He thought the young woman had lost her mind. That this experience with the Dark Society had done her in. That she was deep in shock and had confused a challenge with a walk into the world of nightmares.
“I can’t go back to what I was,” she said, and as she stared at him two tears ran down through the dried mud on her cheeks. It was the sadness of loss, Lawson thought. It was the sadness of knowing what evil could do. “You know that. Nothing can be the same for me, ever again.” She lifted the pistol. “I can shoot. I can fight. I can avenge my sister. Will you let me help you?” It was night work, Lawson thought. It all came down to night work, except…today was different. Today the sunrise had brought him something new. He didn’t know how much to trust himself with Ann. He was still clinging to humanity, yes, but the vampirism was slowly overtaking him…and the need for human blood was getting stronger.
I travel by night, he thought. Yet it was true…he could use someone who could walk freely in the daytime world. With Ann, he might stand a greater chance of finding LaRouge, drinking her ichor and becoming fully human once more…if that was even possible, and not just a myth given to him by a legless Confederate corporal.
Lawson needed rest. He needed to take the shroud of one of these vampires after they’d been reduced to dust, wrap himself up as if in the wings of a darktime creature and sleep. He and Ann could start moving in the twilight, when his pain was lessened and his resolve firmed.
He felt he had many miles to go in this quest. He felt he had to endure many more horrors, many more trials and tribulations to fight what had been thrust upon him. He was sure Father Deale would like to meet Ann Kingsley. And if the future was uncertain, at least Lawson would know he had another gun on his side.
Ann was waiting for a reply, in this chamber that held equal measures of light and dark just as did life itself.
Lawson wished he had a cigar. He would buy a box of them, once he got back to New Orleans, and in the next few days after his bones had healed and his bruises were gone he would sit on a roof and ponder the stars, and count himself lucky to be alive even in this world where the Dark Society thrived.
Ann was waiting for a reply.
Lawson had taken many chances and trusted much to Fate. He decided to take one more chance, and trust to Fate now more than ever. The vampire gunslinger spoke.
The word he said, both gratefully and sadly for he knew what terrors awaited them, was: “Yes.”
I Travel by Night Page 10
