He looked at me out of the corner of his eye.
“He’s creating an army. They’re plague carriers, Typhoid Marys. He will use them to create more or to destroy others. ”
“Oh Jesus. ” The depravity of Peyton’s plan was setting in.
“He’s going to make Manhattan a vampire city. He wants to come out of the dark. ”
“He wants to kill everyone. ”
“And he’s starting with the lowest levels. The prostitutes will infect their johns. They’ll infect their wives or girlfriends. It will spread. If we can’t find him soon, we won’t be able to stop it. ”
“But Peyton is a known rogue. One vampire alone can’t make this work. ”
“He has to be working with someone. And he has to have someone in the daylight too, but I don’t remember him having a daytime servant. Only the really powerful masters can manifest that kind of control. ”
“Like Sig has Ingrid. ”
“But Sig is also well over a thousand years old. ”
“Two,” Holden corrected.
I didn’t have the energy to absorb the magnitude of that information. “And Peyton isn’t even three hundred. ”
“He wouldn’t be able to manipulate a human servant in the daytime. He could barely manage a Renfield. ”
I hated the phrase Renfield. After Bram Stoker’s eponymous tome vampires had thought the name was too hilarious not to use. Much like Dracula used the poor, weak-minded Renfield, rogue vampires often enthralled someone into doing whatever they wanted over an extended period of time. They called them Renfields.
Daytime servants, on the other hand, maintained an illusion of free will, but always knew the needs and desires of their master. Furthermore, because of the bond it created with their master, the daytime servant could live for many centuries. They lacked the strength and power of a vampire but enjoyed the extended life.
Sig’s daytime servant, Ingrid, was a stunning German girl he’d met sometime in the early thirteen hundreds. She was quiet and dutiful, but I was certain time had shown her things none of us could imagine, especially at Sig’s side. I suspected, at over seven hundred years old herself, Ingrid was not a human of any small strength. I didn’t like to be alone with her. There was too much in her eyes I didn’t want to know.
Holden pulled the BMW up to the curb in front of my apartment. I had begun to shiver as the shock of the evening’s events really sank in. If Peyton was going to try taking over the city, outing vampires everywhere and waging an all-out war on humanity, he wasn’t doing it alone. And whoever was helping him had to be strong, mean and determined.
Of all the people I wanted to discuss this with right now, Sig was at the top of my list. But how could I have a casual chat with the head of the vampire council about my suspicions? Would Sig want to know what a half-breed vampire killer thought?
Holden seemed to be reading my thoughts, because he put a hand on my thigh and said, “Let me go to the council. I’ll request an audience with Sig and see if he has any thoughts about what you’ve discovered. ”
I nodded solemnly. It would be better if Holden went. Perhaps it would help him curry favor and find advancement in the ranks of the other vampires if he brought them the information. I couldn’t begrudge him the desire to advance among his own kind. I knew I never would.
I opened my car door, noticing an unfamiliar but pristinely well-kept ’72 Dodge Challenger parked near my building. It was a charcoal gray color I rarely saw on cars, let alone vintage muscle cars.
I was about to ask Holden if he remembered ever seeing it before when I noticed that my living room light was on. I might not remember cars, but I definitely knew I’d turned off all my lights before leaving.
Someone was in my home and it wasn’t someone I’d invited.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“Holden. ” I leaned back towards the car, but my eyes remained focused on my window, which rested on the same level as the sidewalk. My living room was the only one in the apartment that allowed natural light in, and as such also the only one that let light out.
“I see it. ”
“Are we expecting anyone?”
“Keats?”
“Keaty would have called first. He knows better. ”
“The wolves?”