by Kingsolver
“Was she—” he started, but I shook my head.
“He just took a little sip of her. But I know how terrifying that can be.” I walked back into the bedroom, where she still sat on the edge of the bed where I had left her.
“Drink this.”
“Does it taste bad?”
“Horrible. Kills taste buds for days.” I had no idea what it tasted like, but I wasn’t going to make false promises.
She crossed her eyes and stuck out her tongue at me, then popped the stopper and sucked the contents.
“Liar. It tastes like peaches,” she said, handing me the empty vial.
“Do you want to take a shower, or just go to sleep?” I asked.
“In the morning?”
“Yeah. That’s fine.” I took and folded her clothes as she handed them to me, then set them on a chair. She crawled under the covers, and I turned off the light when I closed the door.
No sooner had I done that than Josh and Lizzy burst into the apartment. I put a finger to my lips.
“She’s fine,” I said, shooing them back out. “I’ll tell you about it later, okay?”
“Are you okay?” Lizzy asked. “We saw you go into that parking garage, but then we lost you until you came out again.”
I nodded. “I’ll tell you about it. But first I need to talk to Sam.”
Trevor stepped forward from the doorway and pulled me into a hug that seemed to last a long time, then he kissed me on the forehead and left.
After the door closed, I dropped onto the couch.
“So, what did happen?” Sam asked. “Jenny didn’t say anything about that guy who took Jolene being a vampire.”
“Dhampir. They drink blood, too, sometimes. But that wasn’t who bit her.”
I went on to tell Sam about meeting Laurent and our conversation. Sam was the only person I had ever told about my being a member of the Illuminati and the Hunters’ Guild. The only person who knew about my life as a murderer directed by power-mad mages trying to take over the world. My secret that Laurent threatened to expose.
As I talked, the prospect of losing my new life grew larger and larger. Normally, I could compartmentalize my past. But if I allowed myself to think about it, I started seeing the faces of the innocents I had slaughtered. On bad nights, they haunted my dreams.
The look of shock and total confusion on the face of a young woman, clutching her abdomen as her intestines spilled out, rose out of my memory. I couldn’t remember why the Illuminati told me to kill her. I couldn’t remember if I had even asked. In mid-sentence, I leaped up and raced to the bathroom. Sam came in while I was throwing up, and when I finished and sat back on the floor, he handed me a damp washcloth.
“You know, I never had a daughter,” he said. “I am glad that I got to skip your teenage angst stage.”
“I didn’t have one. I postponed it to now.”
“I was afraid of that. I think your friends would understand, Erin. You’re not that person anymore.”
I shook my head. “No. No, no, no. I couldn’t face them. Oh, God, Sam. I’m ashamed to face you sometimes. I don’t know how you put up with me.” I imagined Trevor backing away from me with a look of horror on his face. Lizzy, gentle Lizzy, suspected I had a violent past, but what would she say if she knew the whole truth? I leaned over and threw up again, but discovered there wasn’t much left in my stomach.
I wiped my lips clean and rinsed my mouth with water from the glass Sam handed me. I just sat there on the bathroom floor, feeling miserable.
“But that’s not the worst of it,” I said. “Rudolf Heine will hunt me down and kill me if he finds out I’m still alive. I don’t know if I could take him. I know I couldn’t take a dozen Hunters, and he is the one person left in the world who probably knows who they all are, and where they all are. Sam, he might not be able to put the Illuminati back together, but he could organize a new Hunters’ Guild.”
“All right, so what are your options?” Sam asked.
We spent the next hour brainstorming, then we went downstairs. Sam went around and thanked the people who had chased me for nothing and bought them a few drinks. I bought drinks for Trevor, Lizzy, and Josh, and joined them at their table.
“She’s sleeping,” I told them as I set the drink tray on the table. “She’s okay, Josh. She took a small bite on the neck from a vampire, but nothing else. No bumps, bruises, breaks, or assault.”
He searched my face, then I saw him deflate. His lips quivered, and his eyes teared up.
“She’s my sister. I’m supposed to protect her.”
I reached out and put my hand on his arm. “We all try to protect each other, but it’s a nasty world,” I said. “We’re only human, and sometimes we just can’t get the job done. We learn, and we try harder the next time.”
“So, you were in that place a long time,” Trevor said. “What’s going on? Why was your name on that note?”
I thought about how much I should say, then decided to go with part of the truth.
“Remember Constance Gardner? She has a partner, a male dhampir, and he’s the one who kidnapped Jo.”
Lizzy grinned at me like a Cheshire Cat.
“They’re working for an ancient vampire. Eight hundred years old.”
“And that’s who bit my sister?” Josh asked.
I nodded. “He said that he couldn’t resist a little taste of witch blood now and then, even though he knew it was bad for him.” It was common knowledge that witch and mage blood intoxicated vampires. But like most intoxicating substances, it was both toxic and addicting to them.
“So,” Trevor said, “they wanted to get back at you for busting up their bounty operation?”
I took a deep drink of my beer. “Not exactly. He and I met a few years ago, and when he came to Westport, he recognized me.” I sighed. “It seems I’ve been appointed the vampire whisperer of Westport. He thinks I can talk Flynn, Montgomery, and Barclay into handing him their heads.”
Lizzy’s eyes were large as saucers. Trevor fell back in his chair and stared at me. Josh looked at me as though I’d stopped speaking English. Then they all burst out laughing.
“Is he crazy?” Trevor asked.
“They’re all crazy,” I answered, “and they get crazier with age.”
“What are you going to do?” Lizzy asked.
I drained my beer. “I’m going to go upstairs and get some sleep. I’ll worry about it in the morning.”
I looked at Trevor, needing someone to hold me, but he looked away. That situation hadn’t changed. I carried all the empty glasses back to the bar and went upstairs by myself.
CHAPTER 25
I woke up around noon and looked in on Jolene. She was still sleeping. The bed in the master bedroom looked like it had been used, but Sam was already gone. I showered, washed my hair, and went downstairs trying to remember if I had eaten dinner the night before. My stomach was sure I hadn’t. Then I remembered throwing up what I did eat the day before.
When I stuck my head in the office, Sam was at his desk working on the computer.
“Busy?” I asked.
“Reading the news about last night. Can’t put a coherent picture together. Can’t even find two descriptions of the same event that match.”
“Is that good or bad?”
“Hell, I have no idea. Even the cops can’t keep their stories straight.”
I found a table in a corner of the dining room, and after my second cup of coffee, my head started to clear. Obviously, I couldn’t contact any of the vampires during the day time, so there wasn’t any urgency to follow Laurent’s directive. That gave me the day to think. But I felt like I needed a sounding board. Someone who might think out of the box and see an angle I didn’t. I picked up the phone and dialed the smartest person I knew.
“Lizzy? Yeah, it’s me, Erin. Hey, are you busy this afternoon? Have you had lunch yet? Oh. How about I buy you a piece of banana cream pie or pineapple upside-down cake? Yeah, I’m at Rosie’s.”
I always thought it was funny that the Fae had a thing about sweets with tropical fruits. You would think that with all their magic, they would have discovered bananas, mangos, and pineapples without the help of humans.
Lizzy showed up and ordered pineapple cheesecake with chocolate syrup. Just looking at the thing made my teeth hurt. I passed her the sugar bowl, but she didn’t react.
“Wiseass,” she said between bites.
She finished her treat and pushed the plate away, then took a sip of her tea and looked up.
“What’s going on? You met this ancient vamp three years ago? Like through an online dating agency? At a gallery opening? Mutual acquaintances at work? What’s this thing with you and vampires?”
“Well, not exactly. Met isn’t exactly the right word. He was there when I killed his master, but we didn’t formally introduce ourselves until last night.”
“Oh, well, now that that’s settled, you going to start dating?”
“You’re not being very helpful.”
“You’re not giving me much to work with. You want my advice, but I have to play twenty questions to get any information.”
I took a deep breath and said, “You know that I’m running from something.”
“I think that’s fairly well established. Either that or you sprung fully-formed from the mind of Zeus at the age of twenty-three. Now, I’m half Fae, so I’m willing to believe a lot of strange things humans would find incredible, but that one’s a little far-fetched.”
“You don’t believe that I’m Athena in disguise?”
Lizzy snorted. “The goddess of wisdom and intelligence? I love you a lot, but let’s stick with your strong points and not veer off into flights of fancy.”
“Bitch.”
She grinned at me. It was always rather unsettling to have a little pink-haired emo doll show that her teeth were rather pointier than the human norm.
I sighed. “Okay. There are people who think I’m dead. I would prefer to stay alive, and letting them continue to believe that is a good idea. With me so far?”
She put her elbow on the table and cradled her chin in her hand. “Absolutely.”
“The vampire, Gabriel Laurent, knows where the most important person who would like to talk to me is, and he’s threatened to expose me.”
“Sounds French, especially the way you pronounce it. Do you speak French?”
“Yes.”
“And how many other languages?”
“Can we get back to my problem?”
“In a minute.”
I glared at her, but she didn’t flinch.
“German and Spanish. A smattering of other things. Languages come easy for me, but I don’t consider myself truly fluent in any of them.” I didn’t mention the language of the Illuminati, which was a dialect of thirteenth-century Middle High German.
“Go on.”
I told her most of what Laurent told me the night before, leaving out only his threat to expose me to my friends and the Columbia Club.
“Sounds fairly straightforward to me,” she said when I finished. “Play messenger, and your role is done.” She shook her head. “Not that simple, is it? He expects results.”
“Exactly.”
“You’re screwed. None of them are going to go willingly to the slaughter, and Barclay—hell, who knows what Barclay will do from one moment to the next. He’s magic drunk, isn’t he?”
“Yeah, I think so. It’s the logical explanation. Flynn, Gallagher, and Montgomery all hinted at it.”
“So, he wants to bed you, with a little blood cocktail to spice things up and make him crazier.”
“Ewww. If you don’t mind, I try to stay away from that thought. You haven’t met him, have you? He’s even creepier than most vampires.”
I felt a tiny rush of magic that was starting to be familiar, and looked toward the door. Michaela Gallagher walked in, looked around, then started toward our table. Suddenly, she pulled up short, turned, and went back outside. A minute later, she walked back in.
She stopped at our table, pulled her coat open to show an empty shoulder holster, then pulled a chair over and sat down.
“Almost forgot,” she said.
“Have fun last night?” I asked.
She grinned. Not a happy kind of grin but more feral. Her teeth weren’t as pointed as a vampire’s, or even Lizzy’s, but they were still intimidating.
“It had its moments,” Michaela said. “Look, I need—” she broke off, suddenly noticing Lizzy. “You’re not human.”
Lizzy grinned at her. “Not entirely.”
To my surprise, Michaela blanched.
“Glad you could drop in,” I said. “We were just discussing a little problem, and I’d be interested in your insights.” Without going into too much detail, I told her about Laurent.
Michaela sat back in her chair, looking a little stunned. “Well, that changes everything, doesn’t it?”
“What do you think they will do if I approach them with his offer?” I asked, referring to the Westport masters. “Would your dad have considered it?”
Michaela slowly shook her head. “I’m not sure. You know, my father and Eileen are younger than Flynn and Barclay. Eileen is American, and Lord Carleton turned her after we came here. She’s chronologically only a little older than I am. Upper-crust Boston family. Carleton became infatuated with her and seduced her away from her husband, then turned her.”
The waitress came and warmed up my coffee and Michaela’s, and brought Lizzy some fresh hot water and another tea bag.
When we were alone again, Michaela continued. “Dad might have considered it. I think he knew he wouldn’t be able to stand against Flynn. Eileen is sly. She’s likely to take the certain chance rather than risk the final death. Barclay’s nuts, so he’ll either fight or flee. Flynn…” she shook her head, “I don’t know. We had a thing, on and off, for about a hundred years, and we’ve always been good friends, but I’ve never really felt that I know him or how he thinks.”
“On and off?” Lizzy prompted.
Michaela blushed. “I was in love with him, but vampires don’t do love. I finally figured it out.”
“Why did you come to see me?” I asked.
“Oh. Not sure it’s relevant anymore. We retook the Waste Disposal offices and the truck depot last night, and we have Carleton House surrounded. I was planning to try and induce you into helping me lure Barclay out.”
Something she said puzzled me. “Who is this we?”
“The South Bay Pack,” Michaela said. “I struck a deal with them.”
Lizzy and I exchanged glances. That explained all the werewolf activity up by Carleton House.
“There were reports of vampires fighting each other downtown,” Lizzy said.
“Barclay launched an attack on Flynn,” Michaela answered. “We knew about it ahead of time and timed our attacks to take advantage of the distraction. They set Flynn’s restaurant and the adjacent apartment building on fire. I assume Flynn survived because his minions didn’t stop fighting. It went on until almost dawn. Worked in our favor because it reduced Barclay’s forces at the mansion, and then we ambushed his men coming home and wiped them out.”
I tried not to appear over eager as I asked my next question. “What do you think about Laurent’s plan? Do you think it’s better to have a strong master rather than all this feuding?”
Michaela sat back in her chair and looked up at the ceiling for a long while. Lizzy and I shared a look between ourselves and waited.
With a gust of breath, Michaela finally said, “Yeah, it’s probably better.”
“But what happens if you kill Barclay instead of Laurent?” Lizzy asked.
“It blows my whole plan,” Michaela said. “Dammit! I wanted to see that bastard’s head on the end of my sword. But look, we know Barclay is the major hitch in this whole scheme. We still need to lure him out to some place where Laurent can confront him. Unless Laurent has a large entourage, I don’t car
e how old and powerful he is, he’s not going to fight his way through five hundred vampires to invade Carleton house.”
“So, what are we doing?”
Michaela’s face twisted for a moment, as though in pain, then relaxed.
“Okay, I’m in, but with conditions. I want to meet with Laurent and get assurances. I want a deal. I’m not just giving him the city unless I come out of this intact.” She shook her head. “Some vampires hate dhampir with the fury the old Confederates hated freed slaves. If he’s one of them, then I’m pulling my sisters and my bank accounts and going somewhere else, and all of you can go to hell.”
“I forgot to tell you that the three thralls Laurent is traveling with are dhampir. One of them is male.”
Shock registered on her face, then she covered it. “Well, let’s see how he feels about dhampir who aren’t thralls.”
CHAPTER 26
I showed up at Necropolis about an hour after sundown. A glance at Eileen Montgomery’s normal perch showed that it was vacant. I hit the bar and got a drink.
While I was waiting on the bartender, a man walked up beside me and said, “I haven’t seen you in here before, and I would have noticed.”
Since I wasn’t wearing a tag that said ‘bartender’, he couldn’t have known that any line he tried would have to be incredibly original to be new to me.
He was tall and good-looking, with dark hair lightly dusted with gray at the temples. Someone I would have found attractive if he used oxygen to stay alive instead of just to make conversation.
“I come in occasionally,” I responded.
“Only when you’re looking for a good time?”
“Pretty much. I have a certain fantasy I like to play out.”
“Oh? And what would that be?”
“I like to stake men at the moment they climax. You know, the ultimate send off. Leaving this plane of existence in ecstasy.”
His face froze. “That isn’t very funny.”
“I think it’s hilarious, and a lot of fun, but we probably have different views toward men who prey on vulnerable young women.”
He abruptly turned and walked away. No sense of humor.