Guillermo prepared himself for the encounter with Min, agreeing to meet with the vampire, only under certain conditions. He’d chosen an empty warehouse on Front Street. Gui had chosen the secluded location out of respect for the ancient vampire’s power. No sense in exposing his club to the Egyptian vampire. Min arrived, of course with a full entourage. Gui had no trouble spotting him—he was nearly seven feet tall with skin as dark as night.
Min wore a gray Armani suit, tapered to fit his broad shoulders and narrow waist. “Guillermo. How nice it is to see you again.”
It surprised Gui to see Min’s formerly ass-length hair had been sheared into a short, flattering buzz-cut. The vampire looked very masculine in an American drill sergeant way, which somehow fit with the tailored suit. Then again, it had been several hundred years since he’d last seen the Egyptian vampire, and his hairstyle could have changed many times.
“Buena, mi amigo. It is good to see you,” Guillermo greeted in a clear voice, then muttered, “Hijo de la gran puta,” effectively calling Min’s mother a whore.
Min raised an eyebrow, but ignored the insult. He held out his hand. Guillermo declined.
“You’ll forgive me for wanting to keep some distance between us.” Guillermo’s barriers were in place, but he didn’t want to take a chance that touching would bring them crashing down around him.
“Of course. If you have such a great fear of me…” The Egyptian’s words were baiting.
“I would be a fool not to be cautious. Do you not agree?”
Min laughed. “I’ve missed my Latin love toy. You were always so quirky.”
Guillermo, careful not to show any emotion, went straight to business. “Shall we discuss why you have come to Kansas City? Or would you rather reminisce about old times?”
“Yes, yes. Two of my best men are dead.”
“I know. One of mine has been killed as well.”
“So I understand, but I have it on good authority that the killer is also one of yours.”
Guillermo could feel the setup. Min planned to blame him for the deaths. “Mierda del toro. That is bullshit. If you are implying, cafré, that I am somehow responsible for the killing of vampires around the city, you are sadly mistaken. I am as concerned about the situation as you are.”
Min smiled—his white teeth contrasting against his ebony lips. “Calm yourself, Guillermo. I have not accused you. Yet.”
“I am investigating the incidents.” Guillermo bristled. “If the killer is mine, that person will be dealt with inmediatamente.”
“You offer me no compensation for my own losses?” A hidden message of danger bordered around Min’s question.
“Let us worry about recompense when and if we find that the animal responsible is mine.”
Min snapped his large, long fingers, fingers that had once probed every orifice of Gui’s body. Fingers that could be both gentle and cruel. The snap brought a surge from his entourage, stalking forward toward Guillermo. “I think you need a lesson in manners.”
Guillermo took one step and brought his hands down in a sweeping motion. Guillermo’s vampires, nearly fifty men and women, seemingly poured from all sides of the warehouse, surrounding the Egyptian and his men. “You can not enthrall them all before I bring you down. Are you certain this is a battle that you wish to fight?”
“Very good.” Min’s voice carried confidence; only his face betrayed his surprise. “You have grown powerful over the last four hundred years.” The Egyptian gestured to Gui’s subjects. “Of course, I knew they were there.”
Liar, Gui thought.
“When the murderer has been apprehended, we will speak again.” The Egyptian narrowed his eyes. “That is a promise.”
* * * *
Anna promised to call if another body showed up. Actually, she’d taken the news quite well, which came as no surprise. He knew her psychic abilities opened her to possibilities that most people couldn’t even imagine. He didn’t tell her about Guillermo, although he did say that he’d been dating. She’d taken that news quite well, also.
Looking at his watch, he thought about Gui. Only midnight. Guillermo had told him that he might not be able to see him for a couple of days. Waiting might be impossible. When his taxi was nearly at his apartment on the Plaza, he leaned forward. “Eighteenth and Oak.”
He tipped the driver and got out in front of Corazon de la Muerte. From the outside, it looked like an abandoned building. Nathan knew the old auto glass shop would be wall-to-wall people on the inside. He walked through the unmarked door and saw Nadine at the hostess stand. She looked up, startled, then her face reddened in anger.
“You,” she accused. “What are you doing here?”
“None of your fucking business.” Stupid bitch, his mind added. “Where’s Gui?”
“None of your fucking business.”
Hmpf, Nathan thought. I guess two can play the none-ya game. “I’ll find him myself.”
“Guillermo is not going to be happy to see you. I was in his office when he called you. You were supposed to wait for him to contact you.”
Getting pissed, Nathan growled, “I guess I didn’t get the fucking message.”
Nadine rolled her eyes. “Suit yourself.”
Noises from the club seemed to bounce off the inside of his skull. Is this place always so loud? Probably. As he made his way through the throng of dancers on the floor, two arms snaked around his waist from behind him. He turned and saw Gina smiling radiantly at him.
“Hello, lover,” she purred. Her blonde hair brushed against his arm. Gina, one of Guillermo’s familiars, or in lay terms, human servants, had been Nathan’s first encounter with sex that hadn’t ended badly since becoming a vampire. At the time, he’d felt manipulated by both her and Guillermo. After the initial anger had worn off, a small amount of gratitude surfaced and they had become friends.
He kissed her cheek. “Hi, Gina.” Nathan looked around. “Have you seen Gui tonight?”
Her eyes brightened. “Sure! He arrived about an hour ago with a shitload of vamps. They’re all over the club now. Gui went straight back to his office.” She shook her head. “He didn’t look very happy.”
Nathan nodded. Unhappy seemed to be the consensus.
“Come grab me for a dance later, lover.” She wriggled her eyebrows up and down in an imitation of Groucho Marx.
Nathan laughed. “Sure thing.” He kissed her again and gave her short, slim body a squeeze. “Talk to you later.”
The door to Guillermo’s office was closed. He knocked.
“Váyase,” he heard Guillermo say from within, an effective dismissal.
“It’s me, Nathan.”
There was a pause, then “Entre.”
Nathan opened the door. Guillermo lounged on the couch with a half-naked man lying over his lap, sucking his cock. The master vampire stroked the young man’s back, as if he were a pet. A twinge of jealousy shot through Nathan. Shit, I can’t be jealous! “Is this why you didn’t want to see me tonight, because of him?”
The boy, no more than twenty years old, continued to work his head up and down over Gui’s broad shaft. Guillermo’s dark pupils swirled as his eyes lowered to the young man. “Chachi?” He shook his head. “No. He is merely a diversion, to help me think.”
“Chachi? What kind of name is that?”
Guillermo reached down and pulled the boy’s mouth off his cock so that Nathan could see the face. “A nickname, Nathaniel. He looks like Scott Baio, no?” He placed Chachi’s mouth back over his hard erection.
Nathan almost laughed. He did look like Scott Baio.
“I have had business to attend to, Nathaniel. That is why I did not wish to see you tonight.” An accusation edged Gui’s words.
“I see,” Nathan grunted, watching the young man’s greedy mouth sucking on Gui’s hard flesh. “You look busy… with business.”
“Why have you come, Nathaniel?”
Stunned, Nathan’s face reddened. “I…” He couldn’t understand Guillermo’s cold attitude, and hated the fact Gui’s abrupt behavior hurt. “I have some news on the killings.” He fought to keep his voice from trembling.
Guillermo pushed Chachi off his glistening cock, wet with saliva. He stood, not bothering to lace his black leather pants. “What do you know?”
The spearing erection made Nathan shift his stance, fighting the urge to touch Gui’s substantial cock. “The medical examiner in charge of the case is my ex. I fucked her for information.” He wanted to hurt Guillermo. The master vampire merely nodded.
“And what information did you fuck out of her?”
Nathan, suddenly embarrassed, realized that he didn’t know much. “Well, the… uh… victims were mutilated, their hearts ripped out and their throats savaged.”
“I hope she was a good fuck, because that is old information.”
Nathan felt like a total ass. “She did say that she would call if a new body showed up.”
Guillermo raised an eyebrow. “That might be useful.” He patted Nathan condescendingly on the arm. “Good work, Nathaniel.”
An electric spark connected the two men in that simple gesture, as their skin made brief contact. Instantly, need warmed Gui’s dark eyes. Nathan knew the look all too well, and in that moment, he hoped. Almost as quickly, Guillermo’s back stiffened and his face went cold and stern.
Too late, Nathan thought, having seen the powerful ardor Guillermo tried so fiercely to conceal. Why is he pushing me away?
“Thanks,” Nathan said, his body rigid with a combination of fury and desire. “Why are you being such an asshole?”
“I am being no such thing. I am a business man, Nathaniel.”
Nathan grimaced. He longed for Gui to call him his amante. If the vampire called him Nathaniel one more time, he would scream. He stretched out his hand to touch Guillermo, to break down the façade once again. The master vampire moved quickly out of reach.
“As I was saying. I am a business man, and lately, I have not been tending to that business.”
“And how is that my fault?”
“You have been, shall we say, distracting.”
“Oh, great. So you shut me out because you find me distracting. Well, that is just fucking all right with me. I never asked for this shit in the first place. You wanted me, Gui, not the other way around.”
“Things change.”
“Bullshit, things change. Your dick is still hard. Do you know that? And don’t tell me it’s because of Chachi over there.” He pointed to the young man waiting quietly on the couch. “He hasn’t touched you in a while, and your dick is hard and ready.”
This time, Nathan moved faster than Guillermo. He closed the distance between himself and the master vampire, pressing his mouth over the cool, yielding lips. A surge of electricity pulsed through him. It forced its way down the master vampire’s throat and came out of the tip of the loosed cock, cracking a spark against Nathan’s stomach. Guillermo’s resolve broke as he melted into the kiss. Their tongues caressed in dance-like movements. Nathan abruptly broke from the kiss.
“You know what? You’re right. You’ve got business to attend to.”
Guillermo’s jaw dropped, then closed. His words were forced. “Absolutely correct, Nathaniel. I have work to do.”
“Yeah, well, fuck you,” Nathan added as he left the office and wandered out into the club.
* * * *
Guillermo sat back down on the couch. Chachi instantly went back to work without prompting. After a few moments, Guillermo’s erection began to dwindle. There would be no release. He dismissed the young man with a light tap on the back of his head. “Enough, go away.”
Thoughts of Nathan cluttered Guillermo’s mind. Too many things were happening at once. Nadine upset about Albert, Min coming to town, and the fact that a rogue vampire, or group of vampires, was going around killing their own kind. He could handle Nadine, but if he didn’t figure out who could be slaying the vampires and soon, Min would make a move on him. His use of force had stopped the ancient vampire in the warehouse. Nonetheless, the Egyptian would be ready at their next confrontation. Guillermo feared it would be a bloody battle. And what of Nathan? His desire for Nathan nearly outweighed everything else in his world. Can I give him up? Guillermo sighed and then fastened his pants.