As the fire on his body began to burn into his face, his eyes no longer working, he began to chant the words that should have saved him. The pain was overwhelming him and the words had been hard to remember, but he worked at it until he could no longer speak. His mouth had...he thought it had fallen from his face even as he began to chant in his head. When he felt his soul, or whatever it was, leave his body, he wanted to find his family and show them he’d won, that he’d beaten them after all. But when he turned to find them, he saw a man standing there smiling.
“Never had me a vamp to bring over before. You surely do look like you’ve had a time of it. Piss off the little woman, did you?” Horatio asked him what he was talking about. “You. You’ve been burned to a crisp. That’ll fade after a time, but you’ll have to get used to the stares between now and then. Thought maybe you’d done gone and.... Well, never mind. What’s done is done now. Here you go.”
The book, small and full of pages that were colored, he just stared at without taking it. The man told him it was his helpful guide to being dead. Horrie told him he wasn’t dead, that he’d prepared for that.
“I’m sure you have, and that’s a good thing. But you’re dead and this here book will answer your questions. Just don’t be losing it. You need to keep that on your person at all times. Don’t know for sure what happens to them after a bit, but you keep an eye on it.” The man shook the book at him. “You need to take it. It won’t work for nobody else but a necro, and you don’t want them to get your book.”
“I’m not dead. Get away from me.” The man and the book had disappeared, and Horrie stood there for several minutes just trying to figure out what he’d have to do now to get himself a body. It took nearly a year for him to realize he might should have kept the book and there was no getting a body to replace his own. He was dead. As he tried to rest now knowing he wouldn’t, he thought of how he’d gotten to the point where his daughter had gotten to him too.
Chapter 4
Vinnie wasn’t sure where she was supposed to go as she made her way to the upper floors of her home. Having the house opened up again was noisy as well as dusty. She thought about having them leave for the night so she could rest, but she really wasn’t prepared for her grandmother to be there at the table talking to Hugo. He stood when she entered the big room, but her grandmother only offered her cheek.
“You’ve been resting poorly, my child.” She told her she’d gotten woken up a couple of times. “Would this be the new mate your mother was going on about? I swear to you, Vinnie, that your mother gets something in her head and there is no changing her mind. I should like to meet this man of yours.”
“I’m guessing you know what he is.” She said she did and wasn’t concerned. “Mom thinks he’s going to be bringing us up from our resting places and having the sun beat down on us. I don’t think that’s the way it works.”
“It is, as a matter of fact. When I was younger, when there were fewer of us than there are now, we heard stories of a necromancer that would do just that. He’d go from cemetery to cemetery and raise the dead, then put them all to rest again when he’d find some vampires. I was never sure how he did that part, but perhaps we can ask your young man.” Vinnie told her he more than likely wouldn’t know either. “Yes, I suppose not. I doubt very much that is done anymore. But then, they had less of an understanding than they do now. Some do anyway. Now we’re considered sexy. But I still would like to meet him. Does he live here, with you now?”
“No. As a matter of fact, I have no idea where he lives when I’m resting.” Vinnie made a mental note to ask Mitch if he wanted to live there. It had been on her mind to ask him yesterday, but she’d forgotten. She’d asked the staff to start airing things out and restocking the upper floors, and she hoped he’d like it there well enough that she’d not have to move. This place was safe for her. “I’ll talk to him. So, tell me what Mom wants you to do?”
Her grandmother waved her off, and she knew better than to push the subject. If she wasn’t worried, then neither was Vinnie. When Hugo shifted into his animal and lay at her feet, Gilda came in to tell her what things she needed for Vinnie to do tonight, as well as any phone calls she’d not been able to take care of. Which were few, as Gilda knew her job well. After that, it was just the two of them and Hugo.