Terrill still couldn’t understand what she was driving at. “So you want to loosen the Rules, make the punishments less draconian?”
“Personally, I think they should be made voluntary again,” Clarkson said. “After all, those who break the Rules usually reap their own karma. But yes, most of the vampire community would like the Rules to be interpreted less strictly and the punishments to be less dire. However, the hardcore strict interpreters have been gaining more power by eliminating their opponents.”
“Then why do they want Terrill?” Sylvie broke in. “They must know that he won’t agree with them.”
“That’s true,” Clarkson conceded, “and would be a problem for them if Terrill were able to say what he thinks. But they have you, Sylvie, so they think that Terrill will become their mouthpiece, their figurehead. They can broadcast to other vampires that the founder of the Rules of Vampire is in favor of strict enforcement.”
Sylvie turned to Terrill. “You mustn’t let this happen, Terrill. Not even for my sake. I won’t have the deaths of so many on my conscience.”
“These are vampires we’re talking about, Sylvie. Why do you care?”
“You were a vampire, Terrill, and I loved you. Surely not all vampires deserve to die. But even more importantly, these are the bad vampires who are winning, Terrill. I don’t want that on my head.”
Terrill almost smiled. Bad vampires. Good vampires. She was sometimes so naive about the way of things. And yet… was she wrong? If it had only been the two of them, Terrill wasn’t sure what he would have chosen to do. But Michael had advised him to play along until he completely understood what was happening. That way, the enemy wouldn’t know about his newly regained powers until it was too late.
“If you don’t agree with the hardliners, why did you come to get us?” Terrill asked Clarkson.
“For one thing, because the Council ordered it. My friends and I aren’t yet strong enough to challenge direct orders,” she said frankly. Then her steely expression softened a fraction. “But mostly, because I believe that you’ll find a way out of this, Terrill. You always have in the past, and I have faith you’ll do it again.”
#
Clarkson left them and went to a table on the other side of the cabin, where she started doing paperwork. Terrill and Sylvie retreated to the small bedroom.
“Do you believe her?” Sylvie asked.
“I don’t know who to believe,” Terrill said. “I never expected the Rules of Vampire to be anything other than suggestions. I wrote them almost as a joke, like ‘Here are some things that are so obvious they don’t need to be pointed out, so I’ll point them out for your amusement.’”
“What are you going to do?” Sylvie asked. “I really meant what I said, you know. I don’t want you doing anything against your beliefs just for me.”
“I’ll go along with the hardliners at first,” Terrill said, “until I figure out what to do.”
Sylvie fell silent. It was clear she wanted to say something else, but was struggling with whether to say it.
“What is it, Sylvie?” Terrill asked gently.
“I know you’re not human anymore,” she blurted out.
“How can you know that?” he asked, surprised. He didn’t believe his outward appearance had changed at all, though inside, he felt his vampire strength and powers returning. He could hear Clarkson’s pencil scratching in the other room; he could even hear the pilots’ conversation up in the cockpit.
“I love you, Terrill,” Sylvie said. “And I know you. Your manner changed, as if you had suddenly gained more confidence. You don’t react to things the same way. But more, your skin feels cold; your heart beats so slowly.”
“They must not know,” Terrill warned.
She snuggled into his shoulder. “I love you, Terrill. I know you better than anyone else ever will. They’ll never find out from me.”
He smiled, feeling strangely relaxed despite the danger. He leaned over and kissed her.
Quietly, they made love, not knowing if they’d ever have the chance again.
#
The jet landed at midday. Someone had set up a canopy that ran from the terminal to the plane. As the travelers disembarked, they could see three men––well, two men and what appeared to be a very adult boy––waiting for them. “That’s Fitzsimmons, Peterson, and the little guy is Hargraves,” Clarkson said. “I expected Southern, but maybe he sent Peterson instead.”
As they approached the welcoming trio, Terrill rammed his hand into the railing. “Ouch!” he exclaimed, and held up a thumb with red blood welling from it.
He saw the Council member who looked like a boy, Hargraves, lick his lips at the sight of the blood. The point had been made: Terrill was human. The welcoming committee waited impatiently as Sylvie stopped, dug into her purse, and then wrapped a Band-Aid around his thumb. She looked up at him and winked.
Finally, the pudgy, middle-aged man Clarkson had called Fitzsimmons stepped forward. He took Sylvie––and quite pointedly, not Terrill––by the elbow and led her toward a waiting limousine with dark-tinted windows. “It’s an honor to meet you, Terrill,” he said. “I’ve been hearing about you since the moment I was Turned. Welcome to you, too, Sylvie. We aren’t accustomed to human guests, so please tell us if we don’t meet your needs.” He turned to Clarkson. “I’ll see you at the Council meeting tonight.”
Clarkson’s face was blank, as usual, as she nodded, but Terrill was now familiar enough with her to notice a hint of alarm in her eyes.
He had no choice but to follow the avuncular vampire into the back of the limo. As they pulled away, Fitzsimmons’s eyes went to Terrill’s injured thumb. “Sylvie takes good care of you, I see. Must not be easy, becoming human after so many centuries. You are so vulnerable now. Both of you.”
Terrill and Sylvie exchanged a glance. The vampire had made clear, in his simple words, that he was threatening them.
“I mean, what vampire would carry a Band-Aid?” their host laughed, then watched out the window as the airport receded into the distance.
Chapter 19
Jamie woke before noon, which was unusual for her. She rolled over onto her back and smiled. She was still sore, which meant they had been so energetic last night that even her recuperative powers hadn’t managed to catch up. They had stayed awake late into the night while Robert apologized again and again for subjecting her to the sight of the bloody crime scene. No matter how many times she reassured him, he seemed to assume it had traumatized her.
Well, if such concern led to that kind of lovemaking, she was going to make sure to be traumatized again. Maybe by the sight of a spider. Or a scary movie. Anything that would send her into the arms of her big, strong man.
She hugged herself. Sometimes she wanted to hold him so tight she was afraid she was going to hurt him. He was so vulnerable to her. She could smell his blood, of course, but she didn’t want to drink it. Perhaps that was in part because she could smell the sickness in it, but mostly it was because the blood belonged to him, to the man she loved. She wanted him whole so she could have all of him.
There were voices coming from the living room. Strange, Jamie thought. I thought he’d gone to work early.
She rooted around the walk-in closet until she found a robe that was suitable for company and started walking down the hallway. Something made her stop halfway and listen.
“You drove all the way from Los Angeles just to visit me?” Robert was asking.
“We drove all the way here because it’s a long way from L.A.,” a man answered.
Another man’s voice broke in. “Callendar and I needed to get out of town for a while. Our job was getting a little too stressful. Unfortunately, our job seems to have followed us, so we won’t be able to stay long.”
“Anyway,” the first man said, “I’m so glad to hear that you’ve found someone. After my sister… left you like that, you deserved someone nice.”
“She is nice,” Robert said, and the genuin
e warmth in his voice caused Jamie’s blue blood to flow faster. “It’s as if we were meant to meet each other.”
“Good. My sister didn’t deserve you.”
“Have you heard from her?” Robert asked. He sounded both reluctant and intensely curious. If Jamie’s heart had been racing before, now it grew cold with jealousy.
“Running around Europe with her rich boyfriend, who is an insufferable snot, by the way. I’d so rather she’d stayed with you.”
“Thanks, Bill. So… if you have time, I’d like to take you guys to a good restaurant tonight.”
“We’ll see, Robert,” said the man called Bill. “Tell you what: Can I get back to you on that? We’ve come across a cold case we need to pursue.”
“Anything I can do to help?”
“Well, as it happens, our case may be tied to your murders.”
Jamie began to feel like she was snooping. She took a deep breath and swept into the room.
“There she is!” Robert said. “Jamie! I’d like you to meet my brother-in-law––that is, former brother-in-law––Bill Callendar. And his partner in crime,” he hesitated and turned to the taller of the two men. “Sorry, I’ve forgotten your first name, Jeffers.”
“Aaron,” the man said. “Aaron Jeffers.”
Both visitors turned around with big smiles… which immediately faltered and then faded away completely as they got a good look at Jamie. She stopped cold just inside the room as the significance of the looks on their faces sank in. Who were these guys, and how did they know what she was? How could they know?
The tall one, Jeffers, started to reach toward the back of his belt and then stopped. He appeared to be confused. Callendar also seemed paralyzed with indecision.
They don’t know, Jamie thought. They suspect, but they don’t know.
“I’m so glad to meet you,” she said as cheerfully as she could. She continued on into the room, but instead of shaking their hands, she sat down on the sofa across from them. They sat down, too, looking perplexed and wary.
Robert remained standing, and it was clear that he could tell something unusual had happened but couldn’t figure out what. Finally, he joined Jamie on the sofa.
Ordinarily, they might have continued to make small talk. Instead, Jeffers turned to the couple on the sofa and, looking straight at Jamie, said, “What do you know about what we do, Robert?”
“Do? You’re Special Agents of the FBI.”
“Yes… but as it happens, we’re kind of special Special Agents. We seek out unusual cases, cases that don’t have logical explanations. Much like the case of your eight dead teenagers and the spate of other murders and accidents your town is suffering.”
“So, serial killers, spree killers; that kind of thing?” Robert asked. “Well, obviously, we could use your help.”
“No,” Callendar said. “There’s more to it than that.”
He’d been toying with a glass ashtray on the end table, and suddenly, he threw it at Jamie. His aim was off, though, and it headed directly for Robert’s head.
Jamie reached out and snatched it before Robert could even process that it had been thrown.
Callendar and Jeffers leaped up and drew their guns. Jamie ran for the back door before they could pull their triggers, and she knew that she probably looked like nothing more than a blur to Robert. It would be this and her preternatural catch of the glass ashtray that he would remember, that would undoubtedly, eventually, break through his denial about what she was.
A bullet slapped into the wall next to her as Jamie slammed into the door, breaking the locks and ripping it off its hinges, and sprinted into the backyard. The woods were only a few dozen feet away, but the bright sunlight began to burn her hair away as she ran. She put her hands over eyes, trying to protect them, and felt the skin sloughing off. Her bare feet seemed to be falling apart with each pounding tread, and her exposed neck and backs of her legs felt like they were on fire.
She heard another shot and something slapped into her shoulder, but the pain was almost inconsequential compared to the agony in the rest of her body. She heard Robert shouting “NO!”
No more bullets came her way and she made it into the woods, where she kept running until her legs gave out and she slammed face-first into the dirt. She couldn’t move. It was going to take time to heal, especially without fresh blood. When they followed her, she’d be helpless against them.
As she waited for the inevitable, she considered crawling into the patch of sunlight she could see ahead of her and putting an end to it all before Robert could find her.
But the day wore on and dusk fell, and she finally began to feel herself start to heal. She staggered to her feet, and even in her diminished condition, she managed to catch a stray cat, which she consumed from tail to head.
It was nearly morning before she felt well enough to start looking for shelter, which turned out to be a cave littered with empty beer cans and potato chip bags. She stayed there for the entire day, wondering why they hadn’t come after her.
#
“You’re going to leave her alone,” Robert said firmly.
“She’s a fucking vampire, Robert!” Callendar exclaimed. “Don’t you understand that? How much evidence do you need?’
Robert’s face showed both confusion and a kind of resoluteness that Callendar recognized. His sister had fallen in love with this idiot because he’d been so naïve and yet so strong.
“A vampire,” was all Robert said.
“Yes, Robert. They exist. Tell me: How many times did you and your girlfriend go out during the day? Did she tell you she was a late sleeper? Did she keep you up till all hours of the night?”
“Nothing wrong with that.”
“Come on, Robert.” Callendar was growing exasperated. “You’re not that stupid. You saw her move––did that look normal to you? We all saw her run across the yard on fire. How do you explain that?”
They were on the back patio. Robert collapsed onto one of the lawn chairs and put his hands to his face. “How can this be happening?” he groaned.
“I’ve got something to tell you, brother,” Callendar said. “Something I’m legally not allowed to say but I’ve always thought was unfair for you not to know. I’ve been tempted a thousand times to tell you, so to hell with the law.
“Brenda didn’t run away. She was killed by a vampire. A vampire who was trying to get back at me.”
Robert stared at him, mouth open. He obviously wasn’t processing this information.
“Too much, partner,” Jeffers said gently.
Robert began to cry. He put his head down on his arms and bawled. The two FBI agents just watched uncomfortably.
After a while, Robert stopped sobbing and raised his head, and his tearstained face was serene, as if he finally understood, finally accepted the truth. “Thank you for telling me, Bill,” he said calmly. “I never understood why Brenda left. It was as if everything I thought I knew turned out to be wrong. Now I know the truth.”
Callendar got up and Jeffers followed suit. “So you’ll let us kill her, this Jamie,” Callendar said.
Robert stood and went into the house. Jeffers and Callendar looked at each other blankly. Robert came back out with a pistol in his hand.
“Stop,” he said in a flat voice when Jeffers went for his gun. “I will shoot you. We’ll see who the local authorities believe: me or Bill. Sure, your FBI colleagues will probably arrest me in the end, but you’ll be dead and Jamie will be long gone.”
Jeffers and Callendar sat back down. Robert kept the gun trained on them. They watched the day go by. After a while, to pass the time, the two FBI agents started telling the local cop everything they knew.
Chapter 20
Stuart came home right before dawn to find his mom and dad’s heads on the mantel and Greg standing in the middle of the room, covered in blood and grinning.
Stuart was across the room in what seemed the blink of an eye; certainly Greg wasn’t ready for him, for he we
nt flying across the room, landing on the back of the sofa and breaking it in half.
“I’ll kill you!” Stuart shouted.
“I’m sorry, man!” Greg cried. “I didn’t know you cared! You used to bitch about them all the time!”
“Care? Shit, no! But both my parents work, and when they don’t show up for a few days, their bosses are going to send someone around.”
“I’ll clean it up, Stuart. I promise.”
“Besides, they’ve got the money for gas and stuff. I’ll be damned if I’m gonna get a job.”
“No problem, Stuart,” Greg reassured him. “We’ve got all the money we need walking around outside at night!”
“Dude. Don’t you get it? The more people we kill, the less chances we’ll get. Hell, I was out all night and didn’t see a soul outside the bars, and everyone in the bars looked ready to fight anyone who looked at them weird.”
Even as he spoke, Stuart realized it didn’t matter. He was getting out of this town. His parents had a stash of money that he’d occasionally plucked a dollar or two from when he was desperate. It was about five hundred bucks: enough to get him to fresh meat markets.
He’d wanted to leave for years. He hadn’t told his friends this, but he’d been told that he’d have to repeat the school year. There was no way he was going to do that. He hadn’t told his parents, either. Parents, teachers––it seemed like all the adults in town had it in for him.
He laughed and thought, Yeah, right. School. Don’t think that will be a problem now.
He would leave the next evening.
He even had a place in mind, less than a day’s drive from Crescent City. Jamie, the bitch who had bitten him and Turned him vampire, had said she was from Bend, Oregon. It was in the High Desert. Stuart had had enough of the coast and the fog and the never-ending rain. Time to check out someplace new––though the idea of constant sun was a little scary. Still, as long as he stayed inside during the day, what did it matter?
The Vampire Evolution Trilogy (Book 2): Rule of Vampire Page 9
