The Vampire's Seduction (32 page)

I wanted to tell Huey that I would find Reedrek and give him what was coming to him. But would I? Could I? I looked at Huey, sitting there in his work shirt and Dickies, drinking his name-brand beer. “Why did you decide to come back to see me, man?” I asked.

“Just to say hello. That’s all right, isn’t it?”

I sighed. “Sure it is, buddy. I’m glad to know that they’re treating you good.”

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “I reckon I’ll be going now. Thanks for the big send-off, by the way. It was real sweet of y’all to say all those nice things about me.”

Now, there was another reason not to speak ill of the dead. They could still hear you. “You’re welcome, Huey. Come back anytime.”

Huey waved and gradually faded away, like an old soldier. I guess he’d answered my question: No matter how weird things get, they can always get weirder.

I picked up the phone and called Rennie to tell him to bring my car to William’s by sundown. Then I called Melaphia.

“Jack, what’s happening? How did you get to the garage?” she said, having seen the garage number on the incoming call readout.

“Got here through those tunnels. The ones nobody ever told me about.” I paused to see what she had to say for herself.

“Um. Sorry, Jack.”

“We’ll talk about that later. Has William come back yet?”

“No, not yet.”

“Okay. I’m going to go out and look for him underground until sundown. Maybe I can sense something if I come near him. Then I’ll check back in with you. Olivia is sleeping in my box, and I fastened her in so she wouldn’t follow me. She was . . . weak, and she needed the rest. Check on her at sundown. She said she wanted to do something for Shari—register her, bless her, something. Between the two of you, do you think you could find a place to bury her in the tunnels somewhere?”

“No problem. I’ll make sure it’s unconsecrated ground.”

“Huh?”

“If Shari was even partially transformed and is buried in consecrated ground, she’ll suffer for all eternity. We’ll be sure to stay away from the cemeteries, the church properties, and any of the war monuments, just to be safe.”

Would the revelations never end? I had questions but now was not the time. “Thanks. Maybe William will be back by the time I check in with you at sundown. He’s probably found somewhere to get his beauty sleep.” I didn’t tell her what I’d learned from Connie. It would only make her worry more. I knew that even if William had thrown in with Reedrek, he would never hurt Melaphia.

“Oh, and don’t let Olivia wander off,” I added. “She may be in Reedrek’s thrall and I don’t trust her. In fact, don’t turn your back on her. Use one of your hexes or something to protect yourself. She was in her right mind when I left her, but . . .”

“Don’t worry. I’ll use a binding spell to make sure she doesn’t, as you say, wander off, and you know I can protect myself from that skinny white girl, vampire or not. It’s you I’m worried about. Promise me you’ll take care of yourself. I don’t know what I would do if you and William both disappeared on me.”

“I’ll be careful. I promise. Talk to you at sundown or before.”

I jumped back down into the oil pit and squeezed through the opening into the tunnel. I set off in the opposite direction from which I’d come, not knowing where I was going or what I would do when I got there. It was hard to admit I was completely adrift without William. That was going to have to change.

William

I struggled briefly, trying to return to my vision, to Jack. I hadn’t finished what I wanted to tell him. Wasn’t that always the way? Hadn’t I always been either interrupted or distracted from dealing with Jack’s complete education? I suppose even being immortal was no excuse for thinking I could take care of Jack later. It didn’t help that he was so self-sufficient. He’d seemed happy to remain as he was—strong, past the age of consent, and free. Of everyone except me, that is. At least telling him not to trust Reedrek was something. Unfortunately, I had no idea whether he would remember the encounter.

Or if the encounter had even taken place. Perhaps the whole thing had been an illusion. Even my mutated blood could propel me only so far. Maybe, with only hate to sustain me, I’d reached the end of my strength.

“You never told me what happened to your little swan. I haven’t felt any power shift. Did you go all noble on us again and let her die?”

I had to fight a warped sense of time. Had hours passed in what seemed like seconds to me or was that an illusion as well? I gave up and concentrated on Reedrek’s question.

“Yes,” I hissed, straining at the bonds holding my arms down. With only one hand loose I could hurt him, even kill us both if I got the chance. The joy of knowing I’d sent him to hell wouldn’t be lessened by the fact that I would be right there with him. As a matter of fact, being with Reedrek pretty much
was
my definition of hell.

Reedrek leaned on the rock holding me down and studied my face. “You know, there might be something about this bastardized blood of yours, because all of a sudden, I feel absolutely chipper. And, if I didn’t know better, I’d think you were lying to me.”

I stopped struggling and held his gaze while shoring up my inner defenses. I had no idea how my blood would affect Reedrek. It could hardly help but make him stronger, however. “You want to see inside my mind? Look again,
Father.
” I concentrated on the image of Shari lying in the bathtub, pink-tinted water framing her pale, lifeless face. I had to do anything I could to block him from seeing Jack, who was, I hoped, making Shari. The deed should be done by now, though, and I hadn’t felt any shift of strength, either. But then again, I had no way of knowing what had happened. My body was too busy processing twelve hours of intense sensations—feeding, fucking, and futility.

Reedrek frowned. “Perhaps I need to find one that you won’t want to let go so easily. Such as those in the house you visited after leaving me.”

I kept my thoughts on fire and blood—anything to block him from Eleanor.

“Perhaps this one, for a start.”

The sound of someone being dragged forward shocked me.
No, not—

Werm stood with Reedrek’s fingers clamped around his neck. He looked scared but determined in a curiosity-killed-the-cat way.

“I called him here. We’re going to have a little vampire-making party,” Reedrek promised.

Begging for Werm’s life would only increase Reedrek’s lust to kill him. Reedrek’s grip tightened on poor Werm; his fangs extended and Werm’s look of surprise shifted to agony. He screamed, a long horrified sound. Another of Reedrek’s little niceties—he did nothing to dull his victim’s pain.

It didn’t take long. Soon Werm’s thin frame collapsed, empty and still. At least his tormentor propped him against the shelf near me instead of letting him fall into the dank water. Reedrek, grinning a bloody grin, plunged his thumbnail into the healing fang marks he’d made in my wrist and his fingers came back dripping. He used the blood to make the sign of the four winds on his newest convert.

“Call him,” he ordered.

I remained silent. He could take my blood, but I wasn’t going to offer anything else.

Reedrek turned to stare in my direction. “Call him, or on my word I will kill everyone in the house on River Street. They can’t stay in there forever. I’ll simply burn the house down . . . and kill them one by one as they come out. Call him, and I’ll let them live.”

Eleanor.

It wasn’t as if his promise meant anything. He would kill who he wanted, when he wanted. If I called Werm, Reedrek would be sure of his “chip”—Eleanor’s life—and use it against me later. But I was in no position to fight him. I could only delay—buy some time. As for Werm, he’d reaped his own reward.
If you play with fire . . . or vampires . . .

“Werm—” My voice sounded more angry than seductive.

“Do it right, dear boy. You’ve always had a way with words.”

Reedrek’s sarcasm scalded me but I clamped down the response. Using my most persuasive tone I called again. “Werm. Come back to me. Come now.”

One of his arms moved, trying to rise. Reedrek lifted him and brought him to my torn wrist. It took only a few seconds for him to smell blood and begin to suck.

Poor Werm,
I thought, sinking into the oblivion of despair.

Poor Jack.
He was about to lose another friend and gain . . . a brother.

Jack

I searched the tunnels for hours, paying particular attention to nooks and crannies that nobody who wasn’t a rodent had poked their noses into for decades. The passageways led to cellars of apartment buildings here, basements of office buildings there, as well as the occasional parking garage, manhole, or blind alley. I made mental notes of all of these outlets and inlets for future reference. You never knew when you’d need to duck quickly out of the way of the law, the sunrise, or some other creature of the night you didn’t particularly want to deal with. Like that weasel Werm. Yes, the tunnels would come in very handy. If I lived long enough to use them.

The labyrinth wasn’t without its interesting smells—I had a suspicion that homeless humans occasionally bedded down in the warmer corners—but I never got a whiff of William or Reedrek. As the last of the sun’s rays were sinking, I made my way back to William’s house, through the underground vault, and up to the kitchen. Melaphia and Olivia were sipping tea companionably at the table.

Melaphia started when I came into the kitchen. “Did you find him?”

“No. I couldn’t get a sense of him anywhere. I don’t guess you’ve heard from him either?”

“No.” Melaphia sat back and rubbed her forehead.

To my relief, Olivia looked pretty normal for a female vamp—not overly wan or woozy, and not under the influence of Reedrek. She was clear-eyed and serious. “How’re you feeling, Olivia?” I asked her. “Better, I hope.”

“Yes, much. Thanks,” she said sourly.
No thanks to you
seemed to hang unspoken in the air.

The two of them looked downright chummy. So much so that I felt a little uncomfortable when both their gazes settled on me at once. I didn’t have to wonder if Olivia had told Melaphia what had happened between us—the wild sex and how it had made her as weak as a limp noodle. I didn’t have to wonder because of the way Melaphia’s right eyebrow arched that certain way she had when she disapproved of something I’d done. It was the same sharp-sighted look that her mother had for me, and her mother before her, and so on as far back as I could remember. There were other, darker, looks as well, of course. Those were reserved for worse transgressions.

Embarrassed by having offended the sisterhood, I opened the fridge so I could hide my face for a spell pretending to look for a jar of blood. I found a pint jar of what looked like a good vintage (this week) and closed the refrigerator door.

I studied the jar lid as I opened it. “Good. I’m glad you’re feeling dandy.”
Don’t everybody talk at once,
I thought, and started drinking. While wandering the tunnels I’d debated with myself whether I should tell Melaphia what Connie had seen. I didn’t want to worry her, but I’d decided that she needed to know everything—if only because I didn’t know what the hell to do and I needed her help to figure out our next move.

“Mel, I ran into Connie at the garage, and she told me something unbelievable.” I told them what Connie had seen and described the neighborhood for Olivia’s benefit. “William must’ve taken Reedrek there to hunt. There’s no other explanation. But why? What the hell could he be up to? Do you think he’s got William . . . enthralled, like he tried with Olivia here?”

“Bloody hell,” Olivia muttered. She looked even more shaken by the news that William was hunting humans—even the criminal element—than Melaphia was. That was odd.

Melaphia pushed back from the table and began to pace, nervously twisting the fabric of her colorful broomstick skirt in her hands. “Okay, first let’s look on the bright side. William’s alive. He’s probably just humoring Reedrek, maybe trying to con him by ingratiating himself with the old devil.”

“That’s the best-case scenario,” Olivia agreed. “What if the worst should happen?”

Melaphia looked as if she’d been slapped. “Don’t go there.”

I finished draining the blood and set the jar on the counter a little too hard. Something told me that the worst that Olivia could think of happening was not necessarily the same worst that Melaphia could think of happening. It was as if I was developing a new and stronger sense of intuition since I’d powered up, so to speak.

I said, “If William doesn’t come back soon we won’t have to wonder ‘what if?’ Reedrek will come for me, and for you, Olivia. And God only knows what will happen then. Melaphia, I want you and Renee to get out of town for a while. I’m afraid—”

“I’ve already sent her to her aunt’s in Brunswick. I’m not going anywhere while William and you might need me.” Melaphia smoothed the wrinkles out of her skirt and set her jaw.

I held up my hands but then let them fall. “You’re all Renee’s got if something happens to us.”

I could see the effort it took for her to pull herself together. William was the only father she’d ever known. “I’m a
mambo
of Savannah, remember? I can hold my own. Believe me when I tell you I can take care of myself and my daughter.”

I knew it was useless to argue, and, besides, she was probably right. Melaphia’s strength had never really been tested. Yes, she’d helped William and me through some difficult situations with the local ne’er-do-wells, and some of her accomplishments had taken considerable skill. But she’d never had to face anything like the evil that we knew as Reedrek. “All right, then. What do you suggest that we do now?”

“I think what we should do is take care of business and trust that William will come back as soon as he gets away from Reedrek,” Melaphia said.

“What do you mean by ‘take care of business’?”

“We’ve got a party to throw.”

This damned party was something else I’d been thinking about as I searched the tunnels all day, and not only because I dreaded being in charge of it. “Look. What’s the point of going ahead with this thing? The purpose of it was to introduce Alger to society, and now he’s gone.”