Just Wanna Testify (26 page)

The vamps unfolded from both sides of the limo, all long legs and red lips and more impossibly high-heeled shoes. They blinked and batted their eyes as if in reaction to some imaginary paparazzi only they could see, and smoothed their tiny little sparkling dresses down over where a normal person’s hips might be. In spite of the cool evening, not one of them wore a coat or wrap, and most of them flaunted their bare, bony shoulders without so much as a goose bump.

Blue moved forward to greet the vamps, who shook his hand, one after the other, fluttering in their birdlike way before allowing Henry to lead them back through the building so they could make their entrance into Club Zebra. Blue walked at the rear of the group beside Scylla, but neither acknowledged the presence of the other. There was no need.

“Ms. Mayflower,” Regina said, touching Serena’s elbow lightly. “I wonder if I might have a word with you?”

Serena glanced down the hall where Henry was in the lead and Scylla had moved slightly ahead of Blue, her long arms spread wide, making sure she didn’t lose any of her high-strung chicks in transit, then back to Regina. Blue had said his wife didn’t get a vote in these arrangements, but something in the tone of her request made Serena think that maybe he had forgotten to tell the woman that small detail.

“Of course,” Serena said, following Regina into a nearby ladies’ lounge and glancing at herself in the floor-to-ceiling mirror that took up one whole wall of the room. She saw Regina staring at her and turned away from her reflection. “You didn’t believe that old wives’ tale, did you?”

Regina ignored what probably passed for vampire small talk. “I want you to reconsider the arrangement you made with my husband.”

Serena gazed down at Regina with no discernible reaction.
People in hell want ice water
, she thought, remembering one of First Blood Mother’s favorite responses to whining. “Why should I?”

“Because I’m not prepared to let you swoop in here and take my husband back to fantasy island just because you don’t believe in the possibility of love anymore.”

The words elicited a long, low hiss from Serena. It sounded so reptilian, Regina half-expected a forked tongue to come flicking out from between Serena’s perfectly outlined red lips. She stepped back involuntarily.

“I wasn’t raised to believe in fairy tales.”

“Only ghost stories?”

Serena raised her eyebrows and frowned very slightly. She had no interest in pursuing this discussion. “I’m not prepared to debate my culture with you, Ms. Hamilton. If you’ve got something to say, I encourage you to take it up with your husband.” And she turned to go, one long arm reaching around Regina for the door.

“Wait!” Regina said quickly. “Please!”

Serena rippled her shoulders and gazed impassively at Regina, who took a deep breath.

“Here’s the thing,” Regina said. “I thought you vampires prided yourselves on your sense of honor.”

“And so we do,” Serena said, sounding annoyed. “Something you people always have a hard time trying to understand.”

Regina chose her words carefully. She didn’t relish the idea of chasing Serena down the hallway trying to get the deal done. “Look, I know all your experiences with men have been bad. I understand that. I know you all haven’t got one good-man story between you as far back as you can remember—a lot of my sisters are like that, too—but it doesn’t mean good men don’t exist. It just means there aren’t as many of them as we wish there were.”

“That’s understating the problem quite a bit, don’t you think?” Serena said with a low hiss.

“No, I don’t,” Regina said. “That’s the whole point. There are a lot of others like my husband.”

“Well, that’s lucky for you,” Serena interrupted Regina smoothly. “Since they are so plentiful around here, then you won’t mind when we borrow your husband for a while.”

Regina wanted to reach up and smack this
thing
across her bright red mouth, but there was too much at stake. She took another deep breath to steady herself.

“I didn’t say they were plentiful,” she said, “but as long as I see even one who can step up and change and grow, then I can believe in the possibility that they all can somehow find their way back home.” Regina paused and looked into Serena’s flat black eyes. “Imagine what that might be like.”

Serena felt a little thump in her chest. It was almost as if Regina had been reading her thoughts. She wanted men to find their way back home, too, but she didn’t even know where home was anymore. She knew it was time for a change, but what kind of change? And at what price?

“What if you didn’t have to kidnap them?” Regina continued softly. “What if you didn’t have to bite off their heads every couple of years just to be sure they’d never hurt you or abuse your daughters?
What if you could laugh and talk with them the same way you do with each other?”

“We tried that, Ms. Hamilton, and all we ever got for our troubles were broken hearts and black eyes.”

“The same way I do with Blue …”

Their eyes met, and for a second Regina felt she could glimpse some hint of woman-ness in those dark vampire pools.

Serena shook her head as if to clear it. “So what are you saying?”

“I believe there is still hope for men.” Regina looked at Serena. “And I think you believe it, too.”

Serena said nothing.

“In the contracts you drew up, the men needed one woman to speak up for them,” Regina said. “I want you to give my husband that same consideration. It’s the only honorable thing to do.”

Serena was surprised at the request. “Ms. Hamilton, I wouldn’t be very smart to make a deal like that, would I? Of course you’re going to speak up for your husband.”

“I’m not talking about me. I’m talking about
you.
”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean if Blue’s song can make you stand witness for the possibility of real love in this world, then you agree to leave all of us in peace and never come back.”

“Just the possibility?”

“That’s all it takes to change how you see the world, Ms. Mayflower. Just a possibility.”

“And if I remain unmoved by your beloved?”

Regina pulled herself up to her full five foot six inches. “Then I will behave as the wife of a hero and honor the commitments he has made. You can take them all.”

“Including Mr. Hamilton?”

“Yes.”

Serena couldn’t ask for a better deal than that. Even though Blue Hamilton was a prize, servicing a whole island full of females was a big job, and her willingness to trade five for one might make First
Blood Mother question her judgment on a mission that had already had its share of challenges. But bringing back the five she’d come for, along with a great big blue-eyed surprise would certainly earn her a place of permanent respect.

“You have a lot of faith in your husband’s powers of persuasion,” Serena said.

“I have absolute faith in all of my husband’s powers,” Regina said. “And I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the love between me and Blue is stronger than any undead thing you’ve got.”

Serena found Regina’s tone deeply offensive. She was almost glad to have any opportunity to show this woman who had the real power now.

“I’ve been told our emotions don’t register in a manner that you people can read. How will you know whether or not it worked?”

“I don’t think either one of us will have any doubts,” Regina said. “Do we have a deal?”

Serena held out her cool, dry hand. “We have a deal.”

From her seat at their table down front, Abbie watched Regina guide Serena expertly through the crowded club to the vamps’ table nearby. The other five were already seated, drinking the champagne their smitten fans kept sending over and posing for pictures whenever anybody got up the nerve to ask them, which wasn’t often. Mostly people just sort of hovered around and asked their friends to snap cellphone shots without ever risking actual contact with these strange, rippling goddesses. From a distance was close enough.

Abbie was waiting for a report. “I can’t believe Peachy sat us so close to them!” Aretha had slipped in beside Abbie and cast an accusatory glance at the vamps, who ignored them completely.

“Blue wanted us to be close to Regina, and Regina wanted the vamps to be close to Blue,” Abbie said, offering Aretha her cheek. “You do the math.”

Both women had independently chosen different shades of purple,
but the effect was so complementary, it looked as if they had planned it in advance. Abbie’s dress was almost violet with a high neckline and a long, full skirt with a bright orange sash. Aretha had on a pair of velvet pants in deep purple and a lighter purple silk tunic that draped off one shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” she said, giving Abbie a kiss and a quick hug. “I’m just a little nervous.”

“Don’t be,” Abbie said, tossing her head in a way that made her silver earrings dance. “I’m sure Regina has good news.”

“I’ve got some, too,” Aretha said. “
Essence
canceled the cover. They said they thought the look was too extreme for their readers after all, and I said I couldn’t agree more.”

“That’s wonderful!”

“I thought so,” Aretha said. “And they’re going to pay me for the job anyway, since it wasn’t my fault.”

Abbie grinned. “That’s what I was trying to tell you, remember?”

Regina, done with the Too Fine Five, hurried over to kiss Aretha hello and touch Abbie’s shoulder lightly as she took her seat.

“Well?” Abbie said. “What did she say?”

“She agreed to everything.”

Abbie and Aretha let out a huge sigh of relief that let Regina know how worried they had been.

“Did you tell Blue?”

Regina smiled. “He knows.”

Aretha glanced over at the vamps again. They were signing a poster for a wide-eyed young woman who backed away from them at the end of the exchange like she was leaving the presence of royalty. “Is he nervous?”

Regina and Abbie looked surprised at the question.

“Blue doesn’t get nervous,” Regina said.

Aretha raised her eyebrows with a skeptical smile. “Not even in the face of standing toe-to-toe with the undead?”

“He believes in the power of love,” Abbie said calmly.

Aretha tossed her head and adjusted the silver bangles on her arm. “I believe in the power of love as much as he does.”

“Then stop worrying,” Regina said, waving at Precious Hargrove, who was taking a seat across the room. “Everything is going to be fine.”

“Aren’t you nervous at all?” Aretha was watching Regina for telltale signs.

“Not even a little bit.”

“Because you believe in the power of love?”

Regina pulled her shawl a little tighter around her shoulders and thought about those stars on that Trinidadian beach. “Because I believe in Blue.”

“What do you mean
the plans have changed
?” Scylla turned her back on the others as they were talking to a couple who had approached them for an autograph. The woman had asked them about their dresses, and they were happy to plug the young designer as they had been trained to do.

“Mr. Hamilton is going to sing one of his famous love songs,” she said calmly, although she didn’t feel very calm. “If we are demonstrably moved by his performance, we give up all rights to him and to the boys.”

Scylla frowned. “We don’t get demonstrably moved. We’re vampires.”

“Exactly,” Serena said, realizing there was nothing to drink on the table but champagne. “Which means at the end of the song, we will easily remain unmoved and she will lose her wager.”

“She who?”

“Regina Hamilton,” Serena said, as if she had mentioned it earlier. “If I remain unmoved, we take Hamilton and all five of the boys home with us.”

Scylla cocked her head like an inquisitive bird. “That’s a sucker bet.”

“I told her we’d take it.”

“That’s because you’re the sucker,” Scylla hissed softly.

Serena frowned slightly but her voice stayed even. “What do you mean?”

“You said if
I
remain unmoved.”