Mercy's Danger: Montgomery's Vampires Trilogy (Book #2) (Montgomery's Vampires Series) (20 page)

To:
[email protected]

From:
[email protected]

Subject:
Done.

I’ve found somebody.

Without getting into too much detail, M will like my choice.

M will know who he is if you tell her that they once went to Crimson together. He will be in contact soon with travel details.

I’m so sorry for all the trouble I’ve caused.

I’m still working on finding you a cure.

—L

To:
[email protected]

From:
[email protected]

Subject:
Why aren’t you responding?

You can ignore me all you want, but love will find a way to bring us together again.

It always does.

17

Jerome Bellamy—Jerry to his friends—and I had met through Dignitary a short time ago, but the impression he’d left on me had been long withstanding.

On the evening I spent decoying for Jerry, we’d gone to his art show—a grim but breathtaking display of paintings that depicted his human life as a slave—and then on to a ritzy underground vampire bar called Crimson. Our beautiful night together had gone south, however, when Jerry dropped me off at home. It was on that evening that Liz had been murdered in our apartment.

Jerry, being a standup guy, stayed with me as I coped with my grief and through the ordeal of answering police questions. A civil rights attorney by trade, he’d even offered to represent me in court. I was never considered a suspect, however, so he hadn’t needed to. (There was also the fact that Liz had returned home as a vampire, and then her paperwork got “misplaced” at the morgue. It all worked out in the end.)

Jerry was now doing me a solid once again. He was going to be my vampire daddy, and I was going to be his human mom, in a way. When all was said and done, I was going to be the one left vampire and Jerry human. It was a strange thing to wrap the mind around, us flip-flopping our mortalities.

I was taken aback when I’d heard that Jerry had been the one who’d volunteered to change me. During our night together, he’d spent a great deal of the evening telling me how much he relished being vampire.

Jerry arrived in Bali late at night. Since he was flying all the way to Southeast Asia from San Francisco, it was unavoidable that a portion of his travel occurred during the day. After a few bribes were paid, he was able to travel undisturbed (though cramped) in a lightproof coffin disguised as a hard-shell surfboard case. He was travelling to one of the world’s most celebrated surfer destinations, so nobody batted an eye.

Jerry came over to our room after he’d settled in to his own. It wasn’t a long trip for him, since Robert and I were in the room next door to his. After we got all the hello kisses and pleasantries out of the way, I shared with Jerry how surprised I’d been when I learned that he’d volunteered to turn me. Robert, after first thanking Jerry profusely (and repeatedly) for coming over to help out, said that he’d been amazed, too. Robert couldn’t imagine any vampire over a hundred wanting to go back to being human. (Jerry was a couple hundred years old.)

Jerry’s response to our astonishment was heartfelt and precise. He made it clear that he’d put a lot of thought into giving up his immortality, and that it was something he desperately wanted. His words alleviated a lot of the guilt I’d felt for imposing my humanism on him.

Jerry said, “There are a lot of vampires out there who think humankind is crumbling, but I don’t believe that’s necessarily true. Of course there’s always going to be bad people out in the world who have a lot of power. For every crooked dictator who dies, there’s dozens more lined up willing to commit genocide in his place. The world will never be rid of zealots who wield religion like a weapon to oppress and manipulate their people.

“But there are a lot of good people out there who rebel—people who do the right thing even to their own detriment.
Free thinkers.
I began my human life in Africa and ended it as a slave in Mississippi. I know what it’s like to be
owned
—to be stolen from my home and treated as property by another human being. I also know what it’s like to be free—in body, mind, and soul. If the world were pure evil, I’d still have shackles on my wrists. People wouldn’t believe in the goodness of love, and I wouldn’t be able to marry Tim in March. I wouldn’t even be able to be
seen
with Tim in public. I—”

“Wait! You’re getting married?” I squealed. “No way! Congratulations!”

“Yes, I’m getting married,” Jerry gushed. “Can you believe it? Me!
Girl
, did you
ever
think you’d see the day?”

I hugged him, grinning like an idiot. Finally, some happy news.

“And of course you’re going to be at the wedding—it’s just a few weeks off. We wanted to do it sooner rather than later.”

“I will! But who is this Tim?”

“Tim is
fine as hell
, that’s who he is,” Jerry said. “He’s even finer than you, Robert! No offense, honey.”

Robert laughed. “None taken, Jerome.”

“What’s he like—besides being
fine
? Who is he? Where did you meet?” I quizzed.

“You’re giving me whiplash with all these questions!” Jerry kidded. “I met him at the courthouse, actually. He’s a judge, but he’s never handled any of my cases. When he asked me out, he said that he’d find me in contempt of court if I didn’t accept. Isn’t that cute?” He threw a hand over his heart and giggled. He had delight oozing out his pores.

Robert cast his gaze skyward. “You sound like Mercy and Liz when the two of them get going.”

I swatted Robert on the butt. “Don’t you listen to Robert, Jer. That is
very
cute. He sounds sweet. How old is he?”

“He’s as old as me. My pretend human age, that is. He’s forty.”

Robert asked, “He’s human?”

“Yes indeedy.”

Something occurred to me. “Er, Jer, I probably should have said that I’d come to your wedding
if
it’s held at night.”

“Darling, everyone I know is a vampire!” Jerry cackled. “
Of course
the wedding will be at night!”

“I guess I need to get used to worrying about daylight times now,” I mused. “I’ve got to start thinking like a vampire.”

Jerry put an arm around me. “Being a vampire will come more naturally than you think. You’ll get the hang of it in no time.”

I said, “I’m happy to hear you say that. I’m sorry I interrupted. You were saying?”

Jerry flicked his wrist. “I’ve already forgotten. Get me flapping my gums and I’ll never stop. Really, you should hear me in court! Honestly, sometimes I think the jury rules in my favor just to shut me up!”

I laughed. “You say a lot, I’ll give you that. But at least it’s never boring.”

“That’s true.” Jerry winked. “The point I was trying to make is this: I’ve seen the world at its best and at its worst. Love and human decency prevail, in the end. I’m tired, Mercy, but I’m also content. I’ve lived long enough to see the world make right some of its past evils. And now I’ve met a good man—a
human
man—and I think it’s time.”

“Time for what, though?” Robert asked.

“It’s just time,” Jerry said. “I want to grow old with Tim. I want our hair to grey and for us to become the sort of old coots who potter around the garden by day and sit on the porch in rocking chairs drinking lemonade by night. I’ve never had lemonade—couldn’t tell you what it tastes like! I never embraced human life because I spent the majority of it enslaved.”

“How old were you when they . . .” I cleared my throat, emotional. It made me sick, knowing that others had inflicted harm on this lovely, kind soul. I couldn’t imagine Jerry ever hurting anyone, though he easily could as the towering mass of solid muscle that he was. “When they took you from Africa?” I finished.

Jerry was lost in his own thoughts. “I was no more than a boy, maybe seven or eight. They took my mother, too, but I never saw my father again. They killed him when he fought to protect us.”

“Bastards,” Robert murmured.

“I’ve let go of the anger,” Jerry said, rubbing his eyes. “You have to, you know—let go of the anger. Otherwise it will eat you alive on the inside, like poisonous acid. Anyway, it was so long ago I hardly remember.” That didn’t appear entirely true, but I guess that’s how we cope, by telling ourselves the things need to believe in order to get on with life.

“You’ve convinced me,” I said, changing the subject. “You seem to
really
want to be human.”

Jerry nodded. “I do. You have no reason to feel bad, Mercy. I’m happy to help you out, of course, but this is what I want. I was planning on changing before I even heard of your predicament. I was on the waiting list to receive the serum.”

“I’m happy for you,” I smiled.

“But you understand that you won’t become human right away,” Robert reminded Jerry. “It isn’t an exact science. I’m guessing it will take a couple months for you to change.”

“Okay,” he conceded. “No going outside during the day until I’m certain I’ve changed.”

“You’ll know when you’ve changed,” Robert said. “You’ll feel an immense difference right away. Your fangs will fall out.”

“You should be careful at all times,” I advised. “You won’t know the precise moment the change will take place. I’d hate to have your fangs fall out in the courtroom.”

“Yes. That would be very bad,” Jerry agreed.

“But it would be worse if it were the other way around,” Robert said. “If you were turning from human to vampire, you’d have to worry about getting caught up in the sun.”

“Right,” Jerry agreed. Suddenly he snapped his fingers. “Before I forget, I have to fill you two in on what Leopold wanted me to tell you.”

“Oh no,” Robert said. “VGO stuff?”

“Yes, the VGO. Damn them! Why do they constantly have to go meddling in everything? I wish they’d mind their own business, live and let live!” Jerry sighed. “You’ve heard about the spontaneous combustions, right? There’s no way you couldn’t have, unless ya’ll been hiding out on Mars. It’s all the news stations are reporting.”

Thinking of my meltdown on the shoreline, I felt my cheeks color. “Yes. We know.”

“Then you also must suspect why it’s happening.” Jerry placed his hands on his hips.

“What did Leopold want you to tell us?” Robert broke in.

“I’m off-track again!” Jerry chuckled. “Sorry! So, get this—the VGO are responsible for all those people going up in flames.”

“Surprise, surprise,” I commented dryly.

“Yah, I figured you two would have put that one together. Anyway, shortly after the first spontaneous combustion cases were reported, the VGO contacted Leopold,” Jerry said. “I don’t know what this means, but Leopold assured me that you would. That guy, Edgar? You know who this Edgar is?”

Robert and I nodded.

“The reason they wanted him motoring the shipments was so that they could seize them after they went out. They tampered with the serum, but they were sneaky about it. Out of the thousands of vials of serum that went out, they only tampered with about a hundred. Just enough to send a message.”

“I knew it!” I shouted, making Jerry and Robert start. “Not all the specifics, exactly, but I figured they had tainted the serum somehow.”

“What did they do to it?” Robert asked. “A reversal?”

“The VGO told Leopold that they developed a kind of
death potion
that counteracts with the serum. But it doesn’t reverse the effects of Leopold’s serum; it only causes new humans to turn
back
into vampires long enough to burst into flames. Whatever the VGO have developed is lethal. Once it gets into your system, you’re done. Even if the human-vampires had all been inside when the VGO’s potion kicked in, they still would have died. I’m
so glad
I waited on taking the serum.”

I was confused. “If the VGO were angry with the vampires who’d taken the serum, why wouldn’t they simply compile a list of recipients and then kill them off quietly? The VGO must have realized what a media frenzy it would cause, all those people randomly catching fire.”

“Sure they did,” Jerry said. “That’s what they wanted. They wanted those considering going to Leopold for the serum to have second thoughts. Everyone knows how tenacious Leopold is. He wasn’t going to stop on his own volition, no matter how much they threatened him.”

“Sounds about right,” Robert commented sourly. “Once Leopold digs his heals in, there’s no stopping him.”

I’d figured it out. “So the VGO had to turn it around. They had to make vampires stop going to Leopold since he’d never stop going to them.”

Robert said, “Which is why they only tainted a hundred vials. They wanted to give vampires the impression that the serum doesn’t work on everyone. Or, rather, it
could
work for a while and then reverse itself.”

“Thus scaring away all of Leopold’s potential clients,” I added. “Because they’ll have no idea if they’ll be one of the unlucky vampires that the serum reverses itself on.”

“Bingo. The VGO are sneaky buggers, aren’t they?” Jerry scratched his chin. “And there’s no way Leopold can tell vampires that there’s a massive conspiracy happening that was perpetrated by the VGO. Either they wouldn’t believe him and dismiss him as a quack, or they’d be too scared to take the serum after learning of the VGO’s disapproval.”

“So what’s Leopold going to do?” Robert asked.

“Oh, he’s
so
done. He says this whole serum business is more trouble than it’s worth. Look at the trouble it’s gotten you two into.”

“
Leopold
is the one who got us into this mess,” Robert growled. “Don’t blame the serum.”

Jerry held up his hands. “Hey, boyfriend, don’t shoot the damn messenger.”