, using some kind of program to search for Lucas’s face in all the frames.
“If Zasha wants control of the city, yeah.”
“And trading their kid for their city is… what? Is that even legal in the vampire world? That’s how you take over territory?”
“We’re vampires. Legal and illegal are loose concepts. Power makes legality.”
“Lucas is a kid. Isn’t he supposed to be, like, under aegis?”
“Zasha can always claim that Lucas went with them willingly. They can lie. What’s to stop them?”
“It’s clearly kidnapping! He’s fifteen years old.”
“In my experience, most vampires, especially older ones, will assign adult motives to any human past puberty. Before then? Children. Past that? Essentially young adults.”
“Fucking messed up, man.” Lee shook his head. “That’s so uncool.”
“Agreed, but power makes the rules.” Brigid leaned in. “What are we looking at?”
“I’m trying to find any trace of Zasha Sokholov in the casino footage. Supposedly they were staying here, but other than one little glimpse, I got nothing. They’re very good at avoiding cameras.”
“You’re wondering who Zasha talked to?”
“Who they talked to, who they worked with, any employees who seemed particularly interested in them as a guest.” Lee shrugged. “Hopefully we can get a handle on any ties they have to the city. What’s the second prong? You said there were two prongs to the investigation.”
“Lucas. We look into Lucas’s pals. How did they spend time? How might Zasha have lured him away from his security? Or was it another vampire? Or another human?”
“Oh.” Lee sat back and blinked. “Uh… so most vampires see like a fifteen-year-old kid as an adult?”
“Older ones like Zasha? Yes.”
Lee closed some screens and opened others. “What about this one?”
Brigid leaned in but kept her distance; this wasn’t vampire-approved equipment. “Who is that?” There was a pixie-looking girl on the screen with a heart-shaped face, curvy round hips, and a black ball cap. Her eyes were hidden by the brim of the cap, but blond hair stuck out around her neck, and her tight black shorts barely covered her backside. “She looks like a comic-book drawing.”
“She’s pretty easy to spot moving around in the vampire floors of the casino, so she’s either immortal or she’s with a vampire guest,” Lee said. “But this caught my attention; I already noted it in the log. It was about a week ago.”
He sped up the tape and Brigid saw the curvy blond girl—Brigid was near certain she was a human—walk into an elevator with…
Brigid blinked. “Is that Lucas at the back of that lift?”
“Yeah.” Lee backed it up and paused.
The young man was flanked by two extremely noticeable bodyguards, but he had a slight smile when he looked at the woman entering the elevator.
“Look at her. Look at his face.” She leaned in and lifted her finger, but the screen went fuzzy.
“Back.” Lee slapped her hand. “Yeah, he knows her or he wants to. Can hardly blame the kid. She looks like a character from one of his mangas.”
Brigid glanced at Lee. “I knew you were into those.”
“Of course I was. Especially at his age.” He pointed at the woman. “And if a vampire-woman-girl came on to me at that age, I’d have been putty in her hands.”
“Stop looking for Zasha for now. Start looking for this girl.” She lifted her hand, then dropped it when Lee gave her a dirty look.
“On it.” He started doing things on the screen. “You know, she could be, like, two hundred years old.”
“I think she’s human, but you’re right that she’s probably older than she looks. Doesn’t matter. To Lucas she’s a teenager. As much as he’s grown up around our kind, he probably still has the human instinct to go with appearances.” She sat back. “I want to know where she went and who she met with. Keep an eye on Del Marco employees especially. Zasha has a tendency to plant people inside or turn them.”
