Death of an Immortal (24 page)

The vampire recoiled with an inhuman scream. The creature seemed to be melting, crumpling into itself, until he appeared to be half his former size.

Jamie came to the monster’s side, lifted him as if he weighed nothing, and ran.

Within moments, the alley was empty. Father Harry lay on his back, staring into the sky. He thought he could see the glimmer of sunrise. He was alive. It was morning.

It was the dawn of a new day, and God was in his Heaven.

#

Horsham came to his senses a few blocks away from the church. He’d fed so much over the past few days that he was already healing. The damage was painful, but it would go away soon.

“Let me down,” he said.

Jamie released him and stared at him curiously.

“I’m all right,” he said. “That holy water was weak compared to that of my youth. Why did you run?”

“Can you not feel it?” she said urgently. “The sun is only minutes away.”

His sense of time rushed back, and he realized what danger they were in. He’d been so focused on finding Terrill that he’d lost track, like some baby vampire. Instead, this baby vampire had saved him.

They started running, and if any humans had been there to observe them, they wouldn’t have believed their eyes: two human shapes moving as fast as the swiftest car, flitting from shadow to shadow, showing only the barest outlines in the artificial lights.

They passed the Walmart parking lot, where the abandoned RVs were festooned with yellow crime scene tape. Obviously, the bodies had been found.

It is time to leave,
Horsham thought. He’d broken all the Rules: he’d fed where he lived, he hadn’t disguised the remains, he hadn’t chosen victims at random. They were in great danger.

They should leave that night. Let Terrill get away this time. Horsham would track him down another day. They were immortal, and time stretched on for eternity… as long as they didn’t make any stupid mistakes.

But the hate still burned in him. And, unexpectedly, he found that he’d enjoyed the confrontation with the priest. It reminded him of the old days, when vampires and priests had been locked in mortal combat. He’d like a rematch, he realized.

One more night,
he thought as they neared the motel. Terrill was close––he could feel it.
One more night to hunt, and then we’ll leave.

The sun came over the horizon, and the two vampires slowed so they could stick to the shadows. The final hundred feet to their room was in direct sunlight. Horsham shrugged at Jamie and started running for the door. The sun burned into his neck and hands and face, turning them black; they were smoking, nearly bursting into flame. And then he was through the door and Jamie was falling into the room behind him.

Half an hour later, a maid made the mistake of checking the room. Her flesh revived the two vampires, and they spent the rest of day in bed, screwing as if it was their last day on Earth.

Chapter 39

Terrill let his new friend, Perry, lead him away from the homeless shelter, but inwardly, he wondered why he bothered. He could keep running and hiding, but eventually Horsham would find him.

And then what? Would he fight his old friend? Over an evil deed that he himself was ashamed of? That he himself thought he deserved to be punished for? Perhaps what had happened to Mary called out for his own end, once and for all. Did he deserve to go on, year after year, not really a man and not really a vampire?

What am I?
Even as he thought this, his gorge rose and he found himself on his knees, puking up the red meat he’d gobbled. He looked down. It looked as though the meat was undigested, as though it had been completely rejected.

That was impossible. He needed raw meat to survive. It always came back to his need for blood. Oh, he might nibble at other foods and try to blend in. He’d thought for years that he could survive that way––that he could pretend to be human. But Jamie’s death had proven to him that the deadly vampire always lurked underneath, waiting for any chance to emerge. He was a danger to everyone around him.

Even if he chose to fight back against Horsham, what were the chances that he’d win? He’d taught Horsham well, and his disciple had no doubt learned much on his own over the past decades. He would have been motivated enough. Terrill felt his own weakness, his lack of willpower, and his unhealed wounds.

This was going to end only one way. He regretted that he hadn’t been able to help Jamie. Even more, he regretted that he’d brought death to this town despite his good intentions.

Perhaps it was time to give Horsham his satisfaction. Let him exact his vengeance.

Terrill looked at Perry, who was looking at the horizon worriedly.

“Don’t worry. If the sun catches me, everybody’s problems will cease.”

“Oh, really?” Perry said. “See, I don’t believe that. I don’t think anyone should give up.” He picked up the pace, and Terrill had to lengthen his stride to keep up. They reached the base of Pilot Butte. Flush against the hillside, there was a two-story house. It had a nautical theme, with a promenade on the second floor and round portholes along the side for windows.

Perry saw Terrill staring and laughed. “I’m only the second weirdest person in my family. But my sister’s weirdness made her rich.”

There was a turret on one end of the house, and what looked like an eagle or owl’s nest on top of it.

“Come on,” Perry said. “I have the key to the basement apartment unit. My sister keeps trying to get me to move in.”

On the far side of the house, built almost into the hillside, were steps leading downward, with a low, wide door at the bottom of them. As they stood in the dark stairwell, the sun suddenly splashed its light against the ground behind them. Despite himself, Terrill flinched.

Perry unlocked the door and swung it open, and motioned Terrill in. The vampire had to duck to get inside, but once past the doorway, he discovered that the ceilings were high and wide.
It looks like the lounge of an ocean liner,
thought Terrill, who had voyaged on the grand old ships long before airplanes had come along.

“Trudy invested in freightliners, container ships, and then later, luxury cruise ships,” Perry explained. “Not because she’s so damn smart, but because she absolutely loves ships. She got rich despite her mania.”

“Why does she live in Bend, then? Of all places?” The ocean was almost two hundred miles away.

“I told you, she’s weird,” Perry said. “And she spends most of her time on the ocean. This is her getaway. Make yourself at home.”

Terrill made his way to the long couch and sank into it gratefully.

A counter ran along one side of the room, and on the other side of it was what looked for all the world like a ship’s galley. Perry said, “You wanted some more of my homemade stew? I’ll get some started. It’ll settle your stomach.”

He went off the kitchen––
the galley
, Terrill corrected himself.

Later, with the bowl of stew in front of him, he took a sample taste. It shouldn’t have had any appeal to him whatsoever. Even the meat was wrong, overcooked by his standards. But only minutes later, he’d hungrily eaten all of it, even the carrots, the potatoes, and the greens. He asked for seconds.

Perry smiled. “I made a big pot. I always do.”

Terrill checked the state of his body. His wounds weren’t healing quickly, like a vampire’s, but slowly, like a human’s. The strength and speed he’d always possessed had mostly abandoned him. He felt weak, tired, and hungry, and yet he also felt strangely whole.

What was happening to him? He shouldn’t be able to eat human foods, or have a cross affixed to his body, and most of all, he shouldn’t have been able to enter a holy sanctuary.

He hadn’t wanted to hope, but he finally let himself ask the question that had been forming in the back of his mind for days.
Is it possible to become human again? After so many centuries?
Such a thing had never happened, as far as he knew. He remembered how Michael the Maker had been preoccupied with such questions before he’d disappeared, but Terrill had never taken them seriously.

He finished his second bowl of the stew, lay down on the couch, and fell instantly asleep.

Chapter 40

After the vampires fled, everyone congregated back in the church.

It appeared to Sylvie that Father Harry was trying to hold back his exhilaration. The tragedy would make such enthusiasm unseemly. But it was undeniable; the priest was a changed man. He’d always seemed kind of sad and subdued to Sylvie. She’d caught him several times expressing doubts about church doctrine.

Now, all doubt was gone. He was a man in his element.

Grime found Sylvie in the chaos and motioned for her to follow. “Would you like to find Terrill?”

Would she? Now that the question had been put to her, she realized she’d very much like to talk to Terrill. She nodded.

“Follow me,” Grime said. They went into the alley and turned to the right. Within a few paces, they were at the scene of her recent confrontation with the vampire who looked like her sister.

#

When she saw Jamie, Sylvie didn’t hesitate. She ducked under Father Harry’s arm, left the sanctuary of the church without looking back, and marched over to the vampire.

The vampire with Jamie’s face looked as if she wanted to flee, to be anywhere but in that alley.

Behind them, Father Harry and the other vampire were talking in loud voices, but Sylvie had eyes only for the vampire in the form of her sister.

They stared at each other, half strangers, half intimates.

“Are you still my sister?” Sylvie asked softly. “Do you have a soul?”

The vampire did her the honor of looking as if she was seriously considering her question.

“I don’t think so,” the vampire said, finally. “I have her memories. But they are already fading.”

Sylvie had been holding her crucifix in her hand, and now she brought it up abruptly to the face that looked like Jamie’s.

The vampire reared back, her fangs glistening, and hissed.

“I see,” Sylvie said. “You aren’t Jamie. You are a creature of darkness and of evil.”

“Yet God made me too, did he not? How do you explain that?”

“A test,” Sylvie said instantly. “Terrill has been trying to break away from his nature. He has been trying to show the way. Perhaps it is possible to redeem yourself, if you try.”

“Impossible,” the vampire in the shape of Jamie said. “I like what I have become, though the old Jamie would be horrified. You can’t imagine how it feels. I’m quicker and stronger than any human. I will live forever. Why would I give that up?”

“Have you killed?”

The vampire looked away, expressionless, and nodded slightly.

“You must leave here,” Sylvie said.

“Horsham is my Master. I will do as he asks, not you.”

“Do you seek to destroy Terrill? Do you want revenge?”

“Revenge? I’d thank him if I could. If I wanted revenge, it would be on Richard. No, it is Horsham who seeks to exact vengeance on Terrill. I have been vampire long enough to know that Terrill could not resist Turning me. Hell, he even warned me to leave, but I ignored him. Terrill will be destroyed, but it won’t be because I want it.”

“Perhaps it isn’t too late, Jamie,” Sylvie urged. “Repent. Give yourself to God. We will find a way.”

“No. I’m leaving. Should you ever see me again, don’t count on me being sentimental.”

Sylvie looked into her sister’s eyes and saw something other than Jamie staring back.

“I see. Then you are damned.”

“Yes,” the vampire said, sounding unconcerned. “I suppose I am.”

From behind them came Horsham’s voice. “Hold onto her, my baby vampire. I’ll need her for leverage.”

“No!” Jamie shouted back. “You won’t touch Sylvie! Not unless you kill me first!” She looked at Sylvie, and there was a hint of the old Jamie’s spirit there.

“Then I’ll kill the priest instead. Do you understand, girl? Tell me where Terrill is and I’ll let your priest go. You have no reason not to tell me––Terrill changed Jamie, made her a vampire. She’ll never be your sister again.”

Sylvie looked Father Harry in the eye. Her faith was, if anything, stronger than ever, and because of that she said, “Forgive me.”

“No need, Sylvie,” Father Harry said.

It was then that Grime emerged from the church and threw holy water on Horsham. Jamie seemed to disappear from in front of Sylvie. She caught a glimpse of the vampire who had once been her sister picking up her Master and running away down the alley.

#

Now, as she followed Grime to Terrill’s hiding place, Sylvie regretted her judgmental last words to her sister. She wasn’t sure what she would do when she found Terrill. But she had to know: Was it possible to become human again? To regain one’s soul through the grace of God, once it was lost?

It was a beautiful morning. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. In the bright sunlight, the vampires seemed like a bad dream. But darkness would come again, and with it, the vampires would return.

Grime led her toward Pilot Butte, taking side roads. He grabbed a newspaper off one of the driveways and glanced at the main headline before tossing it away. She almost said something, and then laughed at herself.
Good girl, Sylvie.
Even a fifty-cent theft disturbed her.

Grime knocked on the door of a basement apartment on the far side of a very strange-looking house. Perry answered and motioned them in.

Terrill was stretched out on the couch. He appeared to be barely breathing. His face was pale and he looked stressed, even though he was asleep.