by Rice, Anne
Of course, no such thing had really happened. He had merely taken to the air. And I was left shuddering inside the glass door, the sweat breaking out all over my face and back as I looked at the empty place beyond, and felt David’s quick whisper in my ear.
“Come, old chap, let’s go on to the Queens Grill and have our supper.”
I turned and saw the forced expression on his face. Of course James was still within range to hear both of us! To hear anything out of the ordinary without so much as a deliberate scan.
“Yes, the Queens Grill,” I said, trying not to consciously think of Jake’s words of last night that the fellow had yet to appear for a meal in that room. “I’m not really hungry, but it’s awfully tiresome, isn’t it, hanging around here?”
David, too, was trembling. But he was powerfully excited, as well.
“Oh, I must tell you,” he said, carrying on the same false manner, as we walked back through the lounge and towards the nearby stairway. “They’re all in black tie up there, but they have to serve us, as we’ve just come aboard.”
“I don’t care if they’re all naked. It’s going to be a hell of a night.”
The famous first-class dining room was a bit more subdued and civilized than other rooms through which we’d passed. All done in white upholstery and black lacquer, it was quite pleasant with its generous blaze of warm light. The decor had a hard brittle quality to it, but then so did everything aboard the vessel; it wasn’t at all ugly, however, and the carefully prepared food was quite good.
When some twenty-five minutes had passed since the dark bird had flown, I ventured several quick remarks. “He can’t use a tenth of his strength! He’s terrified of it.”
“Yes, I agree with you. So frightened is he that he actually moves as if he were drunk.”
“Ah, that’s it, you have it. And he wasn’t twenty feet away from me, David. And he had absolutely no sense that I was there.”
“I know, Lestat, believe me, I know. My God, there’s so much I haven’t taught you. I stood there watching you, terrified he’d try some telekinetic mischief, and I hadn’t given you the slightest instruction on how to fend him off.”
“David, if he really uses his power, nothing can fend him off. But you see, he can’t use it. And if he had taken a stab, I’d draw on instinct, because that’s all you’ve been teaching me to do.”
“Yes, that’s true. It’s all a matter of the same tricks which you knew and understood in the other form. I had the feeling last night that you achieved the surest victories when you forgot you were mortal and lapsed into behaving as if you were your old self.”
“Perhaps so,” I said. “1 honestly don’t know. Oh, just the sight of him in my body!”
“Shhh, eat your last meal, and keep your voice down.”
“My last meal.” I gave a little chuckle. “I’ll make a meal of him when I finally catch him.” Then I stopped, realizing with distaste that I was speaking of my own flesh. I looked down at the long dark-skinned hand which was holding the silver knife. Did I feel any affection for this body? No. I wanted my own body, and I could not bear the thought that we had some eight hours to wait before it would again be mine.
We didn’t see him again until well past one o’clock.
I knew enough to avoid the little Club Lido, as it was the best place for dancing, which he liked to do, and it was also comfortably dark. Instead I hung about in the larger lounge areas, dark glasses securely in place, and hair plastered back with a thick dollop of grease which a confused young steward had obligingly given me upon request. I didn’t mind looking so dreadful. I felt more anonymous and safe.
When we spotted him he was again in one of the outer corridors, moving this time into the casino. It was David who went after him to watch and principally because he couldn’t resist.
I wanted to remind him that we didn’t have to follow the monster. All we had to do was move upon the Queen Victoria Suite at the appropriate time. The ship’s little newspaper, which had already been issued for the following morning, gave the exact time of sunrise as 6:21 a.m. I laughed when I saw it, but then I couldn’t tell such a thing so easily now, could I? Well, by 6:21 a.m. I would be myself again.
At last David returned to his chair beside me and picked up the newspaper he’d been doggedly reading by the small table light.
“He’s at the roulette wheel and he’s winning. The little beast is using his telekinetic power to win! How stupid he is.”
“Yes, you keep saying that,” I said. “Shall we talk now about our favorite films? Haven’t seen anything with Rutger Hauer lately. I miss that chap.”
David gave a little laugh. “Yes, I’m rather fond of that Dutch actor myself.”
We were still talking quietly at twenty-five minutes past three when we happened to see the handsome Mr. Jason Hamilton pass by again. So slow, so dreamy, so doomed. When David moved to follow, I laid my hand on his.
“No need, old boy. Just three more hours. Tell me the plot of that old film, Body and Soul, you remember it, the one about the boxer, and isn’t there a line in it about the tyger from Blake?”
At ten past six, the milky light was already filling the sky. This was exactly the moment when I usually sought my resting place, and I couldn’t imagine that he had not already sought his. We should find him in his shiny black trunk.
We had not seen him since a little past four o’clock when he’d been dancing in his slow drunken fashion on the little floor of the deserted Club Lido with a smallish gray-haired woman in a lovely soft red gown. We’d stood some distance away, outside the bar, our backs to the wall, listening to the brisk flow of his oh, so proper British voice. Then we had both fled.
Now the moment was at hand. No more running from him. The long night was coming to its close. It occurred to me several times that I might perish within the next few minutes, but never in my life had such a thought stopped me from doing anything. If I thought of David being hurt, I would entirely lose my nerve.
David had never been more determined. He had only just taken the big silver gun from the cabin on Five Deck, and was carrying it in the pocket of his coat. We had left the trunk open there in readiness for me; and the door wore its little “Do Not Disturb” sign to keep the stewards out. We had also determined that I could not carry the black gun with me, for after the switch the weapon would then be in the hands of James. The little cabin was left unlocked. Indeed the keys were inside it, for I could not risk carrying these either. If some helpful steward did lock the door, I should have to move the lock with my mind, which would not be difficult for the old Lestat at all.
What I did carry on my person now was the bogus Sheridan Blackwood passport in my coat pocket along with enough money for the fool to get out of Barbados and to whatever part of the world he wished to flee. The ship was already making its way into the harbour of Barbados. God willing, it would not take her too long to dock.
As we’d hoped, the broad brightly lighted passage of the Signal Deck was deserted. I suspected that the steward was behind the galley curtains, catching a little sleep.
Quietly we proceeded to the door of the Queen Victoria Suite, and David slipped the key in the lock. Immediately we were inside. The trunk lay open and empty. The lamps were burning. The fiend had not yet come.
Without a word, I turned off these lights one by one and went to the veranda doors and drew back the drapes. The sky was still the shining blue of night but growing paler by the second. A gentle and pretty illumination filled the room. It would burn his eyes when he saw it. It would bring an immediate flush of pain to his exposed skin.
No doubt he was on his way here now, he had to be, unless he did have another hiding place of which we didn’t know.
I went back to the door, and stood to the left of it. He would not see me when he entered, for the door itself would cover me from view when he pushed it back.
David had moved up the steps, to the raised sitting room, and was turned with his back to the g
lass wall, and facing the cabin door, the big gun held firmly in both hands.
Suddenly, I heard the rapid steps drawing nearer and nearer. I didn’t dare signal to David, but I could see that he, too, heard the approach. The creature was almost running. His daring surprised me. Then David lifted the gun and aimed it, as the key ground in the lock.
The door swung back against me and then slammed as James all but staggered into the room. His arm was up to shade his eyes from the light coming through the glass wall, and he uttered a half-strangled curse, clearly damning the stewards for not having closed the draperies as they’d been told to do.
In the usual awkward fashion, he turned towards the steps, and then came to a halt. He saw David above, holding the gun on him, and then David cried out:
“Now!”
With my whole being, I made the assault upon him, the invisible part of me flying up and out of my mortal body and hurtling towards my old form with incalculable force. Instantly, I was thrown backwards! I went down into my mortal body again with such speed that the body itself was slammed in defeat against the wall.
“Again!” David shouted, but once more I was repelled with dizzying rapidity, struggling to regain control of my heavy mortal limbs and scramble to my feet.
I saw my old vampire face looming over me, blue eyes reddened and squinting as the light grew ever more bright throughout the room. Ah, I knew the pain he suffered! I knew the confusion. The sun was searing that tender skin, which had never completely healed from the Gobi! His limbs were probably already growing weak with the inevitable numbness of the coming day.
“All right, James, the game’s over,” David said in obvious fury. “Use your clever little brain!”
The creature turned as if jerked to attention by David’s voice, and then shrank back against the night table, crumpling the heavy plastic material with a loud ugly noise, his arm thrown up again to shield his eyes. In panic, he saw the destruction he’d wrought, and then tried to look again at David, who stood with his back to the coming sun.
“Now what do you mean to do?” demanded David. “Where can you go? Where can you hide? Harm us and the cabin will be searched as soon as the bodies are discovered. It’s over, my friend. Give it up now.”
A deep growl came from James. He ducked his head as if he were a blind bull about to charge. I felt absolutely desperate as I saw his hands curl into fists.
“Give it up, James,” David shouted.
And as a volley of oaths came from the being, I made for him once more, panic driving me as surely as courage and plain mortal will. The first hot ray of the sun cut across the water! Dear God, it was now or never and I couldn’t fail. I couldn’t. I collided with him full force, feeling a paralytic electric shock as I passed through him and then I could see nothing and I was being sucked as if by a giant vacuum down and down into the darkness, crying, “Yes, into him, into me! Into my body, yes!” Then I was staring directly into a blaze of golden light.
The pain in my eyes was unbearable. It was the heat of the Gobi. It was the great and final illumination of hell. But I’d done it! I was inside my own body! And that blaze was the sun rising, and it was scalding my lovely priceless preternatural face and my hands.
“David, we’ve won!” I shouted, and the words leapt out at freakish volume. I sprang up from the floor where I’d fallen, possessed once more of all my delicious and glorious quickness and strength. In a blind rush, I made for the door, catching one flickering glimpse of my old mortal body struggling on hands and knees towards the steps.
The room veritably exploded with heat and light as I gained the passage. I could not remain there one second longer, even though I heard the powerful gun go off with a deafening crack.
“God help you, David,” I whispered. I was instantly at the foot of the first flight of steps. No sunlight penetrated this inside passage, thank heaven, but my strong familiar limbs were already growing weak. By the time the second shot was fired, I’d vaulted the railing of Stairway A, and plunged all the way down to Five Deck, where I hit the carpet at a run.
I heard yet another shot before I reached the little cabin. But it was oh, so faint. The dark sunburnt hand which snatched open the door was almost incapable of turning the knob. I was struggling against a creeping cold again as surely as if I were wandering in the Georgetown snows. But the door was jerked open, I fell on my knees inside the little room. Even if I collapsed I was safe from the light.
With one last thrust of sheer will, I slammed the door, and shoved the open trunk into place and toppled into it. Then it was all I could do to reach up for the lid. I could feel nothing any longer as I heard it fall into place. I was lying there motionless, a ragged sigh escaping my lips.
“God help you, David,” I whispered. Why had he fired? Why? And why so many shots from that great powerful gun? How could the world have not heard that big noisy gun!
But no power on earth could enable me to help him now. My eyes were closing. And then I was floating in the deep velvet darkness I had not known since that fateful meeting in Georgetown. It was over, it was finished. I was the Vampire Lestat again, and nothing else mattered. Nothing.
I think my lips formed the word “David” one more time as if it were a prayer.
TWENTY-THREE
As soon as I awoke, I sensed that David and James were not on the ship.
I’m not certain how I knew. But I did.
After straightening my clothes somewhat and indulging myself in a few moments of giddy happiness as I looked in the mirror, and flexed my marvelous fingers and toes, I went out to make certain that the two men were not on board. James I did not hope to And. But David. What had happened to David after firing that gun?
Surely three bullets would have killed James! And of course all this had happened in my cabin—indeed I found my passport with the name of Jason Hamilton securely in my pocket—and so I proceeded to the Signal Deck with the greatest of care.
The cabin stewards were rushing to and fro, delivering evening cocktails, and straightening the rooms of those who had already ventured out for the night. I used my utmost skill to move swiftly along the passage and into the Queen Victoria Suite without being seen.
The suite had obviously been put in order. The black lacquered locker which James had used as his coffin was closed, with the cloth smoothed over the lid. The battered and broken bedside table had been cleared away, leaving a scar upon the wall.
There was no blood on the carpet. Indeed, there was no evidence of any kind that the horrific struggle had taken place. And I could see through the glass windows to the veranda that we were moving out of Barbados harbour under a glorious and shining veil of twilight, towards the open sea.
I stepped outside on the veranda for a moment, just to look up into the limitless night and feel the joy of my old true vampiric vision once again. On the distant glittering shores I saw a million tiny details which no mortal could ever see. I was so thrilled to feel the old physical lightness, the sense of dexterity and grace, that I wanted to start dancing. Indeed, it would be lovely to do a little tap dance up one side the ship and down the other, snapping my fingers and singing songs all the while.
But there was no time for all this. I had to find out what had happened to David at once.
Opening the door to the passage, I quickly and silently worked the lock on David’s cabin across the way. Then in a little spurt of preternatural speed I entered it, unseen by those moving down the hall.
Everything was gone. Indeed, the cabin had been sanitized for a new passenger. Obviously David had been forced to leave the ship. He might now be in Barbados! And if he was, I could find him quickly enough.
But what about the other cabin—the one that had belonged to my mortal self? I opened the connecting door without touching it, and I found that this cabin had also been emptied and cleaned.
How to proceed. I didn’t want to remain on this ship any longer than I had to, for certainly I would be the center of attention as s
oon as I was discovered. The debacle had taken place in my suite.
I heard the easily identifiable tread of the steward who had been of such service to us earlier, and I opened the door just as he meant to pass by. When he saw me he was powerfully confused and excited. I beckoned for him to come inside.
“Oh, sir, they are looking for you! They thought you’d left the ship in Barbados! I must contact security at once.”
“Ah, but tell me what happened,” I said, peering directly into his eyes, and beyond his words. I could see the charm working on him as he softened and fell into a complete state of trust.
There had been a dreadful incident in my cabin at sunrise. An elderly British gentleman—who had earlier claimed to be my physician, by the way—had fired several shots at a young assailant who—he claimed—had tried to murder him, but none of these shots had struck the mark. Indeed, no one had ever been able to locate the young assailant. On the basis of the elderly gentleman’s description, it was determined that the young man had occupied this very cabin in which we were now standing, and that he had boarded the ship under an assumed name.
Indeed so had the elderly British gentleman. In fact, the confusion of names was no small part of the entire affair. The steward really didn’t know all that had taken place, except that the elderly British gentleman had been held in custody until he was finally escorted ashore.
The steward was puzzled. “I think they were rather relieved to have him off the ship. But we must call the security officer, sir. They are very concerned about your welfare. It’s a wonder they didn’t stop you when you came aboard again in Barbados. They’ve been searching for you all day.”
I wasn’t at all sure that I wanted to endure any close scrutiny on the part of the security officers, but the matter was quickly decided for me when two men in white uniforms appeared before the door of the Queen Victoria Suite.
