Savannah Vampire - The Vampire's Kiss Part 18

The disc jockey got my psychic suggestion right away and actually started playing the record. Dang, I thought. I 'm good.

People started calming down immediately and started swaying to the island beat instead of waling on one another. Who 'd've thought he'd even have that song in his collection?

"Thanks, Jack. I owe you one," Werm said.

"That and a lot of green," I said.

I joined back up with Seth, Rennie, and Connie at the bar. "Everybody okay?" I asked.

"I'm fine," Connie said. "Much more fighting and I might have had to arrest somebody. It's funny how the brawl just stopped like that. Just like that fight at the swamp bar stopped before it had a chance to get going. " She looked at Seth and me for an explanation.

"Don't look at me," Seth said. "I'm not the one with the undead mojo."

"It's kind of a vampire trick," I said. "I've only used it a couple of times. I just learned lately that I could do it at all."

Connie looked at me with something like fascination. "What are your other vampire tricks?"

I wiggled my eyebrows. "Play your cards right and you might find out."

Seth made a little snort of disgust. "I think that's my cue to leave. I've got to get my beauty sleep." "Oh, that's right," Connie said, growing serious. "You have a fight tomorrow night. Are you sure I can't talk you out of it?"

"I'm sure," Seth said, laying a bill on the bar.

"Good luck then." Connie stood on tiptoe to give him a kiss on the cheek. "Break a leg. Or whatever it is that would be a lucky charm for a dominance fight."

"'Break a leg' will do. Jack talked you out of going, I hope." Seth looked at me and I shrugged.

"He tried," Connie said.

"Connie-" Seth began.

"Okay, okay," she said. "I won't go."

Seth heaved a sigh of relief, which only proved to me that he didn't know Connie half as well as I did. If he thought she was staying away from the swamp tomorrow night, well, I had some of that swampland I'd sell him real cheap.

"Jack, can I speak to you for a minute? I want to go over a couple of things before I leave."

"Sure." I put my arm around Connie's waist and gave her a little squeeze. "I'll be right back, darlin'."

Seth and I stepped out into the cold night. Groups of young people cl.u.s.tered in twos and threes smoking and laughing in the parking lot. Seth led me to a spot out of their earshot.

"What the h.e.l.l are you thinking, Jack?"

Seth's tone took me completely by surprise. "What the h.e.l.l do you mean, what the h.e.l.l am I thinking?"

"The electricity between you and Connie comes close to setting that place on fire, and an hour later you 're joking about showing her your vampire tricks?"

"What are you getting at exactly?"

"I don't know what's going on between you and Connie but it looks to me like you 're literally playing with fire. Something potentially dangerous is pa.s.sing back and forth between you. I know you must be able to feel it because even I can. h.e.l.l, maybe even humans can, it's so strong."

"Of course I can feel it. Connie and I have something really special."

"Don't give me that 'something special' c.r.a.p. Whatever it is, you obviously can't control it."

"What's your point?" By that time we'd raised our voices and the humans nearby were starting to look our way, maybe antic.i.p.ating another fight.

"The point is, you're getting into something over your head." Seth lowered his voice again. "Listen, Connie and you are both my friends and I don't want to see either of you get hurt physically or mentally. I know that she hasn't worked out...what she is exactly yet, and maybe that has something to do with what 's going on. I guess all I 'm saying is...for G.o.d's sake, Jack, be careful."

At that moment, all my frustration with being undead, my little affliction, as I like to call it, bubbled to the surface. The not being able to see Connie in the sunlight, the not being able to sleep with her-everything. "What's this really about, Seth?"

Seth narrowed his gold-green eyes. "What do you mean by that?" "One day you tell me you're going to bow out where Connie's concerned and then the next you're coming up with excuses why her and me shouldn't be together."

"You can't be serious," Seth growled.

I'd heard werewolves start getting twitchy in the days leading up to the full moon. I could believe it. Despite the cold, Seth wore a short-sleeved polo shirt. I could see that the hairs on his arms were raised.

"I'm just saying," I said.

Seth took a menacing step toward me. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the humans back off, even though they were already a safe distance away. "If I thought I could get Connie to take me back, I would be with her right now, and there's not a d.a.m.n thing you could do about it."

"Bulls.h.i.t. She's into me, man. You're just jealous. You can't have her yourself, so you don't want anybody else to have her, especially not me. Especially not a vampire."

I think I may have forgotten to mention something kind of important about vampires and werewolves. They mostly don 't get along. Jerry and Seth being friends with me is not the normal state of things. I don 't know why it is, but in most cases we're natural enemies. I'd never felt that way about Seth until right then.

"I'm going to forget you said that," Seth said in a low, rumbling voice.

"Whatever," I said, showing fang.

"I'm going to leave now, before I say something I'm going to regret. But let me tell you this, pal. Don't show up at the swamp tomorrow night. I don't want you there. I don't trust you enough to watch my back, so just stay home."

I took a breath to answer him something snarky right back, but I stopped myself. This was serious. He couldn 't go into that fight without a second. I wanted to speak out, tell him I was sorry, that I didn't mean what I'd said, but I couldn't.

It was a man thing. So instead, I watched my friend walk away, maybe for the last time.

"Fine," I said to his back.

Thirteen.

William Prophecy? Slayer? I made a mental note to ask Olivia, the scholar, about the matter of a slayer in some prophecy. I didn't like the sound of a vampire slayer, but I would have to think about that another time. Right now, getting Renee back was my first and only priority.

"What about the matter of Hugo, my lord?" Diana said, reverting to a kind of speech I hadn't heard in hundreds of years.

"I take it you wish to be rid of him?"

"Yes, my lord," Diana said, her eyes downcast like a maiden's.

"The Council will be expecting an offering of food. We'll serve up Hugo. A human virgin is the traditional sacrifice, of course, but as we are making Renee a vampire, we'll subst.i.tute Hugo. He's old enough and powerful enough to satisfy their thirst. I'll go and summon him whenever the Council says it is ready. He'll come along on the pretense that you suggested."

"I don't know how to thank you, my lord."

Ulrich leered, his yellowed fangs flashing. "Oh, yes you do."

I almost felt sorry for Hugo. Almost. He had outlived his usefulness with Diana at long last, and she would serve him up like a suckling pig. Diana and Ulrich left, disappearing through a pa.s.sage on the other side of the cavern. I had begun to follow them when my head suddenly rang with calls for help. The voices were not as strong as Jack's were whenever he contacted me through the psychic connection of offspring to sire. But thanks to traces of the voodoo blood and a familial bond, I could hear them. They vibrated with alarm.

Come back quickly! Fire! Help! I heard Olivia shout.

I'm on my way now, Will said.

d.a.m.nation, what could be happening? I had only a moment to decide what to do. I couldn't lose my chance to find Renee, but Olivia and the other vampires I was counting on to help me were in jeopardy.

The path to Renee led directly to wherever the old lords had ensconced themselves underground. That much I could tell. In fact, my sense of her was so strong that I was sure it would lead me straight to her. But Diana and Ulrich-and perhaps the lords themselves-were between me and her. I needed reinforcements, and the only vampires I could call on were in danger at this moment. I didn't have any choice but to go to them.

I climbed as quickly as I could, glad that I hadn't let Will go any farther with me. At least he was closer to Olivia 's house.

When I got to the sewers I ran as fast as my legs would carry me.

When I reached the surface, I could see the flames shooting from the roof of the vampires ' house and could hear the sirens. I thought it best to approach from the back garden. Still, when I got there, I had to elbow my way past half a dozen gawkers.

Several of the vampires lay coughing on the gra.s.s and were being tended to by a number of people I 'd never met, probably neighbors.

I met Will coming out the door. With one hand he held Donovan across his shoulder. With the other he beat frantically at his own head and shoulders, trying to extinguish the flames that leapt from his body and clothing. I threw him and Donovan to the ground, removed my coat, and smothered the flames. Donovan was unconscious. He was alive and breathing, but I could see serious burns on his extremities.

"I had to break him out of his coffin," Will gasped.

I turned to my son. His hair had burned on one side and was emitting a ghastly odor. The right side of his head, his neck, and his shoulders oozed with blood and charred, raw flesh. He must have been in enormous pain, but he gave no sign of it.

"Donovan's going to be fine. So are you, but you need blood to heal."

"There are more of Olivia's kin in the house. I think they're in the coffin room."

"You'll be fine here. I'll be back as soon as I can." Will nodded and lay back on the gra.s.s.

When I reached the back door, I could see flames down the hallway, but the door to the downstairs was clear and wide open.

I ran down to the coffin room and found it engulfed in smoke. I could see the silhouettes of several of the vampires as they rushed around the room. One of them ran by me, his arms full of books and papers.

Through the smoke, I saw Andrew across the room. "What are you doing?" I demanded. "You've got to get out of here. The roof could collapse at any second."

"Did Will get Donovan out?" he yelled between violent coughs.

"Yes. Did you hear me? You must go." Andrew continued scrambling around in a small area in the corner. "Are you all mad?

Everyone out!" I commanded.

The vampires save Andrew finally heeded me. They went running up the stairs, their arms laden with printed material. Some appeared to be carrying flat stones. This had to be the historical research Olivia had described earlier. They were risking their lives to save it.

"Where is Olivia?" I called. Andrew finally seemed to be moving toward the exit, dragging a trunk so full of material, the lid wouldn't fully shut.

"She's upstairs!" Some of the papers hanging from the trunk caught fire. Andrew didn't pause to extinguish them, but instead chose to keep moving.

I cursed and ran back up to the foyer. The flames were licking at the staircase leading to the next floor, although they had not fully engulfed it. I charged up the steps two at a time. "Olivia!" I shouted.

"Here! Help me!" Olivia's scream rang from the bedroom at the end of the hall. I could barely see the door for the flames. I crouched down and hugged my arms to my sides. When I pushed through the doorway, the heat wrapped around me as if I 'd instantly plunged into the depths of h.e.l.l.

Not even the keen eyesight of the vampire could penetrate the density of the smoke. Olivia was coughing on the floor-I felt her rather than saw her. I helped her to her feet, but she started in the wrong direction. "This way!" I yelled, hauling her along with me.

We were at the top of the staircase when a flaming rafter fell into our path. Olivia screamed again and I lifted her into my arms and leapt through the flames, coming to rest on the landing below. When we crossed the threshold of the back door, our clothes were on fire.

We circled to the front yard, where the crowd of onlookers had grown considerably. Firefighters had arrived as well. They wrapped us in blankets and doused us with water. Will was busy rea.s.suring a man who seemed to be the firefighters' captain; he was explaining that everyone was now out of the building. Apparently Andrew had organized the vampires in a tidy group on the lawn. Behind them was a much less tidy pile of the material they had saved from the house. Donovan, still unconscious, lay on the gra.s.s, covered with my greatcoat. A couple of the other vampires were watching over him.

I could see that none of the vampires had escaped injury. They huddled together and tended to one another's wounds. Some of them were moaning in pain. By my count, two of them were missing.

The firemen began to pump a great arc of water into the house through a hole in the roof. Despite that, I doubted much of the structure could be saved. Olivia trembled and extricated herself from the throng of firefighters and their questions and came over to me.

"What happened?" I asked, lowering my voice to a pitch no human could hear.

"Hugo," she whispered. "Finn and Joseph heard noises a short while ago and went to investigate. Hugo was in the back garden with a bottle of petrol."

"A Molotov c.o.c.ktail. Crude but effective," I muttered. There is little a vampire fears more than fire, as it is one of the few things that can kill a blood drinker. Inhaling smoke will sear our lungs just as it would a human 's. The difference, of course, is that a vampire can heal much more quickly. But time, rest, and blood are required.

As I watched the little throng of injured blood drinkers, I knew that none of them would be of any use to me; not even Will could help me to get Renee back. I noticed Olivia clutching something against her midsection. It was a book. Of course. I should have known that was what drew her into the fire. She'd kept a genealogy book of sorts-the history of all female blood drinkers, her life's work.

She saw the direction of my gaze. "I couldn't lose it, William."

"I understand." I nodded toward the group of vampires. Finn and Joseph, I now realized, were the ones who were missing. "I take it Finn and Joseph fought with Hugo."

"He staked them. They're ashes now. Like Alger's house." Olivia's lip trembled.

"What happened to him after he threw the bomb?"

"The coward ran," Olivia said bitterly. "He dispatched Finn and Joseph first. But the house was on fire by then, and we had to save ourselves."

"And your research," I commented. Olivia nodded. "Are those old papers and tablets worth lives, then?"

Olivia looked me in the eye. "Yes," she said simply. "They are. Someday you'll be convinced of that as well."

I started to reply when I noticed that stretchers were being unloaded from ambulances. "You must be strong now," I advised.

"You and your vampires have to convince the authorities not to take you to hospital. Tell them you have...religious objections, perhaps."

Olivia laughed, and there was hysteria in the sound. But the thought of having any of her people wake up tomorrow in a sunny hospital room jarred her into action. "I'll think of something. And then I 'll have to figure out where we're going to spend the daylight hours."