Part 19 (1/2)

”The local sheriff.”

Both answers stepped on each other.

”One at a time, please, gents. Tuxbridge, you claim to be the injured party here, I believe. I'll let you have first say. Doctor, if you'll wait, I'll give you last word.” Scott looked at Tux. ”Is this true? You believe that De Chaux killed your brother?”

”Yes.”

”You have proof?”

”No. Just that Joel told me that he'd take care of the sheriff. Make her disappear. She'd been questioning us too closely regarding a murder investigation. De Chaux had said he'd take care of her. That was a joke. His idea of taking care of her was keeping her warm in bed. But Joel was the one who disappeared, and up until a few minutes ago, the sheriff was alive and well. Joel would never just leave. I haven't been able to reach him by phone for two days now.”

”So that's what this little row was about tonight?”

”My brother is dead, Mr. Scott. Truly dead. I can feel it. We're not just brethren. He was my human blood brother. We grew up together. We've been together on both sides. You know what it's like to wear a ring on your finger your whole life? You don't feel it, but you know it's there. But the minute you take it off you're aware that something's different. Something's missing. Something's wrong. Well, two nights ago I felt that ring slip off.”

Scott sat silent for a moment, his head down, as if he were considering. Ric might have laughed at the sight of such a youthful face pondering such a weighty issue had his own features not been so similarly untouched by age. He gazed down at Shelby. Her head was tilted slightly to the side, her expression frozen in that moment of realized loss when a person knows they will perish in but a moment. What had he said to her? That vampires don't grow old. They simply cease to exist. As obsessed as he had been with life and death over the years, he had never really pondered the ending of his own existence. It scared him. He knew he had no soul to either linger on earth or to join the spirits of his long-departed family. He was a d.a.m.ned creature. If anything, he would pay the price of his d.a.m.nation for all eternity in a place much worse than Midexistence.

Ric studied Tux with new eyes. When he had killed Branduff he had had no idea that the rogue was related to Tuxbridge. Would the knowledge have changed his decision to dispatch the vamp to the True Death? He wasn't sure. All he knew now was that Tux was feeling everything that Ric had felt more than two centuries ago when his family was sent to the guillotine. Whatever the consequence, Ric could no longer hide the truth. Tux deserved to know what had happened. He felt Scott's eyes on him.

”Well, Doctor? Did you commit this alleged deed?”

Ric looked down at Shelby and glided the pads of his fingers over her hair. It was still damp. ”Joel Branduff was a rogue. I had no idea he was Tux's brother. I should have made the connection, though. Branduff lured the sheriff into the woods with the feu follet-the same trick of the light that Tux had told me he had used years ago. Branduff would have killed her. I couldn't let that happen. She's come to mean much to me in just a short time. When I tried to stop Branduff, he turned on me. I killed him, yes.”

”And who did this girl tonight?”

”I did.”

Scott shook his head. ”You're not making any b.l.o.o.d.y sense, Doctor. Are you telling me that you yourself just committed the same act that was so heinous to you that you killed one of your own kind for it just two nights ago?”

Ric eased off the sofa and kneeled on the floor in front of Shelby, touching her face. ”No.”

Ric heard the floor creak behind him and wouldn't have been surprised if Tux tried to come at him again, but the lightness of the step told him it was Scott, not Tux.

”Then what the h.e.l.l are you telling me, Doc?”

Ric turned around and slumped to the floor, his back against the sofa. ”I don't know how much you know about me, Scott, but I have a power called the Hand of Death. I can release energy through my hand that kills. I can kill living things, and I can send the Undead to their True Death. But it's a controllable power. Fine-tuned through the years, you might say. I can momentarily stun, or I can temporarily paralyze, like I did to Ormie just now. I can also feign death in humans. Shelby isn't dead. I didn't feed from her enough to kill her.”

”You d.a.m.n, deceitful son-of-a-b.i.t.c.h!” Tux flew across the room.

Ric bounded to his feet.

But Scott was quicker still, blocking Tux's path. ”No! He answers to me-not you. Me!”

Scott was at least three inches shorter and a hundred pounds lighter than Tux, but there was no mistaking the power that sizzled and sparked through the room like Roman candles. It licked Ric's bare skin like hot flames and made the hairs on the back of his neck bristle. The odor of the spoor in the room changed, and Ric could taste the power on his tongue, sharp and metallic, like vampire blood, deadly and noxious. Tux must have felt it, too, for he pulled up without so much as a show of teeth. Ric met Tux's gaze. Even with all the energy filling the room in as great a storm as raged outdoors, Ric could feel what Tux was feeling. Whether Tux knew how Ric felt was probably something he would never know.

Scott was still facing Tux. ”Justice will be done, mate. I promise you that. Leave us now, and tell the others I'll be out in a few moments to give them instructions.”

”Justice is all I ask. My brother shouldn't have died.”

After one last exchange of glances, Tux turned and left. With the sound of the door closing, the level of power in the room subsided abruptly.

Scott heaved a long sigh. ”Well, Doc, it's a fine b.l.o.o.d.y mess you've gotten yourself into.”

”No argument there. But before you deal with me, I have to bring her around. Leaving her in this state indefinitely is too dangerous.

Oh, don't worry. I'll put her to sleep right away. She won't even know you're here.”

The enforcer rose again. ”Then do what you have to do. I'll be in the next room.” Scott quickly disappeared through the arch to the dining room.

Ric crouched beside the sofa and leaned over Shelby, placing two fingers along her temple. He could still feel the life within her, and if the council members had been less focused on their own concerns and more centered on what was happening around them, they would have sensed that her blood was still warm. He let the healing power flow from his fingertips. The reverse energy of the Hand of Death had been a much harder beast to tame and harness than its partner. Chaos and destruction were always easier than creation, and Ric could not bring life from final death under any circ.u.mstances. But he could heal vampires injured in certain ways, and he could bring humans out of comas. His touch now was light, for no more was needed.

”Come back now, my sweet. Your number hasn't been called yet, though mine has.”

She moaned, and her head turned toward the sound of his voice even before her eyes opened. ”Ric?”

”I'm here. You're safe.”

She blinked and squinted up at him. ”What happened? I thought you were killing me.”

He shook his head and smiled. ”That's what it was supposed to look like. But everything's all right now.” The lie flowed as freely as the rest of his a.s.surances. ”Rest now. There's nothing to worry about.” He strengthened the command with the power of his kind, and her eyes drifted closed again.

Ric was strangely at peace. He stood up. Whatever happened to him now, whatever his fate, this human deserved to live. ”It's done, Scott. We can continue now.” The words were whispered, but Ric knew that wherever Scott might be in the house, he'd hear them.

Scott materialized a second later and stood framed by the arch. ”You disappoint me, Doc. No other vamp I know would have admitted to offing a brother. I don't think I would have. Drago told me once that you have integrity. Well, it might amuse Drago, and humans might value action like this, but it was a b.l.o.o.d.y stupid thing for you to do. Tell me, do you really care so little for your existence that you would hold it out for destruction like a sacrificial lamb?”

Ric would have smiled at the memory of his friend Drago had not the situation been so serious. ”I didn't realize it until a few days ago, but for centuries I've been exactly my namesake. I've been as dead as the remains I've studied.” He c.o.c.ked his head in Shelby's direction. ”This female has taught me what it's like to be part of the world again, and that means taking risks.”

Scott shook his head and sank into one of the easy chairs. ”You lost the plot, mate, that's for sure. All for a skirt.”

”You may believe me foolish, Scott, but I'm not careless, and I'm not unthinking. I know what I've done, and I was Paramount long enough to know what the sanction is in a case like this. I'm tired. I would appreciate your skipping the lecture and the hand slaps and getting down to le fond du problPme. That's the heart of the matter in case your French is a little rusty.”

Scott didn't look amused. Ric didn't care.

”You said I don't know you, Doc. Well, you don't know me either, do you?”

”Just what I heard in the story of Drago's death.”

”Which I fancy wasn't much compared to what you heard about Drago. That suits me fine, but let me tell you something. I was a soldier with Wellington against Napoleon. I know how to follow orders, and I'm b.l.o.o.d.y good at it. I also don't much like Frenchies. But over the past couple years I've learned to be ... creative in the execution of my duties. Maybe it was Drago's tutelage. Maybe I feel compelled to carry on his tradition in his absence. Who knows? However, I'm just as comfortable throwing the book as bending it, so if that's the way you want it, that's fine by me.”

He paused and took a deep breath. ”You committed the ultimate sin. You sent a brother to the True Death without just cause.

You've confessed to the deed, so there's no question of guilt. For a council member lesser sanctions apply, but with greater position comes greater price. You are hereby removed of all rank and responsibility within the Cristallia County Council. If you ever again apply for ranking, should you live that long, you'll have to pet.i.tion the Directorate. You are banned from initiating contact with Judson Tuxbridge or any of the other council members. Am I understood, Doctor?”

”You are.” ”Good.” As quickly as he had made himself comfortable, Scott was at the front door. ”I'll leave you to see to your female. I hope she was worth it. You said you thought hard about this. Take a piece of advice, Doc, and do some more hard thinking on what's really important to you. Oh, and one more thing. The others won't go Scot-free. You can believe that. Physical violence against an Overlord is an offense carrying sanction. Just the same, I think you and your female will keep your health a lot longer if the two of you get as far as possible from Shadow Bay as quickly as you can. Even with sanctions, I can't guarantee your safety, and I sure as h.e.l.l can't do anything about hers.”

At that Scott was gone before Ric could reply. He looked out the nearest window. Liquid sheets of rain still blurred the view of the night. Shelby was still alive. And he was ... well, if not alive, at least not truly dead. But it was far from over. He didn't really know or trust Revelin Scott. The rank of Patriarchal Enforcer was second in the Brotherhood only to that of Patriarch itself. Many even thought that the P.E. was l' eminence grise, the shadowy figure of power that was the true force behind the Patriarch. Ric had no doubt that behind the s.h.a.ggy hair and dimples was indeed a power not to be underestimated.

Certainly Ric didn't trust Tuxbridge. There might be more of the rogue in Tux than Tux himself would admit. He might just think that sanctions were well worth exacting revenge on Ric.