Ripper (Hunter #1)(23)

“Sheee-it!” Liv took a long swig. “A real vamp club?” She knelt beside me, looking over the concrete barrier.

“Four vamps have already gone in and it’s early,” I commented.

“I’ve heard they like to get the whole dinner thing out of the way.”

“Four vampires.” From what I understood, they were rare and tended to spread out. “Do you think that’s the whole population of North Texas?”

Liv snorted. “Not lately.”

I pursed my lips as I thought about the implications of diving in. I knew that Liv, Nate, and Jamie had been careful to keep any news of the supernatural world out of my hearing for the last ten years or so. I was about to open the door. “What do you mean?”

Liv’s shoulder-length golden brown hair was in her right hand as she twisted it around. It was an unconscious mannerism she used when she was contemplating a problem. “You know Nathan doesn’t think it’s a good idea for us to keep you in the loop. He really thinks it is best for you to stay out of this world entirely.”

“He worked you over good, didn’t he?”

Liv sighed. “He showed up after school and yelled at me for a while. He told me I was driving you to drink.”

“It wasn’t you, Livie,” I said with a sarcastic grin. “I totally drove myself. That’s what got my ass in trouble in the first place. Next time I’ll walk.”

She punched me in the arm. “Don’t joke. I think Nate’s wrong. I think you need this. I don’t think you’ll be able to live in the normal world. You’ll have to keep too many secrets and deny too much of yourself. So, do you want the lowdown on the vamps?”

I hesitated, but only for a moment. Liv was right. It wasn’t like ignoring the supernatural world had made me blissfully happy. “Hit me.”

“The Council moved to Dallas almost ten years ago,” she said.

Now my eyes were wide. “Seriously? I thought they were based in Paris and had been since…forever. What the hell are they doing in Dallas?”

“The king lives here.”

“There’s an actual vampire king and he lives in Dallas?”

“Yeah,” Liv replied. “He’s the real deal. He took out the old Council ten years ago when they started to threaten the wolves and shifters. Only one member of the old Council survived the war. Now the Council formally governs the supernatural world and the seats are held by the various species. The king is the head of the Council. There’s a seat for vampires, werewolves, shifters, witches, humans, and the Fae. The king only votes in the event of a tie.”

“Wow.” I finally understood what it meant to be flabbergasted. “That’s amazing. And everyone’s getting along?”

“Not as well as the king apparently expected,” Liv admitted. “He’s already had to put down two attempts to overthrow him. I think after all those centuries of iron-fisted control, some groups are going a little too far with their newfound freedom. My coven leader says the king’s looking for a solution. He wants to create a kind of law enforcement for the supes.”

I laughed because whoever took that job was a f*cking idiot. “Nice, he wants a sheriff. Well, good luck to him.”

I got back to watching the house. They were careful. I couldn’t see a damn thing through those windows, and I started to wonder how good an idea it would be to try to sneak in. Or maybe I could get a date. They seemed to be letting dates in. From what I understood, only vampires, companions, and slaves ever got into one of those clubs…Then my mind made another mental leap.

“He got rid of the slaves,” I whispered.

Liv shook her head enthusiastically. “It was one of the first things he did. He freed all the slaves, though a lot of them stayed with their vampire masters, but the vamps have to prove they’re paying their staffs.”

“Then who’s feeding all these visiting vamps? If the king is here then I assume he has a court. If the slaves are gone, who’s going to feed the vampires?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

Liv’s mouth formed a perfect little O. “Hookers. Holy crap, Kels, you’re right. Someone’s bringing in hookers to fill up the clubs.”

“But other supes would be better than grabbing a bunch of human girls off the street,” I commented. “Some * is recruiting supernatural college girls to prostitute themselves to vampires.”

Liv thought about that for a second. “I get your point, but what else are they supposed to do? The vampires have to eat. The king won’t let them enslave humans anymore.”

“Look, Liv, I don’t have some moral problem with it. If some chick wants to work her way through college on her back then good for her. But Joanne is missing and I don’t think she’s in Mexico with a john. I think she’s dead and I think it had to with her job.”

“Really?” Liv teared up.

“Sorry,” I said, taking a deep breath. “If I had to bet on it, I would say I’m hunting for a corpse.”

“Helen’s going to be devastated,” Liv whispered.

I hated that I couldn’t be more positive, but I knew that girl was gone. I also knew the possibility of finding a corpse was small. Supernatural creatures deteriorate quickly after death. It was one of the ways they hid from humans. Vampires turned to ash and wolves and shifters decomposed at an accelerated rate. After a few days, there wouldn’t be much left.