The Vampire's Seduction (36 page)

“Under there,” she said. “Hurry. I feel like I’m on fire.”

I lifted the marble slab off the top of the tomb and set it aside. With my unusually sharp night vision, I saw a set of earthen steps leading straight downward. I took Olivia’s hand and started down. By the time we reached bottom, there was no doubt which direction would lead us to William.

We would simply follow the screaming.

I knew this screaming. This was the pitiable, ungodly, otherworldly shrieking of a creature in the throes of becoming a vampire—or dying in agony in the attempt. What the hell was happening?
First Reedrek and William go hunting and now they’re making vampires? What’s next?
The image of the California coast came to me again. Maybe I could hijack Tobey’s truck. Hell.

The shaft of moonlight behind us was gone, but up ahead a new light was feeding our eyes. A vampire’s eyes are like a cat’s. We can’t see in complete darkness, but we can take the most feeble light source and multiply it like those night-vision goggles they show on TV. As we neared the source, I knew what it was. I could feel the heat from it: a torch. An actual old-fashioned torch, the kind the angry villagers carried in the Frankenstein movies. I don’t know how I knew but I knew. It was like I was walking straight into a monster movie—the story of my life—and I didn’t know if I was a good guy or one of the monsters.

Now that was just sad.

We found ourselves going around a bend in the passageway. A few steps later we were standing in an opening—a room for lack of a better word—one step above black oily water. My mouth went dry at what I saw, and something near my unbeating heart clenched. I instinctively began to take a step backward, but I made myself hold my ground and put myself between Olivia and . . . them.

William lay on a table, covered almost completely by a large block of stone, his mouth, neck, and chest caked with blood. His arms were tethered straight out from his shoulders. Behind him, sagging against the chains that fastened him to the stone wall, was my own personal little stalker, Werm, blessedly silent, but only for a short while I was sure. A severed head rested on a shelf like a mushy hood ornament. Whew! The combined smells of stagnant marsh water, ozone from Werm’s changing corpse, and burnt flesh—vampire flesh—made my stomach do an uneasy flip-flop.

In the foreground, looking every bit the demon in his black suit with his bloody fangs standing out against a bone-white face, was Old Stinky himself, Reedrek. He swept his arm upward and outward, as if welcoming Olivia and me into a grand home instead of into a nightmare.

“My children,” he said. “You have come to me at last.”

William

“What in the living hell is going on here?”

The sound of Jack’s voice, along with the dead weight of the stone on my chest, yanked me back from my misery.
I’m so sorry, Eleanor.
I kicked as though swimming against the ever-stronger current of pain and hopelessness. My strength, which I’d come to take for granted, seemed completely occupied with staying conscious and healing my scorched flesh.

My limited view consisted of Reedrek’s backside and the unfortunate Werm, but I knew Jack was in the room. The implications were troubling. I’d hoped to be in a better position to stave off Reedrek’s plan but now I had to trust Jack’s rebellious nature. We’d plumbed the solidness of his hard head in the past.

“Welcome to my little party,” my sire said. He sounded so gleeful I felt a twitch of anger. I did my best to fan the ember.

I heard splashing footsteps, then I could see Jack’s horrified expression. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he asked, staring at me as if I were already dead.

“I told you, I—”

Another of Werm’s rattling screams interrupted Reedrek’s welcome speech and must have annoyed the grand master.

“Silence!” he commanded. Werm’s breath appeared to freeze in his throat, and he was left with one arm outstretched toward Jack—eyes wide and pleading.

Then I saw Olivia. Without a thought for her expensive leather boots and pants she shloshed through the water and wrapped herself around Jack’s arm as though she belonged there. It wasn’t a good sign.

“I’m having a little fun before I kill my kinsman here. I thought you might be interested in helping.”

Jack still looked a little shell-shocked, but I could see him striving to overcome it. “And why would I want to do such as that?” he asked, falling back into his prevampire mode of speech: a sure sign of stress.

Reedrek turned so I could see him smile. “Why, so you can take his place as my heir, of course.”

Before Jack could make a response, Olivia, with a mewling sound, winnowed her way even closer to him. The action drew Reedrek’s gaze. He was used to having everyone’s complete attention and he reached for her.

“Come, my dear. You’ve done well bringing him here, but now—”

Tiny blue sparks arched between his fingers and the skin of her arm. Reedrek snatched back his hand with a frown.

“Jack?” I managed. “Go home.” It was all I could think of to say. I’d constructed block after block in my mind to keep Reedrek out. If I opened it now to Jack, Reedrek would win without a fight.

I intended to fight awhile longer.

“Just go and leave you here, huh? You don’t need my help. As usual.”

His bitterness surprised me.

“Of course he doesn’t need your help,” Reedrek said. “He hasn’t taught you enough even to help yourself.”

“That’s for damn sure,” Jack said under his breath.

Reedrek crossed his arms and leaned against the stone holding me down. “Well, I will teach you whatever you wish to know.”

Jack slowly shifted his gaze from me to Reedrek. “In return for what?”

“Now see, William?” He poked my arm as if he was about to tell a good joke. “He’s not as stupid as you said he was.”

Now it was Jack’s turn to frown. He brought one hand up and rubbed his forehead. There was a sudden flash of light and Olivia fell away from him. She screamed as she collapsed to her knees in the black water.

“Defiance doesn’t become you, my dear.” Reedrek held out his hand to help her up.

Olivia cringed back. “Don’t hurt me anymore.”

Reedrek wiggled his fingers impatiently. “I’ll do what I wish to you. Alger is dead, and as I am his sire, you are mine to do with as I please.”

Jack dragged Olivia to her feet. She clung to him like her life depended on his touch. “Let her alone.” He angled his head in my direction. “You can do what you want with him, but she’s with me.”

Things were not looking up.

William

I could feel the riptide currents of Reedrek’s mind rushing toward Jack. Relief, on my part, was instantaneous. My sire was so busy with his new recruit that he had momentarily forgotten about me. Jack squirmed as if he could feel invisible hands searching his clothes; then he glanced at Olivia, probably to see if the hands were hers. I mustered my strength and sent him my own sally of information.

He’s lying, trying to enthrall you. Do your best to block your thoughts.

Jack’s brows knit with a slight frown. His gaze flicked to me briefly, then returned to Reedrek.

“It seems as though you take after William here more than you realize,” Reedrek said. “He is forever trying to save damsels in distress.”

“Now it looks like he needs saving,” Jack said.

I hoped it wasn’t a rhetorical statement.

Jack untwined Olivia’s grip and gave her a little push toward the stairs. “Wait for me outside.”

Olivia’s gaze shifted to Reedrek. She hesitated, undecided.

“Go on,” Jack said. “He doesn’t want you. He wants me.” He turned to Reedrek and crossed his arms in defiance. “That right, old man?”

Reedrek was silent for several seconds, taking a new look at his potential convert, I would imagine. Thankfully, Jack was beginning to show how stubborn he could be.

“Go,” Reedrek ordered Olivia, as if it had been his idea in the first place. She didn’t wait for more discussion. After the brief sound of her booted footsteps receding up the stairs, silence returned.

“So. What’s the deal?” Jack asked.

“I’ll teach you everything I know, make you a prince among our kind. You’ll be the monarch of your own destiny. Anything you can imagine, you will have.”

Jack frowned at me as he asked Reedrek, “What do you want in return?”

“My dear boy . . .” Reedrek moved forward as though he would throw a companionable arm around Jack’s shoulders. Jack stepped back out of reach. Reedrek shrugged. “Well, there is the matter of this voodoo blood. I intend to learn everything about how it affects vampires. How it changes them.”

“I don’t know about any of that,” Jack said.

“Of course you do. And if you tell me, I’ll begin your education in other matters.”

A pause.

“There’s a vial of special blood, old blood that William keeps hidden.”

I couldn’t help myself. “Don’t—” I said between clenched teeth.

Reedrek chuckled. “That’s an excellent start. Bring it to me and we’ll begin our association.”

“What about William?” Jack asked.

“Oh, I intend to let my new”—he waved a hand in Werm’s direction—“disciple finish him off when he’s made.”

He won’t kill me until he has what he wants from you,
I whispered in Jack’s mind.
Werm cannot end me; I’m his sire.
Without opening my mind to him, I couldn’t tell if Jack heard me or not. He started to look a little red in the face, the stress of both Reedrek and me trying to control his mind taking its toll.

“Why don’t you bring him to his own fancy party he’s been planning for weeks? All his society cronies will be there. A little public humiliation will do him good. We can show everyone how weak and toothless he is now.” Jack looked at me. “Will you need a wheelchair”—he practically spit the word at me—“
boss
? Or can you walk?”

I wondered if Jack’s show of hostility was for Reedrek’s benefit or if he was truly furious with me. His suggestion indicated he had a plan. Unfortunately, no one knew better than I that Jack hadn’t been taught how to use the talents he’d need to defeat Reedrek. I’d kept him ignorant and now he had no clue what he was up against.

“Cronies, you say?” Reedrek prodded me. “Are these people I should be acquainted with?”

I remained silent and his mind beat against my blocks like a battering ram. I wanted to scream
Noooooo!
But any reaction from me would only help Reedrek—although he seemed to be doing just fine with Jack without my assistance. My boy Jack was going to lead Reedrek right to the center of my secrets. Right to those who trusted me. Then we would all die.

“Tomorrow night,” Jack said. “Eight o’clock at the Hamilton House on Lafayette Square. Be there or be square.”

Jack

I staggered back the way Olivia and I had come, clutching my head. I was insane. What else would explain my leaving William there like that? My thoughts careened off William’s and Reedrek’s as they invaded my mind. If I couldn’t recollect myself, I’d be totally screwed. They’d both tried to delve into my mind so deeply my head hurt with the effort to keep them out. It was like they were trying to force me out of my own brain and take over—the ultimate control. It seemed like whatever I chose to do somebody was always going to be controlling me. The question was, whoever I served, what was going to be in it for me? My only hope of sanity was to get as far away from them as possible. And away from Werm, who was more pathetic than ever as he writhed in agony, chains stretching his arms in opposite directions as if symbolizing his altered state: half in the human world and half in the world of the undead—and dying by inches between them.

But mostly I had to get away from the sight of William lying there, his flesh oozing from burns. Even in the pasageway I could still smell it, the same odor that had come off Alger’s burned remains on the
Alabaster.
Burned vampire flesh smells like . . . hell. My first instinct had been to go to him, to throw that slab of rock off his chest and free him, but I didn’t know who was the enemy anymore. Maybe it had been him all along.

I stumbled blindly down the passageway, knowing which way to go since I had already come this way once. I could smell my own tracks. As I made my way to fresh air I struggled to figure out what I should feel for William—rage, pity, resentment? I didn’t know what I felt. I only knew I had to get away.

When I burst through the opening, Olivia was waiting for me. She wrung her hands as I replaced the marble slab. Ignoring her, ignoring the car, I struck out on foot toward home,
my
home. Confusion and fatigue were weighing on me now. I’d never been up this many hours straight. My undead body felt as if I’d been high on some powerful drug for days and was nearing a hard, hard crash.

I could hear Olivia following me. I didn’t care what the hell she did or where the hell she went. At the storage facility that I called home, I walked through the gates with Olivia on my heels.

I dug my keys out of my jeans pocket and unlocked my room. Olivia stepped in beside me. I turned on a floor lamp as I made my way over to the refrigerator.

“Jack,” Olivia said. “What are you going to do?”

“Fix myself a goddamn drink. You want one?”

“You know what I meant.”

I took a half-full pint jar of blood out of the fridge, opened the cabinet above the sink, and pulled out a bottle. “Why the hell do I have to do anything? Why can’t I just get as far away from here as possible?” I topped off the jar with Jack Daniel’s.

Olivia ignored my questions. “Reedrek tried to get you to renounce William and follow him, didn’t he? How did you leave things?
What are you going to do?
”

“What do you think I should do,
princess
?” I turned around and leaned on the sink as I sipped the spiked blood. “Behind door number one is Reedrek with the knowledge and ability to make me a goddamned vampire prince. Just like that.” I snapped my fingers. “All I have to do is meet him at the party with a vial of voodoo blood. And behind door number two is my good old Daddy Dearest, William, who’s treated me like a mushroom for more than a hundred years.”