The Vampire's Betrayal (2 page)

As I stood and wondered which way to go and what to do, it struck me how great things had been just a few hours ago. Connie and I had just had sex for the first time. The earthmoving, toe-curling, eyes-rolling-back-in-your-head variety of sex as a matter of fact. And I was as close as a bloodsucker can come to cloud nine. Then I’d realized that the lovemaking was Connie’s way of saying good-bye. By the time I figured out what she’d done and where she’d gone, it was almost too late to follow.

Oh, hell. If I was going to find Connie before she got too far away from me in this darkness there was no way around making enough noise to let her know where I was—and wake the dead at the same time, no doubt. “Connie,” I called. Immediately I sensed that I had the full attention of the other citizens of the underworld. They thought I was calling
them.
To
me.

Oh. My. God.

I suddenly remembered my little gift, as William liked to call it. I was so focused on getting to Connie I’d forgotten the effect I have on dead people. Dead people other than myself, that is. Ghosts, zombies, and everything in between. It’s like they’re attracted to me. Hell, they love me. Jack McShane, corpse whisperer.

Savannah’s full of dead people, and not just in the cemeteries. The city’s history is full of wars, piracy, great fires, epidemics, you name it. In battle, people were buried where they fell. In the fires and yellow fever epidemics, their bodies were burned and their ashes scattered to the four winds. Brigands and cutthroats robbed and killed men unlucky enough to cross their paths and the bodies were stashed in the tunnels under the city and in hidey holes along the riverbanks.

Those spirits reach out to me as I go about my business by night. They reach out for solace, for confession, for someone to talk to. This doesn’t happen to other vampires, and I don’t know why it happens to me. What can I say? I’m a popular guy.

Now the dead were coming toward me from all sides. Something bony grasped my shoulder, and I shook it off. Something wispy and filthy-smelling brushed my hip, and I stepped away. I was being surrounded, and I wasn’t going to hang around to see what they would do to me when they got me completely hemmed in. I sensed that this bunch wanted more than conversation.

Since I couldn’t locate Connie anywhere around, I did what any sensible guy would do. I ran.

I ran blindly, bouncing off demons so fast I felt like I was a ball bearing in the devil’s pinball machine. Once in a while, something howled in pain and rage or something else made a grab for some part of me, but I kept going. Right until a solid form landed on my back and rode me to the ground like it was fixin’ to calf-rope me.

Whatever it was had a familiar scent. A good scent, but not Connie’s. This was someone freshly dead. I decided it was lavender I smelled. The thing eased up on me just enough to flip me over to face her.

“Eleanor?” I gasped. “What in hell are you doing…in hell?” In response, she hauled off and punched me on the chin with every bit of her vampiric strength. The last thing I remember thinking was that old saying about how there’s nothing like a woman scorned.

Two

William

“What are you talking about?” I tried to keep the emotion from my voice. “Why must Connie stay in the underworld?”

“She has unfinished business. A few years ago her ex-husband murdered their child in front of her and then turned the gun on himself.”

In my bloodthirsty days as a fledgling vampire, I visited enough cruelty on humanity to burn in hell for a thousand lifetimes. But as hardened as I was to mortal suffering it still filled me with horror to think of what Connie had gone through.

Melaphia continued, “When Connie realized at Sullivan’s funeral that Jack can communicate with the dead, she wanted him to help her—but not just to serve as a medium like he did for Iban.”

“She wanted Jack to take her to see her dead child?”

“Yes. She demanded that he take her to the underworld. Not only to make sure that her child was in a good place, but to make sure her ex-husband was in a bad place.”

The more she talked, the more lucid Melaphia sounded, but I had no time to appreciate it. “But he didn’t agree to it,” I said, remembering Mel’s earlier admission of culpability. “Tell me what happened.”

“He refused her. That’s when she came to me. By that time, I had performed some rituals to try to figure out what she is and what she was put here to do. I told her about the first revelation, that she is a goddess of the Maya.”

“The
first
revelation?” Something tingled along my spine.

“For the rest I had to consult the most sacred of texts. It took me weeks, but I finally connected the dots. William, Connie is the vampire slayer who was prophesied by both my people and the Maya thousands of years ago. When two or more different cultures as mighty as these have the same prophecy, that which is prophesied is a virtual certainty.”

“How can you be sure it’s Connie?” My mind raced with the implications.

“There’s too much to go into right now. But the clincher was the birthmark. Connie has a sun birthmark that matches the ancient drawings exactly. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.”

I thought back to the conversation I overheard between Diana and Ulrich.
For all we know, the Slayer may already be among us.
Even the dark lords didn’t know for sure. But Melaphia did. “I take it you didn’t tell her that she’s the Slayer.”

“Of course not. She doesn’t even know what a slayer is, as far as I know. But she’s bound to discover it at some point. That’s why I agreed to help her reach the underworld, and that’s why she has to stay there. Her kind are sworn to kill you and Jack. I hate for her to be trapped in that place, but I had to protect my fathers. I never meant for Jack to follow her. He wasn’t even supposed to find out where she’d gone. But he found us just as I’d finished the ritual and Connie crossed over.”

“How did he manage to follow her? Jack doesn’t know how to cross that boundary by himself.”

“He didn’t do it himself. He called on Loa Legba.” Melaphia broke down in sobs. She obviously blamed herself for teaching Jack enough about voodoo to summon the god to whom Maman Lalee had assigned him. “I taught him just enough to be dangerous,” Melaphia said.

Maman Lalee was a voodoo queen so powerful that she could hasten the souls of the dead on the way to the underworld. She had been my ally from the time I’d first arrived on these shores, and Melaphia was her descendant. When it became clear that the peaceable New World vampires were headed for battle with the most evil of ancient blood drinkers, Melaphia had agreed that we should increase our powers by appealing to the gods of her religion. Channeling Lalee, Melaphia had directed each of my family to pray to a specific god or goddess of the voodoo pantheon. Jack, with his gift of communication with other dead beings, was assigned to appeal to Loa Legba, the god of the portal to the underworld, among other things.

I put my arms around Melaphia and comforted her as I had when she was a child. “That’s our Jack,” I said. “As resourceful as always, and just as pigheaded.” And as brave, I thought. Like the mythic Orpheus, he had gone to rescue his Eurydice.

“The portal opened for him,” Melaphia said and sobbed. “And then he was gone.” She looked up at me with pleading eyes and called me by the title she hadn’t used since she was a child. “What are we going to do, Father? How are we going to get him back?”

“I’ll go get him myself. I went to the underworld and made it back safely once. I can do it again.” I tried to imbue my voice with more confidence than I felt, but Melaphia’s look of horror let me know that I wasn’t convincing.

“No! What if you both got stuck there? Who would protect Renee and me and all the other people who depend on you?”

As much as I hated to admit it, I knew that she was right: Jack and I both being trapped in another dimension was a strong possibility. Even if Melaphia was able to manifest Lalee, they might not be powerful enough to release us both from the grip of the underworld.

“You’re right,” I said, “I wasn’t thinking.”

Melaphia released a pent-up breath, but the furrow of worry still creased her forehead. “Do you think that if all of us who practice the religion were to come together to entreat Loa Legba, he would send Jack back to us? We don’t have Jack’s bond to him, but maybe he would hear us if we banded together.”

“It’s worth a try. My only worry is that opening the portal would allow other entities through to our world.”

“Bad entities, you mean?”

“Yes. But it’s the best idea we have. As a precaution, why don’t you consult your sacred books to see if you can find any information on how to banish the unwanted back to the underworld? I’ll go and find Werm.”

“Can’t you summon him through your bond between sire and offspring?”

“Unfortunately, Jack has cleverly taught Werm how to block my thoughts,” I explained with slight bemusement. “That young man must enjoy his privacy because I haven’t been able to reach his mind since shortly after I made him…unless he expressly wished it.”

Melaphia stepped back and smoothed her hair, done up in the style she called dreadlocks. I could see that she was gathering her mental strength for the work ahead. I was glad to see her acting more like herself. I just hoped it lasted. I needed her knowledge and power as never before.

“Werm has his own business now,” she said. “It’s a bar. A goth bar.” Melaphia told me the address and I turned to leave.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

I turned to face her. “For what?”

“For letting this happen.”

“Don’t blame yourself. Even if I had been here, I don’t believe I could have stopped Jack from following Connie.”

As I went back out into the night, I thought about the way the events of the last few weeks had spiraled out of control faster than I could repair them. For the first time in ten human lifetimes I was beginning to fear for my humans and my kind.

As for myself and my own safety, I cared no more than I ever had. Especially now that I had lost my Eleanor forever. Whatever essence of her might be left in some far-off dimension, I wished her as much peace as could be had there.

Jack

When I came to, Eleanor had her hands clamped around my throat, squeezing for dear life. When you’ve been a vampire only a short time, you forget what it takes to hurt one of your own kind. If she meant to kill me, this wouldn’t do the trick.

I brought my forearms upward and broke her hold on my neck. “Seriously,” I rasped. “What are you doing here, and why are you trying to choke me? Aren’t you supposed to be in England?”

In the dimness I saw a fiendish glow in her dark eyes that had never been there before. This thing hovering over me might look like her, but it wasn’t the Eleanor I knew.

“Do I look like I’m in England?” She drew back a fist to hit me again, but I rolled off to the side and scrambled to my feet. The other creatures had drawn back, as if they were giving this one a wide berth.

“William destroyed me,” she hissed.

She crouched and circled me like a lady wrestler waiting to pounce on her opponent. She was naked and I saw to my revulsion that her formerly beautiful skin had turned scaly. It was like she was morphing into a snake to match the tattoo on her torso.

As I looked her up and down she followed the direction of my gaze. “How do you like what’s happening to me?” she asked. She touched her belly lightly with her hand as if she could hardly stand the texture of her own skin. “It’s Satan’s little prank. The girl turns into her own tattoo.”

“I can’t believe William destroyed you. He was crazy about you. He made you for himself.”

“Like God made Eve for Adam,” she said bitterly.

“What
I
can’t believe is that I
sold my soul
for that bastard.” She lunged, connecting with my midsection and sending me sprawling back. She was on top of me again before I could get on my feet. I put my hands against her shoulders and pushed her, and she landed on her still-shapely bottom a few feet away.

“I take it he staked you for double-crossing him and helping to kidnap Renee.”

She lunged again, and I sidestepped her. “He drank my blood. All of it.”

“Is—is this what happens when a vampire gets killed, um, again, I mean?”

“Yeah, Jack. This is what’s in store for you. Take a good look at me.”

It’s not easy for anybody to face down their own mortality, especially vampires, since we’re extra hard to kill. But there’s a trade-off for potentially eternal life. If somebody does manage to kill you, it’s go directly to hell. Do not pass go. Do not collect two hundred dollars. So we vampires don’t talk much about death unless we’ve been gravely threatened, no pun intended.

“As vampires we’ve lost our souls to begin with,” Eleanor spat. “When we are destroyed for the final time, we’re considered to be the most doomed of the damned.”

“What about Shari? She didn’t turn into—whatever it is that you are.”

“She never made it to being a vampire, thanks to you and whatever curse to women is on you.”

Her words stung. My failure to make Shari a vampire had doomed her to this demonic realm until William—with Lalee’s help—had sent her on her way to a better place. “So you’re the worst of the damned. Is that why all these other…things…are afraid of you?”

“Yeah. And it’s why you should be, too. I’m a
real
demon now.”

She flew at me like she had wings. I ducked and struck upward with both fists, catching her in the stomach and causing her to somersault into the gathering crowd of ghouls behind me. Collectively, they didn’t seem as afraid of her. They grasped her with bony, clawed fingers and raked at her flesh.

While they were all distracted, I took off running again, Eleanor’s screams echoing behind me. I began to feel a little better as I opened the distance between me and the demons. Then, very quickly, I felt worse. The darkness was giving way to a thick mist. I still couldn’t see where I was going, but now I sensed an oppressiveness that hadn’t been there before. I started to feel like I was a deep-sea diver without a pressure suit. My surroundings were squeezing out what life there was in me. I dropped to my knees and my body started to cramp like an athlete whose muscles have run out of oxygen.