The Vampire's Revenge (6 page)

“Okay,” I said. “Agreed. There’s just one thing, though. If Ginger wasn’t a vampire and you’re in her body, why are
you
still a vampire?”

“Because the body takes its cues from the spirit,” she said.

“You mean that when Ginger gets her body back she won’t be a vampire?”

“Yeah.”

“What will happen to your spirit?”

“I’ll take the body of the nearest living thing,” she said.

Still too easy. She was being much too agreeable. “I’m going to be right there when you make the switch and I’m going to make sure you go into the body that Ginger’s in right now.”

“Whose body is that?”

“More like ‘what.’ A crow’s.”

“A crow’s? Well, hell, I always wanted to fly.”

It hit me then what I was missing. No wonder Eleanor was so sanguine. “Wait a minute. What’s to stop you from taking over some other poor unsuspecting human’s body? And don’t even think about lying to me.”

Eleanor sighed and stopped struggling, hanging limply in my grasp. “Because every time I switch bodies, my vampire spirit gets a little weaker.”

“How do you know all this?”

“Remember when the Council made that deal with the Devil in order to get him to open the underworld?”

“Yeah?”

“Part of the deal was that us demons who were released from the underworld could choose to take over the body of a human, but every time we switched, we would lose power.”

“Is that why some of the vamps decided to come back in full-tilt demon form, scales and all?”

“Bingo. Those are the ones who decided to put all their eggs in one infernal basket.”

“Which was still a bad bet.”

“Thanks to you and the Slayer.”

“So you’re not as strong a vampire as you used to be?”

“No. I realized I was weak when I tried to use glamour on Deylaud that night at the bar and it didn’t work. Then I tried to draw strength from William when I was still pretending to be Ginger. Tried to trick him into another blood exchange in the back room of the Portal, but he saw through me.”

“Good for him.” Eleanor was still being too reasonable and forthcoming. Something about it bothered me, but Ginger was desperate to get her own body back, so I decided to roll the dice and take her up on her offer. “Let’s go, then. You’ve got some body swapping to do.”

“Wait, Jackie. I want one more thing before I do this.” Eleanor squirmed against me, grinding her bottom into my crotch and massaging my thigh with her hand. “I want you to give me strength. You know how.”

“Hey, now.” Eleanor must have forgotten how the power boost had backfired when I’d tried it. When Olivia had tried to sap my power through sex, the opposite happened. She became so weak she had a hard time recovering. Maybe William had never told Eleanor that story.

“You know, I always had a crush on you, even when I was with William.”

“If you think flattery will get you out of this—”

“I’m serious. How can a woman keep from falling for you? Men are my business, and I’ve never seen one as gorgeous as you. Those blue eyes, that thick black hair, that fabulous physique. What are you, six feet five?”

“Something like that.”

“My God, your chest feels like granite.”

Her squirming had taken up a hypnotic rhythm. It distracted me enough to cause me to ease up my grip. She took advantage of my momentary lapse and freed her arm enough to reach backward over my belt and into my jeans. She might have lost some of her vampire power, but not her speed. She had me in her hand before I knew what was happening.

“Auggghh!” I said. “No fair. Turn loose.”

“You first.”

Now, here was a dilemma. If I roughed her up, I’d only be hurting Ginger’s body. Besides, those sharp talons were within striking distance of the family jewels. Yet I couldn’t give her what she wanted, even to trick her into losing more vampire power. It wouldn’t be right to have sex with Ginger’s body without Ginger’s consent.

What did I do now? I’d bet my last dime that Eleanor wanted my power more than her freedom, so I’d let her think I was going along.

“You want some of this, huh?” I asked, pressing myself into her.

She gasped. “Oh, yeah. Jack—you’re huge, just like I knew you’d be. Just like I like them.”

“Take down your slacks then.”

About two seconds after Eleanor had taken her hand off my Johnson, I had her hands tied behind her back with the shawl. What can I say? I used to rope calves in the rodeo back in the day. Some things are like riding a bicycle. You never forget. Silk is really strong, but Eleanor’s struggling proved she didn’t have her old strength. At full vampire power, even a fledgling female like her should have been able to break through silk bindings.

“March,” I said as Eleanor let go with a stream of curses. Before we got to the door to the tunnels, I looked around for any sign of another vampire. “Where’s your smelly friend?”

“Our gramps?” Eleanor laughed bitterly. “Believe me, Reedrek’s the least of your problems.”

“What do you mean?”

“That bitch Diana and her new boyfriend are in town.”

“Ulrich is here?” I asked, stunned. He was the evil blood drinker who had masterminded Renee’s kidnapping and was as vicious and sadistic as the old lords themselves.

“Don’t look so surprised. You must have known the Council would send someone for the Slayer.”

“Yeah. I was afraid of that. But I thought—”

“You thought William killed Ulrich and that Diana would stay buried under the pile of rubble beneath London. Well, think again. And if you think they only have plans for the Slayer, you can think a third time.”

“What do you mean?”

“They have some special plans for you, too, though I don’t know what they are.” She sniffed.

“How do you know all this?”

“Reedrek told me. He tried to get them to cut him in on a deal.”

“Deal? What kind of deal?”

“Diana and Ulrich are bucking for a promotion. They think they can get seats on the old lords’ Council.”

“So Reedrek wants a promotion, too,” I surmised. “What did he agree to do for them?”

“Give them information on you and the Slayer. He told them who she is, where she lives, and that you were hunting down the double-deads together.”

I started swearing, calling my grandsire every name in the book. After I’d gotten myself back in control, I demanded, “How do they intend to kill the Slayer?” I knew Mel had been researching ways to kill Connie. I had forced her to promise me she’d tell me if she figured it out so I could use the information to keep Connie alive. So far, she hadn’t turned up anything. How much information did the old lords have? With their resources, they’d have lots more than me, that was for sure.

“I have no idea what her Achilles’ heel is. My understanding is she can only be killed in the same ways a vampire can. Except for the sun, of course. She’s immune to it so far.”

“What do you mean ‘so far’?”

She shrugged. “Some
dhampir
legends say that eventually, as she takes on more and more traits of the vampire—as her fangs grow, for example—she’ll reach the point where she can’t go out in the sun.”

I considered this, remembering our last demon kill. She was already developing a taste for blood, especially mine. How far would she eventually go toward becoming undead? The question made my head spin, but I didn’t have time to think about the implications now. “Why are you being so open with me? I would have thought you would be trying to cut a deal with Diana and Ulrich yourself.”

Eleanor swore and spat on the floor in a most unfeminine fashion. “You’re forgetting how much I hate Diana. She would double-cross me in a heartbeat.”

Eleanor blamed Diana for stealing William’s affections, leading to her downfall. “Oh yeah. That. So what happened with Reedrek and his deal?”

She laughed harshly. “They’ll screw him over, of course. Ironic. The same old bastard who double-crossed William at every turn expects Ulrich, his own sire, to deal with him in good faith.”

“That’ll serve him right. Just see that you don’t double-cross me in this body-swapping agreement.”

“Oh, I won’t, Jack,” she purred. “Being a bird is the perfect disguise to protect me from the Slayer. At least until Diana and Ulrich kill her.” She turned to level a maniacal smile at me.

I vowed to myself again to keep Connie and my baby alive. And to make Eleanor pay if she tried to steal someone else’s body.

I would see that Eleanor went into that bird body if it was the last thing I did. It had been a long time since I’d had to eat crow, but I was going to enjoy my next meal of it or my name wasn’t Jack McShane.

Four

When I frog-marched Eleanor to where Huey hung out behind the garage, Ginger the crow started squawking to beat the band. She was excited at the prospect of getting her body back, but at the same time I could tell she wanted to punish Eleanor. Short of pecking her own eyes out or pooping on her own head, though, she was clean out of options. For now, anyway.

“You traitorous bitch!” Ginger screeched. “What did I ever do to you but help make you piles of money by doing stuff I’m not proud of?”

“Hello? I’m a demon now,” Eleanor said with a shrug. That pretty much covered it, I figured. If Ginger expected a demon to show remorse, she was roosting in the wrong tree.

I sent Otis and Rufus into the garage so they wouldn’t be in any danger if Eleanor tried to pull off some trick. I started to tell Huey to back off, just in case Eleanor decided to jump into his body instead of the crow’s, but then I remembered that Huey’s body was ineligible because it was dead—and would be unsatisfactory to Eleanor because it was Huey’s.

Hygiene had never been one of Huey’s main priorities and he wasn’t what you’d call a handsome fellow even when he was alive and kicking. In death, he’d taken on a grayish skin tone, and the wobbly eye he’d acquired made him even harder to look at. No question: he had a face only a mother could love, and Eleanor wasn’t the maternal type.

“Do you need anything to get this party started?” I asked Eleanor.

“No, but before I do, I don’t suppose I could talk you into letting me go,” she speculated. “I could give you a night you’d never forget.”

“Pass,” I said. “Do your body-swapping thing.”

Eleanor sighed and squinched up her face like she’d had some bad Mexican food. “I call on the power of Satan to seat my spirit in the closest living thing,” she recited. Then she started to sway on her feet and the crow, perched on the tree branch right above her, beat its wings and squawked some more.

In unison, Ginger’s body crumpled to the ground and the crow pitched forward and landed at our feet. I cradled the human body in my arms and shook it gently. “Ginger? Are you in there?” The redhead’s eyes flew open and blinked once, twice.

“Oooh! Thank you, Jack! Thank you so much!”

I could tell it was really her. I looked up at Huey and nodded. Huey picked up his shovel and jabbed at the crow on the ground. Zombies aren’t blessed with much of anything besides a taste for flesh. Speed and agility are at the top of the list of their shortcomings—along with low-wattage brain power overall. The crow hopped away just in time to avoid the sharp steel of the spade.

“Stop that, you dead little freak,” the Eleanor crow shrieked, darting away from Huey’s next stab. She took wing and dive-bombed, pecking at the top of the zombie’s head and flying away with some strands of his hair.

“Ouch,” Huey said, rubbing his noggin.

“What’s wrong with this crow?” Eleanor screeched. “It itches!”

“Those are mites, and I hope they eat you alive!” Ginger called out.

Eleanor circled us a few times, cursing us all and our lineages back to the time of creation. The last thing she said before flying away was “You haven’t seen the last of me, McShane. When the time is right, I’ll be back. You take good care of that slayer, you hear?”

“What the hell?” I muttered as I watched her disappear into the moonlight. That last part didn’t make any sense. Why would Eleanor want me to take care of the Slayer? She’d claimed to be terrified of Connie.

Ginger was so happy she cried. She hugged me hard and even kissed the top of Huey’s head where Eleanor had pecked him. “You guys are the best!”

I told her she should probably go into the garage and thank Otis and Rufus for their part in getting her back. Then she should have Rennie drive her to her apartment. I had to go find Connie for our usual nightly demon-hunting session.

I also wanted to see if I could get a sense of whether she and Seth had done the deed the night before. I was going to dread the answer, whether it was yes or no, for different reasons. Either one was going to tear my heart out in its own extra-special way.

Even more important, I had to warn Connie about Diana and Ulrich. I couldn’t remember if she’d ever met Diana and I didn’t even know what Ulrich looked like, so a lot of help I’d be. She’d be able to smell them out as vampires, but she might mistake them for double-deads who had taken over other people’s bodies.

Oh, crap. The double-deads.
What had just taken place between Eleanor and Ginger introduced a whole new wrinkle in the already thorny problem of how to get rid of the vampires who’d stolen human bodies. Connie and I couldn’t just kill them like we’d killed the more obvious monsters. If we did, the evil spirits might be able to take up residence in still another host and the body of the human spirit would be lost. Why the hell couldn’t anything be
easy
?

I had to reach Connie right away. She was on duty, so I called her on my cell phone.

“Jones,” she answered tersely.

“Where are you?”

“At the Lazarus Point Marina,” she said. “There’s been an attack. A woman went berserk and started stabbing people with a steak knife. One of them is in critical condition.”

“Could be one of the double-deads in a human body,” I said.

“Just what I was thinking.”

“Do you have her in custody?”

“No. She’s still at large.”

“I’m coming over there. If you catch her, and she smells like a vampire, don’t kill her.”

“Why the hell not?” I could hear the wildness come back into Connie’s voice. She could pretend to be normal in front of the other cops when no vampires were around, but just talking to me was bringing out the monster in her. I could feel the murderous psychic buzz in her head even on the cell phone.