Vampire Miami (25 page)

“So we’re going to have to find a solution. The
easiest one is to raise a hundred grand and buy your way free.”
Mama B paused at the expression on Selah’s face. “Don’t you look at
me like that. I don’t have the money myself, but I have friends.
I’m here because I want to be, not because I can’t pay my way out.
If I ask enough people, if I call in enough favors, we can get you
out. The question is, can we get you out in time? This sort of
thing takes paperwork. Might take a week or two, and we can’t
wait.”

They subsided into silence. Mama B took another
sip. “Now, this thing that happens to you when they drink … when
they drink your blood. That might be of serious interest to certain
groups, the government, even. I’m sure they would be interested in
taking a look at you. Seeing why it happens. I’ve never heard of
something like this, so maybe we can parlay that interest in their
getting you out tomorrow.”

Selah sat forward. That seemed possible. She
tried not to feel excited. “But what about you? Maria Elena? I
can’t let Karl come after you when I’m gone. And I know he
would.”

Mama B made a hushing gesture. “You let me worry
about Maria Elena and myself. We can figure that out after you’re
gone.”

“No,” said Selah. “I won’t leave without
you.”

“Honey, you might not have a choice.”

“If there’s anything I have, it’s a choice,”
said Selah, feeling calm and quietly confident. Mama B appraised
her with a look.

“You
have
changed. Good for you. You’re
going to need all the strength you can get. Well, fine. Let’s see
if I can’t buy my own freedom if the government takes you tomorrow.
How exactly we’re going to convince them to take you, I don’t yet
know, but again, we can try to pull a few favors in the
embassy.”

“And Maria Elena? Have you even seen her
recently? I can’t leave her behind, either.”

Mama B took a deep breath. “That I don’t know.
Three people in one day is a lot. Let me think.” Selah slowly sat
back. Watched her grandmother’s leonine face, waited, trying to not
feel hope. To not feel anything. Finally, Mama B shook her head. “I
don’t know. My only thought is to find your friend Cassie and her
Resistance and see if they can add anything to the table. Maybe
together, we can all figure something out.”

Selah nodded. She felt a sinking certainty that
it wasn’t going to work. There was no way anybody could sneak out
three people before tomorrow night. Selah tried to still her mind.
She would not go back to another vampire party. All her desire to
help the Resistance had died with Jocasta. The Resistance’s plan
had been for her to use her vampiric abilities to escape and then
meet up with Cloud and go film one of the large drug ships as they
docked and unloaded their cargo. Blow wide open one of the
vampires’ main sources of revenue. But she couldn’t do it—could
barely maintain self control, it seemed, when under the influence
of vampiric power.

But she realized something else. The plan was
still in effect, and she knew where Cloud was. Where they were
waiting for her so that they could start their mission.

“I know how to get in touch with the
Resistance,” she said. “Tonight. I know where they are.”

“Tonight?” It was already past three in the
morning. Selah saw Mama B open her mouth to protest and then close
it. Thinking. “All right. Let’s get Maria Elena and rouse Cholly
and go find them then.”

Selah felt a surge of relief. “Maria Elena is
here?”

Mama B nodded. “She quit her job on the Beach.
Said it was getting too dangerous. Been sulking ever since.”

Selah felt both awful and relieved. Awful in
that for the past few nights, she’d been worrying about Maria Elena
in abstract but hadn’t actually checked in to make sure she was
doing all right. Relieved to know that she’d managed to come out of
this mess without being taken hostage or hurt in any way.

“OK.” Selah stood up. “Let’s get going
then.”

Mama B nodded her agreement, iron dreads shaking
behind her, and set about packing a small suitcase of clothing and
other emergency gear. Selah did the same, and moments later, Mama B
was locking the door behind her and leading Selah down the
hall.

“Where y’all going?” asked a heavyset lady who’d
been obviously waiting to complain some more.

“It’s none of your business, Sally.”

“None of my business? I don’t agree! You think
you can just break the rules because it’s your granddaughter? What
happened to community comes first? What happened to—”

“Sally,” said Mama B, suddenly rounding on her
and staring her right in the face, “Sally, you sure you want to
push this right now? You see what I’m holding? It’s a suitcase.
It’s got my clothes and toothbrush in it. I’ve packed my Bible and
I’ve locked my door. You know what time it is? You know where I’m
going? You even know
why
? No. You don’t.”

Sally spluttered in indignation. Mama B forced
her back, step by step. “So why don’t you close that mouth of yours
and leave me alone, and then once I’m gone, you can say whatever
that empty head of yours thinks needs saying. We clear?”

“I never!” Sally was trying to recover, to gain
some outrage, but her effort kept wilting before Mama B’s gaze.
Only once Mama had turned and begun to walk away did Sally follow
her once more. “You gonna just leave us here, Mrs. Brown? That what
you’re aiming to do? Leave us the minute your fool granddaughter
gets in trouble?”

Mama B stopped. Selah turned and saw Sally cover
her mouth with one hand, knowing she’d gone too far. Mama turned,
not to Sally, but to the Palisades as a whole, stepping up to the
railing and looking down upon the yard and the other open hallways
as a queen might survey her land.

“Now listen here! Listen all of you, especially
those with the same fool notions and questions as Sally Carmichael
here. I’ve been here fighting for you and our common human dignity
for over two years now. Two years I’ve sweated with you, bled with
you, been proud to be a member of this here community that
we
built together. I left my family for you, for the
Palisades, for all the decent folk here in Miami. Now my girl is in
trouble. She needs help. I left her once, but I’m not going to do
so again.”

Selah kept back, but even from her vantage
point, she could see countless faces staring at them, from higher
floors, from down the hall. The whole community was awake, and
everybody was listening.

“Now am I happy that my little girl has gone and
got mixed up with the vampires? Am I happy to be leaving you all
right now, just as we’re about to make some real changes? Hell no.
You all know just how much I care. But this goes deeper. The
vampires are using my safety as a means to blackmail and abuse my
granddaughter, and that I will not tolerate.

“So I am leaving. I may come back, but I doubt
it. We are going to find a way out, and I swear that I will
continue to fight for all of you, no matter where I end up. But
now, tonight, I am going to take care of my girl, and that’s all
there is to it.”

Mama B turned away and took Selah’s hand. “Come
on, honey. Let’s go.” They strode down the hall, chins up, and from
somewhere, somebody began to clap. It was a lonely, startling
sound, and then somebody else yelled out, “Yeah, Mama B!” And then
everybody was clapping, and Selah saw tears in Mama’s eyes, though
her expression did not change, and people gathered at the base of
the steps so that when they emerged, they stepped out into an
incredible press of hugs and good wishes. People touched their
shoulders, pulled Selah in for hugs. Seeing their faces, the
smiles, the tears, hearing the sincerity in their voices, their
pain and loss, Selah understood, truly understood what Mama B had
been doing here. Had been trying to do. What she was leaving,
abandoning for her.

She felt tears burn her eyes, but an old pain,
an old knot so tight and deep that she often forgot it was there,
loosened. Smoothed away, and by the time they made it out to the
lobby, Mama B giving everybody instructions and last-minute orders,
she felt a new sense of peace.

They swept out into the street, a handful of
people braving the dark to walk them to the jeep, and Selah saw
that Cholly had joined them, that somebody else had summoned Maria
Elena. Hair tied back in a braid as thick as Selah’s wrist, her
friend looked shocked and excited both. Selah stepped up to her and
took Maria Elena’s hands. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Maria Elena shook her head. “I swear, I have
never
met somebody with such a talent for trouble as you.
Never. I thought I was trouble, but girl, you are the
limi
t.”

Selah half smiled, unsure if that was praise or
not, but not really caring. Maria Elena grinned at her. “I don’t
know half of what you’ve been up to, but if a quarter of that half
is true, it’s already way too much. And why am I’m coming? What is
this?
Where
are we going?”

“I’ll explain in the car,” said Selah. “But,
long story short, the vampires were threatening to hurt you if I
didn’t do what they wanted. So I have to bring you. And where?
We’re leaving Miami.” She didn’t believe it, not really, but it
felt so good to say, and Maria Elena’s cry of surprise and delight
gave her a much-needed jolt of pleasure.

Cholly was behind the wheel. Selah climbed in as
the final few friends gave Mama B a hug, and looked at the large
man. His hair was still nappy, and he smelled of sour sweat, but it
was the steady way he sat there, hands on the wheel, ready to drive
Mama B wherever she needed to go that really hit her. He was
watching Mama with such deep affection and tenderness that suddenly
Selah understood. He looked at Selah when he realized she was
staring.

“Thank you, Cholly.”

He didn’t respond, eyes troubled.

“And I’m sorry,” Selah continued, “for what I
said before. I didn’t understand. I think I do now.”

“My pleasure,” he said, voice low. “Anything for
you and Mama B.” They held each other’s eyes and then he smiled,
shrugged his shoulders. “And don’t say nothing to Mama. She’d
wallop me upside the head if she suspected I harbored feelings of
any kind for her. I’m going to speak to her in my own sweet time
when I think she’s ready.”

Selah smiled at him, and reached forward to
squeeze his great shoulder. “No problem.”

Maria Elena threw her frilly pink suitcase into
the back, and climbed in. “So, where we driving to?”

“This place where some friends are waiting.
They’re going to help out.”

“Friends? Like who?”

“The … Resistance,” said Selah, remembering too
late how low Maria Elena’s opinion of them was.

“Oh,” said her friend. “For real? Oh. What are
they going to do? Shoot a video?”

“We don’t know just yet,” said Mama B, getting
into the passenger seat. “But trust me when I say that I am going
to urge them to be as creative as possible.”

The last of the crowd was already streaming back
to the front door, fleeing the night, so Cholly turned on the
rose-colored jeep and moved. He went fast, slaloming around
obstacles on the road, and everybody held on tight. In motion,
nobody felt like talking, partly because of how grim Mama B looked.
Still, they were moving. They would meet up with Cloud. Selah
didn’t know why, but she knew he’d have a plan. She just knew
it.

Not ten minutes later they reached the
rendezvous point with Cloud. It was a dingy motel called the Aqua
Blue located up Biscayne, past the periphery of vampiric activity
downtown. They pulled into a parking space and climbed out. Before
they had a chance to approach further, Cloud leaned out of a window
above them.

“Selah!” His voice rang out. “You OK?”

“Yeah,” said Selah, deciding to not elaborate.
“We’re coming up.”

They took the stairs to the third floor and then
down the hall to room 306. Cloud was inside, along with Cassie and
Joey. The room was cramped and there wasn’t enough room for people
to sit. No lights, either; just Cloud’s flashlight, which he
pointed at the wall so as to give some faint reflective
illumination.

“Cloud, this is my grandmother, Mrs. Brown. We
all call her Mama B. This is her friend Cholly, and this is my
friend Maria Elena.”

“Hey,” said Cloud, his manner more reserved now.
“Pleasure to meet you folks. What’s going on, Selah? What
happened?”

Everybody stared at her. She leaned against the
wall, hands behind her back. “I can’t … I’m not going to another of
those parties. I can’t do it. I won’t. It was—it was much worse
than I expected.”

Her words hung heavily in the air among them
all. Cloud rubbed the back of his head, and then nodded. “Shit. I
hear you. I thought you were being too optimistic back in the
Gables. I’m—I’m sorry you had to go through that. Don’t worry about
it. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.”

“Of course she doesn’t,” said Mama B, “and you
should’ve known better than to send her in there in the first
place.”

“Mama,” said Selah. But Cloud was nodding.

“Maybe. But she wanted to help. Like nobody I’ve
ever seen. We’re fighting a war here. She wanted in.” Cloud looked
at Selah, his face somber. “I decided to respect her decision. I’m
not going to apologize for that.”

Mama B glowered but remained quiet, clearly
still upset but not willing to pursue the matter further.

“So,” drawled Cassie, “I’m guessing y’all didn’t
just come over to drop Selah off. What’s going on?”

“Hell,” said Cloud, crossing his arms and
leaning against the wall. “If Selah won’t go back, then they’re
going to come for Mrs. Brown and Maria Elena. So. You three need to
disappear. Leave Miami.”

“Yes.” Mama B crossed her arms. “Tonight.”

“Shit,” said Joey. “We can’t just wave our hands
and make you disappear in a flash of smoke, you know.”