Veda glared at me and I shut my mouth. “We wanted to. We called the cops, right? Anonymous-like so that someone would take care of her?”
Now I could see where this fit in with the information Mercedes had given me. I nodded. They all bobbed along.
“But when the cops came, they didn’t take a body. There was no news about it. It was like she ain’t never even been there. ”
But she had been there. It was no longer a mystery what had happened to Cleo the prostitute. And I knew, too, what had happened to the girls like the one Mercedes had told me about. I’d thought the body in the park was too sloppy to be Peyton, and now it was clear to me why.
I looked at the girls and could tell they had sensed the change in my attitude. I wasn’t hiding the horror
on my face and was thankful they would have no understanding of its deeper meaning.
I had a clear grasp on what the base level of Peyton’s plan was. At first I’d believed he was killing and eating the girls for food alone, because no one would miss a dead prostitute. But if Cleo had just been drained for a meal, her body would have still been there for the cops to find. She wouldn’t have been speaking in tongues.
The signs described by Veda and Misty were those of a baby vamp before the change took effect. Drinking the blood of a vampire often caused hallucinations, violent fits, nausea and a number of other side effects. Then it caused death—one so fast-acting it didn’t resemble a normal human passing. Lastly, it resulted in rebirth.
And with that birth came the hunger.
Peyton or one of his nest had turned Cleo into a vampire and then unleashed her onto the unsuspecting streets, sending her with a newborn’s blind thirst to hunt her own people.
She would not be the only one.
Chapter Twenty-Five
There were a lot of swears and protests when the shiny new BMW rounded the corner and beckoned me to its passenger door. Veda and the other girls were trying to tell the driver he was wasting his time and a skinny-assed girl like me couldn’t satisfy him.
I took offense to the last statement, knowing perfectly well my ass wasn’t bony and some people seemed to enjoy it a great deal.
The girls put an end to their complaints when they got a look at the driver’s face. Mercedes had told us some girls on the street reported the mystery john had been very good looking, so Holden’s face must have set off alarms for them.
“Good luck, Blondie,” Misty said with a sneer, her farewell acting as a eulogy.
I accepted my fate and got in next to Holden, mumbling, “Take me home. ”
“We aren’t looking for Peyton?”
“We won’t find him tonight. Take me home. ”
“What did they say?”
I turned to face him, trying to find a way to summarize what the girls had told me so he would experience it with the same gravity I had.
“They’re the rats of London,” I said at last, knowing no other way.
His jaw spasmed. “What do you mean?”
I rested my head against the cool glass of the car window. “Peyton isn’t feeding on the disposables. I mean that’s what we thought, right? He would go after the homeless and the girls on the street because they’re easy targets. Food. ”
“Yes. ”
“But that’s not it. He’s changing them. ”
I didn’t think vampires could get paler, but the new ashy pallor on Holden’s face proved me wrong. “He’s turning them?”
“He’s making some of the girls vampires and sending them back into the street. ”
“But why? No vampire in their right mind would turn a prostitute. We won’t turn anyone we consider unworthy. ”
“Don’t you get it?”