“Okay,” I interject into the conversation. “I’ve been listening to your accent all night and I’m just going to ask. Where are you from? I mean obviously you’re British, but I can tell there’s something else there.”
Garrett looks at me and flashes a confident smile. Part of me melts in a way that I’d thought was lost to my condition.
“Well you’re right. I am British by birth, London actually, but I haven’t been there in a long, long time.” He says it with a disarming voice that makes me sure he attended charm school. “I’ve been all over really. Lived in Eastern France for almost ten years, and then in Egypt for a little over twenty, now I’ve been in the states for seven or so years, give or take. All of them were long enough stays that I’m sure they’ve colored my accent a bit.”
At this point Julie would burn down nursery schools to be with Garrett for a night, and Frank is trying to make sure we can all tell he’s unimpressed with him.
Out of the blue, Frank blurts out that he thinks the funeral home was a set up by Paco, that he sent me there to die. I don’t see the logic in it. After all, what would Paco have to gain from my death? Frank calls me blind for not seeing it. Julie says she agrees with me that there’s no angle, no benefit for him to kill me. Garrett doesn’t choose a side. I can feel in him that he agrees with me, but he doesn’t want to give Frank another reason to dislike him. He can tell that Frank is important to me, and he’s staying silent to make things easier for me.
Where did this guy come from?
It occurs to me that if Garrett is just passing through like he says, then he likely doesn’t know about Jacobi, or the political situation in Pekin.
I ask him if he’s spoken to the council and my suspicions are confirmed. I really need to introduce him to them so that Learner doesn’t find a new way to start trouble for me. I can see it now: either I’m horrible because I knew about him and didn’t make them aware, or worse, he gets the council to take out his personal frustrations with me on Garrett.
For nicety sake, if nothing else, I ask if he’ll let me introduce him to Jacobi.
I’m pleasantly surprised when he readily agrees. I pick up my purse and ask if he’d like to go now, since there’s no time like the present.
Again I’m surprised when he stands to leave with me, no questions asked.
Frank decides that now is a good time to tell me that he has a meeting set up for tomorrow night with a couple of witnesses to the grave robbing. He’s just letting me know in case I wanted to come along.
Of course I do. He knows that’s a priority to me. He’s trying to provoke me because of Garrett. Human behavior, I guess. I’ll deal with him later. Right now Garrett and I are going to take a little drive.
I feel kind of silly as we’re walking out to my car, and I catch myself thinking of this as our ‘first date.’
***
Rolling to a stop at the curb in front of the Community Bank Building, I feel like Judas without the paycheck. Garrett really doesn’t know what kind of reception he may well receive from Napoleon Learner.
That feeling only intensifies once I’m on the sidewalk and see the regular doormen replaced with twice as many security guards. This can’t mean anything good for the quality of my evening. For a moment I consider just pulling Garrett off down the block and going to the bar instead, but I know they’ve already seen us and if I walk away I’ll just look suspicious.
I step up to the door and dutifully wait, watching the activity on the other side of the glass. Talking into shoulder radios and waiting for a reply, these guys are more nervous than I am.
Finally two of them step forward and open the doors for Garrett and I, while the others stand back with their hands on their weapons. No, this was not even the cold reception I was expecting.
Security escorts us across the lobby and four of them get on the elevator with us. The ride up is a tense one. Garrett is looking at me with questioning eyes and I have no answers for him.
We’re led off the elevator and down the hall through the broken frame that held the doors to Jacobi’s office. The place is redecorated again, this time in a modern post-hurricane style. I really can’t believe my eyes.
“Don’t even pretend to act surprised, you lying little bitch! I know you were involved in this.” Learner is spitting at me before I can even take in the enormity of the damage. ”What have you done with him? You’re dead either way, but if you cooperate I’ll make sure you don’t suffer as much!”
My mind is racing, and my mouth is moving but no words are coming out. Garrett decides, unwisely, to come to my rescue.
“Who are you, and why are you screaming like an idiot?” His voice is patronizing, but not overly so.
“Who am I? Who the hell are you?” It looks like Learner may well just explode and save me a whole lot of trouble. “I’m Marcus Learner! I’m the Eldest in this region. I sit at the head of the Council!”
“Head of the Council? When was this decided?” Serena asks as she enters the room, thankfully distracting him from us for a moment. She has a look in her eye that seems to be daring him to say the wrong thing.
“With Jacobi gone I am the Eldest!” He announces it matter-of-factly.
Serena looks at me, and for just a moment I think she flashes a wicked grin. “Veronica is more than two years older than you Marcus. If we are looking to put someone in Jacobi’s chair before it can even grow cold, and it is to be our Eldest, then it is she who should head the Council.”
“Until we find out with certainty what’s happened to my uncle, no one will be officially replacing him as the head of the Council. I’m working with Paco and his little spies and otherworldly contacts to find the truth about what’s happened here.” He’s clearly uncomfortable and off balance. He and I both would have expected a comment like that from Gus, but Serena?
It’s nice to see Learner backed down, by anyone, even if it is only for a matter of hours or days. We all know that the Council would never support Serena’s push for me. I doubt that even she’d support that idea. I know I wouldn’t. She’s likely just making him squirm for fun.
Not surprisingly, Learner immediately changes the focus back to me.
“You are under suspicion, orphan whore! Have no doubt that eyes are on you. If it’s found that you had anything to do with my uncle’s disappearance then your life will be forfeit. I’ll claim all that you possess for my family, as payment for your debt to us for your crimes.” He leans in close to me, arrogantly spitting his words in my face. “All your girls will be mine to do with as I see fit.”
And with that, he stepped over the line. I can feel the blood in my veins begin to boil. In less time than it takes for him to blink I clench my fist and hammer it into his throat, knocking him back through the room and into the Council table.
This development is more than Serena was prepared for. She bursts into a peal of laughter, an indignity I knew Learner was too small to overlook.
“That’s it! You are censured! You will not be welcomed back at the Council until Jacobi is found!” He screams to hide his embarrassment. “You are a mad dog, Ms. Fischer, and I will see you put down!”
His hateful glare shoots to Serena, whose laughter has waned, but still bubbles near the surface. He knows better than to make an outright enemy of her, so he turns what’s left of his rage precisely where I don’t want it.
“You with her! You have no right to be here! You are not accepted here! You will leave, and you will not return on pain of death!” He pauses, trying to stare Garrett down. When he doesn’t even flinch, Learner has to scream some more. “Do I make myself clear? If I hear word of your continued presence in the region this Council rules over I will have you killed too!”
Garrett just nods at him slowly then looks at me. “Shall we go then?”
***
My Charger screeches into the driveway at well over double the posted limit of the street. I’m driving reckless, I should know better but my emotions are getting th
e best of me. Laying on the brakes the tires provide a scream that alerts everyone in the house that I’m home. At least I didn’t make a new garage door.
Climbing out of the car into the cloud of rubber and brake shoe smoke, I survey what I’ve done to the driveway. Somebody’s going to be calling me all sorts of unfriendly names tomorrow when they’re out here trying to get the black marks off the driveway.
By the time the car door slams shut I’m already halfway to the back door. I’m aware that Garrett is walking silently beside me. He’s managed to keep his composure, though I can feel he’s just as upset as I am.
Walking back into the house from the garage we meet Julie and Frank in the kitchen. It doesn’t take reading minds or emotions for them to see that things didn’t go well.
“So,” Julie starts. “Jacobi didn’t have anything nice to…”
“Jacobi is missing!” I cut her off midsentence. “His office is a wreck, that moron Learner is in charge, and things have most definitely gone from bad to worse.”
“How could they get worse?” Frank the eternal comedian was trying to make me laugh. It wasn’t going to work this time.
“Rachel is still gone. Lucy is still missing. I’m now a suspect in Jacobi’s disappearance. Learner is planning to bend me over and take everything I’ve spent my life building, and he may try to order my death too.” I nod my head quickly for emphasis. “Oh, and yeah, he’s also said that Garrett has to get out of town. Or he’ll have him killed too.”
“I’m not sure if I’m missing something,” Julie asks meekly, “but why do we care what Learner says?”
It’s not her fault she doesn’t understand the way these things work. I’ve been dealing with it since before she was born and I still can’t always justify the way things are. “I might as well take this as a sign, and explain a few things to you two. Frank already knows a lot of it, but it’s time you were brought more in loop.”
I lay out for them everything that went on in Jacobi’s office tonight. Garrett pipes up every now and again, keeping his voice low and terse, to add his perspective.
Julie listens to us closely taking notes as we complain for about half an hour. Finally she’s all done with being in the room, but out of the conversation.
“If you are going to explain things to me then you’re going to need to give some basics that I’m clearly missing so that what you’re telling me makes more sense. For instance, what are you, really? I mean, I know you’re dead, and you have fangs so it seems like a no brainer, I mean I collect and preserve blood for you, right? But I also know you are awake during the day and I’ve seen you in a mirror and wearing a cross, and so on. So, yeah. What are you? How does this work?”
Frank looks at her with disbelief that she actually said that, while Garrett doesn’t seem to be the slightest bit fazed at her questions. I’ve never met anyone like him.
I guess I asked for this. I really don’t want to try to explain everything she wants to know tonight, there’s just not enough time, but I started this conversation so I might as well follow through with it.
“We share a disease. It’s transmitted though our blood. It serves to effectively kill the living body, allowing only the electrical impulses of brain activity to continue. However, it affects the whole brain. There are entire portions of the brain that are never active while someone is alive, that become highly active in physical death. The disease effects everyone infected in a different way, based on their individual DNA. While most may be similar, no two of us are exactly the same.”
I could see on her face that she was keeping up with me so far. Either that or she was a far, far better actress than I’d ever given her credit for. She’d stopped taking notes and was just listening with rapt attention.
“So it’s like Dracula then? All the other stuff from the movies like garlic and stakes, do those things hurt you?”
I can’t help but laugh a little. She must have been making observations and building up these questions for years.
“C’mon, you know how much I like garlic bread with pasta.” I’m trying to keep this light, and that’s when it hits me that Frank’s usual jovial wit is missing. I think this is the longest I’d ever known him to be quiet. It was especially punctuated by quiet little Julie having so much to ask and say.
Garrett decides to join in, making the mother/father dynamic of this supernatural ‘talk with the kids’ complete. “Sunlight can kill us, due to rapid decomposition of our bodies. Basically it burns off our skin cells faster than we can replace the tissue, even with our ability to heal.”
“A stake in the heart can kill us, as well as cutting off our head, but I think you’d be hard pressed to find anything on this planet that wouldn’t die if you shoved something through its heart or cut off its head.” I say it looking at Frank, expecting a cute comment or joke.
Nothing. He doesn’t have anything to say, but he’s obviously attentive. That’s just as bizarre as anything else that’s happened tonight.
Again, Julie isn’t finished. “What about Holy Water and crosses?”
“No. We don’t even need to breathe anymore so we can’t even drown in holy water.”
Garrett speaks up, correcting me. “Some of us still breathe. It’s a rarity, but it happens. Some of us even heal fast enough that they can go out in the sun for longer periods without dying. Like Veronica said, the disease is same for all of us, but how our bodies are structured at the DNA level dictates how each individual reacts to the disease. Once we are infected and ‘die’ different genes are turned off and turned on causing the individual manifestations, or symptoms, of our condition. There are a few things that are the same for all of us, like we stop physically aging and we stop producing and refining blood normally so we have to drink it, but we also have qualities that are unique to each of us.”
“Believe it or not, that actually has a lot to do with why things are the way they are for us, socially. Like royal families and inbreeding, this disease has been kept closely guarded throughout history.” This is where I get to show off my education to impress Garrett. Prove I’m not just any accidental orphan off the street.
“There are forty-two families that I’m aware of who carry the disease, seventeen of them are represented in the United States, but only three in Pekin. They are kept ‘pure lines’ by only spreading the disease to those born into the family. This allows for more predictable reactions to the infection. Each generation can then pass on their knowledge of the disease, their power and traits can be learned and built off of by each new generation.” I’m reciting all the information I’ve studied and learned, and I can’t believe how far I’ve come since Jules left. I’m impressed with myself.
“That’s why the pure lines are powerful, okay. But how do you get into a pure line and get Learner off your back?” Julie asks with eyes wide, and serious concern in her voice.
Frank looks at her and tries keep the acid from his tone. “She can’t. She was screwed from jump. Learner is of a pure line. V can’t ever be.”
At least he has a grasp of the situation.
“I am not from a pure line because I wasn’t born into the right family to be. See, the way it works is that Jules, the one who infected me with the disease, effectively making me what I am, had no blood relation to me in life. He had no family in this country to make, so those he’s made, like me, are strays and orphans. We are seen as scum. Those from pure lines see me as similar to them but never the same, and certainly not equal. I share their disease, but I have no family. Do you follow?”
Julie nods, but it’s clear reading into her thoughts that she still only has half of the picture.
“But Learner, he’s Jacobi’s nephew. His sister’s actual son. Born into the family. And to make matters worse, he’s the eldest of them now with Jacobi missing, and that’s how leadership is carried.”
“The oldest is just given control of the families, no matter how stupid they are?” The poor girl is a product of modern liberal pol
itics. She just wants it to be fair and make sense.
“The system isn’t bad on paper. It works well most of the time, has for centuries.” Garrett says it apologetically, trying to give her some comfort, though he clearly doesn’t believe it.
“Morons like Learner shouldn’t live long enough to be in charge, but the system doesn’t account for the protection and sheltering of the frail or weak minded by those in power.” I know I sound a little bitter, but I really can’t help it.
Julie seems to be struggling with the social concepts as alien and unfair. “But it doesn’t make sense. Can’t you appeal to someone?”
“Sweetheart, this isn’t the U.S. legal system. There is no one to appeal to. This system is a lot older and based a lot more on ‘might makes right.’ In the society of the dead, those who are destroyed have no further objections and make no more trouble.”
“But that’s just not right.” Her youthful exasperation with the system I’ve been dealing with for nearly five decades is cute. I almost laugh, but manage to stifle it, not wanting to seem insulting.
“Well you weren’t born to the right family to do anything about it, Julie. Sorry.” Frank understands it, and seems to like it less than I do.
Julie looks from face to face in the room before shaking her head and turning up her volume. “Well that just sucks!”
”That’s kinda the conclusion I’ve reached.” I can feel her exasperation spilling over into me as I crack my knuckles and raise my voice as well. “Garrett can leave when Learner is big enough to fuckin’ make him. He’s gonna have to get past me to do it, and I don’t think he’s got the balls.”
Everyone in the room is staring at me, and only now do I realize how loud I’d actually gotten. I crack a smile and Frank finally chimes in. “Well I think it’s gonna be okay for now. I doubt they’ll be storming the house to look for him tonight.”
We all laugh and for the first time in quite a while I feel at home in the house I live in. Garrett seems to have gone from being a ‘them’ to an ‘us.’ We’re a family. Now I just need to get Rachel home with the rest of us.
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