Part 14 (1/2)
”You got problems?”
”Yeah. You could say that.”
”Why don't you run them by me? Sometimes it helps to talk to somebody.” Huey leaned on his shovel thoughtfully.
I wondered how many vampires had a zombie as a therapist. What the h.e.l.l? Huey would probably be as good a sounding board as anybody. I told him the predicament and he listened as if he understood.
”That there's a hard one, Jack. Let me think.” He scratched his chin sagely. ”Do you think you could talk Connie into leaving Savannah?”
”That might work for a while, but some rogue vampire somewhere will eventually track her down. Besides, I don't know if I could convince her to go.”
”What if she had a reason to go? And what if she changed her name and went to a place that was way back in the country or somewhere she was hard to find?”
I started to reply that I couldn't think of a reason she'd go to a hick town and change her name. But then it hit me that Huey was right. There was a way I could accomplish those things with one scheme.
But it would mean losing Connie and my child forever.
Speed helped me think, so I didn't go straight to my storage unit near Bonaventure Cemetery. Instead I raced along the back roads, close to the intracoastal waterways that snaked their way between Georgia's barrier islands and the tidal marshes fringing the sh.o.r.eline. Known as the inland pa.s.sage since the first European set foot on what would become Savannah soil, these water highways protected small craft from Atlantic nor'easters and tropical storms bubbling up from the Caribbean.
The waterways where Spanish traders and Franciscan friars used to travel now sported marinas boasting high-tech wireless Internet connections and digital TV at every slip.
As much as I loved fast cars, I now longed for the old days when I rode a black horse with silver-studded tack through the marshes. I used to scare the p.i.s.s out of night fishermen and anybody else who crossed my path, creating legends all my own. I was the stuff of children's nightmares and the star of young girls' dreams, or so I've been told.
Those were the good old days before I met Connie Jones.
When she was still a patrolwoman, she'd come upon me lying half in a ditch where I'd wrecked my car. Vampires never bother with seat belts. My injuries would have been lethal to a mortal human being, and yet to her astonishment I did survive. She'd had her eye on me ever since, a nagging suspicion in the back of her mind telling her that there was something strange about me.
In those months when she'd dogged me, her curiosity aroused, I hadn't wanted to discourage her attentions because I was drawn to her by another kind of arousal. If I could turn back the hands of time, I would have done things differently. Maybe if during one of the many times she'd stopped and ticketed me for speeding, I had scared her with my fangs or put some negative glamour on her, I might have frightened her away or discouraged her enough to leave me alone. But no, I encouraged her attentions, egging her on for my own selfish reasons.
Because of me, she had been led to the edge of an abyss, and one more step would give her the deadly knowledge that would put her on a b.l.o.o.d.y course of destruction-either mine or hers or both.
It was time for me to put my selfishness aside and do what needed to be done for her sake and for the sake of my child. But I couldn't do it alone. I needed the help of the only other man who I knew for sure loved her and would, I was convinced, lay down his life to protect her if need be.
My friend Seth. To whom I'd have to lie like a dog for this whole scheme to work. I couldn't let him know that Connie was pregnant, and I couldn't let him know that I'd almost killed her last night. All the explanations in the world about how it would have been best for her would not make a difference to Seth. If he knew I'd tried to kill Connie, he would try to kill me. There was no doubt in my mind.
When I got to the guarded storage unit where I spent my daylight hours, I found Seth asleep on the couch in sweatpants and a T- s.h.i.+rt. He had been bunking at my place since he came to town to shape up a wayward pack of werewolves before they got out of control and into trouble with the law.
I shook him, and he came awake as quickly as every good predator should. He blinked his yellow-green wolf's eyes at me expectantly and sat up. ”What?” he said.
”We've got to talk,” I said, sitting down next to him.
”Oh, man, I just hate it when a conversation starts that way. What did I do wrong, huh? Just tell me. It's my hair, isn't it?” He pawed his sleep-tousled brown mane. ”I went running in the woods earlier tonight, so maybe I picked up some burrs. No, it's my b.u.t.t. It's too big.”
”Shut up, doofus. This is serious.”
Something in my tone convinced him. ”Am I going to need coffee for this?”
”You're going to need whiskey for this, but it's too early for you and too late for me.”
Seth cleared his throat. ”This does sound serious.” He eyed the kitchen area.
”Want me to make the coffee? I could use some myself,” I said.
”No!” he said emphatically. ”I've tasted your coffee. I'd sooner drink formaldehyde. I'm not immortal like you are, you know. I can be poisoned.”
Seth ambled off to the kitchen, which was separated from the den by a Formica-covered bar. I followed him and sat down on one of the bar stools. ”This is a long story,” I began. ”And you're just going to have to trust me that I know what I'm talking about.”
”Okay,” Seth said warily. He'd put the coffee and filter in place and was pouring the water into the coffeemaker's reservoir.
”Connie's in danger, and you have to help me get her away from Savannah.”
Seth froze. ”In danger from who?” ”From me. And the other vampires.”
He narrowed his eyes. ”What are you talking about, Jack? You love Connie. What the h.e.l.l's going on?”
As best I could, I explained about the prophecies, the birthmark, what happened in the underworld, all of it. I also laid out the reasons Travis said that trying to get her to hook up with the vampires to fight the bad guys wouldn't do any good. Of course I left out the part about Connie's pregnancy, the fact that I already tried to kill her, and what Melaphia and William had found out from Lalee.
”And so now William expects you to kill her, just like that.” A murderous look came across Seth's face. He stalked the length of the small kitchen and back again, flexing his fists as if he would welcome the chance to destroy something with his bare hands.
”And if I don't do it-when I don't do it-one of the other vampires will.” That last part was true, anyway.
”So you want me to take her away?”
”It's the only thing I can think of. I mean, do you have any other ideas?”
”Yeah. I could kill me half a dozen vampires,” he said.
He was big, powerful, and lethal, but he couldn't take on all of us. ”Even if you could-”
”Oh, I could.”
”Even if you could,” I insisted, ”it's already too late for that. By this time all the European vampires know from Olivia that the Slayer is a Savannah cop named Consuela Jones. I even caught a vampire hanging around outside her apartment the other night.
Who knows how that guy found out? I'm telling you, she might as well have a bull's-eye on her back.”
”Jesus,” Seth muttered. ”So when are you going to tell her?”
”Tomorrow night I'll tell her she's the Slayer.”
”And how are you going to make her leave town with me?”
”Have you gone soft in the head or have you never tried to explain Connie why she has to do a thing?”
Seth looked at me dumbly and sighed. ”Oh. Yeah,” he said. ”I forgot how stubborn she can be. And how incapable she is of backing down from a fight. We had a h.e.l.luva time keeping her out of the dominance fight with the werewolves that night.”
”Yeah. She was ready to wade right in. Connie's got to have a good reason for leaving Savannah or there's no way in h.e.l.l she's going to go,” I said, giving Seth a meaningful look that he could not mistake.
”Dude,” he said. ”She has her own feelings. You can't just give her to me, no matter how much you want to. No matter how much I wish you could.”