Page 54 of The Vampire Kingpin

“Thanks.” I zipped up the garment bag and hung it on a rail.

Zayne returned the shoes to their box and put them back on the shelf. “You buy a mask?”

“No. We…forgot.” At that point, I’d still been in an orgasm-induced haze. I’d barely remembered to put on my underwear. “Where’s a good place to buy one?”

“Abracadabra on Twenty-First Street,” said Zayne.

“But I can make you one,” DeeDee volunteered.

“Yeah?” I eyed her. “What would it look like?”

“She’s good,” Zayne confirmed. “And there’s time, right? The Masquerade isn’t until the end of the month.”

DeeDee took out her phone. “Can I take a photo of your dress? I can match the style and color that way.”

I wasn’t sure I wanted DeeDee making my mask but I didn’t see an easy way out, so I unzipped the garment bag again.

“How about something lacy?” She snapped a couple of photos.

I shook my head. “Too girly.”

“I’m talking black-mesh lace. With wine-colored lace around the outside. Like this.” She showed me a similar mask on her phone.

“That’s…wow.” The mask was gorgeous, dammit. And opaque enough to hide my features.

“I can make Spider a mesh mask, too. Not lacy—more edgy.”

“All black,” I said, giving in. “That would be great. I’ll pay you, of course.”

DeeDee gave me a razorblade of a smile. “Good, because I don’t work for free.”

Okay, there was the DeeDee I knew. I relaxed a bit. Nice DeeDee made me uneasy, but this version I could deal with.

“Then you have yourself a deal.”

Back in the Cavern, I played a couple rounds of pool with Zayne, who was improving by the week, then put down my cue stick and slipped out the door.

I spent the first hour or so learning the area around Spider’s lair—the tunnels, the cross passages, the spurs leading to nowhere. Of course, I had to avoid their trip wires and other traps, but that was kinda fun, like a real-life video game. The only cams were right outside the lair—I knew that from my previous recon. Why wire the tunnels with cams when you could set booby traps?

The whole time I was making my way to where I’d hidden my phone and the stolen jewelry. And yeah, I knew that checking your loot was a rooky mistake—best to forget about it until you were ready to retrieve it. But I wanted my phone.

So when I got close enough, I ducked into the shadows and zipped down a side corridor near Spider’s lair. When I dropped back out of the shadows, I counted the tracks from a crack in the wall, stopping at the third track, where the phone was in a plastic bag covered by a layer of dirt. The jewelry in the bag under the fifth track, I ignored.

I was powering up my phone when Troll’s mocking tones made me freeze.

“Well, look who’s here, Grim.”

I straightened from my crouch on the tracks and slipped the phone into my pocket, my gaze darting from him to my cousin.

The hair on my nape stirred. Grim looked like he hadn’t fed for a week. His eyes bulged and his cheeks were hollow.

“Hey, Grim. What’s up?”

Troll folded his beefy arms over his chest. He didn’t look so good, either. “What’s that in your pocket?” he countered.

“My phone.”

“Show me.”