by Tonya Nagle
"You know about Telkhines too?"
"Yes, I know all about the storm callers. Juliette was the most powerful Telkhine in New Orleans. I think Brilla hung around her because she liked the power. When Evelyn was born they were always doing tests. Apparently, the power skipped my oldest. But when Laura was born, it would rain every time that baby cried. Brilla wanted her inducted as an infant into the Société de Nouvelle-Orléans de Magie. I put my foot down on that. I wanted Laura to grow up and make that decision herself."
"What's the Société de Nouvelle-Orléans de Magie?"
A photo fell out of the wallet and Donovan and David reached for it at the same time. Her father touched it first, and David backed up. It was a photo of fair-haired, blue-eyed Laura.
"Her hair's a paler blonde. Her mother's hair was like golden honey." Donovan fingered that small portrait.
"She was kidnapped just as we were pronounced husband and wife."
Donovan gazed at Laura's photo and trembled with pain. "Damn." He shook his head. "I don't see how I'm going to be of any use to you in helping to get her back."
"I don't either but Mama Joe said my only chance of rescuing Laura was if you and I teamed up to do it. Brilla has her in a house on Big Pine Key, in the Florida Keys."
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"Wait a minute." Donovan left the room. He was gone for a long time, and it occurred to David that he could have run out the back door. If her father had run away, there was nothing he could do.
David was surprised, when Donovan came back into the room. The older man spread out a road map of Florida on the coffee table. Then looking at David, he said, "I thought about leaving. What would you have done if I had?" He looked him straight in the face as if trying to study him.
"I wouldn't have done anything. I would have left and tried to rescue her on my own."
Donovan sighed. "I thought you might say that. You know Mama Joe's cagey.
She knows something we don't and why both of us have to be there. I thought about walking out the back door, but I thought about Laura's mother. I wasn't there when my wife Juliette, my two-year-old daughter Evelyn, and my baby Laura needed me the most. This time it's going to be different. Laura needs me. This time nothing in heaven or Earth is going to stop me." With his finger, he traced a path down to the Florida Keys.
"Do you need to pack anything?" asked David.
"Is Laura in any danger from Brilla?"
"No, I don't think so. Mama Joe said Brilla won't hurt her, but she will try to kill us."
Donovan nodded. "I kind of knew that part. Then we've got to make a plan, a good one, and it would probably be better if we got some sleep. Since Laura's in no danger, I suggest we both hit the sack. You can have the couch. I'll set my alarm for six.
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It won't take me long to throw a few things in a bag. I don't need much. We will need money though."
"May I have my wallet back?"
Donovan handed the wallet back and David pulled out five credit cards.
"Vampires have credit cards?"
"Anyone can get credit cards. I also have about 800 in cash and if I have to I'll just take more out at an ATM."
"So you have a lot of money in the bank?"
"More than the average, but you've got to consider I've been saving for a long time. New Orleans was the first trip I had taken in years. Donovan, are you from New York? I mean I was expecting a Southern drawl."
The older man smiled. "I'm from Queens. I met Laura's mother on a vacation I took to New Orleans. I never went home because I got married. And you?"
"Manhattan."
"Do you have a car?"
"No, but I can rent one."
"That's all right. I have one out back." Donovan yawned. "Well, I'll see you in a couple of hours." He left the room shutting off lights as he went. David heard a door lock a few minutes later. He couldn't blame Donovan for being afraid. He was afraid too. He hadn't been this close to a human in years except to feed.
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Chapter 10
Dreams flowed around Laura as she slept. It was midnight, the moon round and high. She walked into Louis Armstrong Park. It wasn't the flooded park but the deep green haven of her childhood. Beneath a huge Cypress tree, her mother stood on a dark, verdant expanse.
Juliette Cordelais stood tall like a marble goddess in the moonlight; her waves of honey golden hair flowed over the shoulders of her purple robe embroidered along the hem with silver stars. Laura remembered that robe hanging in the closet. She walked up to her mother, but her mother walked past her into an open area free of trees. A man with a gray beard and two women with white hair, all wearing that same type of robe, entered the clearing and with Juliette made a circle. They began to sing to the hurricane miles off shore. Making the untying motions with their hands, they sang, "Untie your anger. Untie your fear. Calm your wind, and soothe your surge. Water and wind, the sea calls you home. Water and wind, the air knows you as its own."
Laura heard her mother's voice above the others. "Be gentle, Wind, like a whisper. Be soft, Rain, like a kiss. Caress us and let us go. Storm, I call to you. Blow home to the sea's embrace."
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Lightning scintillated around them, as they repeated their song, not in unison but each individually joining to create a cacophony at the point of crescendo.
Kneeling, their voices grew softer and softer until only a whisper remained. They stopped. In that second, only silence remained. The city sounds paused. The creatures of the park were still, as if life itself had taken a breath and held it. Then all those sounds returned.
Juliette and the others disappeared. Laura was alone, and even though she reveled in this new knowledge, despair settled on her like a cloud. In a memory too distant, she remembered a kiss, his lips gently but firmly touching hers and a tongue caressing her fangs and then moving down as he worshipped every inch of her body.
She wanted David. This was supposed to be their honeymoon. In her sleep, she wept.
Where was he? Why couldn't she call him to her? She couldn't remember how to do it and every time she thought she knew and tried, all she heard in her head was that confounded horrible humming. "David, I need you," she cried out in despair.
Brilla had to shake Laura to wake her, and when she did, Laura hissed and floated upward, stopping at the ceiling. Then she closed her eyes and ignored the mambo.
"Come, Child."
"I'm not a child. I want my husband. I miss him." Laura floated down and confronted her. Perhaps if she could find Brilla's heart. Perhaps then she'd let her go?
"Brilla, have you ever been in love? Really in love? So in love that you know that if you can't be together, you'll die."
Brilla laughed, "That's nonsense, Child. No one needs a love like that. Loving a man causes nothing but trouble. I know this from experience. Forget him." The 114
mambo walked out of the room and called back to Laura. "Come see what I've got for breakfast."
Laura stood there trying to contain her anger. She tore the bandage off her hand.
It was healed as if nothing had happened, but Laura remembered and what she remembered made her angry all over again. Unfortunately, venting that rage could make things worse. If only she could read more of that book.
Hunger forced her into the kitchen. Brilla smiled and poured her a tall glass of blood. She wasn't wearing the garlic necklace this morning. Laura tried to enter the mambo's mind. Maybe she could control her that way. Humming. It gave Laura a headache. She sat at the painted white, wood table and put her head down.
Brilla put the glass of blood in front of her.
Laura lifted her head and sniffed the glass suspiciously. "What is it?"
"Cow's blood."
"What else is in it?"
"What do you mean?" asked the mambo feigning being offended.
"Come on, Brilla. You've been drugging my blood. I'm starting to forget things.
Stop it. Stop drugging me."
"You're imagining
things, Child. The longer you're away from him, the better you'll be. He used the mesmerization on you to bend you to his will. You don't need a man like that. He's not even a man."
"You don't know anything, Brilla." She threw the glass against the wall. "A male vampire can't mesmerize a female vamp. If she's with him, it's her choice."
Laura walked into the living room. Anything to be away from Brilla. She felt dizzy and weak. Hunger gnawed at her.
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"Come, La-la," said Brilla standing behind her. "You need to drink. You have to let him go for his sake. The Keres will destroy him. Mark my words, they will if you complete the ritual."
"I married him, Brilla," Laura said, shaking, looking down at the beautiful ring on her finger. "I did complete the ritual."
"No, you didn't. You didn't have sex with him after saying the words. Only then is the ritual complete."
Laura hung her head. Tears. Words. It was all useless. Nothing could move Brilla.
The mambo handed her another glass, and Laura drank it. At least it wasn't brutally salty like the fish blood. Still she detected something other than blood and left half the glass.
Laura rushed outside and leapt into the sky. Again she tried to find the end to the invisible wall. Then she forgot why she bothered and soared higher.
She remembered pieces of a friend's story about a vampire, who went into space, but she couldn't remember the end. Laura hated what the drug was doing to her memory. What else had she forgotten?
Laura twirled among the stars. She could hear Brilla complaining below on the ground, but she ignored her. Then she heard another sound far more compelling and flew toward it. Within seconds, she was face-to-face with the angry swirling motion of a tropical storm.
Being a vampire, she was not limited like an earthbound Telkhine. The storm didn't buffet her or drench her. She flew to its peaceful heart. Lightning flowed in ribbons that twisted and turned like tinsel in the wind. The wind whispered with a 116
thousand voices, some sweet, others sad. The voices that laughed, teased, and mocked amused Laura. A screech rippled through the tempest. Colors of light and shadow flashed and disappeared, before emerging again from the depths.
The beauty of the tempest and its unique music stunned Laura. There was something more in the storm. It sang to her, and its song freed her heart. Laura danced with the storm in celebration. She danced for hours ignoring Brilla's calls to return. The power of the storm fed her like a mother feeds her child; it recognized the kindred spirit in her.
The sky felt fuzzy around her. Then the winds blew gently past her and the rain dissolved into the sea. The resulting sky was pale. Sunrise only minutes away. Laura raced for the beach homing in on Brilla's yelling and complaining. She flew directly to the house. As she slammed the door behind her, sunlight streaked across the sand and claimed the sky.
Brilla rose from her chair in the kitchen. "What were you thinking? The sun almost made a firebird out of you."
Laura was about to say something, about to tell Brilla what she had learned about storms but closed her mouth. Instead, she walked into her bedroom and closed the door. If Brilla kept secrets from her, she would keep a few of her own.
***
David tossed and turned in his sleep. In his dream, he went to their apartment in New York. He paced from room to room, but Laura never showed. He went to the St.
Louis #1 Cemetery and stood by the Cordelais mausoleum. The wind roared but he took no notice. Then gray forms moved between the crypts in the city of the dead.
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Two ghouls approached. Mold-encrusted clothes barely covered their gray skin.
Blackened hollows instead of eyes stared out at him. They moved closer, and David hissed baring his fangs. "Stay back, unless you wanted me to rip you limb from limb."
The two stopped in their approach.
"She's not coming," said one.
"She's not for you," said the other.
They came closer. David bared his fangs and stood ready to fight.
Donovan shook him. "Hey, man, you're having a bad dream."
David opened his eyes, growling, fangs out.
The older man jumped back.
Suddenly realizing where he was, David sat up on the sofa. He saw Donovan standing in front of him, shaken.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I was having a daycare."
"I couldn't tell with all that hissing and growling," Donovan joked. "What kind of bad dreams do vampires have?"
David replied, "I couldn't find Laura. She didn't go to our apartment like she usually does, so I went to the Cordelais crypt. There were ghouls there."
"I don't know anything about ghouls. Are ghouls a problem?"
David smiled. "Ghouls consider vampires as dead meat and a tasty treat. You only have two choices when meeting a ghoul--fly or fight. I do have strength and speed on my side. I can rip them apart, but that results in a sickly, oozing mess."
"Are they likely to go after the living?" asked Donovan with some concern.
"On occasion they try a bite."
"Oh." Donovan left and went into the kitchen to unpack the groceries.
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David put on his pants and shirt and followed him. "What's all this?"
A huge cooler sat on the table. "I did a little shopping for our trip tonight." He pulled out two gallons of blood. "Cow's blood for you." Then he pulled out a six-pack of beer. "This is for me. Here's a steak. We can drain the blood for you, and then I can broil it for my dinner. Cans of assorted vegetables and these cold packs to keep everything cold." David helped put everything in the cooler except for the cereal.
Donovan poured himself a bowl and added milk. Then he got up and scrounged through the kitchen drawers. David opened a drawer, found the spoons, and handed one to Donovan.
"Thanks, man. I always forget where I put the spoons. Wait a minute. Did you read my mind?"
"No. It just made sense you needed a spoon."
"So vampires can't read the minds of humans?"
"They can. I won't read yours, because you're Laura's father."
"Hmm." He nodded. "It's good to be Laura's dad."
David chuckled.
"So I guess you'll be going back to sleep now? You've got six more hours before the alarm goes off," he said, sitting down at the table.
"I'm not sleepy."
"I didn't know vampires could have insomnia."
"It happens sometimes. When Laura and I couldn't sleep, we'd watch old horror movies."
Donovan laughed. "How long did you say you and Laura have been together?"
"A year. We were married a few days ago."
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"How did you meet her?"
David wished he could eat cereal, so he'd have his mouth full. He gulped and looking at the painting of a beach hanging on the wall behind Donovan's head began,
"Laura fell from the Brooklyn Bridge, and I went into the river after her. I wasn't going to bite her. I was taking her to the hospital, but she told me she would keep trying to kill herself, so . . ."
"My little girl was committing suicide?"
David looked at her father.
Tears streamed down Donovan's face.
"Yes. She said she'd try again, so I bit her."
"That's when you made her a vampire?"
David couldn't think of anything better to say. "Yes."
The two men just stared at each other. David never imagined he would be having this conversation with Laura's father.
"Is it normal for vampires to marry?"
The question surprised him.
"No, not at all. But Laura's a very unusual vampire. She's never had human blood, won't sleep in a coffin, and prefers living the quiet, civilized life as she calls it."
"Why aren't you wearing a wedding ring?" asked Donovan.
David didn't expect this question. It shook him. Actually he found this entire conversation disturbing.
"Um, I was just so focused on getting her a beautifu
l ring that I didn't think of getting one for me. I got hers at Tiffany's, a platinum band of diamonds."
"Wow. Sounds expensive."
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David didn't know how to answer that.
"The reason why the man wears a ring," explained her father, "is to show her that he knows he's taken, that he only belongs to her."
David noticed that Donovan was wearing a wedding ring. He nodded his agreement. "You're right. I'm going back to bed. See you at 6."
"Okay," said Donovan. "See you at 6."
As David got up, Donovan asked, "Before you met Laura, did you drink human blood?"
"Yes, Donovan, I did." David hid his smile with his hand, as he left the kitchen and returned to the sofa. He laid an arm over his eyes and thought about where he could buy a wedding ring.
Bam! Whoosh. The sudden shake threw David off the sofa.
Donovan ran to the front window. "Oh, God, Ernie's house blew up." He ran outside.
David ran into Donovan's bedroom and pulled blankets out of the closet. He threw on his coat, as he raced out the door. The morning heat wasn't quite so bad, but the scene in front of him was. The house fire roared like a huge bonfire. Windows cracked. Paint ran like water. The heavyset bald man was on his hands and knees on the scorched lawn crying. David wrapped a blanket around him. Sometimes the warmth helped, but swaddling helped just as much. David had read that in a psychology magazine.
"My dog. My dog's in there."
David didn't have his vampire powers in the daylight, but at that moment a dark cloud spread overhead casting him in shadow. David ran into the house. His vision 121
penetrated the flames and moving like the wind from room to shattered room, he found the dog whimpering and curled up in the bathroom.
