Part 10 (1/2)
”Vampire?” She laughed, but the woman on the other end of the phone wasn't laughing, so her own died in her throat. ”You are joking right?”
”No. I know quite a few of them. They exist. And they're nothing like what most people think they are. They tend to be driven to protect people like you.”
”People like me?”
”It's got to do with your blood, Mary. Dunst told me you have the belladonna antigen. That's probably why he referred you to us in the first place.”
She went cold inside, remembering how often Michael had mentioned that the antigen connected him to her. But surely this was complete and utter fantasy.
Vampires? ”Okay, sure. Whatever you say. You just send me that photo. I think I can handle this myself from here.”
”Fine. If you change your mind-”
”I won't.” She hung up the phone. Vampires. Good grief, the woman was insane. And yet, even though she knew there were no such things, she thought it a pretty sick coincidence that she'd never seen Michael during the day. And his odd reaction to her meal this morning. As if he'd had to force himself to eat it. An the way he could read her mind. And how quickly and silently he managed to move.
And the things he'd said about the antigen creating a bond between them...
Sighing, Mary forced the ridiculous notion from her mind and walked back through the house, peering outside, seeing no one. But it was dimming. It would be dark soon. He'd said he should be back by dark.
Just another coincidence?
h.e.l.l. She would just have to be quick.
She went to his room, took the computer out of its case, booted it up right there on his bed. Seconds ticked by while she waited for it to go through the motions. Then she clicked on the wireless Internet connection b.u.t.ton, and the thing logged on immediately. As fast as her fingers could move, she typed in her online server an brought up her private e-mail account. Then she waited, drumming her fingers, staring at the mailbox icon, waiting, waiting... there! The little flag popped up. She quickly accessed the e-mail, clicked on the paperclip icon and watched as, line by line, a photograph revealed itself on the screen. Hair, the top of a forehead, eyebrows, and finally eyes and the bridge of a nose...
”Oh, my G.o.d...” Line by line, his cheeks, his mouth, his chin. All of Michael's face stared at her from beneath a date policeman's hat. It was a photo ID, with his name and the date underneath. Michael Gray, born 5 February, 1899.
”This can't be...”
”Mary? Hey, Mary, are you here?” he called.
Mary stiffened and lifted her chin. And then his bedroom door opened, and he stood there, staring at her an at the computer. ”Mary what's going on?”
Shaking her head slowly from side to side, she said, ”I don't know. But I think it's time you told me. Don't you?”
”I don't under-”
He stopped speaking as she turned the computer to face him, so he could see his own face filling the screen.
He didn't know what to say, what to do. If she could only have controlled her curiosity for one more day. But G.o.d, they couldn't deal with all of this-not tonight of all nights. Tonight was the full moon. If she ran from him now...
”I can ex-”
”How?”
He pursed his lips, shook his head. ”All right. Look, I really didn't want to get into this so soon. h.e.l.l I didn't want to get into it at all. I don't want to scare you away from me, Mary. I'm not evil. I'm only trying to protect you. You have to believe that.”
She got up off the bed, backing up a few steps. He felt as if he were reliving his worst nightmare. ”So is that you in the photo?”
He hesitated. ”Mary, I'll tell you every thing but first-tell me where you put the gun I gave you.”
She frowned, ”Michael, what the h.e.l.l does that have to do-”
”Please. Deep down, you trust me. You know me. Just answer the question.”
She licked her lips. He knew she was afraid of him, yes, but she trusted him, too.
”It's in the guest room, next to my bed.”
”You swear?” He broke his promise, probe her mind to be sure she was telling the truth.
”Yes. Now you answer my question. I that you in the picture?”
”Yes.”
”Then you're more than a hundred years old?”
He nodded.
”How can that me, Michael? You don't look a day over thirty.” ”I shouldn't look a day over twenty-nine. That's how old I was when I was shot.”
”By a member of the Capone gang?”
He closed his eyes. ”There were two gangs doing the shooting. I got in between them.”
He watched her face carefully. There was no sign of panic. No hint of hysteria he'd seen in Sally's face that night. So far.
”Michael, I just got off the phone with some detective agency that told me you might be a... a... G.o.d, I can't even say it.”
”Say it,” he told her.
She held his eyes with hers. ”She said you might be a vampire. Is that what you are, Michael?”
He chose his words with extreme care. ”Mary, I'll tell you exactly what I am. I'm the man you see in front of you, the one who's been with you for days now, protecting you from a killer. I'm the an you know inside and out. Nothing about me is different from what you already know. But there are some things about me that you don't know yet.
Things that are unique. The don't make me a freak or a monster or a demon. I'm still me.”
She nodded slowly. ”Go on.”
She wasn't losing it, not yet. ”I don't age. If I go out in sunlight, I'll burst into flames. And in order to keep from going stark raving mad or dying of slow starvation, I have to feed on blood. But I don't kill. I never kill. I have never taken a human life.
Never.”
She stared at him, then at the door behind him.
”I didn't want to tell you this, Mary. I didn't want to see the fear in your eyes the way I'm seeing it now. I'm not evil. I'm not a monster.”
”No, of course not,” she said. But in her min she was thinking she had to get away from him. That she couldn't think straight around him, that this was just too much to understand all at once. Humor him, she thought. Just keep him calm and get the h.e.l.l out of here. He heard it all.