Crimson Debt Read online

  “I’m not worried about Victor right now,” Taylor interrupted. “I mean, I’m getting pretty thirsty but I’ll be okay…for a little while longer, anyway.”

  “Well then, why should I come over there? Especially when I’ve been asked to stay away?” It had been a week since our last encounter and Corbin’s request that a different Auditor be assigned to inspect his business still stung.

  “It’s Corbin—you need to come see him,” Taylor said.

  My heart leapt up into my throat. “What? Why? Why didn’t he call me himself?”

  She sighed. “He doesn’t know I’m making this call. But Addison, you need to see for yourself—something isn’t right.”

  This time my heart plunged into my stomach. Wow, I was really getting some great cardiac calisthenics here.

  “What do you mean—what’s wrong?” I asked.

  She sighed again and I could almost see her running a hand through her hair. “It’s Master Corbin.”

  “Master? Really?”

  “Well, he did rescue me from Celeste, which makes him my master now,” she said, sounding uncharacteristically snappish. “Cut me some slack, Addison—I’m trying to tell you I think Corbin’s in trouble.”

  “What kind of trouble?” I thought of him saying that the Empress would not be pleased to receive Roderick’s remains. “Are other vampires involved?” I asked. “Are they coming after him?”

  “No, nothing like that. It’s the way he’s acting…the way he looks.”

  “Why—what is he doing?”

  “All week he’s been talking to legal people about the club, calling staff in and thanking them for all their hard service. He even told me he hoped I would have a very happy life and gave me some tips on how to be a more effective vampire.”

  I was drawing a blank. “So?”

  “So? Addison, it’s like…like he’s saying goodbye.”

  “So maybe he’s selling the club,” I said, though I couldn’t imagine Corbin giving it up—Under the Fang was his baby.

  “It doesn’t feel like that,” Taylor said quietly. “It feels like he’s setting his affairs in order.”

  “What? But he’s perfectly fine.” I thought of Corbin the last time I had seen him—he had been the picture of vampire health.

  “No, he’s not,” Taylor said. “In fact, especially in the past day or two, well, he doesn’t look so good.”

  “You’re saying he’s sick? Vampire’s don’t get sick.”

  “Corbin is. He’s different, Addison. Paler than usual. Quieter. I haven’t seen him feed once in the past week.”

  “So maybe he’s just hungry.”

  The thought that Corbin might be starving himself for love of me occurred but I pushed it away. As gratifying as it might be, there was no way it could happen. Corbin, like all vampires, was a purely practical creature. There was no way he would go on a hunger strike just for me, especially when he had pushed me so neatly out of his life himself.

  “No, that’s the thing,” Addison protested, breaking my train of thought. “I honestly think he’s not hungry. I saw one of the glam-girls offer him her wrist last night. She was all, ‘Drink, my Master.’ But he pushed her away and said, ‘Forgive me. I have no appetite.’ Now does that sound like Corbin to you?”

  I had to admit it didn’t. Corbin had never been one to turn down a free snack. So what was going on?

  “Maybe I should come down and just have a look around,” I said.

  “Yes, please do. Maybe I’m just imagining things but…I don’t think so.” Taylor sounded upset. “I’m really worried about him, Addison.”

  “All right.” I looked at my watch. “My shift starts in a few minutes. I’ll make Under the Fang my first stop.”

  “I thought he asked you to get another Auditor to inspect him?”

  “He did.” I cleared my throat. “I just…haven’t gotten around it yet.”

  “Okay, see you in a few,” she said and hung up.

  * * * * *

  The trip to Under the Fang didn’t take long and before I knew it I was striding over the familiar red, black, and silver dance floor. The glam-booths were full, as usual, and there were lines of humans eagerly waiting to be glammed by the bored looking vampires but they didn’t hold my attention.

  I ignored the pounding beat of the music and the laughing patrons—it was like I didn’t even see them. Instead I looked at the raised dais where Corbin usually sat and remembered how he had taken me over his knee and spanked me there. I had been furious at him but then afterward when he had healed me so gently…and then the next night in his office… No, stop thinking about it, I told myself sternly. You’re just here to check on him and then you’ll be on your way.

  Lifting my chin, I left the dance floor and followed the long hallway down to the business end of the club where Corbin kept his office and daylight hiding place. It was unnaturally quiet with none of the hustle and bustle I remembered from a regular club night. Where was his staff? Then, suddenly when I was a few feet from his office door, I heard familiar voices.

  “But Master, please—I do not wish to leave you,” said the first voice, which sounded like the little curly-haired androgynous vamp that was Corbin’s assistant.

  “I know you don’t, Antoine, but I’m afraid you have no choice.” That was definitely Corbin and he sounded tired. No, not just tired—unbearably weary, as though he could barely make himself speak. What in the world could have happened to make him sound that way?

  “I will stay by your side, no matter what! I will go with you, wherever it is you are going.”

  “Antoine…” Corbin sighed heavily. “I’m sorry my little friend but where I am going, you cannot follow.”

  I frowned. Was Corbin planning a trip?

  “It’s that witch, isn’t it? That LaRoux woman—she did something to you.” The assistant’s voice sounded high and unhappy. “I could tell by looking at her that something about her wasn’t right. Please, Master—what did she do? You haven’t been right since that night. Did she put you under a spell or—”

  “She did nothing I didn’t ask her to do,” Corbin said sharply. “Antoine, you forget yourself. You are overstepping your boundaries.”

  “Forgive me, Master.” The little assistant seemed to be almost sobbing now. “It’s just that I am trying to understand what is happening. Why you are sending us all away—”

  “You don’t need to understand, Antoine. You only need to obey. Now go and check on the figures I asked you to get. Everything must be in good working order before I pass the Fang on to its new owner.”

  Hearing that knocked me back a step. Could it be true? Was Corbin actually selling out and moving on? But why? What the hell was going on?

  Just then the little curly-haired assistant came stumbling out of the office in a very un-vampiric display of clumsiness. There were smudges of red on his cheeks and I realized he’d been crying. He looked up at me briefly.

  “Hello, Mistress,” he muttered before going on down the hall toward the bar and dance floor.

  Mystified, I walked up to Corbin’s office and rapped lightly on the open door.

  “It’s me—can I come in?”

  Corbin was sitting at his desk, pouring over some paperwork. When he looked up, I saw with a shock that Taylor had been right. He really did look terrible.

  His eyes were red-rimmed and their lovely silver-blue color seemed dulled somehow. His face was paler than usual too and there were lines around his mouth and under his eyes I had never noticed before. In short, he looked less than perfect and that wasn’t like Corbin. If he was human, I would have said he looked like he hadn’t slept in weeks. But vampires don’t really need sleep so what was going on?

  “Addison,” he said, frowning when he saw it was me. “What are you doing here?”

  I leaned against the doorframe and crossed my arms over my chest.

  “I’m here because Taylor called and asked me to come over.”

  “Then