Part 57 (1/2)
The vampire army advanced. The mutant dogs' teeth glinted.
”David!” Nia screamed.
David broke his paralysis. He slammed the rear door and hurried to the driver's side.
The engine was already purring.
”What was wrong with you back there?” Jahlil said from the backseat. ”Let's get the h.e.l.l out of here!”
”Everyone hang tight,” David said. He resisted the compulsion to check the rearview mirror, fearing that he would once again be transfixed by the vampire. He switched on the headlamps to the highest setting and s.h.i.+fted into drive. He mashed the accelerator.
The tires bit into the dirt, and the vehicle exploded forward. They mowed across the gra.s.s.
”The trail, where's the trail?” David said. He had been in Pearl's backyard before, but that was during daylight hours. At night, the landscape was different and unfamiliar. That he was ready to p.i.s.s his pants didn't help his sense of direction, either.
”Over there, by the shed!” Nia pointed frantically.
David saw it: near the tool shed, amidst the shrubbery, a path that looked barely wide enough to admit a compact car beckoned. He cut the wheel to the right. The SUV clipped a rosebush, crimson petals fluttering over the windows. A series of b.u.mps throughout the yard jostled David and the others in their seats.
”Man, those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds are on our a.s.s,” Jahlil said.
David risked a glance in the rearview mirror. Revealed in the red taillights, the vampiric hounds raced across the yard. Behind them, the valduwe gave chase. Diallo and Kyle were not among them.
Where were they?
Pearl, he thought, with a pang of anxiety. She had been right about the vampire's intent to confront her.
But he could not expend any energy worrying about something beyond his ability to control. Driving this narrow route without smas.h.i.+ng into a tree was going to demand all of his attention.
He bulleted through the gap between the bushes. Branches screeched like claws across the truck's body. The leafy boughs of the trees formed a low-hanging tunnel. The path was twisty, the dirt surface moist and orange-red. It was better suited to accomodating a four-by-four recreational vehicle than a truck designed for city driving.
He grasped the steering wheel in both hands, something he did only when driving in hazardous conditions. Still worried that he would spin off the trail, he cut his speed, too. He was traveling only twenty miles an hour.
”They're gaining on us,” Nia said. She turned to stare out the rear window. A vein throbbed in her slender neck.
David took her word for it. The dense woods were alive with the dogs' thunderous barking. In the rear pa.s.senger seat, King whined.
They aren't ordinary dogs, either, he reminded himself. The beasts were supernaturally gifted and could run much faster than normal canines.
”We've got to slow them down,” he said. ”I don't know how, but we've got to do something.”
”I'll take care of them,” Jahlil said. ”One of you, roll back the sunroof.”
”What're you doing?” Nia said.
”Just do it, will you?” Jahlil shouted.
”I'm not taking my hands off the steering wheel,” David said. Gritting his teeth, he navigated the relentlessly curving path. ”Nia, please. Let him do whatever he has in mind.”
”Fine” Nia punched the b.u.t.ton to open the sunroof David did not dare to look away from the trail, but from the corner of his eye, he glimpsed Jahlil holding his shotgun, and he knew what the boy was going to do.
That kid is something else, he thought. His dad would be proud.
Pearl waited in the bedroom, sitting in the rocking chair beside the bed where Chief Jackson's body rested. Her eyes were closed, and her hands rested on her lap, palms turned up. She was praying.
Dear G.o.d, do with me what you will. But please, keep my friends from harm and give them the strength and courage to fulfill the mission you have decreed for them ...
She was in such deep prayer that she did not hear the snarling pack of monster canines that rushed past her house. Neither did she hear the front door crack open as though split with an axe. And she did not hear the deliberate foot steps that clocked across the wooden floorboards of the living room, thudded across the hallway, and entered the bedroom.
Open your eyes, Pearl. I am here.
The voice slipped into her mind with unsettling ease, interrupting her prayer. Her eyes snapped open.
Diallo loomed in front of her.
She drew in a startled breath. She knew his mind, but not his body. He was a fearsome, yet majestic creature, intimidating, yet beautiful, terrifying, yet awe-inspiring.
”You are brave,” he said. His voice was as deep as a summer night. His gaze touched Jackson's covered corpse on the bed. ”And n.o.ble.”
Her heart hammered. ”I am only fulfilling my responsibility.”
Slowly, he nodded. His eyes were so compelling that she found it impossible to look away from him.
”You fear me,” he said. ”But not how others fear me ””
”Yes,” she said thickly. He did not need to elaborate; they had a mutual understanding. This creature had the power to pierce her mind like a hypodermic needle and suck it dry of all her sanity. She found the prospect of being driven insane far more frightening than anything he could do to her physical body.
”You understand me,” he said.
”I understand only what you have allowed me to learn about you, Diallo. You were conscious all the while of my presence. Some doors you kept closed to me”
He smiled, mysteriously. ”Some doors must remain closed.”
”That may be. But I have never understood why you are causing so much pain to innocent people.”
Perhaps it was his unexpected candor and casual manner that made it possible, but Pearl captured a thought from him. It was trapped in her quick mind like a fly caught in a spider's web, and before she checked herself, she spoke her discovery aloud.
”It's her, isn't it?” Pearl said. ”A woman whom you loved when you were a man, a woman whom you lost.”
Diallo's smile vanished.
Quickly, Pearl said, ”But you will see her again, Diallo. Have hope. She is not lost to you forever.”
Diallo shook his head, almost sadly. ”You are talented, Pearl. Your talent is dangerous, to you, and to me ””
”But ”
A cold, invisible hand closed over her throat, cutting off her words. With a grip as powerful as a machine, it began to squeeze.
Her hands instinctively scrabbled at her neck, but there was no physical choke hold for her to tear away. She gagged.