The Wiccan Diaries (26 page)

Suddenly, a zombie reached out for me and grabbed me by the
throat. It was how vampires probably took their prey.

It was not the first time I had thought of a connection
between the two supernatural beings. After all, weren’t vampires
also
revenants?

I was helpless against it.

It could’ve ripped me limb from limb. Instead, it bent to
bite my throat. And then it howled in agony. I watched as fire raced up its
arm. I yanked myself back. It still held on to the locket around my neck. The
fire raced through its body, consuming it.

It couldn’t touch the locket or me.

Deep cinders flared and it fell to dust, to nothingness,
there in my presence. I stomped past it, heading for the library.

“Halsey!”

Someone shouted my name. I turned to see who it was. Lia’s
eyes flashed in the dark. A hulking shape was between the two of us, lurching
my way. “Get down!” she shouted.

I did as she said. A sound like
wump
, and the Fast Walker lifted off its feet, crashing through the
railing. It fell all the way to the stones below with a sickening crunch,
wrapped in the netting Lia had shot at it.

“Are you all right?” she asked, helping me up.

“You saved my life,” I said.

She chewed on her gum––I heard it snap and pop.
“What are friends for?” she said.

Somebody screamed and she had to go––but it was
a moment for us.

I watched as more zombies penetrated the building to the
courtyard. I Gatti used their momentum against the zombies. The creatures
continued to fall and break themselves on the stones below.

It gave me an idea.

We could turn them to ash, right there in the courtyard. A
bonfire
. But for that, we needed fire. I
had to get to Marek. I continued up to the third floor, to the library.

When I got there, the stacks were all broken, the books
scattered across the floor. The windows had all been smashed out. There was no
sign of Marek.

“Marek... Marek...”
I hissed.

I felt exposed. Like a zombie could come out at any time.
What had been up with that one that had burned?

Nobody was in here. I saw the remains of a giant fight.
Marek hadn’t used the last firebomb, had he?

No.
The zombies’
bodies were all torn, ripped apart. Pools of thick glutinous blood stained the
floor. I stepped across it, searching for Marek. He was nowhere to be found.

Instead, I headed back to the walkway, and headed down it,
searching room after room. There hadn’t been enough people to man it properly.
Lennox figured––and Gaven had agreed––that the zombies
would find the first opening that they could get at, regardless of who protected
it, farther down below, like gas escaping.

I stumbled past gashes in the wood and other signs of
violence. The sun would be up soon. Maybe the zombie’s body had ignited because
of all the gas it produced––it was a rotting corpse, after all.
They produced methane.

We didn’t just need to win. We needed to prevent Rome from
finding out. I was beginning to get a sense of the Lenoir, that they would
abide no threats to their Eternalness.

Somehow that word seemed like it had to be capitalized. Like
they had been here forever. I had just never seen them before. No one had.

That was the whole point. They didn’t let humans in on their
secret.

Why, if my parents had lived in Rome, had I been taken away?
Ballard’s uncle, Risky, wanted each of us to know. It was to Ballard he
bequeathed the book, which Ballard then gave to me. Why? He must’ve wanted us
both in on the secret, whatever it was. That vampires existed? That my parents
had known them?

I heard moaning.

When the dead rose,
they truly sucked.

I looked for a weapon, finding none. I entered, anyway.

It was the cathedral-like room with the stained glass
window. The moaning was louder now. It sounded like somebody was hurt. I could
barely see, it was so dark.

But I looked at the stained glass window––how
even in the dark, light broke through it. It was like the story I had heard at
Club Change.

You couldn’t have one without the other. Darkness
and
Light.

I followed the beams of moonlight as they pierced the panes
of ancient glass, and made my way past the cobwebs, to a figure who was
kneeling in the middle of the floor.

Pale blue moonlight bathed him. He was very tall. Even
kneeling, he came to my height. And then he looked up.

It was Marek. His eyes burned a ravenous blood-red. I could
see the suck mark on his arm like some grotesque hickey. Even now, the tracery
of fine veins was darkening, the metallic black poison spreading up his arm. A
revenant lay at his side, dead.

The poison continued to Marek’s neck, crawling up it, like
fine webs of feelers, racing to his brain.

“It bit you,” I said.

Despite every warning, despite the dangerousness in his
eyes, I took a step toward Marek. He raised a hand, stopping me. It was a
warning I didn’t want to listen to.

“We need to help you. I’ll get Lennox,” I said.

“No.”

“Marek, it may not be too late. We can stop the spread.
We’ll...
find a way.”

Even in my head it sounded lame.

The sounds of the other battles going on faded to the
background. He was staring at me. The firebomb he held dropped and rolled away.
If only he had just used it, I told him. He got to his feet.

“I suppose you probably think I’m a good vampire?” He said. “So
innocent. He drinks his
little
blood
cups. Well, I’m not good. Far from it.”

He was backing me up. I hit against a pile of boxes and dust
fell on top of my head. “This isn’t you. It’s
him
,” I said, pointing to the thing behind his
eyes––the necromancer who for some reason was trying to kill me.

“NO!” said Marek. It was important I understood this. “The
newspapers. The killings,” he said. “All those young women dying. It was me.
I
took them.”

He towered over me.

“You?”

“You can say it.”

“You’re
Peter Panico
?”

“He crawls into windows,” said Marek.
“Flies
, more like.”

“You’re a vampire. You’re the one exsanguinating all those
dead girls...”

“We’re allowed a few murders,” said Marek, “now and then.
Otherwise, what good would it do to
be
a vampire? All these immortals have lost their fangs, don’t you think?
Including your precious boyfriend. I
enjoy
what I do.”

“You’re sick. Infected.”

“No,” said Marek.

“And we never settled on ‘boyfriend’, ‘girlfriend,’ all
those labels,” I jabbered unnecessarily.

“The Lenoir kicked me out,” said Marek. “They have a death
warrant out on me. Did you know that?”

“What will you do?” I asked. I had to keep him talking. I
needed Lennox to get here. Anything. Marek looked like he wanted to bite me.

“Something’s happening to me,” he said. He grimaced.

“It’s not too late,” I said. “Please.”

His hands were on me, rough, tender, rough.

“You think we’re beautiful, don’t you? That you can tempt
us? Tempt
me
?” said Marek. “I have
been watching you for weeks, Halsey Rookmaaker. While Lennox and the police
toyed with finding me, I have been watching you. Your friend Ballard caught a
whiff of me in Trastevere. But you were always my target. I wanted to know what
it was that attracted Lennox to you so much, what attracts me. So I decided to
get close to you.”

He was only inches from me. “That’s close enough,” I said.

We both knew I was in a helpless position. He could take me
at will.

“Why didn’t you just fly up to my window and
kill
me, if you were so hungry?” I said.

“Lennox was never far from you,” said Marek. “At night, he
stalked you worse than I did. He’s not the gentleman that you think. I watched
him watch you. You truly have thrown him off his game. Before now, some would
consider him to be a potentially
great
vampire. But he’s so smitten it’s pathetic. I won’t make the same mistake. I’m
going to take you tonight. And just to show you that I can....”

He bit into the flesh of my neck. I was powerless to resist.

I felt this surge––I moaned in spite of my
peril. He took me strongly in his arms. I felt the force of the vampire.

Before I knew it, I was on the verge of passing out. The
blood that should have run to my brain, ran into his mouth. He drank from me,
pulling strongly from my neck.

I felt him remove himself from the two gaping holes he had
made, withdrawing each inch of his fangs. And my head lolled back.

He looked, Marek, within the very throes of ecstasy. “You
taste delicious,” he said, licking his lips. “Mmm.”

His head rolled back on his powerful neck, the curtain of
dark hair which usually obscured his face, revealing strong features.

I reached down and stopped the bleeding at my throat. The
wounds healed automatically. I don’t know how.

“The power...” he said. “The unbelievable... power...”

Marek held my arms high overhead with one of his own and bit
into the small bud of my left breast. I couldn’t stop him. I could feel the
blood running down my front.

“What
are
you?” he
said. Some inner struggle was going on inside him.

“Just kill me and find out,” I said.

Did I have the Suck? Was
I
going to die?

“Your blood is like an aphrodisiac. I have never felt this
powerful before. And here I was going to kill you quick.” His grip slackened
briefly.

For my part, I couldn’t move. I was rendered helpless by the
touch of his arms, his kiss on my skin.

Something was going on. It was like his blood and mine
called to each other.

He fell to his knees, grasping my waist. I could feel him
crawling back up to me. Each touch of his smooth dark hands set my soul ablaze.

I didn’t want this. He was a monster. A killer. He said so
himself.
Halsey!
I tried to jog
myself.

My blood and his.... For the second time ever, I was struck
by a vampire, overwhelmed... by their power....

“GET––
OFF
––ME!”
I said. “I can’t believe you
bit
me!
Marek!”

When he raised up, it was like he was in two voices. Like
there were multiple Mareks––my friend and some other monster.

The red eyes
glared
at me. I knew it was the boker, and not Marek, the necromantic king-sire, who
was doing all of this.

“Release him. You’ve
no
right,” I said to it.

“Halsey.”
Marek
reached out for me. “I don’t know what’s happening to me,” he said.

His eyes caught sight of the silver metal at my throat; my
mother’s locket. Was this boker the reason I had never known my parents? Marek
grabbed for it.

I pulled away. I wouldn’t let him touch me, or the locket, ever
again.

“Why do you draw away? Can’t you feel the power?”

“You’re not yourself,” I said.

He rose up. The necromancer wearing Marek’s face. “I’m going
to kill you, Halsey Rookmaaker.”

“Who ARE you?” I demanded. I think I
screamed
.

A loud noise broke my piercing shriek. A flood of light and
broken glass rained over us, followed by the whisper-soft thud of light feet.
The boker turned.

What was rising up was something I had never seen before or
dreamed could ever be real.

An enormous, eight-foot-tall creature––with
long, bristling black limbs, and yellow eyes.

I saw, like a wave of energy, its jagged claws lash out, and
reach for Marek’s jugular. Blood sprayed across the walls. The loss of
my
blood became too much, at this point.
Before I knew it, I had passed out.

Epilogue – Halsey

It felt like I was floating. It was morning. And I was in a
bed. I didn’t recognize the people staring down at me. How much time had passed?
Where was Marek, now? What was that thing that had saved me from him?

None of it mattered anymore, because when my eyes finally
adjusted to the light, my friends were gathered there. I saw Lia and Gaven.
They smiled at me fiercely. I think Lia even gave me a wink. Gaven said, “It’s
about time you woke up, Halsey. You had us worried for a moment.”

I nodded; it felt good to be liked.

Gaven was still too good-looking to endure; it made my heart
do funny things. Next came Ballard, all curly headed and nonchalant. But I
could tell he cared.

Lia and Gaven gave us space. They wanted to be alone
together. “When you get better,” said Lia, “we’re going
shopping
.” She waved good-bye.

I heard the motorcycles down in the street. I must’ve been
at their house.

“Did we do it? Did we win?” I asked Ballard, smelling his
lemon-scented skin.

He nodded.

“And did you, you know––? No one
died
, did they?” I asked, in a
matter-of-fact tone.

“We made it. All of us,” said Ballard. “Except for Marek, of
course. He escaped. Got away. You’re the only one he bit.”

I remembered suddenly. “Oh no,” I said. “The Suck. Marek had
it. Did it spread to me?”

I felt callous and self-centered, but I couldn’t help it.
Ballard waved my fears aside.

“It takes forty-eight hours before someone who is bitten can
spread it to another living person,” he said. “Though, if you really want to
call a vampire
living....”

“Don’t,” I said. “Where is Marek now?”

“I don’t know, and I don’t care. He can’t harm you anymore.
That’s all I care about,” said Ballard.

I chided him. “You know that radar in your head isn’t very
good. I thought you knew when––” I didn’t want to criticize Marek
too much
“––something was
after us,” I said.

“I’ve been thinking about that,” said Ballard. “I think when
Marek helped rescue us––” He didn’t like the word, but persevered
anyway “––it may have crossed a wire or something in my head. We
were surrounded by vampires, after all. How was I supposed to know you had to
look out for the ones who only pretended to be nice?”

I wanted to tell him that I loved him. That I would never
forget that it had been he and I together, in the beginning. Instead I just
said, “I know who you are now, Ballard.” I motioned for him to lean closer.
“Your secret’s safe with me.”

He didn’t say anything for a while. When he finally did
speak, he said, “There’s someone else here who wants to see you.”

Ballard left me and I closed my eyes.

“Hello beautiful.” When I opened them, Lennox was standing
there.

He couldn’t come any closer because the room was bathed in
light, but he smiled from the corner. It was more glorious, that smile, than
the fact that we were all whole and alive. We were together and we were safe.
All of us.

I felt a little jolt go through me about the one that got
away.

“It was him, Lennox.
Marek.
He was the one who was killing all of those girls. He told me so,” I said.

Lennox nodded. Silent. He had some flowers that he’d
brought.

I didn’t want him to be quiet guy again. “You don’t have to
stalk me, you know?” I said. “I want you to use those supernatural powers
you’ve got to visit me often. Because I’m not going back––To New
England. My place is here now. I have a lot to figure out, and I could use a
vampire to help me.”

My speech had worn me out. Lennox just sighed, and said, “I
never expected this. I never thought that I could
ever
have someone affect me the way you do.”

It was like magic to my ears.

One thing was worrying me, beyond the fact that my landlady
was probably going to kick me out when I got back. In the night, it finally
dawned on me.

I reached out for Lennox. He was there, waiting for me. I
think the spell was only broken by our kiss. Whatever was out there, was out
there. It could never truly get to us, I told him, unless we let it into our
souls.

“And you live in mine, alone,” I said.

Lennox pressed his lips to mine, and I felt his warmth,
gentle and complete. It washed over me, that I had a vampire and a friend. I
had a life.

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