Undead and Unwelcome (13 page)

absence; it seems there are always strangers in the house. Neither Marc nor Laura has

said anything to me about them, so I am respecting their privacy and assuming they are

trying to fill the void left by the absence of you and the queen.
I trust this finds you and

Her Majesty well. If you require anything of me, do not hesitate to contact me at once. In

the meantime, I have FedExed copies of the contracts for your most recently acquired

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properties. Please review them at your leisure, sign them if they are satisfactory, and

return them to me. I will then take the next step.
My love and fealty to you both.
—Tina

“See?” I whined. “Why can’t I get e-mails like that? Not only is it clear and

understandable, it’s in English!” “My love, what in the world are you talking about?”

“Look!” I stabbed a finger at the printout of Marc’s latest rambling.
hey, grrrrl, miss you

bad. things out here are BTW, but I’ve got a handle on it. Laura says howdy and wants

you to GBH ASAP. tell your magically delicious hubby to answer tina’s e-mails; the grrl

is FRO! later, marc.
“I have no idea what he’s talking about,” I muttered. “This might as

well be in French.” “What is a FRO?” Sinclair asked, studying the printout. “My point!

How should I know? When I send an e-mail, I actually spell words out.
And
use

punctuation.” “Light of my life, while I enjoy tirelessly listening to your never-ending

litany of complaints, I believe we have slightly more pressing matters to discuss. For

example, your attempted murder. And our appearance before the Council.” “Yeah, yeah.

But we’re getting back to this e-mail thing.” We’d been back in our suite for about twenty

minutes. The first thing Sinclair did was strip me out of my ruined suit and blouse and

examine me from head to toe. It was a waste of time—I was fine. But sometimes there

was no talking to the stubborn cuss I had married. “So, dish.” I had put BabyJon down for

a midnight nap and was lying on our bed, covertly feeling my chest now and again. Nope,

no gaping holes. “What happened after I got stabbed?” “Oh, the usual. Pandemonium.

Violence. Threats. More violence.” “You suck at narratives.” He bowed his head

modestly. I knew I was wasting my breath (so to speak). Sinclair wasn’t about to confess

that he’d been scared out of his mind yet again. He liked to play it cool, even with me.

“Logically, your attempted murder can only help us.” “Gee, thanks. So glad to be of

service.” I sat up and swung my right leg out to kick him in the shin, which he neatly

avoided. “Elizabeth, you know exactly what I mean.” “Michael’s humiliated and mortified,

which the Council will pick up on? Like that?” “Yes. Like that.” “They must have been

pretty surprised when I got up off the floor.” He grinned. “Yes, indeed. Once I was able to

remove the chair leg from your sternum, you woke up almost instantly—and healed as

quickly.” “Glad to be of help. That Sara girl was nice. She was about the only one who

was nice.” He shrugged and eased out of his jacket. “Give them time. Your warped charm

will eventually win them over.” “Hypocrites. Is it just me, or did Antonia never get a call

or a visit from these guys the whole time she was living with us?” “It is not just you. But

take comfort in the fact that in the last year of her life Antonia found love and happiness

with us. Something she apparently could not get out here.”
That
was sad. These yo-yos

were supposed to be her family. But nobody had much cared until she was killed. Hell,

they hadn’t even known she was in a committed relationship with another vampire—

Garrett, who had killed himself about four seconds after he’d realized the love of his life

was dead. It was all too awful to contemplate and for a moment I envied Jessica, lying in a

dark bedroom and sleeping through this entire rotten mess. But that was no way to be; it

certainly didn’t solve anything. We had to move forward—even if it meant leaving some

people behind.

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Chapter 29

Dude,
It’s really hard to write this. I’m embarrassed and mad at myself. But I’d better

get it off my chest, so listen up.
I can pinpoint the exact moment I realized the shit was

hitting the fan. It was the next morning, long after Tina had retired for the day. I was

minding my own business, wolfing down a bowl of Special K and reading the latest John

Sandford novel, when Laura bopped in.
She seemed more cheerful than usual, which was

nice, because she’d been awfully stressed since Betsy and Sinclair left. And she looked

even prettier than usual—and Laura was a beautiful girl—with her buttercup yellow

sweater and faded jeans, her blond hair pulled back in its perpetual pony-tail, big eyes

bright and sparkling.
“Morning!” she chirped, sitting across from me. “Did I get any

calls?”
“Uh, no. Are you expecting one?”
“Sure. I had this great idea and I have you to

thank for it. I’ll hopefully find out today if it worked.”
Dude, I should have followed up

right then. But I didn’t. I figured she was involved with some church thing, or was

working on a project for school. I’m an ER resident, not a shrink. How was I supposed to

know she’d lost her mind?
Yeah, I know. It’s all just a bunch of crap justification now. I

should have been paying closer attention, and I wasn’t. That’s the long and short of it.

“It’s going to solve a lot of problems,” Laura continued, and I admit I was barely

listening to her. “I’ve just been so worried about Betsy ever since she almost died (again)

when Antonia got shot.”
“Betsy’s always almost dying again.” I was a little more

sanguine about the vampire queen’s resilience; I had seen many, many strange things

since Betsy stopped me from killing myself a couple years back. “She’s like our own

personal Kenny.”
“Kenny?”
“From
South Park
. Pop culture reference; sorry.” Laura

tended to stick to network news and the Food Network. A single episode of
South Park

would horrify and disgust her. Sometimes the show horrified me, too, but I was still

addicted to it. Nobody’s perfect.
“Where’s Tina?”
“Conked out in her room—you know

how it is with her. She won’t be going anywhere until the sun’s down.”
“I have something

for her,” Laura said vaguely. “And some people want to see her.”
“Great.” I yawned.

New vampires were always stopping by the mansion to pay their respects. “Thank God

it’s my day off. I need a break from sick people.”
Laura giggled. “That’s an odd thing

for a doctor to say.”
“Honey, all doctors say it. Just not around patients.”
“I’m sure

that’s—”
The phone rang and Laura leaped to her feet, practically sprinting to get it

before it rang again. I rolled my eyes; probably some church wanted her to run a fund-

raiser or some such thing. Or maybe PBS was running another pledge drive.
“Yes?

Hello?” She paused, listening. “Okay, great! That’s just great . . . uh-huh . . . really?

Oh, you didn’t!” She laughed, then paused again. “Uh-huh . . . you are? Terrific. Then

I’ll see you in a bit. Thanks very much.” She hung up.
“Good news?” I yawned.
“The

best news. Okay, well, I’ve got to go. See you.”
“Bye,” I said vaguely, and I was back

into my book before she got to the front door.
So, so careless. Not to mention stupid. It’s

all fine and good to say now “How was I supposed to know?” except I had seen the effect

the devil worshippers had on Laura. I should have been suspicious of her 180, instead of

focusing on my own problems.
But I wasn’t.
And, though I didn’t know it, it was already

too late.

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Chapter 30

You mean someone killed you again? And I missed it?” Jessica groaned and covered her

face. “Damn! I was washing puke from my clothes while you were getting murdered . . .

Dammit!” “You didn’t miss much,” I soothed. “Just me picking a fight with a bunch of

werewolves, getting stabbed, Sinclair kicking the crap out of my stabber, me waking up,

and then everybody taking off.” “Oh, sure. Sounds like a real snooze-fest. So what

happens next?” “We’re supposed to meet the Council tonight.” “Why?” I shrugged. I was

still a little vague on that myself. Jessica and I were having a late-afternoon drink in the

sitting room of my suite. Because it was barely five o’clock, BabyJon was still asleep, and

so was Sinclair. I had my own thoughts about that, but kept them to myself. See, Sinclair

could move around during the day, he just couldn’t go outside. The fact that he was

choosing to stay under told me he was storing up his strength for whatever ordeal lay

ahead. And, typical of Sinclair, he wasn’t telling me any of the things he was worrying

about. “So, what?” Jess was saying, blowing on her hot chocolate. “You tell them what

happened, and they do what?” “I have no idea.” “You shouldn’t even be talking to them.”

“What?” Jessica sipped. Blew. Sipped again. “You did what you had to do. Just like

Antonia. So why should you have to explain yourself to a bunch of strangers who

apparently never gave that poor girl a thought once she blew town?” “It’s why we came

out here,” I said. “We knew we’d have to face the music one way or another.” “I don’t

like it. I never liked it. You shouldn’t take the defensive.” I shrugged. “Let’s see how it

plays out. A few hundred people noticed last night that I’m pretty tough to kill. And—

holy crap, I forgot to tell you about what happened with the baby!” I summed it up for

Jess, who was amazed. “Come on. Michael really forgot you brought a
baby
out here?”

“He totally, completely did.” “Weird.” “Tell me! And Derik freaked out again.” “Here all

this time we thought werewolves were vulnerable to silver bullets, when it’s dirty diapers

that they fear.” I snorted with laughter, nearly spilling my own cup of cocoa. “Oh, and I

met this really nice woman—” “Let me guess: not a werewolf.” “No, but she’s married to

one. She was really nice, for a crazy lady.” “That’s what they said about Lorena Bobbitt.”

I shook my head at her. Jess could always cheer me up. She could always put things in

perspective for me. I hadn’t wanted her to come on this trip, but now I was glad she had.

“This whole thing has me thinking.” “I’ll call the newspapers,” she replied. “Maybe even

take a picture of you thinking and post it on a website somewhere. Dammit again! My

phone’s on the plane with Cooper.” “I’m sure they have phones here if you need to make

a call.” “Not this time. You’re the one I always call—God knows why—and you’re just

across the hallway. By the way, these walls aren’t soundproofed. You think you can keep

it down while you’re making the beast with two backs?” “Knock it off, you bitch. I’ve

been thinking that Michael and I are very different kinds of leaders.” “Well, you don’t like

to lead anybody. You’ve been saying since day one that vampires should police

themselves.” “Right. But see, Michael knows how many werewolves are in the Pack. He

knows where they live and who they are. But me, not so much. I have
no
idea how many

vampires are running around. And even if I did, I’d have no idea how to get in touch with

them. Say, God forbid, there’s a war between vamps and weres. We’d be fucked, because

the werewolves are a species. They’re born werewolves and they know who they are and

where they’re going. But vampires are made.
Violently
made. So why should they feel any

loyalty to other vampires? I sure don’t. I mean, I’m loyal to Tina and Sinclair, but they’re

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) family. None of the other vamps are.” “So there you are.” “What?” “Now you know what

you’ve got to do.” “Terrific. Care to share with the rest of the class?” “Prevent a war. At

all costs, prevent a war. Because it sounds to me like you’d lose, and lose big.” For once,

Jessica wasn’t teasing. She looked very sober and she was gripping her cup so hard her

hands shook. “You can’t afford it, Betsy. None of us can.” “They don’t know I’ve got the

devil’s daughter on my side.” “You really want to put Laura through that? That girl’s

already walking a fine line between too good and really nuts.” “You’re right. It’d be a

rotten thing to do.” But I made a mental note to keep it in mind. If worse came to worst,

we’d fight. And if worse came to terrible, I had the devil’s daughter as my secret weapon.

I guess that’s what being a leader meant. Using people for your own ends, even if you