Savannah Vampire - The Vampire's Kiss Part 15

"Can Wanda stay here until this thing blows over?"

"Here? At the garage? Geez, Jerry, isn't there anywhere else you can go with her?"

"There's nowhere else the Thrashers are afraid to go looking for her," Jerry said with a beseeching look. "They respect you, Jack. I know it sounds kind of backward, but that's why they want to take you on."

I sighed, remembering Jerry's admission that he liked to hang out at my garage because the Thrashers, who he was on the run from himself, wouldn't dare come looking for him here.

As I was thinking it over, Jerry said, "C'mon, Jack, it would only be for a couple of days. Word is on the street that Samson and your buddy Seth are going to settle things in two nights."

"Hmm. That's right. I'll tell you what, Jer. You come to the fight with me as Seth's backup and it's a done deal. She can sleep right in there on the couch in the office. I lock the doors in the daytime anyway, and if anybody tries to mess with her and you 're not here, Huey can run them down and eat their brains."

Jerry looked sick. "Do zombies really eat people's brains? I thought that was just a wives' tale."

"To tell you the truth, I don't know. I do know that he tried to nibble a customer or two early on, before we broke him of it. If we actually sicced him on somebody, who knows? It might be pretty interesting to see what happened," I said. Who'd win a fight between a hungry zombie and a werewolf sounded like one of those stupid questions little kids asked one another, but it was still an entertaining one.

"I reckon it's about time I faced up to the pack," Jerry said. "It'll be a h.e.l.luva lot easier with you and Seth there, too."

I clapped him on the back. "Sometimes a man has to take a stand, Jer. You'll be glad you did."

Jerry thought for a second. "Who else is going to back up Seth besides you and me?"

"Werm's going to be there with bells on," I said cheerfully.

Jerry looked down at his coffee cup. "Do you have anything stronger than this zombiefied coffee?"

Jerry and Wanda rejoined the card game after I told Wanda that a policewoman I knew was going to want to talk to her. She seemed fine with that. I called Connie.

"Jack, haven't we talked enough for one night? Do you know what time it is?" she asked groggily.

"I've got Wanda Thrasher here at the garage," I said.

"I'll be there in ten," she said, and hung up.

I hoped for all I was worth that finding Wanda would score points with Connie. I couldn't stand to leave things with her in the sorry state they were when I left her apartment. The other upside to finding Wanda was that now maybe Connie wouldn't feel like she had to come to the dominance fight. After all, working the Wanda case was her original excuse for going.

While I was waiting for Connie, I called Huey away from the card table. "There's something I want you to do for me, buddy," I told him. I put my hands lightly on his shoulders and looked him in the eyes. That was harder than it sounded as his eyes now worked somewhat independently of each other, kind of like some species of amphibian. You kind of had to sway this way and that in order to stay in his line of sight. Whenever I talked to him head-on, I felt like one of those Indian snake charmers.

"Name it, Jack. I'll do anything you want." Huey said, tracking me as best he could.

"You see that nice lady over there-Wanda, Jerry's girlfriend?"

Huey had to turn all the way around and c.o.c.k his head to one side to see her. "Yep, I reckon I do."

"I want you to be her bodyguard," I said gravely. "Her husband is one mean sonofab.i.t.c.h and might want to come and beat up on her, but you do whatever you have to in order to protect her, all right?"

One of Huey's eyeb.a.l.l.s did a U-turn back to me, and the other soon meandered over to see what number one was looking at.

Curiosity, I guess. It was almost like they each had a mind of their own in addition to independent locomotion. "You can count on me, Jack. I'll protect that lady with my life."

"Good man," I said. Technically, of course, Huey had no life to protect Wanda with, but who was I of all people to quibble with semantics? Huey could be trusted completely to follow through with his commitments and that was the important thing. I gave the little guy's shoulders a final squeeze before I turned him back around toward the card table.

Connie showed up a few minutes later. Both pain and hope stirred inside me as she walked through the door. Even though I had found Wanda for her, I guess I still wasn't sure if she'd ever forgive me for refusing to be her conductor on the streetcar to h.e.l.l.

I introduced her to Wanda and showed them both into my office so Connie could question her in private. When they came out, Wanda was dabbing her eyes with a tissue. Connie and I watched her go back to the card table where she sat by Jerry and put her head on his shoulder.

"So what happened?" I asked Connie.

"I tried to get her to press charges against Nate Thrasher, but she refuses." Connie glared in Wanda's direction in frustration.

"Not everyone is as brave as you are," I said.

Connie's attention snapped back to me. "What do you mean?" she demanded. Her gaze searched mine for a sign of something.

"I just meant that you were willing to go undercover and risk life and limb to find her when you thought she'd been beaten up or worse. And now she won't even go so far as to press charges against Nate so he can't do that to Sally, or anybody else for that matter." Connie visibly relaxed. "Oh," she murmured. "Well..."

"What did you think I meant?"

"Nothing. It's not important."

I had a feeling it was important. Very important. But if Connie didn't want to talk about it, she wouldn't, and that's all there was to it. Recent experience proved that.

"Jack, I want to thank you for finding Wanda for me. The case had become very important to me. It's very frustrating when a missing person seems to just vanish into thin air. Even though she won 't press charges, I'm really pleased to have her disappearance solved."

"You're welcome," I said. "But listen, I'm sorry about what happened the last time we talked. I shouldn't have given you a hard time about something you're not ready to talk to me about-something you might never want to talk to me about. I didn't mean to pry. I'm just worried about you, that's all."

"I'm sorry for how we left things, too," she said. "I know you're just trying to look out for my safety. I'm going to quit bugging you about the afterlife thing. I mean, I still want to talk to them, but I 'll work with Melaphia some more first so I 'll better understand how to approach this. Maybe I can contact them with a medium, without us having to, you know, go anywhere."

I relaxed, knowing that she'd talk to Melaphia about things. She'd listen to Mel. Yep, Melaphia would straighten her out. But there was still the issue of the werewolf fight. "Now that you know where Wanda is, I guess there's no point in your showing up at the dominance fight, is there?" I suggested hopefully.

"Hmm," she said. "I suppose not."

Now I really did feel like a two-ton anvil had been lifted off my chest. "Good."

Connie pushed out her bottom lip in a mock pout. "I was kind of looking forward to seeing the show, though. I mean, how often does a girl get to see a bunch of guys change into werewolves?"

"You've got me there." She was angling for something, but I couldn't tell what.

"So how are you going to make it up to me?"

"Hmmm. What do you have in mind?" Visions of Connie shinnying out of her pink sweats danced through my head.

"Jack, stop playing dumb." She hit me lightly on the arm. "Werm's club is opening tomorrow night. Signs are posted all over town. It's supposed to be a pretty big deal. But you probably already have a date."

"Who? Me?"

"Yeah. You."

I cleared my throat. "Consuela, would you be my date for Werm's club opening tomorrow night?"

"I thought you'd never ask," she said. "If we're going to dance tomorrow night away, I've got to go home and get my beauty sleep."

I put my arm around her shoulders and walked her to her car. Unlocking the door, she said, "I'm really looking forward to our date. I got the night off by switching shifts with another cop. The entertainment should be very...interesting."

I barely heard her, high as I was on knowing that she not only didn't hate me anymore but had actually asked me out on a date.

"Mmm-hmm," I murmured. "Very interesting." She got behind the wheel and I gently shut the car door. She said something else, but the window was up and she'd started the engine just as she'd said it.

"What?" I called out to her as she was backing away from the garage.

She rolled the car window down a few inches and yelled, "Especially the female impersonator. See you at eight!"

The cobwebs finally cleared from my mind, and I stepped out into the street behind her as she drove away.

"Say what?"

Eleven.

William Will met me at Olivia's just after sundown. Olivia and all her vampires save Donovan, who had retired to a back room to recuperate, gathered in the foyer to see us off. "Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?" Olivia asked.

"Not this time," I said. "But be ready. If all goes well, I'll return later tonight with the knowledge of where she is and what it will take to get her out. Then I expect I shall be calling on all of you."

"Good luck," Olivia said, and stood on tiptoe to kiss my cheek.

"How about a wee snog for Willie boy, then?" Will suggested.

"Talk to me when you rescue Renee. Then who knows what you might get," Olivia said.

With that exchange, we set off and took the nearest entry into the sewer tunnels. I asked will, "Did Hugo and Diana question you about where you were last night?"

"Nah. I'm my own man. They don't tell me where to go and what to do."

His answer sounded like youthful bravado. I decided to support his posturing. "I'm glad to hear it. I feared Hugo might still be trying to dominate you."

Will looked as if he would speak again but cut himself off.

"Have you thought about your future?" I asked him.

"My what?" He sounded slightly confused.

"When Diana and Hugo realize that you helped me steal Renee back from them, you 'll be in serious jeopardy. You really should come back to Savannah with me," I told him.

A brief, bitter laugh escaped him. "What? And give up all of this?" He kicked at a lump of unidentifiable garbage and made an expansive gesture at the muck-covered sewer walls.

"I'm serious. Hugo is going to want to kill you, and your mother may not be able to protect you from him this time."

"If I go to Savannah with you, I'll have to follow your rules, won't I? I remember hunting with you there. You wouldn't let me kill anyone."

"You can still feed off humans, you just can 't kill. And of course, you can't call attention to the fact that you're a blood drinker."

"Like I said, mate. I'm my own man."

"At least think about it."

Will seemed to be doing just that as we continued walking. Finally he said, "I imagine your man Jack would be thrilled if I moved into town to compete for Daddy's affections."

"Jack would adjust," I said. His mention of Jack reminded me of a more serious problem. At least three people were sworn to see Will dead. Two-Iban and Jack-were powerful vampires who, if they ever got the opportunity, would kill him on sight for what he did to Sullivan. The other, Melaphia, was the most powerful voodoo mambo in the hemisphere and would kill him for helping kidnap her baby. If that weren't enough, the human police officer Consuela Jones wouldn't hesitate to lock him up, knowing he would burn to a crisp in a jail cell when the sun came up. I couldn't very well blame any of them. But I still wanted my son. I had to think of a solution.

We walked awhile longer, the foul effluvia of a modern industrial city wafting around us. At last we reached an area where a profusion of vines and roots grew down from the surface and out from the sides of the tunnel as if we stood under a ma.s.s of vegetation. Will stooped and began to pull vines away from a depression in the floor of the sewer, which turned out to be a narrow opening leading to a pit.

"This is it," he said. "Do you want me to come with you to the cavern?"

"No. Hide yourself nearby, though. I'll call for you through the voodoo blood if I need you."

"You'll what?"

"We'll be able to communicate short distances without speaking. You'll know when it happens."

"Just like my sire can...unless I block his thoughts?"

"Something like that, yes. Now I must go."

I grasped the tree roots at the edge of the void and lowered myself downward. Above me I heard Will clear his throat, and I looked up.

"Uh, good luck," he said sheepishly, as if any show of goodwill were a sign of weakness on his part. "I hope you find the little princess. That's what I call her-the little princess."

"Thank you." I held his gaze for a moment before I plunged onward.

I climbed down the narrow pa.s.sage until the soil stopped smelling of rotten waste and began to smell of earth, though not clean, wholesome earth. There was an odor of a different kind of decay, something vastly more fetid, more poisonous. My rage built at the thought of Renee being taken to such a horrid place. And yet a sense of excitement began to course through my very blood.

Will had told me he could sense Renee in the pit. With my stronger connection to her via the voodoo blood, I was beginning to feel as if she were standing right beside me. And the sensation of being near her was growing stronger the farther down I climbed.

At last I felt a firmness beneath my feet and realized I 'd come to the cavern of which Will had spoken. I could hear the distant sound of an underground waterfall. But there was something else, too: Voices rose up from below me. Will had believed there was another opening in the earth leading downward from where I was standing, and that Renee could be found there.

It sounded as if at least two people were coming up from below. I hurried to hide behind a cl.u.s.ter of boulders that looked to be the result of some ancient, subterranean landslide. I harnessed the carefully honed powers of my mind and the strength of the voodoo blood to mask myself from detection and concentrated on blocking my outgoing thoughts, fighting to leave my mind open to any contact from Will.

With my superior eyesight, I could see through the darkness. Diana came into view, sending a series of conflicting emotions through me-longing, l.u.s.t, rage. She was dressed in the modern style of sleek trousers and a clinging sweater. Her only concession to the fact that she was meters underground and not out shopping the tony boutiques of London were her heavy Wellington boots.

Beside her was a male vampire appearing to be perhaps forty human years old. I recognized him immediately and along with that recognition came a deep wave of revulsion the likes of which I had not felt in hundreds of years. It was the ancient blood drinker, my grandsire, known to me by another name. I wished that I had been able to kill him when I 'd first tried, when I'd first had a chance.

"Your presentation went quite well, my dear," Ulrich said. "They could have eaten out of your hand."

Though he was perhaps better groomed, Ulrich looked much the same as he had when I 'd last seen him. He had a grayish beard and shoulder-length brown hair that was also shot with gray. He was garbed in black from head to toe. Tall and thin with broad shoulders, he could have pa.s.sed for a college professor, or perhaps someone in the arts. But I knew him to be a butcher and a s.a.d.i.s.t, the cruelest of my kind I'd ever met.