Vampire Miami (32 page)

Slowly he began to rise. To force her back. She
leaned into him, trying to crush his wrist. Her body burned in
black flames, her spirit tumbling away, lost and broken. All that
mattered was this moment, this creature. Ending its life. Breaking
it while she still had his strength, his vitality within her.

But he was too strong. Despite how much he’d
poured into her, he was still too strong. He rose up, off his knee,
and stood again. The shock was replaced by satisfaction, his face
contorting with hunger. He raised himself higher and began to drive
her down to the ground.

Then he contorted, spasmed, and a stake emerged
through his chest, blunt end smeared in blood. Punched right
through his ribcage, and Sawiskera lost all his strength, released
his hold, and toppled to the ground, eyes staring at nothing.

Theo stood, face battered, the ridge of his left
eye crushed, left arm hanging useless by his side. Selah stared at
him, and he offered her a bleak smile before collapsing to the
ground as well.

With Cloud hobbling beside her and Theo
staggering after, Selah quit the penthouse, walking past the
stunned guards who poured in through the door behind her and became
the first to see Sawiskera’s impaled and beheaded body turning into
the finest dust. Selah waited grimly for the elevator to arrive,
ignoring the yells that sounded from the panicked guards, the
requests for help, for assistance, for orders. The threesome
entered the elevator and rode it down, knowing that when the doors
opened below, they would face a maelstrom of panic and
resistance.

Fortunately, Cloud thought to send them into the
parking garage. They skipped the lobby for the wide-open concrete
spaces beneath ground, and it was there that Theo took his
leave.

“I can’t go with you,” he said, stepping
away.

Selah examined his face. How the pain, fatigue,
and misery had carved deep lines around his mouth, creased the
corners of his eyes. As if he’d aged a thousand vampire years in
but a few hours.

“Where will you go?” She didn’t try to dissuade
him, knowing it would be of no use. She could see how her proximity
hurt him now, understood how his emotions were still raw from her
blood. How old memories had been stirred into life.

“I’ll leave Miami,” he said. He lifted his head
as if hearing something, and then looked back at her. “Plessy will
now step into power. I don’t want to be in a city that’s under his
control.”

Cloud nodded. “Plessy. You think he’s worse than
Sawiskera?” Selah and Theo exchanged a look. They both turned to
Cloud and nodded. Theo said, “I’m starting to wonder how much of
all this was his plan all along. If he knew that my drinking your
blood would break my loyalty and snap my bonds to Sawiskera. Would
free me to finally attack him. How much we have all played into his
hands.”

“Shit,” said Cloud. “That ain’t good.”

“Take care of yourself,” said Selah. She wanted
to say something more, but once again felt an abyss between them.
Even reaching out to touch him was too much.

Theo nodded stiffly. “You too. Perhaps we’ll …
meet again.”

“You never know.” Selah smiled bravely at him.
“And thanks. Thanks for everything.”

Theo’s smile turned bitter, wry. “I never had a
choice. Not really. Not looking the way you do.” He turned and
walked away, heading toward the car ramp that led to the next
level.

“That was Sawiskera’s Dragon,” said Cloud, “and
he just helped us kill the vampire king.”

“Yeah.”

“And we’re both still alive.”

Selah smiled again. “Yes.”

Cloud shook his head, and then slipped his hand
around the nape of Selah’s neck and pulled her against him. They
stood like that, eyes closed as they held each other, and then
Cloud pulled back. A glint burned in the depths of his eyes.
Wonder, perhaps, or awe. “Then let’s get the hell out of here.” He
limped over to a compact Audi the color of vampire eyes and tried
the door. It opened. He lowered himself carefully into the driver’s
seat. Selah rounded the hood to the passenger door as Cloud brought
the engine rumbling to life.

“Where we going?” asked Cloud.

There was no doubt. “The Palisades. Mama B.
Then—out.”

“All right.”

They drove out of the parking garage. Nobody
tried to stop them. There was nobody at the front gate, so Cloud
simply pulled out carefully and took off down Biscayne. Looking out
the window, Selah watched crowds of people surging back and forth.
People stared into their Omnis, talked and gesticulated wildly to
each other.

“Things have gone to hell,” said Selah quietly.
“With Sawiskera gone, it’s going to be a rough couple of
nights.”

“You bet,” said Cloud. He rested his head back
and winced once more as he hitched his weight to one side. “How are
you … how are you feeling?”

Selah closed her eyes. Tried to figure out an
answer to that question. Breathed slowly. She didn’t feel
Sawiskera’s power burning through her any longer, that sensation
that she could tear open cars or even hurl them across the street.
But something was wrong, on a deep, once-inviolate level. It felt
as if a hole had appeared in her core, a hole that punched way down
into her being, and was now filled with slime. A deep morass of
darkness that, for the moment, lay still, but was undeniably there.
She tried to focus on it, to probe this pollution, but she didn’t
have the strength, the resolve, to push too deep. Shuddering, she
opened her eyes.

“Not good. I don’t know what happened to me up
there. He was going to steal my humanity. Going to make me a
vampire. I think—I think Theo stopped him in time. But I still
don’t feel right.”

Cloud’s face was grim. “I didn’t want to say
anything at first. But here. Take a look at yourself.” He reached
out and lowered her sun visor, and then flipped open the mirror
cover.

Selah reached up and angled it toward her face
and then slammed it closed, let out a sharp scream of denial and
fear. She turned her head away and pressed her face against the
window. Scrunched her eyes as tightly as she could. It felt as if
somebody had jolted her with a live wire, had run a thousand volts
through her. She shook her head, over and over again.
No.
NO.

Her eyes were black, as smooth and empty as the
void. No whites, no iris, no pupil. Just a gleaming and perfectly
ebon surface. Vampire eyes.

“No,” she said brokenly. “No.”

They drove in silence. Cloud shot worried
glances at her, but kept quiet. Selah had to look again. She opened
the visor, then the mirror. Stared into her own black eyes. Leaned
forward, got a good look up close. From cornea to corner, they were
pitch black.

Selah fell back into her seat. “No.”

“What was he doing exactly? What was he trying
to do?”

“He said he was going to steal my humanity.
Exchange it for his vampiric curse. But Theo stopped him. I felt
it. He stopped him before he finished. I didn’t receive it all. I
didn’t give him all of me. It didn’t work.” A name echoed in her
mind:
Teharonhiawako
. She didn’t want to think about that.
What it might mean. What the implications might spell out.

Cloud pursed his lips, took the turn off
Biscayne and started to head through Midtown. “Well, maybe it’ll
wear off. Maybe it’s like an aftereffect from the ritual. Give it a
few hours, and it’ll go. You don’t have his strength anymore,
right?”

Selah shook his head. “No. That faded away when
Theo cut off his head.”

“There you go. So maybe this will too. Look,
it’s nearly dawn. A million dollars says your eyes will clear when
the sun rises.”

Selah craned to look behind her at the eastern
horizon. It was a light gray, streaks of butter yellow already
painting the wispy edges of the dark clouds.

“Please,” she said, to nobody in particular.
“Please. Don’t let this happen. Please don’t.”

Cloud reached out and took her hand in his own.
It was large, long fingered, dry. She held it tightly. They drove
in silence, and then Cloud gave a small nod.

“Thank you. For coming for me. For saving
me.”

“No problem,” said Selah morosely. She couldn’t
muster any enthusiasm with eyes so black.

“You want to know something?” Cloud’s voice had
taken that quiet tone of his, half pensive, half subdued. “I was
never worried. I never felt like it was over, even when things got
bad in that cage. And when you showed up? It was just like this
amazing, beautiful confirmation of what I’d known would happen. I’d
known it. That I could put faith in you. Somehow. Impossibly.”

Selah looked at him. He met her gaze squarely.
She took a breath. Maybe he was right. Maybe it would get better.
Maybe sunlight would clear it up.

“I thought it was all over,” she said. “I was
caged up with Theo, and then Hector of all people came in and freed
me.”

“Who’s Hector?”

“Just this security guard who worked for Plessy.
He was part of the group in the helicopter that grabbed us. He said
that Karl had told him in horrible detail what was going to happen
to us, and that he couldn’t take it. He had to free us.”

Cloud frowned. “That sounds suspect.”

“Yeah,” said Selah, squeezing Cloud’s hand and
looking out the window. Strange how these streets already looked so
familiar in all their ruinous abandon. “I wonder why Karl did that.
Drive it home in such detail for him, I mean.” Selah felt things
moving into place in her mind. “It’s like he was trying to provoke
Hector into letting us go free.”

Cloud shook his head, turning the wheel so as to
drive around the sunken bus. “To what end? You were meant to be a
gift to Sawiskera.”

“Yeah. So he said.” Selah continued to tug at
the problem, at the events. “I mean, he told me himself you were at
the Freedom Fight. And then Hector arrived just in time to free me
so I could show up. And …” A memory. Sawiskera at the base of the
steps.
You have risked your life for love. I needed to know that
you would
. Realization hit her. “They set us up. They freed me
on purpose.”

The Palisades were up ahead, and Cloud began to
slow the car. Looked at her in confusion. She continued, excited,
“He needed to know that I loved you before …” She suddenly couldn’t
look at Cloud, could look anywhere
but
Cloud. “Um.”

He parked the car. Took his hand from hers and
touched her cheek. Her face burned. Stupid to be self-conscious
after all they’d gone through, but she
still
couldn’t turn
to look at him. Felt his fingers under her chin, turning her face,
and when she looked at him he kissed her, lips firm on hers, hand
curling around the back of her head. Pulling her to him, holding
her close. She kissed him, closing her eyes, losing herself in the
moment, in the feel of him, the taste.

He broke the kiss, pressed his forehead to hers,
eyes closed. “Selah. Oh, Selah.”

She reached up and cupped his cheek, ran her
thumb over his lips. She didn’t know what to say. How could you
feel such joy over so much fear? “This can’t work,” she heard
herself say.

“Why not?” He opened his eyes. She felt his long
lashes tickle her brow.

“I—I might not be getting better, this could be
permanent—”

He kissed her again, cut her off before she
could go any further. Kissed her hungrily, his lips pressed against
hers, mouth opening. She allowed her words to spiral away, and
pulled him closer, tugged at his shirt, his shoulders, until he
winced and broke away, gasping in a moment of pain that dissolved
into a husky laugh as she began to apologize over and over
again.

“It’s fine, it’s fine.” He pulled her close
again, pressed his forehead to hers once more. “Selah. I don’t care
about your eyes. I don’t care about what might be happening to you.
You saved my life. If you’re in trouble, I’ll help. I’m going to
get you to safety, no matter what. Get you and your grandmother out
of here. I’m not going to leave you.”

Selah tried to smile even as she felt tears brim
in her eyes once more. Before they could spill, she kissed him,
kissed him as if this time might be their very last.

When they pulled apart, the sun was a half inch
over the horizon, and the first person had set out from the
Palisades’ front door with a bucket in his hand. Selah pulled back,
lips feeling inflamed, a feverish sensation simmering under her
skin. Cloud reached for her again, and then drew back, laughing
again at himself. They sat in their seats, and watched each other,
the morning light golden and slanting through the car. They smiled
at each other, fingers interlaced. They were alive. They were
alive, and he needed her, had sworn to help her, protect her, get
her and her grandmother to safety.

“We have to take advantage of the confusion,” he
said at last. “Get you to the embassy as soon as your eyes clear
up.”

“How are they looking?”

He leaned forward. “A little lighter. Looks like
it might be going away like I said.”

She laughed and turned back to the mirror.
Peered into them. Her iris and pupil were visible now, both still
an absolute black, but the whites of her eyes had lightened to an
ashen gray. “Thank you, Lord, thank you thank you thank you.”

She fell back into her seat, and then turned to
him, grinning. “Let’s go find Mama B and Maria Elena. Maybe my eyes
will be completely clear by then, and we can go.”

“Yeah.” He nodded and then paused. She stopped.
There was something about the way he was looking at her, a special
look. His eyes warm, his mouth quirked into a private smile.

“What?”

“Nothing.” He shook his head, and a smile
quirked his lips. “I was just thinking about how things have
changed since you showed up. And to think we’re just getting
started.”