The Vampire's Seduction (8 page)

William

I awoke with the familiar warm weight of Reyha along my side. The day had not fully waned, so she remained in her dog form, her head resting on my chest, her breath warm on my neck. She was snoring slightly. I opened my eyes and waited for the rest of my body to animate. There was no rush. Right then the sun would be sinking, gold through the purple sky, setting the clouds and Spanish moss aflame with a fiery farewell to the day.

I don’t remember my final sunset. Had I known it was to be my last I might’ve paid more attention. But there had been others before I’d lost the daylight, and like a painter without hands I’d composed the memories of all my sunsets into a fine, flaming image that pleased me. I have found that one should pursue the many small pleasures in each day; otherwise the relentless unpleasantness of long life can be overwhelming.

I heard movement outside my coffin. Footsteps, human and canine, and a low voice speaking. That would be Melaphia, greeting Deylaud, both of them waiting for me to rise.

Reyha squirmed, coming awake. I shoved open the lid of my coffin and stretched my arms above my head.

“Good evening, Captain,” Melaphia said. Although I no longer went to sea with my ships, Melaphia called me “Captain” as her foremother Lalee had in our years together.

Beautiful Melaphia, straight-backed and proud, stood with her hands clasped in front of her, looking very much like her ancestor, the dusky beauty of their bloodline straight and true. Next to Melaphia, her eight-year-old daughter, Renee, another budding charmer with a queenly manner, though still a rascal by all accounts, stroked the arched neck of Deylaud in his form of an Egyptian sight hound. A hound who had been bred to watch over the tombs of the pharaohs. Spotting him, Reyha leaped over me to playfully greet her brother.

“Take them outside before it grows darker,” Melaphia said to her daughter.

With an impish smile in my direction, Renee whirled and, with the two dogs nearly as tall as she, raced down the underground hallway. It was their favorite game, hide and seek, although the dogs invariably won. That is, until full dark when they transformed back into human form. Then all bets were off.

“The sky ended gray and green tonight,” Melaphia said as she dusted a few stray dog hairs off my jacket. “Trouble coming.”

“Yes, trouble . . .”
Reedrek.

“I’ll cast a warning. No one with bad intentions will dare step foot on the property.”

I had learned long ago that Lalee’s voodoo was a strong ally—that, and her family’s unwavering loyalty. “Thank you.” I owed Melaphia and her ancestors more than I could repay. Two hundred years ago, when Lalee had refused my offer of immortality, I’d had no idea how fortunate that refusal would be for me. But Lalee had known her own mind and her own destiny.

“Make it a strong one,” I said, not wishing to go into too much detail. Melaphia stopped fussing with my clothes and looked up at me. “Is he that powerful?” she asked.

No use hiding the unpleasant truth. “Yes, I’m afraid so. He’s my sire.”

“Has he come to kill you?”

“No, he’s come to destroy me—a subtle difference.”

She dropped her gaze to my cuff, which she’d been busy straightening. “I’ll need to call upon the bones and blood of Maman Lalee.”

This was the first time in Melaphia’s lifetime we’d discussed using Lalee’s personal powers, but I didn’t hesitate. Melaphia knew best about these things. “Yes, of course. Go; fetch your key.”

The vault within a vault was set into the wall behind the smooth stone near the mantel. The two matching keys that unlocked the secret locks were made of the purest gold. In the mortal world a lock requiring golden keys would seem to hold treasure beyond description, much like a pharaoh’s tomb. But my most valuable possession was not golden or jeweled.

It was blood.

After a chant of reverence, Melaphia brushed away the cobwebs and removed the ancient vial with the care of one who’d been entrusted with the Holy Grail. Lalee’s gift to me and her descendants looked innocuous enough: a vial filled with brown liquid. It was an old piece, surely, but nothing more. Yet in the right hands this living legacy could harness the power of the voodoo
loas
into a formidable weapon.

“I believe we’ll need all the help we can get,” I said.

Melaphia nodded. “I will see to it.”

I placed my cool hand over her warm one, feeling a strum of power from the vial. “I know you will.”

Jack showed up within the hour. I’d just come upstairs from the office with my now human companions when he walked in bold as you please and demanded the keys to my Jag. Deylaud glanced at me for permission before handing them over.

“Huey’s outside. He’ll take it to the shop and give it the once-over.”

“Make it a twice-over,” I said. “The leather smells like a swamp.” I nodded to Deylaud and he tossed the keys to Jack. “Tell him to go straight there and back. No joyriding. And make sure they don’t use any imitation scent. You know how I hate that.”

Jack gave me a mock salute. “Back in a sec.”

Reyha was waiting just inside the door when Jack returned. As he stepped over the threshold, she flung herself into his arms like an amorous linebacker.

“Ooof!” he huffed, teasing her. Then he swept her up, holding her against his chest. “I think you’re getting fat,” he added as he carried her into the study ahead of me. It always amazed me to watch the two of them together. Around me, Reyha was graceful and timid . . . submissive, but let Jack show his face and she became a hoyden who demanded to play. I hoped Jack’s unruly nature wasn’t catching on, for even Deylaud always looked happy to see him.

Jack dumped Reyha unceremoniously on the leather couch, shoving her over to sit next to her. She immediately twisted around to rest half in his lap.

“I should be careful if I were you,” I said. “After all, the two of you are from different species. People will begin to talk.”

They looked at me as though I’d spoken in a foreign tongue. I guess it had been awhile since I’d tried to make light of anything. Of course Jack took me seriously.

Pushing Reyha upright with one hand, he said, “I’d like to meet the human who had nerve enough to look in any of your grand windows. Or are your neighbors investing in night-vision goggles?”

I shook my head. No use trying to explain. That I felt the need to joke at a time like this was unusual to say the least. And for the first time in several centuries, I was experiencing fear. Reedrek had finally come and I needed to face him alone.

Reyha, with a subdued look of guilt, left Jack and moved across the room to me. I slipped an arm around her and whispered in her ear, “It’s all right, sweeting.” With my permission to play with Jack granted, she held on to me harder for a moment, then danced away. Having soothed her feelings, I stepped over to the sideboard and poured a brandy. Through the years I’d cultivated a taste for brandy. In many respects it was as rich and dark as blood. A complicated, ancient taste that could placate my ever-present hunger. For Jack, I opened the wine refrigerator and withdrew an IV bag of human blood. Jack needed to feed, for both our sakes.

“Would you like a glass?”

Jack had been busy pinning Reyha down for a good tickle. He glanced up and shoved mussed hair out of his eyes. Instead of answering, he kissed both of Reyha’s smooth cheeks. He was like some Italian playboy, and he caused a gale of pleased giggles from Reyha. Then he pushed up from the couch.

“Yep, a glass. And a splash of Dewar’s to boot.”

Of course I already knew what he liked to drink. I knew everything about him, but I didn’t want him aware of that. “I remember now,” I said, handing him the bottle before pouring the blood into hundred-year-old crystal. “It makes such a pretty combination, alcohol and blood.”

“Hmmmm,” Jack acknowledged in a noncommital sort of way. I could practically watch his mind calculating, waiting for the right moment to announce the real reason he’d shown up so early after sunset, before I had even called him.

“I need to know what you’re planning,” he said as he accepted the drink. “And if you aren’t gonna let me in on it, I at least have to know what you want me to do.”

Plans. That was the crux of it. Right then my only plan was to wait. Reedrek would come in his own time. If I’d left Savannah, it only would have extended the suspense. I couldn’t avoid him forever.

“We wait.”

“Wait? Sit back and let some monster do who-knows-what in
our
town?” Jack held the fragile crystal in his hand but didn’t take a drink. He swallowed back his anger instead. “I swear, I think I felt him in Bonaventure.” He looked uncomfortable, like a sinner at confession. “The sleeping ones were singing, saying he’d walked on their graves.”

I used my power to project a calm facade—to hide my alarm. Yes, Reedrek would find Jack and follow him to me. But Jack had to be left out of it as much as possible. For that reason, I’d purposely kept him ignorant. He had no clue what he was up against and no training to counter what Reedrek could do.

“I want you well out of it,” I told him firmly.

He almost choked on his disgust. “You won’t even tell me what you know? You’re so almighty strong you don’t need my pitiful help? Well, I sure as hell have a stake in this, too—no pun intended. And if you expect me to stay out of it, you’re gonna have to lock me in a box somewhere deep and quiet cause I’m not leavin’ here until you fill me in.” With a smirk of bravado, Jack added, “Here’s blood in your eye,” then knocked back the cocktail in his grip before handing the empty glass back to me. “Maybe if we wait long enough, he’ll come knocking on your door to say hello.”

He was closer to the truth than he knew, and I was just about to award him a good dose of my temper when someone actually did knock on the door.

Jack laughed out loud as Deylaud moved to the solid river oak panel and stared at it, evaluating who was on the other side. Reyha stood a few paces behind him.

“I don’t know this scent,” Deylaud said. Both he and Reyha looked to me for orders.

The being was unfamiliar. Not Reedrek, not a human.

I motioned my faithful guardians to the side as I grasped the doorknob. Jack took up a position on my right, determined to face whatever fate waited on the landing.