Always the Vampire

by Nancy Haddock

  “Hey. Big, fat, Greek shifter.”

  He opened one eye. “I’m not fat.”

  “Tell that to your lip. Roll on your knees so I can help you up.”

  He did, groaning and moaning. I purposely put my vampire strength in gear, grasped his sandy arm, and got him to his feet.

  “Come on. I need to get you in deep enough to put you on the board.”

  With my board under one arm and supporting Triton with the other, we shuffled into the surf. Ankle deep, then knee deep, then ankle deep again when we hit a sandbar. Finally, I had us in hip-deep water.

  “Okay, time to get on the board,” I shouted over the roar of the waves. “Can you help me paddle out?”

  “I can try.”

  “Try hard. I’ll take the front. You get on behind me. Scoot up enough that your head will be in the small of my back.”

  “My feet will stick off the end of the board.”

  “Then keep them together or they’ll act like a rudder.”

  He nodded and I straddled the board. My legs were just long enough to dig my toes into sand shifting with the strong undertow, but it helped steady the board while he mounted close behind me.

  “All right, let’s go flat together.”

  I eased down on the board, felt Triton mimic my progress. The board swayed with the waves, but we didn’t capsize. I began paddling hard and fast, focusing on slicing through the water, chesting up to breach each breaker. I ignored Triton’s labored breath on my bare back. I ignored the feel of his chest pressing into my butt. I even ignored the tickle of a more intimate part of him brushing my calves.

  It seemed to take hours to get to the line up, the place where surfers turned their boards to wait for a wave, but we made it without taking a spill.

  “How are you holding up?” I hollered over my shoulder.

  His guttural “Fine” rumbled up my spine.

  “Ready to straddle?”

  “Rest first.”

  “All right, but if you think you’re ready to shift, slide off.”

  “I won’t sink the board. Not like I almost did your father’s boat.”

  I grinned at the memory. Triton had been late for our monthly new-moon rendezvous, and we’d rowed like Vikings on speed in our attempt to reach the beach before he shifted. We’d only made it to the inlet before he’d torn his clothes off and flopped over the side.

  “My father would have killed me if we’d sunk that boat.”

  He chuckled, a gentle vibration that trickled all the way to my feet. “Your mother would’ve killed you if you’d shown up soaking wet again.”

  Or she would have had Triton’s ring on my finger faster than she could filet a fish.

  “Cesca, I’m going to slide off now.”

  I looked over my shoulder. “You’re shifting?”

  “No, but I’ll feel better in the water.”

  “You’ll burn too much energy treading the swells.”

  “I’ll hold on to the board.”

  Still facedown, he eased away, pushing himself backward until his chest cleared my butt. One more push and he was off, hand-overhanding himself to mid board as I scooted back for better balance. When I levered up to straddle my board, Triton rested his hands by my knee.

  “Better?” I asked.

  “Yeah.”

  We floated with our own thoughts for a moment, but Triton’s breathing sounded better every second he was cradled in the sea.

  “I’m sorry, Cesca.”

  He’d barely breathed the words, yet I’d heard him clearly.

  “What for?”

  “Not protecting you from the vampires that night.”

  I shrugged. “What could you do? Fluke them to death?”

  “If you hadn’t been with me, you wouldn’t have been captured.”

  I patted his head. “Marco would’ve kidnapped me anyway. It was just a matter of time.”

  Triton shrugged. “Maybe, but I’ve felt guilty about that night. And about the other time I failed to rescue you.”

  I stared at his upturned face. “What other time?”

  “In 1820. Florida was still being transferred from Spain to the U.S., and the whole town was being surveyed. I came back to reclaim the land trust for you. And I came back to search for you. I couldn’t find the vampire’s house.”

  “The foundation was gone by then?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know. I ran across a lot of rubble. Thought I was close a few times. None of the places I searched felt right.”

  I took a deep breath. Remembered Isabella’s revelation that Cosmil had reconsecrated the ground. Had he really blessed it, or had he bespelled it?

  “Why didn’t you open our telepathic connection, Triton? Maybe I could have led you to me.”

  “I didn’t want to get your hopes up and fail you again.”

  “Oh.”

  “The worst is that I got away. Made a life for myself. I’m sorry you didn’t have the same chance.”

  I laid my hand on his shoulder. “I never blamed you, Triton. Not for the vampires or leaving town. I wanted you gone and safe.”

  “Then you accept my apolo—”

  He broke off, his neck muscles contracting in a savage spasm. Hands flailing, he sank under the surface. The ocean around me churned violently, but I didn’t fear a shark attack. I adjusted my seat on the board. Waited.

  Minutes later, a beak bumped the nose of my board and water sprayed me from a blowhole. Triton in his dolphin form.

  Shifting injured hurts like the devil.

  “But you’ll be okay?”

  If you accept my apology.

  “Done.”

  He swam near enough to rub against my leg under water. His way of saying thank-you, I guessed.

  See you Tuesday morning. An hour before sunrise.

  Or his way of reminding me of that extra favor, but I nodded. “I’ll be here, and you’d better be ready for butt-kicking boot camp.”

  He slapped his beak on a swell, and a cascade of water smacked my face.

  Tyranoulitsa.

  “Cretin.”

  Wrong, I’m cetacean.

  He laughed in joyful dolphin speak, then arched away.

  All in all, I guessed it was good to have him home.

  Saber welcomed me back to the cottage with a deep kiss and a long hug.

  “I missed you,” he murmured as he nuzzled my neck.

  Darling man. He focused on me before he asked about Triton. I framed his head with my hands and kissed him again.

  “I missed you, too.” I released him and looked down at our feet so I wouldn’t step on the ever-present cat. “Where’s Snowball?”

  “Passed out in her carrier in the kitchen,” he said, turning to flip the deadbolt. “Any idea why she’s hunkered in there?”

  “She had a hissy fit over Isabella, a ghost she cornered this afternoon.”

  “I take it you know this ghost?”

  “She was Normand’s human mistress and my only friend, and she came to warn us that evil is stirring up vampire ghosts. Normand and company.”

  “Is Starrack behind this, too?”

  “She didn’t give me a name, but who else could it be? I’ll tell you about her and other things, but I need to shower this salt water out of my hair first.”

  He eyed my loosely ponytailed hair with a mess of escaped wavy strands. “More trouble with Triton?”

  “He was too weak to wade in deep enough to shift,” I said, taking Saber’s hand and leading him to the bedroom. “I floated him out on my surfboard.”

  He leaned against the doorjamb while I turned the shower faucet on hot and peeled off my T-shirt.

  “Tell me about the attack.”

  I paused with my cutoffs half unzipped, the weight of the amulet pulling one side lower than the other. “Now? You don’t want to join me in the shower?”

  “Not tonight.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Truth is, I’m done in.”

  “As in Void tired?
” I dropped my shorts, and the amulet in my pocket made a dull thunk on the bathmat covering the slate-tile floor.

  He shrugged. “So what happened with Triton?”

  I swallowed back my concern and my urge to fix Saber a can of chicken soup. Instead, I hollered the high points of discovering Triton through the shower door as I washed the salt water from my hair and body. Saber stopped my tale to ask if I’d smelled anything distinctive, and I relayed that I hadn’t and Triton didn’t remember a smell.

  “I hope those jerks weren’t carrying the Void infection,” I added as I stepped out of the shower, and Saber handed me an oversized white bath towel. “I know we don’t have a handle on how the illness spreads, but if it got into his blood stream through those cuts, that would be beyond bad.”

  “If Triton was severely injured, how’d you get him down those stairs?”

  “I didn’t. Two other vampires did, and why didn’t you tell me they were being relocated here when I first mentioned them to you?”

  He straightened, his shoulders tense. “What two vampires?”

  “Oh, hell. You don’t know.”

  “Cesca, tell me.”

  “The old couple Gorman thought could fly? Turns out they can. Clarence and Imelda Clarke are vampires. And they’re planning to open a B&B. Want to take a guess who they’ll be catering to?”

  “Damn it.”

  He wheeled, heading for the living room. And my laptop, unless I missed my guess. I threw on undies and my long pink flamingo sleep shirt and followed, mopping at my hair with the towel as I went. Sure enough, Saber sat at my desk, the computer booting up.

  “I’m sorry I dumped the Clarke info on you, Saber.”

  “It’s okay, but you know I wouldn’t keep that from you. The Jacksonville VPA office should notify me of every new vampire moving into Florida, especially when we’re on alert.”

  I frowned. “Alert, why? Because so many vampires in the state are ill?”

  “Exactly. My last printout listed 157 vampires. None were newcomers. Did the Clarkes say where they relocated from? Did they sound southern, northern?”

  “A little British, a little southern, and very upper-crust.”

  He logged into the VPA website then into the restricted pages, fingers zipping over the keyboard. He typed in “Clarke” as I peered over his shoulder. Clarence and Imelda’s photos and vitals filled the screen in living color. They hailed from Charleston, and the first lines recorded that the senior center where they’d lived had reported them missing fifteen years earlier. The rest of the data read pretty much as they’d told me. Except for the side note that both had worn dentures before their Turning. Afterward, they’d grown fangs. Now they wore specially designed dentures with spaces for the fangs to extend.

  I learn some new, wacky thing every day.

  “Jo-Jo would love that denture bit,” I said, grinning.

  “He still uses that joke in his act?”

  I shrugged, and Saber shook his head as he clicked to the next page.

  “All right, the Clarkes passed their physicals and are GPS implanted.”

  “Whoa. I never had a physical.”

  “It’s a new policy.” He shut down the computer as I perched on the coffee table. “With the nests closed, vampires are free to stay in the same city or move almost anywhere within the U.S., so long as the area isn’t already loaded with vamps. But we’re checking for symptoms of infection with questionnaires, physicals, and psychiatric profiles. By the way, your dancing buddies, David and Ken, passed their physicals, too. Candy confirmed it.”

  “Good to know. So these physicals will work like an early warning system to scout potential infectees?”

  “And Rampants. Whether these precautionary measures will work, or work well, is yet to be seen.”

  Rampants were rogue vampires, those Saber was licensed to kill. A run-of-the-fang rogue is dangerous. An infected vampire is insanely dangerous.

  “Will the Clarkes be allowed to open the B&B?”

  “If they screen their clientele, I don’t think we can stop them.” He arched a brow. “The Clarkes do know that St. Augustine isn’t exactly the nightlife capital of Florida, right?”

  “They should, but that’s their problem. Saber, why didn’t I sense that the Clarkes were vampires during the tour?”

  “Honey, you saw what you expected to see. Typical tourists.”

  “What about tonight? Shouldn’t I have picked up a vampy vibe?”

  “You might’ve if you hadn’t been preoccupied with Triton. You’d already pegged them as elderly tourists, and they obviously don’t project otherness.”

  “So you don’t automatically know a supernatural when you see one? Would you have known I was a vampire if you’d first met me on the street?”

  “Oh, yeah, I would’ve known.” He waggled his brows. “You were too gorgeous to be anything but a vampire or a supermodel.”

  Cobalt blue eyes twinkled with that special look.

  I smiled and shook my head. “And here I thought you were tired.”

  “Maybe I’m getting a second wind.” He stood and held out his hand. “Besides, I believe I owe you a dance.”

  That’s all it took for my body to go liquid with heat. I put my hand in his, and it was a very long time later before I thought about anything but Deke’s hands and mouth and murmured endearments. I simply reveled in his maddeningly slow lovemaking, and returned every kiss and caress until we found that long, intense release.

  As he slipped into sleep, I hugged him tightly and whispered.

  “You’ll be well again, my love.”

  I eased myself from Saber’s arms a little after three. After donning my nightclothes, I semi folded the comforter we’d kicked off on the foot-of-the-bed bench, gathered a wide-toothed comb, my saltwater-damp clothes, and the amulet from the bathroom, then padded to the front door to check the alarms. I could’ve sworn they were off, but on the panel, the green lights blinked their armed mode. When had Saber reset them?

  “He didn’t. I did.”

  I spun toward the voice, clasping my armload against my chest, and screeching a soft but solid C above high C. Snowball echoed me as Cosmil emerged from the shadowed kitchen.

  “Be calm. I mean no harm.”

  I wasn’t sure if he was speaking to Snowball or me, but my stuttering heartbeat slowed as I took in Cosmil’s hippie-grunge look of flip-flops, faded jeans, and a Grateful Dead T-shirt. His hair hung limp to his shoulders.

  “What in the name of marsh gas are you doing here?” I whispered, shooing him back into the kitchen so Saber wouldn’t be disturbed.

  “I came to talk and to retrieve the amulet for safekeeping, but do not worry. I only just arrived.”

  I blushed in the dark. “Well, thanks for that, but how did you get in? I’m positive the door was locked.”

  “I did not use the door,” he replied, calmly pulling out two chairs at my retro kitchen table. “I connected with your energy signature and transported myself on thought waves.”

  “Through the Veil?”

  “My short-distance version of it. Please, come sit. I know you have a few bones to pick with me.”

  “Hah. I have a whole skeleton of them.”

  “Then let us begin.”

  I peered at his sincere expression. Oh, hell, fine. I looked a mess with my unruly hair down, still damp, and sticking out all over, but my pink nightshirt fell to me knees. I was perfectly decent, so there was no point in straining my vampire vision by remaining in the dark. I pushed the microwave’s surface light that shone over the stove, then pried the amulet out of my cutoffs as I carried my clothes to the laundry room. Back in the kitchen, I plopped into the chrome and turquoise chair and slapped my comb on the table.

  “Here,” I said, passing the amulet to him.

  He turned it in his hands. “You used it on the trip.”

  It wasn’t a question, but I answered anyway. “Yes, to send a shot of protection when we were in a club.” />
  “This is good, Francesca.” He pulled a pouch from under his T-shirt and placed the amulet inside. Then he folded his hands on the table. “Will you give me an update on Triton?”

  I did, and Cosmil concurred that Starrack might well have hired the thugs.

  “What I don’t get,” I added, “is how Starrack knew about the amulets.”

  Cosmil sighed. “Regrettably, I mentioned the Mu amulet in my report to the Council. Starrack must have contact with one of the members. Perhaps a nymph,” he mused, “though I do not know how he learned of the second disk.”

  “Why does he want them? Just because they have powers?”

  “Because they can destroy darkness.”

  “Good thing Triton doesn’t have them in his ferns anymore.”

  Cosmil gave me an almost smile then shifted in his chair. “Francesca, Triton has told you something of his heritage, has he not? That because a spell I cast went awry, he was born.”

  I nodded and picked up the comb to start working the tangles from my hair. It might be bone-picking time, but I needed something to do with my hands besides make fists.

  “I can undo most errant magick, but not when conception results. To mitigate my mistake, I have watched over Triton since his birth. Pandora, too, though she was conceived in an entirely separate incident.”

  I shook the comb at him. “And in your watching, you’ve also interfered from time to time.”

  He inclined his head, conceding the point. “But only occasionally, when the need was great. A small spell influenced Triton to move home in a more timely manner.”

  “Another small spell kept my butt buried for more than two hundred years, didn’t it?” I jerked the comb through a massive tangle.

  “True, though you must see the entire picture.” Cosmil clasped his hands on the table. “When you were lost to the vampires, I feared for Triton’s sanity. You were his beloved friend, and he was wild with grief that he had failed you. He had heard tales of the atrocities the monsters committed before and after they Turned victims. If they Turned them at all.”

  I swallowed hard. Normand had declared me his heir, princess of his little fanged kingdom, and he’d sheltered me from many of the nest’s activities. Still, I’d heard the screams. Smelled the blood. Seen the helpless, empty expression of human captives like Isabella. Each newly Turned soldier or villager had radiated malevolence, blamed me for their predicament.