by Mairsile
Vince reached in and pulled out a box of darts and long arrows bunched together. They looked just like the ones he used in his crossbow. Nikki’s eye caught on a handheld sharpening stone with a groove down the middle of it. The stone was embedded in a box and she could see a plastic container with blood inside, tied at one end, sticking out of the box. She looked at Ludovico.
“What happens if you combine all five elements into one cocktail?” Ludovico asked.
Nikki and Vince exchanged glances, and Nikki said, “As far as I know, it’s never been tried before.”
“Then you two will be the first. The tests proved that injecting the blood of a dead Spirit into an immortal can block your ability to hear their thoughts, Nikki, so then it stands to reason that mixing all five elements together will either kill them outright or put them down for a very long time. I’m hoping for the latter. You two will have only one mission in this war. To take Irinushka down. Kill her if you must, but if possible, bring her to me alive. I have questions for her.”
Vince grinned, excited by their mission. Nikki frowned, perplexed at leaving Lilah.
Lilah glanced over at Dorothea, who was talking about what a good night’s sleep she’d had, and chuckled at the irony. She thought it best not to tell Dorothea the reason she had slept so well, preferring not to stir up the staunch Catholic again. She looked out the truck’s windshield at the landscape and noticed that there were cold campsites dotting the horizon.
“You haven’t said a word all morning, cariño. Everything all right?” Dorothea asked.
“What? Oh, yeah, everything’s fine. I just want to wake up from this horrible dream and everything will be back the way it was, before I knew about… them.”
“They terrify me. The chupacabra do,” Dorothea said, crossing herself and kissing her crucifix. “But Señora Beulah… I don’t know.”
“Yeah, I don’t think she would suck a goat’s blood, Dorothea,” Lilah said with a half-smile.
“I don’t either. She’s been so good to me, and I think of her as mi amiga,” Dorothea said, shaking her head. “My friend.”
“I have that same problem with Nikki.”
Dorothea glanced at Lilah’s dubious face. “Is that what’s bothering you?”
“I told Nikki that I hated her.” Lilah shook her hand as if it had been stung. And I hurt my hand on her face when I slapped her.
“Why, cariño?” Dorothea had a sudden thought that frightened her. “Did she hurt you?”
“No. Well, not physically anyway,” Lilah replied snidely. “Did you know that vampires can erase your memories? Very emotional memories.”
“¡Oh Dios mío!”
“Oh, yeah. Apparently, Nikki and I were in love three years ago.”
“In love?”
“So she says. I have no memory of it. She told me that she erased my memory to protect me from her work. What kind of lame ass excuse is that?”
“Bastardo!” Dorothea exclaimed and then became contemplative for a moment. “What kind of work does she do?”
“I don’t know for sure, but she said it was dangerous. She told me that she had killed the men who murdered Rebecca. They were vampires, too.” Lilah grew quiet, looking out the windshield as they drove down the road. She missed her friend. When Rebecca was alive, vampires were just in the movies that they watched late at night. Life was so much simpler then and so much more fun.
Dorothea glanced over at Lilah’s pensive face. “Do you really hate her?”
Lilah cut her a look and then softened. “Yes. The vampire part I really hate.”
“What about the woman?”
“They’re one and the same,” Lilah said with a shrug.
“No, cariño, they’re not and you know that, and that’s what has you so upset. Are you in love with her?”
She gripped the steering wheel tighter and gritted her teeth, looking out the side window. Yes, hopelessly, madly in love and it’s pissing me off!
Dorothea had her answer in Lilah’s silent animosity, but she pressed her anyway. “Why does that make you so sullen?”
Lilah sighed. “Because I don’t trust that it’s my feelings I’m feeling. What if she used her voodoo and told me that I was in love with her?”
“Dios mío, can she do that? Control your emotions like that?”
Abruptly Lilah remembered what Nikki said about controlling a human’s emotions and realized that her feelings for her must be her own. She could make her hop around on one foot and cluck like a chicken if she wanted, but she couldn’t tell her how to feel about it. A mixture of excitement, anger and resentment balled up in her stomach. What does that mean? That I really am in love with her? “No, she said she couldn’t control our emotions. Our brain, yes, but not our heart.”
“El amor vive en el corazón. Love lives in the heart.”
Lilah gazed at her for a moment, trying to rationalize what was in her heart.
“Your heart is your own, Lilah. If you loved her before, you love her still.”
***
As dusk gave way to the evening twilight, Lilah watched the horizon, waiting on her father to join her. The men who’d stayed behind to help with the cattle roundup had arrived two hours ago, saying that he would be coming up soon. The feeling that something bad had happened to him was growing stronger.
Dorothea and the ranch cook were grilling steaks and potatoes on an open pit campfire, as the men fed and watered the horses. Pup tents had been set up in a circle around the camp and the cattlemen and women would bed down in them while Dorothea and the other women and children would make beds in the wagons. Lilah planned to sleep out in the open under the stars. The temperature at night was cool but not cold, usually in the fifties, and a blanket and the roaring fire from the pit was all she needed to stay warm.
Lilah looked around at the others, as they drank their beer and ate their steaks. Though they weren’t told about the vampires at the ranch or the ones who were coming, Lilah knew that they knew something was wrong. She could feel an uneasiness in the camp and anxious energy filled the air.
After she nibbled on her steak, Lilah walked up the small hill near the road to watch for her father. She wanted to be alone with her thoughts, so she squatted on her haunches and looked toward the ranch. Nikki, can you hear me? She shook her head. “That would be quite a feat if you could from so far away,” she said out loud to herself. “I wish you could hear me because I’m sorry. I’m sorry I slapped you. I was pretty mad at you and though some of it was justified, I think I understand now why you did what you did, and, even though I don’t want you to ever do that to me again, I don’t hate you.” Lilah kicked a rock with her boot then looked back down the road again. “Please, don’t let that be the last words I say to you.”
Lilah sat down on the side of the dirt road and drew stick figures in the dirt, waiting on her father. She watched as the waning rays from the sun disappeared beyond the horizon and the stars began dotting the black sky. “Where is he? What’s going on back there?” God, what if he’s hurt? What if Nikki’s hurt?
Lilah made up her mind. She jumped up and walked over to the truck she had driven up in. Climbing inside, she opened the glove compartment and pulled out her Colt .45 and a box of specially made cartridges with the vampire poison. She changed out the ammo, tossing the regular bullets back into the glove compartment and closed the revolver’s chamber. She stuffed the extra cartridges in her jean pocket. Then she reached behind the seat and retrieved her holster and slid the pistol into it. Before she left the ranch that morning, Leonard filled the glove compartment of her truck with her gun and other self-defense weapons. He had taught her at a young age how to protect use herself using any one of those weapons. Lilah reached back into it and pulled out a can of pepper spray and a stun gun. Just like the bullets, they wouldn’t kill an immortal, or a human for that matter, but it might slow them down long enough to give her a fighting chance.
She strapped on her holster and checked to make
sure it felt right on her leg and that she could easily pull the gun out of its holster. Then she tucked the pepper spray into her vest jacket and slid the stun gun behind the holster belt on the opposite side of the gun. She was ready and willing to fight for the two people she loved most. If she could get past Dorothea.
“No se puede ir! Es muy peligroso,” Dorothea cried when Lilah walked up wearing her side iron.
“I can’t understand you when you talk that fast, Dorothea,” Lilah said with a shrug.
Dorothea swallowed back her fear and repeated slowly in English, “I said, please don't go. It's too dangerous.”
“I understood you the first time,” Lilah said and winked at her. “I just needed you to calm down and listen to me.” Dorothea started to protest and Lilah held up a finger. “Por favor, you know I’m going, so let’s not waste time fighting about it, all right?”
“¡Oh Dios mío!. You can’t fight a vampiro, Delilah. It’s too dangerous.”
“You said that already. But that just makes me more determined to go because it’s just as dangerous for Dad and Nikki. Well, maybe not Nikki so much.”
Jed Collins, the horseman who taught Lilah about horses from the time she could ride one, walked over and waited to be acknowledged. He was cradling a Winchester Repeater rifle in his arms.
Lilah and Dorothea stopped arguing and looked at him. “Hey, Jed,” Lilah said casually. “What’s up?”
“I’m going with you,” he stated matter of fact.
Shaking her head, Lilah smiled. “I appreciate it, Jed, but—” She left her mouth open, but her words ceased when she saw several other men walk up carrying their rifles and pistols. Old men who had worked the ranch all their lives. Young men who saw a chance to fight, and even the farm hands who wanted to defend their homes.
She swallowed back the gratitude that threatened to make her cry. “Look, I appreciate it, guys, really, but you don’t know who you’re fighting. These people are not, uh—”
Jed cut her off. “We don’t care who they are. We don’t run and hide like scared little children. We have a stake in this too. That ranch is more than our livelihood, it’s our home, and we will fight to the death to defend our home.”
Waving their rifles in the air, the others cheered, grunting their agreement. Lilah waited for them to calm down and as she looked at each one of them, she knew she wasn’t going to be able to stop them from going, but perhaps a tactical strategy might save their lives.
“Okay, here’s the plan. I’m going back now, while it’s dark, and spy on them. Just spy on them, nothing else. At first light, I’ll meet you guys halfway and we can plan our strategy based on my observations. Then the cavalry will charge in and take our ranch back.” By first light, I will either be dead or the immortals will.
They knew her father had taught her all he knew so they trusted her as they would him.
Jed smiled and set the butt of his rifle on the ground, holding onto the barrel with one hand, while extending his other to Lilah. “Don’t start without us.”
Chapter Sixteen
“Introductions are not necessary, Beulah,” Cristaldo explained.
“Nevertheless,” Beulah stated, looking her husband’s friend in the eye, “it’s the proper thing to do in the South.”
“Then by all means, do the honors,” he said with a smile.
Although her husband carried more power with the territory leaders, Beulah had secured her own place at the table and insisted on the proper etiquette and manners. Besides the immortal leaders, other people accompanied them, such as their lieutenants and a few lackeys to do their errands for them.
“Thank you,” she said. “Help yourself to a drink.” She pointed over at Ludovico, who was serving as bartender again, then she walked over to the couch where a beautiful redhead with forest green eyes sat sipping her champagne. She wore an expensive suit, tailored perfectly to her lithe body, with a slit in the skirt that exposed just enough pale thigh to be enticing.
“Céad Mile Fáilte,” Beulah said, and then translated, “A hundred thousand welcomes, Mairéad O'Doherty.”
“Go raibh maith agat. Thank you,” Mairéad said.
Beulah turned to the others and introduced her. “Mairéad is originally from Ireland but now is running the Boston clan, and she possesses the Fire element.”
Next Beulah walked over to the vampire from the West Coast and bowed. “Welcome, Yamamuro Hisaki.” He returned the bow. Beulah then looked at Nikki and Vince standing in the back of the room away from everyone else. “Yamamuro is from China Town in Los Angeles and he possesses the Water element.” The boys slapped their legs simultaneously and bowed to the man. He returned their bow as well. Over the years, there had been many coups for leadership in that territory, and that was how Yamamuro came to power in the West. A serious man who was turned in his thirties, Yamamuro’s face always looked pinched and no one had ever seen him smile. He always wore a black business suit, even in his leisure time.
Plastering a fake smile on her lips, Beulah introduced the next man, who both she and her husband despised. A Union rebel who’d had the gall to burn down their plantation in Mississippi during the war. A rich aristocrat whom Beulah called a carpetbagger behind his back, he was tall, athletic, with an air of superiority about him. “And this is Mr. John Abraham, an Earth immortal who has the northern territory.” John grunted without looking at her, but Beulah had already walked over to the next person.
“And last, but by no means least, our very good friend, Cristaldo DiFonzo, an Italian Air immortal who reigns over the South Atlantic States.”
Cristaldo always had a smile on his lips and a twinkle in his eye. A handsome Sicilian who loved the ladies. His chiseled jaw and blue eyes were just one of his attractive features that turned many a females’ heads. Even Beulah’s, though she would never allow herself to be tempted.
As if he were going to dance with her, Cristaldo tucked one hand behind his back and bent over, lifting Beulah’s hand in his. He kissed it as a proper Southern gentleman would, and said, “A pleasure, my dear.” Like Ludovico, he had embraced the Southern ways and spoke with a mixture of Southern charm and Italian sophistication.
Ludovico, who had been waiting patiently for his wife to finish her introductions, poured himself a whiskey straight and walked over to the fireplace. He stood to the side and looked at Mairéad. “Would you mind?”
She smiled and raised her hand and snapped her fingers. A small fireball curled in her palm, and she spun it and stretched it until it grew to the size of an orange. Then she flung it into the fireplace where it skittered across the wood and caught fire.
“Thank you,” Ludovico said. Then he held his whiskey glass in the air. “A toast to this historic meeting.”
Everyone in the immediate circle of leaders raised their glasses. It was against tradition for the subordinates, like Nikki and Vince, to do anything but be attentive to their sire’s every whim.
As she had done at previous high-level meetings, Nikki covertly held up three fingers when Ludovico glanced at her. Besides herself, there were three other Spirits in the room. If a leader didn’t sire a Spirit, which was rare, and none of the three had, they would hire one to counter the balance and gather intelligence. Spirits could practically write their own terms, usually consisting of wealth and free rein across all territories. It may have been a friendly meeting, but trust between immortal territories was almost impossible to achieve.
Leonard walked in and looked around. Ludovico saw him and jerked his head toward Nikki and Vince, and Leonard and joined them. He could tell Ludovico was not happy with him being there, but he needed to know what was going on. He’d married his wife in that house. Watched his daughter grow up and said goodbye to his wife in that house. His life had been lived on that ranch. He couldn’t just abandon it, abandon the memories of love and laughter.
“Again, thank you for coming,” Ludovico said. “As I said in the letter I sent you, Irinushka Yuliana killed he
r husband, Rudnikov, and assumed his territory in Chechnya. She is trying to expand here in America because she thinks we are feeble and weak. Your presence here tonight will prove her wrong.”
“Damn straight it will,” Cristaldo said pointedly.
“When do you expect her to attack?” John asked.
“At any moment. My people on the docks in Corpus Christi tell me that a Russian cargo ship docked about an hour ago, just after sundown, and when they boarded it for inspection, they smelled more immortals than they could count.”
“So they jumped off the ship before it docked?” Mairéad asked.
“That’s what we think. But I also think that was the first shipment, if you will. If she’s as smart as we think she is, it will take her some time to get enough people in place to have the strength to attack.”
“So it could be tonight or tomorrow night, or next week, for all we know,” John said snidely.
“True, but I don’t believe it will be next week. I don’t think she plans to wait on her army, knowing that we already have our militia in place. No doubt by now, her spies have reported back to her on our strength and according to my military strategists,” Ludovico paused and nodded at Leonard, “her best move would be to chip away at our strength with drive-by type attacks, keeping us on the defense instead of offense.”
Several heads nodded in agreement. They could see the logic in dividing and conquering.
“But that’s not the worst of it,” Ludovico stated. “I have also learned that she controls all five elements, thanks to years of inbreeding her sires.”
Gasps and curses filled the air.
“A Dhia!” Mairéad cried. “I have never heard of such a thing.”
“I have,” Ludovico asserted. Ludovico had lived long enough to have seen and heard everything, and still sometimes it surprised him. “The last time I heard of someone having all five elements was in the thirteenth century, during the Mongol Empire invasions across Eurasia. One of Genghis Khan’s sons, a vampire of some notoriety, wanted his father’s empire when he died, and drank his sire dry to get it. He was killed by his siblings in a bloody civil war. The leaders in Athens, Italy, Cadiz in Spain, Shanghai, China, and Nessebar in Bulgaria created a senate of immortals to assure that sort of thing never happened again.”
