Sucker Bet (Vegas Vampires #4)(55)
Author: Erin McCarthy

Nate almost laughed, but she looked so serious, he didn’t. "This is about the murders, isn’t it? Tell me everything you know. Absolutely everything this time."

An hour later, he had requested a pad of paper and pen from Gwenna and was trying to sort out everything they knew. "The vampire world is very small, isn’t it? We have the same players turning up over and over again."

"That’s true." Gwenna was sitting next to him on the couch, her laptop computer balancing on her knees.

"So here’s what I have. Ringo—hired assassin, worked in the past for Donatelli. Drug user. Ethan—your brother, president of vampires." That sort of blew Nate’s mind. He had never considered that vampires could be real, let alone organized. Though truthfully, everything was blowing his mind. He was almost grateful for the murders to concentrate on. Homicide he understood.

Going down his list, he said, "Ethan is enemies with Donatelli, who is now VP because it was the only way for Ethan to win the election against Gregor Chechikov. Gregor, who is now dead and being hauled to the morgue as we speak." Nate made a notation on his paper next to Gregor’s name. Dead. "How does a vampire die?"

"Decapitation. Wood stake to the heart. Complete burning. That’s it. And technically a full draining of blood without replenishing it but I’m not sure how one vampire would overpower another long enough to do that without using one of these other methods first."

"Well, someone did it to Gregor, because the dead was definitely dead. I saw him. Smelled him."

Gwenna stopped clicking her mouse—she had said she was going to check the slayers’ loop—and glanced at him. "The thing is that Gregor had been a vampire for a long time, but he was turned back to mortal recently. It would have been easy enough to kill him, if you knew he was mortal, which almost no one did, because he’s been in hiding. As vampires we know immediately who is mortal and who is vamp, so Gregor had been staying far away from the public eye."

"Yet you knew he was mortal?" And how the hell did a vampire just become mortal again?

"Yes, because his mortality was returned to him by Corbin Atelier, Brittany’s husband, against Gregor’s will. It was his punishment for kidnapping Brittany when she was pregnant and plotting to steal her child. Corbin thought giving him weakness as a punishment was fitting for a man who would do such an appalling thing to a woman."

"That is appalling. And obviously someone wanted him dead." Nate glanced at Gwenna’s screen. She had a message clicked and opened to read. "But how does a vampire become mortal?"

"Corbin created a vaccine. But it’s a secret not meant for the vampire population at large. It could precipitate mass panic and protests."

"And your brother doesn’t want that?"

"No one wants that. We’re safer when we stick together and keep our population under control."

"So is a vampire killing slayers off the loop a coincidence or not?"

"I don’t know." Gwenna gestured to the screen. "But I have another e-mail from Slash. He wants to meet me tonight at the Bellagio in front of the club."

That bothered Nate. A lot. He really didn’t want Gwenna involved in this any more than she already was. "I don’t think so."

Gwenna frowned. "But we need to know who Slash is." Then she grabbed his arm. "Oh, shit, I just remembered. I was heading to the pool to find you when I ran into David Foster, the bass player from The Impalers. He said the most cryptic thing to me as I was leaving—that I shouldn’t meet Slash in person."

"Have you ever talked to him about Slash before? Is David Foster on the loop?"

"Not that I know of. I’d never even met David Foster before the concert, and I didn’t really meet him that night either."

"What kind of motivation might he have for wanting slayers killed?"

"I have no idea. But he can’t be the killer. That doesn’t even make sense. I personally think it’s Sasha, Gregor’s wife."

"But you said she’s mortal."

"But a gigantic bitch. Kelsey said she tried to kill Ringo tonight with absolutely no reason behind it. She stabbed him through the heart with a wooden stake, and the only thing that saved him was Kelsey’s intervention. Don’t you think it’s odd that a woman who married a vampire would attempt to kill another vampire?"

"What did Kelsey do to Sasha?" Nate had no problem picturing Kelsey ripping Sasha’s head off. Kelsey had acted like a dipshit the time he’d met her, but he had sensed that she was loyal to those she loved. Loyal enough to kill. In fact, almost everyone they had mentioned or put on Nate’s list was probably capable of murder given the right reason.

"I don’t know." Gwenna shrugged. "I didn’t ask. But I think Sasha is FoxyKyle and I think she hired Ringo to kill those boys and kill her husband."

"Why?"

"I don’t know. I have no facts to back me up on this, Nate. Just my gut instincts. There is a relationship between Ringo and Sasha of some sort, obviously, and he is an assassin. And if she’s on the loop, she had access to everyone who volunteered a real name. I can’t imagine what her motivation is, but it just seems like she is the odd piece to this puzzle. Why the hell is she hanging around vampires, anyway? It’s rare for a vampire to marry a mortal and then involve her in the vampire world."

"Gut instinct is right more often than not and I don’t have enough information here. I feel like my head is racing to keep up since I’ve jumped in mid-action. I don’t know the players the way that you do." Nate found that frustrating as well. "I’m going to trust you on this one. But who is Slash then and why does he want to meet you?"

"God, I don’t know. It just doesn’t seem like Ringo’s brand of behavior, and I’ve never thought he was the sort to hang out online. And in the last week or so, he’s been in a constant heroin haze according to Kelsey. I can’t believe he was ambitious enough to plot all those meetings with me."

"I don’t know, babe, I just don’t know. But I guess if we want answers, we’re going to have to show up for that meeting with Slash at the Bellagio."

"You’re going to go with me?" she asked.

"Hell, yes."

"You know that it’s not easy to kill me. That’s why I was willing to meet Slash before. I wasn’t being quite the dumb blonde you thought I was being." She gave him a small smile. "I could overpower any mortal murderer."

He was really not convinced. "While I am grateful to know that you weren’t continually walking into danger with mortal strength, no weapon, and zero self-defense skills, I don’t think vampire speed and strength alone could keep you out of a tight spot with a mortal who’s cunning. You may think you’re a tough girl, and I would have to say emotionally, yes, you’re tough as goddamn nails, but you’ve already admitted to me you spend the majority of your time online, reading, or playing the harp and piano. Not exactly skills that can help you take down a psychotic vampire slayer."