****
Boone and Delilah stood outside the police precinct. “So how are we going to get the information we need?” Boone asked.
“Depends on who is working the front desk,” Delilah shrugged. “If it is a man, I can probably sweet talk him out of the files. If it is a woman, that smile of yours will make her putty in your hands.”
“I hope it is that easy,” Boone mused.
“This will be a cakewalk,” Delilah smiled confidently and walked through the door with Boone in tow.
The duo was only three steps inside the precinct when Delilah froze. “What the hell?” Boone growled. “It is a Dhampir,” Delilah announced in a whisper and started backing her way to the door while pulling Boone with her.
Outside, Delilah leaned against the brick facade of the building. “This is bad, really bad.”
Boone turned to face Delilah. “What in the hell is a Dhampir?”
“This is bad, really bad,” Delilah repeated shaking her head in despair.
“What the hell is a Dhampir?” Boone demanded while trying to hold his temper in check.
“Half vampire, half human,” Delilah explained in four words.
“Vampire? Really? You are shitting me, right?” Boone growled.
“This is New Orleans. Every creature and supernatural being in the world is represented here,” Delilah confessed. “I should have known. This really complicates everything.”
“A vampire out in broad daylight? Can’t be,” Boone pondered.
“Not a vampire; a Dhampir, half vamp,” Delilah murmured.
Boone was still confused. “So only half bloodsucker?”
“They can survive on blood or human food. But I cannot use my feminine charms on them. It will not work.”
“What about me pushing him or reading his mind?” Boone suggested.
“No such luck,” Delilah refuted shaking her head again. “Dhampirs have their own version of mind reading and charming. Your powers are useless with half-vamps.”
“So what do we do? Wait until the next shift?”
“I think I can do this, but I will need to use my rope. It will be tricky,” Delilah announced apprehensively. She knew just mentioning the gold rope would open a virtual Pandora’s Box of questions from Boone. “Let’s find somewhere a bit more private.”
Boone and Delilah found a nearly deserted park on the other side of Canal Street away for the tourist attractions. Sitting together on one of the wooden benches, Delilah began. “The rope might work. I just need to wrap just a tiny bit of it around the wrist or maybe even a finger.”
“Are we trying to restrain the vamp,” Boone countered.
“No,” Delilah sighed. “The rope has many uses. Yes, I use it to restrain my grabs but...”
“Wait!” Boone called out. “I remember now. I knew I had seen your rope before. I was just a kid. It was a comic book...”
Before Boone could finish Delilah jumped up and yelled at him. Their faces just inches from each other. “Don’t you dare! Don’t you dare say it out loud!”
“You are...”
“No, I am not!” Delilah screamed.
“Wait,” Boone shuddered. “That would make you over one hundred years old.” Boone stared at Delilah. “How old are you Delilah?”
“How dare you ask me my age? Do I look like I am a hundred years old?” Delilah was still yelling.
“Calm down. Sorry, it just slipped out. I wasn’t thinking. Of course, you do not look a hundred years old.”
“Daddy still has not forgiven me for that,” Delilah started crying as she sat back down. She dropped her head into her hands and fought to calm herself. “I make one mistake, and now I have to deal with it forever.”
“I am confused,” Boone sighed staring at Delilah. Part of him wanted to put his arm around Delilah to comfort her, but he knew it would not help. Delilah had something she needed to get off her perfectly formed chest. And suggesting Boone was curious was the understatement of the century. He was ten levels past curious.
“I was living in Southern California at the time. There was a serial killer targeting women near one of the Naval Bases whose husbands were away because of the war. The FBI had the killer in custody, but they had no real evidence to put him away. This guy was good, real good,” Delilah started as an explanation. Of course, she left out the crucial information; the year and which war. “A psychologist was working as a consultant with the FBI. He was trying to use a polygraph to get to the truth. Nothing worked. Eventually, they had to release the suspect. I had been following the case, and I knew I could get the psycho to tell the truth and confess to the murders. But I also knew it would be tricky.”
Delilah paused to take a deep breath before continuing. She was nervous and fidgeting; wringing her hands in despair. Delilahe looked around the park, gazed towards the perfect blue sky for a moment as if waiting for a giant bolt of lightning to come down and strike her dead. When none came, she continued.
“I followed the perp. But I did not realize someone else was following him as well. I thought we were alone. I followed him into an alleyway. I knew I could convince him to turn himself into the authorities and confess to the murders. But someone saw me. It was the psychologist. I did not know at first. But within months, the comic book was released. Daddy was pissed. No, pissed does not even begin to describe the fallout. Too many people had seen the comic book and normally Daddy does not get involved in worldly affairs. I had to go into hiding for a very long time.”
“The series came out nearly a hundred years ago,” Boone pondered aloud. It was his turn to take a deep breath before continuing. He looked around the park and moved close to Delilah. Whispering into her ear, he asked as a statement, “Zeus?”
Delilah started laughed hysterically. “No, Boone. Zeus is not my daddy.”
Boone was still confused. Delilah’s tears stopped, and she smiled. “Good try, though.”
“But the rope is real,” Boone exclaimed, remembering the heroine from the comic book using the rope to make people tell the truth.
“It does not make people tell the truth. The psychologist did not figure it out quite right. He thought the rope made you tell the truth. But actually, it eliminates free will. You have to do whatever I say. Like with Walters. I told him to tie himself up, and he did. He lost his free will.”
“Now it all makes sense,” Boone nodded thinking about all the times he saw Delilah and her grabs. It was as if they wanted to go to jail. Sometimes they were leading Delilah to her luxury SUV. “So will your rope work on a half vamp?”
“I am not sure. It might,” Delilah revealed. “I have never tried it on half humans.”
“Never?”
“Never,” Delilah repeated as an answer.
“Try it on me,” Boone suggested before he realized what he was saying. He instantly regretted it.
Delilah laughed and then smiled. She could immediately think of a hundred things she would like to trick Boone into doing; most involving the two of them being naked. But this was not the time or the place. She smiled at Boone and raised her brows. Her eyes twinkled with delight. “What is something you would never do?”
“Ooooooh, noooooooo,” Boone replied, each word at least three syllables long. “Don’t get any foolish ideas, Angel.”
“But Hooxei,” Delilah cooed.
“Don’t go there,” Boone exclaimed sliding away from Delilah. As fast as he moved away, Delilah moved towards him.
“Just one thing. Pleeeaasse, Hooxei.”
“I would never turn in public,” Boone revealed.
“Not a good idea,” Delilah whispered looking around the park and back towards the French Quarter.
“I would never have sex with anyone I wasn’t married to,” Boone added.
“Still not a good idea, at least not here in the park,” Delilah snickered realizing Boone was naming his list of never woul
d do in a million of years.
“Then just kiss me,” Delilah thought aloud.
“What the fuck, Delilah?”
Delilah had wrapped the rope around Boone’s wrist before he knew what hit him. “Kiss me Hooxei Bo’ooneih. Kiss me like you love me.”
Boone was powerless. He leaned into Delilah and sighed as his lips met hers. Delilah was surprised. His lips were soft. His tongue probed her mouth as if he could not get enough of her. She warmly recalled the texture of his tongue; the tongue which had healed her leg. She could not stop herself from smiling as she pushed him away and released his wrist from the golden rope.
“Well?” Boone asked.
“Damn, Boone,” Delilah moaned content, but not sated. “Where did you learn to kiss like that?”
“Like what?”
Delilah laughed. “It worked on you, but I am still not sure it will work on a half vamp.”
“What did I do? What did you have me do?” Boone asked.
“It was just an innocent kiss,” Delilah revealed. “Nothing serious.”
Boone blushed as he tasted Delilah still on his tongue. “Keep that thing away from me. I do not like it.”
“Don’t worry. It was just a test. I would not make you do anything you did not want to do. I would never take away your free will.”
“But will it work on a half vamp?” Boone asked.
“Not sure. Dhampirs were created by the dark gods. You were not.”
Boone was confused. He did not know about supernatural beings. He barely knew about his own kind. “I do not understand.”
“Some gods are good and there are gods who are evil. Their creations, their creatures behave differently.”
“What about werewolves?” Boone asked.
"Werewolves and Wolves are different. Werewolves were born of evil. You and your kind were born of light and goodness.”
“But Zeus was both, wasn’t he?”
“Zeus did not create the Snow Wolves. Nor did he create Dhampirs. Boone, there are all kinds of gods; far too many to talk about right now.”
“So should we try to compel the half-vamp?”
“I want to. But I am afraid of what will happen if it goes to shit. We do not need the entire New Orleans population of vampires and half-vamps on our asses. I would like to live a while longer.”
“Isn’t my bite like poison to vampires?” Boone asked innocently, remembering movies he had watched growing up.
“No. Not even werewolf blood or saliva. They are lies. All lies.”
“So what is true and what is not?” Boone asked realizing everything he thought he knew could be wrong.
“It would take a month to cover it all. Just think of it this way. If you think something is true - it is not. All nonhumans flood the internet with lies. It is a way to protect them. What a person believes creates the world they live in. Sometimes it is not a safe world.”
“Not following you,” Boone replied as his eye became dark and suspicious.
“People believe wolves, like you, are bad. Because of it, they distance themselves from wolves. It helps the wolves to live in peace. But if the humans opened their eyes and their minds, they would discover the love wolves have for each other and their families. On the flipside, believing a vampire can only come out a night makes humans and other creatures confident to travel the streets during the daylight hours and live a normal life.”
“So even full-blooded vampires can go out in the sun and not burst into flames?”
“Yepper,” Delilah revealed with a frown. "Except for the really ancient ones; even vampires evolve."
“Damn woman. We are fucked!”
Delilah had a few ideas still up her sleeve. But it would result in Boone learning more of his story and the truth. “I will do a little research,” she announced succinctly.
“But I thought you said the internet has it all wrong,” Boone rebutted.
Delilah knew every time she withheld information from Boone, it pushed him further away. But she was afraid the whole truth would have the same result. She hated each time she was placed between the proverbial rock and a hard place. “Boone, every time you ask me something I cannot answer, I feel you withdrawing from me. And every time I let you in on a secret, I feel closer to losing you. I am afraid once you know everything you will no longer need me.”
Boone looked into Delilah’s sad eyes. “Don’t worry, Angel. At this rate, it will take another ten years before I know everything.”
Delilah tried to laugh. She tried to hide her fear and her sadness. Boone took her hand in his and looked at her; really looked at her. “I have a feeling we are going to be friends for a very long time.”
“From your lips to Daddy’s ears,” Delilah choked out. Boone turned and looked straight ahead. He wasn’t going to ask who Daddy was.
“I will reach out to my sisters,” Delilah finally spoke. “We have a secure website we use to share information. We share tips and tricks.”
“I wonder what the wolves know,” Boone pondered. “Do they have a website?”
“There you go asking questions again,” Delilah sighed.
“I am sorry, Angel. I guess I am just a bit curious.”
“The wolves do have their own website,” Delilah revealed. “But they do not share information about other species. Actually, they know very little about other supernatural beings. They just want to be left alone and live in peace.”
“Maybe I can do some research of my own,” Boone suggested. “Maybe I can ask them.”
“In order to get access to the site, you will have to reveal your lineage. You will have to register as a wolf,” Delilah advised.
“But I am a wolf.”
“Once you register your lineage, and reveal who your father is, the world as you know it will never be the same. You will never have privacy again.”
Boone thought about what Delilah had just said. “They would come after me?”
“By they do you mean your family?”
“Yes.”
“You have a great family Boone; the best. They would take you in and love you as if they had known you all your life. But they would restrict your life and you career. While you would have a good life, you would have to answer to an Alpha. You would lose some of your free will; your independence.”
“I am not ready for that,” Boone smiled sadly. While the thought of having a family intrigued him, he wanted to be autonomous. He wanted to live his life just as he always had. “I like my life just the way it is.”
“Why don’t you go get us some food? Let’s have an early lunch and I will see what I can learn,” Delilah requested. She needed a few minutes alone to log into the site she shared with her sisters.
“You are trying to get rid of me for a few minutes aren’t you?”
“Guilty,” Delilah laughed. “Give me ten minutes alone. I do not need to piss Daddy off again.”
“Understood,” Boone smirked and headed back towards the French Quarter for a couple of to go boxes. “Wine?”
“Please.”
Delilah was finishing her research just as Boone returned. The solemn look on her face told Boone all he needed to know. “Still fucked?” he asked.
“Pretty much. Where is the wine?” Delilah sneered.
Boone handed over the large to-go cup filled with sangria. “It is the best I could do this early in the morning. I thought this was a party town. More lies.”
“The rope will not work on a full vamp. There is nothing about Dhampirs.”
“So we have half a chance?” Boone asked hopefully.
“Not funny, Boone,” Delilah smirked with her lips pursed around the straw in her to go cup.
“I had to try,” Boone chuckled before he took a huge bite of his oyster po’boy sandwich.
“Let’s go back to the cemetery,” Delilah suggested. “They do not allow visitors without an appointment. And this one is n
ot on the tourist route. We still might be able to pick up a scent or two.”
“It is worth a try. I am not ready to have a half-leech after my ass,” Boone joked.