There were a number of cars in the courtyard, some of which, under other circumstances, he'd have had a serious jones for, and also another, far smaller house made from the same stone as the castle. The fountain in the center was dry, but he could imagine the peaceful sounds it would make as the water fell.
"This way," Jane said as she popped the trunk and took out one of his duffels.
"I'll get that." He took what she'd grabbed, as well as the other two. "Ladies first."
She'd called her man on the way in, so Manny had a pretty good idea that Payne's people weren't going to kill him outright. But who could tell for sure?
Good thing he didn't give a shit about himself right now.
At the grand entrance, she rang the bell and a lock switched open. Stepping inside with her, he found himself in a windowless vestibule that made him think of a jail ... a very classy, expensive jail with handcarved wood panels and the scent of lemon in the air.
No way they were coming out of this space unless someone let them.
Jane spoke into a camera. "It's us. We're - "
The second set of doors was cracked immediately, and Manny had to blink a couple of times as the way in was opened. The brilliant, colorful foyer on the far side was nothing he'd expected: Majestic and with all the hues of the rainbow, it was everything the fortified exterior was not. And dear Lord, it seemed like every conceivable type of decorative marble and stone had been used ... and holy shit from all the crystal and the gold leafing.
Then he stepped inside and saw the frescoed ceiling three stories up ... and a staircase that made the one from Gone With the Wind look like a stepladder.
Just as the door shut behind him, Payne's brother came out of what looked like a poolroom, with Red Sox by his side. As the vampire strode forward, he was all business as he put a hand-rolled between his fangs and jacked up his black leathers.
Stopping in front of Manny, the two of them locked eyes ... until you had to wonder if it was all going to be over before it started - with Manny being made a meal of.
Except then the vampire held out his palm.
Of course - the cell phone.
Manny dropped his bags and took the BlackBerry out of his coat pocket. "Here - this is - "
The guy accepted what was offered but didn't look at the thing. He just shifted it over to his free hand and put his palm out again.
The gesture was so very simple; its meaning very, very deep.
Manny grabbed for that palm with his own, and neither of them said anything. No reason to have to because the communication was clear: Respect was paid and accepted on both sides.
When they dropped palms, Manny said, "The phone?"
For the vampire, getting into the thing was the work of a moment.
"Jesus ... you're fast," Manny murmured.
"No. This is the one I gave her. I was calling it every hour on the hour. The GPS is busted - otherwise I would have given you the addy you found it in."
"Fuck." Manny rubbed his face. "There was nothing else there. Jane and I combed the alley - and I've driven around downtown for hours. What now?"
"We wait. It's all we can do while the sunlight is out. But the instant we go dark, the Brotherhood is tearing out of here with a vengeance. We'll find her, don't you worry - "
"I'm coming too," he said. "Just so we're clear."
As Payne's twin started shaking his head, Manny cut any protesting, be-reasonable shit off. "Sorry. That might be your sister out there ... but she's my woman. And that means I'm going to be a part of this."
At that, the one with the baseball cap took off his hat and smoothed his hair. "Shit on a shingle - "
Manny froze in place, the rest of what the guy said not registering at all.
That face ... that f**king face.
That - holy shit - face.
Manny had been wrong about where he'd seen the guy.
"What?" the guy said, glancing down at himself.
Manny was vaguely aware of Payne's brother frowning and Jane looking worried. But his focus was on the other man. He searched those hazel eyes, that mouth, and that chin, trying to find something that didn't fit, something out of place ... something that disproved the two-plus-two-is-four he was rocking.
The only thing that was even slightly off was the nose - but that was just because it had been broken at least once.
The truth was in the bones.
And the connection was not the hospital or even St. Patrick's Cathedral - because come to think of it, he had definitely seen this man, male ... vampire, whatever ... at church before.
"What the hell?" Butch muttered, looking at Vishous.
By way of explanation, Manny bent down and rifled through his bags. As he searched for what he hadn't intentionally brought with him, he knew without a doubt he was going to find it. Fate had lined these dominos up too perfectly for this moment not to happen.
And yup, there it was.
As Manny straightened, his hands were shaking so badly that the picture frame's bracer flapped against the back of the matting.
Given that his voice was gone, all he could do was turn the glass around and give the three of them a chance to look at the black-and-white photograph.
Which was the spitting image of the male named Butch.
"This is my father," Manny said roughly.
The guy's expression went from yeah, whatever to bald, blanching shock, and his hands started trembling as well as he reached out and carefully took the old picture.
He didn't bother denying anything. He couldn't.
Payne's brother exhaled a cloud of wonderful-smelling smoke. "Fucking. A."
Well, didn't that just sum it all up nicely.
Manny glanced at Jane and then eyed the man who might well be a half brother. "Do you recognize him?"
When the guy slowly shook his head, Manny looked over at Payne's twin. "Can humans and vampires ..."
"Yup."
As he went back to staring at a face that shouldn't have been so familiar, he thought, Shit, how did he put this. "So are you ..."
"A half-breed?" the guy said. "Yeah. My mother was human."
"Son of a bitch," Manny breathed.
Chapter Fifty-four
As Butch held the picture of a man who was undeniably identical to himself, he thought, rather bizarrely, about the yellow signs on highways.
The ones that said things like BRIDGE MAY BE ICY ... or, WATCH FOR FALLING ROCK ... or the temporary GIVE 'EM A BRAKE before you got to a work zone. Hell, even the ones with the silhouette of a deer leaping or a big black arrow pointing to the left or the right.
At this moment, standing here in the foyer, he would really have appreciated some advance warning that his life was about to go pigslick, off-the-rails.
Then again, collisions were collisions and couldn't be planned.
Raising his stare from the photograph, he looked into the human surgeon's eyes. They were a deep brown, a good old-fashioned port color. But the shape of them ... God, why hadn't he seen the similarity to his own before?
"You're sure," he heard himself say. "This is your father."
Except he knew the answer before the guy nodded.
"Who ... how ..." Yeah, great journalist he would make, huh. "What ..."
There you go. Add when and where and he was Anderson-fucking-Cooper.
The thing was, though, after having mated Marissa and gone through his transition, he'd finally found peace with who he was and what was doing in his life. Over in the human world, on the other hand, he'd been estranged from everyone, running parallel but never truly intersecting with his mother and his sisters and his brothers.
And his father, of course.
Or at least the guy he'd been told was his pops.
He'd assumed that with his true home and mate here, he was done with assimilating, having reached a peaceful reconciliation with so much that had been painful.
But didn't this just kick all that shit up again.
The human spoke gravely. "His name was Robert Bluff. He was a surgeon at Columbia Pres in New York City when my mom was working there as a nurse - "
"My mother was a nurse." Butch's mouth felt dry. "But not at that hospital."
"He practiced a number of places - even ... over in Boston."
There was a long silence, during which Butch tested the cold, confusing waters of a possible unfaithfulness on his mother's part.
"Anyone need a drink, true?" V said.
"Lag - "
"Lagavulin - "
Butch and surgeon both fell silent as Vishous rolled his eyes. "Why is this not a surprise."