Part 54 (2/2)

Upstairs, the hallway was dark; Emma had not bothered to place a candle around the staircase since no one but her had any business going up there, and she had lived in the house for so long she could walk around blindfolded. But the blackness seemed especially thick and warm, shot through with glints of purple. Just her eyes playing tricks on her, she figured. But Lillie's superst.i.tions rang through her mind.

Those vampires are demons, Lillie had said. You believe in demons, don't you? If you believe in G.o.d, you gotta believe in the Devil, too, sister. Demons are the Devil's minions...

”Ain't no such thing,” Emma mumbled under her breath. She opened the door to the master bedroom.

Inside the room, a candle on the nightstand cast flickering light.

Blood sat on the edge of the bed, head lowered. He was bare-chested, and wore only his blue pajama bottoms. Curly gray hairs shone on his thin chest.

”How long you been up, baby?” Emma said. She began to walk toward him, ready to check his temperature. ”Let me take a look at you”

When Blood raised his head and looked at her, she halted.

An icy finger slid down her spine.

Something was wrong with Blood. The wrongness was in his dark, red-rimmed eyes. Looking into those eyes of his was like looking at a rattlesnake.

Instinctively, she broke eye contact.

”Come on over here, brown sugar,” he said. His voice was raspy, but commanding. ”I wanna hold your fine body in my arms”

Blood called her ”brown sugar” whenever he wanted to romance her, but there was nothing flirtatious about his manner, not this time. His jaw was tight. His fingers clenched and unclenched. He looked like a man who was ready to rumble, not make love.

What was wrong with him? Had the fever cooked his brain into stew?

Or was Lillie right?

Emma took a step backward, the floorboard creaking beneath her.

”Where you going, woman?” Blood rose. He moved with a silkiness that she had never seen from him, as though his bad leg were a thing of the past. ”I want you to come to me”

”What's ... what's wrong with you?” she said. She had to force out the words, her heart was pounding so hard.

”Ain't a d.a.m.n thing wrong with me, baby. I ain't never felt so good in my life.” He laughed. ”I wanna make you feel good like I do”

Emma couldn't be sure because of the quivering light and shadows, but when he had opened his mouth to laugh, she thought she had seen long, sharp teeth. The kind of teeth a dog would have.

Or a vampire.

Lillie's know-it-all voice played in her mind: I told you the truth, you old fool. Why don't you ever listen to me?

Blood spread his arms. ”Come on over to me, brown sugar. Lemme make you feel good”

Spinning around to run was so hard for Emma, it was like trying to move when submerged in water. The air itself seemed to push against her to keep her from getting out of there. But she broke out of the room and slammed the door behind her.

The darkness in the hallway swallowed her. She was careless for not lighting a candle up here.

On the other side of the door, the floorboards groaned. Blood was coming. There was no way to keep him from getting out. She couldn't lock the door from this side.

But she had a houseful of people who could help her. Big, strong men like Buster. They could help her handle Blood, whatever was wrong with him.

She ran across the hall, b.u.mping into things. She flew down the steps so quickly she nearly tripped over her own feet.

”Girl, what you running for?” Earl said. Cards in one hand, he tipped up his gla.s.s full of Hennessy, taking a long gulp. He burped, then chuckled. ”You come back looking for a real man to handle you?”

Emma opened her mouth to speak-and then she saw movement outside the living room windows.

The curtains were peeled back, giving a view of the front yard. There was a gang of people out there. Folks with pale, grimy faces. Dressed in hospital gowns with dark stains across the front. They moved like wolves on the prowl, hunched over, muscles tensed and ready to pounce, intent on a single, deadly objective.

Emma could not believe it. But it was right there in front of her face.

Her buzz drained out of her like water slipping away in a tub.

”Lock the doors!” Emma cried. ”Everybody, we being attacked!”

People gaped at her, their eyes glazed. Like she had stood up and shouted something in j.a.panese.

”What the h.e.l.l you talking 'bout, Emma?” a man said in a slurred voice. ”You just drunk, old gal.”

To h.e.l.l with waiting on these drunk fools, she thought. She hustled across the living room to lock the front door.

The door exploded open. Emma stumbled backward. Cold wind and rain swooped inside, and two of those vam- pirelike things leapt onto the threshold, hissing, their fangs bared.

Emma screamed and ran.

All around the house, windows shattered as if from the force of a tremendous gale, but deep in her heart she knew it was no wind that was responsible. Those monsters had probably surrounded her house, and were breaking inside.

With all the folks lounging around her place, coming here would be like a feast for those creatures.

She itched to get her shotgun. But the one she wanted was in her bedroom closet. She couldn't go up there. Blood would be waiting.

She raced into the kitchen. Windows were busted in there, too, and one of those creatures must have hurled itself through the hole-she saw one that looked as if it used to be a young woman. h.e.l.l, it looked kinda like Shenice Stevens, who'd won the town beauty pageant last year. But if it were really her, s.h.i.+t, she looked like a mess.

The female monster had cornered Buster Hodges. Buster held up his ma.s.sive fists in a boxer's stance, his face resolute. The creature darted toward him. Buster threw his famous right hook-and hit nothing but air. The vampire moved way too fast. It seized Buster's arm and bit into his meaty bicep. Buster cried out, and his legs sagged.

Within seconds, the creature had climbed on top of him like she was s.e.xing him up, but its mouth was attached to Buster's neck, and the greedy, sucking sounds made Emma's stomach turn.

Emma was too frightened to try to help him. She whammed through the door at the back of the kitchen, stumbled into the garage.

The barbecue grill spat and sizzled, pungent smoke pouring through the half-open garage door and into the night air.

Throwing this party was the dumbest thing I've ever done in my life, she thought, more lucidly than she had thought anything all evening. This town has slid into a corner of h.e.l.l, and here I am throwing a f.u.c.king party. How could I be so dumb? I should've split the minute I walked out of that church.

But it was too late to get away. Vehicles blocked the driveway, keeping her from backing her Ford out of the garage. She would've even taken someone else's car to get away, but she'd have to go back inside the house to find keys, and she was afraid to go back in there.

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