Vampire Miami (33 page)

She returned his grin, squeezed his hand, and
got out of the car. They made their way to the door, but Selah
couldn’t resist and broke into a run. Ran through the open doorway,
waved to Tyler and Burnel as they stood up in alarm, and on through
into the courtyard. Ignored everybody, the sudden questions, and
ran up the stairs. She just wanted to see her grandmother. Raced
down the hall to their door and opened it. Was suddenly seized by
panic: what if she had died? What if she hadn’t made it? What if
Karl had lied?

“Selah!” said Mama B from where she sat in her
armchair, wrapped in a blanket. Delight fanned through her face,
and she tried to climb out of her chair but Selah was in her arms
before she got more than halfway out. “Oh, Selah!”

They held each other tightly. Selah buried her
face in her grandmother’s chest, squeezed until Mama B protested,
laughing and pushing her away. “Mind my ribs! They’re not even
close to healed yet. You can’t go squeezing an old woman like
that.”

Selah leaned back and was about to tease her
when she stopped cold. Mama’s face had grown grave. “What’s
happened to your eyes …”

Selah pulled back and looked away. Mama B
reached out with two gentle hands and turned Selah’s face back,
tilted it up to the light. “Your eyes, honey. What in the Lord’s
name did they do to you?”

“It’s getting better,” she said quickly. “They
were pure black before. They’re clearing up.”

Mama B was shaking her head. “What happened,
girl?”

Selah took a deep breath, and then turned as
Cloud limped into the doorway, pushing his way through the gathered
throng. His face was pale once more, but he smiled bravely and
stepped inside. “Mrs. Brown.”

“Cloud!” There was genuine pleasure in her
voice, surprise and delight. “You’re alive! Praise be, come on over
here so I can get a good look at you. And the rest of you, close
that door! This ain’t no spectacle for you to be gawking at! Give
us some privacy.”

Cloud limped inside and pulled a chair over to
sit next to Mama B, who took his hand warmly in her own. “I never.
To see the both of you as you are now. Oh, what a blessing. Do we
have time to talk? Can you stay?”

“Sawiskera is dead,” said Selah. “Theo, the
Dragon, he’s leaving Miami. We don’t know who’s in charge of the
city. Everything is going crazy downtown.”

“And on the Beach too,” said Cloud. “And it all
went down just before sunrise. People will be too scared to act
today. Everybody will be frozen, waiting for the vampires to wake
up tonight.”

“So this is a good time to act,” said Mama B,
nodding firmly. “Now is the time to get to the embassy.”

“We just need to wait for my eyes to clear up,”
said Selah. She turned to Cloud. “How do they look now? Are they
better?”

He peered at her, and then reluctantly shook his
head. “Not yet.”

Selah forced the words out. “What—what if they
don’t change?”

“They will,” said Cloud.

“What happened?” Mama B’s voice was sharp. “What
did they do to you?”

“A ritual,” said Selah. “The vampire king. He
said he was tired of life as a vampire. Said he was going to steal
my humanity, make me a vampire in his place. But it was
interrupted. It didn’t get finished.”

Mama B frowned at her, Cloud equally silent.
Selah looked from one to the other, panic rising in her chest. “No
change? None at all?”

Cloud shook his head.

“Well, we have to act today. Whatever we do, we
can’t wait,” said Mama B. “If we go to the embassy, they might just
consider her a vampire and turn her over to Plessy.”

Selah shivered and hugged her arms. Closed her
eyes. Her vision remained completely normal, but the thought of
looking out at the world with gray and black eyes chilled her.

They sat in silence. “Well,” said Cloud at last.
“We can’t just sit around. Maybe we can head over to the general’s
and see if he has any better ideas.”

Mama B drummed her fingers on the arm of her
chair, and scowled. “We can’t risk them thinking you’re some kind
of vampire. And the general struck me as a man of good sense. He
might have something to say worth hearing.”

They collected Maria Elena, who had suffered a
concussion and some cuts, and piled into Cloud’s new car. They
cruised out into the General’s neighborhood until he parked before
the general’s home. Selah gazed at the front door. Thought of Joey
and Cassie, of Cholly. How they had been here not so long ago.

Cloud spoke into the security speaker, and the
general waved them in. Inside the kitchen the morning light was
resplendent across the cabinetry and broad kitchen counter. General
Adams didn’t quite hug any of them, but he shook their hands, which
was clearly the closest he could come to open affection. He then
sat them all down with breakfast and coffee and heard them out.

When Selah finished her last part of the tale,
he stared off into space, thinking. Selah cupped her coffee in both
hands and inhaled the bitter aroma. They waited, staring at the
general, waiting for him to provide the solution.

“Well. I’ll be damned. I’ve never heard the
like. Ancient vampire lore is beyond me. You tell me the ritual was
interrupted, but it’s gone past 10 a.m. and your eyes remain the
same as they were at dawn. It may very well be that what was done
is irreversible.”

Selah tried to stay calm. To not immediately
break in and contradict him, explain in reasonable terms that he
was absolutely wrong and that she was going to be just fine.

“That said, you are welcome to wait here for as
long as you like. We can run some basic tests on your blood from my
office. I don’t have anything approximating a proper lab, but we
can see what we can detect, especially since we can contrast it
with your previous sample.”

“All right,” said Selah when everybody turned to
her. “Let’s wait till this afternoon. Maybe by then.”

Cloud passed out on the couch, and Maria Elena
spent time with Selah, working on her hair and gently pressing for
details about what had happened. Eventually Mama B pulled Selah
away and brought her to the general as he examined her blood. He
took a sample, pressed it between two slides of glass, and looked
at it under a microscope. He did the same with her older sample,
and after a tense twenty minutes, arose to consult his books. Tried
some different tests that Selah couldn’t follow, and then sat down,
face drawn, expression concerned.

“This isn’t good. I’ll speak to the point.
Though my test was incredibly basic, I can tell that your blood has
changed. Mutated somehow. I’m guessing that it’s because of the
vampiric influence. It doesn’t correspond exactly to what my
textbooks state vampire blood should look like, nor does it react
in the same manner to certain stimulants, but it does seem to have
been strikingly affected by this ritual you underwent.”

Mama B clasped Selah’s hand tightly. “What does
this mean?”

“I have no clue.” He frowned at his hands. “I am
but an amateur chemist. This is far beyond me. I know next to
nothing of vampire biology. However, one thing I do know, and that
is the military complex and government. If you go to them in this
condition, they will want to tear you apart and see what makes you
tick. It would not be a pleasant experience. In essence, you might
simply be exchanging slavery in this city for a similar state in a
national lab.”

Selah shook her head. “No.”

“Further, who is to say that your blood in its
current condition could be of any use in resisting vampires? That
which made it unique before has undoubtedly been corrupted. Thus
our original purposes may no longer be valid.”

“Oh, honey,” said Mama B, but Selah didn’t want
comfort. She stood up.

“I’m not going to let them hide me away in a
lab. I need to find a way to reverse this. To get this taint out of
me.” She began to pace, trying to restrain herself, not lash out,
break things.

“Well,” said the general, “this effect took
place while you were undergoing the ritual. Perhaps there is
somebody who knows how this ritual works, and can run it in
reverse.”

Mama B nodded. “Yes. Exactly! We just need to
find somebody who knows this ritual and get them to cleanse
you.”

“Right,” said Selah, trying to keep the
bitterness from her voice. “I’m sure there are dozens of vampires
who know this incredibly ancient ritual here in Miami, and who
would be just glad to help me out.”

Mama B subsided. The general tapped his lip.
“Perhaps the answer doesn’t lie in Miami, then.”

“Then where? A government lab? No thank
you.”

“No,” said the general. “Miami isn’t the only
vampire city. There is another where elder vampires exist. Where
one may live who knows the answer to this problem.”

Selah stopped and stared at him. “LA. You’re
talking about going to LA?”

The general shrugged. “You can’t ask for help
here in Miami. You can’t risk going to the government, especially
since they will probably have no answers and only a million
questions. So. LA.”

Mama B shook her head. Selah stared at the
general. “And Mama B? Maria Elena?”

“I can probably negotiate something. I do, after
all, have the uncorrupted samples of your blood. Perhaps I can
force the government’s hand. I’ll give them the vials if they take
Mrs. Brown and your friend too.”

“What about yourself?” asked Mama B.

The general smiled mirthlessly. “I don’t intend
to leave. Not while anybody else is trapped behind these
walls.”

Selah thought quickly, fighting to smother her
sudden hope. “If I were to go to LA, I’d be able to learn more
about the Blood Dust. Be able to figure out where it came from, and
maybe…” She looked at Mama B, who did her best to return her smile.
Looked back to the general. “But then I still need to escape the
city.”

“One step at a time,” said the general. “Let us
agree that this is the only course of action available to us, and
take it from there.”

The rest of the evening passed quietly. Selah
stepped out onto the porch with Mama B and they sat in two rocking
chairs to watch afternoon turn into dusk. Mama B held her hand as
they rocked back and forth quietly, and finally Selah could hold it
back no more. She turned to her grandmother as tears filled her
eyes.

“Mama, I’m so sorry.” Mama B shook her head, but
Selah spoke on. “Since I arrived. I thought I was so adult.
Sacrificing everything for dad. Trying to save him. But all I did
was ruin things. Hurt people. I thought I was being so brave, but I
was just being foolish. Now you’re out of your home, and Cloud’s
friends are dead, and Cholly—“ She couldn’t go on, and the pang of
grief that creased Mama’s face was too much. She slid out of her
chair and onto her knees and buried her head in Mama B’s lap as the
sobs wracked her frame.

Mama B gently stroked her hair and held her
tight, and Selah cried as her regret and grief rolled through her
like vast beachcombers washing up upon the shore. She thought of
Cholly, of his love for Mama B and the question he would now never
get to ask her. She thought of Cassie and Joey, of how briefly they
had been a presence in her life, but how much they had sacrificed
for her. She shook her head and moaned, and her tears
redoubled.

”There, there,” said Mama B. She held Selah
until her sobs grew softer, and then lifted her chin. “Selah,
listen to me. I love you.” Selah looked up at Mama B’s face, and
saw in her eyes and smile such a sweet tenderness and compassion
that her tears stopped altogether. Mama B cupped her cheek. “Do you
hear me? I love you, child, and always will. This world—this world
is what it is. A great and beautiful and terrible place. It breaks
people down and lifts them up on high. It ends dreams and mocks us
and blesses us and teaches us the value of love and humility. There
is no question that you have brought change. That you have been an
agent of change here in Miami. Sawiskera is dead because of you.
We’ve lost good friends, but Joey, Cassie, Cholly—they died doing
what they thought was right. For a reason. Your blood, it carries
the potential to change this world. They saw that, and they decided
to risk everything for that chance. You didn’t kill them. They died
so that you can continue to change things, but not just here in
Miami. Everywhere.”

Selah rubbed her sleeve across her eyes, and
shook her head. Mama B pressed on. “I feel their loss as deeply as
you, and I will never forget the good and wonderful man that Cholly
was.” Mama B pressed her lips together as she struggled with her
emotions, but then she nodded and continued. “A wonderful man. But
child, that is the nature of this world. We cannot control it. We
cannot hope for fairness, or justice. We can only do the very best
that we can, and when we have the chance to make a difference, to
help others, to make this world a better place, than that is the
most sacred and grave responsibility that any one person can
have.”

Mama B stroked Selah’s hair once more, and
managed a tender smile. “That is your responsibility now. You have
to live up to it. You have to continue growing and making a
difference. That is how you honor Cassie, Joey, and Cholly. You do
everything that you can, you fight to make a difference, and you
will see that one day, if you manage, you’ll find a peace within
yourself and the life you’ve lived that will make you look at this
world with a wonder and joy made all the deeper and more powerful
for all the pain you’ve had.”

Selah swallowed and nodded her head. She lay her
head back down on Mama B’s lap and looked out over the wild lawn to
the street beyond. Mama B continued to stroke her hair, and for a
long time they just sat there, Mama B rocking gently, neither
speaking. Dusk finally fell, and with a groan Mama B stood up.
“Come on. Let’s see what the general’s got cooking for dinner.”