Savannah Vampire - The Vampire's Secret Part 20

With the slow movement of a sleepwalker, or one who does not wish to believe his eyes, he nodded and took the dusty trophy of my cemetery war. As soon as it left my grip, I seized the other male by the throat, then clamped my free hand around the neck of the female.

"Ta-ta, just now," I said to the one left holding the skull. "Take good care of worthy John." I dragged the now-struggling unfortunates farther into the darkness of the tunnels to have my way with them, as it were. The simple life of a true-born vampire had eluded me for so long, weighed down as I was with conscience and remorse.

Pain had freed me from those human concerns. I would kill and eat at will. The world be d.a.m.ned-like the rest of us.

"This should be perfect," I said. Dropping the female to gasp gulps of air on the tunnel floor, I bit deeply into the male with a hunger so ravenous that I nearly tore his head from his shoulders. Blood spurted into the air, splas.h.i.+ng the wall behind him, my face, my chest. d.a.m.n. A waste of good blood. How had I let myself get so out of practice? As the last few beats of his heart pumped, I sucked in what remained. Then I dropped him to the floor and went for my second course.

She'd crawled a few feet in some remote hope of getting away from me. "Not possible, my dear," I said, sitting next to her and lifting her into my lap. I wouldn't waste this one. "I will have your life. Consider yourself lucky that I don't want your soul as well."

She stilled at my words and a tiny shaft of admiration struck me. It seemed that dying would be less humiliation than living had been. She whimpered when my fangs penetrated her neck, but she didn't cry out. How could any mere mortal, or immortal for that matter, man ever divine the workings of a woman's mind or heart?

I closed my heart to the images bombarding me. Tilly as a lovely young woman, Olivia in her leather, Eleanor in her gypsy glory...and Diana. As my victim drew in a final gasp of air, I felt her spirit slip away. In those seconds, my grief overtook me. I realized that this poor hapless victim was free, while I remained trapped, forever it seemed, in my own personal maze of torture.

By G.o.d, I defy you to stop me now. As the feeding rush mixed with the rising of the sun beyond the tunnels took me over, I leaned my head back and remembered no more.

Jack I lay on my back, looking up at the night sky and wis.h.i.+ng I didn't ever have to get up again but could stay here until the sun rose and burned me to ashes. My head rang with William's blow and his words rattled around in my brain like a steel pellet in a pinball machine. My sire didn't care if I lived or died as long as I got out of his sight. That hurt a h.e.l.luva lot worse than my chin.

When I sat up a few seconds later, he was gone. Instead I saw that little punk b.a.s.t.a.r.d-Will, his name was-smirking at me. He said, "Big, bad Dad showed you, now didn't he?"

"Mind yourself, boy," Hugo said. "We are visitors here. Guests, if I may be so presumptuous. Our arrival is bound to provoke some anxiety, unannounced as it was."

"Yeah," I said, rubbing my chin or what was left of it. "You could say that." And they said I had a gift for understatement.

Hugo said, "William and I have much to discuss when he masters his emotions. He needs some time to reconcile himself to new realities. It will be difficult for him at first."

No thanks to you. I wanted to take a swing at the guy for the way he sprang Diana's existence on William, but my hands were not exactly clean on that score either, so I stifled the impulse. "That's very...understanding of you." I figured I might as well be as diplomatic as possible since I was outnumbered. I couldn't even count on Werm to be on my side in a fight. Evidently Will was his new bosom buddy.

Right now Werm looked as bewildered as anybody. "Werm, why don't you get on home now?" I said, and jerked my head in the direction of his parents' house. With everything else I had on my mind, I didn't want to have to worry about his safety around these new vamps.

"He's with me now, aren't you, mate?" Will put his arm around Werm's shoulder and squeezed him hard enough to make him wince. Werm looked at me with that deer-in-the-headlights expression he got whenever he was in something over his head.

I took a step forward and squared up. Outnumbered or not, I'd take this guy on before I'd let him hurt the little guy. "I said, he's going home. And you're going back on that boat like William said. Now."

"Come along, Will," Hugo said. "Jack, tell William we'll do as we've been asked and make that splendid vessel our home- away-from-home for one more day."

"I'll tell him," I said.

With another belligerent sneer, Will turned and walked back up the gangplank with that arrogant, bouncy step of his. Hugo turned to offer his arm to his lady. Diana had gathered the edges of her cowl back together with one hand to hide her face again. I could only see her eyes, but they were unreadable.

When they all were inside the living quarters of the boat, I thought about how I'd blown up one of William's other yachts to keep a vampire execution on the down-low from the authorities. The Alabaster had been a mighty fine boat, and I hated having to destroy it. But I'd love to blow this one up, no matter how pretty it was. That would certainly solve the Hugo problem. And if I stayed onboard and blew myself up with it, that would sure enough get rid of the Jack-William problem, too. I was tempted to do just that.

William.

Where the h.e.l.l was he? I didn't dare call out to him. I could only guess his state of mind. Why hadn't I followed my first instinct and told him what Olivia said about Diana being alive? But every time I looked at him and Eleanor, like at the voodoo lesson, I just didn't have the heart. h.e.l.l, I was a vampire. I wasn't even supposed to have a heart.

I looked at the boat and hung my head. They were bound to have a monster-size case of cabin fever after crossing the Atlantic.

Taking bets on them staying indoors after my back was turned would have been stupid is as stupid does. There was only one way to get right with my sire again, if that was even possible. I had to protect his city. But how, outnumbered as I was?

I looked up at the gloomy sky and against the dim light of the moon I saw a cloud in the shape of an old man with a cane.

I remembered that I'd left my business cell phone in my glove box and mercifully, the battery still worked. On the way to Colonial, I called to check in with Deylaud.

"D, is William back yet?"

"No, Jack, I haven't seen him," the manimal said. "Do you wish to speak to Eleanor?"

A fresh wave of panic hit me at the mention of her name. "No!" I said a little too loudly. "Look, has Gerard gotten there yet?"

"Yes. He arrived here through the tunnel entrance with a pushcart of medical equipment a short while ago. He just got off the phone with the vampires out at the plantation. I'll put him on."

When Gerard took the line I said, "What's the latest?"

"I found everything I need at the blood bank and brought back equipment and supplies. I still need time to study these blood samples, but under the microscope this virus looks very aggressive."

Yeah, you could say that. I thought about Iban's melting face. "Listen, another c.r.a.pfest has just hit the fan." I told him about Hugo's arrival, skipping the part about William's mortal wife being onboard. I figured I'd keep that little secret on a need-to-know basis for now. "He says he's here to make sure Reedrek is dead."

"Mon dieu," Gerard said. "What do you want me to do?"

"You've got your hands full with the virus. Just keep doing what you're doing. I'll go to the plantation and warn the others and let you know what we decide. In the meantime, I 've got a plan to keep Hugo and his little family in line at least temporarily. " I didn't add that I had no idea if it would work.

"I had hoped to ask Tobey and Travis to return west as soon as possible, " Gerard said, "to investigate the outbreak in California, but it sounds as if you may need them here if conflict breaks out."

I sighed. d.a.m.n, we were stretched thin. I couldn't very well insist that Travis and Tobey stay in Savannah to fight by my side when the entire New World vampire race was in danger from some vamp virus. "I'll tell them you need for them to go back," I said.

I was unhappy at the thought of Tobey leaving so soon. He and I had planned to take in a little night racing while he was here.

Maybe even do some ourselves. I'd also wanted to talk to Travis some more and see what else I could learn about the Maya. All those plans were up in smoke now that Hugo had pulled into town.

A new and disturbing thought hit me. "Hey, Gerry," I said. "Do you think Hugo can communicate with Reedrek through the eight feet of marble he's encased in?"

"It's possible, I suppose, since Reedrek is Hugo's sire. Why? Do you believe Hugo's excuse for being in Savannah is false?"

"I think we should a.s.sume he's lying."

"Yes," Gerard agreed. "It's very easy for Hugo to say he came over to make sure Reedrek has been neutralized. All the more reason to watch him carefully. William can read a creature's intentions as well as any blood drinker I've ever seen. He'll be able to guide us in how to handle this Hugo."

If William didn't stake himself first. "Yeah. Good point."

"G.o.dspeed, my friend," Gerard said. "I will probably have to work through the day tomorrow trying to identify this virus, so I must go. Be careful."

"I will. Since you'll be up anyway, do me a favor and fill Melaphia in on what's happening when she gets to William's tomorrow morning. And warn her that William is going to be a tad...agitated."

Gerard agreed and I hung up.

By that time, I was at Colonial cemetery. I roared to a stop by the curb, got out, and vaulted the wrought-iron fence.

The dead beneath my feet were in an uproar. I could usually walk through this cemetery and hear murmurs from the unquiet souls-soft greetings, invitations to sit a spell. Nothing more urgent than whispered supplications from those who didn 't realize it was long past too late to tend to their unfinished business, whatever it had been. Right now they were more than just restless; they were roiling underneath me. And just as disturbing, the scent of William's anger hung in the misty air.

Even before I reached his busted headstone, I could hear the sorrowful moans of Gerald Hollis Jennings, my friend. Well, as much as you can make a friend out of a guy who's been nothing but a pile of bones since before we'd met. Jennings went on to his reward as a victim of galloping consumption a couple of hundred years ago, or so he'd said the first time I visited him. His soul had always been quiet, so he was a good listener. But tonight, he was the one doing the talking.

"John Martingale!" Jennings said. The mist in front of me gathered itself together until I could make out some eyeholes in a filmy face. Jennings had never materialized for me before in all the time I'd known him.

"Say who?" I inquired.

"Over there." Jennings coalesced a hand out of the smoky fog-now, that was quite a trick right there-and pointed to a spot a few feet away.

I knelt beside a pile of dust and bone. "What happened here?" Other spirits hovered close by among the headstones.

"It was William, your sire," Jennings said. "He relieved John of his skull, poor old sod."

"He busted these headstones, too?"

The spirits started to babble in unison. "Yes," Jennings said. "What has gotten into him?"

"We've got trouble." As carefully as I could, I gathered up a double handful of the bigger chunks of John 's scattered bones.

Least I could do since William's rampage was partially my fault. I reached down into the gravehole near where the pieces had lain and dropped them back in. "There are some evil blood drinkers in town." I looked around at the other broken monuments. "Uh, even more evil than William...and me."

I felt the spirits gather around me. If I'd been human, every hair on my body would have been standing on end and I would've been s.h.i.+nnying up the nearest live oak to put some distance between me and the ghosts. But I wasn't human, and I considered them kindred spirits. So to speak.

"I need your help," I said. "Can you guys travel?"

I raced back across town with the top down so I could make my prayers to Loa Legba. I was real serious this time, believe me.

I didn't want to turn Savannah into zombie-town with a whole graveyard full of walking corpses. I just wanted to surround Hugo and the Windward with some kind of mojo that would keep the European vamps on the boat and away from the citizenry. Of course, like a lot of my plans, there was always the possibility to make things a whole lot worse. But I had to take the chance.

Sure, there were only three bad vamps, but they were old and powerful. Because of the way s.e.xual power works among vampires, the woman might even be the strongest. Right now the Bonaventures in Savannah outnumbered them, but for all I knew, there might be more on the s.h.i.+p I couldn't sense. Besides, all the good-guy bloodsuckers were tied up trying to keep Iban undead.

In any case, especially with William being all wonky and unreliable, I wasn't leaving anything to chance.

"h.e.l.lo, Mr. Legba," I said. "It's me, Jack, and I haven't been drinking this time. Sorry for that first ceremony with the zombie and everything. And I don't have any presents for you tonight except the promise to take you and your power seriously from now on. Anyway, I have a big favor to ask..."

Having learned my lesson, I was real specific about what I wanted. First I needed to get the spirits to the docks-and I didn't know if that was even possible-and then they had to guard that boat and put a whammy to any bloodsucker hankering for some excitement.

When I got to the docks for the second time that night, I saw Will lounging on the deck smoking a cigarette. When he saw me he sashayed down the gangplank as pretty as you please, just like he meant to go out on the town.

There was no sign of my otherworldly help. d.a.m.n. I was going to have to take him on myself. I hopped out of the car and, as I did, something brushed by my shoulder. d.a.m.ned if it wasn't a shade parade: spooks and specters, phantoms, ghosts, wraiths, whatever you want to call 'em and in all shapes and sizes. They sauntered and shambled, crawled and floated. It was a mangy- looking lot but so angry they nearly scared the h.e.l.l out of me-and me a demon with a mouth full of fangs. There had to be at least a thousand of them. Some looked like they must've when they were buried in their colonial-era finery. Others were shapeless and insubstantial as the fog coming off the river. I thought I saw a couple of demons I couldn't even identify. It was a real, live-make that dead-army of darkness. But this was no Bruce Campbell movie.

I turned back to Will just in time to see the cigarette fall out of the corner of his mouth onto the ground. He gave me a sour look, then he turned fang, back to the safety of the cabin. Good choice. The dead watchers formed a circle several layers deep around the boat and hovered over the river, standing guard. I didn 't know what they would do if Will and the others tried to cross them, and I didn't care, as long as it hurt a good bit. I looked up at the stars and saluted the Loa Legba before hopping back into the convertible for the drive to the plantation. The sun would be up soon and my work for the night still wasn't finished.

I got to the plantation just as the other vamps were about to go to their coffins. Lucius had evidently decided to stay there but had sent his people back to Isle of Hope.

I walked into the main parlor and got right down to bra.s.s tacks. "It's on," I said.

"What do you mean?" Lucius asked.

"Hugo and his family are here. They commandeered one of William's yachts in Ireland and just floated across the Atlantic and on up the river like the Queen freakin' Mary. They agreed to stay on the boat until tomorrow night. I have them under guard. Hugo came off real friendly and claims that he only came into town to see for himself that Reedrek is dead."

"Bah!" Lucius said. "He's come to destroy us. You're right, the war is on."

"I think we have to a.s.sume that," Tobey agreed.

"Yes," Travis said. "From everything the young woman in the hologram said, we must conclude he's bent on our destruction.

What are their numbers?"

"I saw three," I said. "There may be more in the hold of the s.h.i.+p." I ran my hand through my hair. "Has William been here?"

Tobey shook his head. "How are we going to deal with the virus and this too? What's the plan, Jack?"

"All I know is Gerard wants you two westerners to go and investigate what happened at the California colony."

"Are you sure that's a good idea? They're already dead. Wouldn't we be of more use here?" Travis asked.

"Gerard must believe the virus is a greater threat than Hugo," Lucius said.

"I think Lucius is right," I said, hating to admit it. "Talk to Gerard before you leave. He might be able to tell you what to do to keep from getting sick."

"Not that we're all not exposed already," Tobey observed.

"Speaking of that," Lucius said to me, "I'll stay and fight with you and William, but I insist on sending my people home. They have to be near my other family so they can take care of one another if they sicken."

"Suit yourself," I said. "There's not much more we can do tonight. The sun's almost up."

"Where is William?" Tobey asked.

I just looked at him and shrugged. Weariness was about to overtake me; my eyelids itched at the feel of the approaching sun.

But I had one more thing to do before I collapsed into one of the spare coffins in the bas.e.m.e.nt for my beauty sleep: I had to check back in with Olivia.

"Thank G.o.d you called, Jack," she said. "I've been frantic with worry. What's happening there?" I filled her in on the arrival of Hugo and company. When I told her about William's reaction, I heard her swallow back a sob.

"What did you expect?" I growled. "You knew he was bound to find out sooner or later. And now I'm the one at the top of his s.h.i.+t list. Be glad there's an ocean between you and him. And an ocean between you and me, for that matter."

"I'm sorry, Jack, I truly am. But I thought it would buy us some time. I thought it was for William's own protection. And yours."

I sighed. It was all blood under the bridge now. "I need to know anything else your spy had to say about Hugo's clan when she finally made her way back to you. Is there anything she told you that can help us if these guys turn nasty?"