Burnt Offerings - Laurell K. Hamilton [100]
“What’s happening to you, Warrick?”
“When the sun rose I did not die. I thought it was a sign from God. That He was giving me permission to end this foul existence. That He had given me the chance to walk into the light for one last time. I walked into the rising sun and did not burn, but this happened.” He raised his hands out of the cloak, showing me the greying flesh. The fingernails were blackened, even the ends of the fingers seemed shriveled.
“Will it heal?” I asked.
He smiled and even with that horrific visage, it was a smile full of hope. His rotted face showed a light that had nothing to do with vampire powers. The butterfly hovered above his face. “God will call me to his arms soon. I am after all a dead man.”
I couldn’t argue with him there. “Why did you come here, Warrick?”
A second butterfly joined the first, then a third. They fluttered above his head like a carousel. Warrick smiled up at them. “I have come to warn you. Padma fears Jean-Claude and your triumvirate. He will see you dead if he can.”
“That’s not news,” I said.
“Our master, Morte d’Amour, has given Yvette orders to destroy you all.”
That was news. “Why?” I asked.
“I don’t believe that any of the council truly believes that Jean-Claude means to set up his own rival council in this country. But they all see him as a part of this new legal vampirism. They see him as part of a change that may sweep away our old existence. The old ones who have power enough to be comfortable do not want any change in our status quo. When the vote is taken, Anita, there will be two against you.”
“Who else gets to vote?” I asked.
“Asher has the proxy for his mistress, Belle Morte, Beautiful Death. He hates Jean-Claude with a fine, burning hate like sunlight through glass. I do not think you can count upon his help.”
“So they have all come to kill us,” I said.
“If they had come merely to kill you, Anita, they would have done so by now.”
“Then I’m confused,” I said.
“Padma’s fear is too strong, but I believe our master would be content if Jean-Claude gave up his seat of power here and joined the council as he was meant to.”
“The first challenger that comes along will take him out,” I said. “No thanks.”
“So Jean-Claude keeps saying,” Warrick said. “I am beginning to think that he underestimates himself, and you.”
“He’s cautious, and so am I.”
A host of butterflies had formed above his head. They fluttered around him in a multicolored cloud. One landed on his hand, bright wings fanning softly as it fed off the rotting flesh.
His power thrummed along my body. It wasn’t council-level power, but it was master-level. Warrick was a master vampire, and he hadn’t been last night. “Are you borrowing power from someone else?”
“From God,” he said.
Of course.
“The longer we are away from our master, the weaker Yvette grows, and the stronger I grow. The Holy Fire of God’s eternal light has entered my body once more. Perhaps He will forgive me for my weakness. I feared death, Anita. I feared the punishment of hell more than I feared Yvette. But I walk in the light. I burn with God’s power once more.”
Personally I didn’t believe God had a private torture chamber. Hell was being cut off from God, cut off from his power, his energy, Him. We walked through his power every day of our lives until it was like white noise, something we ignored or failed to hear. But somehow lecturing Warrick on the fact that he’d let Yvette torture him for centuries because he feared eternal damnation, which I didn’t in fact believe existed, seemed pointless. Nay, cruel.
“I’m happy for you, Warrick.”
“I would ask one boon of you, Anita.”
“A boon is a favor, right?” I asked. Didn’t want to agree to something and be wrong.
“Yes,” he said.
“Ask.”
“Do you have a cross upon you?”
I nodded.
“Show me, please.”
I didn’t think this was a good idea, but…I pulled the silver chain up until the cross sparkled in the sunlight. It didn’t glow. It just dangled.
Warrick smiled. “The Holy Cross does not reject me.”
I didn’t have the heart