Page 5 of Kissed the Mark
“So you’re going to the fourth-best bountyhunter in town to find someone?”
“You’ve killed vampires before,” she said,eyeing me with a bored expression. “Plus, Ryan is on vacation andTammy eloped with a lich.” She licked her lips. “And Allie saidno.”
“So I’m the last resort. That’s veryflattering.”
“Well, you asked. Are you in or not?”
“Who is it and do you have any info on them?Usually there’s a rundown at the Guild that I can go off of.”
“I don’t know who it is,” she said. “Themark is a female vampire, recently turned. Outsider, I think fromthe city.”
I balked at her. “So I’m looking for someoneI don’t even know? Do you have a description? A drawing?”
“No.” She laughed. “You see theimpossibility of my situation.”
“Is there something else going on? She gotchanged in St. Louis by someone here?”
“Or maybe a rogue vampire there, I don’tknow.”
“Why am I killing her?”
“So many questions. Is that something youneed to know?”
“It might lead me to clues! To check certainplaces out!” I angrily squeezed a lemon wedge into my tea. Leandrahad a way of really getting under your skin, and she loved to useit for whatever reason. Making other people squirm was a delight toher and I was feeding right into it. “Where should I startlooking?”
“She was at the den on Orchard Avenue a fewdays ago. You could ask people there about it.”
“Didyoubother asking people therefirst?” I asked bitterly. “Maybe she’s hanging out with them rightnow.”
“I have more important things to do.”
“Like invite yourself into my home and soilmy furniture?”
She smiled, the dim light of my apartmentglinting off her fangs. “Precisely.”
“How much are you paying me for this if Ifind her?” I asked, the most important question in deciding if itwas worth my time.
“Ten thousand.”
“Oh my God.” For that much, I suspected itwould be impossible to find the mark. Why was it something thevampires couldn’t do themselves? “Ten thousand for a recentlyturned vampire from St. Louis with no other descriptions other thanshe’s female and has been seen at the Orchard Avenue den?”
“Yep. You in or do I have to go to thefifth-best bounty hunter in Mayfair?”
I swallowed a gulp of tea. “I’ll take a peekaround tomorrow, but if I can’t find anything, I’m going to needyour help.”
“Deal.”
“Also, I’ll take a thousand dollar downpayment for this.”
Her eyes widened. The vampires werebasically so rich that it didn’t matter how much anything cost tothem, or at least that was the impression I got from those wholived in the mall. I’d suspected before that they printed their ownmoney. “I’ll discuss it with Patricia when I get back and let youknow if that’s possible.”
“First name basis with the vampirequeen?”
She brushed off her pants and rose. “Surelyyou know how important I am there?”
“Good night, Leandra.”
“Good day, honey.”
