The Vampire's Seduction (15 page)

“Good morning, Jack,” she said almost as an afterthought. “And, yes,” she purred, “what
is
going on?” She moved to the smooth metal surface of Jack’s “ride” and ran a hand along the black paint. “What does the number three stand for?” she asked him.

Jack, torn between wanting to impress Olivia and, I imagine, wanting to tear me limb from limb, stood glaring at me. Finally, he turned to her. “It’s the number of Dale Earnhardt’s race car.” When she didn’t react he continued, “He was the best NASCAR driver in history.”

“NAS—” Olivia shook her head. “Does that mean he’s famous?”

“Well, yeah,” Jack answered, hiking his hands on his hips like he’d been insulted. Then he remembered me.

“Of all the low-down dirty tricks. What’s the idea of stealing my coffin—and with me in it?”

I shrugged. “I didn’t want you to go off half-cocked and endanger us all. So I arranged for the dock crew to move you here—lock, stock, and coffin.”

“Did it ever occur to you to ask me?” He threw up his hands. “But what the hell? I guess slaves don’t have any say-so in their own lives.”

Melaphia, flanked by Reyha and Deylaud in their human forms, entered from the well-hidden door to the outside courtyard. Ignoring me, Reyha immediately went to Jack and slipped her arms around him. Another little rebellion. Jack flung an arm around Reyha, but otherwise ignored her presence.

“The captain doesn’t have any slaves,” Melaphia said, looking insulted. “He has those who love him.”

“And those who don’t,” Jack finished.

His declaration stung a bit more than it should have. What had I expected? Gratitude? “Love has never been a requirement,” I said. “But you
will
do as I say.” Melaphia opened an armoire and came forward with a blue velvet jacket. As I held out my arms she helped me into it.

“What about it, Melaphia? Don’t you get tired of taking his orders?” Jack persisted.

Melaphia paused and awarded Jack a long look. “Stop acting like a fool. I serve out of loyalty and love,” she said, as though nothing else existed. She continued to adjust the jacket. To me she said, “The blue has been blessed—the offering placed.”

The vial of blood . . .

“Thank you.”

Olivia, having pulled on her leather and lace, moved to stand on Jack’s other side. She slipped her hand into his, causing Reyha to bare her teeth. Olivia ignored the warning. “Don’t be angry, Jackie. He’s promised me he’ll tell us what’s up. That should be worth a trip across town.”

“It’s not the trip,” Jack groused. “He
never
asks, he just does what he pleases.”

“I would be pleased if you would stop acting like a petulant child. Let’s go upstairs to talk.” I raised a hand to indicate the way. As Olivia pulled Jack along, Reyha, feeling left out, trotted over to give me a belated morning kiss. She, at least, wasn’t holding a grudge. I stroked her hair. “I missed you last night.” Her usual good humor returned as though she’d forgotten any slight. We moved into the connecting passage, arm-in-arm, only to find Olivia and Jack blocking the way. They’d stopped between the first and second altar carved into the rock wall.

“What is this?” Olivia said, picking up one of the handmade dolls lined along the wooden shelf below the ever-lit candles. “I saw these last night but didn’t think to ask.”

Before I could reply, Melaphia plucked the doll from her hands. “It’s an offering to one of the
loa.
It’s been blessed by a sacrifice and shouldn’t be touched by a nonbeliever.”

Olivia glanced toward the other eleven stations along the corridor. Each contained an assortment of candles, dolls, and items of food or drink. She turned to me. “Believer in what?”

“The
hounsis canzo,
” I said, knowing the words would be of no help. “
Les invisibles
spirits.”

“Voodoo,” Jack said, sounding amazed at my admission.

It pleased me that he knew something about it. I hoped that would make it easier to explain that his blood called out to any manifestation of Lalee’s craft. “It’ll make more sense later.” I ushered them forward. I looked back as we reached the far end of the corridor and watched as Melaphia knelt before the altar that had been disturbed. She was beginning a chant to appease the
loa
for Olivia’s indiscretion. Just my luck she’d desecrated the altar for the
loa
of death. Oh, well. I would leave the problem in Melaphia’s capable hands.

Darkness had not thickened in the outside world yet so all the curtains in the house remained drawn. Our little growing family took up positions in the parlor while I poured blood drinks at the wet bar. Jack accepted his in silence but I could see he was on his last bit of patience. After serving the drinks I sat in a leather armchair facing the couch. Reyha sat on a pillow at my right hand, Deylaud in a chair to my left. I chose my words carefully.

“As you know, there’s a rogue vampire in Savannah. He’s already killed Alger and several of my employees—our friends.” I nodded toward Jack to indicate his little friend Huey. Jack nodded back but looked ready to leap to his feet if I didn’t get on with it. “What I haven’t told you is that he’s one of the old, violent sires. And I believe he’s here to kill me.”

Jack settled a bit but leaned forward, his drink untouched in his hand. “Why you? Because of the shipping?”

He was closer to the truth than he knew. I figured I might as well take him the rest of the way. “Yes, in part. That is what Olivia meant when she called me a legend. I’ve been smuggling vampires away from their sires so that they might live more independent lives.” The ramifications for Jack rang so loudly in my mind that I almost couldn’t continue. Jack had a good life, a fine life. The other offspring had been beleaguered and threatened. The distinction obviously wasn’t clear enough to Jack, however.

“I can relate to that,” he said. Then, as though to prove he was tougher than any other offspring, he knocked back his drink in one gulp, then belched to punctuate his contempt.

“The rogue vampire is called Reedrek, and he is my sire.”

Olivia sat up straighter. “We must call for help then. I’ve heard of Reedrek and his bully boys.”

She knew what I didn’t want to tell Jack. She knew I couldn’t kill my own sire. It was physically impossible for me to do so. In the wonderful world of vampires, sires could kill their offspring but not the other way round. My long-ago decision to keep Jack in the dark twisted like a fist in my gut. But what would Jack do if he knew how very vulnerable I was to Reedrek? Probably something stupid. He might even try to save me.

I hoped Olivia would just assume that Jack knew the facts of our offspring/sire relationship and not say it out loud. I also hoped my decision to trust Olivia wasn’t a tragic mistake, because I was about to disclose to her one of my most guarded secrets. “I have something I can use against him,” I continued. “You saw the altars in the passageway. Well, more than two hundred years ago, I met a woman named Lalee. She was a
mambo,
a voodoo priestess.” My memory fell back through two centuries, tripped by the indelible image of the first time I’d seen Lalee—at midnight out among the freshly dug graves of yellow fever victims—glowing in the dark like a lantern through smoked glass. She was one of the most beautiful humans I’d ever set eyes on—fine dusky golden skin, black shimmering hair like strands of jet beads hanging to her waist. Afterward I wasn’t sure if I’d found her in the graveyard or whether she’d summoned me there. Whatever the case, I’d had to come to her, speak to her, touch her.

“She knew me for what I was,” I went on slowly. “And we struck a bargain.” I didn’t say it was she who offered. I didn’t want to admit how powerless I’d been in the face of her faith. The faith in her spirits and charms. The faith that could spin a chant to wing penitent sinners to heaven or whisper a dirge to transport the damned quickly to hell. “Jack, you’re wearing a charm she made for me. A protection. But the real protection is in the gift of her blood—my mutated blood and, hopefully, yours as well, since we are blood kin.”

It was too soon to explain how powerful a charm Lalee’s blood in my veins might be, mainly because I hadn’t had to plumb the depths and invoke its unbridled nature. I’d only used it to innoculate the offspring who wished to escape their masters. Reedrek would be the first and most powerful challenge to my borrowed magic, and possibly the last.

“I’m not sure how the magic will serve me, but I plan to test it tonight. I’m going to find Reedrek, or let him find me, and see what occurs.”

There was a long silence in the room. Then Jack said, “So that’s it? That’s the plan? You’re gonna walk up to this monster and see what he can do to ya?” He rose to his feet and headed for the bar. “That’s the stupidest plan I’ve ever heard.”

“I’m afraid I have to agree,” Olivia said. “Reedrek might not be alone.”

“It’s the best I can do for now. Until I face him and know what I can do, I can’t make a better plan.” Jack stared at me, his anger clearly rising. “If Reedrek kills me, the two of you have to run. Leave Savannah by any means. As a matter of fact, you should probably leave tonight anyway.”

Jack slammed his glass down on the bar, hard enough to crack the mirrored top.

“Oh, for cryin’ in a bucket! I never thought I’d see the day when the biggest badass in the city would tell me to pick up my skirts and run like a girl.” He glanced at Olivia. “No offense.”

“None taken,” she answered. “And I can’t believe I’m hearing the great William Cuyler—a being idolized in England and Europe—speak in this manner.”

I shook my head. “You’re going to have to trust me as I trust Lalee. If there’s a way to stop Reedrek, it has to come through me and indirectly through her. But mark my words, if Reedrek wins, he will come for you. And you don’t want to know what he’s capable of.”

Images of the tortures that Reedrek’s twisted mind could conjure made my skin crawl—I’d already had a taste of his cruelty. The thought of him breaking Jack’s still in many ways human heart tore at me like claws. And Olivia, she of the wicked willfulness, would soon find her manner tamed. A shame on both counts. But, if I had to force Reedrek to kill me rather than take me, at least he might be put off Jack’s trail. What’s the fun of torturing the offspring when the sire is dead and unable to writhe in concert? Alger must have appreciated that sentiment.

“Hell, I don’t even know what
I’m
capable of,” Jack grumbled.

“If it’s any consolation, neither do I,” I admitted.

He gave me an incredulous look. “You mean you can’t even tell me how to fight him?”

“I can’t let you try.”

“Can’t, or won’t?”

“A little of both, I think.”

“Well, I’m not going anywhere until this is settled,” Jack declared.

Olivia stood and literally moved over to Jack’s side. “Neither am I,” she said. “If you leave us here and go off to face him alone, I, for one, will follow you.”

“Me too,” Jack added. “And after this is over, you and I are gonna have a long overdue sire-offspring talk. I’m sick of being left in the dark.”

I could feel the solid intention behind the threat. I could block Jack. But Olivia?—I wasn’t so sure. Better to keep them in my sight, I supposed. But having Jack and me in the same place—the same unprotected place—would be too much temptation for Reedrek to resist. After all, one of his triumphs had been to kill my first family in front of my eyes.

“You seem rather optimistic that when this is over we’ll all still be here and in undamaged condition.”

“Yep, my mama used to always say the boogieman you see is less scary than the one you dream about. Problem was, she lived with my old man, her own personal boogieman, until she died of a broken heart.”

I rubbed my hands together. “Well, on that optimistic note, I would say we have an agreement.”

Either Melaphia had been listening or she had the uncanny timing of the supernatural because she entered the room carrying a file folder.

“Before I leave, I need you to sign some things. And according to your computer, you have e-mail.”

“Thank you,” I said. I took the folder from her as though we were conducting business as usual. Most of the papers had to do with party preparation—the contracts for the food and drink. I signed without reading them, knowing that no one would dare cheat me. Grateful for the interruption, I left Jack and Olivia alone to lick their wounds or plot their plots while I went downstairs to my office.

I had a message from the Abductors. They reported that they were searching three separate locations in Amsterdam and felt sure they would succeed in freeing the two trapped females. Their whereabouts had been rumored for months, and now they had solid information. Three other messages detailed the present political situation on the Continent with regard to Reedrek. A tale was circulating that my volatile sire had had a falling-out with his collective of Eastern European henchmen. Apparently there was—pardon our vampire humor—bad blood between him and a protégé named Hugo.

If I’d had more time and fewer concerns I would have investigated the European news further. As it was, I needed to deal with Reedrek in Savannah no matter what had driven him to me. And I needed to do it before the leaders of the American clans arrived for the party.

The last two e-mails were from Alger’s people. One questioned whether Olivia had arrived safely and a second, which was puzzling indeed, read: “In the past, Alger forbade Olivia to contact you. Be aware she has her own agenda.”

It was obvious I had to keep a close eye on her. It wouldn’t be safe to leave her with Jack for any extended time. No telling what the two of them might cook up.

What’s the best place to call out a rogue vampire? Where the odd and the odder gather. Where the willing and not-so-willing blood is. In Savannah that would be a suitably dark goth club called Nine.

Jack

“God
damn
!” I banged on the door with both fists. “Fuck you, William! I’m not some snot-nosed kid you can just lock up until he does his homework or cleans his room!”