Page 61 of Blind Date with a Werewolf
“How many vampires? Do you have names?”
“Twelve,” said Bobby.
“Nine right now,” Mari-Brigid said. “Three of them are off on business.”
Nine was a lot of vampires even for Asil. Nine and an old one.
The vampires went by aliases, of course. But Bobby knew some of their older names. Asil recognized two of those. If Alvarez was served by two of such repute, he was indeed a Power.
This was not surprising. Who else would Allah send Asil after but an Elder Vampire?
This Elder Vampire, it seemed, was trying hard to disguise himself, as if there was something very distinctive about Alvarez’s appearance.
According to Bobby, the Spanish surname had appeared no more than half a century ago. Before that, the vampire had used the last name of Adams. Old creatures tended to change their day-to-day names whenever it became useful, especially if their names contained no power. Asil had been Asil Moreno for less than two decades. Asil, he had carried off and on for centuries, but it was not the name people knew best. Hussan the Moor was the werewolf with the reputation, with history.
Alvarez would have such a name.
Asil was not a puppy to go off without ensuring he was properly prepared for war. He needed time to move his chess pieces around the board and to discover more information about Alvarez and his operation.
“We shall go to the ball,” he told them.
“We had better leave right now, then,” Bobby said.
Asil held up a hand. “A moment, please. I have a task for you. Do you have a notebook?”
He did.
Bobby read through Asil’s instructions, then glanced at Mari-Brigid, who didn’t notice because she was looking at Asil.
“I have them,” Bobby said. “You think this is necessary?”
Asil shrugged. “Knowledge is better than the alternative.”
“Okay. I can do this. Can we go now?”
III
The trip from the park to the venue, short as Bobby had made it, had given Mari-Brigid enough time to compose herself. Her face was coolly pleasant as Asil helped her out of the car and offered her the crook of his elbow. Her small cold hand gripped him tightly.
The poor innocent trusted him on so little evidence. Asil met Bobby’s grim eyes.
“I will keep her safe if I can,” Asil told him, then shut the door and patted the car as if it were a horse to be sent on its way.
Asil regretted horses as he watched Bobby pull back intotraffic to find the designated parking garage. Certainly, cars were more practical and convenient—he remembered what cities used to smell like. But arriving in a car was a pale second to appearing on a curvetting Spanish stallion.
There were uniformed people at the doors to let them into the fine old building, which had begun its life as something else—a school or a department store—but had been retrofitted with an events center taking up its lower levels and condos or apartments filling in the upper floors. A short walk, directed by velvet ropes and helpful signs, had them entering an open space that was surprisingly large and decorated for a tastefully extravagant Christmas event. Round tables with tablecloths of white or red fanned out from a stage that jutted from the only wall without windows.
Asil and Mari-Brigid were part of a steady stream of people entering the room, but as soon as Asil’s shoes touched the polished wooden floor, a pretty young boy who looked as though he spent his days in high school approached them. He wore a white tux with a golden name tag that readChristopher.
“Mrs.Alvarez?” he murmured.
“Yes,” Asil said.
Blue eyes widened briefly in surprised appreciation, and then the young man smiled sweetly at Asil, though his words addressed Mari-Brigid. “Your seat is at the front by the podium, ma’am. Follow me.”
He took them to a table that was obviously the one that the most important people would be seated at, next to the stage and centered in the middle of the tables. This table, unlike most of them, had place cards, names handwritten in lovelycalligraphy. Asil hadn’t known that people were still doing that.
Their guide pulled out the chair in front of Mari-Brigid. Asil gently bumped him aside and helped her slide it forward once she was sitting in it.
