Spire looked at Marley. All her composure and authority was gone. “I know you’re right. I know it. I try to pretend to be current, but sometimes things slip out. I remember some things from day to day, but to me the world is just the same as when I was turned. I had no idea it was so hard on him.” She stood and started toward him.
“Darling, one moment.” Marley gestured toward the seat. Spire sat again. “Give him a little time, if you would. What’s your given name, dear?”
“Susannah.”
“Oh, that’s beautiful, too. Let me ask you, Spire, has Kenneth been with you all this time? Ever since you were turned?” She nodded. “He must love you very much. That’s an astonishingly long time for a companion to stay with a vampire. I think we’ll have to find a place for both of you.”
“A place?”
“I have a home, dear, right here in the city, where vampires live in privacy and safety. You won’t be able to drink from the population any more—it’s not safe and it’s not acceptable, even for a careful predator who tries her best not to kill—but you will be fed and comfortable, and you’ll have people like yourself to talk to.”
“I have money,” Spire said. “I can afford it.”
“Keep your money, dear. It’s my role in life to protect this city, and I’m happy to offer you a place. I’m sure we can find Kenneth a job there, if he wants one, so you can be together.”
There was silence for a while as Spire considered it. Kenneth entered the room again. He’d wiped his cheeks dry but his eyes were red. He knelt beside her chair.
Spire laid her hand on his. “Did you hear? What should we do?”
“The day after we left Minnesota, Lagerfeld and three of his buddies burned our house down. Ecks texted… wrote to tell me about it. It was just like Memphis, but we hadn’t even been there six months. We’ve only been here three days, and already they’ve caught up to us. Is it Lagerfeld again? The Memphis crew? Those frat bros from Purdue? I don’t know how much longer I can keep you safe.”
Spire turned to Marley. “What if I hate it?”
“You won’t be a prisoner,” Marley assured her. “If you want to leave, or you want to hunt in the wild again, I’ll provide a moving truck to take you to any other city in the country.”
Spire understood. “I accept.”
Marley made a call. Within thirty minutes, Naima and three helpers were packing up Spire’s and Kenneth’s things. The nurse arrived shortly after with a small cooler full of blood packs. With everything in hand, Marley and Albert went out to the car.
“Damn,” Marley said.
Albert was surprised. “Are you disappointed? Because I thought that was amazing.”
She patted his hand. “Thank you, dear. I’m not disappointed about the two of them. Not at all. It’s just that I can’t get Jenny out of jail because I still don’t know who killed your brother. It certainly wasn’t those two. Spire had fresh packs of blood delivered, and she was expecting Sylvester to be her evening meal. Besides, dressed like that she would do her feeding among others like her. She wouldn’t have gone near Aloysius and he wouldn’t have gone near her, not unless she was quite desperate.”
“Could there be another vampire in town that we don’t know about?”
“I wish I could say yes,” Marley answered. “It would make things so much simpler. But I’m afraid that your brother was murdered, and I can’t help but think it was done in a way designed to misdirect me.”
“What’s next?”
Marley’s phone rang. To her great surprise, it was Weathers on the line. “Madam,” he said without any exchange of pleasantries, “there is a squad of armed gunman preparing to assault the house.”
Marley hung up the phone without responding. “Come along, Albert. It’s time to go home.”
CHAPTER NINE
Another Visit from Unwelcome Guests
Marley was chatty on the way home. Her initial disappointment at realizing Spire was not involved in her nephew’s death had evaporated, and Albert thought she seemed positively chipper. He assumed the phone call had been good news, which showed just how little he understood his aunt. When they were five blocks from the house, she asked him to park at the curb.
He did. “What next?”
“Shush for a few minutes, dear. I have something to prepare back here. Be as silent and still as you can.”
Albert stared through the windshield at the neighborhood around him. The houses were large and well-cared for, the landscapes sculpted, the gutters clean. He looked them over for several minutes, one by one, taking in the placid lawns and comfortable-looking glow coming from a few of the windows. “Huh.”
“Hmm?” Marley said absentmindedly.
“This neighborhood, and these houses—they’re not, you know, for rich people, but they’re for the almost rich. Cardiologist-rich, maybe. I don’t know. Maybe that’s rich, too. Anyway, I was looking at them, thinking that I will never have a house like these in a neighborhood like this. But that’s okay, because I know there are vampires in the world, and none of these people do, and that’s pretty freaking amazing.” He was quiet a moment. “They don’t know, do they?”
“Oh my, no. Not if I’m doing my job correctly, they don’t. Let’s get out of the car now.”
Albert climbed out of the car and opened the door for Marley on the curb side. She climbed out with a tiny green thermos in her hand, then gestured for Albert to sit on the hood and bend low. He did. She dipped her finger into the thermos lid and began drawing a shape on Albert’s forehead.
“Remember when I asked you to be quiet for a moment? Well, I’m glad you didn’t listen, because it’s important to be reminded how amazing the life we lead is. Of course, if you’d distracted me so severely that I’d made a mistake while preparing this spell, the car would have filled with a living gas that would have devoured us down to our bones. Aren’t we lucky that didn’t happen?”
“Oh,” Albert said. “Um, yes, that’s very lucky, and I’m sorry. I really need to learn to do what you tell me.”
“Finished! Stand, please, and hold this mirror.” He did. Marley drew a shape on her own forehead. “I’ve practiced more with the mirror than doing it on other people. Next you’ll ask me what the spell does.”
“That was my plan.”
“Invisibility, of a sort. It will make people look away rather than look at us, and they won’t realize they’re doing it. Let’s move quickly, though, because the effect will vanish when this stuff dries. Good thing it’s a humid night.”
Albert followed her down the sidewalk. “Really? That’s... That’s fantastic! I mean... wow.”
“I feel the same way, even after all these years,” Marley assured him.
“I don’t even have to go naked, right?”
“Not unless you really, really want to.”
“Couldn’t we have put it on the car, though, and just driven into the garage?”
Marley made a disappointed little harrumph. Albert was slowly beginning to realize that he shouldn’t make her do that. “If we were utterly mad, yes,” she said. “Personally, I have no intention of driving on city streets in a car that no one else can see to avoid. We’ll also have to be extremely careful crossing the streets; drivers won’t yield to invisible pedestrians.”
“Good point, good point. Wait. Why are you sneaking into your own house?”
“A surprise party, dear.”
“Are we really invisible? Okay, um, forget I asked that. I’m not going to make you tell me the same things over and over. Mother was right, wasn’t she? You can do magic. Damn, I wish we’d had invisibility over in Afghanistan.”
“It wouldn’t have been practical, Albert. The effect only lasts a few minutes—fifteen or twenty at the most—and the ingredients cost a little over $40,000.”
“What?”
“And that’s not from government contractors, either. Besides, not only does an error in preparing the salve summon the living gas, but one mistake i
n drawing the spell would strike the recipient stone dead. Think of the congressional investigations!”
Albert made a little choking noise and his hand moved involuntarily toward his forehead to wipe it clean, but he stopped himself in time.
They didn’t say anything more after that. Marley kept up a quick pace, which Albert liked. Across the street from Marley’s house, two house-painter vans were parked against the curb. She glanced at them, but it was just a glance. The front gate stood partway open. “Don’t touch, Albert. They might not be able to look at us, but they will certainly see a gate opening on its own.”
Marley slipped through the opening. Albert followed. He glanced up at the house, expecting to see brightly-lit windows—he knew the sort of parties his aunt threw—but everything looked dark. “Who’s the party for?” he whispered. “I don’t have a present.”
“You’re not meant to. Once again I’m going to ask you to do nothing without my explicit instruction.”
“Okay. Werewolves?”
“What, dear?” Marley said as they hustled up the walk, then diverted to the path that led to the back door.
“Is it werewolves this time? Do I need a gun with silver bullets or something?”
Marley stopped and looked up at his face, searching his expression for a sign that he was simply making a terrible joke. “Oh, Albert.”
“What? It was vampires earlier, so...”
Marley exhaled loudly, letting her disappointment show. Then she went up the back stairs and pressed the doorbell.
Weathers opened the interior door a few moments later, but he looked all around the yard, unable to see who had rung the bell. “Open the door please, Weathers,” Marley said. He did, swinging the storm door wide and standing silhouetted in the light from the kitchen. Marley and Albert entered the house.
Marley drew a finger across the clear, shining oil on her forehead and somehow, although Albert had been able to see her the whole time, he knew she became fully visible again. Marley reached high up and smeared her finger through the mark on his face, too.
“Ah,” Weathers said, pleased to see them both. He shut the door.
“How many are they?”
“Ten, madam. There are two stationed by the gazebo, and two others at the edge of the garden. The rest are stationed out front in the vans. I believe they are all human.”
“Ah well. Everything has to be difficult, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, madam.”
“Has Miss Harriet gone home?”
“Yes, madam. An hour ago.”
“Good. I suspect two out front will stay behind to drive the vans, which means four will enter the house. Does that sound right, Albert?”
“What? The painting vans? You mean four painters?” He asked, rattled. Marley loved parties, everyone knew that. But why were they talking as though they were in danger?
Then Marley confirmed all her nephew’s worst fears. “Home invaders, dear. They’re our party guests, and what a surprise it will be when they find out I’m the one organizing things, not them. I do love parties.”
Weathers nodded. “Yes, madam.”
“If there are so many of them, it means that someone is taking me seriously—as they should—and they’re probably well-trained. That’s why I’m asking for your opinion, Albert. You were in Afghanistan. Didn’t you have to break into people’s homes?”
“We didn’t break in.” His voice was tight and his face felt hot. His injury began to throb. Wasn’t his war supposed to be over? “We acted under orders...” His hands roamed over his body, checking for equipment he didn’t carry any more.
Marley had pushed him too far and too quickly, and she knew it. “It’s all right, dear. It’s all right. We’re not going to confront them.”
“What are we going to do, then? Do we have any weapons? Can we call the police?”
Out of concern for her nephew’s anxiety, she pretended the first two questions hadn’t been asked. “We could, dear, but we won’t. Weathers, would you make sure the proper doors are left open?”
Weathers bowed and went into the library. Marley crossed into the dining room, then went through the open doors into the huge living room. Albert trailed behind her. Both of them stepped over the fishing wire.
“You know, if I had armed men outside my house, I’d be nervous. I might even be slightly anxious. In fact, I think I’m feeling a little anxious right now.”
“I hope you aren’t doubting me, dear,” Marley said over her shoulder. “But never mind. It’s difficult the first couple of times, but you get used to it. Besides, you shouldn’t assume!” Marley went to the front window in the corner and threw the curtains open. “Weathers, remember that time it was a squad of armed women?”
“That was before my time, madam.” Weather said from the other room.
Albert rushed forward. “Aunt Marley, get out of the window!”
She stopped him with a wave of her hand, switched a reading lamp on, then stepped away from the glass. “I know, dear. A lighted window on a dark night makes for a tempting target. Still, I had to let them know I was home, and I wasn’t visible long enough for one of them to shoot me.”
“It would have been long enough for me,” Albert said seriously.
Marley noticed that Albert’s damaged right hand was clenched and trembling. “Ah,” she said, laying her hand on his arm. “There’s always something new to learn. Thank you. I’ll remember that for next time. Now get into the library, please.”
Albert backed away from her, moving through the open doors into the dining room. After glancing at himself in the standing mirror he’d moved just that morning, he crossed the hall into the library.
Weathers dropped a coiled power cord into Albert’s pocket, then laid a laptop computer into his hand. “Will you be able to carry this, sir, without closing the top? Madam’s instructions were quite specific that it not be put to sleep.”
Albert glanced at it; a line of text advanced across the screen but before he could look closely Weathers diverted his attention to the corner of the room.
A trap door stood open at the far end of the library. Albert edged toward it. It led down into darkness, with only a metal ladder along one side. “Is this a sewer thing? Because I’m wearing regular shoes.”
“I understand the injury to your hand is quite debilitating,” Weathers said without showing the slightest interest in Albert’s question. “Can you carry the laptop down the ladder without closing it?”
Albert glanced at Marley, who stood in the library door with her back to him. He cradled the computer in the crook of his right hand. With his index and middle finger gone, he could only hold it with his two smaller fingers—both of which still hurt when he bent them. It wasn’t impossible. “No problem.”
An explosion shook the front of the house. The walls shuddered and books fell from the shelves. Albert could suddenly smell apricot orchards, smoke from a black powder IED, and Afghani dust. He shook them away. Only memories, he told himself.
Weathers, as always, was unperturbed. “Then you’d better start down now, sir.”
CHAPTER TEN
Things of Value Are Preserved
Just inside the doorway to the library, Marley looked into the standing mirror. It was perfectly placed to let her see the front door, which had just been refashioned into a cloud of smoke and flying splinters. It was going to be one of those nights, for everyone.
Something about the size of a plum landed on the floor with a metallic clunk. Marley laid a hand over her eyes, blocking the sudden flash of light. When she looked again, she saw four men in black tactical gear rushing into her home, Heckler and Koch MP5’s held to their cheeks.
“Gentlemen!” she called, “welcome—“
A spray of gunfire interrupted her, shattering her image in mirror and punching through the mahogany breakfront behind it. The sound of gunfire lit a yearning inside Marley’s chest, as it sometimes did, for the long ago days when she was the one with the gun.
With all that power. But of course she had turned her back on all of that.
She turned and hurried toward the trap door. Back out in the main part of the house, she heard a clatter of falling bodies and a second rattle of gunfire. A man cried out in pain. Someone had been shot.
Marley’s yearning for the feel of a gun evaporated like a drop of water on a hot skillet. In fact, she almost rushed into the living room to apologize for the fishing line—she hadn’t known it was for that, after all—and to offer first aid.
But she didn’t want to be murdered, either, so she waved at Albert to start down the ladder. He did. Weathers draped a canvas bag over her shoulder, then held her hand as she started down herself. An orange-furred Pomeranian popped its head out of the bag, looking alert and excited.
“Take care, madam,” Weather said as he lowered the trap door.
“Not coming, Weathers?”
“I should like to stay to observe, if you don’t mind.” There was a sudden explosion from the kitchen. A plume of distinctive white smoke billowed into the room.
“All right, then. No eating,” Marley told him.
The trap door clicked shut, leaving them in utter darkness. Marley threw a switch and a dim column of bare bulbs illuminated the shaft.
Albert started to climb again. “We’re not going to leave him up there!”
“It’ll be all right, Albert. I’ve told Weathers not to kill anyone.”
“But...”
“Keep moving, dear. We’re much too busy to stand on a ladder and chat.”
Albert started downward again, carefully cradling the laptop and quickly switching his left hand from one rung to the next. They descended perhaps forty feet that way, and just as Albert began to suspect that they were going to pass through the core of the earth, they reached a small round concrete room.
There was a little table and some chairs, a shelf with canned goods on it, and two coat racks. On one hung two heavy ski jackets with pairs of fur-lined boots beneath, and the other held two lined raincoats over rubber boots. They were prepared for all-weather evacuation.
A Key, An Egg, An Unfortunate Remark Page 7