I came to my feet, and looked to some of my best friends in the world-William, Melaphia, Tobey, and Iban-for help, some kind of encouraging word, or a sudden brainstorm that could pry me out from between a rock and a hard place. Instead, I saw my friends looking to me for...what? Protection? Leadership? It was as if a hand grenade had been tossed into our midst and since I was the closest, I was supposed to fall on it and get blown to smithereens.

And I would have, if it hadn't meant Connie's death. I would destroy myself in a heartbeat for them. As they would do for me. All the excuses that had bubbled up to the tip of my brain died on my lips.

William froze me with one look. "Jack understands what must be done," he said. "And he'll do it."

The vampires listening remotely no doubt believed him. I could tell Tobey, Iban, and especially Travis weren't so sure. I could see by their expressions what they were thinking: that one of them might have to fall on that grenade to save us all, because I didn't have the guts.

"Wait," I pleaded. "What if I just go to Connie and tell her all this? She knows us. She knows that we don't hurt humans. When she realizes that we're on the same side, she'll help us fight off the old lords."

"I wish it were that simple, my friend," Travis said, "but you have no idea what you're dealing with. I have seen slayers with my own eyes. Our bloodl.u.s.t is nothing to theirs. When they are on the hunt, they..." He searched for the right words. "They turn into something not human. Something that I hope I never have the misfortune to see again. The essence of the slayers, that which is in them that is not human-once awakened can never be turned off."

"I know you saw them attack and that you got away," I challenged. "But how do you know about this-this activation, as you call it?"

"The priests brought by the conquistadors destroyed for heresy most of our writings that were left behind when we abandoned our great cities. Priceless texts on mathematics and astronomy were burned and broken in the white men's religious fervor. After I fled the city to escape the slayers, I returned. I stole away with many of those tablets and secreted them in places where not even the most determined of archeologists can find them. I have read the texts that survived the purge.

"I had been unaware of many of these doc.u.ments before the slaughter of blood drinkers. Some of the ancient ones had prophesied the arrival of the slayers. And they also prophesied a later rise of a single slayer, the greatest of them all. That is what is taking place now."

"What else do these writings say about the Slayer?" William asked.

Travis said, "The Slayer is the product of an unholy union between blood drinker and human."

"That jibes with the European dhampir legend," William said. "Is there more?"

"Only that she will not be easy to kill, and that she cannot be turned away from her destiny. The G.o.ds alone in their wisdom know how and why this creature is empowered to slay blood drinkers. I don't know why she has not already begun to do so, but she will. There is no doubt," Travis said. "I am not exactly sure what causes the activation and how that activation turns into bloodl.u.s.t, but I have the impression that it is a distinct process."

"What will it take to kill her?" Melaphia asked in a small voice, avoiding my eyes.

"I don't know. That is where the writing ends," Travis said. "The rest of the tablets on the Slayer were turned to dust."

"Jack, what do you know of Connie's background?" William asked.

I forced myself to think back, which was hard because my head was spinning from so much information I didn't want to hear. "She told me once that she was born in Mexico City and adopted by a couple from Atlanta. She had been abandoned when she was a few days old and left at a shrine to some pagan G.o.ddess or other."

Travis's hawklike eyes narrowed. "How old is she?" he asked.

"Late twenties, I think," I said. "Why?"

Travis shook his head and his features took on a stony, inscrutable expression as he stared into s.p.a.ce, as still as one of those carved Indians that used to stand outside cigar stores in the old days.

"There's something else," I admitted. "When I talked to her last night, she said that she sensed it when I got close to her apartment.

Even before she saw me."

"The process has begun," Travis said. "I am sorry, Jack. There's not much time left. If you wait until activation turns into bloodl.u.s.t, it might be too late. She will become immortal, and we won't know how to stop her."

I collapsed back onto the sofa beside Werm, beaten. When William first told me I had to get rid of Connie, I hadn't accepted it.

I'd refused to believe that there wasn't another way. I'd put my faith in Travis to give me some idea for how to save her, but instead, he had just dashed all my hopes. Because of him, the cold, hard truth was setting in, and I felt like I was barely hanging on to a world spinning faster and faster. I wanted to turn loose and let the centrifugal force sling me into the black void. "Even after a slayer is activated, it must have some kind of fatal flaw, some Achilles' heel. Is there anything the Mayan writing can tell us about that?" Tobey asked.

"Not specifically, no-at least not in the writings that survived."

"Does anybody know how the Slayer ties into the Sidhe's notion of doomsday?" Gerard asked.

Travis said, "I don't know if there's a connection, but there is always the cataclysm the Mayan calendar foretells. That is no secret, though." He waved a hand. "The end has been extensively written about since archeologists interpreted the calendar."

"What cataclysm?" I asked. Travis took a seat on the sofa on the other side of Werm.

William rubbed his forehead. "Of course. I should have thought about that..."

I saw realization dawn on Melaphia's face as well, and Werm spoke up for the first time. "The end of the world," he said. "The Sidhe say the end of the world is coming and that it has something do to with vampires."

In my agitation, I wanted to wring his scrawny throat if he didn't get to the point soon. "What the h.e.l.l are you talking about?" I demanded.

Werm turned his round eyes to stare at me. "The Mayan calendar is one of the most accurate in the world. And it ends in 2012!"

There was another hullabaloo where everybody tried to speak at once. Everybody seemed to be formulating his or her own pet theory about whether the end of the world was really at hand and, if so, what it had to do with the Slayer. Finally, William called for order and said, "Let us focus, my friends. We seem to have a number of problems which may or may not be connected. Since we don't know any more about the Slayer and the end times, let us move on to the issue of the old lords."

"Yes," Lucius said from the speakerphone. "Do we know nothing more about how the Council means to attack us? Through the ages they've a.s.sembled before to try and force us all to slaughter more humans and create more blood drinkers. Each time their plans-whatever they were-fell through. There was too much infighting among the master vampires, or so the stories go. They were never able to do much more than organize occasional raids against the peace lovers. Are we to believe that the return of the Wild Hunt and the premonitions of the Sidhe and the shape shifters, and perhaps even the Mayan prophecies, signal that they've hit upon some weapon that can bend us to their will?"

William opened his mouth to speak but stopped when we heard Olivia clear her throat. It occurred to me that she had been quiet throughout the meeting. Too quiet.

"I think I might be able to shed some light on that issue," she said.

"By all means, enlighten us." The sarcasm in Lucius's voice set my teeth on edge. He was the kind of man who thought that no woman knew as much as he did.

William glared at the speakerphone. "It's time we heard from Olivia," he said. "She has reestablished the network of spies that Alger used to monitor what is happening with the Council. It sounds as if that effort has borne fruit. Olivia?"

"I suppose you could put it that way," Olivia said.

"Poisoned fruit, maybe. One of our spies was able to make a reliable contact who swore he knows the old lords' plan. The Council believes it has discovered how to raise from the dead every vampire who was ever slain at the hands of another blood drinker since the beginning of time. Which is pretty much all of them."

"You mean take them from the underworld back to earth?" William asked. My sire had the best poker face I'd ever seen on anyone, but here among his peers, he didn't bother to hide his alarm. Werm and I looked at each other. If William was anxious, then it was time for us to be terrified."Evidently," Olivia said. "The source didn't know how they planned to accomplish this, or when it's supposed to start. But when it does, the Council expects those risen vampires to do their bidding."

"Which means slaughtering humans and any of us standing in their way," William said.

"If it happens all at once," Olivia continued, "the human population can't help but know immediately. It will cause a ma.s.sive, worldwide panic."

"And spell doom for all of us," Iban said.

"If they all come at once, what can we fight them with besides our fists and fangs?" Tobey asked, looking around the room.

"There aren't enough of us to fight them hand-to-hand," William said. "We'd be vastly outnumbered. We're going to need supernatural help."

All eyes turned to Melaphia. "I'll try to call upon Maman Lalee to help us," she said. "But as you know, even she cannot go against the elemental powers of fate." She turned to me with a meaningful look that I was sure had even more bad news behind it.

"All you can do is try your best, my dear," William said. "That's all we can ask."

I was sure he hated to put pressure on Mel again, especially since she had just recovered her sanity. I'd had every intention of confronting her about her part in helping Connie get to the underworld. But when I saw her face register the weight of the task William had just a.s.signed her, I gave up on the idea. The trip to the bad place was blood under the bridge now.

"How will we know these dead, er, doubly dead vampires when we see them?" Tobey wanted to know. "Won't they look and smell just like us?"

Double-dead. What had Eleanor called herself and those like her in the underworld? Double-d.a.m.ned, she had said. I remembered what she was like down there, and shuddered. William looked at me, obviously thinking the same thing.

"No," William said. He told everyone briefly about what Eleanor had told him in the underworld-and how she looked. She had called herself a word that sounded like SLOO-ah.

"The vampire in the underworld, having died twice, is the most doomed of the d.a.m.ned," William continued. "A special sentence is chosen just for him or her. Eleanor was turned into a half-snake creature. Other blood drinkers could rise as-whatever is their own individual torture made manifest."

"The Sluagh are part of Celtic legend, are they not?" Lucius asked.

"That's correct," Olivia said. "They've been described as the unforgiven dead who were said to have stolen the souls of the living.

If the Sluagh are really vampires, it would explain that part of the legend. I had no idea there was a connection between the Sluagh and twice-killed blood drinkers in the underworld."

"Nor I," agreed Gerard. "But it's not surprising when you think about it. William and Jack are most probably the only vampires who've gone to the underworld and come back to tell the tale. This is something that only the handful of us, in all of history, now know about."

There was a hush as each vampire let all this sink in. No doubt they were thinking about what their own personal h.e.l.ls would be if they were ever destroyed. Too bad I had my own individual h.e.l.l looming in front of me right then. And I didn't have to be staked to get there.

Everyone in this room expected me to go out-as soon as possible-and kill the woman I loved.

Eventually, they all started talking again. As they did, I tried to figure out what to do. If I didn't kill Connie, one of them would, and soon."I move we table this discussion until we know more," William said. "Until then, several of us have action items to work on."

William was back in control now, about to conclude a vampire conclave concerning life-and-death issues as if it were a corporate board meeting. In light of what he expected me to do, I think I hated him for that.

"Melaphia, you continue your research and use your spells and chants to try to make contact with Maman Lalee," William went on. "Maybe it's not too late to slam the lid on the underworld. Olivia, keep on working your spy network and step up the transcription and translation of Alger's scrolls and tablets. Travis, search your memory and your holy writings to see if you can shed more light on the issues we've talked about. Tobey, Iban, Gerard, and Lucius, spread the word to your clans to be on the lookout for any manifestations of demons that might have already come up from the underworld. Something like this could signal the rise of the double-d.a.m.ned."

He paused and looked at me, not without compa.s.sion. "Jack," he began. I stared at the hardwood floor, feeling as if I was in physical pain. Don't say it.

"You know what you have to do," he finished. Then William called the meeting adjourned, and the ones who had attended through the mysterious ether of electronic bits and bytes clicked off.

I've heard people talk about out-of-body experiences. What I wouldn't have given for one of those right then. I wanted to be as far out of my body as I could get. Like in the next time zone.

I sat there, staring into the roaring fire as those a.s.sembled, one after the other, patted my shoulders and murmured words of sympathy on their way out of the parlor. I heard Werm say that he'd make his own way back to the Portal. William asked Travis, Tobey, and Iban to have drinks and cigars in the den before they all headed downstairs to the vault to take their rest.

When everyone but William and Mel had gone, I stood and walked to where they stood motionless by the door. "There's something you should know, Jack," Melaphia spoke up. "I meant to tell you earlier, but we haven't have a chance to talk since you...came back. I prayed to Papa Legba for another way."

"Another way to get rid of Connie, you mean?" I asked. Sensing bad news, my throat constricted.

"A way to turn Connie from her path," she corrected softly. "I thought that if I prayed to the loa Maman Lalee a.s.signed you to, maybe he would help since you are so closely tied to Connie and he was the one who helped you go after her. I'm sorry, Jack.

The loa Legba can be hard to interpret sometimes, but he didn't indicate a prayer, spell, or chant that we could perform to eliminate the threat Connie poses, short of...taking her life. I'm afraid we have to a.s.sume that what Travis said is true."

"Thanks for trying," I managed to say. Melaphia started to hug me, but she could tell by my body language that it was not the time.

She wiped at a tear with the back of her hand and slipped from the room.

When it was only William and me, he said, "Jack, if you cannot do this, I-"

I held up my hand to silence him. "No, William. It's my responsibility."

"You should do it tonight."

"I'll do it tomorrow," I said. "I have to have some time to think about how...it would be best...to-"

"Jack, it will best if you get it over with. You heard Travis. The window of opportunity is short." William lowered his voice and spoke in his most sympathetic tone. "Use your great skill with glamour. Soothe her with your mind. You know how to make it painless and quick. Think of it, Jack. You'll be giving her the gift of eternity in paradise with the son she thought she'd lost forever.

If you wait until she becomes immortal, she may never see him again.

"Human beings are transitory, Jack. As much as you and I have loved Melaphia and her foremothers, we knew we would always have to say good-bye and give them up to the loving arms of Maman Lalee."You have seen the paradise that Connie will enjoy if she does not become immortal. You can spare her the same kind of fate that we are cursed with. If she continues to exist on this plane, she will have to fight and kill for the remainder of her existence, never able to let down her guard for fear that an enemy may be coming for her. Give her peace. Give her everlasting life."

"Giving people everlasting life isn't in my job description," I said, my eyes burning. "That's up to G.o.d, not me."

He put his hand on my shoulder. I thought to wrench away, but I didn't. In fact, I leaned on him, let him be my rock, just as he had been for almost a century and a half, whether I always appreciated it or not.

"If you're honest with yourself, you'll realize that this is not the first time you've been called on to play G.o.d, and it won't be the last. In each and every instance you have chosen to do the right thing.

"I've tried to protect you in every way that I could, but now it's time for you to step forward to protect your family and your kind.

In so doing, you will be saving countless other human lives that would be sacrificed if the peaceful vampires are vanquished by the evil ones.

"If Connie could be counted on to fight at our side, things might be different. But by all indications, she would kill us Bonaventures first simply because we are close to hand. Then she would be alone against the evil ones. They would eventually discover how to kill the Slayer. And hear me now, Jack: death at their hands will not be pretty. You know enough of your own grandsire to know that."

I nodded my understanding. All my life as a vampire I'd heard William and many of the older imported blood drinkers tell stories of the savagery and depravity of the old sires. What they were capable of doing to both human beings and to other blood drinkers alike was unfathomable. The moment Connie became the immortal vampire slayer, every blood drinker in the world would be gunning for her. I couldn't, under any circ.u.mstances, let the more evil ones get their claws on her.

When I finally spoke, my voice came out as a raspy whisper. "You can stop trying to convince me. I understand what you're saying; I know what needs to be done and I'll do it tonight. I won't let you down."

He hugged me then, actually hugged me. "You never have," he said.

Ten.

William At Tobey's suggestion, he, Iban, Travis, and I visited Werm's nightclub for c.o.c.ktails. Tobey had hoped that he would run into his old friend, Freddy Blackstone, but the young vampire was not in attendance.

I made discreet introductions of the vampires to Otis of the Sidhe court, and they all retired to a back room to question him further.

He seemed to be quite agreeable to answering their inquiries when Tobey produced his black AmEx card and offered to buy rounds of drinks. Apparently Otis's duties for the Sidhe n.o.bility did not afford him an unlimited expense account.

I took the opportunity to depart. The more time I spent with Iban the more I knew he would eventually want to talk about his grudge against Will. But we had more important matters to concentrate on. I still harbored hope that he would one day forgive my son.

For reasons I could not explain at the time, I had the idea to visit one of my antique shops in the city, one whose collection included the sword claimed to be one that Georgia's founder, General James Oglethorpe, used in both the Battle of b.l.o.o.d.y Marsh and the Battle of Gully Hole Creek in 1742 during the War of Jenkins' Ear with Spain.

I had always doubted that particular story about the sword, having been convinced that the blade was much older. Still, the story had come with the sword when I'd purchased it from an elderly Spanish plantation owner shortly after I arrived in Savannah in 1778. I thought that presenting Iban with the gift of Oglethorpe's purported sword would make a particularly ironic and lighthearted peace offering for my Spanish friend.

I let myself in the back entrance of the shop and was shocked to see that the sword was gone. It had been in the store for at least a hundred years, since its cost, due to the historical significance, made it out of reach for most collectors. In truth, I had never really meant for it to sell, but I was a businessman and had put a price on it, though one that I knew would be prohibitive. I couldn't help but wonder who had purchased it. I made a mental note to ask the store manager as soon as possible.