Biting the Bride

by Clare Willis

  “Are you all right, Delia?” he asked.

  “I’m fine,” she said. “Just got knocked out for a minute.”

  Sherman brushed his hands together. A fine glitter of rainbow-colored dust sifted between his fingers. “Pity about the window,” he said, looking at the hole in the wall that he’d just fallen through.

  “All right, let’s get a move on.” He looked at Delia. “Will you be all right with her, Delia? We could, uh, neutralize her now.”

  “No!” Sunni leaned over the balcony. “Sherman, isn’t there anything you can do for her?”

  Sherman bent over Isabel. He lifted her eyelids and checked her pupils, and then laid his fingers against her neck to feel her pulse. Lifting her upper lip, he looked at her canine teeth. Finally, he nodded. “I think there’s still a chance she can recover. ”

  Delia moved closer. “I can handle her for now, Daddy. We’ll deal with her when you get done with Richard. ”

  Sherman bounded up the stairs and bent over Richard, who glared at him with dark, malevolent eyes.

  “You’re a traitor to our kind, Shanyuan,” he hissed.

  Sherman gave a dismissive snort. “We are not the same kind. Not even close. “ He approached Richard and crouched by his head, but Sunni noticed he kept a respectful distance from the silver chain. “The Council has been after you for years. But it took this girl to bring you down.”

  “You better hurry,” Delia said. “Someone’s going to report that broken window and the police will be coming.”

  Sherman lifted Richard’s head, taking care to keep his hands away from the silver. “You get his feet,” Sherman said to Sunni.

  Sherman opened the back of the van and they tossed Richard on top of a pile of cardboard produce boxes. He didn’t struggle, but his eyes bored into Sunni, never leaving her face. Even after she closed the door she imagined them burning twin holes in the metal, like laser beams.

  She hopped into the passenger seat and strapped herself in. Which turned out to be a good idea, because Sherman drove his van like a race car. Traffic was light, since it was four in the morning, mostly just taxis and delivery trucks, and Sherman sped down Market Street, running every red light and weaving around every car as if it was double-parked. Sunni put her hand gently on the old man’s arm.

  “Sherman, we’ve got a captive in the back. We don’t need the police stopping us.”

  He laughed. “Sunni, this is how vampires drive. You better get used to it!”

  She nodded and checked her seat belt again.

  They pulled into the parking lot at the Yerba Buena Cove Yacht Harbor. Sherman climbed into the back of the van with Richard. Sunni got out and looked around, checking inside nearby cars. When she was relatively sure the coast was clear she opened the wharf gate, returned to the van and opened the back door. Sherman had covered Richard head to toe in a plaid blanket. He looked like a corpse.

  “What does that chain do, paralyze him?” Sunni asked.

  “I don’t know exactly,” Sherman answered. “I’ve never used it before. My father gave it to me, and told me only to use it in cases of extreme emergency. ”

  “Do you think we should cloak ourselves, so that no one sees us carrying him to the boat?” Sunni asked.

  Sherman shook his head. “We can’t cloak Lazarus. Don’t you think that would look more suspicious, a bundle moving by itself?”

  “I suppose so.” Sunni grabbed Richard’s feet. They hurriedly carried their burden through the wharf gate and down the dock to the Rose, with Sunni fervently praying that no one would appear out of one of the gently bobbing yachts around them. They stopped at the slip where the Rose was moored. Sunni looked at the boat and at their package.

  “We’re going to have to put him down,” she said. “I’ll jump in and then you hand him to me.”

  Sherman nodded. Even though he was ancient, he didn’t look the tiniest bit winded. Sunni was sure that he could have carried Richard himself, but that he was letting Sunni help so that she could feel she was an equal partner in the endeavor. Revenge was not so sweet when someone else did it for you.

  She jumped onto the stern deck and took a moment to move a box to make some space. When she looked up she screamed. Richard was standing up, holding Sherman in a chokehold. The smaller vampire’s legs kicked wildly in the air.

  “How did you … ?”

  Richard laughed. “So much you need to know, dhampir, about vampire weapons and every other thing. If only you had let me teach you, but instead you relied on these pitiful substitutes. You could have been a worthy companion.”

  He inclined his head to look at Sherman, who was struggling like a bug in a spiderweb. “On the other hand, you, Shanyuan—”

  He took one step forward and opened his arms.

  “—you are not so worthy. ”

  For a moment Sherman was suspended in the air above the water, long enough that Sunni registered the look of surprise on his face as his arms and legs pinwheeled desperately. He hit the water with a small splash, and then, like a bubble popping, he disappeared.

  “No!” Sunni grabbed a life preserver from under a seat, and then ran to the railing and threw one leg over, intending to jump in. She stopped when she looked in the water and saw only steam rising. The steam was roughly in the shape of a person.

  Sunni sank to her knees, clutching the life preserver to her chest. Sherman had been wrong. It wasn’t like the Wicked Witch of the West. When she melted, she left her hat, shoes and broom in a wet puddle. Sherman had disappeared as completely as if he’d never existed. How was she going to tell Delia she got her immutable father killed?

  She regained control after a few seconds and wiped her face with her shirtsleeve. Now she was at least going to go down with a fight. She took three quick breaths and felt the change come over her as her body readied itself for battle. She crouched and sprung, grabbed the railing lightly and vaulted onto the pier. She had intended to land on Richard, but he was no longer in the place he’d been a second earlier. He was farther down the pier, locked in a mortal struggle with Jacob Eddington.

  Chapter 27

  Richard and Jacob stumbled along the pier like drunken dance partners, each with their hands around the other’s neck. They lurched toward the pier’s edge and Sunni stopped breathing, her whole being focused on Jacob. She had just seen what falling in water would do to a vampire. She was still in a crouching position after landing on the pier. Under one of her hands she felt the faint impression of the silver chain, thin as sewing thread. She gathered it up, thinking hard. How had Richard gotten free? Could he do it again? What if the chain got wrapped around Jacob instead? What if it proved to be useless?

  The two vampires swung to the other side of the pier, locked in their deathly embrace. They teetered on the edge, and it appeared that the only thing keeping Jacob from hitting the water was Richard, who was trying to loosen Jacob’s grip so that he could throw him in the water without falling in himself.

  Sunni leaped forward, her arms outstretched, holding the chain. She landed neatly behind Richard, catching him in the loop of the chain, and pulled hard. Jacob lost his grip on Richard’s arms and fell backward. Time slowed to a crawl. She threw Richard aside and grabbed Jacob, pulling him back up onto the pier. He took no time to recover, just headed toward Richard at full speed.

  “Bare skin,” he screamed. “Help me!”

  Bare skin?

  The realization of what he was saying came upon Sunni in a flash. She ran to Jacob, who was holding Richard down as he struggled. He was hampered by the chain, but not incapacitated by it. Sunni grabbed the collar of the fine cotton shirt Richard was wearing and ripped it in half, tearing it off his arms and chest. Then she took the chain and whipped it into the air, the better to bind him with speed. The end caught Jacob on the cheek. He grunted with pain.

  Sunni watched with amazement as an angry red wound opened up on Jacob’s cheek, as if he’d been cut with a knife. Blood dripped down his neck, but sh
e couldn’t keep looking. She turned to Richard and with lightning speed bound the chains around his naked chest and arms. He screamed and writhed in agony as she pushed his pants legs up and coiled the chains around his ankles. After a few moments he went still. Dark, smoking wounds appeared under the chains and dripped with blood, just as it had happened with Jacob. Out of the corner of her eye, Sunni saw a light in a nearby yacht. Someone was moving around in a cabin.

  “Get him in the boat!” she said in an urgent whisper.

  Jacob lifted Richard over his shoulder and jumped as lightly as a cat onto the deck of the Rose. Sunni followed after him. She took one last look at Richard as Jacob dragged him down into the hatch. His eyes were closed and he appeared unconscious. She felt a thud under her feet as Jacob dropped him on the galley floor. After a minute he came back out. He had taken one of the towels from the galley and was holding it against his cheek. He gave a wry smile, using just the uninjured side of his face.

  “What are you doing here?” Sunni asked. “I saw them take you away. ”

  Jacob closed the distance between them. “I’m sorry. I was imprisoned, otherwise I would never have left you by yourself. But I had some help from friends, and I escaped.”

  She threw her arms around his neck, kissing him hard. He returned her embrace, wrapping one long arm around her waist and lifting her off her feet. After a few moments he gently placed her back on the deck, still holding the towel against his face.

  “Let’s go,” he said.

  Jacob released the lines from their cleats while Sunni fired up the engine. The sun was beginning to rise behind the East Bay hills as they cleared the harbor and headed into the bay. Sunni watched the salmon stain of sunrise leak into the night sky while she steered the boat due east.

  “There’s a first aid kit in the cabin,” she said. He was standing next to her. She put her hand on his to lift the towel off his cheek. The bleeding had slowed but the wound was still open, revealing wet, red flesh. He looks the same as a human beneath the skin, she thought. What strange alchemical reactions had taken place to make him what he was, to make her what she was, for that matter? Or was it pure magic?

  “You need a butterfly bandage.” Sunni blinked back tears. Now was no time to break down.

  “I’m sorry about Sherman, Sunni.”

  “How did you know about him? His daughter said he was hiding out. ”

  “I saw him when I was watching you and recognized him. Shanyuan Wong was a yeoman too, but he retired many years ago.”

  “But vampires never get old, how can they retire?”

  He rubbed his forehead. “Most of us don’t. But we are a small, isolated, society—rule-bound, superstitious, gossipy. Sherman probably just got tired of us.”

  “I’ll be right back,” Sunni said. She hopped down the stairs into the cabin. Deliberately not looking at Richard, who was lying on the floor near the stove, she grabbed the first aid kit and went back on deck. While she was hunting for a butterfly bandage, Jacob put his hand on her arm. She looked up and saw that the wound was already healing on its own.

  “What were you planning to do with Richard?” Jacob asked.

  “Take him into open water and throw him in,” Sunni replied.

  “Really?”

  “That was the plan, anyway. ”

  The bay was sparsely dotted with boats: a few sailboats getting in an early jaunt, maybe before the owners went to work; a commuter ferry coming from Marin County; a freighter headed for the shipyards in Oakland. But they were far enough apart that no one would see when they pushed their cargo over the side.

  Yet after watching Sherman dissolve like a lump of sugar into a cup of tea, Sunni was feeling much less sanguine about treating Richard to the same fate. Killing in self-defense was one thing, but dumping a helpless vampire into the sea, even one as evil as Richard, wasn’t in her nature.

  “Sunni?”

  For a moment she’d forgotten Jacob was standing there. “Yes?”

  “I don’t think we should throw Richard into the sea.”

  “Strange. That’s what I was thinking. It just doesn’t seem right.”

  He shook his head. “No, I think you misunderstand me. I am going to free him and then I am going to kill him. Fair and square.”

  Sunni slapped her forehead. “Oh, good heavens. You’re going to have a duel for your honor, is that it?”

  “Something like that.”

  “Jacob, the man is lethal.”

  “I cannot live any longer if I don’t do this.”

  “Don’t tell me you’re threatening to kill yourself. You can’t do that.”

  Jacob waved an arm over the expansive water surrounding them. “You have brought us to the place of life and death, as it happens. It would be very easy. ”

  Sunni examined his face for any trace of doubt that she could exploit, but she could see it was a lost cause. Jacob’s mind was made up. Her mouth trembled and unexpected tears filled her eyes.

  Jacob stroked her cheek. “Oh, Sunni, please don’t. I cannot endure seeing you cry.”

  She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “Okay. I’m fine.”

  “When I take Richard out, lock yourself in the cabin and don’t open the door until I come for you.”

  “What if it isn’t you who comes for me?”

  Jacob looked around the boat. His eyes focused on the dinghy mounted on the stern. “Okay, here’s another plan. We’ll put this small boat over the side. You get in and wait for me, but if anything happens, just take off. Richard can’t pursue you over water. ”

  The situation was unbearable. Better to get it over with. They were nowhere near any other boats. She cut the engine, ran forward and dropped anchor. Then she brushed off her hands and headed for the dinghy, with Jacob at her heels. She unhooked it as quickly as her shaking hands would allow and used the winch to lower it into the water, attaching its line to one of the cleats on the stern. Then she turned and looked at Jacob. She wanted to hug him, but if she did, she didn’t think she’d be able to let go.

  Jacob grabbed one of her hands. He didn’t say, “Don’t worry, everything’s going to be all right,” or any of a million platitudes that he might have used to placate her. Both of them knew it was quite possible it wouldn’t be all right. So he simply squeezed her hand gently and turned away.

  Chapter 28

  Sunni huddled in the dinghy, her head in her hands, listening to the sounds of battle above her head. What was happening was beyond anything she could have imagined, even after two fights with Richard. She didn’t think any of them were going to survive it, but she was determined to help Jacob. She just had to figure out how.

  “Three ways to kill a vampire,” Sunni muttered, pulling herself upright even as the dinghy bounced on a wave and threatened to knock her over.

  “Hacking to bits.” Sherman’s knife had disappeared into the bay along with Sherman. She looked around the dinghy. The only sharp thing she had was a Swiss Army knife in the emergency kit. That wouldn’t help her at all.

  There was a crash above her that felt like a bus was landing on the deck. The very timbers of the boat groaned and some of them cracked. Shattered glass and wood fragments cascaded down into the dinghy. Sunni shuddered, imagining the two vampires enduring blow after blow.

  “Burning is the second way.” Where was a blowtorch when you needed it?

  The next crash broke the metal railing just above her head. Sunni looked up and saw Jacob fall through the gap, still clutching Richard’s arms. His face was so bloody and pummeled it was barely recognizable.

  He didn’t fall into the dinghy. Instead, with an unearthly scream that sounded like an eagle, amplified ten times, he rebounded back onto the boat. Sunni heard a thud in the stern. The Rose groaned and shuddered in a way Sunni had never experienced before. She felt sure the boat was going to come apart, so she made a decision. After tightening the straps of her bright orange life vest, she grabbed the waterproof sack containing the radio, t
he emergency kit, and the beacon light, and climbed the ladder back onto the boat.

  The deck looked like it had been through a catastrophic storm. Everything that wasn’t tied down, and most of the things that had been, were strewn about like children’s blocks. The deck itself was splitting apart. The highly varnished wood was cracked and broken, showing chinks of light from the cabin below.

  Sunni was crying in earnest now, with no attempt to control it. She was crying for everything that she had lost already, and everything she expected to lose in the next few minutes—the Rose, Jacob’s life, and her own, because even if she survived this she would never be the same. Then she saw a can of gasoline skidding along the deck. She leaped forward and grabbed the can, anchoring it between her knees while she pulled open the emergency kit and located a lighter.

  Sunni heard a sound like beating wings above her head. Jacob and Richard were in the air, suspended against the glowing red sunrise, locked in mortal combat. They appeared to be flying, and there was something horribly beautiful about the sight. They crashed back to the aft deck, and the Rose listed precariously in the water, almost capsizing before righting itself with a gigantic rush of water that soaked Sunni to the skin. She crawled along the deck, clinging to anything that was still nailed down.

  The giant wave had not ended the vampires’ fight, but steam was rising off their struggling bodies, like a half-doused fire. Sunni opened the can and began pouring gasoline over her beloved boat, tossing it in wild circles, but making sure to soak the sails. Jacob and Richard both paused, looking at her with shock in their eyes, but then Richard began punching Jacob in desperate fury.

  Sunni emptied the can and tossed it over the side. Clutching the lighter, she looked back at the vampires. It appeared that Jacob was getting the upper hand. He flipped Richard over, knocked him down, and pushed him over the side. Richard disappeared.