A shape rose from the darkness and hurled itself at him.
His legs were knocked out from under him and suddenly Jess was back on the cavern floor. His arms were pinned to the floor, his chest practically crushed by the weight suddenly upon it, and he felt something sticky and wet dripping on his face.
It was blood coming off a crimson-covered Clark James. The Civatateo was sitting on top of Jess.
Half his face was charred, punctuated by open sores and pustules. Blood continued to fall onto Jess as he struggled in vain to get out of Clark’s clutches. The sounds emitting from the vampire’s scarlet mouth were not so much words as guttural ferocious growls.
Then, another cry filled the cavern. Both Jess and the thing straddling him turned to see it was Harry unleashing a spine-tingling scream. Jess was entirely helpless to come to his terrified brother’s aid, especially when his head was snapped back by the Clark-thing.
Its mouth opened and craned toward Jess’s neck.
The sharp teeth protruded.
Jess yelled.
There was a roar—but it didn’t come from Clark.
Walter Stark leapt out of the darkness onto the monstrous actor.
“Leave my son alone!”
Whether it was renewed strength from the blood stream where Jess’s father had been drinking or Clark’s weakened state courtesy of the solar flash hits, Walter was able to propel the stunned James off Jess and toward the cavern entrance.
Clark tried to push Walter away, but the ferociousness behind his attack allowed the older man to overpower the actor. Jess watched as his father shoved James farther down the path. The two vampires grappled, their feral cries bouncing off the hollow cavern’s walls.
Jess crawled back to Harry. The teen had fallen back into his catatonic state and this time Jess didn’t bother trying to shake him to his senses.
Jess hefted Harry back onto his shoulder and turned toward the entrance just in time to see Walter yank James hard enough to send both spawn of the Civatateo sprawling out of the cavern.
Into the sunlight.
Unearthly screams rocked the cave as Jess hurried forward with Harry slumped over his shoulder. When he emerged from the cavern onto the desert floor, he froze in his tracks.
He wouldn’t forget the sight in front of him for as long as he lived.
Clark James and Walter Stark rolled around on the ground, their bodies bursting into flames from the rays of sunshine slipping into the gorge.
Walter managed to get atop Clark and put his hands around the actor’s bloody, charred throat. James roared in anger, his mouth snapping at the older man’s fingers. Jess could hear the hideous sound of oversized incisors clacking together.
Finally James, still the stronger of the two, was able to wrench Walter’s hands off his neck and hurl him aside. Once free, Clark instinctively headed for the safety of the shadows. Walter tried to crawl after him but was overcome by the heat of the flames shooting off his body.
Transfixed, Jess finally managed to move. He put Harry in the safest place he could find—the bright sunshine—then made a beeline for his father, who he shoved with all his might under the shadow of a huge rock. Walter crumpled in a heap, groaning as his body kept smoldering.
Jess noticed Clark James crawling back toward the cavern entrance. Flames continued to lick his body. The blood from the pond was scorched black. His breath was more like snorts, punctuated by growls. Once in the shadows, James pulled himself to his feet. He stomped out the remaining flames with his bloody palms.
In the moment Jess weighed what to do—get Harry back up top to safety or deal with Clark before he disappeared inside—the actor made the decision an easy one.
Clark’s murderous gaze landed on Harry, who was maybe twenty yards away, albeit in the bright sunshine. The vampire didn’t even wrestle with a choice; he started in Harry’s direction. Jess was on Clark before he took one step out of the shadows. He ignored the burning sensation on his hands as he grabbed Clark by his flaming clothes and dragged him away from Harry and into a huge pool of sunshine.
Clark screamed in agony and tumbled to the ground. His body erupted into flames again as he groveled in the sand to try and return to the shadows. Jess stomped down on Clark James’s flame-ridden chest and kept him underfoot.
“Enough,” Jess said through gritted teeth.
He kept his foot in place until the flames took the fight out of James. Then, with flickers of fire crawling up his pants leg and Clark’s screams ringing in his ears, Jess threw himself onto the sand and rolled around until his jeans began smoldering.
By the time Jess got back on his feet, Clark James’s body was folding in on itself like the charred remnants of flaming parchment. Seconds later, all that remained of the actor who had graced America’s movie screens for decades was a pile of black ashes.
Jess checked his own body to make sure he was in one piece and not on fire. He glanced at Harry and saw his baby brother still lying in the sand, stone-faced but breathing.
Finally, he turned to face his father.
Walter was also crawling on his knees, but not toward the entrance.
He was trying to reach the sunshine.
Jess raced across the desert floor. “Dad! What are you doing?”
Walter, growing weaker by the second, barely managed an answer.
“It’s time.”
Walter inched forward. Jess tried to block him from the light, but his father waved him away.
“Let me go, son.”
Jess understood what Walter wanted. But he wasn’t sure he could actually handle it.
After all, how many sons had to watch their fathers die twice?
13
The sun was inching closer to where Jess lay with his father.
“There’s got to be some other way,” pleaded Jess.
Walter shook his head. “There isn’t. Clark made that very clear when he turned me.” He started coughing. “Eternal damnation or the sun. Those were his words.” The coughing fit continued as blood trickled from his mouth. “He always had to be so fucking dramatic.”
Walter’s eyes strayed toward Harry, who was lying on the ground passed out. Jess was relieved his brother didn’t have to witness this.
“At least the two of you are safe for now,” Walter said. He looked back up at his oldest son. “It wasn’t my idea to take him.”
“I know.”
“When he returned with Harry last night, I tried to persuade Clark to let him go. He wouldn’t hear of it.”
Thus, finding his father beaten to a pulp on the cavern floor, thought Jess.
The sun crept closer. There was a sharp sizzling sound as the rays flicked across Walter’s leg. He moaned and Jess pulled his father into the shadows.
“Don’t!”
Jess let go of him.
“It’s better this way.”
“Dad…”
“I did a lot of horrible things in my life. Especially to you, son. I had this coming.”
“No. No one deserves this.”
Walter reached out and took his oldest son’s hand.
“If you believe that—then let me go.”
Jess looked into his father’s bloodshot eyes and saw what he would never expect.
Contrition.
“That way I know you will forgive me,” said Walter.
Jess desperately held onto his father’s hand and finally did the hardest thing he had ever done.
He let go.
Walter used the little strength he had left to shove himself away from Jess and roll into the sunlight. Flames immediately encircled his writhing body. His eyes never left his eldest son.
Jess couldn’t bear to watch but knew if he turned away it would be like his father had died alone.
“I’m so sorry about Tracy,” he cried out. “I just couldn’t stop it.”
There was a huge burst of flames and Walter Stark was swallowed up whole.
Jess heard another scream. He thought it
might be Harry, but his brother was still unconscious on the ground. Jess looked up and could see three silhouetted figures peering over the edge of the bridge. The light shifted enough to make out that one was Maria.
It had been her scream that he had heard.
By the time she made her way to the desert floor, with Benji and Thaddeus Burke in tow, Jess was cradling the ashen remains of his father and openly sobbing for the first time in as long as he could remember.
Dealing with the sheriff actually turned out to be quite easy.
It didn’t hurt that Burke had gotten quite an eyeful from atop the red bridge, along with an earful from Benji on the way to the country club. Watching a man self-immolate in the afternoon sun was something one didn’t see every day. It also helped that the last time the sheriff had seen Walter Stark he had been a corpse on a gurney outside the Sands. Suddenly Burke was willing to approach the situation with quite the open mind.
The sheriff’s head hurt worse the more he heard about vampires on the loose in the Coachella Valley. It didn’t take much convincing to persuade him the best course was to let Walter’s and Clark’s remains literally go from ashes to dust. When Benji asked if this let Jess off the hook for Rice’s murder, the sheriff told him not to push his luck. But the quiver in Burke’s voice and uncertain dread in his eyes indicated it was only a matter of time before the physician’s death was slid under the carpet as well.
In the end, Jess saw Thaddeus Burke for the functionary he really was. His suspicions that the sheriff had been in on the whole conspiracy went out the window the moment he saw how shaken Burke was by the events in the gorge. Maybe Clark James passed money under the table, but Jess was sure Burke saw it as looking the other way on shady business deals, not covering up the dark secrets of something called the Civatateo.
All that mattered was getting Harry back safe and sound—and how Jess was going to explain to his mother that his brother was in a catatonic state.
Miraculously, that resolved itself shortly before they returned home. Harry woke up as Jess turned the SUV into the driveway.
Maria was in the backseat. She had helped strap the unconscious Harry in the passenger seat and insisted on coming along. Jess realized it was best not to argue. He still had to make amends for the fast one he’d pulled earlier.
“What’s going on?” Harry asked, clearly in a haze.
Jess was so surprised he nearly steered the car off the road. “How you feeling, kiddo?”
“Completely out of it,” his brother answered. Harry looked at the Stark mansion on the hill. “What the hell am I doing here?”
Jess locked eyes with Maria in the rearview mirror. She shrugged; this was foreign territory for her too. Jess turned back to his brother and treaded carefully.
“You’ve been kind of out of it, Harry.”
“Last thing I remember is going to bed and now I’m in your car? No shit, I’m out of it. What the fuck is that all about?”
Maria laughed at this sudden outburst. Jess felt an enormous amount of relief flood over him. Harry was returning to his normal self, colorful vocabulary and all. He didn’t seem to recall a thing about the whole ordeal.
“I think you’ve been sleepwalking, buddy.”
Another quick look back at Maria got him a tacit nod. She was down with this approach.
“Go figure.” Harry tried to shake the cobwebs out of his head. “For how long?”
Jess pointed at the digital readout on the car dashboard. “Most of the night and a good part of the day.”
Harry’s eyes widened. “One thirty? Jesus Fucking Christ.”
Jess let out a laugh. He knew he shouldn’t be condoning Harry’s propensity for cursing, but it was just so damn good his baby brother was safe.
“Where did you find me?”
Interesting question. Jess remembered the phone call the night before and Clark James telling him about the Civatateo’s ability to cloud one’s mind. Jess decided it was time to put it to the test.
“The country club. Got a call from someone that you were there.”
“No shit?”
“No shit.” It was the truth—if you bent it enough. “You don’t remember?”
“I’m telling you, my head hit the pillow and that was it.” Harry scrunched up his face, trying to recall anything. “Strange dreams though.”
“Such as?”
“It’s all messed up.” He stared out the window, as if the answer was right outside. “I was in some dark place. Like a cave. But I don’t know ’bout any caves around here. Do you?”
“You’d know better than me, Harry. I’ve been gone, remember.”
“Maybe I’ve got to cool it with the snacks before bed.” He turned around to face Maria. “Could be something in your mom’s cookies.”
“Who knows?” said Maria. “She’ll never tell me the ingredients.”
“Yeah, that’s Lena.”
Then, Harry did a double take that threw a scare into Jess until he realized his brother was gawking at Maria. “Wait. What are you doing here?”
“Umm…” Maria started to fumble for an answer. Her eyes sought out help, but Harry beat her to the punch.
“Are you two together? You know like doing…”
Jess cut him off with a smile. “That’s enough.”
Harry shot back a wicked grin. “Hey, that’s super cool.” He tossed a look back toward Maria. “Though I sort of hoped you were going to wait for me to grow up.”
“If only you had said something,” Maria said with a twinkle in her eye.
“Does Mom know?” Harry asked Jess.
“I’m not sure.” This was honest on Jess’s part. He had no idea. But it did bring up the next hurdle. “Speaking of Mom, we should discuss what we’re going to tell her.”
The first order of business was getting Harry to tell a little white lie. That wasn’t a big deal. After all, he was a teenager. Jess, knowing the answer was a definitive “No,” asked him if he had ever sleepwalked before. When Harry gave the expected reply, Jess told him it might be good not to worry Kate that her youngest son was wandering around aimlessly in the middle of the night. She had endured enough grief in recent days. Should another sleepwalking episode occur, which Jess was confident would never happen (given that the whole thing was one big fat lie), then Harry should get checked out by a doctor. Jess suggested they stick with the story he had already put out there to his mother and sister that morning—Harry had gone out with friends the previous night and passed out before telling his mother his whereabouts.
When Harry said that was well and good for Jess, that he wasn’t going to be the grounded son, Jess told him the grief angle worked both ways and he would take care of everything and work on their mother.
Kate made it much easier. She had been so worried about Harry that she immediately wrapped her arms around her youngest son and implored him to “Never scare me like that again.” Harry actually had the audacity to wink at Jess and Maria, but Kate was way too busy hugging Harry for dear life to notice.
Jess suggested Harry go upstairs and take a nap. His brother almost overplayed it by giving his mother a pout and loving kiss with the promise never to do anything like that again. Once Harry left, Maria excused herself to go visit Lena, leaving Jess alone with Kate. He told his mother she should go easy on Harry.
“He’s been through a lot.”
“We all have,” agreed Kate.
If only his mother knew the half of it.
“I think we all have our own ways of dealing with what happened to your father. It doesn’t surprise me that Harry would act out like this.”
“I had a long talk with him. I don’t think it will happen again.” Jess said it with such certainty his mother seemed to believe him.
“It would be nice if you could stick around a while and find out.”
“I might just do that.”
Jess’s eyes drifted out the living room window. Maria was walking by the pool with Lena. He knew she
was relaying her version of the morning’s events to her own mother. Jess didn’t know exactly what tale she was spinning, but was gratified to see a teary-eyed Lena give Maria a tight hug. Finally, they broke apart, Lena went back inside, and Maria stared out at the vast Coachella Desert.
Kate watched her son and a bemused look came over her face. “I get the feeling you’re not telling me something.”
Jess returned the coy smile. “Maybe.”
“She’s a nice girl, Jess.”
“She’s a really nice girl, Mom.”
“Then it would be awful if you broke her heart.”
“It’s the farthest thing from my mind,” said Jess, and he absolutely meant it.
“So, what about the other one?”
Wow. Just when you think mothers can’t know everything, they still find their way to the heart of the matter.
“Tracy?”
“It is over with her?”
“Almost,” said Jess.
One last piece of unfinished business.
“Does Maria know this?”
“She knows everything, Mom.”
“That’s good. You don’t want to lie to her, Jess. Not about the big stuff. If there’s one thing I learned after all those years with your father, it’s that you’re always better off telling the truth. Otherwise it all catches up.”
“You’re definitely right about that.”
Jess thought about where he’d been just a couple of hours before. Things had certainly caught up with his father in a way no sane person could ever fathom.
“You were also right about Dad.”
“How so?”
“I wish I had forgiven him a long time ago.”
Tears formed in Kate’s eyes. Jess gently kissed her cheek and then headed outside to Maria.
She was still looking out at the desert when Jess walked up beside her.
“Is this our first fight?” Jess asked.
“I’m just hoping it isn’t our last one.”
“What was I supposed to do, Maria?”
She finally turned to face him. “How about telling me what you were planning? After everything in Mexico, did you really think I was going to try and talk you out of it?”
Descending Son Page 34