*
It took two hours to heal all the injured, and while I waited I drank the tea Clermont had promised. It was a delicious, stylish, pungent black from China, described on the package as a Super Fancy Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe. Having discovered that we were fellow tea-lovers, he and I talked teas while he dug the slug out of his son. It was bizarre conversation, talking about attractive, chunky, golden-tipped, first-flushes from various provinces in China, India, Sri Lanka, Ceylon, and other places. To a non-tea-lover it was silly talk, and I caught Derek rolling his eyes once as he drank coffee passed out by a beautiful, mixed-tribe, American Indian blood-slave, one who was over a hundred years old and not above teasing the much, much, much younger man with sly looks and come-hither stares. Not that Derek understood that she was a slave-by-choice and old enough to be his great great grandmother. Vamps and their humans are sneaky.
Derek called Auguste and Beno?t in. The brothers had been waiting in the dark to remove us in retreat or victory, either one. And then Derek, Auguste, and a vamp went to get Margaud, who didn’t want to abandon her position to sit with the enemy suckheads. She put up a good verbal resistance and fired off three warning shots before I pulled out my earbud. Eventually, someone took her off the air. I didn’t know how Derek finally convinced Margaud into the airboat, but Derek was good-looking and persuasive, or maybe the former military angle worked. Or maybe her brother just picked her up and tossed her on board. Don’t ask, don’t tell.
Near two a.m., I judged that everyone was healed and calm enough for discussion and called all the participants to the front porch. There weren’t enough chairs, so Clermont made everyone but the main participants sit on the floor, equaling out one and all. There were vamps and humans and witches sitting side-by-side, close together, sharing floor space without bloodshed. It would have been inspiring had Clermont and I not promised utmost retribution to anyone who caused trouble.
I opened the meeting with a few vampire terms and their meanings, including the devoveo and the doloro, the insanity of freshly turned vamps and the insanity of vamps who suffered the loss of a close loved one. I explained that witches were seldom successfully turned vamp, remaining in the devoveo forever, and ended with a plea for both sides to find a way to end the rift between the races and find a way for the lovers to be together. It was a lot of words for me, with even more mmms and hmms and uhs, and ahs. I’m not a public speaker. Not at all. It’s easier to shoot first and divide up the dead later, but maybe I was growing up.
When I was done, Clermont stood and spoke to Lucky Landry. Lucky was tied to a chair and to the porch railing, just in case, but he listened far better than I expected, maybe because Clermont opened with the words, “I tired a this war between coonass and coonass.”
Despite himself, Lucky chuckled and looked down. He took a deep breath and said, “I tired a it too.” He looked at his daughter, sitting on the floor, hand-in-hand with Gabe, love and determination in her eyes. “You want dis suck— You want dis vampire? You love him for real?”
“I do,” Shauna said. Her chin came up defiantly. “And I’m carrying his baby.”
Lucky pulled in a breath and the flames danced along his bound arms.
“I love him, Daddy. If you hurt him, I’ll never forgive you. Not. Ever. And I’ll spend the rest of my life keeping your grandchild away from you.”
Lucky looked at me. “Suc— Vampires can have babies like human and witch do? Despite we different races? Dem babies not be mule?”
“So far as I know, vamps can have babies, though it’s very, very rare. Whether the children are sterile I don’t know.”
Clermont said, “Dem babies not easy to have in de human way. Vampires treasure dem few. Dey can have babies of dere own, and dey special to us. Special power dey all has. Dis be first vampire-and-witch baby we have. Make him better and more special, I’m thinking.”
Lucky studied his daughter. “He say he. You carrying my first grandson, for real?”
Shauna placed a hand on her belly. “I don’t know how I know, but I know. All you other children has girls, so yes, dis boy be your first. And we already named him.” She looked at Gabe and he lifted their fisted hands to his mouth and kissed her fingers gently. Everyone on the porch said, or had to restrain a soft, “Awwww,” of delight.
“We name our baby by family name and alphabet,” Gabe said, which confused me until they went on.
“Hem be Clermont Jér?me Landry Doucette,” Shauna said, “and we call him Clerjer.” It came out “Clarshar,” and it sounded pretty on her tongue.
Laundry looked at Clermont and said, “Why not JerCler?”
“Dat not alphabet,” the vampire said, deadpan.
Both men laughed softly, measuring one another.
“What we can do to stop killin and killin?” Lucky asked.
“Baptize dis baby in church,” Clermont said. And everyone, even the vamps, took a deep, shocked breath. “Marry dem two in front a de church first, a course.”
Lucky nodded slowly. “Vampire can go in de church?”
“Not so much. But in de yard, yeah, we can do dat. You talk to de priest first, make hem see reason.”
“If he don’ see reason, den dey can marry in my church,” a voice said from the far reaches of the porch. “I marry dem. No need for no priest.”
“Who dat is?” Lucky asked.
A skinny man stood at the back, his face resolute, if pale.
“Preacher Michael? You a blood-slave to dese suckheads?” Lucky said, horror in his voice.
“Dey heal me a cancer wid dey blood. It take a lot a blood, and many month a time,” Preacher Michael said. “I give back to dem when dey need.”
Lucky made a Gaelic-sounding snort. “Well I be dam—uh, I be a monkey’s uncle.”