The Keepers. Heather Graham

rather than an electronic device of any kind. “Shouldn’t you be warning the citizens of New Orleans to be careful? Shouldn’t you be giving them a profile of the killer?”

      Jagger hoped his sunglasses fully covered his eyes as he inadvertently stared over at Fiona MacDonald.

      She had a profile of the killer, he was certain.

      “We don’t know anything yet. I repeat—we’ve just begun our investigation. I’m going to give young women in this city the same warning I give all the time: be smart, and be careful. Don’t go walking the streets alone in the dark. Let someone know where you’re going at all times, and if you go out to party, don’t go alone. People, use common sense. That’s my warning.”

      “But aren’t serial killers usually young white men between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-five?” shouted a tiny woman from the rear. She was Livy Drew, from a small local cable station.

      He reminded himself that he had to stay calm—and courteous. The public affairs department was much better at that, though, and he fervently wished they would hurry up and get there.

      “Livy, there’s nothing to indicate that we have a serial killer on our hands.”

      “You’re denying that this is the work of a serial killer?”

      “I’m not denying or confirming anything,” he said, fighting for patience. “One more time—our investigation is just beginning. Yes, young women should take special care, because yes, a young woman has been killed. Now, if you’ll let me get to work, I’ll be able to answer more questions for you in the future. Though we have no ID on her yet, we may make a hit with fingerprints or dental impressions, and we’ll have a picture available for you soon. And, as always, the department will be grateful for any information that can help us identify the victim—and find her killer. But no heroics from anyone, please. Just call the station with any information you may have.”

      Someone called from the back of the crowd. “Detective, what—”

      “That’s all!” Jagger said firmly, then turned to head for his car, parked almost directly in front of the gates. He looked for Fiona MacDonald, but she was gone.

      He knew where he would find her.

      He got into his car and pulled away from the curb, glancing expectantly in the rearview mirror. She was just sitting up. Her expression was grim as she stared at him.

      “What the hell is going on, DeFarge?” she asked.

      He nearly smiled. If things hadn’t been quite so serious, he would have.

      “I don’t know.”

      “Well, I do. You have a rogue vampire on your hands. And you have to put a stop to this immediately.”

      He pulled up the ramp to a public parking area by the river. He found a quiet place to park along the far edge of the lot and turned to look at her.

      Fiona was young, somewhere around twenty-nine or thirty, he thought. Young in any world, very young in their world.

      They knew each other, of course; they saw each other now and then at the rare council meetings in which several underworld groups met to discuss events, make suggestions, keep tabs on one another and keep the status quo going.

      He suddenly wished fervently that her parents were still alive. The savage war that had nearly ripped through the city had been stopped only by the tremendous sacrifice the couple had made, leaving their daughters to watch over the evenly divided main powers existing in the underbelly of New Orleans, a world few even knew existed.

      Naturally the war had been fought because of a vampire.

      No, not true. A vampire and a shapeshifter.

      Vampire Cato Leone had fallen deeply and madly in love with shapeshifter Susan Chaisse, who had fallen in love with him in return. The two had been unable to understand why they weren’t allowed to fall in love. Frankly Jagger didn’t understand it, either. Old World prejudice had done them in. It had been a Romeo and Juliet scenario, a Southern West Side Story, a tale as old as time. Young love seldom cared about proper boundaries. Man and every subspecies of man seemed prone to prejudice, and it was usually born of fear and or economics. Either way, the outcome was almost always the same. In this case, just as in Shakespeare’s tale, it had been cousins of the young lovers who had caused the problems. Susan’s first cousin Julian had taken on the form of a monster being, half vampire, half werewolf, and attacked Cato. Shapeshifters were truly gifted; they could take on whatever shape they chose, and mimic not only another’s appearance but take on their powers, as well. Cato hadn’t even known who he was battling, and in the thick of the fight his own cousin jumped to his aid and was killed by the shapeshifter. That raised an uncontrollable rage in Cato, who in turn killed his attacker, and because the shapeshifter had taken on a guise that was partly werewolf, Cato’s family had attacked the werewolves, and the violence had threatened to spill over into the streets. The power that Fiona MacDonald’s parents had summoned to defeat the warring parties had cost them their lives. No Keeper, no matter how strong, could exert that much power and survive.

      They had known what they were doing. But they had known as well that if the battle had erupted into the human world, it would have brought about the destruction of them all. Humans far outnumbered the various paranormal subspecies, not just here, but across the world, though the largest concentration of any such creatures was right here, in New Orleans, Louisiana, commonly referred to locally as NOLA. History had decreed that they all learn how to coexist. Werewolves learned to harness their power at each full moon, and vampires learned how to exist on the occasional foray into a blood bank, along with a steady diet of cow’s blood. The shapeshifters had it the easiest, subsisting in their human form on human diets. Hell, half of them were vegetarians these days.

      “Fiona,” he said quietly, “I can only repeat what I’ve said to the media. I don’t know anything yet. I have to investigate. God knows there are enough idiots living here, and more coming all the time, who want to think they’re vampires. You can’t deny that this city does attract more than its share of would-be mystics, cultists, wiccans, psychics and plain old nuts.”

      “I heard that she was entirely drained of blood,” Fiona said flatly.

      He wished that he were dealing with her mother. Jen MacDonald had lived a long life; she had been a fine Keeper, along with her husband, Ewan. The two—both born with the marks of each of the three major subspecies—had been fair and judicious. And wise. They had never jumped to conclusions; they had always done their own questioning, conducted their own investigations. They had loved those they had been born to watch, never interjecting themselves into the governing councils of their charges but being there in case of disputes or problems—or to point out potential problems before they became major bones of contention.

      Jagger took a deep breath. He had become a police officer himself because he didn’t want history to keep repeating itself. Most of the underworld—Keepers included—had come to NOLA after years of seeking a real home. The church’s battle against “witchcraft” had begun as long ago as the 900s, and in 1022, even monks—pious, but outspoken against some of the doctrines of the church—had been burned. Witchcraft had become synonymous with devil worship, and the monks were said to cavort with demons and devils, indulge in mass orgies, and sacrifice and even eat small children. In 1488 the Papal Bull issued by Pope Innocent III set off hundreds of years of torture and death for any innocent accused of witchcraft. Jagger found it absolutely astounding that any intelligent man had ever believed that the thousands persecuted through the years could possibly have been the devil worshipping witches they were condemned for being. If they’d had half the powers they were purported to possess, they would have called upon the devil and flown far away from the stake, where they were tied and allowed to choose between the garrote or burning alive.

      Sadly thousands of innocents had perished after cruel torture. The Inquisition had thrived in Germany and France, and many of those who truly weren’t human left to escape possible discovery. Many of the main subspecies, as well as the smaller groups, came to the