The Tome of Bill Series: Books 5-8 (Goddamned Freaky Monsters, Half A Prayer, The Wicked Dead, The Last Coven)

by Rick Gualtieri

  “I know.”

  She let out a breath and both the glow as well as the sigils vanished. “I need to lie down for a bit. Junior’s been kicking the hell out of me this past hour.”

  “Junior?”

  “I figured you’d like that better than Harry.”

  “It definitely doesn’t make my skin crawl as much.”

  She chuckled softly. “If they’re not back by the time I get up, I can try scrying for them, or Sally at least.”

  “Fair enough.” I turned to leave.

  “Bill,” she called after me. “You’re doing the right thing.”

  “Worrying about them? Why wouldn’t I?”

  “No, letting me come along.”

  I cocked an eyebrow. “You didn’t give me much choice in the matter.”

  “True.”

  “I’m not happy about it.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest and looked away. “I don’t think any of us are.”

  “So are you going to zap Tom?” Following Christy’s winning argument, Tom had insisted that if she was going, then he was as well – completely ignoring everything that had been said about his current lack of faith. Another twenty minutes and he’d worn us down. Even so, that didn’t mean I was cool with it.

  “No. It wouldn’t be fair to him.”

  “Keeping him safe isn’t fair?”

  “The betrayal of trust. I mean, he’s the man I’m planning on spending the rest of my life with. I can’t keep mind-wiping him whenever it’s convenient for me. I think you can understand that.”

  She was right; I could. What she’d just described was essentially how the vast majority of the vampire world handled things – compelling those weaker than them to do as bidden. Speaking of which... “Oh crap. Compulsion.”

  “What about it?” Christy asked, leaning against her door.

  “Getting gutted is only half the danger out there. A vampire even a fraction of Vehron’s age is gonna be able to throw around compulsions like a Frisbee. Me and Sheila are immune. I think Ed might be too, but who knows how things work with him now? You, Sally, and Tom aren’t, though. Hell, I’m pretty sure Tom has some extra susceptibility to them.”

  “You’re not incorrect. I have some mental defenses in place, but enough power can definitely overwhelm them.” A small grin broke out on her face.

  “You do realize that’s not a good thing, right?”

  “I know.”

  “So then why are you smiling?”

  “Because that was going to be another trump card in case you decided to keep standing your ground.”

  “Huh? Not following.”

  “I’m not stupid, Bill. I know that the Destroyer could ensnare our minds, enslave us, force us to surrender without firing a shot.”

  “But ... there is a but, right?”

  “A big one, and not just mine.”

  I held up my hands. “I didn’t say anything.”

  “I know you didn’t, but you’re thinking it and you’re right. Goddess, I can’t wait for this kid to be born so I can get back on the treadmill.”

  “No magical diets?” I teased.

  “Well, maybe a little help from that front.”

  I smiled. It couldn’t be helped. There had been so much doom and gloom the past couple days. It was refreshing to hear someone talk about what they planned to do afterwards. A little positivity could go a long way in times like these. Still... “Okay, so you’re not stupid. Your point?”

  “My point is I’ve been mucking around in Sally’s head – trying to make sense of what Alexander did to her.”

  “I’m well aware.”

  “Are you aware of how unprecedented that is?”

  “For Alex to...”

  “No, for someone else, someone with abilities like mine, to be able to study it up close. No offense, but I’m not just in there unraveling some compelled Gordian Knot. I’ve been taking notes, too.” Her grin broadened as she continued. “Mind magic, the way my people use it anyway, is different. That’s why a strong enough vampiric compulsion can get through. We’ve always assumed it worked more or less the same way with some nuances. I don’t think any mage has ever gotten this close before – seen such a powerful compulsion in action. If they have, it was either really long ago, or they didn’t live to talk about it.”

  I hadn’t considered that. Damn, we really were living in an age of firsts – knocking down walls left and right. “Go on.”

  “Well, think about it in scientific terms. Once you understand a disease, then you can start to fight it.”

  “So you think you can stop him ... insulate yourself?”

  “Maybe. I should be able to fortify my own defenses enough to do so. But I’ve been thinking beyond that too. I’ve been jotting down notes for a spell. If it works like I think it might, it could help filter things out – offer some additional protection to other humans.”

  It wasn’t much. Fuck, it still wouldn’t help Tom if a vamp decided to chew his face off, but it might be enough to keep him from willingly letting it. Hell, that was better than nothing.

  But wait just a second; there was more than Tom and Christy at stake here. “Could it work on another vampire?”

  She looked confused for a moment, her brows knitting. “Maybe. I mean, your minds seem to mostly work the same as the rest of us.”

  “Mostly?”

  “It’s hard to say. It’s weird, but when I’m in Sally’s mind, I almost get a sense of being watched. It’s ridiculous, I know, but...”

  “Maybe not.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yeah, I always suspected she had a thing for voyeurism.”

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  I got the impression Christy didn’t appreciate my joke. Well, excuse me for living. As the one guy in the group with a real demon, or whatever the fuck, knocking around in my noggin, I didn’t really have a lot of sympathy for anyone who might just have a few issues. I mean, yeah, poking around in Sally’s brain was bound to be creepy. After all, she’d done some creepy-ass stuff in her day. I wouldn’t imagine that would leave one’s mindscape fresh as a summer breeze.

  Oh well, I had bigger fish to fry, but first things first. I knew Sally’s stash of bottled blood was larger than mine. I’d made sure she had plenty on tap so as to keep her indoors and sated. She wasn’t fond of the refrigerated stuff, but things were bad enough without her drawing undue attention to this building. We already had to keep thick shades over the windows at night to hide the fact that we had steady power whilst the rest of the block suffered under the currently unreliable grid. Even so, I also had a sneaking suspicion that when she came back...

  If she came back.

  When she came back, she’d be oddly full – no questions asked or, more precisely, none answered. Sadly for her, I had a micro-coven of vamps downstairs who’d be getting peckish sooner or later. I decided she could open her heart to the concept of sharing and grabbed enough pint bags to hopefully keep my friends downstairs...

  They’re going to live up to their name.

  ...happy until such time as we hit the road on our suicide mission.

  Then I really needed to get my ass back upstairs and follow Christy’s lead by taking a nap. The stress of the day was starting to get to me.

  The sound of footsteps reached my ears before I’d even opened the door to let myself out. I looked up to find Dave descending the stairs. His hands were covered in latex gloves and in them he held tubing and a syringe full of red liquid.

  “Hey, Bill,” he said absentmindedly, staring with almost reverent glee at his prize.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Heading down from your place.”

  “What about the game?”

  “Broke up about forty minutes ago. The rest of the guys decided to take advantage of the power to set up a LAN so they could blow the shit out of each other in Call of Duty.”

  “What were you do
ing in my place?”

  “Blood.”

  “Blood?” I raised an eyebrow.

  “Relax. Ed promised me earlier, so I figured I’d pay a visit and collect.”

  “And he did this willingly?”

  “He was a little hesitant at first. Made me promise not to take anything else. Some seriously paranoid fuckers you live with.”

  “Yeah, the end of the world will do that to a fella.”

  “Anyway, I told him you’d filled me in on his condition and that I could maybe help figure out what was going on with him.”

  “Can you?”

  “Fucked if I know.”

  “Just be careful with it. It’s not vampire friendly.”

  “So you said. Fortunately, I am a professional.”

  “A professional what is the question?”

  He juggled everything into one hand so he could flip me off with the other.

  “You heading back down?” I asked.

  “Hell yeah. Can’t wait to look at this under a microscope.”

  “Better than a girlfriend, ain’t it?”

  He gave me a snide glance. “At least it doesn’t talk back like one and it whines less than you.”

  “Well, speaking of wine ... I don’t have any. But I do have these for you and the guys.” I held out the contents in my hands.

  He glanced at them dubiously. “That won’t last long.”

  “Make it last as long as you can. Another day or so and we’ll be on the road.”

  “I figured. That’s why I wanted to get this sample tonight; give me a chance to get in a little work before you drag us to God knows where.”

  “We’re heading to Boston, and God has nothing to do with it.”

  “It ain’t that bad – except maybe for that freaky fucking carwash you pulled me outta.”

  “You apparently haven’t been there lately.”

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  I handed the blood packs to Dave, happy to kill two birds with one stone and save myself the trip. Before heading upstairs, I told him to ask the guys to leave any hotspots they set up unsecured so I could join if the mood overtook me.

  As I walked up to my place, I doubted it would, but then one never knew when a bout of insomnia would hit – making a late-night session of mindless machine gun rampaging the perfect way to kill some time.

  I let myself in. Tom was nowhere to be seen and his door was shut. I couldn’t blame him. He’d probably barricaded himself in after Christy’s little “fuck everyone but my baby” speech. Some days, that chick could easily be as scary as any vamp.

  A small part of me was glad that it had been her master, Harry Decker, and not her that had the mad-on for killing me. He’d been an egomaniacal dickhead, but I could handle that. The frothing-at-the-mouth lunatics were easy to spot coming. It was the quiet ones you had to watch out for.

  Ed was sitting on the couch, a book in hand. He looked up at me and I saw a small bandage on the inside elbow of his right arm. I couldn’t help but smirk.

  “Hasn’t even been a day and you already fall prey to Dr. Alucard’s charms, eh? That’s Dracula spelled...”

  “I know what it is, dipshit.”

  “Don’t get all testy with me. I’m not the one jabbing you with things.”

  “Think he’ll figure anything out with it?”

  “Dave? He’s been fucking around with my blood for a full year and it’s only now that he’s starting to come up with anything.”

  “Oh?”

  “Pretty minor shit, according to him at least.” I opened our fridge to look for something to drink – maybe orange juice spiked with blood. “Even so, you never know when something insignificant can turn the tide.”

  “Might not help, but it can’t hurt.”

  “Exactly.” I poured my beverage into a mostly clean mug from our dish drain. “But who knows? He might spot something interesting in your sample.”

  “Maybe I’ll get lucky and find out I only have a day left to live.”

  “I doubt that. Two or three days is likely, however, depending on how long it takes us to get up north.”

  “Your confidence fills me with inspired hope.”

  “That’s what I’m here for.”

  Our phone rang. As the first of the chimes subsided, I glanced at Ed. He shrugged. Aside from my call home the night before, our last caller had just been a message from Tom’s sister checking in from the newly relocated Pandora Coven, now of Sacramento, California. Maybe it was her again.

  I picked up without bothering to check the display. Though the landlines still seemed to work fine, some of the advanced functions like Caller ID had been on the fritz.

  “Home for supernatural rejects,” I answered. “Bill speaking.”

  “Considering the current state of affairs, Dr. Death, I am not sure whether to consider that a joke or not,” a smooth voice replied.

  “James?”

  “Indeed. Now, if you will pardon me for just a moment. CEASE RECORDING THIS CONVERSATION. HANG UP, AND FORGET IT EVER HAPPENED!!”

  I almost dropped the receiver as his voice rang out, piercing my skull like a diamond-tipped drill bit. “Ow!”

  Ed spun from his place on the couch and asked, “You okay, Bill?”

  “Didn’t you fucking hear...?” Then I remembered that he probably didn’t. Not a bad tradeoff for nearly dying. “Oh, never mind.”

  “Who is it?”

  I mouthed “James” just as there came a slight clicking noise from the receiver.

  “Are you still there, Dr. Death?”

  Raising the phone back to my ear, I replied, “Yep. I’m here.”

  “Good. I apologize for the compulsion, but you have to know that the First would have agents keeping you under observation.”

  I’d suspected as much, but stupidly hadn’t considered the phones.

  “I would also caution you to please not put this conversation on speaker. I prefer it be between our ears only.”

  My finger paused right above the speaker button. “Wouldn’t dream of it. It’s good to hear from you. We didn’t get much chance to talk during the trial.”

  “Nor did I expect us to. Any fraternization between us during such an event would almost certainly be frowned upon.”

  He probably had a point, especially since he’d been one of our jurors. “So ... how’s the arm?”

  “Quite fine. I am loathe to admit it, but I found my penance to be a terrible inconvenience. I was glad to see it end.”

  Inconvenience wasn’t quite the word I’d use for having to chop off my own arm every time it started to regenerate, but different strokes and all that. “Me too.” I would have loved to have chatted for a while, but knowing James, that wasn’t in the cards. “I assume this isn’t a social call.”

  “I am pleased to hear you say that. A part of me feared that you would be your usual flippant self, ignoring the issues in favor of idle banter. Alas, I am not certain whether to be gladdened or worried to find you answering this call.”

  “Oh?”

  “When the First hand out a sentence such as was given to you, it is expected to be carried out posthaste unless the convicted should wish to face even more dire consequences.”

  “Call me crazy.” I hesitated for a moment, unsure how much I should say, but then pushed that aside. This was James. I owed him a lot. I could at the very least afford him a little bit of trust. “But, I got the impression that Yehoshua was more saving our asses than handing us over to die.”

  “And indeed he was. Never doubt that. He is a man of utmost intellect and cunning. He no doubt saw the bigger picture at play – that you and your friends would best serve in your current capacity. Know, however, that his grief for Theodora is real. Should you survive the coming days, you may wish to warn the Icon to stay clear of him.”

  “Yeah, about her ... listen, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have lied. I...”

  “You have alread
y been tried and convicted of those crimes, Dr. Death. As far as I am concerned, justice has been served ... in a fashion at least. Suffice it to say I am not entirely innocent of the crime of keeping secrets myself.” I was curious if he would spill anything juicy, but he just went on. “In some ways, I was glad to see it. It shows you have been paying some attention to our ways.”

  “When in Rome.”

  “Quite true. Nevertheless, Yehoshua may very well have spared your life for the moment, but have no doubt that Alexander will make it a point to see your sentence enforced.”

  “Let me guess; that means sooner rather than later.”

  “No. That means now.”

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  “Wait, what?”

  “That is partially what I was calling to tell you. Your grace period has ended. Alexander is vexed at the embarrassment you caused him. I do not pretend to know his mind, but I would wager that any liberties he has afforded you in the past have been stretched to their limit and beyond. If you are not already a student of history, you would do well to read up. You would learn that Alexander of Macedon was not one to suffer slights lightly.”

  Oh crap. “So when?”

  “Did you not listen to what I just said? You and your friends need to finish whatever preparations you are making. If you are still where you are by the morrow’s sunset, I dare say you will end up entertaining guests who will not easily be sated by dinner and drinks.”

  Well, he had part of that right anyway. At least two of my friends had the potential to become the main course if things got ugly. Still, it’s not like I could pack up and leave with a moment’s notice. Some of us were still unaccounted for. “Listen, I need more time...”

  “That is not mine to give.”

  “But Sally and Sheila...”

  “Must accompany you. It has been decreed.” There came a pause from the other end of the line. When James again spoke, his voice was clearly pained. “I know what has befallen Sally.”

  “Alex told you what he did?”

  “No, he did not. Though I am of the First, I am certain I do not hold his favor any longer. Were it not for us already having lost Theodora, I might worry about my own seat being prematurely vacated.”