Last Vampire Standing (12 page)

High above the wind-whipped whitecaps, I stood quaking in my sneakers on the temporary bridge spanning Matanzas Bay, the one in use while the old Bridge of Lions was being rebuilt. Sure, I was safe on the pedestrian walkway—for now—squarely behind concrete barricades topped with strong metal railings. But I wouldn’t be high and dry for long, not if I went through with this lunacy.

“Guys, for the last time, I am
not
taking a flying leap off this bridge. Somebody’s watching. I can feel it, and they’re going to report me as a jumper.”

Saber put an arm around my shoulders and huddled the three of us closer so he didn’t have to shout over the wind.

“Cesca, it’s nearly two in the morning. There is no traffic right now, so we won’t alarm drivers. Plus I called the city police and the sheriff’s office to tell them we’re conducting an experiment.”

“In what? Doing belly busters off the bridge?”

“You’re not going to fall, honey. You’re going to fly.”

“Besides, Highness, you’re the one who insisted we practice over water.”

“I didn’t mean from a million feet in the air.” Another strong gust blew, and I death-gripped the railing. “Why can’t I jump off something shorter?”

“Like what?” Saber asked.

“Like a curb,” I snapped.

“My lady, you have to be high enough to catch the up-drafts,” Jo-Jo said.

I could tell his patience was waning, but me jump off the bridge? Not in this afterlife. Saber rubbed his forehead. “I have an idea.”

“Oh, goody, another one?”

“Jo-Jo, how much weight can you carry when you fly?”

“Saber,” I said, partly objecting to another scheme, and partly to insist that someone watched us.

“Are you thinking I should take the Princess up for a test spin? Like a tandem parachute jump?”

“Exactly. Can you do it?”

Jo-Jo looked uncomfortable. “I can if Highness will allow me the liberty of touching her person.”

Both men looked at me.

“Face and conquer your fear, honey,” Saber challenged.

I hate it when he’s right, and short of making a dash for freedom, I was stuck on the damned bridge. For the moment. I squared my shoulders. “Fine. How do you want to do this, Jo-Jo?”

“Let’s give the piggyback position a go.”

He crouched, and Saber gave me a boost onto Jo-Jo’s bony back. It was like mounting a malnourished horse. I feared I’d slide right off, but Jo-Jo hooked his arms under my legs.

“Good, Princess. Now put your arms around my neck while I climb up and test my balance with you on my—aargh,” he croaked.

“Arms. Too. Tight.”

I loosened my hold on his neck, then slid off his skinny back when he arched to rub his throat. Attempt aborted, which was fine by me. I still felt watched, and the watcher was creeping closer.

I peered into the shadows, even used my vamp vision, but saw nothing. I didn’t smell anything either—like Gorman’s foul breath—

but I wouldn’t if the lurker was downwind. Should I alert Saber?

“Cesca, pay attention,” Saber hollered and tipped his head toward Jo-Jo, who gave his abused neck one last rub.

“By your leave, my lady, I’ll hold you in front of me. You’ll be able to feel the liftoff better from this position anyway. May I demonstrate?”

I shrugged, and he stepped behind me. His arms around my rib cage, he told me to start walking with my right foot.

“You won’t take off without warning me, right?” I yelled over my shoulder.

He shook his head, so I stepped when he did. One. Two. Three.

“Good, Princess. Now we do it for real.”

“We’re not going to climb on the rails?”

“No. Hold on.”

His leg nudged mine.

One step. Gulp.

Two steps. Eek.

Three steps. Panic.

My rubbery legs suddenly locked, and I dug the heels of my tennis shoes into the concrete. Jo-Jo tripped over me, and we stumbled forward like a couple of stooges.

“Are you all right, Princess?” Jo-Jo asked when we’d righted ourselves, his arm still curled around my waist.

“Fine, and I’m sorry. Really. I’m just positive someone is watching.”

At that moment, a flash of golden fur landed smack in front of us, and a brain-rattling
“rrryyow”
rent the night. Jo-Jo screamed,
“Aaaiiieeee,”
tightened his hold around me, and vaulted away from Pandora. Next thing I knew, I was dangling from Jo-Jo’s crooked arm, ten feet away from the bridge and a hundred feet over dark, churning water.

NINE

010

I froze, my limbs spread-eagled like the cartoon flying squirrel, my right arm plastered against something warmer than sheer air. As my afterlife flashed before my eyes, one coherent thought persisted: Flying was
so
not like surfing. On the upside, I wasn’t thrashing and flailing in hysterics. No, because I was far too angry.

“Why the
hell
did you do that?” I screamed at Pandora.

To get you off the ground,
she answered in my head, paws on the barricade, regarding me with a feline smirk.

“A th-thousand pardons, Princess,” Jo-Jo yelled. “I’ll put you down as soon as that panther leaves.”

“Wait, Cesca, stay calm.” Saber held his hands out as if to soothe me, but he was struggling not to laugh. “Jo-Jo, as long as you’re out there, you might as well fly a couple of laps around the bridge.”

“No, Saber,” I yelled. “No lapping.”

“Honey, I swear I’ll make this up to you. Just do it.”

“Just do it? Since when am I a freaking poster girl for Nike?”

“It’s the best chance you’ll have to get a real feel for flying, Cesca. Seize the opportunity.”

“Grrrr,” I said, stiffening more when Jo-Jo grunted and his arm began to tremble. I craned my neck to look up at him. Maybe his face seemed more ashen because of the bridge lights, but his expression of horror was real.

“I-I’m truly sorry for not warning you before I jumped, Highness.”

“Forget it. Pandora surprised both of us. I’ll deal with her when we land.”

Humph,
Pandora huffed.

“Does that mean I should do as your consort asks? Fly a few laps?”

“Might as well. Just don’t drop me, okay?”

“Never, Highness, but would you kindly remove your elbow from my crotch.”

Now I was fuming
and
flaming with embarrassment. Great.

We started slowly, with an easy loop from one end of the bridge to the other. Except for feeling like a piece of luggage under JoJo’s arm, the experience wasn’t bad. He kept up a patter of vampire flight control tips that helped me relax, and he even talked me into touching down on the roof of a motel on the island side of the bridge.

When he’d readjusted our positions into what he called a skater hold, I thought
levitate
for all I was worth. We took off again to make a short circuit around the bay, and I imagined we were skimming on the wind. Astounding but true, I actually supported my own weight part of the way. Not a solo flight, but it was progress.

Not that I was going to admit the thrill of victory to Pandora—or Saber either. Not with that big told-you-so grin on his face. As soon as Jo-Jo gently lowered both of us to the bridge walkway, Saber grabbed me for a hug and a smacking kiss.

“I knew you could do it, Cesca. Good work, Jo-Jo.”

I smacked Saber back, in the shoulder with my fist.

“We wouldn’t have been out there if we hadn’t been am-bushed. Did you know Pandora was skulking up the bridge?”

Saber crossed his arms. “No, I did not. I would’ve warned you if a two-hundred-pound cat that I don’t trust was about to pounce.”

“There is that.”

I patted the shoulder I’d hit and turned to eye Pandora, who gazed back with a bored expression. She had morphed to a house cat size and draped herself on the top rail of a barricade a few feet away, nonchalant as you please.

“All right, Pandora,” I said with hands on my hips and a rein on my temper. “Why did you scare Jo-Jo?”

“Yeah, that wasn’t sporting at all,” Jo-Jo scolded. Guess he felt braver with Pandora in her small form. Pandora shrugged.
It is imperative that you claim this power, and it was merely expedient to startle you both.
I dismissed her tone and focused on her choice of words.

“Why is it imperative that I learn to fly, and what do you know about it, anyway?”

She leveled me with her golden gaze.
You and Triton must master your individual powers before you may come together.

“Come together for what?”

Pandora shook her head, rose, and arched her back in a long stretch.
I have said enough, but trust me in this. You must
practice your powers, vampire princess. Else Triton and all you love may be lost.
With that, Pandora sprang from the railing and pranced off toward town.

“Cesca, you want to give us a translation?”

I glanced at Saber. “She said I have to master my powers.”

“I’ve been telling you the same thing, but why is a shape-shifter interested in your powers?”

I started to answer him but thought better of mentioning Triton with Jo-Jo there. “That’s where it gets fuzzy.”

The rain started as we walked home. It wasn’t a downpour, but Jo-Jo decided to fly ahead to his motel, saying he’d never get the stink out of his leather pants if they got too wet.

Saber and I arrived at my cottage soaked and chilled, but a steamy romp in the shower warmed us. Never mind snuggling in my king-size bed.

At just after four in the morning, Saber fell asleep. I spooned with him, listening to the wind rattle palm fronds and blow sheets of rain at the windows.

Saber had noticed I semi-flew on my own and praised me, but hadn’t quizzed me again about my conversation with Pandora. That was a relief, because, honestly, I didn’t know what to make of it myself.

How were Triton and I supposed to come together—with or without mastering our powers—when he was being all mysterious and stealthy? What powers did he still need to master, and for what purpose should we come together? To defeat whatever bad thing was after Triton? Had to be, because we sure weren’t going to come together in any personal way. That ship had sailed a couple of hundred years ago.

And to pose another question, why was Pandora involved with Triton at all? Or with me? She’d shown up in March, the night Gorman had first threatened me, and had kept popping up when least expected until the night she pinned the French Bride killer to the ground. I hadn’t seen her in the four months since then, and had stopped expecting to see her. Now Jo-Jo had shown up, which was, admittedly, a new turning point in my afterlife. A day later, here came Pandora again. Coincidence? I thought not, but what was our connection? Was Pandora my furry, infuriating guardian angel?

Angel. Right. And Jo-Jo would be a star by the next full moon.

When the phone rang at eight on Tuesday morning, I jack-knifed off the sofa, the mystery novel in my hand sailing across the room.

“Cesca, are you making it through the storm all right?” Maggie asked through the phone line static. I glanced at the dark skies punctuated with jagged lightning.

“I’m snug. How about you?”

“The same, but I’m glad we laid in hurricane supplies. This storm may be upgraded.”

Uh-oh. I’d survived storms before, but most of them from the coffin under Maggie’s house.

“How bad is it supposed to get?”

“A Category One at the strongest. Come on over if you’ll feel more secure here.”

“I will if Saber doesn’t stick around while I sleep.”

“Well, tell him I’m working from home today. I’ll leave the back door unlocked in case you two want to dash over here.”

“Thanks, Maggie. Is Neil there? Do you want company?”

“No and no, but thanks. If I can reach my supplier in Texas, I might be able to nail down the kitchen tile for that Palatka bungalow project before Neil and I go on our vacation.” She paused. “Oh, and Cesca, if you’re on the tour schedule for tonight, you’d better check with them before you go out.”

“I’m off the schedule until Thursday.”

“What? The workaholic is taking two whole days off? What will you do with yourself?”

I laughed. “I don’t know yet.”

“Well, if you’re doing it with Saber, have fun.”

We disconnected just as the power flickered, then failed.

I picked up my book, marked my spot, and tiptoed into the bedroom to curl up with Saber. I awoke at four in the afternoon with the still-gray day looming outside, but the wind and rain seemed to have subsided. When I wandered to the kitchen, Saber was on the phone taking notes and saying “Uh-huh,” a lot. Since he used the cordless house unit instead of his cell, I deduced the power was back on.

Must not have been on for long, though. When I reached in the fridge for a Starbloods, the bottle was cool but not as icy cold as I drink it.

I transferred one bottle to the freezer, set the egg timer so I’d take it out before it froze, and shamelessly listened to Saber’s end of the conversation.

“And no one else from the Atlanta nest has left the area? The GPS implants are accounting for every one of them?”

Aha! He must’ve reached the VPA agent in Atlanta.

He was quiet a moment, then nodded. “All right, thanks. Let me know if you dig up anything else.”