The Vampire's Betrayal (13 page)

She laughed and puffed out a breath to make it fall again. I replaced the petal with another and said, “She loves me not.”

The rose petal fell and Connie floated closer, stroking my thighs. Her hair swirled around her on the surface of the water like a mermaid’s and her lashes shimmered with droplets of moisture. “She loves you,” she said.

I met her in the middle of the tub and we floated there, exploring each other with eager, oily hands. I cupped her breasts and kissed her, and she arched her back, presenting me with her lovely bare neck. I squeezed my eyes shut, pretending that I didn’t both see and feel the pulse at the hollow of her throat. She stroked me with her clever fingers, knowing just where to apply pressure, and I massaged all down her spine from her neck to the place where her bottom gave way to the back of her thighs.

Able to stand it no longer, I lifted her up and sat her on the side of the tub, her back against the tile wall. She raised her knees and wrapped her legs around my waist. Greased with bath oil, I entered her and she clutched my shoulders and urged me deeper, moaning softly. I rocked in and out of her, our movements making gentle lapping waves against the side of the tub. Her body was glossy in the candlelight, and I had to cup her derriere tightly so I wouldn’t lose my grip because of the slippery oil.

Her moans increased with our rhythm and I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer. When we came, an explosion of white light filled my vision, and I drew her back down into the water with me until our own internal waves had played out.

We held each other like that until the water cooled, saying nothing. Then we stepped out of the tub and Connie got us each a towel from the cabinet over the sink. We took turns drying each other carefully. She twirled her towel and popped me with it when I became too forward. “I’ve got to get all your nooks and crannies,” I insisted. “I don’t want you to have any greasy residue. How would those dress blues look with oil stains?” She tried to pop my thigh and I dodged the blow.

“I’m a detective now, remember? I wear plain clothes.”

“Darlin’, no clothes are ever going to be plain as long as you’re wearing them.”

“You fill out a mean pair of jeans yourself,” she said, brazenly staring at my package.

“Thank you kindly.”

I could tell she had some kind of witty comeback on the tip of her tongue when she glanced to the side and the grin died on her face. The fog had cleared from the mirror above the sink. Connie’s face in the looking glass registered a brief flicker of surprise when she realized that she was alone with a dead man who couldn’t cast a reflection. In the hairbreadth of time before she regained her composure, I could see the horror in her expression.

You know how sometimes you can’t get a song out of your head and it drives you crazy? With me, it was Shakespeare. Lines from
Romeo and Juliet
bumped off the walls of my cranium like steel pellets in the pinball machine of my brain, and I heard the words of Friar Laurence:

Lady, come from that nest

Of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep.

Just step away from the evil dead, ma’am,
he seemed to be saying.
He’ll be the death of you.
Not bad advice, I had to admit.

Connie took the towels and tossed them into the hamper, forcing laughter over some remark she made about the way her fingers were pruning. I pulled on my clothes as she did likewise with the pajamas she’d hung on the bathroom door.

“It’s late. I should go,” I said.

“Mmm-hmm,” she agreed.

On the way through the bedroom, I noticed that she’d forgotten to close the window. The sheer curtains were swaying in the chilled breeze. “I’ll just close this for you,” I said, shutting the window. As I did so, I noticed the vampire I’d seen earlier at Werm’s place standing under a streetlamp. He didn’t look as if he saw or sensed me; he only lounged against the post of the lamp idly smoking a cigarette.

“There’s another vampire out there, isn’t there?” Connie said.

Puzzled, I turned around. She leaned against the bathroom door frame, her damp hair swirling in corkscrew-shaped tendrils. There was no way she could see out the window from where she stood.

“How do you know?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Earlier, when I raised the window, I knew you were out there before I could even see you. That’s weird, isn’t it?”

“Weird.” More like terrifying. “Is tonight the first time you’ve noticed you can…sense when there’s a vampire around?”

“Yeah. Who knows, maybe I can sense when other people are around, too. Maybe I picked up some kind of extrasensory perception when I was in the underworld.”

“Right. Maybe so.”

“Do you know who it is?”

“I’ve seen him before. William knows him. I’ll go check him out and make sure he knows how to behave himself. It’s nothing to worry about.” It wouldn’t be when I got through with him. “Then I’ll head home.”

She looked wistful. “Do you think there’ll ever be a time when you’ll feel comfortable enough to tell me where you live, Jack?”

I tried to manage a smile. “One of these days.” I imagined the wisdom of telling a vampire slayer the whereabouts of my daytime resting place. Not in this lifetime. The thought hurt where my heart used to beat.

I hugged her again, hard, and left. On my way past the shrine, I looked at the Holy Mother. “Please help me,” I prayed silently, though I had no right to. She kept on looking down at her white flowing robes.

When I was on street level, I crept around the corner of the building and was able to sneak up on the loitering vampire. I slapped the cigarette out of his hand and threw him up against the lamppost so hard his head made a clanging sound against the wrought iron.

“Ow!” the vampire said. “What the hell?”

“Don’t you know it’s impolite to spy on a lady?” I asked.

“C’mon, man, I was just hanging out having a smoke.”

“Hanging out under my girlfriend’s window?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Like hell. Who are you?”

The blood drinker rubbed the back of his head.

“The name’s Freddy Blackstone. I’m a friend of Tobey’s, just passing through town. I met William tonight. He can vouch for me. Hey, you must be Jack.”

The vampire offered his hand and after a moment’s hesitation, I shook it. The guy looked harmless enough. He favored those beatniks you used to see in the fifties, all sloppy and unkempt in his hair, beard, and clothes. In fact, he reminded me of Maynard G. Krebs on the old Dobie Gillis show. Man, did that date me or what?

“Listen, buddy, you need to give my lady some space,” I said. “Understand?”

“Yeah, no problemo. Hey, I date human chicks all the time. You can’t be too careful with them, am I right? I’m just going to move on, bro. No harm, no foul, right?”

“Yeah. Sure.”

I watched him slouch off down the street and into the darkness. It seemed to be quite a coincidence that an itinerant blood drinker would just happen into town right when the vampire slayer was identified. And then, just by chance, out of all the haunts in Savannah, to get caught loitering around her apartment. I vowed to keep my eye on Freddy. Like he said, you just couldn’t be too careful.

Another fear nagged me, though. Something was on the tip of my brain and I hadn’t connected the dots yet. If Freddy knew about Connie, then how? From Tobey? Had William told Tobey and the others? Would he?

A wave of nausea hit me. Of course he would tell them, all of them. And he would do it tomorrow night. They needed to know about the threat to their lives and to their clans. And then it would be open season on Connie. Any one of them could and would try to kill her before she started killing us. How had I ever imagined that the only one I had to protect her from was William?

I looked up at Connie’s apartment, which was dark now. I couldn’t guard her twenty-four/seven, although the thought of sticking around until the sun came up and fried me to a piece of charcoal was not without its appeal.

Nine

William

Tobey and Iban were at my home as promised shortly after sundown. Jack, looking uncharacteristically grim, arrived a few moments later with Werm in tow.

Iban Cruz, a director of noir movies, had the courtly manners of the Spanish aristocrat he was. He bowed low and kissed Melaphia’s hand when we greeted our guests in the foyer. “Thank you again for my life,” he said in his lovely accent.

Melaphia curtsied and thanked him for the many gifts of imported delicacies, clothing, flowers, jewelry, and spirits he had sent. “They were not necessary, but very appreciated,” she said.

A short time ago, Iban had been stricken with a rotting plague, and only the pure voodoo blood from Melaphia’s veins could save him. The process was not pretty, and it had been a heroic effort on her part, one for which Iban would be eternally grateful.

“The gifts are mere trifles,” he assured her. “Always know that if you ever need me, I’ll be here as soon as the sun and air travel will allow. I am forever your servant.”

“I can’t get over his recovery,” Tobey remarked.

Indeed, Iban looked remarkable when one recalled how the rotted flesh had been falling from his bones not so long ago. Now he appeared completely normal. That was, if you called his striking dark looks normal. Melaphia told me once that Iban’s looks put her in mind of an actor of some note named Antonio Banderas.

“I can’t get over the change either,” Jack remarked.

“I don’t mind telling you, buddy, you looked like a guy whose face caught fire and somebody tried to put it out with a hatchet.”

Iban laughed. “That was most vivid, Jack. But thank you. I think.”

“Tobey, were you able to contact Travis?” I asked.

“I’m sorry, but no. I notified some key people in the western clans to keep an eye out for him and ask him to get in touch with you as soon as he can. Maybe we’ll hear from him soon.”

I was disappointed that we would be without Travis’s counsel, but evidently not as disappointed as Jack, who seemed most disturbed by the news that our Native American friend would not be joining us.

“Are Gerard and Lucius coming?” Iban asked.

“We’re going to teleconference them in, as well as Olivia, of course.”

Iban and Tobey represented the vampire clans of the West and Pacific Northwest, and Gerard Bouchard the plains and the Midwest. Lucius Dru, an art dealer headquartered in Manhattan, covered the Northeast and mid-Atlantic. Jack and I were the heads of the few blood drinkers in the South and as far west as Texas. Travis covered the southwest and Central and South America.

The vampires of the Americas were an ethnically eclectic mixture of the descendants of ancient indigenous blood drinkers and those whom I had imported by ship from the old world. These last were what Jack referred to as the “Draculas” or the “Count Dracs” because of their often old-fashioned European ways and manners.

One thing all these vampires had in common, however, was a peaceful philosophy. Except for a handful of rogues we’d had to dispose of over the years, the vampires of the New World had adopted a code of nonviolence toward the human population. Feeding on humans was allowed as long as no permanent injury was done and the mortal involved was either a willing swan or someone whose short-term memory could be altered to ensure the act was immediately forgotten. However, our policy of benevolence did not preclude the occasional act of vigilante justice when it was warranted.

Until recently, there was only a loose alliance among the vampires of the New World, dubbed “Bonaventures” by Olivia, who was the leader of the peaceful blood drinkers of Europe. But since we collectively saw Reedrek’s recent arrival in Savannah as a sign of the old lords’ resurgence, all of us had been communicating more often and formulating plans for mutual defense. The old lords had formed a council with the goal of world domination. Their aim was to use us to eventually turn all humans into blood drinkers, over whom they would rule with an iron fist.

Jack, who had been unusually silent so far, asked Tobey about the racing business and Tobey launched into a discussion of his latest exploits on the West Coast night stock-car racing circuit.

Jack still looked a little pained whenever Tobey’s career was mentioned, even though he was the one who usually brought it up. Jack’s most treasured dream was to be an automobile racer, and he’d turned several shades of green when he discovered I’d helped Tobey achieve his goals. I think on some level Jack still resented me for that.

I settled us all in the formal parlor, where Deylaud had built a pleasantly crackling blaze in the fireplace. Renee came downstairs briefly to greet our guests. Iban received a particularly warm welcome because of the myriad gifts he’d showered on her recently. “I love you, Uncle Iban,” she cooed, kissing his cheek. We all had a gentle laugh at her transparency.

“She’ll have you buying her diamonds and pearls before long,” I assured Iban.

“That’s quite all right with me,” he said.

“Me too!” Renee agreed, to another round of laughter.

“Why don’t you go with Deylaud and have him help you with your literature assignment. You’ve got some work to do to catch up on your studies.”

With good-bye hugs for all of us, she followed Deylaud and Reyha upstairs to my library, which had somehow evolved into her schoolroom.

“I was so relieved to hear that you got her back safely,” Tobey remarked.

“And I as well,” Iban said. “William, Tobey told me about the matter with Eleanor. Please accept my condolences. I’m so sorry that…eliminating her became necessary.”

“Thank you,” I said quietly. “You’re very kind.” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jack fidgeting. Werm, for his part, looked both shocked and puzzled but said nothing, evidently sensing the tension in the air. I’d told him that Eleanor was dead, but he had had no idea that I’d killed her myself until now. That reminded me of the reason for the meeting.

Melaphia nodded when she had finished testing the telephone links to Olivia, Gerard, and Lucius.

“I called this meeting,” I began, “because information has come to light that we all need to know. We are all aware of bits and pieces, but it’s time to make sure that each of us is armed with the complete facts. After all, knowledge is power.”