This Side of the Grave (Night Huntress, #5)(57)
Mencheres’s faux azure gaze glinted with a hint of the frighteningly lethal ass kicker he was beneath his soft-spoken, proper demeanor.
“Yes,” he said, drawing out the word. “Let’s. Ed and Scratch have already arrived in the city. Vlad will meet us tonight at the town house I’m renting. Once we are all here, we will begin the hunt.”
Of our group, Dave was the first to strike pay dirt in Memphis. A week after we arrived, he reported through Fabian that he’d made contact with some ghouls who had a definite bias against vampires. We weren’t sure if they were directly affiliated with Apollyon, or just some knockoff bigots, but according to Dave, he’d spent a fun-filled evening listening to them rant about how ghouls and vampires should live separate, unmixed lives. That inter-dating/marrying was a contamination of the species, and only through separatism could real “strength and purity” be attained.
Sounded like the sort of bullshit Apollyon’s minions would preach, considering he was like an undead version of a KKK Grand Dragon. Dave had a tentative meeting with the same group tomorrow night, and I wasn’t going to interfere. No need to tip our hand by being impatient and grabbing the pawns if waiting meant we could get our hands on the king instead. I hoped after a couple more meetings, Dave would be trusted enough to be let deeper into the ghouls’ twisted group.
As for Vlad, Mencheres, and me, we were batting zero. Timmie’s sources pointed to some odd activity at bars, plus I’d run the information past Tate and he’d verified that the crime rate had ticked up in Memphis recently, also adding credence that this was the area Apollyon was most likely centered in. But even though we’d hit local bars looking for suspects in the past seven days, we’d come up with nothing but an appreciation for the many varied flavors of barbecue in the city. Or maybe that was just me. Feeding from the sealed bags containing Bones’s blood keep me nourished, but I still liked to vary up my palate a bit.
My cell phone vibrated in the side pocket of my jeans. I pulled it out, recognizing the number before I answered it.
“Reaper.” Ed’s voice, lowered enough that it was hard for me to hear him.
“You got something?” I asked at once, straightening. He and Scratch were across town at another popular watering hole; hopefully one more fruitful than the dive Mencheres, Vlad, and I were in.
“Maybe,” Ed said, still so low I had to strain. I’d tell him to text me if he was worried about being overheard, but as I found out before, that was one modern skill Ed hadn’t mastered yet. “Some bone-munchers came in earlier,” he went on. “They had a nasty vibe coming off them, too. I overheard one of ’em mentioning the Falcon drive-in, and about ten minutes ago, they all left.”
A drive-in? “You mean theater, right?” I asked, just to be sure it wasn’t slang for something else.
Ed snorted. “Of course. I looked it up before I called you. It’s on Summer Avenue near I–40.”
Ed might not be able to text, but luckily, MapQuest wasn’t beyond him. “Good. You head on over there, but not for at least ten minutes in case you’re being watched. I’ll start out now.”
“See ya there,” he grunted, and hung up.
“We’re in the wrong place,” I announced to Mencheres and Vlad as I signaled the bartender. “Let’s settle up and get out of here.”
Vlad’s brows rose. “Do elaborate,” he drawled.
I lowered my voice. Texting might be quieter, but it was also senseless with both of them right there. “Ed’s heard of some strange activity at the Falcon drive-in, as though the words activity and drive-in in the same sentence weren’t strange enough.”
Mencheres gave me a quizzical look. “Why?”
I was about to say, Because they’re obsolete, but then I reminded myself that for someone as old as Mencheres, drive-ins would still seem like a new form of entertainment.
“Because progress is a merciless bitch” was what I settled on, followed by “The bad news is, if the place is still open, not abandoned, we’ll have human bystanders to worry about if Ed’s right and anything does go down.”
“Drive-ins,” Vlad said, his lip curling in a way that said he hadn’t been a fan of them even when they were popular. “I suppose that’s better than a regular theater. Less people at drive-ins, and if they’re anything like I remember, most of the humans there won’t be concentrating on anything but fornicating anyway.”
His disdainful tone almost made me laugh. Who knew the reputed scourge of the underworld looked down his nose at drive-in nookie?
“Not everyone had their own castle to go back to when they were young and horny,” I said, my lips twitching.
The look he threw me was more than cynical. “My youth was spent in constant war, not the pursuit of tender seductions.”
Privately I thought tender was the last word I’d associate with Vlad, but we had places to be, ghouls to track down, and all that. I glanced at my watch. Ten forty-five. That helped, but it was a Friday night, so the drive-in would be as populated as it was going to get.
“Well, boys,” I said, placing some bills on the table. “Let’s go to the movies.”
Chapter Twenty--three
The drive-in wasn’t abandoned, as the cars lined up in front of the four large outdoor screens attested to. I heaved a sigh even as I crept around the back of the first projector. Of course we wouldn’t be lucky enough for this place to be closed down. Hell, from the number of people here, either I’d underestimated the drive-in’s appeal, or they were giving away free popcorn and condoms with each show.