Immortal (27 page)

Kaleigh paused, looking from one cloaked figure to the next. “Would you condemn one of us to the same fate, the day we were reborn?” She hesitated. “What I’m saying is that our laws are intended for those with old souls. Lia is not an old soul.”

“Even if what you say is true, there must be punishment,” Gair said. “She cannot be permitted to move about the earth killing humans because she
knows no better
. It’s our duty to protect God’s humans from vampires like her.”

There must be punishment
. The voices pressed the edges of Fin’s mind.

There must be punishment
.

“Yes,” Kaleigh agreed. “There must be punishment, but I have an account of a punishment handed down by another family that might be more appropriate in this case. It’s recorded in Rob Kahill’s own handwriting in the seventeenth century.”

“But it was not handed down by our family?” Gair questioned.

“No.” Kaleigh put out her hand and Dr. Caldwell handed her a small leather book. “But at previous hearings, we’ve used other councils’ precedents.” She clutched the book to her chest. “I’m sure that you remember that time we accepted the ruling by the Chin family in Singapore? And…and what about the Red Mark incident with the Coyote Clan of the Comanche?”

Gair nodded and Fin could have sworn he detected a note of pride in the old man’s voice. “Your memories are returning. You’re beginning to learn how to use them. That’s good, Kaleigh, good for all of us,” he said, raising his voice. “So what punishment do you suggest?”

Kaleigh glanced at Fin.
They’re listening
, she telepathed.

Told you they might
, he answered.

“I thought you should hear it from him.”

Kaleigh put out her hand, and Rob moved in from the shadows, down the little hill to stand beside her. She handed him the book, open to the specific page. When Rob started to read, his voice was shaky, but as he continued, it grew stronger. He recounted the frightening tale of a young German vampire taken in by zombies and the crimes the boy committed, at their instruction, on the streets of London. The Thomas family of vampires apprehended the boy and found him guilty of the crimes, but not entirely responsible for his actions. Rob then related the process by which the Thomases killed the boy and brought him back from the dead, making him one of their own.

Every vampire in the graveyard listened with rapt attention to the words as Rob read them. When he was done, he closed the book and looked up at the chieftain.

“Is this what you propose we do?” Gair asked Kaleigh.

“Yes.” She met his gaze. “I suggest we drain Lia’s blood and fill her body with our blood. I suggest we make her a Kahill.”

T
here was less resistance to Kaleigh’s idea than Fin expected. Gair allowed High Council members to question her and Dr. Caldwell on the mechanics of the adoption ritual which Rob had carefully recorded more than three hundred years ago. Once the members’ questions had been answered and a vote was taken, Gair asked Lia to step forward.

Fin glanced in Elena’s direction as the young girl inched closer to the authoritative figure in the hooded cloak. Celeste gripped her sister’s arm as if she might wrench it off.

“Unusual circumstances here,” Gair said to Lia. He pushed his hood back, surprising them all by revealing his grandfatherly face. “You have been found guilty based on your confession, but our High Council has decided you will be given the choice of your sentence. You may be beheaded, or you may accept the punishment as outlined by the text that was just read.”

Lia turned her head to look at her parents.

Celeste attempted to take a stumbling step toward her, but Vittore and Elena held her back. Beppe stood beside his younger sister, watching without particular interest.

“I…I could never go home?” Lia asked, sounding confused as to exactly what was entailed in the alternative punishment that Kaleigh had proposed.

“You could never return to Italy, at least not as a Ruffino. Clare Point would become your home,” Gair explained. “
We
would become your family.”

Lia glanced over again at her own family. “I wouldn’t…I wouldn’t remember my mother?”

“It would be better that way, really, don’t you think?” Kaleigh whispered.

Lia kept staring at her sobbing mother, her voice disconnected. “I…I don’t know. I can’t imagine never going home again.”

“Take life,” Celeste cried. Elena had to hold her back.

Gair glanced warningly in Fin’s direction and Fin moved toward the Ruffinos.

“You must decide, child,” Gair urged.

“If not for yourself,” Kaleigh whispered, “do it to spare your family.”

Lia’s gaze drifted to Kaleigh. “You really think this is better than just…dying?”

Kaleigh took Lia’s hands in hers. “If you become a Kahill, I’m not positive, but I think you’ll take on our life-cycles.”

“I would get to grow up?”

“I can’t swear it, but I think so.” Kaleigh gripped the girl’s hands tightly. “But what’s more important is that you’ll have a chance to save your soul. Beheading isn’t really dying, you know.”

“We must have an answer,” Gair announced.

Lia looked back once more at her family and then pulled her hands from Kaleigh’s and turned to face the chieftain. “Yes,” she said in a very small voice. “I will accept the sentence of being made a Kahill.”

The teens in the woods broke into chatter at once. Celeste cried out with joy, maybe anguish, probably both, Fin thought.

“Can I say good-bye?” Lia asked.

“You’ve already said good-bye,” Gair responded, waving Dr. Caldwell to approach. “We must begin the rite at once.”

“Please?” Lia begged, putting her hands together. “Just let me walk over there. It’ll only take a second. I swear.”

Gair hesitated, then signaled with his wrinkled hand. “Quickly.” He turned to Dr. Caldwell. “You’ve brought the necessary instruments?”

“Yes, sir.”

Lia flew the short distance over the graves and threw herself into her mother’s arms. “Forgive me,” she cried.

Fin stepped back to allow the family one last moment with the girl. When Elena hugged her, he had to look away. The acting chief of police couldn’t cry in front of the High Council.

“We forgive you,” Celeste wailed, hugging her daughter tightly. “Of course we forgive you.”

Lia pulled herself out of her mother’s arms and hugged her father and her little sister. Then she looked at Beppe, and turned away. “I’m ready,” she announced, walking back toward the High Council members, wiping away the tears on her face.

“Let us begin, then.” Gair took a step back from the raised tomb and the other cloaked figures followed suit.

“We will need donors,” Dr. Caldwell explained.

For a moment there was silence. Just the wind again and the soft sobs of a woman who would lose her child.

The sept’s physician looked up. “We must have donations from our own sept. The more the better. If I’m reading Rob’s explanation right, she will take on the memories of those who give their blood.” He waited.

Another second skipped by.

“Me,” Kaleigh said, raising her hand. “I’ll donate.” She looked at the Council members, a trace of anger in her voice. “Please. You only have to give half a pint.”

Fin stared at the Council members, surprised by their reluctance. If they had agreed on behalf of the sept to adopt the girl, why wouldn’t they be willing to offer their blood? Were they afraid of taking on the responsibility of another life? “Me,” he said, making no attempt to share his annoyance. He glanced at the robed figure he knew was his sister.

“Half a pint is nothing,” Fia said from under her hood, stepping forward. “Who will join me?”

“Me.” Rob, who had returned to the cluster of teenagers, came down the hill, entering the cemetery again.

“Me.” Katy hurried after him.

“Me.”

“Sure, why not?”

“Wait for me!”

Fin watched the teens descend into the graveyard, one by one, and he felt a swell of pride.

“You have to lie here,” Kaleigh told Lia, leading her up to the stone tomb.

The girl looked petrified, but she seemed to trust Kaleigh. She climbed up on the cold granite bier and lay down. Dr. Caldwell grasped her wrist and straightened out her arm. “Sorry, this is going to hurt,” he warned gently. “But you won’t feel anything after this.”

“What…what will happen?” she murmured.

“You’ll just go to sleep.”

“Don’t be afraid.” Kaleigh moved to the other side of the tomb to look down on Lia.

“Wouldn’t you be?” the girl asked.

“Pee-in-my-pants scared.” The two teens shared a smile.

Kaleigh clasped her hand. “I’ll be right here.”

Gair cleared his throat. “Are you ready, Dr. Caldwell?”

“I am.”

Even in the dark, Fin could see that he held a scalpel. The light from a rising moon glinted off its blade.

Gair nodded and the physician brought the instrument down her arm vertically, hitting the radial artery. Lia gasped.

Celeste strangled a sob.

Blood poured from Lia and the vampires gathered around her fought instinctual responses. Someone grunted. Others moved closer. One of the teens giggled childishly.

As the Italian girl’s blood dripped down onto the soft earth, its scent rose thick and hot in the humid night air.

Kaleigh held Lia’s hand tightly. The girl closed her eyes as her heart continued to pump her life’s blood onto Kahill soil. Dr. Caldwell wiped at the incision with a towel and pumped her bicep, probably to keep her blood from coagulating and slowing down the process.

Celeste, clinging to her husband, continued to cry softly, but Fin saw that Elena’s tears had dried. When he met her gaze, he had to remind himself that she could not communicate telepathically with him. All the same, her eyes seemed to be telling him
And now it’s done
.

A woman Lia’s weight probably had seven pints of blood in her. It amazed Fin how quickly seven pints of blood could flow out of a body. Only a few minutes seemed to go by before the doctor placed Lia’s arm beside her and stepped back to go into his duffel bag. Fin noted that the girl’s chest no longer rose and fell. There were details he still didn’t understand about the physical life and death of vampires, but he knew that Lia was as close to death as possible, without being dead.

“I’ll go first,” Kaleigh said bravely.

The other teens fell into line behind her and Fin guessed that the adults’ blood would not be needed. There had to be close to twenty kids in line; Caldwell wouldn’t even need all of them.

Fin looked back and caught Elena’s eye. She beckoned him. “How long until we know if it worked?” she whispered in his ear when he drew close.

“I don’t know. We’ve never done this before. Not long, I would think.”

They watched as Dr. Caldwell bandaged Lia’s wound and then hooked a simple blood transfusion device to her opposite arm. One by one, starting with Kaleigh, the teens donated approximately half a pint of blood.

“What if it doesn’t work?” Elena whispered after what seemed like an eternity. Dr. Caldwell had just given Lia her thirteenth donation of blood.

Fin didn’t want to tell Elena that if it didn’t work, their only choice would be to behead Lia after all. “It’ll work,” he assured her, slipping his arm around her waist.

The first time Fin thought he saw Lia move, he feared it was his imagination. He was afraid that he wanted it so badly for Elena and for her family that he was seeing things. But others saw it, too.

“It’s working,” Kaleigh murmured, throwing her arms around Rob’s neck. “It’s working!”

Dr. Caldwell leaned over his patient and placed his stethoscope over her heart.

Everyone in the cemetery seemed to hold his or her breath, Fin noted.

…Except Lia.

Her chest rose. Then fell, and slowly rose and fell again.

Dr. Caldwell lowered his stethoscope and nodded to Gair. “It worked, I think,” he said.

Elena buried her face in Fin’s shoulder. “She is alive.”

Fin kissed her head, breathing in deeply the tantalizing smell of her hair.

Gair slowly approached the girl lying on the monument and leaned over and whispered to her in Gaelic. Fin couldn’t quite hear what he said, but his purpose was obvious. The Ruffinos did not speak Gaelic.

Fin heard a distinct female reply. It was Lia’s voice, the same…yet different. In Gaelic.

Gair lifted his head and looked out at his people gathered in the dark cemetery. “The punishment has been carried out. Lia Kahill’s transformation is complete.”

All the teens began to talk at once. The girls hugged each other.

“Thank you all. Now go home,” Gair ordered. He spoke privately to Dr. Caldwell again, presumably about taking Lia back to the doctor’s office where she could be monitored, as planned.

The High Council members dispersed first, followed by the teens. Celeste, Vittore, and their two remaining children retreated silently back down the brick path that would lead them through the gate and around the church.

“You should go, too, Elena.” Fin didn’t want to say good-bye, but he knew it was time. He pressed his lips to her temple. “Dr. Caldwell will see that Lia is taken care of.”

“But who will take her in?”

“That will have to be decided, but it won’t be an issue,” he explained. “Many of us have been adopted over the years. My mother has taken several teens without parents.” He rubbed her arm. “We should go.”

She nodded, her voice thick with emotion. “We have rented a car. We go directly to the airport.”

His arm around her, he ushered her toward the gate. “I suppose that’s best. I’ll walk you out.”

Near the gate, they passed Pete Hill, who stood off the moonlit path. It wasn’t until Fin had walked by him that he halted. “Could you wait a second?” he asked, releasing her.

He walked back to Pete, and standing in front of the cop he admired so much, he removed the gold badge from his uniform. As Pete stared at him in confusion, Fin took Pete’s hand and pressed the badge into it.

“What are you doing?” Pete asked.

“Resigning from the police force.”

“You can’t do that.”

“Sure I can.” On impulse, Fin removed his tie and handed that to Pete, too. “And I’m recommending to the General Council that
you
be made the new police chief. Sean obviously no longer wants the job and you’re the best man to take it.”

Pete stared at the badge in his hand. “I can’t—”

“You
can
be the chief. You have to, Pete. I’m not cut out for this, never was. But you are. You deserve this position and I’m going to do everything in my power to see that you get it.”

“Thanks, Fin,” was all Pete could manage, still staring at the badge.

“You’re welcome.”

Fin walked back to Elena, put his arm around her, and escorted her out front to the waiting car.

“I can’t thank you enough for this, Fin.” Elena brought his hand to her lips and kissed it. “My family will never forget the kindness you have bestowed.” At the car, she turned to face him. “We will be forever indebted to the Kahills.”

“We never wanted your indebtedness. We only wanted to do what was right.”

“Kiss me good-bye,” she whispered.

Fin didn’t want to kiss her good-bye. He wanted to continue the disagreement, only so that he could delay this moment.

“Fin—”

“I don’t understand why this has to be good-bye. Why can’t we—”

“I think this is better, at least for now. It will only pain my sister, any contact between our families,” she explained.