Real Vampires: Glory Does Vegas by Bartlett, Gerry (white hot kiss TXT) 📕

from gambling, made her quit completely and very suddenly. It was ruining her life!” I couldn’t resist looking around the room for support. What I got was pity from my friends and anger from my lover. “He also paid off her debts.” I stared down at my lap, pleating my pretty red dress with my nervous fingers.

“Are you mad? You made a demon do a good deed for one of your friends? You asked nothing for yourself?” Alex walked around the room after I shook my head. “Did you hear that, Harry? This is all about her helping another. God would certainly be willing to intervene here. Don’t you think?”

“Yes, indeed. Holy water. That’s the ticket.” Harry began to rummage through a duffle bag in one corner of the room. “Bible too.” He turned to look at me. “Don’t suppose you go to church, do you, girl?”

“No, but I’ll start praying right now, start going this Sunday if that will help. It’s not that I don’t believe. I have a hole in my memory. . . It’s a long story. But if asking God for help is the ticket, too, then I’m ready to jump on that train.” I was finally hopeful.

“Harry?” Maggie spoke. “How do you know about this?”

“I was a priest once upon a time. Before I met my pal Alex here.” He brought out a worn Bible and a bottle with a cork in it. “Here’s some holy water and my own Bible. I’ll want it back once the deed is done. Let me mark some passages that’ll get that demon on his way back to Hell.”

“Harry and I have been together for more than fifty years. He’s saved me more than once and not just from demons.” Alex’s face softened. “I would turn him in a minute if he’d agree to be with me forever.”

“Become a blood sucker? No thank you. I like my steak and eggs too much for that, my dear.” Harry smiled at his friend.

I reached for the holy water. “I’ll need more instructions. Davenport is horrible. He’s threatening to ruin the blood tasting we’re having at the Velvet Slipper. I don’t suppose you know about it.”

“Everyone knows about it, my dear.” Anderston smiled. “I thought about making an appearance. Do you think your guests would be amused? By a trick or two?”

I didn’t have to pause to think. “That would be amazing. Come. I’ll put you on the guest list.”

Harry held out the Bible. “I’ve marked a few passages with bits of paper. Say those words and shower him with holy water. But first go to a church and pray. Hold the Bible and ask God to help you. If you are truly a good person and the favor you asked for was in good faith, for a good reason, then God will help you. I believe that with all my heart.” Harry smiled and touched the top of my head before he murmured some words in a language I thought might be Latin. “Believing is the key. Can you do it?”

“Yes, yes I can.” I clutched the Bible to my chest. Whatever Harry had said made me tingle from the top of my head down through my body. “Thank you. I already feel better. Like I have hope.”

“Oh, you should. I can tell when someone is good and you obviously had good intentions.” Harry looked at his fingers. “There’s something else at work here. Did you tell me everything?”

“Power. The demon kept talking about my power.” I looked down at my own hand. “I discovered I can shoot sparks, like electricity, from my fingers if I concentrate.”

Harry and Alex exchanged looks while my friends exclaimed.

“Gloriana, can you really?” Jerry turned me to face him.

“Yes, Jeremiah. I made a slot machine blow up.” I leaned against him, my knees weak. “I also used that power to send a mortal running who’d been bothering us at the apartment.”

“Demons are drawn to power.” Harry frowned. “Still, do as I said and you can defeat him. But next time you have a problem, solve it yourself. Don’t ask a demon for help. Otherwise, Alex can tell you there can be hell to pay.”

“Don’t remind me.” Anderston waved us away. “Go. Harry and I will see you at the Velvet Slipper on Halloween night. I won’t bring the pigeons. They make such a mess. Harry fusses about it.”

“Right you are.” Harry took the Bible and slipped it and the holy water into a bag and handed them to me.

We left while Harry and Alex were arguing about the pigeons.

“That took most of our night but I think it was worth it.” Jerry kept his arm around me as we walked down to the parking garage. “Do you really feel better?”

“Sure.” I couldn’t wait to tell Valdez what I’d learned. Connie had texted me that Dennis had some ideas too. Davenport had misjudged me. I wasn’t going down without a fight.

“This evening was fun. Don’t let more decades go by without a get-together, guys.” Fergus and Maggie settled in the back seat of the luxury car Jeremiah had rented. He drove, of course. I put the bag between my feet and finally relaxed. We weren’t that far from their hotel, but we didn’t want to walk and I had cramped their style when it came to shape-shifting and flying. Yes, I got pitying looks from them but that didn’t make me suddenly sprout wings, did it?

“I’d like to see you shoot sparks from your fingertips.” Jerry pulled out into traffic on a side street. He was entering the Strip when an eighteen-wheeler suddenly came out of nowhere and hit us broadside.

Screams—mine?—metal tearing, brakes squealing while I was flung against the door next to me. My head slammed into the glass, before we landed with a horrifying crash into a brick wall. The car accordioned into a smoking mess. I was sure all of us had been flung about like rag dolls. Did we have on seatbelts? Immortal