The Mourning Woods (The Tome of Bill Book 3)

by Rick Gualtieri

  “But that still does not answer my question,” Alex cut me off. “Is there a reason why you are out here rather than doing your duty?”

  I shrugged and started telling him of our adventures from the past several hours. Since most vampires tended to be backstabbing assholes, I would normally err on the side of caution with one I didn’t know too well. Unfortunately, James’s hands were kind of tied in this situation. Being that my choices of who to trust were limited to François, Turd, and Alex, it seemed to be a pretty obvious choice to me.

  Several times during the telling, Alex raised an intrigued eyebrow at my story. Sally, of course, had to jump in at points to correct some of my details or to point out my failings. Alex had to warn us back on track a few times after we broke down into our typical bickering. Finally, I finished. Thank God, too, as the snow wasn’t exactly tapering off.

  “I suppose I should be thankful I ran into you both after your little dip in the river,” he quipped once we were done.

  “Hilarious, I’m sure,” I replied. “Can you take over now? I think we have enough here to hang the guilty parties by their bootstraps.”

  “Do not be so sure. You have circumstantial evidence at best against François. Elders are often given the benefit of the doubt in cases such as this.”

  “What about the First?” Sally asked. “Couldn't they compel him to confess?”

  Alex shook his head. “Doubtful. It is difficult to compel any vampire over half-a-millennium in age. Even the most powerful of the First would be hard pressed to do that. Then there is the matter of the Grendel’s leader.”

  “Turd?”

  “Yes. What are you going to accuse him of? Vampires have no laws against music, at least last I checked. Besides, he isn’t one of us. Any direct accusation against him would go a long way toward causing these talks to fall apart.”

  “I hate to break it to you, buddy,” Sally spat, “but these talks are already up shit’s creek without a paddle.”

  “Not the way I would put it, but I can see how you might think that,” Alex replied.

  “Wait a second!” I exclaimed. “You said direct accusation, right?”

  “I did.”

  “What about an indirect one?”

  “I’m not sure I follow you.”

  “That’s okay, I doubt Bill is even following himself,” Sally quipped.

  I ignored her (despite knowing that she wouldn’t go away) and explained, “I’m led to believe that the rest of Turd’s tribe wouldn’t be too happy to know about his little technology fix.”

  Understanding appeared in Alex’s eyes. “Quite true. The Grendel have always shunned it.”

  “So I imagine their leader would be knocked down quite a few pegs if they discovered he was a gizmo junkie.”

  “Blackmail?” Sally asked. “I’m proud of you, Bill. You're playing with the big boys now.”

  I smiled back. “That almost sounded like a compliment.”

  “Don’t worry. Won’t happen again. The only question, though, is who’s hooking up Turd?”

  “François, obviously,” Alex said, “although I am not certain why.”

  “Careful, that sounds a lot like an accusation.”

  He smirked. “I directly serve the First, Freewill. My accusations carry a bit more weight than most. Still, you are correct. Knowing what is not the same as why. That is why you must get back to the talks. Perhaps then we might gain insight into this.”

  “What about you?” I asked, exasperated that I was still somehow neck deep in this crap.

  “I will go check on the remains you found. It’s possible there is some bit of evidence that you have missed. Something that will help tie this all together.”

  We gave Alex directions as best we could. Hopefully he’d be able to find the wreckage, and maybe even more. Being pretty much a newborn in the vampire world, my senses weren’t that great. Sally’s were better, but she’s not exactly ancient either. Perhaps Alex would be able to sniff out some clues that we could use to stick it to François once and for all.

  We just had to be careful. If the French fuckhead caught wind of this, he’d no doubt try to stick me first ... no doubt with something sharp and pointy.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  “You certainly picked an interesting time to disappear.”

  “Sorry, James. Sally and I took a walk in the woods ... and got lost.” I shot him a quick wink. Hopefully, he got the point that I was being coy (as opposed to hitting on him) since there were others potentially within earshot.

  “I see. And your somewhat interesting choice in attire?” he asked with a smirk.

  “We had a bit of an accident.”

  “Indeed. So where is your hiking partner, anyway?”

  “She refused to come here without changing first. You know how women are.”

  “Well, be that as it may, I’m sure you can fill me in on your adventures at another time. Unfortunately, you’re a little late for tonight.”

  That wasn’t particularly surprising, although that didn’t make it suck any less. It also explained why I ran into James on the path to the meeting valley ... or whatever it was.

  “They ended already?”

  “Already?” James asked, surprised. “This was the longest session by far. They were negotiating for hours.”

  “Sorry. My watch kind of died. Unlike us, when it goes, it tends to stay dead.”

  “I should say so. Alma excrement is full of their fae essence. It can wreak havoc with electronics.”

  Now it was my turn to look shocked. “How ... did...”

  “The Alma have a very unique odor. It takes a fairly thorough washing to completely eliminate it. I might suggest a good delousing before tomorrow night’s proceedings.”

  “Noted.”

  “Come, walk with me,” James beckoned me to follow. “The conference has already broken for the evening. We can take the scenic route back to your hut. It’ll give us a chance to offer our proper respects.”

  “Respects?”

  “Yes, one of the outcomes of this night’s talks ... a very peculiar one at that.”

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  “Does this place look familiar?”

  “Yep. That’s a tree ... and that’s a tree. Oh, look there. Another tree.”

  James sighed. “I meant the area. I believe we’re fairly close to where your friend...”

  “Took the shit heard round the supernatural world?”

  “As always, Dr. Death, you do have quite the way with words.”

  “Thanks, I try. Oh, speaking of my friends...”

  “They’re fine. They took their seats at the table and were mostly respectful ... at least one of them was. Ed, I believe his name is.”

  “Oh well, as long as Tom didn’t get himself killed. Although I’m surprised they were there at all.”

  “Why?”

  “I didn’t think they’d go without me. I mean, I had told Nergui...” I trailed off before I said something that indicated my little adventure had been premeditated.

  “Don’t worry,” James replied, “They never left Nergui’s sight.”

  “Well, that’s good. So, anyway, you were going to tell me how badly François’s minions sold us out.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “I was going to say no such thing. I was merely going to tell you that François’s team offered the Alma some concessions with regards to the grave insult from the night before.”

  “Uh huh. And pray tell, what concessions did they make?”

  “That’s the odd part,” James said, continuing to walk. He seemed at ease, but I could see his eyes continually scanning the brush as well as the flare of his nostrils. If his spider sense started tingling, I was sure there would be an abrupt change in topics. “They offered up to Turd that we vampires would wish to pay homage to the Alma’s dead as a show of respect.”

  “We vampires?”

  “Not you or I, to be sure. To my great surprise, Turd was open to this.”

 
“What’s so surprising about them accepting a little ass kissing?”

  “Am I correct in assuming that the envoy of the First brought you up to speed on the Humbaba Accord?”

  “Alex? Yeah.”

  “Then you know that the dividing line between our territories and the Alma’s are quite strict. The forests and mountains are theirs, plain and simple. Cities and towns are ours. Plains and Deserts are neutral territory.”

  “Glad I’m not a big fan of camping.”

  James waved his hand dismissively. “The occasional trespass is allowed. However, that tolerance does not extend to their sacred areas. We’re here today by the Alma’s invitation. Had we stepped foot into these woods at any other time, the response would have been both swift and brutal.”

  “Let me guess – in return, François offered to let the Bigfeet wander into our areas whenever they liked? Not like anyone in New York would probably notice.”

  “Hardly,” he replied. “There was no such exchange, simply the offer on our part. What I also found odd was how the offer’s details were settled upon. On the one hand, they’re quite specific, yet they almost seem to purposely leave other aspects as vague as possible.”

  “How so?”

  “The offer is not an open invitation. Only a set number of vampires will be allowed in, and only at predetermined times and locations.”

  “So when, where, and how many?”

  “That was the vague part. That notion was tabled for post conference discussions, to be determined between the respective regional leaders of both the Alma and vampire nations.”

  “François and Turd.”

  “Precisely, and also exclusively.”

  “Exclusively?”

  “Yes. The Alma have many such places of spiritual significance throughout the world, yet this is the only one that was brought up. Turd quashed any consideration for elsewhere, and François’s men were quite happy to not argue the point any further.”

  “Because they got what they wanted.”

  “That is merely speculation, of course,” James remarked, although the glance he gave me said he agreed.

  “Of course,” I replied. “Speaking of speculation, care to hear what happened after Sally and I got ‘lost’ together? You might be able to speculate a few new ideas from that.”

  Without warning, James spun to face me. “Your dalliances with that trollop are of no concern to me.”

  What the fuck? Did he think I was going to tell him about how I banged Sally in the woods? Don’t get me wrong, I was flattered that he thought I had a shot with her. Not that I wouldn’t have a shot. It’s just...

  That wasn’t the case, though. I looked into his eyes and noticed him quickly glance over my shoulder. Not wanting to turn around and be entirely obvious, I listened. For a moment, there was nothing, but then I heard just the faintest crunch of leaves. I could have easily missed it had I still been yammering. Oh yeah, the hills definitely had eyes.

  “Your loss, but let me tell you ... the things she can do with her legs, woo!” I shot back, maybe a tad over dramatically. Sorry, but I’d never been good at this espionage shit.

  He let out the barest of sighs. I had little doubt his opinion of me dropped a notch every time we spoke. “Yes ... well, for now at least, you’ll have to keep your adventures to yourself and your friends,” he replied, dropping a hint that even I was able to pick up on.

  In other words, I was on my own. What a surprise.

  The Lying, the Witch, and the ... err ... Zombie?

  I had just gotten back to my hut, still considering whether Sally and I might need to conduct some more “dalliances,” as James put it, when I heard a cry from inside.

  “Ow! You bit me!”

  That wasn’t exactly a confidence builder, especially when surrounded by vampires. I immediately rushed in, hoping that one of the neighboring vamps hadn’t decided to snack on my roomies.

  At first, I didn’t see anyone. Then I heard the voice again, coming from behind Sally’s curtain.

  “You need to watch the teeth.” It was Ed.

  “Sorry, got carried away a little,” a snarky female voice replied from the same location. Motherfucker!

  “Get a room, you two!” I loudly announced, stomping over to my luggage for some clean clothes.

  Ed immediately came running out. Fortunately for my sanity, he was still fully clothed. He did have one hand on the side of his neck, however.

  “Oh hey, Bill,” he said, a little flustered – a rare thing for Ed. “We were just...”

  “I believe the phrase you meant to say,” Sally said, also stepping out, “is that it’s none of his fucking business.” There was a slight smudge of blood on her bottom lip.

  I glared at them for a second, until he replied, “Yeah, I guess she is kind of right.”

  “Men are such pussies,” she commented with mock disgust.

  Ignoring the hundreds of things I wanted to say, I instead opted for the practical. “Are you all right?”

  “Yeah. Nothing a Band-Aid won’t fix,” Ed replied, taking a seat at the table.

  I turned to Sally. “I thought I was pretty specific on that whole no snacking on my roommates thing.”

  “Oh, please. It was just a playful little nip.”

  I was about to make another snide comment when a thought hit me. “He’s going to be okay, right?”

  “What do you mean?” Ed asked, getting a bit wide-eyed.

  “Social diseases aside,” I continued, still facing her. “He isn’t going to ... you know ... turn, is he?”

  “Oh, shit, I forgot about that,” he said.

  “Relax, stud,” Sally replied. “You’re fine. I’m not exactly a newb here.”

  “Well, that’s good. Not that I wouldn’t make a better vamp than Bill.”

  “I wouldn’t argue that,” she said.

  “You can both go fuck yourselves ... separately. Where’s Tom?”

  “He went off with Christy after the meeting ended.”

  “Figures,” I replied. “James brought me up to speed on what happened. How about you, did you tell Sally or was your tongue too busy...”

  “Yes, I told her what happened,” he said, cutting me off. “Although, speaking of that, thanks for sneaking out earlier. When we saw you gone, Tom and I thought maybe Turd had dragged you both off. We were going to try to find you, but then we learned you had left Nergui behind as our guard dog.”

  “I already said I was sorry,” Sally purred. “Besides, didn’t I just make it up to you?”

  “Does anyone have a stake handy, because I suddenly feel the need to impale myself on one?”

  She sighed. “Get over it, Bill.”