“What locket?” Eliza and BT asked at the same time.
“The Blood Locket that Mr. T holds,” Tomas answered.
Eliza’s gasp of surprise was amplified in the small space she now inhabited.
“What do you have?” BT turned to me.
“My brother gave this to me before I left the house, he said he had no idea what it was for but that I might need it,” I said as I pulled out a large white gold locket with a rose and a blood red jewel on its face.
“You possess the Blood Locket?” Eliza asked. It was the first time anyone had heard a tremor in her voice.
“It looks that way,” I said, turning the locket over in my hands. I pulled away quickly as something snagged my finger. A fat bead of blood welled on my thumb, “Damn, again?” I questioned, sucking the wound. The locket opened to reveal an ancient picture of Eliza.
“You will give it to me now or die!” Eliza fairly shrieked.
“It looks like I’m going to do that anyway. So I don’t necessarily see the reason to relinquish this,” I said, thrilled that I had set Eliza back on her heels. “What does this locket do?” I asked the question of Eliza, but it was Tomas that had an answer forthcoming.
“She is bound to the locket…” Tomas started.
“Tomas, you are walking down a dangerous path,” Eliza growled.
“No, Sister, you started down this path when you decided to open up your world to me.”
“You will not betray me, Brother.”
“I will do as I wish, Sister.”
It was unclear what was happening behind the closed door, but it was Tomas who spoke next.
“Do not think that I cannot wrest control of these zombies from you Eliza.”
A muffled thud and cry of pain carried through the steel door.
“Eliza, help me,” a pain tinged plea came from Durgan.
“Fool!” she spat. “I did not tell you to attack him. I would always take side with a wayward brother over that of a slave.”
“I was only and always trying to help Mistress,” Durgan begged.
The door to the roof crashed open. Eliza strode through, Tomas right behind her. In the darkness of the hallway was the huddled form of Durgan.
“Michael, I will honor our arrangement,” Eliza said with a rage fueled voice as she approached us.
BT discreetly grabbed the locket from my hand which had gone slack at the sight of Eliza. He clutched it close to his chest. I knew vamps had many more powers than mere humans. I hoped her sight wasn’t too enhanced as I grabbed the truck keys in my pocket; this might work, they were sort of goldish.
“That’s far enough, Eliza,” I told her. Any closer and Mr. Magoo would have caught my ruse. Eliza did not stop her forward progress. It had been a long time since she had taken any orders from anyone, least of all a sworn enemy. “Travis, give me your shotgun.” Travis did not hesitate as he handed over his weapon. I dropped the locket (keys, careful to place my body and my foot in a way that made her viewing difficult, if she got a good look we were screwed) onto the roof and pointed the shotgun straight at the piece of jewelry. I had no idea if this ploy would work until Eliza stopped in mid-step.
“Will she die, Tomas, if I destroy this locket?” I asked. (Oh pretty please!)
“She will not be the same,” Tomas answered.
I could tell Tomas was watching in amusement as the white around my knuckle spread with the incremental amounts of pressure I applied to the trigger. The inner debate waged within me.
It was Tomas’ next words that stopped me from blowing that ‘locket’ to hell where it belonged. “I do not, however, think that you will like the outcome.”
“What would that be?” I asked, never looking up.
“I would be in charge,” Tomas told me solemnly.
“You’re much more powerful, aren’t you Tommy,” I asked, but it was more of a statement.
“Yes.”
“Is there anything of Tommy left in you?” I asked as a solitary tear was migrating down my cheek.
“No.”
Eliza appeared to have missed the entire conversation; her complete attention was focused on the golden locket lying on the tarred roof. Durgan dizzily made his way onto the crowding roof as zombies began to pour through the opening. Eliza or Tomas still controlled them as they did not attack but made a ring around us, the stranded humans.
Eliza snapped out of her trance. “Do not be so confident, Tomas,” she said to her brother. “Now Michael, I believe you have what is rightfully mine.”
“I do, but I have decided on another set of terms,” I told her.
“I grow weary of this,” Eliza said. A cheetah would have been amazed at her speed as she grabbed the locket and was back in her original spot just as I blew a hole in the surface of the roof, damn near taking my foot off.
“I was expecting that. I just didn’t think it would happen so fast.”
“Kill them,” Eliza said before she looked the piece of jewelry over.
The zombies began to close the circle up, hunger intensifying their movements. April fainted outright. It was Mrs. Deneaux that was the first to fire. The front line of zombies dropped quickly as the rest of the group took to arms. Rifle fire crackled, smoke rose into the air, human shaped monsters dropped by the dozens. Missed shots from fifteen feet were a rare occurrence, and then the zombies were eighteen feet away and then twenty. I held up my hand for a cease fire. It wasn’t that the zombies were retreating, they just weren’t advancing anymore.
“Clever Michael,” Eliza said coolly.
“I watched Interview with a Vampire,” I told her. “You vamps move pretty fast.”
“Where is my locket?”
I shrugged my shoulders.
“I can still kill all of you now and then sort out the pieces later,” she told me ominously.
“Do you really want to look through zombie offal for something you obviously value so much?” I asked her. Can a vampire be a germ-a-phobe? I mean I doubt it, they suck the blood out of people. Who’s to say where that neck has been, or what disease is running rampant through that person’s veins. “And it might not even be on us,” I threw in for good measure.
“You lie, I can smell it on you,” Eliza said.
“The lie or the locket?” I asked.
“Both. But you are right, I would rather you hand me the locket on your knees rather than search among these diseased vermin.”
“Well at least we agree about the vermin part,” I told her. “Let’s make a straight up trade, all of us leave here and you get your locket.”
“Where is the fun in that?” Eliza asked me.
“I think it sounds like a lot of fun,” Mad Jack piped up.
“Me too actually,” BT added.
Gary raised his hand in acknowledgement also.
“Enough!” Eliza said forcibly. “That is not an acceptable bargain. Someone must die here today.”
