Blood Game (30 page)

She didn’t blame him. In this moment, Caleb was truly intimidating. She had become accustomed to him in the past days and was no longer constantly aware of the power she had noticed on that first meeting. But it was as if he’d suddenly shrugged off a casual cloak to reveal authority, menace, and a deadliness that shocked her. He exuded, radiated, shimmered with it.

He started to walk toward Jelak.

“Stay away.” Jelak lifted his gun in panic.

“Why? You’re so strong. You used all their blood to make you that way. All their strength and intelligence and will.”

“You’re still angry about Maria Givano.” His lip curled. “She was nothing. I thought I’d get a jump start to the resurrection with her. It was too good an opportunity to miss. I had to experiment when I found out that she might have the power.”

“You made a mistake.”

“Yes, she had no power.”

“No, your mistake was killing her. It’s going to bring you down.” He took another step forward. “You’re still so much weaker than I am. You’re shaking. Your blood is pounding. You’re feeling it, aren’t you?”

“No.” Jelak’s voice was hoarse. “I’m strong. And I’ll be stronger when I kill you.” His finger started to squeeze the trigger.

“No!” Eve jumped forward, jerking Jelak’s gun aside.

“Bitch!” His hand swung around and knocked her to the floor.

“Keep down, Eve,” Caleb called as he moved forward. “It’s okay.”

Okay? Jelak was going to kill him.

“Stay away from me, Caleb.” Jelak was firing as he dove behind a pew.

Caleb had a gun, Eve knew. Why wasn’t he shooting back?

Another shot.

The wood on the pew next to Caleb splintered as a bullet plowed into it.

“I told you that your hand was shaking,” Caleb said.

A bullet suddenly grazed Eve’s cheek.

“Stay away, or I’ll kill her,” Jelak said. “I’ll do it, Caleb.”

“The hell you will.” Joe was suddenly beside Eve, shoving her to one side and putting his body between her and Jelak. “Stop wasting time. Get the son of a bitch, Caleb.”

Joe. Safe. Alive. Her arms closed around him.

“Keep her out of the way.” Caleb’s gaze was fastened on Jelak. “Put the gun down, Jelak.”

Two shots plowed erratically into the altar to the left of Caleb.

“Missed again. Give up, Jelak.”

“I won’t give up. I’ll be as strong as you. Stronger.”

“Well, it wouldn’t matter if you gave up anyway. I’d actually prefer that you didn’t. But you know what’s coming, don’t you? Your teacher Donari told you what to expect if I caught up with you. That’s why you’ve been on the run.”

“It won’t happen.” He fired again at Caleb. “That was a lie. Even if it wasn’t, I’m too close to resurrection for you to be able to—stay back!” It was a scream.

Caleb kept coming. “It wasn’t a lie. Donari told you many lies, but that wasn’t one of them. I knew the night that you killed Maria Givano that was the way you were going to die.”

“I won’t die. I’ll be a god.”

“No, you played the Blood Game all these years, and now you’ve lost. It’s time to give the blood back.” He was within a few feet of Jelak now. “No resurrection. Never.”

“No!” Jelak jumped to his feet and started running toward the anteroom. “I’ll get away from you. Just a few more kills. I’ll start again and—” He stopped, his hands going to his throat.

He screamed.

Eve wanted to scream, too, as she saw his face. It was contorted, flushed, and, as she watched, blood began to trickle out of his eyes like dark tears.

“Just a little blood now,” Caleb said. “I want the pain to start. Convulsions, I think. Do you know that convulsions can break your bones?”

Jelak was falling, his whole body shuddering, shaking with the force of the convulsions.

“Did any ribs break yet?” Caleb asked. “They will, Jelak.”

Jelak was trying to crawl away, but he started howling with pain as the convulsions increased. “Make it—stop.” He looked pleadingly back over his shoulder. “I’ll do anything to—”

“Yes, you will,” Caleb said. “And it will stop soon. I’ve no intention of a having a broken rib shatter and pierce your heart. It would be too easy. Just a minute more.”

Eve flinched as Jelak screamed again. She could almost feel his agony.

“Now it’s time for the blood,” Caleb said.

The convulsions abruptly stopped.

“Give it all back,” Caleb said softly. “All the blood you stole. All the kills, all the lives. First the blood tears, then the rush to the brain that will cause massive strokes.” He was moving slowly toward him again. “Do you feel it? Oh yes, I see that you do. They’re coming. Your eyes are rolling back in your head.”

Jelak was whimpering.

“But you haven’t given up all the blood you took. It has to be everything. Now it’s the end of the game.”

Jelak began to gasp as blood began to pour out of his mouth.

He was choking painfully on the blood, Eve realized. He couldn’t get his breath. She wanted to look away but she couldn’t take her eyes from his face.

He was trying to speak, his gaze fixed on Caleb, blood pouring from his lips. He tried to scream.

“That should do it,” Caleb said. “How’s your resurrection going, Jelak?”

A gurgling, a gasp, and Jelak’s body was jerking, shuddering with the force of the blood leaving his body.

Caleb bent over him and looked deep into his eyes. “It’s over. You’re dying. No power. No immortality. You know that, don’t you? I want you to know that you’re nothing.”

And that desperate realization of final defeat was in Jelak’s eyes.

Caleb straightened. “Burn in hell, Jelak.”

Jelak arched upward, then he was still.

Caleb stood looking down at him for a long moment.

Then he turned and walked out of the cathedral.

“DEAR GOD,” EVE WHISPERED, her gaze on Jelak’s body. “What happened? What did he do to him?”

“I don’t believe there’s any question what he did to him,” Joe said. “Just how he did it.”

She shuddered. “No wonder Jelak was running from him if he thought he could do that to him.”

“Personally, I enjoyed the hell out of it.” Joe got to his knees. “I wanted him dead, and Caleb obliged. Though I’d rather have done it myself.”

“Joe . . .” She had suddenly become aware of the multitude of dagger cuts all over his torso. She put her hand out to touch one on his shoulder. “He did that to you . . .”

“I’m okay.”

“You’re not okay.” She saw a two-inch cut in the flesh on his upper back that looked as if it had been hacked out. Just the pain he’d undergone for that wound alone must have terrible. “We need to get you to a doctor.”

He nodded. “Let’s get it over with. Those stitches may hurt as much as Jelak’s carving.”

“I don’t think so.” She was suddenly not feeling nearly as full of horror as she stared back at Jelak. “Bastard. I wish Caleb had made him suffer more.”

“It was probably sufficient. Stroke, brain hemorrhaging, and suffocation.” He took her arm. “And none of it can be proved in any court of law.”

“But we saw it.”

“Even if we testified, which neither of us is inclined to do, we’d be laughed out of court. Jelak died of natural causes.”

“Blood,” Eve said. “The blood killed him.”

“That’s apparently the way Caleb wanted it. The final irony.”

They had come out of the church, and Eve took a deep breath of the cool night air. Only a short time had passed since she had entered the cathedral, but she felt as if she had been in there for a century.

But Joe was safe. Jelak was dead. There would be no more deaths, no more danger from a man who thought he was destined to be a vampire god.

“Okay?” Joe was looking down at her.

She nodded. “You’re the one who is all cut to pieces. I’m going to call Jane and tell her you’re alive and functioning and to meet us at the hospital. I know you have to call the precinct and tell them about Jelak.” She took his hand. “But then can we just go home?”

“That sounds good to me. I’m afraid they’ll find more bodies in that cathedral than Jelak’s, but someone else can do that investigation. They can get our statements tomorrow. I’ll have them send someone to the cottage.” He smiled. “After all, I have an excuse. I’ll have the hospital tell the department to put me on sick leave.”

THE SUN FELT WARM AND soothing on Joe’s bare back as he stretched out on the bank of the lake. He smelled the fresh scent of pine and the good clean earth. It was a day when it felt good to be alive.

“Your back still looks terrible,” Nancy Jo said. “Maybe you should have plastic surgery or something.”

“I don’t care about whether I’m a pretty boy or not.” He rolled over to see her sitting a few feet away. “But I might have to have something done to keep Eve from flinching for me every time she sees them. It’s only been a few days. The scars will fade.” He smiled. “It feels really good to get some sun on them.”

She nodded. “I can’t feel sunlight yet. Bonnie says it will take a while.”

“If you decide that you want to stick around. Are you sure there’s not something better around the corner?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t know. But I don’t think I can leave Daddy yet. He needs me.”

“I needed you,” Joe said quietly. “And you came through for me. Thank you, Nancy Jo.”

“I couldn’t let you die.” She shook her head. “And I couldn’t let Jelak win. It would have been horrible. I just had to think of a way to do it. It was Bonnie who showed me how.”

“Bonnie, again.”

Nancy Jo nodded. “She said you had to live.”

“I’m glad the two of you agreed on that point.” He put on his shirt but didn’t bother to button it. “Are you sure your father still needs you? Or is it that you need him?”

“Probably both. But I wouldn’t stay if I didn’t think that it was the best thing for him. He can’t find his way right now. It’s important that he not go down the wrong path.” She smiled. “He wanted to be president. He thought he could help people. I know he can still do it. He just needs someone to nudge him along and keep him from being lonely.”

“That’s an important job, but I can’t think of anyone who could fill it better than you, Nancy Jo.”

She smiled impishly. “I can’t either. With a little help from my friends. But I might get lonely too. Do you mind if I drop in now and then to see you?”

“It would be my pleasure.”

Her smile faded. “You mean that?”

He nodded. “My extreme pleasure.” He chuckled. “After all, you’re the perfect friend. You have very few demands.”

“I demanded you get Jelak.”

“That was an understandable exception.”

“I can’t promise I might not ask something again. I can’t just stand around and watch something go wrong.”

“Then we’ll worry about it when you do.”

She nodded. “You’d be much better off having Bonnie for a friend. But she says that there’s something standing in the way.” She looked at him searchingly. “And I think she’s right. You’re closing up, Joe.”

“Am I? Then maybe she’s right, and there are a few obstacles that are difficult to overcome.”

“Not for her. She’s a great problem solver. She’s helped me along any number of times.”

“Then it must be me.” He got to his feet. “I’m going back to the cottage.”

“Because you don’t want to talk to me about Bonnie.” Nancy Jo was frowning. “Why not? I’d think you’d want to talk to—”

“Nancy Jo, stop being pushy.” He strolled back toward the cottage. “You know the trick. It’s time to do your vanishing act.”

CALEB WAS GETTING OUT of his car when Joe arrived back at the cottage. He stood waiting as Joe walked up the path. “You’re looking better than the last time I saw you. No permanent damage?”

Joe shook his head. “What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to say good-bye. I’m going to go back to Scotland.” He paused. “And I wanted to express my appreciation for your discretion in making your report. It could have been awkward.”

“Discretion? I only told the truth. Jelak attacked you, but you didn’t try to defend yourself. Then Jelak had a massive stroke and hemorrhage and died. The captain thought it was a bit convenient, but the autopsy bore it out.” He paused. “Otherwise, I would have hung you out to dry. I won’t have Eve being under suspicion for making a false statement.”

He nodded. “You had to protect her.” He glanced at the wounds on Joe’s body. “From Jelak, from me, from the whole damn world. I respect that quality in you.”

“When you’re not trying to shoot me.”

He smiled. “You got in my way. I was in hunt mode. I told you I wouldn’t have given you a serious wound.”

“Hunt mode,” he repeated. “That’s quite an arsenal you used on Jelak.”

“A small talent, but my own. Not anything as interesting as communing with spirits.”

“Not a small talent. Very deadly. Was Jelak special, or is it your common modus operandi?”

He was silent. “I think I’ll let you work that out for yourself.”

“I’ve already started. I contacted the Italian police. In the last ten years there have been a number of massive strokes among the cult group that originated in Fiero. What a coincidence.”

“But none that appeared to be anything but natural deaths. Isn’t that right?”

“That’s right.”

“Then you have your answer.” He smiled. “And now, with your permission, I’d like to go inside and say good-bye to Eve and Jane. I feel as if I’ve grown very close to them.”

“When you weren’t using them.”

He nodded. “When I wasn’t using them. I had to strike a delicate balance.”

Joe stared at him in disbelief. “You actually mean that.”

“Of course. You’re a man who sees only one path and forges forward on it to the end. I have to walk many paths, and when I see quicksand, I have to skirt around it.”

“And do a balancing act.”

He smiled. “Exactly. Now may I go in and see Jane and Eve?”

Joe stared at him for a moment, then turned and strode up the steps. “If they want to see you. I’ll ask them.”

“They’ll want to see me.” Caleb leaned back on the door of his car. “They’re two women who like to put a period at the end of an episode. Good-bye is a period.”

SEVENTEEN

“I’LL MISS SITTING HERE and looking at your lake.” Caleb took the cup of coffee Jane handed him and leaned back against the post railing, his hand lazily stroking Toby’s head. “I don’t think that I’ve ever felt quite so peaceful as I have in those moments.”