First Drop of Crimson

Spade squinted in the afternoon sunlight at the boat heading straight for them. Long, crimson hair came into view at the bow, and he relaxed. Cat and Crispin.

Crispin's presence combined with the power Spade felt from Web last night, plus the several Master vampires Web brought with him, might have mandated that Spade let Crispin know what was in Denise's blood. Still, Spade didn't trust discussing it where it might be overheard, which meant the whole of Monaco. Who knew how many of Web's people lurked about, seeking gossip to report back to him?

But out here on the Mediterranean, with loud music playing and more than a mile between his boat and the closest one to it, it was as safe as it could be.

Denise came up from below deck, her gaze passing over his sleeveless shirt. "You need more sunscreen again."

"Looking for an excuse to fondle me?" he teased. "No need, darling. I want you to."

She smiled as she came closer. "Why wouldn't I look for any excuse to touch you? You've got the most amazing body I've ever seen."

He was glad the physique that had been frozen into permanence when he toiled the fields as a convict was pleasing to her. Once his lean, muscled frame was considered a stigma of the lower classes, but times had changed, and Denise was a modern woman.

"You know," Denise said, rubbing more sunblock onto his arms and shoulders, "if Web does have people monitoring us, he's not going to believe we're out here because you had a sudden urge to get a tan."

Her hands were so soft, and even warmer than the sun on him with the cool breeze. "Vampires don't tan. Without UV protection, we get sunburned, heal, and just repeat the process over and over."

She gave him a pensive look. "Then Web will know you're up to something."

"He'll suspect it," Spade agreed. "But he won't know what, and taking a boating trip is less suspicious than abruptly leaving town."

"I don't know why you told Bones after we'd both decided to keep him out of this," she muttered.

Spade set the bottle of sunblock down and folded his arms around her. "Crispin knew a demon had been in your home. He knew you were avoiding the vampire world, and he knew I normally don't take up with humans. Once he found me, he wouldn't have stopped digging until I told him the truth - and we might need his help, as it were."

Denise took in a deep breath, her scent peppering with anxiety. "You have no intention of giving up looking for Nathanial, do you?"

"No," he said softly. "No matter if I successfully hid you and your family from Raum, as long as those brands change your blood into what it is now, you're not safe, and I won't accept that."

He could feel her jaw grind against his chest. "I won't let you get killed because of me," Denise said.

"I've no intention of getting killed. I've never had more to live for."

Spade pulled back to look in her eyes, tempted to tell Denise exactly how he felt about her, but he paused. Crispin's boat would be here in minutes. He'd rather not declare himself and then immediately have to change the subject, particularly if she returned his sentiments.

No, this wasn't the proper time.

Denise saw the boat approaching and sighed. "There's Cat. Wow, I haven't seen her in months."

The speedboat pulled alongside theirs moments later. Cat had a huge grin on her face as she jumped across, not waiting for Crispin to tie the mooring line.

"Denise!" she exclaimed, grabbing her in a hug.

Denise looked surprised at Cat's greeting. "I thought you'd be mad at me," she said, voice choked either from emotion, or Cat forgetting her strength and squeezing her too hard.

"Of course not." Cat gave Denise another squeeze and then her gray gaze lasered on Spade. "I'm mad at you," she said clearly.

Crispin caught his eye and shrugged, as if to say, What did you expect?

"Don't be mad at Spade, I made him promise not to tell you guys," Denise said at once. Then her hazel eyes brightened. "I've really missed you, Cat. I know it's my fault, but..."

"Don't." Cat hugged her again. "I understood, believe me," she whispered.

A hazy apparition appeared over Cat's shoulder, growing more solid until the translucent form of a man in his forties appeared.

"Fabian," Spade greeted the ghost that Cat had, in a fashion, adopted. "How goes it?"

"Ugh," the ghost replied, shivering. "I hate to travel over water. There's nothing for me to anchor to."

Denise looked around. "Who are you talking to, Spade?"

"That's my friend Fabian, but, um, you can't see him because he's a ghost," Cat explained in an apologetic way.

Denise looked around anyway, her eyes wide. Spade was amused until another thatch of red hair caught his eye as a third person emerged from inside the speedboat.

"Hallo, mate," Ian said, giving Spade a cheery wave.

Spade felt a smile stretch his lips. "Ian!" he exclaimed in an equally cheerful voice. Then he jumped across the boat and punched him hard enough to send Ian catapulting into the ocean.

Denise gasped. Cat hid a grin. Crispin just rolled his eyes. "Was that necessary?"

"Certainly was," Spade replied coldly.

Ian treaded water, looking not the slightest bit surprised. "All right, you got that out of your system. Can I get back in the boat without you striking me again? Or should I stay out here enjoying the marine life?"

"Why don't you swim around until you find a shark? Then you can discuss how much the two of you have in common," Spade shot back.

"He was only concerned for you," Crispin said.

"Indeed? Then he should have grown a conscience on someone else's broken trust," Spade replied shortly.

Ian swam over to the edge of the other boat, avoiding the speedboat where Spade still stood. His lips curled when he saw Ian vault up beside Crispin, Cat, and Denise. You can hide behind them, but I'll still get to you.

The ghost wisely moved aside. Ian looked around before speaking. "You were acting crazed, Charles. Mooning over a human, snapping at anyone who looked at her cross-eyed. Whispering about blackmail and marks. Seeking out Red Dragon. Killing the person I told you sold it - yes, I heard Black Jack ended up murdered. Why wouldn't I bloody be concerned?"

"Then you should have come to me," Spade gritted out, judging if he could knock Crispin away from Ian without Denise being jarred in the process.

Ian gave Spade an unfathomable look. "I did. You refused to trust me."

"For good reason, else Crispin wouldn't be here," Spade replied with a disbelieving snort.

"Um, guys..." Cat began.

"I know I'm a rotten bastard, but there are four people in the world I'd never see come to harm, even at the cost of my own life," Ian said in a steady voice, turquoise gaze clear. "Two of them are here, yet neither of them trusts me. Believe me, even ruthless sods like me can be hurt by that."

"Yet you do lie, Ian, and you do manipulate, even the two of us," Crispin said quietly.

"Over little, insignificant things. Never over something that could mean your lives. Blimey, Crispin, you humiliated me over Cat, yet did I seek revenge? No. I went to bloody war for you less than a year later. I'll own what I am, but don't label me what I'm not when it comes to either of you."

"You know I don't like the man, but he has a point," Cat said, shaking her head. "He was there for Bones when I never thought he'd be, and it did end up almost getting him killed a few times."

"Thanks so much for the accolades, Reaper," Ian replied in a caustic tone.

Spade thought back over his long history with Ian. It had been thorny from their first meeting on the convict ship to when Ian had him changed into a vampire by calling in a favor, despite Spade not wanting that. Over the next centuries, there had been countless other incidents when Ian was as likely to bite the hand Spade extended to him as take it, but whenever things were truly dire...Ian hadn't betrayed him. He was right about that.

Denise caught his eye. "If you insist we keep going after Nathanial, we're going to need all the help we can get," she said.

Spade gave Ian a measured stare. "If you betray me on what I'm about to tell you, it will likely get me killed. And if it doesn't, I will find you, and I will kill you."

Ian shrugged. "Acceptable terms, mate."

Spade looked at Denise again. Her dark brown hair mixed with Cat's crimson strands in the wind, and for a second, seeing that flash of red by Denise's face brought the memory of Giselda's blood-soaked, lifeless image. Not Denise, he promised himself. Not this time.

"The source of Web's Red Dragon industry is probably a demon-marked bloke named Nathanial. I'm stealing Nathanial away from Web in order to give him back to the demon that marked him, and I need to do that before anyone realizes Denise is now a source, too."

Denise tried not to think about the last time she was in a house with Spade and Cat under perilous circumstances - not to mention, there was a ghost here, too. She was already rattled enough without those awful memories turning this into a PTSD attack. For the umpteenth time, she looked at the clock. Almost two A.M. What was keeping Ian? Or Bones?

"Don't you want something to eat?" Spade asked, squeezing her hand.

Her stomach let out a yowl of the affirmative, but with how tense she was, Denise was afraid if she ate anything, it might come back up.

"No, I'm fine."

Cat was clearly wired, too. She'd wanted to go with Bones, but he said it was better if she stayed back. Not because he was worried about her, but the sight of Cat would arouse too much suspicion. Alone, with his power cloaked, he had a chance at not being recognized as he lurked around the streets by Web's property. With Cat, those odds diminished.

And Cat couldn't read minds like Bones could to pick up if Ian was in any danger as he crashed Web's house under the pretense of being in the neighborhood. It was plausible that Ian had come to Monaco to see Spade, and Ian knew Web from a few shady dealings in the past. Denise questioned the wisdom of Ian doing reconnaissance at Web's house, but he brushed it off.

"Web knows I'm a scoundrel," Ian had said with a slanted grin. "He won't think anything of me asking for an illegal substance, whereas Charles or Crispin would make him right nervous. But who'd ever confuse me with an honorable man?"

He had a good point.

"Gotta say, I'm getting hungry myself," Cat remarked, standing up to pace.

"Oh, Spade has a ton of food left over from the party," Denise said, stopping at the look Cat gave her. "What?"

"Crap, I forgot you don't know..." Cat began.

"What?" Denise asked with more emphasis.

Cat's gray eyes turned green. That was nothing unusual; it was a mark of her half-vampire side that Denise had seen countless times. But then Cat opened her mouth in a sheepish smile to reveal two upper fangs that had never been there before.

"Holy shit," Denise breathed. "You did it. You actually did it."

"A few months ago," Cat said, those fangs retracting until just her normal teeth showed again. "At first things were too crazy for me to tell you about it, but then..."

Denise looked away. Yeah. Then she wasn't taking Cat's calls. "I'm sorry," she mumbled.

"It's all right, I knew you needed time," Cat replied softly. She gave Spade a harder look. "You'd better be good to her."

"Or you'll shove something silver in me where the sun doesn't shine?" Spade asked, grinning at Denise.

She looked away in embarrassment at the threat she'd hurled at him just this morning, but Cat nodded.

"You've got it, buddy."

"And same to you with Crispin, Reaper," Spade replied in a mild tone.

Denise stifled her snort. As if Spade's chivalry would allow him to do anything to a woman. The harshest punishment she could imagine him dishing out to Cat would be refusing to open a door for her.

"Shh," Spade said suddenly. His eyes narrowed. "I hear something."

Denise strained her ears, but came up with nothing. Cat cocked her head and then threw Spade an incredulous glance.

"Is that singing?"

Spade let out a snort. "Appears so."

Denise still couldn't hear anything, to her frustration. Again she cursed her brands for not giving her any useful abilities. Finally, after a solid five minutes, she caught the sound drifting from outside.

"...I am the very model of a modern Major-General..."

Ian's voice, loud and off tune. Denise blinked. "Is that code?"

Spade shook his head with disgust. "No. It's Pirates of Penzance."

Bones soundlessly came through the door a moment later, startling her. "He's so bloody pissed, he can hardly walk," he announced.

Denise knew enough English slang by now to know that didn't mean Ian was mad, and there was only one thing that could inebriate a vampire. Had Nathanial been in Web's house? Or had Ian gotten the Red Dragon from a vial, as Black Jack distributed it?

"I'm very good at integral and differential calculus," Ian continued to sing, interrupted by a crash and then, "Where'd that bloody statue come from? Er, imitation anyway. I know the scientific names of beings animalculous..."

After more stumbling noises, the operetta-singing vampire appeared. Ian's eyes were bloodshot, he had a smear of dirt on his face, and his shirt was buttoned up wrong.

"Hallo, all!" Ian announced cheerfully. "That was a capital evening."

"Ian, mate, you look a bit worse for wear," Spade gritted out, glaring at him. "Let's get you tucked into bed before you break anything else."

"I know our mythic history, King Arthur's and Sir Caradoc's," Ian singsonged.

Cat looked at Bones and let out a grunt. "Useless," she muttered.

Spade grabbed Ian, hissing something in his ear Denise didn't hear. Whatever it was, Ian laughed. "Charles, mate, you fret too much. I'm a grown man, I am, and I can blood my handle."

"Handle your blood?" Bones offered dryly.

Ian grinned. "Exactly."

Denise sighed. It was clear they weren't getting any information out of Ian tonight. She, Bones, and Cat followed as Spade supported Ian, almost carrying him up the stairs to then dump him on the bed in a guest room.

"Before you go, mate, turn on the telly. Something raunchy, too. Think I'll rub one off before I sleep."

"God, you're disgusting," Cat grumbled. Denise agreed.

To her surprise, Bones went across the bedroom, flipped through the channels, and stopped on some thing pornographic, turning it up. Moans, cries, and groans filled the room.

Ian sat up like a puppet yanked into action. "He's got someone there with Dragon in his blood," he said low, the slur considerably less in his words. "Couldn't tell if he matched your description, poppet, because they had him covered up except for his thighs, arse, and cock. Too bad you didn't describe one of those, or I'd know straightaway if this was your bloke."

Denise's mouth dropped, both in surprise at Ian's abrupt recovery, and hearing the condition in which Web had the man who might be Nathanial.

Spade didn't look surprised by either. His mouth was set in a grim line. "Package deals," he muttered, throwing a glance in her direction.

Denise's stomach heaved, making her glad she hadn't eaten before. She looked at Ian in horror. He hadn't, had he...?

"I say, look at the melons on that lass," Ian exclaimed, his gaze now on the TV. "And hung like a stallion, he is."

"Focus, mate," Spade muttered.

Ian gave Spade a lopsided smile that told Denise he might not be as affected as he'd pretended, but what he'd imbibed had left its mark.

"Didn't bugger the bloke against his will, of course, so I took a swallow from his thigh and that was all. Cost a fancy bit of quid for a direct taste, too, versus the bottled, mixed version Web sells."

Denise shuddered. It would have been her exposed in that helpless and humiliating position for any vampire to bite or rape, if Black Jack had taken her to Web as he'd planned.

"How secure is the room he's in?" Bones asked, absorbing everything without a change in expression.

Ian's gaze wandered back to the TV before it snapped to Bones. "Hmm? Ah, very secure. Practically a bloomin' dungeon, though more posh. Web blindfolded me so I don't know which door we went through, but it's in the basement. Five vampires in the room, one of them a Master. At least seven more Masters in the house, plus Web. And a bloody lot of silver weapons."

"He blindfolded you? Must not have trusted you as much as you thought he would," Spade mused.

"Everyone acted like it was normal procedure. Foxed me at first how readily Web admitted to having a source at his home, but he must reckon only his people know how rare sources are. If not for her, none of us would know what caused the bloke to have Red Dragon in his veins, right? Other vampires must reckon it's a chemical Web makes and just injects random humans with." Ian paused to shake his head. "Web is rattled about you moving in next door, however...and is this room spinning, or is it me?"

"It's you, now continue," Spade said shortly.

"Web kept going on about why you would up and leave your ancestral home. Did I know what you were about? Who was the woman with you? Right stuck on it, he was. He's goosed enough that he might move that source of his soon."

"Bugger," Spade swore. He met Bones's gaze. "It'll have to be now."

"Now?" Denise blurted, forgetting to whisper.

Spade came over to her and smoothed his hand across her shoulders. "Dawn will be here in a few hours so they'll be winding down, off their guard as much as they're going to be. To wait would be riskier."

It's too soon! Denise wanted to cry out, but she pressed her lips together and nodded. She'd never feel comfortable letting Spade walk into that situation, and if it was safer now, better now than later.

"They have cameras outside the house, alarms, probably the same inside as well," Bones noted. "It won't be a surprise attack, mate. Do you have any other vampires here strong enough and trustworthy enough to join us?"

Spade nodded. "One."