The Vampire's Revenge (28 page)

“What the hell are you on about?” Will looked annoyed and bewildered.

“She’s a politician now,” I charged. “She wants a seat on the vampire Council, and she’s been bribing every vampire she meets to join her, promising she’ll let them ride on her coattails—even me.”

“Don’t believe him, my son,” she simpered. “Who will you trust? Your own dear mother or the man who helped kill your father?”

“You
bitch
! I’ll kill you for that!” I launched myself at Diana, but Will dove forward, blocking me. I wound up on my back on the carpet, and Will landed hard on the floor not far from me. I reached up and grabbed a fistful of Diana’s clothing and pulled her down on top of me like a lover. I seized her neck, brought her throat to my mouth, and bit down fiercely.

She howled like an injured animal, and Will scrambled to his feet. He hesitated a moment. If he pulled his mother away from me and her carotid artery stayed in my fangs, she might not recover. But if he couldn’t get some kind of clear shot at me, I could kill his mother within seconds.

He wedged his hand between his mother’s neck and mine and squeezed my throat so hard a human would have died of a crushed larynx. I only bit down harder and deeper. Will panicked, grabbed his mother’s shoulders, and pulled. A chunk of flesh remained in my fangs.

Diana’s hands flew to her throat to try and stanch the massive bleeding. Her mouth worked but she couldn’t speak. The sight of his mother’s injury seemed to drive Will around the bend. He looked at me with rage. “You helped murder my father and now you’ve tried to kill my mother. I’ll destroy you for this, McShane.”

Effortlessly, he picked up Diana and carried her out of the house through the window she’d just obliterated. After a few seconds Deylaud appeared, sobbing.

“I guess you heard,” I said, staring at the demolished den.

“Yes,” he said, trembling. “That was Diana—one of the ones who beat my sister—and her son, Will.”

“That’s right. I did my best to kill her, but she escaped.”

“Thank you, Jack. I know you tried.” He stood up straight, visibly trying to pull himself together. “I’ll put this room to rights.”

“That would be great,” I said.

While I wondered what my next move should be, I began righting the furniture that got upended in the struggle. Will would take Diana somewhere and patch her up, and the both of them would come for me. Then they would go find Connie. And Connie wouldn’t leave the city. What the hell was I going to do now? Even if I told her she was pregnant, which I couldn’t, she still might not agree to find a safer place than Savannah.

“Jack?” Deylaud said with a tremor in his voice.

“Yeah, buddy?”

“I’ve got to tell you something.”

“What’s that?”

“Sister and I have . . . made a decision.”

I looked at him, sensing something bad coming down the pike. “Tell me.”

“Our mystic bond to protect William was broken the night he died,” Deylaud began. Unable to meet my eyes, he bent to pick up a shard of glass.

Suddenly more weary than I could ever remember, I sat on the ottoman near William’s easy chair. I couldn’t bear to sit in his place. “Go on,” I choked out, already knowing what my old friend would say. He and Reyha had been given to William by one of the former pharaohs of Egypt—who had just happened to be a vampire. The littermates were to guard William’s daytime resting place for as long as he remained undead, which they did for hundreds of years. Now their duty was over.

Deylaud’s voice broke. “Sister nearly died the other night. And now this—this invasion by someone who nearly killed her once before.”

“I know,” I said. “It’s all right, Deylaud. Say what you have to say.”

“We have to leave now. We’re in so much danger, and it’s so sad here without William, Melaphia, and Renee. But we love you so much.”

I looked up to see a trembling Reyha standing in the entrance to the den. I gestured for her to come to me, and she did. She knelt next to the ottoman and threw her skinny arms around me. Deylaud joined her and snuggled up to my other side just like he would have if he’d been in four-footed form.

“It’s okay, you guys. You have my blessing to leave. I want you to be safe and happy just like Melaphia and Renee. And for the record I love you, too.”

I stroked their silky hair and listened to them sob, all the while assessing what my so-called life had become. If my situation wasn’t so pitiful and sad I might have to laugh.

You know you’ve reached a new low in life when even your dogs desert you.

Twenty-four

I gave the twins each a kiss and sent them to bed with a promise that we’d talk about the details of their departure in the next couple of days. Deylaud would hire and train a team of managers for William’s business interests and properties so I wouldn’t have to take time out from my busy schedule of trying to remain in one piece.

As soon as the twins left, I picked up the phone. I couldn’t wait until morning to warn Connie, but I also couldn’t talk to her directly. She’d just killed William and Ulrich—two of the most powerful vampires on the planet. She wouldn’t be alarmed that Will and his mother were after her, but she should be. The pair of them were much more dangerous than Ulrich had been alone. Ulrich relied on raw brutality. Diana and Will would use treachery.

I called Seth’s cell phone. “Yeah,” he said.

“Shut up and listen good,” I began. “Tell Connie this is a wrong number. Then meet me in the tunnels under her apartment in ten.” I hung up and went downstairs to the vault’s entrance to the tunnels. It was almost daylight, and I didn’t want to get stuck topside.

Seth was there waiting. He didn’t ask me what I was playing at or give me a hard time. He knew it was important or I wouldn’t have called him at dark-thirty and demand to see him without Connie. In turn, I didn’t beat around the bush.

“Will’s back,” I began. “I had to tell him William was dead. I was making up a lie about how it happened when Diana busted in and told him Connie murdered William. I managed to put a pretty bad bite on Diana, but the two of them got away. When they left they were yammering about revenge. As soon as Diana recovers they’ll be coming after Connie tag-team style.”

“Shit,” Seth muttered. “What do you think we should do? I know she won’t leave Savannah. She thinks she’s ten feet tall and vampire-proof.”

“Yeah, I know. I’ve got a plan, but I need your help.”

“Let’s hear it.”

Even with everything that had happened, I finally got a decent day’s sleep, knowing that Seth and I had hashed out a plan that should keep Connie completely safe—at least until I could figure out how to get rid of Diana and Will. I got up at the crack of dusk and hurried to meet Otis at the marina closest to the island he called Tara.

At first I wondered why the faeries named the island after Scarlett O’Hara’s house, but Otis pointed out that Tara was the name for the most magical place in Ireland. That made more sense.

As I drove, I mentally rehearsed the plan that Seth and I had agreed on right before dawn. He was to make an excuse to Connie and go directly to gather up all the provisions he and she would need to be marooned on an island for a few weeks. I had to use every ounce of strength I had not to obsess over the idea of Seth and Connie cooped up on a faerie island for weeks on end with nothing to do but . . . I wouldn’t let my mind go there or I’d lose it. I forced myself to stick to reviewing what I had to accomplish.

Otis had agreed to rent a powerboat, guide Seth to the island, and help him set up camp and unload the supplies. As soon as Otis was back at the garage, I had called Connie and told her that I’d gotten a tip on Diana’s whereabouts. I explained that it was on an island only Otis knew how to get to and told her to be prepared to go with me to check it out as soon as the sun went down. Of course I knew full well that she wouldn’t wait for me but would go to Otis immediately, which was exactly what happened.

As I’d coached him, Otis put up enough resistance to keep Connie from smelling a rat and then caved in and agreed to take her. To make sure she didn’t pull a fast one, I’d told him in no uncertain terms to insist she leave her cell phone with him. He had to convince her that the faeries who owned the island disapproved of cell phones so she would have to leave hers behind.

He would let her out on the island close to where he had dropped off Seth, and as soon as she was out of earshot of the motorboat, he would come back to the mainland, stranding her there with the werewolf.

I was now on my way to pick up Otis at the marina where he turned in the rented boat and to make sure the plan had gone off—please, gods—without a hitch.

The lanky redneck faerie was waiting for me in front of the boat rental office when I pulled up in the ’Vette. He opened the door and got in on the passenger side. “Well?” I asked.

“Everything happened just like you planned,” he said. “Peanuts?” He offered me some from a foil bag. I flashed my fangs. “Oh, yeah. Sorry.”

“Did you see them meet up?”

“Yeah. I saw Connie and Seth talking on the beach right before I revved the motor. They’ll be fine.”

“And you’ve got her cell phone?”

“Yep.” Otis handed it to me and I pocketed it.

I sighed. “All right then. Don’t get those peanut hulls in my upholstery.”

“Okay.”

I peeled out of the parking lot and headed back toward Savannah, giving myself a moment to enjoy the relief of knowing that Connie and my baby were safe, at least for a while. She would discover any day now that she was pregnant. Best-case scenario would be that Seth could talk her into staying on the island for the sake of what he thought was
his
baby until it was born. As a lawman, he was more than capable of delivering an infant. I knew for a fact he had been called on to do it a couple of times before in the course of his job.

Pangs of jealousy and loss gnawed at my gut as I thought about what I’d given up. Connie would be angry at first, but Seth would calm her down. He was probably having mind-blowing makeup sex with her right now after confessing his part in the scheme to get her to the island. I got an awful vision of my girlfriend gloriously naked on the beach, her black hair spread out on the sand, her new lover moving eagerly between her thighs.

If Otis hadn’t been in the car with me I would have been tempted to drive into a tree. Instead I whipped out my cell phone and dialed Olivia. “How are you?” I asked.

“Better than when we last spoke,” she said.

“You’ve found a safe place?”

“Yes, thank goodness. I went to Ireland in advance of the others and found a perfect place for us. The others are going to join me as soon as they’ve packed our archives and our few belongings that survived both fires.”

“Wow, you move fast,” I said. “Tell me about your new home.”

“It’s not far from where Melaphia and Renee are living,” she said. “I hope to visit them soon. Discreetly, of course. We’re going to be leasing a farmhouse with a large cellar. It’s on a hill so there’s good visibility all around for security.”

“It sounds great,” I said. “I’m glad you’re going to be close to my girls. You can all keep an eye on one another.”

“By all means. Listen, Jack, can I call you back in a bit? I’m having a meeting with some of the fey elders here. I set it up as a courtesy to them. I don’t think they’ll have any objection to us moving into their territory, but it can’t hurt to do some little public relations, yeah? I’m literally standing in the foyer of their headquarters waiting to be called in as we speak.”

The unpleasant news I needed to tell her about Will could wait. “Sure,” I said. “One more thing real quick and I’ll let you go.” Without mentioning Will I told her about the scheme I’d just pulled on Connie.

“Oh, my. You
are
a brave man. I don’t know if I’d want to piss off the Slayer to that degree.”

“I’ll take my chances. When you meet with the faeries, would you ask them what they know about the island? I’m kind of curious about it.” Beside me, Otis started choking on a peanut.

“Are you all right, Jack?”

“Yeah. That’s not me.” I slapped Otis on the back and he gagged.

“It sounds as if you’re strangling someone.”

“I’ll explain when you call back. Just ask the Sidhe about the island in general and see if anyone remembers anything about it.”

“Will do. They just announced me so I’ve got to go. I’ll call you back directly. Cheers.”

“Bye, babe. Good luck.”

Otis coughed violently. “Why do you want her to talk to the Sidhe about the island?”

“Like I said, just curious is all.”

Otis stuffed the rest of the nuts in his pocket and stared out the passenger-side window into the darkness.

“Is there something you’re not telling me?”

Otis sighed. “Uh, well, way back in the day when they sent me to see if anybody was hiding out on this island . . .”

“Go on,” I urged. I was starting to get a bad feeling.

“When I reported back to the nobility that I didn’t find anybody, there was this one guy who didn’t believe me.”

“Is that the misunderstanding you mentioned before?”

“Um, yeah.”

I waited for him to continue, beginning to think that I was going to have to stop by the side of the road and beat the story out of him. “Out with it,” I demanded. “What are you tiptoeing around telling me? What was it about this guy?”

“The thing is, there was this gold involved.”

“Involved in
what
?”

“In the disappearance.”

“The disappearance of
who
?” I stomped on the brakes in the middle of the deserted road and stared at Otis.

“The princess,” he said haltingly.

“I swear to the gods if you don’t tell me exactly what you’re talking about in complete sentences in a minute or less I’m going to reach down your throat, tear your tonsils out, and feed them to the fish. Go.”

Otis’s eyes got as round as saucers as he took a deep breath and started talking. “The princess was the faerie I mentioned—the one who went missing. Her folks, the king and queen, refused to give their permission for her to go to the New World, but she ran off anyway and stowed away on the boat with the others. I think she was in love with one of the guys. Anyway, being a princess, she wasn’t about to rough it with everybody else so she took a bag of gold with her.