Part 11 (1/2)

I came to my feet, and looked to some of my best friends in the world-William, Melaphia, Tobey, and Iban-for help, some kind of encouraging word, or a sudden brainstorm that could pry me out from between a rock and a hard place. Instead, I saw my friends looking to me for...what? Protection? Leaders.h.i.+p? It was as if a hand grenade had been tossed into our midst and since I was the closest, I was supposed to fall on it and get blown to smithereens.

And I would have, if it hadn't meant Connie's death. I would destroy myself in a heartbeat for them. As they would do for me. All the excuses that had bubbled up to the tip of my brain died on my lips.

William froze me with one look. ”Jack understands what must be done,” he said. ”And he'll do it.”

The vampires listening remotely no doubt believed him. I could tell Tobey, Iban, and especially Travis weren't so sure. I could see by their expressions what they were thinking: that one of them might have to fall on that grenade to save us all, because I didn't have the guts.

”Wait,” I pleaded. ”What if I just go to Connie and tell her all this? She knows us. She knows that we don't hurt humans. When she realizes that we're on the same side, she'll help us fight off the old lords.”

”I wish it were that simple, my friend,” Travis said, ”but you have no idea what you're dealing with. I have seen slayers with my own eyes. Our bloodl.u.s.t is nothing to theirs. When they are on the hunt, they...” He searched for the right words. ”They turn into something not human. Something that I hope I never have the misfortune to see again. The essence of the slayers, that which is in them that is not human-once awakened can never be turned off.”

”I know you saw them attack and that you got away,” I challenged. ”But how do you know about this-this activation, as you call it?”

”The priests brought by the conquistadors destroyed for heresy most of our writings that were left behind when we abandoned our great cities. Priceless texts on mathematics and astronomy were burned and broken in the white men's religious fervor. After I fled the city to escape the slayers, I returned. I stole away with many of those tablets and secreted them in places where not even the most determined of archeologists can find them. I have read the texts that survived the purge.

”I had been unaware of many of these doc.u.ments before the slaughter of blood drinkers. Some of the ancient ones had prophesied the arrival of the slayers. And they also prophesied a later rise of a single slayer, the greatest of them all. That is what is taking place now.”

”What else do these writings say about the Slayer?” William asked.

Travis said, ”The Slayer is the product of an unholy union between blood drinker and human.”

”That jibes with the European dhampir legend,” William said. ”Is there more?”

”Only that she will not be easy to kill, and that she cannot be turned away from her destiny. The G.o.ds alone in their wisdom know how and why this creature is empowered to slay blood drinkers. I don't know why she has not already begun to do so, but she will. There is no doubt,” Travis said. ”I am not exactly sure what causes the activation and how that activation turns into bloodl.u.s.t, but I have the impression that it is a distinct process.”

”What will it take to kill her?” Melaphia asked in a small voice, avoiding my eyes.

”I don't know. That is where the writing ends,” Travis said. ”The rest of the tablets on the Slayer were turned to dust.”

”Jack, what do you know of Connie's background?” William asked.

I forced myself to think back, which was hard because my head was spinning from so much information I didn't want to hear. ”She told me once that she was born in Mexico City and adopted by a couple from Atlanta. She had been abandoned when she was a few days old and left at a shrine to some pagan G.o.ddess or other.”

Travis's hawklike eyes narrowed. ”How old is she?” he asked.

”Late twenties, I think,” I said. ”Why?”

Travis shook his head and his features took on a stony, inscrutable expression as he stared into s.p.a.ce, as still as one of those carved Indians that used to stand outside cigar stores in the old days.

”There's something else,” I admitted. ”When I talked to her last night, she said that she sensed it when I got close to her apartment.

Even before she saw me.”

”The process has begun,” Travis said. ”I am sorry, Jack. There's not much time left. If you wait until activation turns into bloodl.u.s.t, it might be too late. She will become immortal, and we won't know how to stop her.”

I collapsed back onto the sofa beside Werm, beaten. When William first told me I had to get rid of Connie, I hadn't accepted it.

I'd refused to believe that there wasn't another way. I'd put my faith in Travis to give me some idea for how to save her, but instead, he had just dashed all my hopes. Because of him, the cold, hard truth was setting in, and I felt like I was barely hanging on to a world spinning faster and faster. I wanted to turn loose and let the centrifugal force sling me into the black void. ”Even after a slayer is activated, it must have some kind of fatal flaw, some Achilles' heel. Is there anything the Mayan writing can tell us about that?” Tobey asked.

”Not specifically, no-at least not in the writings that survived.”

”Does anybody know how the Slayer ties into the Sidhe's notion of doomsday?” Gerard asked.

Travis said, ”I don't know if there's a connection, but there is always the cataclysm the Mayan calendar foretells. That is no secret, though.” He waved a hand. ”The end has been extensively written about since archeologists interpreted the calendar.”

”What cataclysm?” I asked. Travis took a seat on the sofa on the other side of Werm.

William rubbed his forehead. ”Of course. I should have thought about that...”

I saw realization dawn on Melaphia's face as well, and Werm spoke up for the first time. ”The end of the world,” he said. ”The Sidhe say the end of the world is coming and that it has something do to with vampires.”

In my agitation, I wanted to wring his scrawny throat if he didn't get to the point soon. ”What the h.e.l.l are you talking about?” I demanded.

Werm turned his round eyes to stare at me. ”The Mayan calendar is one of the most accurate in the world. And it ends in 2012!”

There was another hullabaloo where everybody tried to speak at once. Everybody seemed to be formulating his or her own pet theory about whether the end of the world was really at hand and, if so, what it had to do with the Slayer. Finally, William called for order and said, ”Let us focus, my friends. We seem to have a number of problems which may or may not be connected. Since we don't know any more about the Slayer and the end times, let us move on to the issue of the old lords.”

”Yes,” Lucius said from the speakerphone. ”Do we know nothing more about how the Council means to attack us? Through the ages they've a.s.sembled before to try and force us all to slaughter more humans and create more blood drinkers. Each time their plans-whatever they were-fell through. There was too much infighting among the master vampires, or so the stories go. They were never able to do much more than organize occasional raids against the peace lovers. Are we to believe that the return of the Wild Hunt and the premonitions of the Sidhe and the shape s.h.i.+fters, and perhaps even the Mayan prophecies, signal that they've hit upon some weapon that can bend us to their will?”

William opened his mouth to speak but stopped when we heard Olivia clear her throat. It occurred to me that she had been quiet throughout the meeting. Too quiet.

”I think I might be able to shed some light on that issue,” she said.

”By all means, enlighten us.” The sarcasm in Lucius's voice set my teeth on edge. He was the kind of man who thought that no woman knew as much as he did.

William glared at the speakerphone. ”It's time we heard from Olivia,” he said. ”She has reestablished the network of spies that Alger used to monitor what is happening with the Council. It sounds as if that effort has borne fruit. Olivia?”

”I suppose you could put it that way,” Olivia said.

”Poisoned fruit, maybe. One of our spies was able to make a reliable contact who swore he knows the old lords' plan. The Council believes it has discovered how to raise from the dead every vampire who was ever slain at the hands of another blood drinker since the beginning of time. Which is pretty much all of them.”

”You mean take them from the underworld back to earth?” William asked. My sire had the best poker face I'd ever seen on anyone, but here among his peers, he didn't bother to hide his alarm. Werm and I looked at each other. If William was anxious, then it was time for us to be terrified.”Evidently,” Olivia said. ”The source didn't know how they planned to accomplish this, or when it's supposed to start. But when it does, the Council expects those risen vampires to do their bidding.”

”Which means slaughtering humans and any of us standing in their way,” William said.

”If it happens all at once,” Olivia continued, ”the human population can't help but know immediately. It will cause a ma.s.sive, worldwide panic.”

”And spell doom for all of us,” Iban said.

”If they all come at once, what can we fight them with besides our fists and fangs?” Tobey asked, looking around the room.

”There aren't enough of us to fight them hand-to-hand,” William said. ”We'd be vastly outnumbered. We're going to need supernatural help.”

All eyes turned to Melaphia. ”I'll try to call upon Maman Lalee to help us,” she said. ”But as you know, even she cannot go against the elemental powers of fate.” She turned to me with a meaningful look that I was sure had even more bad news behind it.

”All you can do is try your best, my dear,” William said. ”That's all we can ask.”