The Vampire's Consort (Undead in Brown County) (11 page)

The sun had set as their plane was landing in Phoenix.
In the rental car’s backseat, Sarah watched as the mountains of the Tonto National Forest rose up before them like some giant slowly rising from his slumber. Soon the orange glow of the sun in the west became nothing but a dim reminder of the heavenly body that brought sustenance to the planet.

Sarah’s vision had become blindingly sharp.
In her head, she was seeing too much. She was seeing things in the air above the heads of human and vampires. Sometimes they were just small orbs of pulsating energy in varying shades of gray. She had seen three blood red orbs and one black. She started to point out the first one she saw to Alex, but stopped herself. She didn’t want him to regret the gift he had given her. If he thought her new powers were causing her confusion and sadness, he might insist on Selena’s magical intervention to turn her back into a human. She wasn’t going to let that happen.

So
, she kept her mouth shut about the floating apparitions that kept rushing towards the rental car when they had started down the highway, east towards the mountains. And she didn’t mention the ghostly figure of a little boy standing on a high outcropping they passed. The three vampires in the rental car didn’t need the sun to see what was up on the third set of switchbacks they had to traverse.

The late Mr. Bennett’s rustic cabin.

Looking up, Sarah’s glistening blue eyes reflected the moonlight shining
elegantly down through the boughs of the short and tall pines clustered together on the ridge above and below the cabin. She saw a female elk with twin calves near the cabin. There was a light on inside.

It took another forty-five minutes for them to
reach the cabin. There was another rental car already out front.. Alex got out of the front passenger seat cautiously. “Here’s the plan,” he said. “Let me find out who’s inside first. I’ve tried Jones on his cell four times since we left the airport. No answer.”

He turned around in his front seat leaned and put one hand on Sarah’s shoulder.
“If I’m not out of there in five minutes, I want Katie to come up to get me. Sarah, you stay in the car unless you see me wave at you.”

It was a reminder more than anything.
They’d talked about the possible dangers they might face when they finally made it up to the camp. As the newest vampire, Sarah was supposed to sit quietly and wait for the big kids to get everything settled.

Fuck that.

She followed Alex.
Katie shrugged and locked the car, then looked around a little. On the way up to the cabin, she had felt her adrenalin surge. Now that she was standing with both feet on the mountain, there was some other internal disturbance going on inside her. She heard muttering voices echo in her head. She used her vampire eyes to scan the area around the car.

Alone.
No
.

Down
on the slope among the trees, a small herd of American Elk were foraging around the cactus and sage and pulling up long strips of bright green plants that Katie couldn’t remember the name of. Several calves were lying down under the protection of the pines on the slope. The moonlight did not touch them. The regular predators would have trouble finding the fragile calves if it weren’t for their legendary sense of smell.

One of the elk bulls had raised its huge head and was staring directly at Katie.
Some little locked box in her subconscious popped open.

I’m here.
Finally home
.

Katie wasn’t
someone who constantly looked for reasons for everything. The meaning of life. Does God truly exist? Did some demon from ancient times create the first vampire?

Katie was practical.
She was also recklessly living her life from one day to the next. The big picture wasn’t something she often thought about. When she went through her transition in the caves on the farm, she was able to shut out the waves of pain that sometimes kill other newborns. It was unlikely that a mammal on four feet would ever intimidate an undead darling who had quite a high opinion of herself.

The showering burst of anticipation
splashed incessantly and with increasing pressure in Katie’s head. It was absolutely wrong.

Manic.
I’m probably losing my fucking mind.

She hurried up towards the cabin.
Alex and Sarah were arguing again.

“I don’t understand why you insist on putting yourself in constant danger!”

Sarah’s whisper
was harsh.

“
If Jackson is in there, I want to talk to him.”

Alex held one hand up.

“Just give me thirty seconds to make sure there’s no problem, okay?”

“I’m immortal now. What can hurt me?”

He shook his head slowly.
When he knocked, the door opened quickly. Victoria gave him a faint smile and waved them all in.

“Welcome.”

But when she saw Sarah, she lost her careful composure
. Her wide hazel eyes took in the changes in Sarah’s appearance and then she turned to Alex with a hostile glare.

“How could you?”

That was the moment that Sarah saw Jackson. He was standing by the only window in the tiny cabin, but he had turned towards the door. His eyes had already fixed on Sarah.

Before they could exchange a single word, Kate rushed forward and grabbed the young Native American by the front of his shirt.
She lifted him as easily as if he were a cat.

“Do you know what you’ve done, you piece of shit?
Our family business is
gone
now because of you!”

Captain Jones, who had been standing watch by the
backdoor, moved forward as quickly as his vampire speed allowed. He shoved Kate away from Jackson with a grunt.

“Calm down
. Kate, you need to hear his side of the story before you rush to judgment.”

Sarah was watching the three of them in astonishment.
The tension was mounting. The need to intervene rose up in Sarah like some instinctual animal. She held up both hands.

“Stop.
Katie, Jones is right. There might be more to the stabbing in the cave than we thought.”

She turned to Victoria.

“Alex only showed up at my house because Nelly called him.”

Victoria glanced over at Sarah before turning her gaze back to the tall blond immortal.

“Why would Nelly call
him?”

Sarah sighed and began nibbling at her right thumbnail and then stopped herself.
“I started drinking. A lot. Michael and the girls left me. I was incredibly depressed. Alex talked to me about the possible solution and I agreed to it.”

Kate lowered her head and sighed.
She hated that Sarah had been in such a bad state. The little nugget of guilt that had been sitting in her head blossomed into a boulder.

I should have been there
.

She had taken her attention away from Jackson.
He moved towards Sarah slowly, not knowing where he stood with her. It had been so long since he’d laid eyes on Sarah Wood. So much had gone wrong since she left the farm. Would she even want to be friends with a recovering junkie?

Alex looked at Jackson with a quizzical raised eyebrow.

“Don’t get any ideas, Jackson.
She’s taken.”

He glanced around the tiny cabin.

“What’s the situation here, you guys?”

“We’re not exactly sure. The Turkish rogue has yet to show his face at all since we got here,” Jones explained. “There are a lot of places to hide, as it turns out.”

“The council didn’t anticipate that might be a problem?” Kate asked.

“Why should it have been?” Victoria said. “The detention zone here wasn’t created for peaceful sleeping. It was used as a dumping ground for vampires who couldn’t be reformed.”

“Yes.
And look what it got them,” Jones agreed.

“Nobody is arguing the concept was flawed.
What about the other ones in there?” Sarah asked, trying to keep her eyes off Jackson.

He didn’t look right to her.
He was far too pale. He looked sick.

Victoria sighed.

“
No sign of them.”

“You didn’t go into the containment zone to look?” Kate asked, looking pointedly over at Jackson.

“It wasn’t working. Maybe because our Indian friend here is ill,” Jones said lowly. “He invited us in, but the containment field held.”

It was o
bvious to Alex that Jackson had gotten involved with heroin. Alex’s sense of smell was quite sharp and he’d seen others in the same condition. The detox had started, but the guy had a long way to go before he could really claim to be clean.

“So you needed one of us?” Sarah asked.

Victoria nodded.

“
We specifically wanted Katie.”

“Kate.
Not Katie,” replied Sarah.

Her sister flashed her a grin of thanks for that.

Jones cracked his knuckles and looked forlornly over at Victoria.

“I’ve got something to say to you, my love.”

“You do?” she asked. “Is this about working with Teddy behind my back?”

His jaw dropped.

“You knew?”

“Of course. Your ability to cloak your thoughts from me doesn’t always work.”

Sarah shook her head.

“Not a good idea.
I told you, Alex.”

Alex was unapologetic.

“I thought Michael would say no to Katie coming up here.
But I honestly believe she has what it takes to get rid of this super rogue.”

“If he’s even still here.
How do you know Jackson’s father didn’t set him free?” Kate asked, annoyed. “And where was Mr. Bennett’s body found?”

Jackson hung his head.

“He was outside the perimeter.
There were small boulders laying around him on the ground. Loose ones. “

“One of the rogues must have thrown them,” Victoria said.
“He’d been struck on the head several times.”

“His skull was caved in,” said Jackson.
“We buried him yesterday.”

Sarah finally approached Jackson and touched his arm gently.

“I’m sorry.”

He didn’t return her touch but she felt his appreciation in the look he gave her afterward. Sarah turned back to the rest of them.

“So what’s the plan?”

“We think Katie should come into the perimeter with Alex to try to find the rogue. Once he’s located, the Captain and I will assist with the execution if we are needed. Sarah should stay in the cabin.”

Victoria’s determined gaze settled on Sarah’s pale face.

“I mean it, Sarah.
If Michael knew that you were here and I didn’t do everything I could to protect you, he would never speak to me again.”

It would have been the old Sarah who might have jumped up and demanded to be a part of the action.
But, she respected Victoria and understood that she was speaking the truth. They hadn’t been expecting Sarah to be there at all.

“Where do I come in?” asked Jackson warily.

Alex had been taking in their plan with skeptical ears. He moved to the window to keep watch. He didn’t like anything about this situation. He didn’t doubt he could take out the worst rogue, if found. But, he found it disturbing that Teddy had tried to pit Jones against Victoria in order to keep a secret from Michael. What else could Teddy have planned?

“We think the scent of Jackson’s human blood might lure them out of their hiding places,” Jones said, sliding a gaze over to the young Indian.
“We’ll need to cut you.”

Katie tapped her fingernails against the surface of the card table set up by the door.
Human blood being spilled in order to lure vampires out of hiding? What happened if they themselves turned on Jackson? Victoria and Jones could handle it. Probably Alex too. But she and Sarah would be hard pressed to hold themselves back from attacking Jackson when they smelled his blood.

“I don’t like the idea of using Jackson as bait,” said Sarah.

Victoria nodded.

“I understand how you feel.”

Alex interjected at that point, turning to the group with a grim look on his face. “I’ll do it. I’ll be the bait.”

“No,” Sarah
said. “We don’t know how many rogues are still in there, Alex. What if there are more than we thought? What if the others weren’t killed? Those bodies haven’t been found.”

Ignoring her protest, Alex asked Jones, “What do we know about the vampires that were brought here?”

Jones drew a folded photograph from one of the front pockets of his jeans and handed it to Alex.

“Teddy gave me this.
The Turk’s name is Mahdi Lone.”