Part 10 (2/2)
”I don't understand what you're getting at.”
”They were in the car,” Marsala said. ”In the trunk If they're not home now, the police must have them in protec- tive custody”
”You-” Kerry made a conscious effort to lower her voice ”You rammed into a school bus with my father and brother in the trunk of the car? You could have killed them. They could have suffocated-”
”I admit I wasn't thinking straight,” Marsala said- ”1 went to your house to get you When I found you weren't home from school yet, I forced your family to get into the car, with no clear plan in mind. When I saw the bus ... It was stupid, I admit- I didn't think of those other children on the bus I only thought of you, becoming what 1 had seen Joey becom-ing, feeding on people's blood, killing people, night after night after night for centuries I didn't stop to think-about your family in the back or about your innocent cla.s.smates But my point is, unlike the vampires, I didn't hurt anyone- The people on the school bus survived, and your family survived” Marsala waggled his finger at her ”And your friend didn't tell you that. He figured he could use you better if you didn't know”
”He didn't know,” Kerry started, then she changed that to ”I don't know. You might have them buried in a shallow grave in your backyard, for all 1 know.”
Marsala turned around in his seat and called out to the student cas.h.i.+er, ”Max!”
”Yo,” Max said, not quite diverting his attention from his game- 176.
”Do you still have that newspaper? The one with the picture you thought looked like me?”
Max rapidly hit a few more b.u.t.tons before reaching under the counter He tossed the newspaper, and it almost made it to their table Marsala leaned over and picked it up, then folded it back to the front page There was her school picture, and the diagram of the accident scene, and the composite drawing of Marsala The professor tapped his finger on a paragraph in the first column ”. . Stephen and lan Nowicki,” the article said, ”found tied and gagged in the trunk of the car, shaken but unharmed.” The- following paragraphs described how a man wearing a ski mask and armed with a gun had forced his way into their house, demanding to know where sixteen- year-old Kerry Nowicki was Told she was still at school, he'd tied them and gagged them Then, after searching the house, he trashed the living room, after which he forced them into the trunk of their own carThe article said that Stephen Nowicki felt the car swerve and hit something repeatedly, but at some point during the crash into the bus or the fire hydrant, he banged his head on the car's tire iron and lost conscious- ness During the time the police and ambulance were at the scene, only four-year-old lan Nowicki was conscious, and he had been warned by the intruder not to make a sound, ”or else” So he dutifully remained quiet By the time his father regained consciousness, the car had apparently been im- pounded by the police because no one heard his cries for help. The two weren't discovered until police investigating the bus incident opened the trunk at about nine o'clock in the evening.
i77 Kerry looked up from the newspaper and met Marsala's triumphant smile. ”He knew,” she whispered.
”Apparently he didn't think it was important enough to mention,” Marsala said.
Kerry couldn't think of how often they'd skirted the sub- ject of her family this evening Ethan knew how frightened she was for them Over and over he'd had the chance to say, They're all right. Marsala doesn't havt them. Relief and a sense of betrayal balanced so precariously she didn't know whether to laugh out loud or cry.
”They're treacherous,” Marsala said. ”You can't trust them They don't think Uke we do- They don't even consider them- selves human They're like aliens; they're like vile and vicious animals ” Marsala reached out and covered her hand with his- It was warm and slightly rough, as though chapped from the weather or from honest work ”Will you really help me stop him from killing other people's sons and daughters?” he asked.
”Or are you here to defend him?”
”He knew,” Kerry repeated. ”1 held my little brother's toy bear and cried, thinking he and my father might both be dead. And Ethan didn't say anything. I cried in front of him, and he didn't say anything.”She looked into Marsala's face, the face of a man who'd lost his son and-in a different way-his wife to vampires.
A man who'd been unable for three years to convince anyone of the terrible truth only he knew, and who'd fought back in the only way he could ”He wanted me to trick you,” she said, ”to convince you that I was helping you, but to bring you back to his house, where he planned to kill you ”
”Good,” Marsala said ”Good?”
178.
He had a quirky smile that reminded her of the picture she'd seen of his son, Joe. ”I don't mean good that he plans to kill me, I mean {food that you told me- We've had enough lies told to us, I think, you and me So I'll tell you the truth, Kerry Nowicki No matter how good a little helper you've been to this vampire, he can't afford to let you live You have to decide who's going to die: him-or you and me.”
t79
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
KERRY TOLD MARSALA everything she'd learned about Ethan Some of it he didn't believe, and she couldn't tell if that was because he thought she was lying or because he thought Ethan had lied to her By the end she wasn't sure how much of it she herself believed ”Do you know how he plans to kill me^” Marsala asked ”No,” Kerry said ”But you do accept that he plans to?”
”He admitted it” Kerry squirmed because by saying so,she admitted that she had knowingly plotted to kill the man she now was facing Marsala didn't point that out Instead he said, ”Pull your chair around closer”
*80.
Kerry glanced around to sec if somebody appeared to be listening The young couple in the back looked cheerier- they were sharing an order of trench fries-but other than that everybody in the room looked the same as when she'd entered She moved her chair closer to Marsala anyway He reached into the inner pocket of his Jacket ”Don't get jumpy,” he warned And, by that, she knew He didn't pull the gun out of his pocket; he was just showing her ”I don't suppose,” he said, not sounding very hopeful, ”you've ever used one?”
Kerry shook her head ”What good's a gun going to be against a vampire anyway?”
”Fired from close enough, this'll slow him down ”
Kerry remembered the laundry, remembered Sidowski holding his revolver up to Ethan's head and saying much the same thing She forced the image from her mind ”They heal fast, but not that fast Besides, this has silver bullets”
”Isn't that for werewolves?” Kerry asked, eager to stop thinking, to lose herself in the details By the disgusted look on Marsala's face, she guessed that whoever had sold him the gun and ammunition must have said something similar”Vampires can't stand the touch of silver,” Marsala said ”Same as garlic Not as bad as sunlight, but it'll be an extra kick”
Kick, she thought Kerry wondered if that was just another superst.i.tion, like that vampires' images aren't reflected in mirrors, which she had seen wasn't true Ethan hadn't mentioned anything about (81.
silver, but, then again, if it was true, Kerry supposed he wouldn't have if it was true, maybe it would serve to kill him more quickly, painlessly.
Marsala said, ”1 want you to take this and hide it. See if you've got a pocket big enough Otherwise you can stick it in the waistband ot your jeans.”
”I'm not sticking a gun down my pants,” Kerry whispered at him.
”It's got a safety,” Marsala said- ”Check your pockets ”
They weren't her pockets It was Ethan's jacket, which seemed terribly unfair There was an inner pocket. ”I can't,”
she said ”I could never shoot anybody”
”Not even knowing what he is?” Marsala asked. ”Not even knowing he's killed uncountable others, and intends to kill you, and may well decide that your family has seen too much and kill them, too?”
Kerry withered under this onslaught. ”I don't know,” she admitted. ”But even if I wanted to, I'm sure I'd never be able to hit him 1 have terrible aim when it comes to-”
Marsala had taken the gun out of his pocket and washolding it under the table 'Take the d.a.m.n gun before some- body sees it,” he interrupted ”All I'm asking is for you to hold it”
Kerry took the gun The dark metal was cold, and it was heavier than she would have thought. She gingerly stuck it into her pocket.
”Here's an extra clip” Marsala handed over the extra bul- lets ”Put it into the outside pocket, same side.”
”Why?” Kerry asked ”Same side so that it's easy to find. Outside pocket so that f82 when you pull out the gun, you don't pull out the clip at the same time and drop it”
Not only did it make sense, it almost sounded as though he knew her ”In case you do need to use it”-Kerry shook her head, but he kept on talking-”you need to slide back the safety by the trigger. Stop shaking your head and listen- It can't hurt to know ”
He was right. Kerry stopped shaking her head The safety,” he repeated, ”is by the trigger You push it back with your thumb. iJyou fire, it'll recoil-it'll kick back So be prepared for that The empty sh.e.l.l will drop out auto- matically and the next bullet will be ready to fire You don't need to release the safety again, but you need to let go of the trigger, then pull it back for the second shot. Do you understand?”
”More or less,” Kerry said miserably ”Do you understand?” Marsala insisted.ii/ ii Yes.
”The clip holds nine bullets We're not even going to talk about reloading.”
Good, Kerry thought, but she knew not to say it- Marsala put his hand over hers again. She didn't like it.
but pulling away seemed too unfriendly a gesture ”I know this is difficult for you,” he said. ”But if he manages to take me by surprise, he'd be a fool not to search me for weapons. And one thing this vampire isn't is a fool”
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