Ethan snatched at my handful of money without waiting for me to peel the bills off.
"Thanks!" he said, and scampered off toward the pizza counter.
Okay,that looked authentic-I'd seen kids do the same thing to their parents all day today, plus all day yesterday. Good God, between the food and the endless tokens for games, I'd gone through more money in two days here than I normally did at a week's worth of bar jobs downing multiple gin and tonics. At least this was on Uncle Sam's dime, not mine.
There was only one floor at Chuck E. Cheese's, so that made it easier to keep Belinda in sight without resorting to looming over her. She was in the section to the left of the front door, playing Skee-Ball. She landed yet another perfect throw into the center of the circles. Lights went off while more tickets spat out of the side of the machine. Belinda had a pile of them near her feet, and more than a few admiring fathers as well as kids clustered around her.
But no other vampire was here, even though this Chuck E. Cheese had been linked to the disappearance of a family three weeks ago. Not that any of the patrons here knew that. It was only because a security camera had caught a pair of glowing green eyes in the parking lot that Don even suspected vampires were involved in the family's odd disappearance.
Undead killers liked to hit the same hunting grounds more than once. Which confounded the hell out of me. If vampires or ghouls never went back to the same crime scene, my uncle's special department of Homeland Security would be out of business. Some of them didn't have enough sense to be like lightning, never striking the same place twice.
My cell vibrated. I took it off my belt, glanced at it-and smiled. The number flashing was 911, which meant a vampire had just been seen in the parking lot. I kept my eye on Ethan as I sidled over to where Belinda was. She gave me an irritated glance when I laid a hand on her arm.
"Showtime," I murmured.
"Get your hand off me," she replied without losing her sweet smile.
I squeezed instead. "If you try anything, I'll kill you. And that's only if Bones doesn't beat me to it first."
Belinda's eyes flashed green for a second, but then she shrugged. "Ten more years, then I don't have to deal with you anymore."
I let her go. "That's right. So don't f**k up a better deal than you deserve."
"Don't you need to get away from me,Reaper?" she hissed, so low even I could barely hear her. "You don't want to scare the fish away, do you?"
I gave Belinda a cool, evaluating stare before I turned my back and walked away. I'd meant what I said. If Belinda pulled any tricks during this job and endangered one of the many kids here, I'd kill her. But, as the saying went, we were giving her enough rope to hang herself. Now we had to wait and see if she swung from it.
On my way over to Ethan, my cell vibrated again. I glanced at it and mentally groaned. Another 911. That meant there were two vampires. Not good.
I reached Ethan, wanting to keep a sharp eye on him as well as the door. It wasn't long before I saw two men walk in with the distinctive skin and purposeful movements that marked the difference between a regular person and a vampire.
I gave the interior of Chuck E. Cheese's another frustrated glance. With all the children here, this was the worst kind of place to have a showdown with the undead. If I were playing bait, I'd try to maneuver the vamps into the parking lot to minimize the danger to bystanders. But Belinda probably wouldn't care enough to do that. Well, I'd just have to try and help her out.
I grasped Ethan's hand. "It's time," I told him.
His blue-green eyes widened. "The bad people are here?" he whispered.
I doubted Don had explained to Ethan-or his parents, whoever those crazy folks were to let their son do this-what sort of "bad people" we were after. I wasn't about to elaborate, either.
"You don't leave my sight, remember?" I said, soft but stern. "It'll be okay."
He nodded, visibly mustering up his courage. "Okay."
What a good boy.
My cell phone vibrated again, with another series of numbers flashing across the screen.
911-911
"Oh, f-crap," I caught myself just in time.
Ethan blinked up at me. "What's wrong?"
I got a tighter grip on his hand. "Nothing."
That was a lie, of course. I looked up in time to see a third vampire walking in the door. Then a fourth. I saw Belinda pause in her next Skee-Ball toss, look at them, and smile. Widely.
This was going to be a hell of an afternoon.
Chapter Three
THE VAMPIRES DIDN'T TAKE LONG TO NOTICE Belinda. Maybe they even smelled her before they saw her, because they weren't inside the place for a minute before they sidled over to her. I kept a good grip on Ethan's hand as I heard Belinda exchange hellos, straining my hearing to make sure she wasn't saying anything else. Like,trap orReaper. So far, so good. Belinda was just being flirty-with a homicidal edge to it, inquiring if they were up for eating anyone here.
"Why do you think we're here?" one of them said with a smirk. "It ain't for the big fake mouse."
The others laughed. My jaw clenched. Bastards.
"You here with anyone?" another asked, giving Belinda an up-and-down leer.
"Some chick I met and her son," Belinda said dismissively. "One of you can eat her, but I call dibs on the kid."
"Point them out," the dark-haired vampire said.
I glanced away right as Belinda's hand arced up, putting a false smile on my face as I looked at Ethan.Don't worry. Nothing's going to happen to you.
"The blonde wearing the black turtleneck sweater and jeans, holding the little boy's hand. That's them."
"Pretty," the brunette drawled, then added quickly, "but not as pretty as you, of course."
"Thanks." Belinda's voice said his backpedaling wasn't sufficient, but she'd let it go. "So, how do you all normally do this? Just snatch a kid and run?"
"See that guy over there?" The tall, scrawny vampire pointed to someone wearing an employee badge. "After a few flashes of my eyes, I'm going to steal his outfit from him."
"Why would you want to take some guy'sclothes?" Belinda asked in disbelief. I glanced back over to them casually. I'd just been wondering that myself.
"Not his clothes, the Chuck E. Cheese costume," the vampire replied with a grin. "It's easy to get kids to follow you outside without arousing suspicion when you're wearing that. Even if their parents notice, one of us just gives 'em the gaze and they go home thinking everything's fine. Takes them a day or so to even realize their kids are gone, and they don't remember where they lost 'em from."