Part 51 (2/2)
”I do not grow weak, Roberto. I have saved many of your lives by keeping you from the carnage that would be your ruin. I don't want any of you to help me bring Sophia down. Few of you are old enough to have known her, or known the extent of her power, her malice. This is what I do want-I want New Orleans kept safe from all our kind. There have been too many killings there. Too much that is too strange.”
”Even for New Orleans?” Wes said, laughing.
”Even for New Orleans,” Lucian told him.
”I will watch over your city, Lucian,” Ragnor told him.
”I only warn you all not to join with Sophia and Darian; don't be fooled that they will bring me down, because they will not; I will not allow it. And if you care to join with me, then you are welcome. It is not a command I can give you, nor would I. But you are all aware of the turmoil, of the ripple in the darkness, of the danger we face. We do not destroy our own kind-that is the unwritten law, as ancient as the hungers that rule us. But times have changed, and the ways of men and the world have changed as well. When we are all threatened by the excesses of a few, it then becomes a war, and as I have ruled our kind these many years, I tell you that I have no choice now but to seek the justice that will let the rest of us survive. And to those of you who may decide to join with them, be warned: this is a war, and I will destroy anyone who stands against me. Are we understood? If the law is one of nature, and I burst into flames at such an act, so be it. I will not allow Sophia's depravity to destroy their world, or our own.”
A series of ayes sounded from the group.
They lowered their heads. He released his hold upon them.
He looked up. Chris Adair remained.
”I will fight with you, Lucian.”
”I am best off moving alone, or with a new man among our number, who will shortly awaken. Ragnor will keep watch here. And I will be grateful if you will keep watch among us.”
Chris nodded. ”Aye, Lucian. I'll keep watch....”
”Whoa! Where the h.e.l.l am I? I'm starving, man!”
Rick Beaudreaux was sitting up in the coffin. His eyes were wild, trying to adjust. They fell on Lucian. ”Burning, man, I'm burning up.
And starving.”
He was staring at Lucian, all but salivating. He stumbled out of the coffin, rubbing his neck. ”Dark in here, hot. Lucian. Man. Lucian, you look good enough to hug. In fact, you look d.a.m.ned good. Good enough to eat all up. What the h.e.l.l am I saying? Man, I'm just so hungry....”
”I'm not what you're looking for, trust me,” Lucian told him dryly.
”What do you remember?”
”The s.e.xiest broad in the universe crawling over me, and ...” Rick suddenly doubled over. ”Man, I am in pain. So much pain. And I could have sworn ...” He rose slowly, still clutching his gut, looking at Lucian. ”I thought I was dead.”
”You were.”
Rick finally got a look around the coffin. There was little light; night was coming again. But he could see, and well. Night vision was one of the advantages.
”What's the matter with me?” He closed his eyes. ”I want to come out of here and-man, I don't believe this. I desperately want to drink blood. Warm blood. Fresh blood.”
There was a squealing from the rear of the crypt Lucian had collected some of the largest, fattest rats he could summon from the length and width of the cemetery.
Not surprisingly, they had been plentiful.
”Rats?” Rick whispered.
”They'll fill the need.”
Rick didn't seem to have the power to resist the smell and the warmth of the creatures. He staggered toward the rear of the tomb.
The squealing increased to a fever pitch. Rick Beaudreaux glutted on the rats. Then, looking at his hands in horror-before deciding they weren't so bad and licking his fingertips-he leaned back against the coffin and stared at Lucian again.
”I'm dead, and in h.e.l.l. Or I'm not dead, and this is the worst nightmare I've ever had. Or this is real, and I'm a ... vampire.”
Lucian nodded. ”I'm really sorry. I wasn't for this idea.”
”You wanted to stake me, right?”
”Something like that.”
”It's all right. Jade wouldn't let you, right?”
”It was a decision made by a number of them.”
”Don't worry, DeVeau. She probably did it because she doesn't love me. But I'm glad. I'm telling you, I can ... I can do this.”
”You're doing better than I did at first. I didn't want to accept it. But I warn you, being undead-d.a.m.ned, if you will, has its true miseries.
Remember that hunger you just felt?”
”I can do this. Well, I mean, you can do better than rats without hitting on people, right? I mean, it could have been a cow.”
”Sorry-I might have looked a little strange dragging Daisy or Elsie into a family mausoleum in the middle of a historical cemetery at the crack of dawn,” Lucian said, aggravated.
Rick grinned, lowered his head, then looked at Lucian again. ”It's not what I was planning. But I can do it.” He was quiet a minute. ”I want to find the killers. I guess you weren't among them. I'd rather be what I am-a rat-eater at the moment-and able to do something. I won't freak out and start attacking people I loved, will I?”
”It has happened,” Lucian said. ”But I intend to be with you. There are rules, of course, laws in this world, but you'll have to learn them as we go. Time is all-important to us now. There are a lot of arrangements to be made. We need to move.”
Rick nodded. ”As you say.”
Lucian turned around to start out from the tomb, remembering that it would take Rick some time to learn the power of mist and movement, mind and matter.
Iron gates creaked open as he let them out into the night.
He started walking toward the gates, listening for Rick behind him.
He heard tears and hesitated. Up ahead, a young girl was kneeling in front of a freshly sealed tomb, crying.
She was about sixteen. Her hair was in a ponytail. As she sobbed, even he felt the pull of the long blue vein in her neck, made so visible by the height of her ponytail.
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